About Dueling Sickness – Part 2

Such a surprise.

Apparently, vampires can die of the fever caused by this state especially if someone is looking at them thanks to the third law of observation – long story short, looking at something serves as proof it exists in the world and thus can be affected by it.

It goes like this. They will start shivering, sweating, growing hotter and hotter, and then return to normal temperature. THEN they do it again more violently and end up dead either because of brain damage, accumulated fluid in the lungs, organ failure, anemia, or hypoglycemia. Or maybe all of those if unlucky enough.

"W-Wait. This is no laughing matter!!!"

I raised up and jumped to the girl immediately, even if we weren't that far away.

"Hey! Can you hear me? You are welcome inside my house! You hear me?! You are welcome! You are welcome! You are welcome!"

The only way to stop the fever was to allow the vampire inside. But since this sickness partially found its roots in the vampire's psyche, they had to know that they were allowed inside for them to get better. My only solution here was to repeatedly say to her "You are welcome" hoping that she would eventually hear me and get better.

Holding her hand I repeated that sentence again and again and again and again. I don't know how long it took, but by the time the sun went down, I was getting sick of it, literally. I mean, I was sick in the first place, and that never changed. I just felt better at some point, but now that the night was there, I started shivering myself.

"you are welcome… you are welcome…"

At that point, I wondered if she could still hear me. Honestly, I might have asked too much of this throat of mine just like on a certain other night. Well, I can't really say I regret it since in both cases, it worked.

"Hm… Hm?"

For a few minutes, I decided to stop. The other vampire girl's condition was stable for many minutes now so it meant that, at least, she wasn't affected by dueling sickness anymore. In fact, she was not exhibiting any of its symptoms. That meant I could thankfully stop wiping her – it was getting both embarrassing and tiring. That being said, she was still sleeping without any indication of awakening. I just hoped she hadn't fallen into a comatose state or anything. But who knew? If it came to that, I couldn't do much, sadly.

As I was contemplating the idea, the other vampire girl let out a few moans before turning her face towards me. Her eyes were still half-closed but could already tell that they weren't normal at all.

"What is it, Sister?" she asked with a soft tone. "Are you not going to say that I am welcome anymore? Are you not going to console anymore? Ah, Sister, you can even ra…"

She suddenly stopped. Her eyes opened a bit wider and she stared at me for a long moment without a word.

"Ah, a snake has tempted me. Holes for dinner tonight."

"... *cough**cough* C-Come again?"

What was she saying exactly? Was she still dizzy? Also, who was she calling a snake? She was the one with somewhat disturbing green eyes with slit pupils! Anyway, I decided to ignore whatever she said before and continue as if nothing happened.

"Huh… anyway… are you feeling better now?" I asked, my throat still itchy.

The girl closed her eyes before replying, "Who might you be? You are not my sister, yet you smell like her."

"Smell?"

What was she saying all of a sudden?

"Huh, sorry. I don't know who…"

I stopped. Thinking about it, maybe I knew who this sister of hers was. But it couldn't be, right? Just how improbable was that? Besides, why would that girl's sister have scarlet hair when she had pure dark ones?

"Huh... Is your sister a tall, slender, pale teenage girl with dark hair, red eyes, and glasses?"

"That description would fit her, yes."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Is there a problem?"

"Huh, no. Nevermind."

I suppose my expression at the time was quite enough to express the internal facepalm I was making. Though, since her eyes were closed, I guess it wasn't the reason behind her question.

"Excuse me, but you did not answer me yet," the girl said, sitting up. "Who might you be?"

"Me? Huh… My name is Dawn."

"Dawn, Dawn. Hmm."

She put her fist in front of her mouth as a part of her reflexive pose. Then, after long seconds of thinking noises, she "looked" at me again and hit her palm with her fist as if a light bulb was turned on above her head.

"Never heard of you!" she exclaimed for whatever reason.

"..."

I pressed my lips together. At first, I had my doubts, but I had to face it: either this girl was very close to the vampire I knew, or all vampires were morons.

"You do realize I never heard of you either, right? That is what, huh, being strangers is all about… sort of."

"I know that much, human. My point was to underline how strange all of this is. I came here because it smelled like Sister. Yet, I only found you. That would normally be fine by itself, but that smell of yours is no light smell. In fact, this whole room is soaked in it. Soaked in her. So – excuse me if this sounds indiscreet but – what exactly is Sister doing here with you?"

"..."

I couldn't say anything. Not because I was embarrassed or angry or anything but because I had WAAAY too many questions to ask. Like, smells? Was she a dog or something? And what did she mean by "soaked"? And if she was looking for her sister like I believe I understood, why not just text her? Or call her for that matter.

