Legendary Vampire in the Apocalypse
Chapter 28: I Remember...

Chapter 28: I Remember...

Dion sat himself forward in his seat, leaning his forearms over his thighs, as his expression went cold; whatever levity from satisfaction that it had gained had fallen.

His hands clasped ahead of himself, and his thumbs rubbed against the back of his hands.

Since he had woken up from that sleep, the whole time, even when he had taken his bath, waited and prepared, as he tried to curb the hunger for blood within himself with normal food, he had been restless.

How could he not have been, considering everything? Especially when, by consequence of his odd, system-glitched awakening, he had been subjected to that warring, horrible fever dream.

That start to what should have been a new day only worsened everything that was already foul about living in the apocalypse.

Gathering his bearings, perhaps there had been a part of himself that, as a result of his commitment, had felt that he was getting to grips with everything.

However, there had always been that nagging feeling in the back of his head about the events of the last night.

The feeling that there had been something tied to her that he had not been able to remember.

Dion’s jaw clenched hard, and he knew that a part of why he had kept himself moving, so driven, was because, as much as he needed to remember everything, he did not want to.

He did not want to see himself killing his best friend, or relive having hesitated to give him his rest the first time.

Then that gnoll had attacked, and no longer could he ignore everything.

But drinking its blood, he had drowned all the remembrance of it, and he had been forced to realise just how much he had changed.

"There was a corpse, the one of the man I had told you was named Shijo. Did I not say something about him to you? You did not mention anything about what you did with his body when I remember; I mentioned that you should bring him with us."

Anastasia had gone utterly still. She could hardly bring herself to breathe any more than a shallow wisp of air, her chest barely rising.

Then his throat clogged with his throbbing heart as he watched her lower herself to her knees once more and then bow her head, all in such terribly hesitant motion.

Dion drew in a long, shaky breath then.

"Apologies, my lord. I..."

"You left him behind."

His voice had been low, his eyes shadowed by his hair that had fallen to curtain his expression, and yet, it came out as a snarl, such a shivering, cold, and dark snarl that it made the air between them bleed.

"...Yes. I made the decision to—"

"Anastasia," his voice, growling, demanded of her head that had lowered itself to face the ground, "look at me."

His vassal gradually raised her head, and for the briefest moment, she hadn’t been looking at him, but perhaps at something around him, as if he had been cloaked by something.

Then, they fell upon his eyes, bleeding red and as sharp as the blade that had killed him, and the agony of murdering Shoji.

"Since I’ve awakened, I have been finding it very difficult to control my emotions. You understand this, yes?"

She gave a faint nod, as licks of sweat began forming on the top of her brow. "Yes, my lord."

"Then, I hope you understand well what I mean when I’m saying right now... I am angry."

"...Yes."

"And you don’t understand why, yes?"

"..."

The sound of Dion’s teeth grinding together was then the only thing that was audible between the two of them in the silence.

"The only thing I want from you now is an answer as to why. How could there possibly have been any reason for you to disregard my wishes?"

"I... believed it would have been wrong to disgrace your residence with the blood of a tainted—"

"Don’t give me that bullshit!"

Dion tore out of his seat, his voice shattering as he snapped his arms back. He had grabbed the seat and thrown it hard.

The shattering of its wood rumbled throughout the room as it broke against the wall behind her.

"That man is my greatest friend! He is family to me! Family that I had to kill to relieve him of transforming into one of those ugly, ravenous things, and I asked you to retrieve his body for me, knowing that I could not have done so myself!" Dion’s expression had been tightened with anger, and still, beneath it, crushing down upon it, were shivers of grieving. "Yet you want me to accept that you left his corpse behind because of taint?"

This was no game any more.

Through whatever means the garden possessed, she had been made real, and she, whom he had entrusted Shijo’s body to, had done this?

Whatever thoughts that he had possessed about maintaining the appearance of who she had known, his imperial self, had been stripped away.

Dion simply did not care about such nonsense anymore.

At the same time, Anastasia had not flinched, though her gaze, staring up at his harshly breathing figure looming above her, quivered.

"So, why?"

Anastasia’s jaw clenched briefly, and she took in the longest, bracing breath that she had since.

"You were in a sensitive state, and your condition was far from stable. You needed time and safety to be reborn. Those... zombies... whatever they might be are infected with a... tainted magi. Should I have brought him with us, I feared that the residue of it that had been injected into his body might bring about unwanted effects to your renascence. I had left him behind believing that it was best for your health."

For several moments, Dion didn’t say anything as his brows gradually sank deeper as did his frown.

His jaw tensed so hard that he felt as if his teeth might crack, and it was only then, when they bit into his own gums and the taste of his blood filled his mouth, that he noticed his fangs had grown.

"And how could you possibly dare to say you know what’s best for me?"

Without waiting for her response, Dion strode down the living room.

His footfalls thudded through the ground, helping him ease the throbbing of his heart, and his fists remained clenched.

"Go kill the zombies outside that will be coming here because of the commotion. And if you see someone using a gun, do not kill them. Invite them here."

Those words had been left to Anastasia, whose figure remained kneeling, staring silently up at where his eyes had been staring up at him, the blue of her eyes wide and her mouth hung faintly open as they released an empty, shaky breath of air.