It was a beautiful night to spend time in this lonely world as Adam and Alucard walked around quietly, side by side, in search of any fresh corpses or wild animals to get her into drinking blood, a necessary thing for vampires like this girl to survive. Lilim and Garnet decided to stay at the campsite to be on guard for anything that might happen, preparing to fight back against potential enemies that might come to steal their stuff.
While they peacefully transverse through these woods, his mind thought of some questions he wanted to ask before deciding to keep them to himself, finding it better to ask once she found any fresh corpses to drink. It was better to keep his mouth shut until then, as he didn't want to bother her, and instead let her have some time to herself to think about what she would do in the circumstances that they were placed in.
Although he hopes it doesn't involve encountering live animals, Adam isn't the type of person who likes hurting wild animals to begin with. They are living creatures too, but unlike humans, these creatures are simple-minded and only desire to survive, just like humans do. It wouldn't be fair for them to hunt them down and kill them, so he doesn't want to do it unless in dire circumstances.
While he understands that she needs to find either a dead or live one, he hopes that her way of killing them isn't as painful and brutal as how she does it to her enemies. It's a bad thing to be, considering that killing should only be done if necessary, or else the guilt and burden of taking life can take a toll on the soul.
But he supposes that some people have different ways of expressing their desire to kill another life, whether it's quickly and mercifully or slowly and painfully as they want to satisfy their sick desire for blood, and with that, Adam can only hope for the best that she isn't some sadistic murderer that likes to kill.
To be fair, she has a habit of brutally killing her enemies in battle, but Adam supposes that he should give her some credit for simply defending herself rather than hunting down people who had nothing to do with her onslaught. It's a wonder how someone is capable of switching from killing at any moment to simply defending themselves from danger.
Regardless, he doesn't want to judge her for how she lived; the poor girl has gone through a lot, and he sympathizes with her for continuing to move forward instead of letting herself be dragged down by her own tragic past. Whether she is a good person or not, Adam doesn't care as long as she doesn't try to hurt his friends and family.
Finally reaching to their designation, after a few minutes of walking, the pair finally found their first target: a dead mother deer with several of her children mourning over her corpse. A depressing atmosphere was felt by them as they watched the tragic scene in front of them. Adam didn't want to imagine how hard this poor deer must have felt to die and leave her children behind, feeling extreme pity for her.
What is worse, the corpse's stomach was open, showing that it had been savagely devoured by a wild animal that had come across her first, which made him guess that the mother managed to hide her children before her timely death. Sadness could be seen on Adam's face as he imagined the poor creature must have felt agony and fear before dying from another animal.
The cruel nature of life itself, to think a creature with such a peaceful life could come to this, being killed by another animal that simply desires to survive in this unforgiving world, It's an endless cycle of death and the desire to live, something he cherishes deeply for the animals that share these traits, respecting Mother Nature for both her magnificent and terrible work.
"Alright, this would be easy." Grappling her hilt, she pulled out the rapier, ready to kill them. "I'll make sure to—"
"No," Adam coldly announced, surprising her with the sudden response as she turned and looked at him with a questioning gaze, not understanding why he suddenly stopped her. He saw the bewilderment on her face and felt some confusion himself as well, but he supposes that she would understand his intentions.
Staring at him for what seems like several minutes, "no?" Asking with a confused expression on her face as if she didn't hear him correctly, Adam can't blame her; after all, it was a little hard to hear him properly with the loud cries of the crying fawns and the arrival of crows pecking on their mother's dead body: "What do you mean 'no'?"
"No," he repeated himself as he felt something inside him make him not want to kill these poor animals who are mourning over their dead mother, "you can't do it," keeping his stern expression, sadness apparent in his own eyes, "let these innocent creatures mourn their loved one; it hurts me to see them like this." With hands on his chest, he shook his head in disapproval, "I'm sorry, Alucard, but I do not like animals to be hunted in this matter."
Hearing this, she became shocked that he just refused to kill the helpless creature to satisfy her needs. "But..." She understands the reason, but she can't help but be slightly disappointed by the fact that he doesn't want to let her drink the blood of these creatures. "I'm hungry," the vampire quietly uttered while looking up at him with a pleading gaze.
Looking at her in the eyes, he sighed before nodding, kneeling down to her level before extending his right arm towards her, pulling away his sleeve to reveal his fresh waist. "I should have done this before, but drink my blood instead," he concluded, resulting the girl to gasped at the sight of this.
She looked at him with hesitation, conflicted on what to do as the young mistress herself didn't want to hurt him anymore. The main reason why she wanted to look for some fresh corpses or wild animals to drink was so she wouldn't have to keep drinking his blood if he were some guinea pig, but now she isn't sure if Alucard could do such a thing, especially when it came to the person she admires greatly.
"I..." What should she do? She wouldn't want to disappoint him, and yet, she doesn't want to hurt him anymore. "Are you sure about this?" Asking, wanting to be certain of his choice, "This is dangerous," taking his wrist and carefully staring at it with deep contemplation, "I might kill you," feeling even more hesitant to even do this as she looked back at him with a conflicted gaze.
