Chapter 15 - Let's Make a Contract!
Translator: Roshi
"Sh-she came out of the gate?"
Kim Jun-o stared at Serintia with a dazed expression.
From what he told me, it seemed Kim Jun-o had come for a routine inspection even though the emission period hadn't arrived yet.
But the gate already showed signs of having discharged.
And there were vivid bloodstains scattered across the floor.
He must have assumed I'd gotten caught up trying to deal with some sudden variable.
I explained calmly.
"Yes. She wasn't trying to come here specifically; she just got swept up in the gate and ended up here by accident. The blood on the floor was from something like medicine she has to take for a chronic condition, and the container broke when she came through the gate. Weren't there transparent glass fragments scattered around?"
"Ah... Now that you mention it. There were transparent glass shards scattered around too. Actually, I thought something had happened to you, Hunter Jeong Shin-hu-nim, so I put my hand on the ground and got a small cut."
Kim Jun-o showed the slight cut on his hand.
"Oh no. You should have said something sooner."
I quickly brought over the first aid kit, disinfected the wound, and put a bandage on it.
Serintia tilted her head at that.
"Why are you doing it like that? Can't you just do it the way you healed me?"
I had to explain the bitter truth to Serintia as well.
"Y-you can't heal your own kind?"
"That's right. It's a Penalty, so there's nothing I can do. The only reason I could heal you was because you're not human, you're a vampire."
On the surface, she looked almost no different from a human, but as long as the species was different, healing was possible.
I'd actually only just learned that myself.
Who would have guessed that an intelligent being like a vampire could come out of a gate?
"I-I see. Then it's a good thing I'm a vampire. Hehe."
Serintia seemed to be thinking that if she'd been human, she wouldn't have been able to get treatment even when she was in pain, so this was fortunate.
"I used to resent every day why I was born as a True Progenitor when I hate blood so much... This is the first time I've ever felt glad I was born as a True Progenitor."
"I see. That must have been really hard."
But if she'd been human, she wouldn't have fallen into Bloodlust in the first place, would she?
Well, as long as the kid's happy about it.
"S-so then... Understood for now. She's not going to attack us or anything, right?"
At the word "attack," Serintia's pupils wavered slightly.
She must have been thinking about how she'd swiped her claws at me earlier.
I quickly covered for her.
"Haha, of course not. Look. Not a scratch on me, right? Not a single drop of blood, so don't worry. And Serintia, you have no intention of invading this place either. Right?"
"O-of course not! I only attack bad guys who try to kill my Bloodline Clan."
Kim Jun-o nodded at that.
"Then I'll report this to headquarters as a similar situation to when Cer appeared. Please contact me immediately if there's anything unusual, Hunter Jeong Shin-hu-nim."
"Sure thing."
"And since an unexpected situation has occurred with the Emission Gate, we'll be deploying additional personnel to monitor it."
Kim Jun-o gave a respectful bow and stood up from his seat.
Kkiing!
"Yeah, Cer. See you next time."
He gave the greeting Cer a pat and then left.
The Animal Hospital fell quiet again.
"Whew... I think I managed to get through that somehow."
Now what?
I looked at Serintia.
Serintia looked up at me too.
And then.
Grumble-.
A sound came from Serintia's stomach.
"Right, let's eat first."
This time, I would show her the true power of Korean cuisine.
*
"This is where you live, Shin-hu?"
"Yeah. Pretty spacious, right?"
"It's super tiny!"
"Ugh."
It was a two-room officetel with a fairly large living room, for what it was.
Wasn't this pretty spacious for a single guy living with a dog?
Of course, there was no malice whatsoever in her voice.
She came from another dimension, so it was understandable.
"You must live in a big place, Serintia."
"Yeah. A hundred times bigger than this."
"...Do you live in a Palace?"
"Yep. The butler said a True Progenitor has to maintain their dignity, so they have to live somewhere grand."
Ahh.
Well, she was the True Progenitor who protected the Bloodline Clan.
Basically a queen, so to speak.
Then that made sense.
"But I don't like how big it is. There's nothing in it anyway... It's just boring. But this place is small and yet it feels warm somehow. The floor is all squishy too. How cool!"
