Melissa only knew that she had died. It was the human knight's doing. Before she could make herself self-destruct, she sensed that Brandel Laxon had something cast on him, a dark spell that would set his body to explode five minutes after he died. She was sure the activation of this spell was entirely up to him.
'Brandel was captured because of me, but when he saw me at death's door, he only thought of making everyone in the castle, including him, accompany me to the afterlife.'
'So that was why he said sorry to me.'
Her head was fully consumed by anger. She wanted to kill every single vampire from the royal faction to avenge herself and her knight. Even after she realized that she had returned to the past, her chest was filled with hate for being so powerless at the moment of his death.
If not for hearing a certain word, her senses and reason would not have returned so soon to her.
'Rampage? Did somebody say I was on a rampage?'
The thought woke her up and stopped her from attacking those nearby. If she was truly back to the past, being linked with the word rampage now would be detrimental to her reputation. It was only okay to vent her frustrations if there would be no harm to her future.
"Melissa Edevane! Please! Stop right there! Stay your hands!"
No professor had arrived yet. The vampire who spoke just now was a member of the student council. As close to fifteen years had passed since she last attended classes in this school, she had no more recollection of this officer. All she knew right now was that he was also a vampire. And that she badly hates vampires.
The girl whose name just got called gasped for air. After some time, she calmly turned her head. Her cat-like upturned eyes back to their original violet hue. Only the rims of her eyes still had traces of red in them.
With her rationality back to her, she began to observe her surroundings and then saw the result of her 'hard work'.
All the girls who frequently hanged out with the Jackson heiress were now casting her glares and wary glances. Wounds could be seen on various parts of their bodies. The one who suffered from her attacks the most was naturally Leonora. Right now, the girl could barely move, with hands clutching her stomach that received the most number of kicks from Melissa.
'When exactly did I experience being dragged into the restroom by Leonora and her associates?'
'No, wait. They mentioned human blood. It should be when they offered me a drink as an apology for... something I can't remember. They must have badmouthed me before a crowd of a VIP. But then again, the drink they gave me contained human blood.'
'They know, I hate drinking human blood!'
With these clues in mind, she was able to pinpoint the year she went back in.
The year 1760. The young Melissa had just left the village on the outskirts of the Estania Empire. The Edevane family rewarded her adopted parents for taking care of her for seventeen years, and then took her away, bringing her to the capital.
A month after cramming a year's worth of lessons inside her head, they sent her to Estania Academy, a school for noble vampires.
However, her lacking etiquette and knowledge of the noble society were frowned upon. Girls who thought she was an embarrassment to the entire society began to pick on her. Leonora was their leader and she was the main reason why her days in the academy were very dark.
The reincarnated Countess of Edesvane calmed her breathing. Then she gave the sobbing girls a frigid look before turning to the officer.
"This bunch wanted to bully me and they also insulted my family name. Are you going to side with them and tell me that self-defense was wrong?"
The new student's gaze was like the icy wind of winter. The student council member stood frozen for a second before he came back to his senses. "Miss Edevane, the Council observes fairness the most. We won't punish you without knowing the entire story. But what you said just now... that is not the report that reached us."
A furious female vampire hurriedly said, "Officer Brook, Miss Edevane just went on a rampage! She nearly killed us! Ask anybody nearby and you'll know I just spoke the truth!"
"Was that what happened?"
Melissa answered the vampire's question with a placid look on her face. "A rampaging vampire will lose all reason and capabilities to speak. All they will have in mind is an endless thirst for destruction. They will unleash all their strength and power to destroy everything and everyone around them. After a rampage, they would become imbeciles no different from witless vampire servants. As I'm calmly holding a conversation right now with you, do you think I had truly gone through that?"
"No."
"Right?" She laughed. "Look around, you won't see traces of blood magic and abilities too."
Hesitation showed in Samuel Brook's face. "Then why did you have to assault Miss Leonora and her friends?"
If the one in front of the male vampire was still the young Melissa, or the naive Countess who merely wanted humans and vampires to reconcile, she would have been intimated by the warning glances thrown at her. But the one they confronted was a vampire noble who had already tasted death once. Not even she knew what else could scare her after going through the most horrible experience in her life.
Melissa Edevane tilted her head and asked, "Didn't I already say the reason? It was self-defense. As a noble, I believe it's not a good thing to let people with malicious intentions have their way."
"Your self-defense left so many of us badly injured!" Leonora spoke up, at last, her voice laced with both fury and embarrassment. "You obviously wanted to take our lives!"