"Could it be…" the girl began, hiding her mouth behind her half-clenched fist. "Could it be that you are that human she is interested in lately?"

"... Lately?"

"Hm? Are you not?"

"Huh, no, I, uh… Well, she does say she is interested in me but…"

"So it was you…"

"... I guess."

My mind hung on that specific word – Lately. To this girl, I was the human her sister was interested in LATELY.

I mean, I already knew that, as a virtually immortal being, I wasn't the first person she took interest in. In fact, I would have been lucky if I was in the hundredth or thousandth when it came to that.

That being said, it still hurt me a bit. Her sister, or at least someone who seemed to know her better than I did, talked about me like some random NPC she was going to forget once all their lines were exhausted. Indifference really is worse than hate.

"Oh, pardon my rudeness," she said, before bowing lightly. "I just realized I did not introduce myself. My given name is *cough**cough**cough*"

The red-headed vampire was interrupted by a violent coughing fit.

"Are… Are you okay? You don't have to—"

As I tried approaching her, she kept me away using one of her hands.

"Don't*cough* get closer. *cough**cough*"

The coughing fit wasn't going down; if anything it was getting worse. At some point, she even coughed a bit of blood.

"... Are you sure you are okay?" I mumbled more than asked.

It was a pointless thing to ask; she clearly wasn't looking good. However, I couldn't fathom why she was in that state. It couldn't be something like tuberculosis since vampires can't get sick normally but, at the same time, she had green eyes instead of red ones so she was probably a variant. Maybe they could suffer from something else than CVC? I couldn't be sure and it was highly unlikely. Meaning that I only had one choice left.

"You are welcome into my house."

I put my hand on her back and said those words to her. I was hoping that they would work even if only a little bit and bring her some sort of relief. I repeated the sentence a few times while rubbing her back and, gradually, the coughing stopped.

"*Sigh* I was worried there for a second…" I said, putting my heart on my chest. I thought my heart would stop.

"You… Why did you?"

The tired-looking vampire turned to me, her face conveying her confusion. Since I didn't understand why she was "looking" at me like that, I couldn't do anything else than throw her the same stare she was throwing at me… with the open eyes in bonus.

"... My given name is… Iovanna Domenica Cassini A-Lua," she said with a calm and slow tone.

"Huh?"

I was taken aback. She decided to just continue from earlier as if nothing happened.

"I believe you already know this but I, like my sister, am a cognate."

"A cognate?"

I squinted and asked about the snob and scientific-sounding name. No, it wasn't that I couldn't guess what it was referring to. It was because the other vampire girl gave me her own name just like that.

The vampire girl I knew didn't even give me her first name! Or even its first letter for that matter!!! I wasn't sure how to take it.

"Yes. It is a term meaning blood siblings. Fitting for us, nightwalkers, is it not?"

"Oh… Is that a scientific name for vampires?" I asked, distractedly. Was she suddenly fine or something?

The girl shook her head, "No. That is just how we like to refer to ourselves."

"Oh…" So it WAS a snob name!

"It is just like you monkey variants who call themselves humans."

"... Right."

Uwah... The arrogance and ignorance in this sentence.

I know it is nothing special, but I hate openly arrogant people, at least most of them. I hate even more openly arrogant and stupid people.

I mean, sure, calling a human a monkey variant is not THAT wrong but that is just like those people who think all birds are the same because they are birds. That is quite a simplistic generalization. If at least she was talking about chimpanzees I would have been less annoyed but she… huh, no, I am digressing.

What I really wanted to talk about is that vampires ARE humans. Well, altered humans. Altered by their uncanny cursed blood and not much else. Simply put, they are blood-sucking monkeys…

Heh, the idea was amusing actually. I couldn't help but smile at the thought of flying bloodsucking monkeys. What was that? A too-bad-it-becomes-good horror movie like Killer Shrews was? Hehehe.

"Why are you smiling like so, human?"

"Hm? Oh, ah, uh… don't mind me."

The way my mind wanders around sometimes is concerning. At that moment, I wondered how the vampire girl was able to follow my train of thought. The more I understood myself, the more I realized how much effort must be made to get along with me. How much effort must be made to not ignore me? That vampire was truly… huh, nevermind. Huh, anyway, her sister didn't need to deal with that, did she?

"Huh, now that you are feeling better, are you going to look for your sister?"

Or how to ask someone to leave you alone in a roundabout way, lesson one – remind them they have something better to do elsewhere. That way they don't get angry at you and might even be thankful that you brought that thing back to their attention. Hey, being a coward has some advantages! I should try writing a book, I have confidence it will be a bestseller!

"You are right but that rain outside is dangerous. If I went out now, I am afraid I would not last."

