Chapter 67: Can You Answer Me One Question? (13)

"You despicable bastard!"

"You don't understand—only magic can counter magic. That's why only the wisest holy knight won't be deceived by an evil vampire."

"But right now it's YOU who's deceiving ME!!?"

"Oh? Is that so?"

Herbert looked at Elisa, whose expressions were so vivid, and felt that face-to-face conversation like this was far more interesting.

At least she now had a proper character portrait—much better than that coffin-mimicking Mimikyu look from before…

He raised an eyebrow, then shook his head with a smile and said, "You're the one who came to suck my blood on your own initiative. How can you say I'm the one harming you?"

"You're not going to say I deliberately seduced you into sucking my blood, are you?"

You are!

Elisa really wanted to shout that line out loud in rebuttal, but she also knew she was truly in the wrong.

She had indeed sucked his blood, and indeed had sucked a little too much of it.

Now she truly couldn't defend herself no matter what she said—even if she had a point, she couldn't make it clear, let alone the fact that she herself was in the wrong.

In the end, under pressure from the profiteer, Elisa was forced to agree to his harsh conditions.

"Fine, I'll agree to your terms this time, but I can only give you two more drops! Absolutely no more than that! Otherwise I'll go back to the state I was in before!"

At the same time, she also put forward her own demands.

She bit down hard on the number being only two drops—any more and she refused to do it.

Although Herbert's blood was extremely delicious and sweet, and provided her with quite a bit of power, for a body that had been withered for several hundred years, it was still far, far too little.

At most it had only filled in about one percent of the deficit—truly a drop in the bucket.

So, even at this moment, the wound on Elisa's chest had not fully healed, and was still in a "heart bleeding" state of "happiness."

As she spoke, a few drops of fresh blood would seep out from it every now and then, and before they hit the ground she would painfully suck them back in.

Mm, truly overjoyed.

"Only two drops? That makes things very difficult for me…"

Herbert put on a troubled look, shook his head, and after much difficulty finally clenched his teeth and stamped his foot, waving his hand grandly as he said:

"Sigh, forget it, forget it! Considering we've known each other for so long, let's just leave it at that this time."

The way he looked, it seemed as though he had been taken advantage of terribly.

Elisa:?

"What are you even saying? Have I known you that long? We're not that close…"

"Then it's ten drops. Non-negotiable."

"Very close! Hehe, very close! We're old friends, old friends!"

Elisa laughed dryly, while simultaneously rolling her eyes hard at Herbert, and said through gritted teeth: "You really can't take a jooooke!"

This despicable holy knight!

Truly too villainous!

Elisa seethed inwardly, squeezed at her chest, and carefully squeezed out two drops of essence blood.

Herbert accepted it gladly, without the slightest intention of asking just where exactly she had produced this essence blood from…

Don't ask.

When it comes to female vampires, it's better to mind one's own business.

Most of the time, being a little confused actually lets you live better.

Knowledge is actually a curse.

For example, when you don't know things like "breathing can actually be manual!" "Swallowing saliva is too!" "Your eyes can actually always see your nose!" and other useless trivia…

You've always been very happy!

Never let knowledge defile your brain.

You must continue to be happy ahhhhh!!! (voice cracking)

And after "obtaining through a market-recognized fair trade" two drops of essence blood, Herbert thought of something he was rather curious about.

Originally he hadn't planned to ask at first, intending to remain in the dark, but what happened later changed his mind.

"By the way, Young Lady Elisa, I have a question I'd like to ask you for your guidance. May I?"

Elisa was stunned for a moment, then her eyes lit up, and she said with a sinister look: "A question? Sure, pay with blood!"

At last I've got my chance!

Herbert immediately nodded: "Sure. As long as you can give me a satisfactory answer, how many drops of blood will it cost?"

Hm?

His overly blunt response made Elisa feel a little uneasy inside. Having learned her lesson this time, she had grown wiser, and said haughtily: "You ask first. I'll wait until you're done asking before naming my price!"

She had already made her preparations.

The moment Herbert asked his question, she would immediately blurt out the answer, and then once the answer was given, she would name a price so high he simply couldn't bear it.

Heh heh.

You think you're the only one who knows how to extort others?

I'll let you taste the pain I just experienced!

Just as Elisa was preening over her own brilliant idea, she heard Herbert's question—

"May I ask, what does it feel like to kill your own father with your own hands?"

!!?

The smile vanished instantly from her Bai Xi face, and her crimson eyes, after trembling for an instant, fixed themselves unblinkingly on the man before her.

She narrowed her eyes, stared at Herbert with a dangerous gaze, and asked slowly: "…You know about that?"

In that instant, a bearing that Herbert had once seen in his memories surfaced on Elisa's body.

Danger, wickedness, and madness.

Herbert gave a slight nod.

That's right — this was the powerful vampire he had seen in his memories, if one ignored the small detail that she was currently squatting in the coffin with her legs spread.

"How do you know about that?"

Elisa's voice was low and hoarse as she asked slowly, "Who told you!?"

Who told me?

If I said your daddy told me… would you believe it?

Herbert did not answer that way. Instead, without any evasion, he looked straight into her crimson eyes and asked softly, "What did it feel like?"

"When you took his life and completely severed the bond between you — what did you feel?"

"Satisfaction? Or emptiness?"

"At that moment, what… exactly did you feel?"

At that time, what exactly did you feel?

"You…"

Elisa knit her brows, narrowed her eyes, and stared at Herbert for a long moment. After confirming he wasn't using the question to joke around or deliberately disgust her, she let out a somewhat helpless sigh.

"You really are… an offensive fellow."

She wanted to lash out at this boundary-less fellow.

But, oddly enough, Elisa did not sense the slightest malice from him.

On the contrary, what she sensed from him was a trace of bewilderment hidden extremely deep.

He was bewildered, wavering, hesitant about One's Own Thoughts.

…Exactly the same as how she had been, back before she made her move.

After a moment's hesitation and a deep sigh, Elisa still slowly began to answer: "Let me make one thing clear first — the person you know about, he is not my father."

"Both my parents died at his hands. He was nothing more than an old monster who transformed me from a human into a monster."

"That kind of thing is absolutely not my father."

(End of this chapter)