CA – Chapter 57
Chapter 57
It was still dark when they arrived in the werewolf territory.
The werewolves lived in a region of ice fields, perpetually covered in snow. The temperature was extremely low, and white puffs of air appeared with every breath. For the thick-furred werewolves, this temperature was nothing, but for a young priest, it was not very friendly.
For Erin, who was already very sensitive to the cold, it was downright cruel. Ever since they had gotten close, Erin had plastered herself to the back of the gray wolf she was riding, completely motionless.
Only Lucille seemed unaffected. As Tang Qiu neared the werewolf territory, she couldn't help but envelop herself in a light barrier. Nevertheless, a chill crept up from the soles of her feet and gradually spread through her body, making her shiver involuntarily.
She subconsciously glanced at the other werewolves. Some of them, unable to transform due to their injuries, were in a similar state, huddled on their companions' backs, trembling.
Jillian received Fanny's order and stepped out from the group to arrange lodging for Tang Qiu, Lucille, and Erin.
The deeper they went into the werewolf territory, the lower the temperature dropped. The werewolves, unafraid of the cold, all lived in igloos. Those who were injured and couldn't transform were temporarily housed in a village near the territory's edge.
Tang Qiu, Lucille, and Erin were given the same treatment as these injured werewolves. Jillian picked out the most comfortable house for them and left. Left alone, Tang Qiu paced around the room a few times, suddenly starting to regret agreeing to Fanny's request.
The werewolf way of life was a bit too harsh.
Erin curled herself into a ball. The gray furball perched on her shoulder, transferring a sliver of warmth to her. Her voice trembled as she said miserably, "Let's just leave."
She was afraid she would freeze to death here.
Tang Qiu glanced at her and tossed her a Light Ball. Erin pressed her face against it and stopped moving.
Lucille lit the fire in the hearth, and the frigid room finally gained some warmth. Erin ran over to sit by the fireplace and said brazenly, "I'm sleeping in this room tonight."
Tang Qiu raised an eyebrow, glanced at the not-so-large bed, and said teasingly, "It'd be warmer if the three of us squeezed in together."
Erin looked at Tang Qiu, then at Lucille, still pondering whether her small frame would be at a disadvantage squeezing in with them, when Lucille had already walked out to the next room with a blank expression.
With one vampire gone, the bed was just right for two people. It wouldn't be crowded, and it would be warmer. Erin's eyes lit up. Just as she was about to get up and prepare the bed, she looked up to see the golden-haired priest following that vampire out.
Erin: "..." Fine, sleeping alone was good too. She still had her furball to hug for warmth.
Thinking of the furball, she recalled the perilous scene from earlier. Erin grabbed the furball from her shoulder, studied it carefully for a few moments, and muttered to herself, "What kind of magical creature are you, really?"
The gray furball stared back at her blankly, its eyes occasionally darting around.
Erin stroked the furball's head, thinking distractedly that she would have to find some time to investigate it thoroughly with witchcraft.
The room next door was just as cold. Lucille had just lit the fire in the hearth when the golden-haired priest sidled up. A light touch grazed her back, and a gentle, worried voice sounded by her ear, "Is your injury serious?"
Lucille's back instinctively straightened. She turned, grabbed Tang Qiu's wrist, and pulled her down to sit in a chair by the fireplace. Her tone was nonchalant. "It's not serious."
Holding Tang Qiu's wrist, she could feel her trembling slightly from the cold. Lucille frowned. She rubbed the pad of her thumb over Tang Qiu's wrist for a moment, only to realize her own icy body temperature couldn't bring Tang Qiu even a trace of warmth.
It had always been her who drew warmth from the golden-haired priest. Lucille lowered her gaze, her mind wandering as she held Tang Qiu's wrist.
Suddenly, a light pressure was applied to her back. Lucille sucked in a sharp breath of pain. She turned her head to look at the "culprit," who was watching her with a smile. When their eyes met, she even raised an eyebrow and teased, "Didn't you say you were fine?"
