"Thank you for coming, Daniel."
"No problems! It's not like I could hold myself back when you told me that I would get the chance to observe another demon."
Seeing Dona let the tall, glasses-wearing man into the apartment, I wasn't sure what was going to happen.
Before this, I had already consumed a lot of blood in preparation, as Dona had said it would at least milden my urges a bit, but seeing the man, I didn't feel anything.
"You must be, Aarick? I'm Daniel Port, a pleasure to meet you."
It was almost scary how calm the appeared to be, knowing that he was aware of what I was and, more than that, why he was here.
Still, seeing his outstretched hand, I decided to ignore those thoughts and just try and act normally.
"That's right, nice to..."
As soon as I took his hand, my world suddenly flipped, and for some reason, a certain aroma started to surround him.
Next thing I know, I could practically see the blood streaming through his veins, circulating endlessly with the heart as both the center and the engine. His whole body was just emanating this alluring aura that was completely irresistible.
Then, everything went black.
****
[Dona's Pov]
"Nice to..."
'Already?'
Daniel hadn't even been in the apartment for more than a couple of minutes before I could see Aaricks irises start to disappear, diluting as they started consuming every fraction of his eyes.
"You might want to take a step back, Daniel?"
"Ho? It's already beginning? Interesting!"
Instead of getting dismayed and scared seeing Aarick start to lose himself, the man who had devoted his entire life to understanding demons only got more excited.
"So these are the claws you told me about?"
Even when Aarick's claws appeared, he only grabbed one of the vampire's arms and inspected the razor-sharp weapons more closely.
"Hmm... Not as sharp as the ones of a cherub, but more durable while at the same time sharper than that of a werewolf but less durable..."
Yeah, he was pretty crazy, but he was still one of the few people that I trusted with my secret. The main reason was that I could trust that his obsession with demons was enough to never risk damaging our relationship. That would mean he would inevitably lose a valuable specimen.
Then, the obvious thing happened. Aarick who had already been consumed with bloodlust thrust his head forward, showing his fangs that were more than ready to fill him up with Daniel's blood.
But I still wasn't too worried. Because there was also another reason why I had asked Daniel to come over and help us out.
"Guh?!"
There was no way the young dhampir would be able to react as the [B]-ranked, former hunter, Daniel gripped the underside of his head, holding him still while inspecting the inside of his mouth.
"Those fangs... are quite different from other demons, aren't they? Instead of being used as tools for ripping flesh, they are obviously used for..."
"Daniel, please don't start your research while Aarick has lost control. I think I told you that it takes a large toll on his body when he enters this state."
"Oh, sorry! I got ahead of myself."
*Tok!*
A very precise strike to the back of Aarick's neck was all that was needed to knock him out completely, making his body fall limply into the arms of the professor. Picking him up in his arms, he just lay him down on the couch before turning around to me.
Crossing my arms, I couldn't help but feel bad for putting the young man through this, but I also knew that it had to be done. Even disregarding my own vision of coexistence with humans, there were no demons who could survive if they couldn't hide themselves to some extent at least. And if he couldn't even be close to humans without losing control, there was no way that he could hide.
Luckily, the biggest contributor to the success of a demon to gain control over his urge to feed was to be around humans. To some extent, it didn't even matter if the demon was consciously trying to reign in its urges because their bodies would get used to it.
So just having Daniel stay with us until Aarick's vessel had acclimated to the presence of humans was a relief, even more so as he didn't mind it at all.
"Let's give him some space."
Making Daniel follow me into the kitchen, we left the white-haired youth alone for a bit, letting him get some rest. Because it wouldn't take long until he would have to go through the same thing again. And again. And again.
****
[Lydia's Pov]
'Somethings up...'
"Good morning. Some of you might know me from the mana manipulation class, but for those who don't, my name is Rosa Bright. I will be acting as a stand-in for Ms. Zito who unfortunately has some personal business that she has to attend to."
Not only had Aarick not shown up today, but now the old and gentle Mrs. Bright had shown up, telling us she was a stand-in for Ms. Zito.
So how was I supposed to believe that there was nothing weird going on? Even weirder was it that Mrs. Bright for some reason then continued to tell us why Aarick was absent.
"As you might have noticed, Mr. Laupier is absent today and the principal asked me to tell you that he will most likely be absent for the rest of the week due to complications with his rank-up."
That someone had issues with their bodies after an increase in their ranks wasn't all too rare, but the fact that she was explicitly telling us this was too suspicious.
Most of the time when a student was absent, they wouldn't want that information to spread as it might lead to judgment from their peers.
Sadly, I was aware that there wasn't anyone I could ask to find out more about it either. And worse yet...
"So we will be starting the test now. Please do your best."
...was the fact that even though Ms. Zito was absent, we were still going to have to do that damn test.
****
[Levi's Pov]
Having finished the test, I wasn't too surprised to see that I was the first one to leave the classroom.
'9.10... There are still fifty minutes left until my lesson with Mrs. Park.'
Not quite sure what I was going to do, I decided to just take a walk around the academy grounds before I was going to have yet another private lesson.
It was hard trying to ignore the fact that Aarick was supposedly absent because of some problems that occurred during his rank-up. Because there should be no way for him to have made such rapid progress that he could already be ranking up after having been stuck in a coma for years.
Then, as I was walking over the grounds, a familiar voice suddenly called out to me.
"Why so sad, princess? Come to think of it, what could someone like ya even have to be sad about?"
"Please don't call me a princess, Lucy."
Just like always, the pierced girl didn't have an ounce of tact, a personality trait that I both adored and hated at the same time.
"Hmm? Why shouldn't I? Isn't it fitting for ya?"
To be fair, I was aware that many people viewed me like that, and to some extent, I could see why.
Because just like a princess, I had very high expectations of myself as well as people around me that was making sure I would fulfill them.
But I still didn't particularly enjoy her calling me that.
"I'll see you later Lucy."
As I had nothing more to say to her, I was just about to keep walking when she suddenly said something that activated every single neuron in my brain.
"Ya know? That white-haired guy in your class... he is kind of cute, isn't he?"
It took every single fraction of my self-control to not react to her words, as it was obvious that she was purposefully trying to trigger me.
"You are welcome to think so, but what does that have to do with me?"
Shrugging a bit, making her black hair bounce a bit, she still acted so very casually when speaking things that made it clear that she knew more than I wanted her to.
"Well, nothing, I guess. I don't know, I just had a feeling I should tell you what I think about him."
'This...'
"Because, if I did decide to try and pursue him, wouldn't it be a good idea to check to make sure the princess would allow it? After that incident, I wouldn't want to accidentally make you think of me as an enemy, after all."
'...bitch.'
The worst part was that I couldn't even check how much she knew, or even what she actually knew about me and Aarick.
For all I knew, this could even have been her acting after only the incident where Aarick told me to... fuck off.
At the same time, it felt unlikely. Because Lucy didn't care, and she never had.
Lucy just did whatever she felt like, whenever she felt like it.
And today, I was not in the mood to give her the pleasure of getting her way. So I left, not even caring about saying any goodbyes.