Inside the dining room, there were only Myra and Evelyn sitting at the table. After Snow left to see her friends and Ryner disappeared somewhere, Maya also went to visit her friend.

“My husband is so busy that we never get to spend time together. I know his work is important and I am proud of him, but I wished he would take some time to see us. When she was a child, Snow was really sad whenever her daddy couldn’t come home.” [Myra]

The two talked about various things over tea. Right now, Myra was in the middle of complaining about Taniel’s work as the prime minister that kept him away from his family. There were also more complaints about how their married life lacked romance and how they spent too few mating seasons together.

“What about you?” [Myra]

“Me?” [Evelyn]

“Yes. How are things with Ryner?” [Myra]

“… As his cousin, Ryner is my family and I see him like a brother.” [Evelyn]

Evelyn went silent for a second and put down her cup. She had introduced herself as Ryner’s cousin when they met and she was now using that lie to play dumb. However, it was pretty useless and she knew it. It was no secret that Myra and Snow were aware that both she and Maya had slept with Ryner. This was just her reflexively giving the planned answer if they ever asked her that question.

“Oh my, is that so? It didn’t really look like something you would do with your sibling. And with Maya no less.” [Myra]

The fox-eared woman put a hand on her cheek and said with gentle smile. Her eyes, on the other hand, were rather mischievous.

“There were some perfectly good reasons which involve a lot of drinking.” [Evelyn]

“Is that so? But after that, I would sometimes catch you grinning to yourself when you think no one’s looking. And every time, you would be staring at Ryner feverishly.” [Myra]

“… You can be rather terrifying.” [Evelyn]

Evelyn didn’t notice at all that she was seen reminiscing that drunken night by Myra. This woman was always smiling gently and seemed harmless, but she had quite the sharp pair of eyes.

“If I remember correctly, you would always blush whenever you saw Ryner after that night.” [Evelyn]

“Fufu, I got used to it as time passed. So, what do you think of him?” [Myra]

Myra splendidly shrugged off Evelyn’s counterattack. It would appear that the beastman had no intention of letting her escape. Maybe she was starved for romance stories because of her lonely married life. She did grumble quite a bit about it.

“What do I think…? I respect him.” [Evelyn]

Evelyn looked away grumpily and replied to her question after thinking for a while. It annoyed her that she was being so easily teased by someone so much younger than her.

“Is that all~?” [Myra]

Taking a peek at the cheerful housewife, the vampire sighed and wet her throat with her tea. It was then that she remembered that there was just the two of them in this house. The topic didn’t start like she had thought it would, but she figured that now was a good time to evaluate her. As such, she began talking about Ryner.

“I find him weird. Many things don’t make sense around him and I find him weird.” [Evelyn]

Although she discovered that he wasn’t a normal being and had lived multiple different lives, there were many aspects about Ryner that still didn’t make sense to her. One of them would be why he always had nightmares. Another would be the scars on his body. Of course, she planned on learning everything about him until she knew him inside and out.

“Fufu, that certainly is true.” [Myra]

“But I truly do respect him. He had achieved many feats unimaginable that are unknown to you and everybody else.” [Evelyn]

“Really? What kind?” [Myra]

“It doesn’t matter now, but he accomplished great things in the past. I watched him as a young girl and grew up all the while looking up to him.” [Evelyn]

“So the two of you were childhood friends? How sweet.” [Myra]

The fox-eared mother misunderstood what Evelyn meant, but that was what the blonde vampire wanted and she made no move to correct her. After all, there was no way she could tell her that Ryner was actually like a father figure to her in her younger days.

“He was amazing. He still is.” [Evelyn]

“Yes, I agree. He did save us.” [Myra]

“Saved you, huh…” [Evelyn]

Evelyn murmured and organized what she was going to say in her head. From here on, this was where the real evaluation started.

“I think you’re misunderstanding something. He’s amazing, but he’s no hero. I’m not sure if he can be classified as a good person either.” [Evelyn]

Evelyn said after taking a sip of her hot tea. Sensing the mood changing, Myra’s fox ears that were on top of her head twitched and stood up.