He sighed, nodding with a stern expression with a strong feeling to have his desire of letting these animals be animals, "do it," keeping his expression and willing to take his risk in having her drink his blood that might result in his death if she does something wrong somehow, "if you ever need blood, just get it from instead; you don't even need to ask," smiling warmly as he gently stroked her hair with his other hand.
Seeing him in this state, she couldn't help but tear up from seeing his gentle side, wiping away her tears as she put her hands on his wrist and grabbed it firmly before doing what he asked, "I'll make this quick," as she prepared to gently bite him, extracting her fangs before they implanted into his skin.
With that in mind, she began to drink his blood, slowly and carefully, trying her hardest to measure how much she needed to prevent having him die from blood loss. She had the terrible thought of having his blood in her mouth because she didn't want to lose another friend because of her own selfishness, something she would regret if she did so.
Like before, Adam expressed discomfort on his face. The pain of being drained by a vampire is painful and excruciating, but he refused to scream or cry, biting his lips to prevent himself from doing so, forcing himself to endure the pain for the sake of letting these animals mourn and allowing her to survive without having to resort to hurting them or anybody else.
He was hoping he would get used to this pain, although he doubts that will happen as he keeps gritting his teeth while enduring the pain, hearing the crying fawns as they loudly call for their dead mother while the same crows keep pecking on their mother's body, making him almost tear up from both the pain and this depressing situation they landed themselves into.
After what seemed like forever, she finished her drink, looking at the wound she inflicted with remorse and saying, "I'm sorry," before letting his wrist go as she looked down in shame and asked, "Are you okay?" She asked with a guilt-ridden face as she began to feel regret for what she had done, staring up at him to check if he was feeling normal.
Trying his hardest not to show discomfort from the excruciating pain he went through, Adam laughed it off despite how he is feeling nauseated and weak from losing so much blood in his system, readjusting his sleeve as he nodded with a forced smile, "That felt like a bee sting," rubbing his wrist to soothe the pain before noticing how gloomy the young mistress is right now.
Sighing from this situation, "it's fine, just relax and calm down," he softly said, allowing him to take a good look at her red teary eyes. "It's a relief you didn't tore off my arm," jokingly commented to calm her down, trying to ease the bleak situation they are in.
Standing tall while staring down at her with a compassionate expression on his face, saying, "Don't blame yourself for every problem you've done." His statement spoke of wisdom, causing her to look up at him with curiosity of what he meant by that: "We are all responsible for our actions," as he raised his index finger to emphasize his point, "but no matter what we do in life, we must live with our actions and consequences instead of dwelling on them forever."
Nodding with a smile, tilting her head with closed eyes and a beaming smile, "Okay, father," Alucard spoke in a joyous tone, her expression filled with returned hope from his words, a bright future for the both of them and those they cared about despite their wretched situation in this cold, unforgiving world.
In quick motion, the fearful shrieks of baby fown alerted their senses, causing the two to turn around, seeing no other than a very large black direwolf. Massive in size and intimidating by its very appearance, the pitiful fown were easily crushed into smithereens inside the thing's mouth, resulting in the rest of the fowns and crowns fleeing from the beast, scurrying away to save their own lives.
Not wasting time to even run away or even attempt to fight this creature, Alucard immediately pointed her rapier at it, ready to defend herself and the person she deeply cares about. "If you wish to die, then by all means," she said, speaking in a confident tone, awaiting the wolf to strike its first attack.
Blood and drool were dripping from its mouth, crouching itself to launch himself at quick speed, making the vampire even more determined to protect Adam at all costs and slice this monster into pieces if it comes down to that, feeling a slight hope to win this fight as she took her stance, waiting for the right time to strike.
In speeds so fast that not even she couldn't even react the attack properly, almost like it teleported just in front of her; its mouth opened wide, showing the razor sharp teeth while its gaping jaws coming towards her in attempt to bite her whole face off, prepared to tear her apart if she didn't move just in time.
Before that happened, Adam moved in front of her as the beast bit his neck instead, resulting in him feeling intense pain and dizziness from this moment on, causing both the direwolf and the young mistress to widen their eyes in shock at this sudden turn of events and making her freeze at her very spot.
The beast that was responsible for attacking him is also surprised; rather than tearing his neck off, it simply retracted its own locked jaw from his neck, and the sound of teeth clattering was heard as it began to retreat slowly, its own expression still in the same look of confusion and astonishment, staring at the man with an almost look of remorse in its face.
Within a few seconds of staring between the two, their assailant fled away, disappearing into the woods as Adam held his own multi-colored neck, bleeding profusely, while his head slowly spun in motion to turn at her, forcing another smile and laugh to put her at ease from what had just happened. "It's just a scratch," he said, trying to make light of the situation once more.
She screamed a loud and piercing scream of anguish as she immediately went to his aid, checking on him to see if he was alright or not before tearing up again, "Adam! Adam!" In a panicked tone as she held his body while Adam still forced to smile to put her at ease, she said, "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?"
"Because..."
Just when he was about to answer, his vision turned dark as her call of his name began to fade, his body falling limp as he began to pass out from blood loss, leaving her to hold him while tears began to roll down her cheeks, unable to form words from her mouth due to feeling speechless and devastated.
