It didn’t take long for me to catch up with the rest of my classmates; I was forced to take a test though. After each break the students have to take tests to see if they studied during break. For me those tests were piece of cake; I finished a one hour test in 20 minutes because the writing tools here suck. You are supposed to finish the test in less than an hour but there aren’t many people who can do it. I’ve known some stupid people and even they would be able to finish this poor excuse for a test in one hour. Honestly, the teachers waste too much time; what they teach us in one hour the teachers in my previous life could teach us in 30 minutes or even less.

March arrived without any problems. Maria still helps me train and she even helped me complete my silent flash grenades. While I was staying in Maria’s room a strange rumor started spreading and somehow all the students think I ‘m the most powerful student here. I don’t really like to stand out and I hate the people looking at me like I will kill them if they get near me; thank god that Jaden and Saya aren’t afraid of me. The rumor spread when the students saw the aftermath of the crystal explosion and because of that some students tried to fight me and it didn’t end well for them.

Now this is a good day; it’s Friday which means a letter for Liliana should arrive today; that letter contains information about the demon we are getting and she promised she will tell me too.

Well shit… So much for expectation, school is over and nobody came to tell me about the letter or the demon.

“Alex!”

I was about to exit the school building when I heard Maria calling me. When Maria called my name all the students in the hall turned to face her; usually when Maria calls a student in means trouble.

“Is it here?”

“Yes, it arrived a few minutes ago; the headmistress has it.”

A few minutes ago I was in the classroom trying to teach Jaden math so I must have missed the courier.

“What are you waiting for, let’s go!”

“Wha…?”

I took Maria’s arm and dragged her to Liliana’s office; I wonder what the other students thought when they saw that. At least now I gave them a good reason to start a rumor.

I hurried to Liliana’s office. When I arrived I opened the door in a hurry. Liliana was reading a letter, maybe it was the THAT letter.

“Is that it?”

“Most people would apologize for barging in first but whatever. Take a seat.”

I sat on the couch and took some of the sweets Liliana had on the table, I guess she was expecting me.

“There’s a lot of unusual secrecy, they are telling us to wait until tomorrow until someone will come to tell me the details. It’s a load of bullshit.”

Well, I don’t know what I expected; no normal person would give away so much information, at least now we have a date.

“And I really hoped I would get some information about this demon.”

“Tomorrow is a free day; you can stick around if you want.”

“I don’t know if it will be okay for me to be there tomorrow.”

“Even if you are told to leave, that doesn’t mean you can’t sneak in again.”

“I guess I would do that if I’m kicked out. Then it’s settled, Maria I will be sleeping with you tonight.”

“Do what you want.”

After giving me the cold shoulder she left the room. Why is she so mad at me?

“Is she mad at you?”

“We were holding arms on the way here. Well, I was holding her arm but she didn’t resist and I wasn’t forcing her.”

“Just because she is not resisting it doesn’t make it right.”

“It was just a prank, it’s not like I was raping her.”

“I don’t think that you can use that term when talking about Maria; I think that she would accept it.”

“So sex’s fine but holding hands or arms isn’t; solid logic.”

“A maiden’s heart is complicated and Maria’s is much worse; give her time.”

“Oh well… I guess I can apologize.”

That night I apologized to Maria for what I did and I told her that I really wanted to hold arms with her. She forgave me surprisingly quick.

Saturday morning I had to explain to Jaden the reason I took Maria’s arm and dragged her off; I left the part about a demon aside though.

After a few hours a single knight entered the school grounds. The knight was wearing heavy armor from head to toe; I couldn’t even see his face because of that helmet. My automatic scan was blocked…guess I will be doing this the hard way then. I gathered all my magic in my eyes and scanned the armor again: Paladin Armor, steel plated silver armor, magically enchanted offering high resistance to all forms of magic. He also had a spear made from the same alloy, which has the ability to increase the user’s attack speed, really interesting. That explains why it takes so much magic to get a read on that guy; now that he’s here it’s sneaking time.

The knight was greeted by Liliana at the school building’s entrance and went to her office. I have a feeling that the knight may have noticed me while I was scanning him in the courtyard.

The stairs are behind me and one of the windows is open so I have two ways to bail if I get discovered. I leaned on a wall next to the door; my hearing is one a different level compared to most people so if I concentrate a little I will be able to hear them talking.

“As we discussed, the rare demon will arrive in six days, have the cage prepared by then.”

“I understand your conditions but we do not possess magic ink of such quality, it will be impossible for us to complete the inscriptions.”

What is Liliana talking about? Inscriptions are used for enchantments; does the prison room need to be enchanted against that demon?

I don’t understand what that knight is talking about; looks like Liliana kept some things from me after all.

“Is there no way to delay their arrival?”

“No, the paladins are already on their way.”

“Maria, can we arrange a shipment of magic ink to be delivered?”

“I’m sorry headmistress, we don’t have enough time.”

“Miss Liliana, the paladins will not be responsible for the damages the demons will cause if you can’t contain it.”

“Contain…Headmistress; we may be able to use a substitute.”

Maria, please don’t say you are thinking about my blood. Please!

“Alex was able to use his blood to activate Oculus; there is a chance that his blood will be powerful enough.”

Maria, is this why you forgave me last night, is this payback?”

“Alex, I know you are listening; could you come inside?”

Well shit. Next time something important happens I’m staying in her office; she doesn’t give a fuck about my attempts to sneak so I’m not going to give a fuck about her attempts keep important things private.

I entered the room whit a pissed off face. When the paladin saw me he took his spear and pointed it at me. This guy thinks he scares me but both Maria and Liliana know what I’m capable of. Since the guy wasn’t taking me seriously I took the chance and disarmed him in a second.