"Ah…"

Ah…

"Besides, I still have something to discu— Is something wrong, human?"

"Nothing much. I just lost a bestseller, that's all…"

The red-haired girl "stared" at me behind her closed eyelids. It was as if she was appraising me just like how a snake would estimate how tender the flesh of the mice it was about to bite is. Needless to say, it was disturbing… in more ways than one.

"Huh… Is something wrong?" I asked, squinting my eyes.

"Ah, I understand," she suddenly said, hitting her palm with her fist. "You are quite ignorant, are you not?"

"... Come again?"

Standing on all four, the girl leaned forward, putting her face awfully close to mine. To me, she looked a bit like an overexcited dog – a clear cut from her cold and regal behavior up until that point.

"You are not tense around me and talk to me as if we are close friends. I wondered why you would dare to act like that but now it makes sense: you do not know about my family!"

I leaned back, squinting my eyes, "Oh… uh…"

"Hm? Why are you running away, human?"

"Uh… I am not really—"

"Hm… Give it time as they say."

Her face turned downward. Not literally, of course, she just looked a bit down that is all.

"Erm…. Is your family a family of nobles or something? No, huh, I mean noble not as the type of vampires but as—"

"Do not worry, human. I understood your question quite well," she said, sitting on the bed. "To answer it as simply as possible, I will say this: No, we are not nobles."

"Eh~..." That is surprising…

"Yes, after that incident with the guillotines, we estimated that noble titles were a bit too dangerous to have. No, what is 'hot' nowadays is having a lot of cryptocurrencies and big actions in Eastern companies that produce products nobody would ever think they could make anyone rich without intensive research. But you probably knew that, did you not?"

"Excuse me?"

"Of course, we have actions in more obvious companies. Smart money, they call us. If you are interested, I can become your financial advisor. A huge crisis should happen shortly, this is the occasion for you to become a billionaire, and stop wasting your time going there," she said, 'glancing' at my school uniform hung behind the door. "I can give you a price since I am in a good mood."

"..."

Why did I feel like I heard something I shouldn't have?!! Vampires are dangerous!!! In more ways than one!!!

"... Uh, is your family… rich?" I asked, probably confused.

"My family? No, we are not."

"Huh?" THAT is surprising!

"The term 'rich' does not even begin to describe our wealth."

"Oh…"

Okay, whatever… I think I was starting to get this one too.

The other vampire girl, Iovanna, turned to the wall at the head of my bed and started scratching it. With her fingernails. Why I was even surprised by such things at that point is the real mystery here.

"Here," she said, tapping on the wall, "this is my phone number. Contact me when you want, I will be waiting."

"Uh, sure but… You could have written it down on a paper or something, no? My landlord isn't going to be happy about this…"

Besides, this was proof she at least knew what a phone was so, I will ask this one more time: WHY DIDN'T SHE TEXT HER SISTER???

She "glanced" at the wall she just damaged before "looking" at me again.

"Oh, this? I will buy this house for you later so it is not an issue."

"Which… Which part of this is not an issue exactly?"

"Now that this is out of the way, I think we should discuss another more pressing matter, human," Iovanna said, ignoring me.

She left the bed and made a few steps around my room "looking" left and right, sniffing here and there. I don't know what disturbed me more. How ridiculously long her hair was, the fact that she was sniffing my stuff, or the fact that I could occasionally see her panties since the T-shirt wasn't long enough, at least for her size.

"So, why exactly are you keeping your eyes closed? Are you… blind or something?"

Yeah, all the above mentioned were interesting, but the fact that she kept her eyes closed was the thing bothering me the most.

Iovanna turned around her long scarlet hair spinning along her body.

"Do you wish to see my eyes?" she asked.

A simple question with a simple answer yet, for some reason, I smelled danger. But I was the one who asked – I can't say exactly why, but replying "no" there seemed like the wrong option. However…

"Well, when you, uh, look(?) at me with your eyes closed, I feel a bit uncomfortable."

Not saying "no" doesn't mean saying "yes" so I came up with a relatively good reply, I think. Hey, maybe that best-seller thing is still viable!

Iovanna put her right on her chest, "Just to be sure, you are the one that put those garments on my body, did you not?"

"Huh, yes, I did."

"And you are the one who cleaned my body, are you not?"

I would rather forget about it but… "Y-Yes. Though the way you put it is…"

"With water. Is that correct?"

"... Uh, excuse me but what is the point you're trying to make?"

"You are one hasty person, human."

You sure love to call me human, huh?

"Oh well, not that it matters at this point."

She pointed at my face with her finger.

"Dawn, was it?"

"Uh, that is my name, yes."

"Congratulations, you are now entitled to be my husband! Rejoice!"

"..... Excuse me?"