Varying Reactions

When I returned home that night, I was surprised that neither of my parents was there.

Considering their doting nature, it was already a shocker that they didn't arrive at the scene of the crime even though I was there for an hour, dealing with the police and their questions.

Even though we murdered dozens of people, because we were acting in self-defense and the last names we carried, none of us were arrested and taken to jail.

If we wanted to, we could've just left early and none of them would've had the guts to stop us.

But it was always better to just cooperate and get things over with before you make them too complicated for yourself.

"Father is currently talking with the Asano clan," Cyro answered me.

"With the Asanos? What for?" I asked.

"I think he's there to inform them to take care of their business back home as quickly as possible or else he will intervene and take care of it for them," he responded.

'That's pretty badass,' I thought to myself.

It made sense for Father to be a little angry because his beloved son was just endangered.

It also made sense for him to hold himself back for the moment because firstly, a foreigner involving themselves in the war was a recipe for international disaster even though he would be justified since his family was attacked first.

Secondly, Father was so powerful that if he were to engage in battle actively, the whole world would be put on notice, and attention to our family would increase a thousandfold.

Thirdly and I think most importantly, he's probably heard the news that I was completely fine so he was able to relatively keep his cool.

"What about Mother?" I inquired. "Is she with Father?"

Cyro shivered at my question before shaking it off.

"No. She's... she's currently releasing her anger out at a dungeon," he replied. Just the mere thought of it was giving him chills.

I looked outside the window and it was pitch-black.

"This late at night?" I asked.

"I asked her the same thing and do you know what said?"

"What did she say?"

He replied, "She said that 'therapy doesn't care about what time of day it is'."

"Therapy?" I scoffed, shaking my head. If this was her method of physical therapy then I felt bad for whatever monster stood in her way.

About to head to the showers to clean me from all the blood and gunk on my body, Cyro grabbed my hand.

I turned around and with a worried face, he asked me, "Are you okay?"

"Hmm? Oh. I'm fine. None of their attacks really reached me," I answered. I had used Urisha's time-stop ability to observe where the attacks were coming from so none of them ever got too close for comfort.

"...No," he shook his head at my answer. "You know that's not what I'm asking you about."

"Then what are you... ahh... you mean emotionally am I okay?"

He nodded his head, letting go of my hand.

I thought about it for a second before giving him a shrug.

"I don't really know. This is the first time I've ever taken someone's life before but to be completely honest with you, brother... I don't really feel anything about it. I just see it as me defending myself," I responded truthfully.

There was a moment of silence as Cyro was thinking about something before he smiled and said, "Alright. If you're fine then that's all that matters. Go take a shower. You stink."

He rubbed his hands through my hair, ignoring the fact that it was stained with blood.

Waking up the next morning, I noticed that a few things in my room were different than when I went to sleep.

I immediately thought of my parents who must've come in while I was asleep.

With a smile, I walked downstairs to find Mother there like usual.

After a tight hug, a little bit of nagging, and words of affirmation, she sent me off to school.

School — well, the school was chaos embodied.

Not only did news of my battle in the restaurant circulate but videos also went viral on the internet and most, if not everyone, saw a bloody side of me they've never seen before.

A few students were terrified of me due to my willingness to kill.

I couldn't blame these kids. Although they were at an academy that was training them for the real world, a bloodier world, none of them have ever drawn blood before.

Training and reality were two completely different things.

Most people, however, understood my side of things and knew that I was just protecting myself as reported by the news.

That wasn't all that people were talking about though.

They were also discussing the person who I was with before and after the exchange ended, and the students quickly learned from their friends who learned from their friends that it was Asano Ichiko.

Many of the boys at the academy had jealousy in their gaze, envious of the beauty that was by my side.

"It should've been me," was what many of them were saying.

Most of the girls, however, were far more interested in why she was there with me, what our relationship was, and how we got to know each other.

"Do you think they're dating?"

"Are they just friends or is there something more?"

"Has he already moved on from his crush on that Diana girl?"

A small portion who had a crush on Bell Agnus was also a little jealous of her.

"She's not even that pretty. I mean... she's alright I guess. It's probably all makeup and photoshop anyway. Personally, if I was a guy, I wouldn't go for someone whose entire look could be erased with one wet wipe."

The few friends I made, they all had questions but I navigated through them without giving away too much information.

I didn't want people to find out that she was my fiancée.

I didn't want the attention on me to stray from the protagonist image I was curating for myself. My love life wasn't something that needed to be focused upon.

The Three Stooges: Jess, Cormier, and Francis, were the worst out of all of them.

Jess was pressing me about my relationship with Ichiko so heavily that I wondered if she was my stepmother or something.

Francis, a man still in love with his girlfriend as ever, was more focused on why we were attacked by these people in dark clothing.

I pretended as if I didn't know.

Cormier was a little better than the other two as he wasn't extremely talkative but when he did ask a question, they were extremely loaded questions.

"How does it feel to kill someone?"

"Do you think those memories will come back in the future to haunt you?"

In the middle of the hallway, as I was walking to my next course, Peaches cut me off to compliment me, "Hey... good job."

"Thank... you? On what may I ask?"

"For kicking their butts. Don't feel bad about what you did. You did what you had to do."

Her words were a little brash but it was clear that she was trying to cheer me up for the killings I had to do.

Near the end of the day, just when I thought that I was going to get some time alone without all these eyes on me as I hid in the bathroom, I received a text.

It was Diana giving me a location to head to as soon as possible.

I shook my head, refusing to believe that she needed blood so soon so I went there to the location I was given, expecting to be bombarded with questions.

But as I sat there on the chair, she just paced around back and forth for a while, looking like she had something to say.

Eventually, she just tossed whatever it was that was on her mind aside and began unbuttoning my shirt.

"Uhm... what are you doing?" I asked as I grabbed her wrists.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" she asked in return, her eyebrow-raising in confusion as if my question was a dumb one to ask.

"It looks like you're trying to take off my shirt," I answered.

She nodded her head and said, "Then you already know the answer. That's exactly what I'm doing."

She unbuttoned the next button and I grabbed her wrists again. "What?" she asked me, confused even more about why I was stopping her.

"Why are you unbuttoning my shirt thought?"

"So... I can drink your blood. You know, like the previous two times we've done this," she answered, making a face as if something was wrong with me.

"But why do you need my blood? Didn't you drink a lot last time?" I asked.

"Yes but my urges are back," she responded.

"Really?" I muttered, a little confused.

I couldn't tell her that she was wrong about her urges since they were hers but — that didn't sound right to me.

But unable to refute that claim, I allowed her to finish unbuttoning my shirt.

"Drink as much as you need," I sighed. "Drink a little extra so we don't have to do this so often."

If she was going to be drinking every day then we still wouldn't reach the hundredth mark by the time the main character of the novel arrives.

However, for it to go from two days to one, that worried me a little which was why I suggested she drank more.

If she drinks more per session, the time between then and the next session would be longer. Hopefully.

I told her to drink a little extra but she must've misheard as she drank a lot extra.

If it wasn't for getting full, she probably would've continued drinking my blood until I was drained of all my mana.

Before I could say anything, she wiped her mouth and walked out of the room with her backpack.

I looked at the time and the school day had just ended.

"What's up with her?" I wondered. "Is it her time of the month?"