She seemed to have taken a liking to the soft anti-slip and noise-dampening pads I'd laid down for Cer.
She was barefoot, stepping on the soft pads this way and that.
Squish, squish, squish!
For the record, I'd already washed her feet once at the Animal Hospital.
There had been a pair of children's slippers tucked in a corner, no telling how long they'd been there, so I'd put those on her and brought her over.
Kkiing, Kking!
When Serintia started hopping on the soft pads in the living room, alternating feet, tap, tap, tap.
Cer got all excited too and let out a whine as he bounced alongside her.
"Pfft! Why are you jumping?"
Kking!
When the friendly Cer wagged his tail and licked Serintia's hand, she laughed as if it tickled.
"Heheh! Come to think of it, you tried to rush at me earlier because you were protecting Shin-hu, right? Sorry for using Blood Eyes on you."
Kkiing!! It's okay!
Smart as he was, Cer had understood the conversation we'd had at the Animal Hospital.
He'd grasped that Serintia swiping her claws had been a defensive reaction.
And above all, if Serintia had truly meant it, Cer's life would have been in danger.
Cer knew that Serintia had deliberately held back, stopping herself so she wouldn't hurt him.
"You really are a good boy, aren't you? Hehe."
Kking!
Serintia petted Cer, and the two of them rolled around together on the soft pads, giggling and playing.
'What a nice sight.'
An adorable child and a pet dog playing together happily.
It was a heartwarming scene just to watch.
Could this be the kind of scene I'd always dreamed of?
Lately, everything seemed to be going smoothly no matter what I did.
'Alright then, time to make some food.'
While Cer and Serintia played, I rolled up my sleeves and started making dinner.
Today's menu: bacon, ham, and sausage fried rice.
You might wonder why anyone would put three kinds of meat in one dish.
I didn't know which she'd like best, so I just threw in everything I had.
I actually made it like this from time to time, and since every meat had a different texture, it was fun to eat.
First, the bacon, sliced into long strips.
Then the ham, diced into small cubes.
And finally, the sausage, cut thick into roughly thirds.
Cutting each one to a different size maximized the contrast in flavor and texture. Just a little tip.
"Serintia, you can eat garlic, right?"
Normally a bit of minced garlic would be a nice addition.
But it suddenly occurred to me that she might not be able to eat garlic, being a vampire and all.
"Hm? No? There's nothing like that? I can eat everything except blood! It's just that nothing really tastes good..."
Must have been just a stereotype after all.
Now that I thought about it, the sun hadn't fully set yet when I'd left work earlier, but Serintia had looked perfectly fine.
Maybe it was because she was a True Progenitor, maybe not.
In any case, if she could eat minced garlic, there was no reason not to add it.
It was only there to cut through the greasiness anyway.
I wasn't putting in enough for the garlic flavor to come through strong, so it would be fine.
Sizzle.
I put the bacon in the frying pan first and waited until a bit of oil rendered out.
Then I tossed in the sliced ham and sausage and stir-fried them first.
Kkiing?
"No, Cer. Keep playing with Serintia!"
Kkiing! Okay!
Seeing me cook, Cer had poked his head in wondering if there was anything he could help with.
What a good boy.
But this was a bit different from grilling meat, so using the frying pan was better.
Tsssss...
The satisfying sound of meat cooking.
Once it was mostly done, I added a little minced garlic and finely chopped green onion and stir-fried everything together.
Then I added the rice, pressed it down with a spatula while tossing it, seasoned it lightly, and!
"There we go, all done!"
I transferred the fried rice to a large bowl, then cracked an egg right into the same pan for some scrambled eggs.
"Kids, time to eat!"
"Food!"
Kkiing!!
Since Cer was more of a straight-meat kind of guy, I took out some pork belly and jowl meat separately for him.
Jowl meat was the cut Cer had been loving lately.
Whoosh!
Chomp chomp chomp chomp!
Kkiing!
Cer grilled and ate his meat on his own.
I scooped the fried rice for myself and Serintia onto big plates and set them on the table.
"What is this...?"
Since it was food she'd never seen before, Serintia just sniffed at it.
"It smells good."
"It's called fried rice. Don't just smell it, go ahead and try it."
