In the middle of the night, Shinichi felt the need to go to the bathroom, and on his way back, he heard coughs, and glancing in that direction, he realized it was coming from the vampire princess's room. " Yoruhime, are you doing alright?" He knocked on the door of her room to ask whether she was doing alright.
The vampire princess who was coughing at the time stopped and muttered, " What are you still doing up instead of sleeping?" She retorted with a question to which Shinichi muttered in response, " I needed to use the bathroom and on my way back from it, I heard coughing and following the direction, It led me to you which is why I'm asking whether you're alright."
Summarizing the situation to her, the vampire princess responded to Shinichi, " The coughs you heard weren't mine, but one of my attendants. She got injured, so I'm treating her. Now, head back to sleep; We have a long day tomorrow." Convinced by her explanation, he turned back but on the way back to his room, he subconsciously muttered, " Yoruhime told me she was treating one of her attendants, but why do I feel like something isn't quite right."
The vampire princess looked at her bloodied hands and muttered, " Hopefully, he believed me this time. I need to get him out of here before he realizes what's truly going on." She washed the blood stain off her hands and unable to sleep, she went for a walk outside her quarters.
On the way, she encountered Hayden. Looking at her fragile complexion, he lowered his garments and said, " Have a taste, Hime!" The vampire princess walked past him in response, but he seized her hand and she stopped. Hayden then asked, " Why won't you drink my blood?"
Not turning around, she muttered in response, " You know my condition quite well by now, don't you?"
…
" I cannot just consume any blood and you know it, Hayden. My body automatically rejects any kind of blood that's not compatible with mine, yours included." Hayden retorted and said, " That situation only occurred once. Who tells you it's going to happen again!"
The vampire princess stared at him and said, " You know deep down that even if I were to consume your blood, it wouldn't work, so just forget it." The vampire princess thought her commandant would understand her point and not push things further along the way, however, that didn't quite have the effect expected.
" I don't believe that we're incompatible." He gasped and continued, " We've known each other ever since we were very young and we have quite an affinity with each other, don't we?" Flashes flashed through her mind of their younger days together with Hayden, but she quickly brushed them off and said, " As you're so sure we're compatible, I'll prove to you that we're not."
Hayden was ready to accept the challenge. Lowering his posture a little, the vampire princess reached Hayden's neck but before she could reach him, she felt sick again and threw up blood on the spot. Hayden was shocked and as he looked at her, he asked, " Why? Just why is it, not me?"
The vampire princess retorted, " I warned you this would happen. I know you feel helpless and want to help me, but you should stop now, Hayden. This is for the best and besides, I don't want to consume blood if I can prevent it." Listening to her and recalling the recent events, Hayden asked, " Is that boy's blood more to your liking?"
She flinched at the mention of Shinichi. Hayden continued and said, " The reason you fell unwell earlier, was because of his blood?" She fell back into a corner and didn't know what to say. " Is his blood the one that's compatible with yours?" The vampire princess muttered to her commandant, " What if it was? What will you do, Hayden?"
Hayden hesitated before answering her question. " If that boy is needed for your survival, then why are you sending him away? Shouldn't you keep him by your side for your condition to be cured?"
Recalling how terrified Shinichi was when she told him of her identity as a vampire princess, she muttered, " I can't do that to him. I can't simply use him so that I can survive. The sole reason why I'm sending him away is just so that he can live a free life away from all this blood lust."
Before Hayden could say any more, the vampire princess turned up and left to return to her quarters. As she was leaving, Hayden subconsciously muttered, " Why are you willing not to have a seep of his blood? Could it be that you caught feelings for him? Would that be why you're acting that way?" Hayden clenched his fists in anger, just having these thoughts cross his mind.
The following morning, as Shinichi was eating what was brought as breakfast, the vampire princess was nowhere to be seen. " Where's Yoruhime and why didn't she join me for breakfast?" The house servants were surprised to hear Shinichi address the vampire princess by her full name. One of the house servants responded and said, " Hime is attending to some things at the moment, so she won't be joining you."
As the house servants walk away, Shinichi subconsciously wonders, " She's attending to some matters at the moment? Could it be that right about now she's—--------?" Shinichi tried imagining Yoruhime sucking some vampire's blood and brushed his thoughts aside immediately.
" What am I thinking? Why does it bother me just thinking she could be sucking some blood out there?" Shinichi subconsciously thought. " She's a vampire, so it's natural that she'd need to consume blood in order to survive, so why am I bothered by the fact?"
Shinichi kept eating his breakfast, but he didn't enjoy it all that much. As he finished his breakfast at long last, he encountered Yoruhime outside under a parasol. Seeing him, she asked, " Are you done with your meal?"
He nodded in response as he stared at her. The vampire princess felt awkward being stared at and asked, " Why are you staring at me? Is everything alright?" Nodding in response once again, he muttered what was on his mind straightforwardly, " At breakfast earlier, I was wondering why you didn't join me."
" Don't you already know the answer to that?" She turned around slightly with her parasol and said, " I'm a vampire, remember? I need something else aside from food to survive." Shinichi's expression turned sour as he heard her response. For some reason, it pained her to see Shinichi's changed expression.
" If you're done with your questioning, shall we be on our way?" The vampire princess walked up front and as Shinichi followed right behind her, he subconsciously thought, " I was only having random thoughts about why she didn't show up for breakfast, but I didn't know she would admit it if I was to ask her about it."
The vampire princess on the other hand was subconsciously thinking, " The reason why I didn't join him for breakfast was so that I wouldn't be tempted to have a sip of his blood. As he already hates being around vampires, I didn't want him to hate me further which is why I avoided eating at the same table as him."
