Sofia awoke to an unfamiliar ceiling. She tried to prop herself up, but pain radiated from her stomach to her limbs, causing her to fall back down on the bed. To her right was a hole in the wall, where a window probably used to be, leading outside. She gazed through the hole and noticed the sun at its zenith, beginning its slow descent.
"How long..." she muttered.
Although the room she slept in last night wasn't the best, the one she found herself in right now was definitely worse. Large holes could be found on the ceiling, and water puddles from last night's rain stood directly below them. The walls threatened to fall down at any moment. This building was definitely abandoned.
She scanned the rest of the room and saw a familiar young man sitting on what seemed to be the only dry corner, munching on some dry meat while observing her.
"Just a couple of hours," the young man said after swallowing.
She stared at him, unable to understand the situation. She knew full well that her actions against him would warrant retaliation, yet she seemed safe. "Why?" she blurted out.
"Instinct... mostly," the young man said after thinking about it.
Sofia was stunned. What kind of reason was this? At first, she thought he wanted revenge for her theft or maybe information on the gang, but he did it mainly on a whim. Sofia didn't believe the answer.
"Why?" she repeated.
The young man looked at her with a gentle smile. That smile made her feel shame.
"WHY!?"
The word left her throat, pain shot up from her chest, and she started coughing. The more she coughed, the more pain she felt. It took her a while to regain her calm and for the pain to subside. During the event, the young man didn't seem concerned and did not try to help her. The contradiction between his expression and his lack of action made her bewildered.
She laid back down on the bed, and the young man finally spoke.
"I'm Felix, what's your name."
Remembering the previous day's event, Sofia turned her head away from him in shame, a slight blush on her face.
"Sofia," she murmured to the wall.
"Now then, it seems that your charm isn't intentional. Is that a part of your bloodline?"
Sofia turned to face Felix, her earlier blush gone. Instead, her complexion seemed to turn ghastly. She calmed herself down using deep breaths, Felix patiently waited for her answer.
"Why would you think I even possess a bloodline?" she asked.
"You're a noble, aren't you? Every noble possesses a bloodline."
Sofia froze but tried desperately not to show it on her face. Her voice trembling slightly as she said.
"Some commoners also have bloodlines. It doesn't make me a noble."
"So you do admit to possessing a bloodline," he said with a grin.
Her expression sunk. He had tricked her. She deliberated whether to tell him, only to resign herself to her fate.
"Just a defective one..."
"Just because you cannot control it right now doesn't mean you cannot learn how to."
On her face flashed many emotions as she recalled memories of her childhood. With tears in her eyes, she wailed her feelings at him.
"Do you think I didn't try?! Do you think I enjoyed being called defective?! That every woman would scorn me and call me a slut when my charm would activate by itself! No, I tried! I did everything I could, and yet nothing worked! Even using an artifact to control it didn't make a difference!"
Although her face was a mess, Felix still found her beautiful. Obviously, her charm was now in full effect. He approached her and gently took her in his arms. Sofia fought back, thinking that he was now a victim of charm. She fought and struggled, but Felix's strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her close to his chest. She felt powerless to escape. Sofia finally let herself go.
She buried her tears-smeared face into his chest and cried like she had never before, venting all her pent-up emotions. Felix accepted them all while gently stroking her back. Felix laid her back on the bed when she felt too exhausted to cry. Ashamed, Sofia curled up on the bed like a child, hiding her face with the sheets. The sight made Felix smile.
"It's scent," Felix said after a long silence.
"What do you mean?" Sofia asked back, her voice muffled by the sheets.
"I mean the way you charm others. It's scent, or more precisely, a type of pheromone. It probably activates depending on your mental state while experiencing heightened emotions like fear, sorrow, or even arousal. While you were crying, your charm was on full display."
"You could resist it?" she asked, popping her head out of the covers.
"Once you know how it works, you can find ways around it. Tell me, what's your bloodline?"
"A snake..."
"Makes sense. Most snakes are poisonous, and pheromones could be considered poison."
"Impossible!" she said. "Everyone in my family, even my brother, was able to wield poison except me! That's why I was considered defective!"
"Just because you cannot use the same poison as them doesn't mean you don't have poison. Besides, it's not rare for even family members with the same bloodline to possess different abilities."
Sofia stayed silent for a while, ruminating on this new knowledge. Indeed, it wasn't rare for even blood-related siblings who possess the same bloodline to manifest their bloodlines in different ways. Take the werewolf bloodline: Some might have a heightened sense of smell, sharper claws, stronger jaws, etc. It is rare for an individual to manifest all bloodline traits simultaneously.
Bloodlines are usually classified into compatibility tiers, sometimes called the depth of the bloodline. The more compatible one is with one's bloodline, the more power one can extract from it.
Most of the time, one's compatibility is innate and decided at birth, yet sometimes, a genuinely talented individual can tap deeper into their bloodline, elevating their compatibility. Such examples are scarce.
As the name implies, bloodlines come from one's blood. As generations come and go, most bloodlines become diluted with time. Those who continue to make a conscious effort to keep their bloodlines strong are usually called nobles.
They do so by gathering individuals with similar bloodlines and using selective marriages to further strengthen their bloodlines, thus forming large clans. Bloodlines, by their very existence, can decide one's status in a clan and, by extension, society at large.
Those whose bloodline is too thin to manifest are simply called commoners and form most of the population. Distinction based on bloodline is expected in the kingdom and forms the basis of its class system, with royalty at the top and the common man at the bottom.
As such, it is standard for large clans to hold in contempt members who awaken to an inferior bloodline. They cannot be used to further strengthen the clan and thus are treated as useless.
Knowing this much, Felix didn't pry further into her origins. They weren't that close, to begin with. Everything he did at the moment was merely his whim, although he did have an objective.
"You mentioned a brother several times. Is he here with you?" Felix asked.
As she withdrew from her thought at the mention of her brother, Sofia's expression grew ghastly. Ignoring the pain, Sofia jumped out of bed in a panic before rushing out of the room, only to run straight into Felix, who had blocked her path.
"Let me go!" she said, unable to free herself from his grip.
"Not before you calm down."
She began trashing, even biting and clawing at him to free herself. Exasperated, Felix threw her onto the bed before mounting her, pinning her hand on the bed with his.
Tears fell once again from her eyes, accentuating her beauty. As she cried, she began pleading for freedom. Felix was taken aback by the current shift and asked, "What happened?"
She stared at him, eyes filled with water as she said softly, "He's going to die... they're going to kill him."