A Sudden Visit

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

"Just one more minute…"

Lucian pulled his pillow over his head, desperately trying to cover his ears and block out the noise.

He tried to get the alarm to leave him in peace, but unfortunately, a certain robotic voice said otherwise.

"I can't master Lucian, you strictly instructed me to wake you up. On the off chance that vampires were strictly nocturnal beings, you asked me to try everything in my power to make you wake up during the day."

Lucian scoffed.

"Nocturnal? I might as well be. We were up quite late last night, so just give me a few more minutes."

"One more thing, Master. The young madam just entered the house."

Lucian jumped out of his bed.

"What did you just say? Stella's here? Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

"She just arrived only a few moments ago, teleporting directly into the manor as usual."

Lucian grimaced and kneaded his forehead.

"Seriously, doesn't understand this is PRIVATE property? Also, that doors exist?"

"I swear… That woman treats everything of mine like it's her property… Furthermore, she's doing this when we aren't even married yet!"

Lucian suddenly heard a voice call out from behind him which causing him to shudder.

"Doing what when we aren't even married yet?"

Turning around slowly, Lucian flashed his fiancé the brightest fake smile he could muster.

"H-hey, Stella! Fancy seeing you here!"

Stella looked at Lucian's attire with a deadpan expression.

"Sigh… I knew it. I had a feeling you would try to skip class today."

Lucian's smile froze, threatening to shatter.

"I-I never planned on skipping! I'm just… getting ready!"

"Yet you're still in your pyjamas when homeroom starts in 25 minutes? What happened to 'being a diligent student'?"

'Shit.'

"Um… On second thought, I'm not feeling that well… So I'm going to go rest for a bit… I'll see you later!"

Lucian tried to climb back onto his bed but realized he was still firmly in place.

Looking over his shoulder he saw Stella holding the scruff of his shirt, preventing him from moving.

"... Is there something wrong?" Lucian asked nervously.

Stella gave Lucian a sweet yet scary smile.

"It's time to go to school, Lucian~"

Lucian desperately tried to escape her, using all of his strength to move forwards.

He knew it would be a hopeless endeavour but he still wanted to try.

Unlike what he predicted, instead of being overpowered by Stella, somehow Lucian managed to escape her iron grip.

Something he wouldn't have ever imagined occurring.

After all, he'd never managed to overpower Stella physically.

Even when they were kids.

Stella stared blankly at Lucian's back and then looked at her outstretched hand with confusion.

"How… Did you do that?"

Beads of sweat rolled down the back of Lucian's neck as he tried to figure out a plausible explanation.

"Um… Maybe your hands slipped? Could they be wet or something?"

That sounded quite far-fetched, but Stella decided to at least consider that possibility.

Stella looked at her hands and realized they were slightly moist.

'That must be it,' she thought to herself.

Never once did Lucian overpowering her with raw strength cross her mind.

While she wasn't going all out, she was still 2 years older than him and possessed a power that was far beyond what an F-rank ability could produce.

While she didn't want to disparage her fiancé as weak, she wasn't able to see any feasible way for him to beat her.

She even sparred with him yesterday, getting an accurate gauge on her fiancé's current strength.

Unless there was a way someone could get exponentially stronger overnight, this had to have been a fluke.

"Come on, get up!"

Snapping out of her reverie, Stella walked up to Lucian and pulled him out of the room by the ear.

"Quickly get ready, I'll even do you a favour and use my ability so we don't get late".

"... Fine"

Despite being unwilling, Lucian decided to listen to his fiancé…

After all what other choice did he have?

Lucian preferred to keep a low profile, pretending to be a useless kid who only knew how to waste money.

While parts of his lazy attitude weren't an act, he would still pretend to be far less capable than he really was.

All of this was to stay under the radar of those who were against him.

As long as Lucian kept his facade of being worthless, those people wouldn't bother to touch him.

After all, talentless trash wouldn't amount to much either way, so instead of dirtying their hands, they would much instead let Lucian self-destruct on his own.

As long as Lucian could keep them in a similar state of mind, he can quietly amass power, and land a decisive strike before they could change their minds and kill him.

Originally Lucian planned on gathering dirt on his targets and blackmailing them into following him or relying on Alecia to hack their bank accounts, bankrupting them in one fell swoop.

He had set forward both schemes in tandem, but the whole Vampirization process completely threw off his plans.

While Lucian did love an amazing spectacle since he had the potential to get stronger now, why not just get the revenge in person?

As long as he can get strong enough and absorb enough high-ranking skills, he could crush his opposition.

Making those greedy corporate vultures as well as those two-faced backstabbing bastards regret the day they tried to lay their filthy hands on his parent's legacy.

Since he needed to stay incognito until he amassed enough power, he would much rather play the fool in the meantime.

While he understood Stella's concern, considering how often he actively attends classes, he would rather keep up his current lifestyle.

After fixing his hair with a comb, Lucian gave himself a quick once-over in the mirror.

Maybe it was the aftereffects of consuming blood, but after killing Carter Owenson, Lucians fangs retracted.

Even his blood-red eyes returned back to their usual icy-black colour

"All right, time to go to school…"