After several hours of walking, they reached a village titled " Freedom". " We've reached our destination. This is where you'll be staying starting today." The vampire princess told Shinichi who asked, " Are you getting rid of me?"
Looking into his eyes, she felt her heart sink at the sound of the question. " What are you talking about now? I brought you here so that you'd be safe." She turned her gaze away from him as she responded.
A group of people gathered around them. The eldest among the group expressed her joy upon seeing the vampire princess visiting them. " Hime, you haven't come to visit for a very long time. What have you been doing?" The vampire princess slightly grinned and said, " Sorry, sorry, I'll come to visit more often from now on, I promise."
" Please do, because we truly miss you." The lady noticed Shinichi and asked, " Who is that with you?" Shinichi was overcrowded by the people staring at him from head to toe. Retorting, she responded, " This is Shinichi Izumi, and starting today, he'll be living among you."
The vampire princess glanced at Shinichi to introduce himself before them and so he did. The people at Freedom Village seemed to like Shinichi already and were impatient to have him as an addition to their group, especially the younger kids.
" Take good care of him for me, will you?" She instructed them which they all promised to do just as she had instructed them. They promised to take better care of Shinichi and hearing their acknowledgment, Yoruhime was relieved and said, " Thank you for this. I'll be on my way now."
As she turned to leave, Shinichi hung up on her garment. Meeting her cold and indifferent eyes, Shinichi immediately let go, and using her flight skills, she flew away from " Freedom Village."
On the way back to her domain, she subconsciously thought, " Just now, why did he stop me? Did he have something he wanted to say to me?"
Back at " Freedom Village", the people welcomed Shinichi aboard and asked him various questions, especially about his relationship with the vampire princess. Shinichi's response to all those questions was, " We met coincidentally and she offered to help; There's nothing more to it."
At night, when most of the children and adults had gone to sleep, Shinichi was outside training while having his father's gear on for better results. One of the children caught his training and was mesmerized as he watched him in secret. At some point, Shinichi stopped and as he turned around, he caught the kid who was watching him in secret. Having been caught, he apologizes, " Sorry, Shinichi, I didn't want to spy on you just now. I just wanted to watch, sorry!"
Shinichi slightly grinned and said, " If you wanted to watch me practice, you should have come closer instead of staying all the way there. You would have been able to see better that way." Taking Shinichi's words as an invitation, the boy advanced toward him and sat somewhere so that he could watch him practice without being a disturbance.
Shinichi went on with his training for hours. When he was done practicing, the boy observing him was already fast asleep. " He must have been pretty much tired," Shinichi muttered silently as he carried the boy back to his room. As he turned to leave, the boy unconsciously grabbed his hand, preventing him from leaving.
Sitting down, he muttered, " If I wasn't an only child, I would have had a brother his age." Shinichi felt his pupils getting heavier and heavier. Before he knew it, he fell asleep in the boy's bed right next to him.
As morning rose the following day, the eldest of the children came to wake Quentin but found Shinichi sleeping soundly by his side. She found them so cute sleeping that she decided to give them a few minutes before waking them.
A few minutes later, Shinichi was the first one to wake, and seeing the room he was in, he muttered, " I must have fallen asleep here last night."
" Good morning, Shinichi! Did you have a good night's sleep?" He raised his eyebrows to meet Clarissa's gaze on him. Retorting, he said, " I brought Quentin back to his room last night, but when I was about to leave, he held on to me and I ended up sleeping here."
Listening to Shinichi's explanation, Clarissa commented, " He must have sleepwalked again." Taken by the comment, Shinichi asked, " Sleepwalking? What do you mean?"
Clarissa explained to Shinichi that Quentin had trouble sleeping alone and would always sleepwalk in the middle of the night. Shinichi felt saddened for him and thought of a way to help him. " When I walked up on you two earlier, you sounded like siblings sleeping together, so I didn't have the heart to wake you."
" Like siblings?" Shinichi pondered on what Clarissa had said and muttered as a result, " Maybe I should sleep in Quentin's room for some time until his condition is cured."
" That'll be so kind of you to do that." Clarissa said before adding, " At least one condition will be cured."
Shinichi was alerted by the second statement and asked Clarissa, " What did you mean by, " At least one condition will be cured"? Is there someone else undergoing a rare condition like Quentin?"
Clarissa thought she had said more than she should. Standing up, she said, " Wake Quentin up and join us for brunch." Clarissa departed the room in a jiffy before he could ask her what exactly she meant by her last statement.
Shinichi lightly stroked Quentin's hair, causing him to finally awake. Seeing Shinichi in his room, he asked, " Shinichi? Did you come to wake me up?"
Grinning at him slightly, he responded, " Not exactly. I kind of slept here last night when I brought you back to your room." Shinichi had to tell him how he fell asleep right after he concluded his training and how he brought him back to his room and so forth.
Moments later, Quentin and Shinichi joined the others for brunch. As the others were enjoying their brunch, Shinichi's focus was solely on Clarissa who felt awkward being stared at.
As the brunch came to an end, Clarissa quickly escaped before Shinichi could ask her any further questions. Meanwhile, at the same time, in the north of " Freedom Village", a group of people in black appeared, bombarding the place with missiles.
Yoruhime's clansmen showed up before the group of men. Standing before them, one of them asked, " Why are you the only ones who came? Where's your princess?"
Lucien, one of Yoruhime's commandants said proudly, " We won't be needing Hime's assistance to beat the crap out of you, Vampire Hunters."