“What do you mean by that?” [Myra]

“Many lives were saved because of him, but that was an indirect result of his actions. Ryner would fight off enemies and squash threats before they got too close to innocent people. There were times when he did protect others with his life. There were times when he acted like a hero. For example, a while ago, he made his job of escaping from a noble’s mansion unseen much tougher by taking along two slaves.” [Evelyn]

Myra understood what Evelyn implied in her last sentence and made a troubled smile. The two slaves were her and Snow. She was talking about the night they met Ryner and how they escaped from slavery.

“Yet, there were also times when he was… heartless.” [Evelyn]

“Heartless… Is it?” [Myra]

Evelyn stretched her hand with her empty cup towards Myra. The attentive host poured in more tea with practiced movements right away.

“Sometimes, he would suddenly rush to the rescue. I believed it was because the victim was a beautiful girl, but that wasn’t it. Men, women, young, old, he saved them with that same drive that seemingly bordered on desperation. I thought they were all friends of his that I didn’t know about, but each one was a stranger. And once he saved them, he wasn’t interested in them.” [Evelyn]

Back when the two of them were living in her old world, Ryner would suddenly show great dedication when protecting some of the kingdom’s citizens. This in turn garnered him the respect of the people, but she knew that he wasn’t interested in it. She could see it in his eyes.

“There were also times when he showed absolute cruelty. People would die left and right, but he never so much as batted an eyelid. He solely focused on the enemies in front of him and battled them. He didn’t deliberately endanger bystanders, but he didn’t go out of his way to save them either. Still, he didn’t show that heroic drive that appeared a few times.” [Evelyn]

During conflicts with other nations, their villages would suffer from attacks and some would get burned to the ground. When Ryner and Evelyn went to search for survivors, they would see the remains of both buildings and people. Corpses would lay on the ground, covered in blood with gaping wounds, missing limbs or burnt black.

“Hmph, no, that’s wrong. It wasn’t cruelty.” [Evelyn]

The once living men and women were turned into pieces of meat and their horrible fate was clearly displayed to anyone who walked through the destroyed village. When she saw this, Evelyn kept her composure, but felt like puking. It was the same for the soldiers that followed her. Anger, grief and a thirst for vengeance also flared up in them. They wanted to enact justice which was an obvious sentiment to feel after seeing such a scene.

“It was indifference.” [Evelyn]

All except for Ryner. When she gazed at the side of his face, she was shocked to see neither a lack nor an excess of emotion. He was bored. He stared at the scene with his sleepy-looking eyes as if it was nothing unusual. He stared at it like it was part of an everyday routine that he had grown tired of.

“He was indifferent to slaughter. He spared a glance at the corpses and just moved on. It was the same with killing. He actually warned me once to be careful of my first kill and to not forget the feeling, that I shouldn’t grow dull to it. But, Ryner looked like he grew dull to it a long time ago. He gutted a man and cleaved his friend in two, and treated it like it was as normal as… Breathing.” [Evelyn]

The vampire passed her hand through her hair and took a deep breath as she relived past memories. Myra used the break in her story to pour herself another cup of tea. There was one thing that Evelyn didn’t say and that was Ryner’s habit that came once he was done killing.

After reaping the lives of many, he would control himself until he was sure that no one was around and throw up his stomach content. This was something she witnessed a few times by chance and it greatly puzzled her since he truly didn’t look like he felt guilty for spilling blood. However, as if that non-existent guilt was twisting his insides, he would vomit everything.

She didn’t tell him that she knew this because it was probably one of those territories that she shouldn’t tread on. It would most likely be the same as when she had asked him about his nightmares that he went through every night. She wanted to help him, but he stubbornly refused and insisted that he was fine.