Melissa's lips curled into a slight smile as she replied, "I swear as a proud descendant of the Edevane family that I harbored no such intention towards you or your friends, Miss Jackson."
At last, a professor came to the scene, hurriedly asking about the situation. He was just in time to hear the next words that Melissa uttered.
"Perhaps it is your friend, Miss Jackson, who held killing intent towards me? How else would she dare report to the student council that I just did a rampage? Miss Sanders, can you bear the weight of those words? Now that I'm proven sane and normal, how are you going to explain it to my family whose honor you have just tainted?"
Professor Albert's face darkened as he tapped the floor of the corridor repeatedly using his cane.
All eyes then automatically went on him. Everyone hid the surprised look on their faces and respectfully greeted him, "Good afternoon, Professor."
The students made way for him so in no time he arrived at the door. He naturally did not enter, only speaking after roaming his gaze around, "All involved students are to follow me to the guidance counselor's office. The rest, go back to your classrooms. NOW!"
Because the professor was one of the highest-ranked nobles in the academy, nobody dared to complain upon hearing the commanding tone of his voice. The onlookers obediently dispersed. Melissa secretly narrowed her eyes, while the girls behind her exchanged worried glances.
Three minutes was all it took for them to reach the said office. They all entered through the door that automatically opened to the professor's presence.
Nobody was inside prior to their arrival. While the room was named the guidance counselor's office, the academy actually had no guidance counselor. It was used by whichever teaching personnel needed it.
Professor Albert beckoned them all to take a seat. However, the heiress of Marquis Jackson was very impatient. She began to narrate what happened in the restroom without forgetting to make it sound like it was Melissa who beat them up for no rhyme or reason.
"Professor, all we did was shared some food packs with her. Who would have thought she would suddenly start to retch? Then when we asked if she doesn't like drinking human blood, she unexpectedly turned violent! I don't know what's gotten into her. If somebody had only warned me about this girl, I would not have brought my friends to try to befriend her!"
The face of the reincarnated girl remained stoic even though the other vampire nobles were looking at her with weird eyes. Without a doubt, they did not bother listening to the latter part of the blonde's story. They also ignored the attempt of the Jackson heiress to highlight the injuries on her body. They focused on the part where Leonora emphasized Melissa's reaction to human blood.
"Miss Edivane, care to explain your side now?" When the complaining vampirette finally stopped, the Professor turned to the one in question.
Melissa smiled politely at the older vampire. She looked calm as she answered, "Professor, I only have one thing to say. While the blood really belonged to a human, I know for sure that it is from a vampire hunter."
"You're lying!" Leonora angrily shouted. Her fangs began to show as she ground her teeth. Her ash-colored eyes were also starting to turn red.
Samuel Brook, the student council member who followed them inside the office, was stunned, then alarmed. With a frown on his face, he stared at Leonora before asking Melissa, "Are you sure it's a vampire hunter's blood?"
Melissa's gaze which seemed to hold a glacier in them stopped at Leonora's face. Her voice did not falter even as she enunciated, "I might have grown up in the countryside but there's no way I'll fail to recognize something that can kill me."
Leonora interjected, "No, Mr. Brook, Professor, I swear in my reputation as heiress to the Jackson Marquisdom, I never gave her anything other than a regular human's blood?"
The vampire noble girl was completely offended by the lies she just heard. Her friends were also angered. For a short while, the entire place was akin to a busy marketplace. Voices rang nonstop, making the Professor's head hurt. Silence only returned when Professor Albert who was a Vampire Duke released his aura.
Melissa took advantage of that moment. Like an actress that had gotten into a role, she stood from her seat and looked down on the other woman. Her voice was laced with chips of ice as she articulated.
"Professor, I would just like to clarify that I only retaliated against these guys because they tried to poison me with a vampire hunter's blood. Even though I was very angry, I made sure to not injure them severely. Never did I entertain the thought of killing them. But if I were to be honest, just that one offense alone was too heavy of a crime. How dare they report a false claim to the council and the administration? A rampage they say?"
The Professor's face crumpled at the specific word that actually pushed him to lead these few students to this room. "No rampage happened so stop bringing it up."
"No, Professor." Melissa glared sharply at the beautiful but pale faces of the girls seated opposite her. "I won't stop bringing it up to remind them. I won't stop until I hear an apology from them."
She paused for a while, looking like she was gathering her resolve. Then she declare with finality in her tone, "I want that apology to come out of their mouths after I defeated them in a duel!"