Areum prostrated herself in a bow to him. If he told her to show him her stomach, she would show him her stomach. If he told her to bark, she would bark. Even though her pride or dignity as a human would be trampled, at the very least she would not lose her life. In order to keep herself alive, Areum was declaring her servitude to the vampire in the stone chamber under the glimmering candlelight.

“Why am I your master?”

“Because you bought me.”

She spoke with her head still touching the floor. Meanwhile, she had wiped away most of the moisture from her face by pressing it into her sleeve. She wondered what the monster would think of a girl wriggling like a pill bug on the ground. Areum ceaselessly put her mind to work thinking of ways to assimilate herself to the thoughts of the man who controlled her life and death. If she could read his thoughts, she’d be able to pick out the responses he’d want to hear and avoid any landmines.

“You paid 130,000 gold or more to purchase me, and so you are my master.”

Hoping that he was reluctant to give up on the money he spent, she spoke the price he had paid for her. What was that sum of 130,000 gold—which Areum could only speculate about—worth exactly to the man? She hoped it was precious enough to prevent him for blowing it all in a second by putting her in a cage with a bear.

“I have enough staff already. But… You’re right. I did spend quite the sum on you.”

Areum looked up upon hearing the man’s words.

“If that’s the case…!”

The glimmer of hope made Areum’s face light up. But the joy stretching the corners of her mouth upward subsided the moment she saw his face. That was because only an ounce of good will towards Areum could be found on his handsome face.

He was looking at Areum’s left arm. Areum followed his gaze and looked at her left arm as well. Her skin had healed completely. The bleeding had stopped and yet no scar remained. The only thing there to remind her of the fact there had been a wound there were the blood stains. It didn’t take much to guess that the man was recalling his prior retching while looking at the bloodstains. His face was twisted in a dreadful expression. To no avail, Areum covered the stains with her hand.

“But do you have that much value? 130,000 gold for a mere slave? That’s lunacy.”

Areum quickly responded to the man’s sighing.

“I’ll do whatever you want me to. If you only tell me what it is that you need, I will do anything.”

“Anything? If there were a type of person I need least in my life, it’d be someone exactly like you.”

“Still, though…”

Why couldn’t her blood have been sweet as candy and as addictive as a drug? Areum resented herself as she trailed off. If it hadn’t been for her blood, she should have been able to lure him and get him addicted to her. Hey, god? I don’t even care that I didn’t land as a princess or the daughter of an aristocratic family, but couldn’t you at least have given me some means or method to survive? If a god were there in front of her, she would have at least grabbed them by the collar. Areum floundered in hopelessness.

And then, as if to drive a stake through her already aching heart, the vampire spoke.

“Now, I’ve come up with a great idea.”

Amusement painted his face.

“How about I sell you off?”

“What?”

“I think I’d be far better off if I send you back to the auction house and collected the profits. With the title, ‘Female Vampire, Certified by Duke Travis,’ added on. What do you think? More constructive than putting you in a bear cage, is it not?”

“Th… They won’t believe it. It’s strange, to sell off one of your own kind.”

The man’s smile grew wider at her terrified words.

“Who cares if they believe it or not? In fact, it probably wouldn’t matter even if it came out that you were a human. A black-haired human, ha! Black as a raven.”

The man grabbed her hair.

“… That hurts!”

Areum’s face twisted in pain as her scalp was yanked upward. The physical pain and fear made her eyes well up with tears. Oh, god. What am I going to do? Areum’s head was in shambles. She had no merit in this lunatic’s eyes. What she needed was to sweeten the deal for him, but she had nothing to offer.

Her brown eyes met his red ones. She felt even more humiliated as he studied her.

“Please. I’ll give you my all. I will serve you more diligently than anyone else in the entire manor.”

Areum pleaded as she cried, but the man only seemed to enjoy watching her. It was as if he was getting some sort of vulgar revenge. Was this how he was getting payback for earlier? It wasn’t Areum’s fault that her blood tasted horrible to him, so did she really have to suffer this as well? She cried more out of a feeling that the world was turned against her.

The man spoke with a condescending tone.

“Save the ‘master’ talk for the vampire that will become your real master. There are some people who would be very giddy if you even just pretended to be a sensuous vampire. There are always people who prefer something special. Who knows? Maybe you’ll become part of a rare collection and spend your days swathed in silk.”

The man’s words rang round and round in Areum’s ears. In her head, she imagined herself climbing onto a bed, imitating a vampire. She would become the slave of a wealthy aristocratic household, and be pushed around to their hearts’ desires. She’d do the same thing there as I’m trying to do here now and do my best to curry favor with my owner. In order to live, she’d hypnotize herself, saying that she had no other choice.

Or, she could be shipped off to a lab and become a subject for psycho researchers who will cut her open. Perhaps they would firmly believe her to be a vampire and put on a show, saying they were dissecting a vampire. Areum’s imagination was growing darker and darker.

Areum wished that a thunderbolt would strike her down—without so much as a chance to say, “Ah!” before she was dead. Dying didn’t seem so bad if it happened while her mind was at ease, without her being conscious of it happening.

Every option—the bear cage, the auction house, much less dying at the hands of the vampire—seemed entirely horrifying. She wanted to live, so why was it that she could only picture herself dying in the end? Areum wanted to live by whatever means necessary, but at the moment it seemed that no matter what she did, she would only meet a horrible end.