“Another weird thing about him was that he would also beg and grovel before others to achieve his aims. It was shameful to watch him and my insides would boil at how some would treat him like he was inferior to them. Anyone would be mad at his treatment, but not him. What others would refuse to do because of their pride, he did it after shrugging his shoulders. He didn’t care at all. It was like killing. Just like breathing. He was indifferent to it.” [Evelyn]

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Once, they were ordered to track down and capture a certain man that smuggled spies from enemy nations. He was incredibly skilled at escaping and finding him would take a long time if he went into hiding. So, Ryner devised a ruse to bypass all of his guards and to get close to him. It resulted in him kneeling and kissing that man’s shoe. This was something that he had told Evelyn after completing the mission.

Luckily, she wasn’t present at the time or she would have trembled in rage. However, the next scene would have cooled off her fury and rendered her speechless. Like a savage beast, her foster father bit off the man’s shoe along with his toes and broke his legs to prevent him from running away. He then proceeded to annihilate the guards and dragged the injured man back. That night, he returned with bloodstains around his mouth.  

“Ironically, Ryner warned me against these types of people. Those that are willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill their goals without regards to themselves are dangerous. Because you never know what they might do next.” [Evelyn]

Evelyn chuckled lightly.

“Though, there are lines that I haven’t seen him cross or that he is reluctant to. I think he avoids torturing others when he can. But then again, I’ve seen plenty of his torture sessions. He was really good at it.” [Evelyn]

She finished her tea and grumbled “He should really stop groveling and torture them all instead” before presenting her empty cup to Myra. This one dutifully filled it again with a gentle smile on her face. For a while now, she hasn’t said a word and listened to Evelyn’s thoughts on Ryner that were getting closer to being worries.

“One thing I didn’t expect from him was his love for battles. He would avoid picking fights, but he would get in any fight that comes his way. He doesn’t show it, but he loves fighting. After winning, he would complain how hard it was and that he would never do it again, but I saw it. It was the really tough ones that he enjoyed the most.” [Evelyn]

Whenever he fought, his lazy and sleepy-looking eyes would mostly stay the same. However, they would glow with something akin to joy. Furthermore, it was during the life and death struggles that they shone the brightest. Evelyn noticed all of this because she had stayed with him for centuries and always observed him.

“I respect him. He’s kind to me and protected me many times. Despite his looks, he’s really strong… He’s strong, yet he’s lazy and weird. He’s dangerous and full of contradictions. He also likes fighting and gets injured as a result. I believe in his strength, yet he worries me nonetheless.” [Evelyn]

“… And that is the man you love?” [Myra]

Myra, who had been quiet the whole time, softly spoke those words. Before she knew it, the pure-blooded vampire ended up blabbering more than she initially planned. Despite being much older than her, she practically spilled her guts to her like a child sharing her worries with an adult.

“… You truly are terrifying.” [Evelyn]

Evelyn said with a bitter smile. Myra’s kind and motherly aura that warmly enveloped everyone was a powerful thing. Or maybe, this woman that grew up around Ryner just had to let out her accumulated stress by confiding in someone.

“Ryner doesn’t remember what happened and you insisted that it was an accident, didn’t you? I haven’t said anything until now and I never will, but are you not going to tell him how you feel?” [Myra]

With Evelyn and Maya’s explanations, Ryner believed that they ended up sleeping together because of the alcohol getting to their heads. He didn’t know that it wasn’t just Maya, but Evelyn as well that held feelings for him. By the way, Myra also believed that story. That was why she didn’t know that Evelyn planned it all.

“There’s no need.” [Evelyn]

The red-eyed woman shook her head.

“No need? Don’t you want him to love you back?” [Myra]

“He already did back then. I washed away all my regrets and indulged in my deepest desires.” [Evelyn]

Centuries ago, back in her world, Ryner was completely drunk and she could have had her way with him, but she held herself back. Later on, the man she loved ended up dying. No, she killed him. She apologized and made up with him when she finally found him after many years of zealous research.

