In the past few days, Molly had constantly been making her presence known in front of Little Freckles, whose eyes showed increasing signs of inner conflict. The maid who had previously injured herself had also been on the verge of speaking up. Molly knew that Little Freckles would likely succumb to her guilty conscience and come to reveal everything. So, she waited calmly for Anna to speak up.
However, Molly hadn't anticipated that Anna's struggle was genuine. After Adele brought a doctor to the scene, Anna was also called to the doctor's small house. As Molly had guessed, the swelling on Anna's cheek was indeed caused by the doctor's slap.
Upon seeing Anna, the doctor was enraged and struck her cheek heavily. The strength of an adult vampire was not something a human maid like Anna could resist. She was sent crashing to the floor, hitting a table along the way. The items on the table scattered to the ground, and her waist throbbed with pain from the impact.
When Anna grabbed the tablecloth as she fell, she felt her mouth tear open, certain that she could spit out a mouthful of blood at any moment. But she knew she couldn't do that. If the doctor smelled the blood, there was no way she could escape being fed on today.
She despised the feeling of being drained of blood; no human would enjoy it. It felt like being a fish pinned to a chopping board, watching helplessly as someone raised a knife to strike, while all it could do was feebly flop its tail.
As Anna was struck, a human maid standing nearby, already battered and bruised, showed a flicker of sympathy in her eyes, but she remained silent, standing in the corner like a doll.
The doctor stormed over, grabbed Anna's hair, and yanked her up like a rag doll.
"Anna, my dear Anna, how could you be so foolish? Why didn't you properly investigate Molly's master's identity? She's not like you. Her master isn't some useless, declining noble. Her master is immensely powerful. In a hundred years, I might only be fit to grovel at her feet. Because of your incompetence, I almost…"
The doctor didn't finish his sentence, but tightened his grip on her hair, forcing Anna to lift her swollen face, which now looked like a bloated bun. The doctor clicked his tongue twice and said, "Poor Anna, if only you had done your job properly, you wouldn't be treated like this."
Anna had actually done her research, otherwise, she wouldn't have tried so hard to make Molly fall into the doctor's trap. Among the three first-year maids, Anna had deliberately pushed Molly into the trap because she knew exactly who Molly's master was.
Anna's ability to protect so many human maids and deter the vampire maids from the servant quarters using the doctor's name proved she wasn't a fool. She had even extracted information about Molly's master from the vampire maids, discovering that Molly's master was a noble from one of the Thirteen Clans.
Given how haughty the White maid was as a servant, there was no way Miss Black from the Black family would allow anyone to taint her belongings. The doctor's actions would surely enrage Miss Black, leading to his punishment or even expulsion from the school.
That's why she did what she did.
But she didn't know where the doctor had gotten this information. From what she understood, the doctor wouldn't be interested in humans like them and would naturally regard Molly as the maid of a fallen noble. He had indeed thought so before.
Anna never imagined that Miss Black was so fond of Molly that she would personally visit the doctor's small house, under the guise of thanking him but with an underlying threat.
"I'm sorry, truly sorry... I'm just a maid; I couldn't possibly know who their masters are... It's my fault... Doctor, I'm sorry, it's all my fault..." Despite her suspicions, Anna quickly admitted all the blame in front of the doctor.
The doctor snorted, "I knew better than to expect too much from you lowly humans. But of course, how could a mere human maid like you know anything about her master?"
The doctor returned to the sofa and sat down, pondering for a long time before reverting to his usual gentle demeanor. "Anna, look at you. How did your face get so swollen? Quick, take her upstairs and treat her properly." A human maid complied and led Anna upstairs for treatment.
They wouldn't speak upstairs because the vampire's hearing was excellent, and the doctor downstairs could hear everything clearly. However, they could communicate with simple hand gestures. The maid pointed to Anna's swollen cheek, and Anna shook her head, prompting the maid to sigh in relief.
The maid gave Anna a complicated look, which confused her until the maid handed her a note. Anna unfolded it and read: "That maid's master came looking for the doctor. She seemed very concerned about the maid."
