Straf groggily opens his eyes. Red. The crimson moon, and the flowing stream down Straf's cheek. Heavily dazed, his tongue clicks in his mouth a few times, and he swallows the liquid filling his mouth.
《Ah… That's something I haven't tasted in a while…》
Iron. Unmistakable and bitter in Straf's mouth as he lays on the ground, looking up at the red sky. He lets out a pained, fatigued groan, and glances at the moving bar in the bottom corner of his vision.
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「Hnnnrghh…」
《Yup. That was a solid hit. Lily is a powerhouse, alright…》
He thinks, blankly staring at the moon's surface, appreciating the beauty of the reflected, glittering sunlight on its surface. A blurry, black-red shape with a golden tip places itself in the way.
「…I am not asking. Turn into a vampire.」
Lily growls at Straf, glaring down at him with her glowing scarlet eyes. Her golden twin tails jiggle as she comes to a halt at Straf's feet, while he's laying sprawled on the cobblestones, staring at him with a stern expression on her face.
Silhouetted by the crimson moon's backdrop, the eerie baroness and her small form contrast heavily against her threatening aura. Straf's blurry sight focuses on her face. Her expression is unrelentingly sepulchral and grim, but devoid of anger. Her boots stomp on the cobblestones as she approaches closer.
「Lily… I thought you said the blood moon doesn't affect you…」
Slightly slurring, Straf says with a hoarse voice as he watches her step over him, still dazed from the impact against the hard ground. Lily sits down on him, pinning his thighs to the ground with her knees.
When he makes a feeble and uncoordinated attempt to pull her off of himself, her clawed hands shoot for his wrists and slam them down, pinning them too. With a lethargic gaze, he looks at both of his hands in her grasp, and furrows his brows as he looks at her face. He grunts and strains, trying to lift his them, but finds it incredibly difficult.
《What the fuck? What is this strength? It's like I'm trying to lift uranium dumbbells!》
Straf thinks, clenching his teeth as he redoubles his effort. He barely, just ever-so-slightly lifts his hands off the ground, before he gives up. He lets out a large sigh.
《No wait, that's not strength… It's her weight manipulation bullshit. No wonder the kraken was having trouble.》
Straf tries to click his tongue, but the blood in his mouth obstructs him. He spits it out to the side, spilling it like a waterfall.
「What makes you think it's the blood moon's doing, Straf?…」
Lily asks as she leans in, almost close enough for their nose tips to touch. She glares into Straf's eyes with her glowing, scarlet ones. She tightens the grip on his wrists with all her might, disregarding whether she crushes them or not. Lily then retracts her face a little, staring down at Straf with her teeth heavily clenched.
In the evening silence, the two breathe heavily. Straf, through his mouth, due to his profusely bleeding nose While Lily, rapidly through her small nose, for some other and indescript reason.
「…Turn into a vampire!」
Lily shouts a command at Straf, and opens her mouth wide. Despite her menacing lunge for throat, her ravening fangs delicately sink into his neck, causing him to wince.
「Ow.」
Helpless in her grasp, Straf torpidly exclaims at the sudden discomfort of the twin needles piercing his neck. Lily's pale cheek carelessly brushes against his, smearing Straf's blood on herself. Although it pours, she makes no effort to drink it. Without a warning, she pulls her fangs out of him.
「Turn into a vampire!…」
She repeats her demand, baring her teeth at Straf, and once again sinks her teeth into him.
「Ow.」
Almost as if matching Lily, Straf repeats himself as well, with the same energy, or lack thereof as previously. The baroness tightens her grip on Straf's wrists further, tight enough to cause additional pain. She abruptly pulls her fangs away once more.
「…Turn into a vampire!…」
Lily desperately demands, and bites again.
「Ow.」
Straf declares his discomfort again. To an outside observer, it would appear as the two are stuck in a time loop, repeating the same event over and over.
「…Turn into a vampire!…」
「Ow.」
「…Turn into a vampire!…」
「Ow.」
「…Turn into a vampire!…」
「Ow.」
Lily bites, and Straf barely reacts, only wincing slightly in his daze. She bites, and bites, and bites. Straf looks at the moving bars once more.
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《I'm healing kinda slow… But I'm also bleeding like a motherfuck- Ah.》
As soon as he thinks about his bleeding nose, Straf realizes he is, in fact, no longer bleeding from it.
《…When did it stop?… Doesn't matter. When is she going to stop? This is a literal pain in the neck…》
With a fatigued, tight-lipped grimace, Straf glances at Lily's golden twin tail and the side of her ashen face. She violently withdraws her fangs, splattering Straf's blood on the cobblestones.
「Turn into a vampire!」
「Ow, fuck!… Lily…」
Lily demands, and savagely bites into Straf's neck, rending the flesh. She bites down further, viciously clamping her teeth on him, causing Straf's feet to jump up, and lightly jolt against her restraining grip. He lets out a frustrated groan as Straf's blood flows freely, and she refuses to let go, sinking her teeth farther in like a mad dog. Her tiny, pale hands tighten on his wrists, too.
