"Elisha," Xiao Xun did not look surprised.
"I was expecting a bigger reaction after you stabbed yourself last time," she laughed. "On the other hand, we haven't met in a long time. Not much of a family man, bro? you hurt me."
He looked around the luxurious office, where she sat with a sense of ownership. "I see you got over it very well."
"You can say that," She smiled at Iris "You replaced your old dog with this one? I didn't think you liked females."
"Hey! I don't know who do you think you are but-"
[This girl really needs to learn when to shut up.]
Before she could finish the sentence, Elisha snapped her fingers and a man came out from under the desk in front of her, attacking Iris.
"What the fuck!" She tried to dodge, which only made her fall off the couch miserably. The blond man began to bite her brutally, piercing her skin.
"Your dog is so weak, big brother. You shouldn't let it walk around without a leash."
Admund didn't waste time responding, the dog-like man didn't let go of her flesh even when Edmund stabbed him with a dagger in his back, it's hard to tell if he doesn't feel the pain or if he simply doesn't care.
It was completely one-sided, extreme, disproportional.
The epitome of excessive revenge.
She wasn't really angry, she wanted to show control and get a bargaining chip.
"What do you want in exchange for her life?" When seeing it wasn't helping, he sat back down and said directly, completely oblivious to the man tearing Iris apart.
Making a scene won't help.
"Whatever the vice president wants- you guys out, including your other dog." She gestured vaguely something to the man and he went back under the table.
Her ability was terrifying, especially since Xiao Xun did not know what were its limits.
"Why not just hypnotize us? What's all the trouble for?"
"I'd love to do that, brother, but unfortunately I don't know your names, the real ones at least."
"Let's be real," She put her elbows on the desk, Cecil couldn't help but imagine what the man was doing under that table. "I know you're not really 'Edmund La Mort', otherwise all these twists and bends would have been unnecessary. I don't really care about either of them-" She shook her head at the unconscious Iris "-But you are dangerous, I don't want any vampire in my utopia."
"Who are you?" As long as he manages to hear the specific name he will be able to look it up in the world book-
"None of your concerns, but I know what you are, and your unnatural, unfitted to this world magical being is certainly not my 'older brother'."
[How does she know we are not of this world?! How is it possible? This must be reported!]
"You're a parasite vampire, you took over this body, right?"
[Never mind.]
'She still gave us something useful.'
He wore a frightened expression, a little worse than his perfectly refined theatrical abilities. Now, after all, he acts as the inexperienced Edmund would. "how? Just how do you know that?"
"I've got my ways."
[Yeah, that sounds so useful.]
'Can't you think a little? She saw I was a vampire but she couldn't recognize Cecil was one.'
'System, search the world book for anything about vampires with hypnotic powers and their overall ranks, I want to check something.'
★
In the end, they came to an understanding.
The thing that was most critical to Xiao Xun right now is to not leaving the academy while not breaking Edmund's character. For that, he made a lot of sacrifices.
According to Edmund's character, he would even sign a servitude contract to save a friend, let alone a transfer document. Xiao Xun regretted a bit that he had grew his character in this world to be similar to the one of Saint Mary just to bully Cecil, this gave him much less room to to twist things.
Although Xiao Xun suspected that the signature was not as simple as proof of his approval and more like the soul-bonding strange board that the contestants signed in the city square, there were not many choices.
Any further violation of character will lead to mission failure.
"I want your real name, not the stolen identity crap." After a long debate, Elisha's posture was already that of a winner. She spoke with absolute confidence, there is no way she can lose with all the cards in her hand.
Xiao Xun's calm face was flawless, only his excruciatingly slow hand movements were an indication of his inner turmoil. 'System, how long's it taking you to read? Any fucking results?' If he could shout his thoughts he would have done so already.
He has already changed his search request, the most critical thing now is to know if the contract can be broken.
[That is a lot of information, okay? Asking me every second does not help.]
Xiao Xun has already made up his mind to send the system to a speed reading course once he gets the long retirement he signed for. According to the contract, which turns out to be very dubious, he will likely have several hundred years of peace after this, he consoled himself to no avail.
[Here, I found this!]
Thank god.
[Any hypnotic contract can be broken by the creator of the contract, a group whose magical power exceeds the magic invested in the contract, or a vampire of higher rank than the creator of the contract.]
Without further questioning, Xiao Xun signed his real name.
[Are you sure, host? Where would you find-]
'Cecil.'
This is the last word he exchanged with his system, seeing with inexplicable calm the letters forming his original name he had just signed glowing faintly on the page.
Author's note:
Hi! Thank you so much all for the support this book is getting.
We're close to finishing the first arc, so I wanted to consult with you about the options for the second arc! If I see that more than one is popular I'll eventually do them too.
1. The sunny college student turns emo mc×the murderous stalker turns into a murderous ghost ml.
2. Failed obsessive singer mc×desperate manager ml.
3. Spiritual stone mc×blind in one eye, fool with strong spiritual roots from the mortal world ml.
4. Arrogant and cruel fashion designer mc×insecure model with body image problems ml.
6. Already married, abused omega mc×the first beta prince of the empire ml.
Let me know in the comments what are your preferences!