CA – Chapter 23
Chapter 23
The crudely made imitations were no match for the dominance of a pure-blood werewolf. After Tang Qiu transformed, the monsters that had been drawn by her aura and surrounded her felt a bone-deep fear. They all lowered their bodies, prostrating themselves on the ground in submission, trembling uncontrollably.
They were a pack of mindless beasts.
Tang Qiu showed no mercy. Together with Lucille, she tore the nearby monsters apart one by one. Looking at the corpses littering the ground, she frowned in confusion. "...The Wolf Race is far away in Gru and rarely leaves its territory. Why are there so many of these imitations here?"
"They weren't created by werewolves," Lucille said in a low voice, carefully wiping the blackish-red monster blood from her palm with a handkerchief.
After learning that Tang Qiu was a werewolf, Lucille had specifically looked through some books to learn about their kind.
The Wolf Race was highly exclusionary. They were hostile towards the Holy See and unfriendly to the other races on the continent. The successive kings of the Gru Empire had repeatedly sent envoys, hoping to communicate with the Wolf Race and establish friendly relations, but they failed every time.
The envoys were driven away before they could even enter the werewolves' territory.
Today, most accounts of werewolves on the continent came from wandering bards. They were fascinated by the mysterious Wolf Race and often composed poems praising them, which spread across the land.
And their scant knowledge of werewolves came entirely from the human villages located within their territory.
In the ice fields of the Gru Empire, the werewolves lived in the very center, while the surrounding areas were dotted with numerous villages. The villagers were almost all men—ordinary men who carried werewolf blood.
The reason the Wolf Race was considered the most mysterious and special race on the continent, aside from their innate combat prowess, was related to the unique characteristics of their kind.
Because the Wolf Race was one where females were strong and males were weak—a thoroughly matriarchal society.
The women possessed the ability to transform into their werewolf form from birth. They were the main force for fighting foreign enemies and conquering territory—powerful, fierce, and beautiful. The army of the Gru Empire called them the Thorned Roses.
As for the men of the Wolf Race, they had only a minuscule chance of transforming into werewolf form on the first full moon after their eighteenth birthday. And even if they could transform, their combat strength was far inferior to that of the women.
Their status within the Wolf Race was very low; to the women, they served only two purposes: manual labor and procreation.
Lucille shared her speculation with Tang Qiu. "They were likely bred from the men of the Wolf Race who couldn't transform, combined with ordinary humans."
Tang Qiu didn't have Lucille's thorough understanding of the Wolf Race, but she could sense something unusual in her words. She remarked with a sigh, "It seems the Wolf Race isn't as united as the rumors claim."
Therefore, she had to be extremely careful to keep her werewolf identity hidden. A Holy See full of undercurrents was already enough to overwhelm her; she absolutely could not afford to get bogged down in the quagmire of the Wolf Race as well.
Although Edry was a small kingdom, it was highly guarded against its neighbors. Lucille even had a manor in the capital city of the Bill Empire.
However, since it had been uninhabited for a long time, the maid who stayed behind could only hastily prepare a room for Lucille.
On a winter night with biting winds and swirling snow, a roaring fire in the hearth heated the small room until it was as hot as midsummer. Tang Qiu took off her cloak and put it away. Perhaps because of the room's intense temperature, even her light priest's robes made her feel a sweltering heat rising from within.
A few beads of sweat formed on her forehead, and she raised a hand to wipe them away. Her gaze unconsciously followed the other figure in the room.
Lucille wore a cream-colored shirt and brown knight's trousers. She was tall, with a slender waist and long legs, perfectly fitting the capable and heroic bearing of a knight.
She selected a book from a nearby shelf, then walked over to the bed and sat down, leaning against the headboard. With her long legs crossed, she lowered her gaze and casually flipped through the pages, her aura clean and faintly detached.
She was completely different from the gloomy, feral vampire who had grabbed her wrist to drink her blood earlier.
When the gloom in Lucille's eyes faded, Tang Qiu saw that she had once again become the noble and imperious Marshal Lucille who had first spoken to her at Marquis Davis's banquet.
Tang Qiu sat in a chair by the hearth for a while. Because waves of heat were surging through her, she frowned and loosened her collar, but it brought no relief.
She wiped away the sweat that had formed on her forehead again. Her breathing grew heavier. Tang Qiu drank a glass of water to moisten her dry throat, then got up and opened a window. The cold wind that blew in carried away some of her sweltering heat.
Lucille's hair was lifted by the wind, and she glanced over.
Tang Qiu went straight to the bed and lay down. Lying on her side and propping her head on her arm, she looked at Lucille beside her and said in a low voice, "...It's a little hot."
It was more than just hot. Tang Qiu felt as if she were soaking in warm water, a languor seeping through her entire body. But the sweltering heat deep inside her added a layer of discomfort to that languor.
It was like... unfulfilled desire.
Tang Qiu found it strange to use those words, but they described her situation perfectly.
Only by being close to Lucille and smelling her scent could she find some relief.
Vampires feared neither cold nor heat. The chill wind from the window blew across Lucille's face, but it didn't disturb her interest in her book.
The cold air suppressed some of the restlessness in Tang Qiu's heart. She quietly watched Lucille's long fingers holding the page, and after a moment, she asked softly, "What are you reading?"