“Please… Please spare me.”

“But I haven’t even killed you? Didn’t I say I’d kindly hand you over to another master?”

The hand clutching her hair let go. The man stared down at Areum, who he had flung down on the floor. He wanted to get his last bit of fun in by watching her wriggling around, trying to live.

At times, humans can be even more cruel to other humans. Areum knew that returning to the slave market could be the start of even more excruciating despair. For a while, she had been locked in a cage full of wailing. And so, she knew well the despair and moans surging through its air. People in her same position all had premonitions about their own demises. And none of them looked good. The premonitions only showed wretched days spent lower than a human, like livestock.

Areum considered the fact that staying where she was could be better off. After all, since the man absolutely loathed the taste of her blood, she wouldn’t be in danger of him sucking her blood until she died. In fact, maybe it was a good thing that her blood tasted so disgusting. Among her tens of thousands of racing thoughts, it seemed to present hope.

“Please save me. If I go back there, I’ll die. I’m begging you, please. I’ll work harder than anyone.”

“God, you’re pathetic. I haven’t seen a human lacking self-respect as much as you in quite some time.”

The man was in a supremely cheery mood as he pushed Areum away after she had crawled over to him and clung to his pants. Areum fell flat on her face and cried. Even though she knew all too well that the man was watching her, she couldn’t help herself from crying. She wished she were dead. She wished he were dead. Her body shook and shook.

After all she had done! After all that begging and pleading! Why was he still persecuting her so? Growing furious, she spoke.

“Fine. Sell me.”

She spoke, feeling as if she were throwing up on the inside, her trembling fists clenching the rug.

“Yes, sell me off to whoever you want. Then I’ll tell them everything. I’ll tell them that my blood disgusts you. That if even a drop of it gets on your tongue, you freak out and start puking! I’ll tell them to take my blood and use it to make some sort of medicine or vampire poison for self-defense. I’ll tell them that if you spray it all over a vampire’s face, it’ll lose its wits long enough to drive a stake right into its heart! Do you get my drift? Whoever buys me will get filthy rich as taking the blood out of me day after day. If need be, I’ll distribute it to soldiers and tell them to weaponize. In a place like this where vampires can be Dukes, I think there are going to be a lot of takers, don’t you?!”

Areum panted after finishing her speech, her shoulders rising and falling with each breath.

The man’s expression gradually changed. The face of the beast preying on her twisted into its most terrifying form since entering the stone chamber. It wasn’t a sinister countenance or a scowl. Rather, his eyes had simply grown cold as ice. Not the slightest trace of humanity could be found in them. He seemed more like a monster now than when he had even dug his teeth into her. He looked as if he could crush an ant to death with his thumb without a single emotion. This was the face that stared down at Areum.

Slowly, he reached out both his hands and took hold of Areum’s neck. The vibrations of her trembling, slender neck, and the movement of her esophagus as she swallowed with a gulp, were conveyed directed through his skin on hers. Despite him only wrapping his hands around her gently, Areum was quivering like a leaf. Though the sensation of him pressing down gently with his thumb didn’t obstruct her breathing in the slightest, it still made her hair stand on edge.

Though it was too late to take it back, Areum was beginning to regret speaking so harshly. Maybe she was finally going to die this time. The rage that had made her boil up inside had vanished, and in its place was once again a fear of dying. With fearful eyes she glanced at the man’s arm, then looked back at his icy cold eyes.

“Is that all?”

He spoke while looking Areum in the eye.

“To hell with the money, I’m starting to wonder if I should just kill you.”

Yet while speaking, his hands did not squeeze her throat any tighter. If she was going to die, she wanted it to be painless. So, waiting like this was too much for her to bear. She was needlessly anxious, thinking up suffering not yet inflicted upon her. The more time he took, the more on edge she became.

If he wanted to kill her, why not just kill her? His enormous hands wrapped around her face and neck seemed at the ready to kill her, but still he didn’t wring her throat. This playing to get shook Areum and affected to shift her attitude.

Areum placed her hands over his as they held her neck. Then, tracing a smile over her pleading face, she turned on her charm to a level she didn’t even use with her mother.

“If you only let me live, I’ll serve you enough to make that 130,000 gold not a waste.”

I was right. This man has a strange soft spot. He still hasn’t brushed away my hands clasped over his own. Maybe he’s leaving them alone because he knows that I can’t do him any harm. Thanks to this, Areum had the courage to take it a step further.

“I’ve been class leader many times and in middle school, and I was even class president. I had an intuitive sense when it came to helping my teachers out, and I also was really good at helping my mother out at home. A long time ago, I even cared for my ill grandmother, and was praised for my skills in doing so. I can do any sort of chore without complaining. I’m at your service. I’d gladly dedicate my body to your service. Of course, if you use me, I won’t say a word about my blood. I told you that I have a strong sense of responsibility before. I always keep my promises.”

It was the voice she used when begging her dorm’s housemistress to let her leave just one night early so that she could return home. Or when asking her friend for a buck to buy a snack. Or when she calmed her mother down by saying she’d do better on her next test. Like someone who had lost all fear, Areum pleaded with him in an intimate tone.

“Please, just allow me to serve and assist you. Please?”