Anna stared at the note for a long time, then opened her mouth and swallowed it, leaving no trace. After treating her wounds, she went downstairs and left the doctor's small house. She kept waiting for the day Molly would be drained of blood. But as time passed, even the calmest person would start to feel troubled.
Especially since someone else was even more shaken than she was. The maid who had stabbed Molly pulled Anna aside at the end of the second-floor hallway, where no one else was around. Lowering her voice, the maid asked, "Anna... do we really have to do this? She... she's innocent."
"This is the only way to get rid of the doctor."
The maid struggled for a long time, unable to bear the guilt, and finally spoke up, "But... but Molly is innocent, isn't she? Didn't you say you wanted to protect us..."
Anna's pupils dilated slightly, her expression shifting as she remembered her promise to protect all the human maids.
She had protected the humans from the vampire maids. In reality, only Anna and the maid staying in the doctor's courtyard had been drained by the doctor. Before she came to this school, those maids were not only drained by the doctor but also by the vampire maids in the servant quarters. It was Anna who had protected them.
Today was Molly's second day of changing her bandages, and it was also the day the doctor decided to act. Molly should already be on her way to the doctor's small house. The maid clung to Anna's clothes, her eyes pleading, "And... and what if the doctor isn't held accountable, and instead, Molly has to face her master's wrath? What then..."
Anna couldn't bear to imagine such a scenario. The maid continued, "We... we should find another way, but don't send Molly... Molly is innocent. She just came of age, and she's a year younger than us! She's like a little sister to us!"
Clenching her teeth, Anna shook off the maid's hand and walked away without looking back. The maid called after her, "Anna, where are you going?!"
"I'm going to bring Molly back!"
Anna caught up to Molly in the end. When Molly saw Anna standing in front of her, she felt a sense of relief and smiled slightly, "What's the matter?" Molly, being devious, asked knowingly, her eyes gleaming with amusement as she looked at Anna.
Little Freckles had run all the way, still slightly out of breath. She grabbed Molly's sleeve, just as the maid had grabbed hers earlier. Molly had always known Anna was a good kid and wouldn't let her down. Look, now Little Freckles was standing right in front of her, stopping her from going any further.
Molly had almost been disappointed today. After all, Anna hadn't come to her, and it seemed she was determined to carry out her plan. Her intentions were good, but if the one being sacrificed wasn't herself but an ordinary human, it would undoubtedly be sending someone to their doom.
Adele was an exception. If she were an ordinary human and the doctor drained her blood, Adele would be furious and seek revenge on the doctor. But other students wouldn't act this way. They certainly wouldn't go to such lengths for a human maid. Look at the other human maids who had been drained of blood; they all had masters, but their masters didn't care at all, completely unmoved.
On one hand, their masters had already fallen, and even if they were angry, they couldn't oppose the doctor. On the other hand, in their masters' eyes, they were nothing more than disposable items, entirely insignificant.
But then again, even if Adele were angered and sought revenge on the doctor, the outcome would likely be inconsequential. Adele herself couldn't deal with the doctor. After all, she was just a newly-turned vampire, far from being a match for the doctor.
Even if she took the matter to the teachers, they wouldn't care because it wasn't Adele who was drained, just a human, and there was nothing to make a fuss about.
In other words, Anna's plan was doomed from the start. Apart from adding another victim, it wouldn't change anything. Perhaps decades later, when Adele became strong enough to pulverize the doctor, she might still remember today's humiliation and come back for revenge. But by then, the human maids would be old and frail, or most likely dead. Humans who were regularly drained of blood didn't live long.
Although vampires managed human health to some extent, it wasn't as regulated as blood donation in her previous life. They fed whenever they wanted, as long as it didn't affect young adults. As for the elderly... human blood became less palatable with age, so there was no point in keeping them alive for long.
By then, the doctor would have harmed countless human maids, and not even death would be enough to atone.
Logically, this was how things should have unfolded. But with Molly around, everything had changed. She was so powerful that she could defy the laws of this world, effortlessly reducing an adult, high-level vampire to ashes.
Molly had planned to see the doctor today to check if any human maids intended to ask her for help. By dawn, she would make the doctor bid farewell to the world, and perhaps let him enjoy the sunlight before he died.
But she hadn't expected Anna to stop her.