Then, Lily suddenly lets go of his neck, ripping it as she violently pulls her teeth away, but doesn't quite retract her face. Though it heals quickly, for a few moments, Straf's neck looks terribly torn and covered in pinprick bite marks.
「…Turn into a vampire…」
She quietly says, almost as if whispering into Straf's ear, though her voice sounds on the verge of cracking.
「Why!?…」
With a dismayed shout, Lily abruptly pulls away and straightens out, her golden twin tails flutter as they lag behind her head.
「Lily…」
Straf utters out with his brows gently furrowed in pity, as the sight of her face makes him snap out of his daze. She lets go of his wrists, and grabs onto his shirt instead, desperately clutching at his collar, pulling at it with her clawed hands.
「…Why won't you turn into a vampire for me!?」
Lily cries out, sobbing as her voice begins cracking. She looks down at Straf with an anguished, crying face, but the tears in her glowing, woeful eyes have run dry centuries ago. Her bloodied fangs are bared as her face is twisted into an expression of deep pain and sorrow. She sniffles and sobs, lowering her golden head, but no tears drop down her bloodied pale cheeks.
「Lily… What's the matter? Why are you so insistent? This is getting kind of extreme, even for you.」
Straf sighs, and asks with a completely tranquil tone.
「…You're going away for two months…」
She replies with her head still lowered.
「That's what's bothering you?…」
Straf asks with a pitying smirk, and lets out another, resigned sigh.
「…Lily, it's just two months. It'll be over before you know it.」
He calmly explain, and her pale hands tighten their grasp on his shirt.
「…That's why! Two months will pass in a blink!」
Lily shouts back, and clenches her teeth, baring them to Straf while she chokes back tears that won't come.
「Two months will pass, and soon a year will be gone!…」
She adds, still shouting, looking at Straf with her glowing eyes full of grief.
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「…And then after ten years, a decade will go by!」
The baroness keeps shouting, growing more desperate and dejected with each sentence.
「…And after ten decades…You…」
Her shouts die down, and she meekly continues. Partway into her quiet sentence, she finds herself unable to finish as her lower lip trembles. She tightens her grip on Straf's shirt, and lowers her sobbing face, hiccuping as she sniffles.
「Lily…」
Straf utters out, and lets out a large, troubled sigh. His mouth lightly scrunches to the side. Lily momentarily swallows all her grief, and lifts her glowing red eyes back to Straf's.
「…I don't want you to be gone, Straf…」
She meekly admits, and lets go of his shirt, wrestling with her turmoil to regain a neutral facade, and failing. With her clenched teeth bared, her pale lips quiver, and her face twists with anguish as she begins violently, tearlessly sobbing.
《Man. That's a little troublesome. If she bit me right now, it might actually work…》
Straf thinks, as he looks at the scared little girl's face.
「You're powerful already. As a vampire, nobody could stand in your way, nobody could possibly harm you. You wouldn't need food. You wouldn't need water. You wouldn't need air. You wouldn't age… So why?」
Lily asks, frowning heavily, still sniffling.
「Why? Why won't you become a vampire for me? You wouldn't disappear on me. You'd be strong enough to take on anyone, nobody could lay a finger on you. Why?」
She asks, and lowers her head. Her black dress's puffy shoulders jump as she sobs quietly. Straf lets out a troubled sigh, and looks at the blood-red moon while silently listening to Lily sob.
「Lily… All good things come to an end. But…」
Straf sighs out, and Lily lifts her glowing sullen eyes up to his.
Pat.
「…I guess I can live to like 300 for you.」
Ruffleruffleruffle.
He declares with a light smile, petting her golden head gently. Surprised and still sorrowful, she furrows her brows lightly in confusion.
「…Alright, make it 350, but that's at absolute max and not a single day longer. My 351st birthday comes, I blow out the candles on the cake, and I drop dead the next second. Got it?」
Straf says as he smirks, still brushing his hand through Lily's golden hair on top of her head. Lily calms down a little. Her sobs and sniffles gradually quiet down, though her sullen frown remains on her face.
「There ought to be something out there that makes your life longer, right? Like, I don't know, a dragon hearrrt…Or a unicorn horn… Or a ground tiger penis, or something.」
「…Huh?」
Confusion overpowers Lily's sorrow, causing her to tilt her head as Straf lists bizarre ingredients for supposed longevity.
「…No, wait, I think the last one was for impotency, actually.」
Straf remarks, rubbing his chin as he looks at the moon with his brows heavily furrowed.
「Never mind that one. But the point is, Lily… If it bothers you that much, I'll stick around for a little longer for you. But I'm not going to be immortal. Immortality sucks, and you very well know why.」
Straf snaps his fingers, and points at Lily's face. Her eyes glow red at him with a mixture of confusion, and sadness.