Lucille grabbed her other hand as well and said flatly, "It'll be fine in a few days."
There was probably a broken bone in there, but for a vampire, these were minor injuries that would heal on their own in a few days.
Tang Qiu glanced at Lucille's back, thought for a moment, and said, "Let me see."
She pulled her hand free, took out a jar of ointment, and shook it. "This doesn't contain the Power of Light."
The Holy Water of Light was a divine healing medicine, but unfortunately, not only was it useless on vampires, it might even worsen their injuries.
Lucille had wanted to refuse, but seeing the golden-haired priest's insistent expression, the words died on her lips. She fell silent for a moment, then turned around with a hint of resignation. "...This kind of ointment is slower than a vampire's natural healing."
Though she said this, she still reached up to unbutton her top. The silk shirt was pushed down to her elbows, her white undergarments concealing what lay beneath, offering a side view of her graceful figure.
Lucille's complexion was unnaturally pale, a fact made even more obvious by the contrast with her long red hair. Tang Qiu hadn't expected Lucille to move so quickly. Staring at the large expanse of fair, delicate skin suddenly exposed before her, she froze for a second.
After waiting a moment without hearing any movement behind her, Lucille tilted her head to the side and called out questioningly, "Grace?"
Tang Qiu snapped back to her senses. She gave a dry cough and raised a hand to gently brush Lucille's hair aside. There was a large bruise on her back, near her waist. Because her skin was so fair, the bruise looked terrifying.
"...It's very serious," Tang Qiu concluded after careful observation. She gently applied the ointment to the bruised area. Noticing Lucille flinch away, she leaned in and asked with concern, "Does it hurt a lot?"
"...No," Lucille denied in a low voice. She turned her head slightly, looking at Tang Qiu, who was focused on applying the ointment. From her angle, she could see Tang Qiu's long eyelashes and the slight curve of her red lips. Strands of her long golden hair would occasionally brush against Lucille's waist with the priest's movements.
It was a little itchy, and a little unsettling.
The temperature near the fireplace was slowly rising. Lucille felt a hint of warmth even on her arms. The golden-haired priest was very close, her unique scent lingering in the air. Unsure if it was the rising temperature or something else, Lucille's appetite was suddenly stirred, and it came on fiercely.
The hand still applying the ointment was suddenly grabbed. Tang Qiu looked up in confusion, her eyes meeting Lucille's, which were suddenly swirling with a bloody hue. She paused for a moment, then smiled faintly. "Hungry?"
Lucille took a deep breath, swallowed unconsciously, and pulled Tang Qiu closer, asking in a low voice, "May I?"
Her lips pressed against Tang Qiu's wrist, feeling the warmth and the pulse beneath.
Tang Qiu tossed the ointment aside, relaxed her body against the back of the chair, and nodded with a smile. "Of course," she said softly.
The injury on her back made Lucille's movements stiff as she bent over. She simply pulled Tang Qiu up by the arm, wrapped her other arm around her waist, and lowered her head to bite her wrist. Sweet blood flooded her mouth. Her eyes darkened, and the hand around Tang Qiu's waist slowly tightened.
Pulled away from the fireplace, Tang Qiu was instantly enveloped by the cold air. She buried her head in Lucille's shoulder, ignoring the stinging pain in her wrist. With her eyes slightly closed, she said softly, "...The red-robed witches are more dangerous than I imagined."
She had thought that with the werewolves as backup, rescuing Erin would be a sure thing. She never expected the situation to become so dangerous.
And it had put her in a position where she constantly had to worry about her identity being exposed.
Although she had accidentally seen the original Grace's final memories because of it, Tang Qiu was not satisfied with this trip.
Lucille's feeding paused. She tilted her head slightly and heard the golden-haired priest's soft whisper, "I underestimated them."
Her tone held a hint of apology.
