Juliana felt that she was about to starve to death.
She stood on a tree branch and watched the vast night sky before her. There was a brilliant full moon but few stars to accompany it. While basking herself under the comfortable moonlight, she felt that there was a need for her to get to action tonight.
Different from the conventional meaning of the word, Juliana’s starvation stemmed not from the lack of food. It would be more accurate to call it a feeling of emptiness she felt. It was the price she had to pay after casting her spell.
Roel previously deduced that Juliana had inherited the bloodline of the Blood Clan, but that was not exactly right. She wasn’t just an inheritor of the Blood Clan’s bloodline; she was a member of the Blood Clan herself. Even without awakening to her bloodline, she needed to consume a certain amount of blood after casting her spells.
The Blood Clan was a famous clan back in the ancient era. They were considered to be nobles amongst the many other powerful races back then. Yet, interestingly enough, they were biologically similar to human beings. For that reason, they were able to reproduce with humans through conventional reproduction methods.
Thanks to that, even as the other races vanished from the face of the world, the Blood Clan was still able to continue their lineage by hiding amongst the humans. They even had their own era of glory back in the Second Epoch, when they joined the Twilight Sages Assembly.
It was just that their bloodline slowly grew thin over many generations of reproduction with humans, causing their bloodline abilities to weaken.
The Blood Clan had long lost the powers that allowed them to stand alongside the powerful angels and dragons, though Juliana had proven herself to be an exceptional talent who might just be able to reach that height. There was a sliver of hope that she could reach Origin Level 1 in the long life she had ahead of her.
It was just that even prodigies weren’t able to free themselves from the side effects of their abilities.
The original plan was for Juliana to accompany William to Leinster to meet with that clan’s awakener, but due to Antonio’s request, she suddenly found herself having to transfer into Saint Freya Academy as a student. She had not expected such a turn of events, which was why her preparation swiftly proved to be insufficient.
Such as her stock of fresh blood.
As a noble member of the lofty Blood Clan, Juliana was extremely picky with her blood. William had also strictly forbidden her from preying on the students so as to avoid getting on Antonio’s bad side. This put her in a troubling position.
She had expended her blood supply after fighting several rounds in the Challenger Cup. Had it been in the Knight Kingdom, she would have been able to acquire some fresh blood by injuring her opponent, but the Challenger Cup prevented her from doing that through the use of substitution magic tools.
The large area searching spell that Juliana had used in the fight against Paul earlier in the day was truly exciting, but she paid a heavy price for it too. That was why she intentionally hurt Paul beyond the damage threshold in hopes of drinking his blood, but she gave up on that notion as soon as his blood touched her tongue.
It was goddamned awful.
It had a weird archaic taste that choked up her olfactory senses, causing her head to spin. She immediately lost all appetite.
But losing her appetite didn’t mean that her starvation had disappeared.
The starvation only became harder and harder to bear when she returned to the academy. Left with no choice, she followed her instincts and began making her way toward the Azure Manor.
William had told her not to cause a commotion here. She couldn’t guarantee that others wouldn’t raise a ruckus, but she had a strong feeling that Roel wouldn’t make a big fuss out of whatever she did. At the same time, she was bursting with curiosity about what his blood tasted like.
That clan that had once led the Twilight Sages Assembly was known to possess the Kingmaker Bloodline. I wonder what it tastes like…
She couldn’t shake off that thought once it had surfaced in her mind. Roel was like a walking bottle of 1982 Lafite to her, an irresistible enticement to a hardcore wine lover. To tell her not to pop its cork and give it a taste when it was sitting right in front of her was as good as torture.
Under the night sky, Juliana began melding into the shadows to move toward the room where she had sensed Roel’s presence. It took only a few seconds for her to arrive outside their window. Her unconcealed movement spell naturally caught Roel’s attention, but before he could make a move, the sleeping Alicia had already been jolted awake.
“Who is it?”
Having been rudely awakened from her sweet dream by a foreign mana pulsation, Alicia roared furiously at the presence by the window. She manifested multiple glowing chains from the ground that bolted straight toward the intruder.
Juliana widened her eyes in sheer astonishment. She quickly dodged the attack, which resulted in her revealing herself.
It’s her?
Upon seeing the black-haired girl with crimson eyes, Roel shot to his feet in astonishment. Alicia glared at the foreign face lividly, ready to launch the next round of attack.
But before the two of them could do anything, Juliana stared intently at the chains that appeared to be manifested out of moonlight and exclaimed in utter shock.
“P-progenitor?”
“… What?”
Once again, Roel found himself flabbergasted.
…
Roel had already anticipated that the Goddess of Fate’s Guidance was a mysterious blessing that might land him in unpredictable situations, but still, this was way beyond the realms of his common sense.
Progenitor.
This was a term Roel had encountered in the anime he watched in his previous life.
He had never expected to meet a progenitor of any sort in the Sia Continent, let alone fathom that his little sister would actually be one.
As someone who had watched Alicia grow up from a young age, he was confident that she wasn’t from the Blood Clan. The only commonality she shared with the Blood Clan was her ruby eyes, but colored eyes were pretty common in the Sia Continent. It would be too rash to make such a conclusion with just that.
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