[Dona's Pov]
"-Grrgh!"
Once again, I could hear the muffled sounds coming from Aarick's room. Even if he had tried to hide it, I already knew that he was being tortured every night by the overpowering urges coming from the Nozferatu blood inside of him.
Sitting on the floor outside his room, making sure that if he did lose control, I would be here to stop it. However, from the previous nights, I was already certain that...
Right then, the door opened, and a white-haired youth with dim, red eyes stepped out of his room. His consciousness was already pretty much gone, and it didn't take long until he did the same thing he had done every night.
"It's okay. You can rest here."
With my words as the cue, he huddled down next to me on the floor, laying his head in my lap. Before I knew it, he had fallen asleep. Something that should have been impossible when thinking about how invigorated his body should have been from all the blood he drank before heading to his room.
After the first night, when he had come to the couch due to his fear of being alone, he had for some reason continued to approach me every night, only falling asleep after feeling my presence close by.
Stroking his hair, I was yet again filled with conflicting emotions about the young boy.
On the one hand, I felt like it was a good thing that he was at least comfortable enough with me that I could serve as his support during Lucifer's absence. But on the other hand...
'He might become the next Khayman...'
There was no doubt that at some point, Aarick would become incredibly powerful. As long as he didn't lose his life and continued to grow, he would in the future inevitably leave behind the concept of ranks, just like Khayman had done.
Inherent ranks, the system that the gods gifted the humans as to make sure they could grow as much as possible. In return, the fallen gods had done the same for the demons, as they did not want to seem inferior.
Some individuals, who in human terms had a potential of [S]-rank, could get to a point where they became so powerful that the gods system could no longer apply to them. Currently, there were very few of these individual on the planet, and though their powers could be said to go against the status quo of the world, none of them could do what Khayman had done.
His individual strength aside, the power to convert humans into demons weren't something that should belong to anyone but a god.
'What was Lucifer thinking...'
I couldn't understand what she was planning on doing, and why she had to gift Aarick this kind of power. Not only was it a power that would make him a target for both demons and humans alike, it was a power that came with such pain that it was hard to call it a gift.
In a time where demons stood at the apex, this power might have been a huge boon, but times had already changed. Although there were ways for demons to hunt behind the scenes without getting caught, it was much harder today than it was in the past.
So, what was I supposed to do?
A stronger person than me might have been able to make the decision that it would be better to get rid of him now rather than run the risk of him becoming something that could bring the world to its knees. But I wasn't that person.
Thus, once again, I could only keep stroking his white-hair, knowing that when daylight came, he wouldn't remember any of this, and hopefully not remember the way my hands had accidentally approached his neck.
****
[Aarick's Pov]
Another sleepless night had gone by, a night that had ended up with my consciousness getting numb, only to clear up when sunrise arrived. Looking around, I found the victim that had gotten trashed during this night's turmoil. The poor, white pillow that had been completely torn up, making the white feathers spread around the room.
'Another one bites the dust... Or should I say, I bite another one?'
Right now, couldn't be bothered to clean up the mess that I had made, as my head was already screaming at me that I needed nutrients.
Therefore, I walked out to the large living room. Nowadays, I wasn't even surprised to see all the luxurious pieces of furniture or the marble flooring. The only thing my mind could focus on was the beautiful woman with the incredibly alluring curves arriving from the kitchen.
In one of her hands, she was holding an elegant wine glass, and in the other, she was holding the glass container that my eyes immediately landed on. Because the dark red color of the contents was shown through the transparent material.
"Oh, good morning, Aarick."
"Good morning, Dona."
Like the good boy I was, I restrained myself from jumping at it, and instead sat down in the couch, patiently waiting for the treat that I knew I was going to get.
==========
I had arrived at the academy, and to my surprise, there was no Astor in sight to intercept my entrance. For the first time this week, I was allowed to just focus on not lunging at the people around me while making my way through the hallway of the combat section to my first class.
As there was four different buildings on the academy grounds for different courses, which included the combative section, the magic section, the construction section and finally the main building, there weren't all too many students hanging around.
Therefore, it was actually not too straining to control my urges right now, and I felt like I could even relax to a minor extent. However, as I should have known from my previous experiences, if something seemed to good to be true, it absolutely fucking was.
"Hey, Aarick!"
The eyes of a purple-haired student had suddenly landed upon me, quickly followed by him walking up to me. Matthew, the man who could be said to be one of the main people to blame for my current situation both at, as well as outside, the academy.
If not for his meddling in the situation between me and Hugo, I wouldn't have had to make the entire school my enemy due to me acting disrespectfully toward Levi. Naturally, I wasn't all too fond of him.
Looking up at the man who was still taller than me, I finally responded.
"What do you want, Matthew?"
His eyes narrowed when hearing my uncaring tone, as if he found it disgraceful that an orphan like me dared to act like this. Despite this, the man kept his cool, not wanting to create a situation where he might get outed for acting out.
At the same time, his pride wouldn't allow him to just take it lying down.
"Ho? Seems like someone has started getting a bit too comfortable while hiding behind Astor. Say, do you really think he could save you when he is not even here?"
Though I could understand where he was coming from, and how his misunderstanding had come to be, I wasn't in the mood to play along.
"No. But I also know that inside of the academy, every move you make is subject to scrutiny. So even if you have the tools to twist the story a bit, are you sure that you want to make that kind of gamble? There isn't really anything for you to gain either."
Matthew's body relaxed a bit, realizing that there was, indeed, nothing that he could gain except for alleviating his frustrations by making a scene here.
"You really have to work on the way you talk to people, you know? Anyway, I actually came here to ask you something."
Instantly, my mind was activated, running on all cylinders for whatever kind of question someone like Matthew could possibly have for me. Although I always had the choice of not answering, or just walking away, there were a lot of instances where that could be interpreted as an answer in an of itself.
Needless to say, that wasn't something I wanted to happen when dealing with someone that obviously had a large amount of influence.
"Go ahead."
Crossing his arms, he asked the question that I had been mentally prepared myself to face, yet as he posed it, I couldn't have felt more unprepared.
"What is your relationship with Lucy? I know that people saw you hanging out outside the academy a couple of weeks ago, and there had been no Astor in sight. So what possible reason could you have for hanging out with her when..."
"I'm not dating her, nor am I especially interested in her."
"...huh?"
I couldn't stop my mood from souring when hearing his atrociously childish question, obviously just scared that I was dating his crush. Out of everything that I had prepared myself for, this was by far the most unimportant thing that he could have asked.
So, once again, before leaving the man behind, I repeated my words.
"I'm not in a relationship with her. Also, just grow some balls and ask her out if you like her instead of bothering me. Goodbye."
Walking away from Matthew who seemed to have issues closing his mouth, I got on with my day.