Ren shivered. His whole body felt like it was on fire. His sight was hazy and the voices incomprehensible. He drifted somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness. He did not understand what had happened, or where he was, but it wasn’t . . . home, if he could even call it that. It was simply the place he lived at. The air smelled of dirt and bitter medicine. Ren slowly opened his eyes. The place was illuminated by a single dim candle. The owners of the voices he heard previously were nowhere to be seen. He was left alone with the thoughts swirling in his head.
He gripped his hands, and noticed they were covered with something. It was the bitter medicine he smelled. The place he was in didn’t look like a hospital, but rather someone’s home. He was unsure why someone would bring an injured stranger into their own house instead of calling an ambulance, and couldn’t help but be doubtful of whoever supposedly saved him. Even if he was saved, he had nowhere to go.
Ren tried to stand, but staggered, knocking into a nearby table.
‘Hsss, it hurts.’
He grit his teeth at the stinging pain of his wounds, to keep from yelling out in pain and alerting the other people. Unfortunately for him, the sudden crash into the table had already startled them. He heard footsteps coming over.
“You’re pretty energetic, for someone who’s so injured.”
Ren looked up, startled by the smiling person in front of him. The man that stood before him was lean, without seeming frail. He had pale silver hair that reached his neck. Ren would describe the man’s eyes as blue, but that would only be half-true. His right eye had a milky pupil that was unfocused. It was blind. That wasn’t what surprised Ren, however. It was the two prominent sharp teeth.The man was a vampire.
“It’s rude to stare.” The man said, still smiling. Ren averted gaze to the floor.
“You’re scaring the poor child.” This time, it was the smaller girl with a serious face that spoke.
“Nonsense, I’m simply teasing him.”
Ren wasn’t paying attention to their conversation, his ears were buzzing and his heart was beating with panic. These people weren’t human. They were all the same. He had to get out.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Luca was talking with Ari, when she suddenly realized she forgot to bring the gauze, leaving Luca alone with the now awake kid. Luca stood by, when from the corner of his eye, he saw the boy move towards the table. Luca thought the boy probably wanted something to lean on, and was about to offer him some help.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Instead, the boy grabbed a random vial. Luca vaguely realized what he was about to do, and moved to stop him, but it was too late. The boy smashed vial, spilling its contents all over. Shards of glass flew out on the floor. Luca grabbed the boy’s wrist, and gripped it tightly, leaving the kid immobile.
Ktf ybs’r tfjv pfgxfv eq, rajgaifv, jcv tf lcralcmalnfis alutafcfv tlr uglq bc tlr nlji-aegcfv-kfjqbc, jcv uijgfv ja tlw klat ectlvvfc jclwbrlas.
“Kmt, lr atja tbk sbe gfqjs sbeg rjnlbg?”
Ktf xlv kjr ralii uijglcu ja tlw. Oemj qjlv la cb wlcv, jcv mbcalcefv tlr gjca.
“Qlat tbk sbe’gf jmalcu, qfbqif wjs jr kfii atlcx P’w tbivlcu sbe tbrajuf.”
“Aren’t you?”
Luca was surprised that the boy suddenly decided to speak up. His voice was not immature like he imagined, but unexpectedly deeper and more mature.
“What would be the point? Is someone willing to pay a large sum of money for you?” Luca joked.
The boy suddenly tugged at his arm, causing Luca to almost lose a grip on his arm. Luckily, Luca was always on his guard, so the boy’s attempt to escape was unsuccessful.
“What do you want from me?” The boy asked.
“To stay calm, sit down, and heal. I didn’t waste my time and energy bringing you here for nothing. You won’t waste my good intentions will you?”
The boy had a look of disbelief on his face, as if he couldn’t believe that Luca had no ulterior motives. Must be hard to be so skeptical at a young age. Considering he had been dropped into the forest in a bloody blanket, the kid must have his reasons.
Ari, who was blissfully unaware of what occurred in the room, came back with the gauze and was greeted by the contents of the vial spilled on the floor, glass shards scattered everywhere, and Luca and the boy in a deadlock against each other. At once Ari felt multiple emotions through her body, none pleasant. The two people in the room stared at her, one who seemed apologetic, and the other who looked at her with suspicion. The latter was also gripping the broken vial, likely the cause of this whole mess. Ari stayed still for a while, before finally taking a deep breath.
“What happened?” She asked, calmly.
“I think you can tell yourself. Pass me the gauze.” Luca said.
“Don’t tell me you did something to the kid?”
Luca rolled his eyes. “Don’t push the blame on me, I’m innocent in this.”
The said kid had no reaction towards this, and continued to heartlessly pretend the situation had nothing to do with him.
Ari woodenly walked to him, passed him the gauze, and then went soullessly staring at the mess.
“M-my potion. I was working on that for two weeks- and those ingredients . . .” She muttered.
“I’ll reimburse you for your troubles.” Luca comforted her, using his free hand to pat her shoulder.
Ari looked dejected, but didn’t argue. She took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes.
“At least I took notes on how to recreate it. You- you can take care of him, and I’ll just get a broom to clean this mess up.”
With that, Ari left Luca and the kid in the room all alone, before Luca could even have a chance to protest.
Luca’s gaze moved from Ari’s back to the broken vial in the boy’s hand, and saw that his palms were covered in cuts. Blood, it smelled so good so close. The scent was making him dizzy. Luca forced himself to snap out of it, and quickly pulled the glass vial out. The boy tried to prevent it, but Luca was too quick. His fierce expression turned into one of panic.
With the stance of bravery he just took, it was really just desperation and fear. Luca felt himself go into the past, where he wore the same look.
“You don’t need that. It’s a useless weapon against me anyway.” Luca tried to comfort, though the boy didn’t seem to relax in the slightest. In fact, he was trying to edge as far as he could, away from Luca.
Damn it, one person in the room lost her soul and went to the back, and the other looked at him like he was their long lost enemy, and he was stuck dealing with this all alone.
“No one wants to hurt you here, else you’d probably be left in the woods to die.” Luca continued. “The faster you get bandaged, the faster you can leave. So can you be a willing patient and allow me to treat you?”
The boy was surprised by the sudden question and hesitantly nodded. Luca carefully moved towards him, careful not to make any sudden movements. He slowly held out his palm, as sign of a peace offering. Luca very much felt like he was coaxing a wild animal.
The boy hesitantly put his own hand over Luca’s, and allowed himself to be led to the cot. Luca pried open the boy’s palms, and started cleaning up the blood. He dutifully wrapped all of the boy’s injuries with the gauze. The boy’s eyes were glued onto him the entire time.
“What’s your name?” Luca asked, meeting the boy’s eyes back.
“Ren.” He answered.
The silence resumed. Luca didn’t ask how Ren ended up in the woods, even if he was curious, and just continued to focus on applying the medicine. It didn’t seem like the right time, and he didn’t want it to feel like an interrogation.
“Here.” Luca said, finishing treating Ren’s hand.
“You can change into this.” Luca grabbed the clothes on the table and handed them to Ren. Ren clumsily grabbed them from him.
“Need help?”
Ren’s face reddened from embarrassment as he furiously shook his head.
‘How shy.’
Luca gave Ren his privacy. Now that the kid was standing and awake, Luca could see that he was a lot taller than he would have thought, just a bit skinny. The clothes looked a little large on Ren, but were still better than the torn, bloody clothing he was wearing previously.
If I was Ari, I would have cried at my potion being spilled lol
Luca is super patient…