"Okay!"
Serintia picked up her spoon and carefully scooped up some fried rice and put it in her mouth.
Serintia's eyes went wide after eating the fried rice.
"It's good...!"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah! It's so good! The best thing I've ever eaten, no, second best after chocolate!"
...Chocolate is a snack, sweetheart.
It had seemed like she'd really taken a liking to it earlier, but to that extent, huh.
Anyway, it meant this was the best meal she'd ever had.
Every time Serintia bit into a piece of bacon, ham, or sausage in the fried rice, she'd exclaim, "What is this?" and "Why is it so good?"
"It's so good...!"
Munch munch.
Serintia packed her mouth full of rice and ate with a blissful expression.
The fried rice was gone in no time.
"Want another bowl?"
"Yeah!"
I'd made plenty just in case, so I scooped her another bowl.
"Oh, right. The scrambled eggs."
I'd briefly forgotten about the scrambled eggs, so I placed them on top of the rice and drizzled ketchup over it.
"Mmm!! This is good too!!"
Serintia polished off a second bowl before finally leaning back in her chair with a satisfied, blissed-out expression.
"Ahh, I'm so full..."
"You must have been really hungry."
At that, Serintia seemed to feel a little embarrassed, looking away.
"Well, I couldn't drink that blood earlier..."
"Ahh."
Vampires were a species that lived on blood.
Since she hadn't been able to drink that concentrated blood earlier, from Serintia's perspective, it was basically the same as having starved all day.
...Should I feed her another bowl?
"So normally you don't eat anything at all, Serintia? Until you're in pain?"
Serintia shook her head.
"It's not like that. We do eat things like bread and meat too. But since everyone likes blood the best, I guess you'd call regular food something like a substitute ration for when there's no blood?"
Ahh.
So blood was the staple food.
And bread and meat were more like field rations for vampires.
If blood alone was already delicious to them, there'd be no reason for their culinary culture to develop.
That was why Serintia had said this was the first time she'd ever eaten something this good.
Of course, my cooking skills being what they were also played a part.
Ahem.
"That's why I need to go home but I don't want to..."
Serintia said with a sulky expression.
Only then did I remember a fact I'd briefly forgotten.
"Wait. How do you even get home?"
Serintia was the True Progenitor who protected the Bloodline Clan.
From what I'd heard, if Serintia was away for too long, the Barrier would weaken, so she had to stay at her post.
But the Emission Gate had spat Serintia out and closed back up again.
That meant it had entered a dormant phase.
There was no guarantee it would reconnect to Serintia's home when it reopened.
But.
"Hm? That's easy."
Serintia stood up and stretched her hand toward the living room.
Vwoom!
A gate appeared.
"What?"
My eyes went wide, and Serintia spoke.
"I can't go just anywhere. I can only go to my dimension."
"Ahh."
This must have been another ability of the True Progenitor.
The power to open a Dimensional Portal to wherever the Bloodline Clan was.
That was a relief.
Even though the gate had closed, she could still get back to where her clan was.
And yet, for some reason, I felt a little bittersweet at the same time.
"Then I guess we should say our goodbyes."
Was it because I'd grown attached in that short time?
The fact that I'd never see Serintia again made me a little sad.
That innocent face, eyes going wide while eating fried rice, beaming with happiness; I'd never get to see that again.
But as an adult, I had to handle this with grace.
"I'll pack you some of that chocolate you like before you go. Take it with you and eat it. Don't eat it all at once just because it's good; save some for later."
I tried my best not to let it show, but before I knew it, my voice had dropped a little.
I really had gotten attached, hadn't I.
Damn, this was exactly why I'd never kept pets either...
"Hm? What are you talking about?"
"Huh?"
That was when Serintia tilted her head and said,
"Don't tell me you're just going to heal my Bloodlust once and call it done? You want me to go back and live drinking blood whenever the Bloodlust hits again?"
"No, that's not what I... You said you can't come back..."
"I never said I can't come back! I said that Dimensional Portal only connects to my dimension."
Wasn't that the same thing?
Seeing my confusion, Serintia looked up at me and planted both hands firmly on her hips.
And then she said to me,
"Shin-hu! Let's make a Contract!"
*****
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