"Anna, is there something you want to say?"
Molly's tone was cold, but she didn't notice. She still felt like a patient, guiding teacher, encouraging Anna to speak the words she was holding back. Anna took a moment to steady her breathing before finally speaking, "M-Molly, you mustn't go!"
"Why?"
Molly didn't ask where, only why. Anna hesitated, then pressed her lips together before revealing all her thoughts. She spoke quickly, as if afraid that if she hesitated, she would waver and let Molly walk into the trap, offering her blood to the doctor.
But after all Anna said, Molly only responded, "Thank you, but I still have to go."
Anna's eyes widened, and her voice grew agitated. She likely thought Molly had been charmed by the doctor during their brief encounters and couldn't be reasoned with, assuming she was lying.
If it were someone else, it might have been possible. The doctor didn't rely solely on a gentle demeanor to win over the human maids. The vile and despicable doctor employed the vampires' prized mental magic, subtly influencing his words with persuasion.
This was a shameless tactic. Most humans had no resistance to vampire hypnosis, and his magic had a significant effect on human maids. Unless the doctor lifted the spell himself, only a direct blow could break someone out of the hypnotic state.
It was likely that Anna had encountered such situations when she first joined the school but had been unable to dissuade the hypnotized humans. Perhaps the maid now following the doctor had been deceived similarly, unable to escape once she was ensnared.
"Why would you go?! I've told you, he's only after your blood! There's no such thing as equality, no such thing as a gentle doctor! He's a liar! He just wants you to willingly offer your blood because it tastes better that way!"
Anna grew desperate, rapidly spewing out a torrent of words. "You'll regret it if you go now!"
But Molly calmly placed a hand on the sleeve Anna was clutching and said, "I won't."
Anna looked up, her frustration clear, but under Molly's unnervingly steady gaze, she slowly calmed down. Molly continued, "I'm not going to give him my blood; I'm going to kill him."
Her words were so absurd that Anna momentarily thought she had misheard. "What..." Molly's eyes were incredibly calm as she reiterated, "I'm going to kill him."
Anna, too shocked to react, released Molly's sleeve and took a step back before grabbing it again, more forcefully this time. "That's impossible. Do you think he's like those low-level vampires in the servant quarters?! He's not someone you can easily deal with. He's powerful, much stronger than any vampire in the servant quarters, not someone a human can take on! Molly, listen to me! Go back now, find your master, and have her protect you—she's very fond of you!"
"You might not know, but your master went to see that doctor! She went for your sake!"
Molly indeed didn't know. Adele hadn't mentioned it to her, and she hadn't paid attention to Adele during school hours. With so many vampires around, trying to pinpoint Adele's scent and track her movements constantly would have been too difficult, even for Molly.
Unless she did nothing else but follow Adele's scent all day, it might have been possible.
What was Adele thinking?
Molly couldn't understand Adele, nor could she fathom why someone as proud as Adele would go to the doctor. But right now, the focus wasn't on Adele; it was on Anna and the doctor. Molly reassured Anna, "Perhaps the doctor is unbeatable for others, but I can do it."
"I will kill the doctor."
After saying this, Molly gently removed Anna's hand and walked towards the doctor's small house. Anna remained where she was for a moment, then bit her lip and reluctantly followed. Molly had decided not to wait until dawn to kill the doctor; she would do it now, knowing that she had a witness.
Anna would stand by her unconditionally. Even if other vampires came to investigate, she would testify that she had been with Molly the whole time. Of course, Molly doubted the school authorities would believe a human maid could kill a doctor. Even if they investigated, they wouldn't bother questioning the human maids in the servant quarters.
As Molly approached the doctor's small house, she noticed something amiss when she was still eight hundred meters away. The night wind carried a faint scent of blood, but it wasn't human blood—it was vampire blood. And this scent was all too familiar to Molly. Her pupils dilated slightly as she recognized Adele's scent.
Instinctively, Molly used her full speed and in an instant arrived on the second floor of the doctor's small house. The place looked completely different from before, with the second floor in ruins. Two vampires lay on the ground, one of them the doctor, the other... Adele. The only one still standing was the doctor's human maid.
Molly's eyes widened in shock as she instinctively ran toward Adele.
She didn't know what had happened, but it was clear Adele was severely injured. Her abdomen had been pierced by the doctor's claws, and the wound had already dried up, no longer bleeding. Molly knelt beside Adele, cradling her in her arms. Adele was still conscious, though her gaze was unfocused. But she still looked at Molly, blood dripping from her mouth, her voice barely a whisper, like the dying cry of a bird.
Molly leaned in to catch her words. Adele was saying, "Molly... run... he, he wants to harm you..."
Time rewound to before all this happened. Adele should have been in class. She knew today was the day Molly would change her bandages; Molly had told her in advance. She had thought that if the wounds fully healed, Molly wouldn't have to see that doctor again.
Adele genuinely didn't like that guy, even though he seemed to have taken in a pitiful maid. That human maid looked completely broken, her eyes empty, as if all hope had been lost. But perhaps being with that doctor was better for her?
Even if the doctor seemed like a kind, protective person, Adele didn't want Molly to have any ties with him. Adele had an instinctive dislike for the doctor, though she couldn't explain why.
Recently, she had made friends with two fallen nobles, whose maids were also human. This gave Adele a sense of camaraderie. The two young ladies seemed to realize that Adele was friendly with them because they, like her, had human maids. They unconsciously picked up human phrases and would even ask their maids about interesting things among humans to share with Adele.
Today was no different. The two young ladies stood on the outskirts of Adele's entourage, anxious to get closer. As fallen nobles, befriending a young lady of the Thirteen Clans was an unparalleled honor. But if Adele found them dull and stopped talking to them, they would be ostracized by their classmates.
One of them, in her nervousness, blurted out something she had heard from her maid, "Lady Adele, you might not know this, but there's a rumor among the human maids."
Adele was intrigued, curious if Molly had also heard about it. She waved the girl over. "What rumor?"
The girl was a little flustered by the attention but quickly replied, "It's about the school doctor. They say he's particularly kind to humans and treats both human and vampire maids equally."
Adele had heard this rumor before. The girl's innocent delivery made her chuckle, "I've heard that too. I didn't expect the school doctor to be that kind of vampire. It's good news for the human maids, I suppose. If they get hurt while working, they can go to him. And sometimes even low-level vampires get injured, so it's nice to have a doctor around."
The noble ladies surrounding Adele began a new round of discussion based on the rumor. Just then, Gordon happened to pass by. Hearing them talk about how gentle and fair the doctor was, she couldn't help but laugh, "What are you all talking about? Gentle to humans? Don't be ridiculous. That sounds like something a fallen vampire would say to trick humans into willingly offering their blood. You all are far too naive. If you weren't vampires but humans, you'd all be easily deceived fools."
Gordon's real target was Adele, but after hearing her words, Adele suddenly stood up from her seat. As Gordon had said, she had believed the doctor was a vampire who was kind to humans because she herself was that way. But on reflection, there was indeed another possibility.
She wasn't sure which category the doctor fell into, but she didn't want to take any chances with Molly. The thought of Molly offering her neck to another vampire before being fed upon by herself made her tremble with anger. Adele had no desire to stay in class any longer and decided to leave immediately.
Gordon called after her, "Black, where are you going? Class is about to start!"
"I'm not feeling well. I'm taking the rest of the class off."
Adele's voice was decisive, though her excuse was odd. Not feeling well? A young lady of the Thirteen Clans, with incredible self-healing abilities, could she even get sick?!