"A collection of poems by the bard Verdun."
Never heard of him... Tang Qiu leaned her head closer to Lucille, her eyes half-closed, and asked casually, "What's it about?"
Lucille glanced down at the blonde priest leaning near her leg and said in a low voice, "...It praises death."
Tang Qiu: "..." What a boring topic.
Sensing Lucille looking at her, she opened her eyes and met her gaze. After a minute, Lucille coolly averted her eyes. A slight smile touched Tang Qiu's lips. She held out her wrist and wiggled it, her sky-blue eyes bright and clear as she suggested, "Care for some dinner?"
Lucille closed the book, set it aside, and refused. "No need."
"Oh?"
"I can resist." Although the blonde priest was acting normal, Lucille could see a hint of anxiety and confusion in her eyes. Staring at the sweat on Tang Qiu's forehead, she spoke softly, "What do you want to ask me?"
The smile on Tang Qiu's lips faded slightly. She lowered her voice and asked, "Do you have some connection to werewolves?" She had asked Lucille this same question in the tent in Fallen Crow Forest, when she first discovered she was a werewolf.
Lucille's answer at the time had been: enemies.
But now, her answer was...
"My clan is Gangrel," Lucille emphasized in a low voice.
Tang Qiu blinked slowly. After a moment of thought, she asked hesitantly, "...Are you saying you might have werewolf blood in you?"
That's not very likely, is it? Leaving aside whether it would even succeed, realistically, no vampire would want to give the Embrace to a werewolf and turn her into one of their own.
Lucille: "..."
Tang Qiu didn't know if it was her imagination, but she seemed to hear a trace of helplessness in Lucille's cool voice. "The bestial nature of the Gangrel clan comes from its inherited bloodline. Although I don't know... what beast's blood the one who turned me possessed, seeing how drawn you are to me, it must be related to wolves."
Tang Qiu frowned. That explanation made sense, but what about the sweltering heat coursing through her body?
"You should go to the ice fields of the Gru Empire and find your people."
Tang Qiu glanced up at Lucille's calm expression and frowned. "Why?"
It was as if she had seen through the predicament Tang Qiu was trying so hard to hide. Seeing her confusion about her body's strange state, she calmly cleared the fog for her. "Werewolves are beasts, and beasts go into heat. The full moon is the best time for werewolves to procreate."
Tang Qiu froze, muttering, "In heat?"
"You're in heat right now." Lucille reached out, her index finger gently wiping the sweat from Tang Qiu's forehead. The blonde priest's body temperature had risen considerably, and the back of her hand felt pleasantly cool against it. "You're suffering."
Tang Qiu was indeed suffering. This full moon was already much harder to endure than the last one. She couldn't even imagine what future full moons would be like.
The icy coolness on her forehead cleared Tang Qiu's thoughts a little. She calmly considered how to resolve this awkward situation.
Finding a bed partner on the full moon was undoubtedly the simplest solution, but Tang Qiu was emotionally fastidious at her core and had no interest in purely physical relationships.
Lucille looked at the blonde priest, who was curled into a ball as if asleep, and said in a low voice, "I can help you."
Tang Qiu paused, and when she looked up at Lucille, her gaze held a hint of wariness.
She took Tang Qiu's wrist and brought it to her lips, her tone still calm. "A little bit of venom won't harm your body, but it can alleviate your desire."
Tang Qiu's eyes flickered as she suddenly remembered something. Her resisting hand slowly relaxed. Just as she was about to speak, Lucille opened her mouth. Sharp fangs pierced the soft skin, and the venom meant to paralyze prey entered Tang Qiu's body.
To make their prey's blood more delicious, vampires could secrete a type of venom. This venom could paralyze a person's nerves, disrupt their clear thoughts, release their inner desires, and lead the prey into a state of ultimate pleasure.
Lucille took only a small taste before stopping, then diligently licked the blood from Tang Qiu's wrist. She noticed the priest was trembling slightly and instinctively looked down, only to see that she had buried her face in the blankets. Her other hand was gripping the bedspread so tightly that her sharp nails nearly tore it to shreds.
Time passed, bit by bit. Aside from a few faint, muffled moans from the priest, there was no other unseemly behavior. Lucille picked up her half-read book again and stared at the words, but her mind was elsewhere. For a long time, she didn't turn the page.
After some time, Lucille realized there was no more movement beside her. She turned her head slightly and called out tentatively, "...Grace?"
The priest didn't respond. Lucille reached out and turned her over, only to find that Tang Qiu had fallen into a deep sleep, her breathing even.
It was the first time Lucille had used this venom. She hadn't known what its effect would be, so she had only used a tiny amount. But looking at her now, it seemed she had still used a bit too much.
Strands of white hair stuck to the side of her face. From being smothered in the blankets, Tang Qiu's fair skin was tinged with a faint blush. The corners of her eyes were red and moist. The collar of her robes had been pushed aside at her neck, and the flush extended all the way to her collarbones, where the white totem marking was faintly visible.
Lucille used her fingers to brush the hair from the side of Tang Qiu's face. She felt her temperature for a moment, then glanced at the sky outside. Seeing it was still a long time until dawn, she reached out and pulled the blanket over Tang Qiu.
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