Chapter 35 - Great Loot And Improvements
I looked at Ysvéra, still trying to process everything she had just told me.
There was... a lot.
The first thing that relieved me was surprisingly simple.
I wasn’t a vampire.
That alone removed the biggest weight from my mind.
Everything else, however, only raised more questions.
Apparently, Ysvéra wasn’t even from Earth.
That much, I had already suspected.
A being like her simply didn’t appear out of nowhere.
As for why she was in this mansion, even she didn’t know.
Long ago, she had entered a dormant state, reducing herself to nothing more than a mass of living blood inside that coffin.
Why she had done so, she simply refused to tell me.
Either way, someone had eventually discovered her resting place.
Instead of treating it as an ancient relic, they had turned it into a factory.
For nearly a year, they continuously drained her blood, refined it into elixirs, and replenished the loss through human and monster sacrifices, all while sealing her.
It was an endless cycle of drain, refill and drain again.
They had unknowingly transformed an existence far beyond their comprehension into a living resource.
Until, I shattered the coffin.
That was where everything had gone wrong.
Or right.
Depending on who you asked.
Ysvéra’s original intention had been simple.
She wanted to establish a True Bond with me.
According to her, I possessed extraordinary potential.
Potential great enough to become a "star."
If I continued growing stronger, she would receive tremendous feedback through the bond, allowing her own strength to recover alongside mine.
Naturally, she had also intended to turn me into a vampire during the process.
Instead, something completely unexpected had happened.
I had won.
Neither of us understood exactly how.
The True Bond had reversed.
Rather than me becoming bound to her, she had become bound to me.
The contract wasn’t one of master and servant.
At least, not yet.
It was closer to a partnership.
Both of us would benefit from each other’s growth.
If she became stronger, I would eventually gain access to her abilities.
If I became stronger, she would receive feedback from my growth.
As long as I remained alive, even if she were killed again, I could resurrect her.
On the other hand, if I died, the backlash she would suffer would be severe.
"In other words..." I muttered.
"I am the one getting the better deal."
Ysvéra clicked her tongue.
"Unfortunately so."
The bond also granted me complete awareness of her condition.
Her emotions.
Her physical state.
Even certain thoughts if I deliberately focused on them.
She couldn’t hide them from me.
I, on the other hand, still retained my privacy.
"This isn’t fair!" she grumbled.
"I know," I replied honestly.
But I could not issue her absolute commands.
She still possessed her own free will.
Although, there was one rather terrifying exception.
With a single thought, I could forcibly transform our True Bond into a master-slave contract.
If I did that, all mutual feedback would disappear.
In exchange, Ysvéra would become absolutely obedient to every command I gave.
This was also the reason why she had told me everything, she feared that I would accidentally make her my slave, even though I did not know about it.
But I had no intention of doing it, at least for now.
She had been surprisingly cooperative after accepting reality.
There was no reason to throw away the benefits of an equal bond.
As for my own body, that was another surprise.
"The vampire blood I injected into you should have transformed you, but your body absorbed it. Ysvéra explained.
"Absorbed but how?"
"You have an absurdly balanced physique. Instead of becoming a vampire, your body refined my blood and made it part of itself."
Immediately, one possibility came to mind.
’Rejuvenation and my aspect.’
Not the old Rejuvenation, even it had evolved after this Vampire injected her blood into me.
And my Aspect had already begun changing me after I consumed the enhancement serum.
Ysvéra’s blood had likely pushed it another step forward.
"There is one way to find out."
Without hesitation, I drew my sword.
Ysvéra raised an eyebrow.
"What are you doing?"
Instead of answering, I dragged the blade across my right palm and a deep cut immediately split open.
Blood flowed from there.
But before either of us spoke, the flesh began knitting together.
Within seconds, the wound completely disappeared.
"..."
Neither of us said a word.
I slowly flexed my fingers.
Not even a scar remained.
’This is practically false physical immortality’
I stared at my perfectly healed hand.
Ysvéra quietly snorted.
"Don’t get ahead of yourself, you can still be killed."
After one final glance around the chamber, I stood.
"We should leave."
Ysvéra sighed dramatically before standing as well.
Although every step she took seemed filled with reluctance, she still followed.
She couldn’t do otherwise.
The bond connected us more deeply than I had realized.
Because to the who was defeated there was a penalty or disadvantage of sorts.
If she remained too far away from me for an extended period, she would gradually become restless and anxious.
Eventually, that separation would become unbearable as she would eventually seek me out.
I had unintentionally gained a very powerful companion.
Or perhaps, a very unwilling free laborer.
Just as we reached the exit, my eyes landed on the countless crates stacked around the room.
Scarlet elixirs and hundreds of them.
Enough wealth to make both the strong and the weak lose their minds.
Hope slowly appeared inside me as I turned toward Ysvéra.
She immediately narrowed her eyes.
"What?"
"Do you have some kind of spatial storage?"
She stared at me as though I had insulted her entire bloodline.
"Do you honestly think I don’t possess my own treasury?" she snapped.
"How much longer do you intend to humiliate me, you bastard?!"
I simply blinked at her declaration as a grin spread across my face.
I grabbed both of her shoulders.
"Really?! You’re even more useful than I thought!"
She looked horrified.
"W-Wait..."
I pointed toward the mountain of elixirs.
"Let’s get to work, we are emptying this entire place."
But I didn’t know at that time, the horrified look she had, was for an entirely different reason.