Veritas

The first sound he heard before waking up in his subconscious was a soft, gentle melody.

His body was stiff and in the process of healing, courtesy of his "lovable" uncle, who had gifted him earlier with a heavy wound.

His injury felt tender, and he could smell the heavy scent of herbs that lingered over his body.

But first, he needed to assess his current situation.

He assumed that the one who rescued him didn't have any malicious intent, so his body relaxed a bit, but he was still cautious in case of a sudden attack.

He opened his fluttering eyelids slowly until what he saw surprised him.

Her long blonde hair, exposed to the wind, fluttered as her crimson eyes widened in surprise at his unexpected awakening; their eyes met.

Smiling gently at him, the young woman breathed a sigh of relief.

The ceasing of the gentle humming and rhythmic caressing disappointed him; he found the repeated motion relaxing.

He heard inside his chest, where his once non-beating heart lay, the unfamiliar sound of a heartbeat pounding calmly.

'So, the legend from his family's archives has proven to be true,' he thought in realization and amusement.

"Thank the goddess, you are awake now," the young woman spoke in relief.

His onyx eyes quickly gathered what little information he could from his current environment.

His head was lying on the woman's soft lap, and he was topless, covered with white bandages over his abdomen, with the smell of herbs.

Thankfully, they found shade under the tree that blocked out the sunlight.

Seeing the woman's outfit, she was in the clergy of the goddess of light, and she emitted holy powers in her aura; the young man could read auras because of his keen sight that came from his family's genes.

"I assume you know what category of creature I am," the young man stated bluntly and calmly.

The young woman's eyebrow raised in surprise while she tilted her head slightly.

"How do you say so?" asked the blonde woman in curiosity, and she continued to play with his black hair gently, and the young man didn't mind at all.

"It is based on my observation of how you applied your medicine to me first instead of using your holy powers to heal me," he concluded with confidence.

The young woman laughed, stopping her action once more. The sound of her laughter didn't sound mocking but purely amused instead because of his unexpected answer, and he couldn't help but stare at her as if he were being enchanted.

He met an unusual mortal today.

He didn't know what he felt towards her, but it didn't feel unpleasant at all when he was with her.

When the young woman stopped her laughter, she spoke, "Well, it was kind of obvious."

The young man could see mirth inside her crimson eyes, but he patiently waited for her explanation calmly.

"Seeing that my village is near the border of the vampire's territory, your expensive attire, and you having the privilege of a higher education, my assumption is that you are a noble from said territory," she said with certainty. His rank was unknown to her, but his lack of offense at her casual tone was apparent.

"An astute observation. You are correct." He felt impressed by her cleverness and sharp perspective, and he didn't hesitate to answer her honestly to confirm the facts.

He wasn't afraid to be killed by this woman since she had helped him heal first. If she had intended to end his life, she would have done so when he was unconscious earlier.

"I am curious. Why don't I feel a single hint of hatred from you towards my kind?" asked the vampire noble curiously.

Normally, humans would hold his kind in disdain or attack them most of the time out of hatred.

The young woman's crimson eyes blinked at him, dumbfounded, and she gave him a soft, kind smile.

"Well, I believe there is still kindness hidden within us, no matter what kind of species we are, whether we are a dark, light, or human creature," she answered him, and she tucked her stray locks behind her ear after the sudden cool breeze came.

"I don't expect someone to repay me someday. At the very least, I hope to give this act of kindness to someone, hoping that person thinks there's a kind person out there and the world doesn't look bleak at all, and I wish this kindness will pass the torch to another person," the blonde woman finished answering his question sincerely.

"You are an intellectual individual and yet a foolish woman at the same time, inflating your own ego to be satisfied," sighed the black-haired vampire, and yet his tone sounded fond of her.

The noble young vampire felt odd about himself since he didn't trust anyone easily, and only a few selected close individuals could make him feel like this since they'd known each other for a long time. Was it because of the legend he'd heard and read about that turned out to be fact, and did it affect the connection between him and this mortal?

How peculiar.

The young woman furrowed her eyebrow while placing her hand on her chest dramatically, feeling a little offended at his statement while she huffed lightly.

"I don't know if I should accept that as a compliment or not," she said drily, and he smirked at her cockily in amusement.

"That would be on you," he answered her cheekily.

"Why you—" She was ready to banter with him until she stopped because of a realization. She didn't know his name, and she hadn't introduced herself, so her annoyance earlier dissipated.

"Oh! How rude of me! I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Lucille. I don't want to say this, but nice to meet you." Lucille introduced herself a bit politely, and she looked at him in curiosity, expecting him to do the same.

"I'm relieved to know that you realize you were being rude." The young noble didn't hesitate to tease her rudely, and she interrupted him with a "Hey!" but he brushed off Lucille's indignation easily.

"You can call me Veritas. Pleasure to meet your acquaintance." Veritas introduced himself briefly and politely. Truthfully, he meant what he said; what a pleasure it was meeting her.

Veritas's movement stirred until he sat properly, but Lucille insistently pushed his chest to lie down while she looked at him in disapproval.

"Don't move. You are badly wounded," she scolded him gently out of concern, but Veritas removed Lucille's hand from his chest.

"You don't need to worry. I feel fine, and my open wound has already clotted because of my regeneration ability, and applying your medicine works, too," he informed and assured her, but he didn't mention that his injury felt tender. He would be completely healed in a couple of days.

If his uncle hadn't used a weapon imbued with holy attributes, his injury would have healed in a few hours. Unfortunately, that had happened.

"But still…" Lucille watched him worriedly, but Veritas stood up while he looked for his dress shirt until he found it on the ground a couple of meters away from him. He went after his shirt.

When he was out of the shade, the sunlight hit against his bare skin uncomfortably.

Some people had a misconception about vampires, believing that one of their greatest weaknesses was the sun, but it was not — to them, it was only an irritation to their skin, and that was why his kind could get a tan if they wanted to.

"Where are you going?" Lucille asked him in a sharp tone, hinting for him not to dare move, and she stood up and chased after him.

"As you can see, I'm getting my shirt." Veritas picked up his shirt. While he did so, his well-built muscles flexed, and he carelessly draped it over his shoulder.

"You know that's not what I meant." Lucille paused her walk while she placed her hand on her hip, and she observed Veritas's distractingly powerful, firm back.

She subconsciously ogled his bare back figure, and Veritas could feel her eyes on him. He felt deeply amused and pleased, even though he was expressionless most of the time.

Veritas turned while raising his eyebrow with a smug, teasing smirk. "Do you like what you see?"

Lucille's cheeks flushed red either in embarrassment or annoyance; her crimson eyes were wide open in disbelief, and she opened her mouth to refute his claim, but Veritas didn't give her a chance because he faced towards the stream and interrupted her.

"Let's see each other in the same place and at the exact time tomorrow so that you can take care of my wound." Veritas walked forward, waving his hand sheepishly to bid her farewell, and then he jumped across the stream easily and went deep in the forest without hearing a single word from Lucille.

He only said that because he wanted to give her an assurance about his injury, and he wanted to draw a conclusion about this unique situation and unknown relationship between them.

"How peculiar, indeed," he said aloud in amusement.

In just three hours, he had fully let his guard down when he spent time with her just getting to know each other, and her presence was calming.

Veritas preferred not to find more friends or even join in noble society since he enjoyed his solitude, with the exception of his grandmother from his father's side, the ancient one, and a few of his friends.

He rather wanted to spend time inside the library, reading books after finishing his duties as a noble.

But first, he would put his first priority on finding temporary shelter, finding out how to communicate with his allies, and gathering more information about his uncle and Lucille. He would be lying low for now.