「But… But that's not enough. You'll be gone in 350 years, it doesn't make a big difference. I don't want to be alone, Straf. Why can't you just become a vampire for me?」
Lily meekly asks, and gets off Straf. They both stand up. While Lily's golden twin tails and melancholic face are smeared with blood, Straf remains perfectly clean. He places his fists on his hips, and contently smirks at her.
「Lily, one day, you'll find a boy who loves you enough to sign up for this immortality shit for you… Or a man that isn't a scumbag, at least. 350 years is plenty of time to find one. In the meantime, I'm not going anywhere, so relax.」
《I am going straight to fucking bed after this, though. My head hurts like a motherfucker. Thanks, Lily…》
Straf nonchalantly declares, and shrugs.
「But… Why can't it be you, Straf?」
She asks, looking up into his eyes.
「The best way to ruin a story is to let it go on forever.」
Straf snaps his fingers, and points at at her as he replies.
「A good writer knows how the ending should look like before the story even starts, Lily. But I guess we can milk a few epilogues, and a sequel or two.」
He adds, and shrugs his shoulders again, placing his hands in his pockets.
「What?」
She tilts her head, furrowing her brows at him.
「I suppose it wouldn't hurt if we left a sequel hook laying around. Might want to milk that merch money… I think yours would sell well, Lily.」
Straf remarks, and chuckles with a grin.
「…What? Straf, are you feeling alright? You hit your head pretty hard… I'm sorry…」
Lily asks, and her glowing scarlet eyes full of concern look into Straf's. She pouts as she quietly apologizes, looking down and away.
「I'm fine, don't worry about it Lily!…」
With a grin, Straf dismissively flops his hand, before returning it back to his pocket.
「…But to be honest, I am feeling kind of dizzy, a little lightheaded, and you sound like I have rags stuck in my ears, so I think I'll go to bed early today. Are you going to be alright now, Lily?」
Straf shrugs, glancing aside as he explains. Lily's mouth opens from his admission, and she blinks at him, stunned. His eyes return to Lily's blue hued, lamp-lit face, somehow appearing even paler in its light. Getting over her shock, she weakly nods her golden head.
「Yes… I'm fine, Straf…」
Lily replies with a sullen tone, and a matching face as she lowers her head.
「Alright. Don't worry about today, Lily. Don't stay up late, yeah?」
Straf snaps his fingers, pointing at her as he walks towards the palace, leaving the baroness behind. She returns a gentle, acknowledging nod, but says nothing as she watches Straf's broad back with a frown on her bloodstained face.
「Oh! Before I forget, go take a bath! You're kind of covered in blood! And don't cut your hair, or I'll never forgive you!」
He abruptly turns around, and shouts towards Lily from down the street, considerable distance away.
「Eh?」
She tilts her head, and her golden-red twin tails jiggle a little…
…
A few minutes later, at the palace gate…
A woman in odd attire draws near. Her boots clack against the cobblestones in a steady rhythm. Her eyes glow like the lamps behind her, but in a different color. Despite the increased numbers, the plumed guards anxiously tighten up their formation.
「Hiya!」
Nona smiles, approaching the wide-eyed, frightened palace guards with her hands behind her back. They warily watch her as she closes in, and sigh in relief when they see her normal, round, human pupils.
「Who are you? What do you want? It's the blood moon, woman. Go home. If you're seeking shelter, look elsewhere-」
The guard dismissively waves her off with his armored hand, but with a smile, she shoves her Ministry identification his face.
「What's this?…」
「I'm Nona, I need to discuss something with my boss! He's the Minister of Security!」
She explains, beaming a bright smile to the rest of the guards. The guard looking at her identification furrows his brow, and his confused eyes jump between her serious grimace on her photo, and her smiling face before him.
「Oh, that guy… At this hour? Can't you come back tomorrow?」
He asks as she closes her identification wallet. She slips it back into her breast pocket, and returns her hand behind her back.
「Nope! It's important! He's leaving tomorrow! I gotta do it tonight!」
Nona grins a little, and tilts her hatted head. The group of guards look at each other with troubled, tired eyes, and they shrug their armored shoulders at each other.
「…Alright, go on in. Ask a maid to take you to him, he's probably already sleeping.」
The guard waves her in, with a troubled, tight-lipped grimace, hoping for the interaction end as soon as possible so he can return to paying attention to the darkness.
「Thanks! See you later!」
Nona exclaims, and happily trots past the guards towards the palace doors, with her hands still behind her back.
「…Was that?」
The guard turns around, but not fast enough to look at what he thought he might have seen. Nona is already well in the darkness between the gate and the doors, and becomes a barely visible dark silhouette.
「Must have been nothing. Fuck this blood moon so much…」
The guard grumbles to himself, shaking his plumed head a little as his nervous eyes return to the lamp-lit city streets ahead…