However, the shock, the grief, the regret and the yearning made her endlessly remember that one night where she could have kissed him, but didn’t. Instead of taking his lips, she took his life. Centuries went by with him possibly gone for good. For centuries, she was working with the hope that his bedtime stories were real and that they were about him. Deep down, she knew it. Somewhere along the line, she had gone literally crazy over him.

“Besides, I am working on having him see me as a woman with daily appeal.” [Evelyn]

The vampire from another world didn’t mention that her daily appeal involved whispering suggestions to him when he slept.

“But, my romantic feelings are secondary.” [Evelyn]

“Secondary?” [Myra]

“What I want most is for him to stay alive. I don’t want to lose him and be separated from him. That is why I will first do all that I can to protect him. So that he doesn’t end up cornered by the world, I will do anything in my power… Even if he scorns me for it.” [Evelyn]

Evelyn declared in a strong voice with conviction. Ryner was once driven to death to protect her kingdom. He didn’t have any help to escape from that situation. She needed to make sure that it never happened again.

“What if one day, he comes to hate you?” [Myra]

Myra asked with slightly sad eyes. Evelyn looked stunned for a second, but she quickly put on her serious expression. How pathetic. She actually faltered just from having someone tell her that to her face. This was something that she already considered the moment she decided to get him drunk again. There was no need to feel scared over it.

“I am prepared. And even if he did, I would still follow him no matter what.” [Evelyn]

She stared at her hands. They were once stained in his blood.

“No matter how much he pushes me away and no matter how much he disagrees with my methods, I will stay with him and protect him.” [Evelyn]

She looked straight into Myra’s eyes. Her fists were clenched on top of the table.

“… Because that is where your happiness lies?” [Myra]

The obsessed vampire nodded to the blonde housewife’s question.

“Yes. My happiness lies with him.” [Evelyn]

Myra wordlessly stood up from her chair and poured in the last bit of tea into Evelyn’s empty cup. Then, she went to the kitchen counter to boil water.

“You’re a very selfish person.” [Myra]

So said the blonde housewife with her back turned to her guest.

“Selfish?” [Evelyn]

“You’re forcing your methods and yourself on him. That makes you selfish, does it not?” [Myra]

After filling the boiler with water and placing it on a round, black plate, she flipped a small switch and the four magic stones embedded at the bottom of the container began to heat up.

“I see… I am selfish.” [Evelyn]

“Yes. Your love is very selfish.” [Myra]

Myra turned around and told Evelyn with a gentle smile. She spoke her next words like a mother giving advice to her child.

“So please don’t forget to make him happy.” [Myra]

After happily saying “But that’s something the man should say”, she went back to checking on the water boiler. As for Evelyn, she stared at her filled cup in silence.

“I love him… I love him selfishly…” [Evelyn]

The vampire uttered in a small voice to no one. Her red eyes glowed with determination, but they were also murky. A light of obsession dwelled in them. The years of clinging to a faint hope and searching for a way to reunite with him were torture for her.

“Huhu, that’s true. No matter what happens…” [Evelyn]

She picked up her cup and took a sip of the now lukewarm tea.

“I will never lose him again.” [Evelyn]

She never wanted to wake up alone in the night only to recall that he was dead. She didn’t want to recall that the man who she was supposed to be peacefully sleeping with had been killed by her hands. The feeling of stabbing his flesh and piercing his heart was still fresh in her memories as if it was just yesterday. Evelyn took out her phone that was strapped to her thigh and brought up a list that she was in the process of making.

List of possible candidates

- Maya Catallard

So far, it didn’t seem like Myra hated Ryner. Furthermore, she didn’t look disillusioned or disappointed after hearing what she said. However, she wasn’t sure if she took anything that she told her seriously.

“(Myra Elkind, wife of Taniel, the prime minister. Her influence is sizable and she offers a connection to the king of this beastman kingdom. No problem with her personality so far either. But…)” [Evelyn]

After tapping on the table twice with her index finger, Evelyn made up her mind and entered a new entry underneath Maya’ name.

- Myra Elkind (pending)