Lucille raised a hand to stroke Tang Qiu's hair, then released her wrist and licked the blood from the corner of her mouth. Her voice was cool. "The Black Witches are just too cunning."
She didn't continue feeding. Instead, she let go of Tang Qiu and walked over to sit on the edge of the bed, buttoning up her clothes.
Outside, the sky was beginning to lighten. Tang Qiu's mind had remained tense ever since escaping the manor, only relaxing just now. She covered her mouth and yawned as a wave of sleepiness washed over her.
The bed beneath her creaked. Lucille finished buttoning the top button of her collar and glanced down at Tang Qiu, who was occupying the other half of the bed. "I can rest in the chair," she said softly.
Tang Qiu didn't speak, her eyes closed, but she reached out and placed a hand on Lucille's waist.
Something was off about the golden-haired priest's mood.
Lucille's expression flickered. She leaned against the headboard, looking down at Tang Qiu, who was closing her eyes to sleep. After a moment of contemplation, she suddenly asked, "Is there something wrong with the werewolves?"
Tang Qiu opened her eyes to look at her, a faint smile on her lips. "Why do you ask?" she questioned lightly.
"Because you've suddenly become very averse to them." Lucille looked down at the hand Tang Qiu had placed on her waist, then reached out and turned it over. The bloodstains on her wrist hadn't been cleaned yet. "Back in Bill, weren't you always wanting to come to the werewolf territory to investigate your transformation problem?"
She lifted Tang Qiu's hand higher and lowered her head to carefully lick the bloodstains clean. As she did, the sleeve slid down, revealing Tang Qiu's slender, pale arm, which was covered in purple and blue bruises from bumping into something at some point.
Lucille frowned, picked up the ointment Tang Qiu had tossed aside, and carefully applied it to the bruises on her arm.
Tang Qiu watched her quietly, her gaze sweeping over Lucille's cool eyes, high-bridged nose, and rosy but somewhat thin lips. She lowered her eyes and, after a moment of silence, suddenly let out a soft laugh. "You found me out."
"Is it because of that dark array the Black Witch used? What did you see?"
Tang Qiu surprisingly chose to tell Lucille the truth. "I saw a werewolf who wanted to kill me."
"Oh?"
"One who looked a bit like me," Tang Qiu said in a low voice, recalling Ophelia's appearance. "A very strong, white-haired werewolf."
Lucille froze for a moment, then looked down to meet Tang Qiu's eyes, her brow furrowed in disapproval. "You shouldn't have come to the werewolf territory."
Judging from the memories drawn out by the dark array, they were all one's most deeply buried and feared memories.
Tang Qiu's memory must have been the same.
Although she didn't know why Tang Qiu seemed to have no impression of her own past.
"I have a feeling that gray wolf recognized me," Tang Qiu said. She wasn't entirely certain, but she had a premonition.
The change in the gray wolf's attitude towards her was too obvious for her not to think deeply about it.
And she had been so insistent on inviting her to the werewolf territory... According to the records on the continent, werewolves were not known for being so hospitable.
"I want to see what her purpose is," Tang Qiu said softly, turning to face Lucille and resting her head on her arm.
Lucille placed Tang Qiu's hand back down and stared at her for a while. Hearing her breathing slowly even out, she adjusted her position slightly to make the golden-haired priest's sleeping posture more comfortable.
A werewolf sent to the Holy See... Lucille raised a hand and gently tucked a strand of hair from Tang Qiu's face, her index finger stroking the corner of her eye. She thought of the werewolves imprisoned by the Black Witches in the manor and the monsters they had bred. Her expression grew somber.
Werewolves never let their own kind fall behind, unless... that werewolf wasn't born in the territory.
Lucille knew that with the golden-haired priest's intelligence, she must have thought of the same things.
Black Witches... A cold, murderous intent flashed in Lucille's eyes.