Liliana waved her hand in my direction; she probably wants to show me something. I walked past the paladin and came in front of Liliana’s desk. She gave me a vial. The scan revealed that the ink in this vial is two times more powerful than the magic ink Liliana used when she taught me Oculus.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“What do you think?”

“You certainly don’t have something as powerful as this here.”

“I need to compare this with your blood. If your blood is stronger than that ink it will sink to the bottom of the vial.”

I activated Black Blood, cut my fingertip with a dagger and let the blood drop into the vial. A single drop is enough, now we have to wait. Compared to magic ink my Black Blood had a red tint. It looks like my Black Blood sunk to the bottom of the vial with great difficulties.

“This will do the trick, thanks Alex.”

“If you excuse me I will return to the capital.”

The paladin took his spear and left in a hurry.

“I wonder what face he made when you disarmed him.”

“Bewildered maybe?”

“I’m sure he didn’t expect to find a person who could disarm a paladin.”

“Are paladins such a big deal?”

“The paladins are soldiers trained by the Church to kill demons and magicians. The most annoying part is that they only take orders from the Church, not even the king can order them around.”

“It’s fine as long as they don’t start killing people randomly.”

“Alex, we have to finish the inscriptions before the demon arrives.”

“OK, I will help you; it’s not like I have a choice.”

The next day I went to help Maria and Liliana. The cell we were supposed to reinforce was in the basement. Apparently the inscriptions will be used to reinforce the cell to make it resistant to magic.

Near Liliana was a bowl, a pretty big one, I hope I don’t need to fill that with my blood.

“Alex, I need you to fill this bowl with blood so we can begin.”

“Maria, hold this.”

I gave Maria the bracelet I keep on my right hand. After she caught it she put it on and she fell down.

“What happened, my body feels heavy? Is this a training bracelet?”

“Yes, it was something Kraft gave to me.”

After Maria got up she took off the bracelet and put it in one of her pocket. Oh well, objective complete.

I cut my wrist in order to fill the bowl. Some people have trouble healing their wounds while I had trouble keeping it open. Maria and Liliana didn’t let me see the inscriptions, even vampires show some gratitude.

I stayed with Liliana and Maria until they finished. Apparently it will take at least another day to finish. Liliana told me that the residual magic in my blood speeds up the process. The faster the process the less blood they need to use.

I’ve been spending six days helping only to find out that the demon will arrive on the seventh day. Now I am somewhere I’ve not been for a long time, the dorm’s rooftop. Maria wanted to sleep alone so I will have to sleep in my room again.

“It’s been a while since you came here.”

It’s been a while since I last talked to Mir; good to see that she still comes here.

“True, it’s been a while. I have something to ask you, do you know anything about the paladins or the demon that is supposed to arrive?”

“The paladins are just soldiers brainwashed by the Church, in one word they are marionettes. There’s nothing I can tell you about the demon; more importantly are you okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“You look a little pale.”

“Yeah, it’s just anemia, I will live.”

“I think you should go to bed.”

“OK mom.”

Oh well, it’s not like I had anything better to do; I guess that using half a litre of blood everyday for the past five days really worn me out. Tomorrow is supposed to be the big day, sleeping a little more than usual might be a good idea.

Saturday arrived. In the morning I helped Maria carry some stuff to the storage room. On my way back to Liliana’s office I saw four paladins and someone in the middle them.

When the paladins passed by us I saw a girl with white, short hair, entrancing red eyes and pale white skin. She was wearing rags. Her hands, legs and neck were chained. The girl looked like she was about twelve years old. Let’s see if I can scan her: Name: Unknown, Race: True Vampire, Age: Unknown, Threat Level: Unknown........WHAT THE FUCK? There should be no such thing but it is. In front of me there is a demon that is far superior to me. A little vampire girl that can eradicate me is chained right in front of me. The scan only compares our peak strengths; even if she is weakened the scan would calculate her true power.

The girl made eye contact with me and then leaped at me, biting my neck. When we made eye contact I left like she was trying to look into my soul, it was a strange feeling. The force of the attack knocked me down. I was still a little anemic so she can’t suck my blood that easily; the interesting thing is that she also sucks my magic away.

“ALEX!”

Activating Black Blood now will only help her and my base strength is not enough to push her away. I think I have another thing to worry about, something was wrong with my body.

“Don’t just stand there, get her off him!”

The paladins tried to pull her away from me, a difficult task considering that she is holding me tightly. Since Black Blood is out of the question I have to go old school by using external body enchantment.

I activated body enchantment and pushed her away. My body was acting weird, I started shaking and my vision blurred for a second.

“Alex, are you all right?”

“Yeah I’m…”

Am I seeing double? I was seeing the little vampire and at the same time the adult version of her? I can clearly see her and at the same time I can see her mature version, it’s like I’m seeing two scenarios at the same time.

“What are you looking at?”

“I am looking at the vampire.”

I pointed at the adult version of the girl. When the girl saw me pointing at her; her facial expression changed and she stopped resting. I don’t know why but I think she was scared of me.

“You are mine now.”

Those were the last words the vampire said before she was taken to her cell. Those words echoed in my head, there was something about what she said that made me shiver.

“Hey, did you hear what I said?”

Apparently Maria was talking with me, strange; I didn’t notice.”

“What’s wrong?”

“You have to lie down; if she tried to make you one of her minions I have no power to stop her.”

“Wait a second.”

It’s been a while since I scanned my body. OK so…… Well shit, I have vampire AIDS. That bitch injected a bit of her blood into me and now it’s just a matter of time until I transform in a vampire or worse.

“Well shit, I think I screwed up.”