Even with the fireplace, the temperature in the room was simply too low. Erin, who had been sleeping fitfully, was woken by the cold after a short while. She hugged the gray furball, which was completely unaffected by the cold, and ran to the room next door.
She tentatively pushed the door, and it opened easily. However, a dark red barrier blocked her path. Erin silently pressed her head against the barrier, trying her best to peer inside. Although she couldn't see the bed, she could see the fireplace in the room, its flames burning brightly.
She looked on with envy. The fire in her room's fireplace was almost out.
With the door blocked by the barrier, she could only turn and run back with the furball. Before she left, she glanced out the corridor window and saw something that made her let out a sound of surprise. She walked over, leaned on the railing, and looked down in astonishment. A dozen white and gray wolves were lying on the ground, basking in the sun.
The white and gray wolves heard the noise and looked up. Seeing it was her, they lost interest and lay back down.
Erin blinked. She could already tell that these werewolves were here for Tang Qiu.
Why was the golden-haired priest so popular? Vampires, werewolves, even a Black Witch like herself liked to be near her. Erin stroked her chin and walked back to her room, her head full of confusion.
Tang Qiu slept until the sun was about to set. The continuous heat from the fireplace had completely dispelled the cold in the room. When she got out of bed, even her hands, which had been outside the covers, were warm.
She had expended too much mental energy dealing with the monsters in the manor. Even with the Holy Water of Light, mental fatigue was unavoidable once she relaxed. However, after a good sleep, her mental strength had returned to its usual state.
Even Lucille could see that the weariness in the golden-haired priest's eyes had vanished, and a gentle smile once again graced her lips.
Tang Qiu got out of bed and straightened her slightly messy clothes. Outside the window, a chorus of wolf howls rose and fell. Though they were deliberately softened, anyone could hear the urgency within them.
Lucille stood by the bed and glanced down. "Are you going down to treat them?" she asked flatly.
Tang Qiu smoothed her sleeves, carefully covering the bite mark on her wrist, and smiled. "I promised them."
"I'll go with you."
Tang Qiu walked up behind Lucille and also peered down, then raised a hand to gently pat the small of Lucille's back. Noticing her back instantly stiffen, she smiled and declined, "I can handle it alone. You get some rest."
Without waiting for Lucille's reply, she turned, opened the door, and went out.
Jemma and her friends had been waiting under Tang Qiu's room for so long they were about to fall asleep. They had only howled a couple of times out of sheer boredom, not expecting the golden-haired priest to actually come out.
Jemma lowered her head guiltily, hiding her snout in her paws. Seeing Tang Qiu turn her head as if searching for something, she proactively raised a paw and called out, "I'm here."
Because her arm hadn't fully healed, when she transformed, the fur on her paw was gone, and bone was visible in some places.
Tang Qiu's gaze settled on her. She walked over, first examining the injury on her paw, then said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I slept a little too long."
Jemma shook her head, her tail wagging behind her. "It's fine, it's fine." She lifted her paw and placed it in Tang Qiu's hand.
A healing spell cast with the staff was more effective than one cast by incantation alone. Tang Qiu took out her staff and began to chant in a low voice. She supported Jemma's injured paw as a white light flew from the tip of the staff and slowly melted into the wound.
The incantation was long, and one healing spell followed another, treating Jemma's paw. Tang Qiu's mental energy was currently abundant, so she didn't hold back on using the Power of Light.
The wound on Jemma's paw slowly began to heal. The exposed white bone was covered by new flesh, and fur grew from nothing, from short to long. By the time Tang Qiu lowered her staff, Jemma's paw was completely healed.
A werewolf's healing ability, while not on par with a vampire's, was much better than a normal human's. Usually, when they were injured, they would find a quiet place and patiently wait for the wound to heal on its own.
Only if the injury was extremely severe, almost life-threatening, would they supplement it with some Holy Water of Light.
Jemma had thought she wouldn't be able to jump around for a while, but she hadn't expected this golden-haired priest to heal her paw completely with just a few spells.
This was even more effective than the Holy Water of Light.
Jemma shifted back to her human form, touched her arm in amazement, and said happily, "If I'd known you were this amazing, I would have brought those few severely injured clan members with me."
Those few werewolves couldn't transform back to their original forms due to their severe injuries, and they were also suspicious of people from the Holy See. Jemma had asked them to come along, but they had refused.
Not all werewolves were as unhostile towards the golden-haired priest as Jemma was.
"There are some injuries I might not be able to treat either." Tang Qiu knew what Jemma liked, so she took out a dozen bottles of Holy Water of Light from her Space Gem and stuffed them all into Jemma's arms. "They can only be slowly nursed back to health with Holy Water of Light. You can take these back to them," she said gently.
Jemma stared at her in astonishment and asked cautiously, "Are all of these for me?"
Tang Qiu smiled and nodded.
She put away the Holy Water of Light, her gaze towards Tang Qiu completely transformed.
Tang Qiu pretended not to notice Jemma's fervent stare. She walked over to a gray wolf nearby and, while checking its injuries, tossed out a topic for Jemma. "How do werewolves spend the full moon when they're injured?"
She acted as if the thought had just occurred to her, asking casually, "Does it matter if you can't transform on the full moon?"
Jemma's favorability towards Tang Qiu had just peaked thanks to the dozen bottles of Holy Water of Light. Hearing her question, she explained earnestly, "On the night of the full moon, even severely injured werewolves will enter a transformed state. It's uncontrollable."
"We start transforming after we come of age, and it happens every full moon after that." After saying this, Jemma thought of something else and added seriously, "But, although we transform on the full moon after being injured, we can't mate."
Her tone carried a hint of regret.
Tang Qiu was stunned. She subconsciously turned to look at her and asked with a frown, "Mate?"
Jemma nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "We have to work hard to breed little werewolf cubs."
"The full moon causes us to go into heat, and the chances of breeding are higher then."
Tang Qiu: "..."
Go into heat on the full moon. Tang Qiu repeated this sentence to herself three times, starting to recall if there was anything unusual whenever she woke up after a full moon.
It seemed... she always woke up in Lucille's bed.
Tang Qiu's mind began to wander as she held the gray wolf's paw.
Jemma stole a glance at the golden-haired priest and asked curiously, "What about you people from the Holy See? Do you have little priests?"
Tang Qiu came back to her senses and smiled at her, her sky-blue eyes clear and serene. "Light Believers must dedicate their entire lives to the Light Goddess. They cannot marry."
Jemma was a little disappointed. "Isn't that boring?"
"No." Tang Qiu pulled her thoughts back, healing the gray wolf's wounds while saying nonchalantly, "The profound spells left by the Light Goddess are enough to fill our tedious lives."
Jemma looked at her blankly, as if she only half-understood. She played with her tail for a bit, then sighed. "Why do the older clan members dislike you all so much?"
"I think you're very nice."
Jemma genuinely felt that the golden-haired priest before her was wonderful—gentle, generous, and very beautiful.
Besides, she always felt that Tang Qiu looked somewhat familiar, especially her eyes and long golden hair, which were exactly like their clan leader's.
Once the thought occurred to her, Jemma carefully looked Tang Qiu over from head to toe again, a flicker of doubt in her eyes.
Hmm... the more she looked, the more they resembled each other.
"The Holy See and your werewolf clan once fought two very fierce wars. Both sides suffered heavy losses, especially your clan. Your already small population was reduced by nearly half, and in the end, you could only wander the continent, hiding from the Holy See's pursuit while trying to reproduce." Tang Qiu had learned a little about the enmity between the Holy See and the werewolves.
After she finished speaking, she waited for Jemma's response. When she heard nothing after a while, she couldn't help but look up, only to find Jemma staring at her with a strange expression.
"What's wrong?"
Jemma shook her head. "Nothing." Maybe she was mistaken.
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