Legendary Vampire in the Apocalypse
Chapter 32: His Vassal ~ 3

Chapter 32: His Vassal ~ 3

Anastasia herself would often have them take detours in other directions, or have them wait somewhere for some time before moving.

All of this had at first puzzled her, then Xaviera began to notice that through their whole journey not once did they have to fight a zombie or one of those big, ugly monsters.

And now, once more, Anastasia had brought them to a stop, hidden within an alleyway.

Xaviera was towards the front with her back pressed close against the wall while Anastasia was slightly behind her.

"Excuse me, Miss Vasilisa, is he..." Xaviera hesitated briefly, her eyes flickering between her majesty and her face, "your boyfriend?"

"Boy... friend?" Anastasia’s attention had been partially distracted, looking ahead at the tall building that should have been their destination looming above them nearby. Curious, the entirety of it then focused on Xaviera at her question, as she clarified without pause, "He is not my friend."

Xaviera’s brows rose faintly, and once they had fallen, they eased back into a slightly calmer state from interest. "I mean, you know, your lover? You’re being so careful for his sake, right? What happened to him?"

At first, Anastasia’s brows had slightly furrowed, then, understanding what Xaviera had been asking, immediately, she had been stricken with the throb of that delightful sensation when he had eaten her.

Her pale skin betrayed her with a delicate flush to her cheeks, though her expression remained calm externally as the reminiscence of his feeding stormed through her.

"...I am not his lover, and you need not worry what happened to him. Let us leave."

For the first time in their travel, Anastasia had increased her pace. She now walked ahead of Xaviera who had to hurry to catch up to them.

Then, perhaps it had been because of the surprise in seeing such a more natural reaction from Anastasia, such a delicate one despite her aloofness, that had eased her anxiety, which carried Xaviera’s aching curiosity forward.

She then asked her most burning question.

"If you care about him so much... how could you kill fellow humans so cruelly to... feed?"

She did not understand what Anastasia had said in the moment. However, she looked wholly human, and thus, her immediate thought had been that perhaps her awakened ability needed her to do something so... merciless to fuel it? But even still, was there not another way to make it work?

They had all only wanted to survive with her help. Was that so wrong of them?

As she caught up, Xaviera caught a glimpse of Anastasia’s expression, and it had lost all the softness she had stumbled upon, chilling back into its distant indifference.

Her mouth had parted to speak, to take back what she had asked and try to move on to walk ahead of them a very safe distance away, and maybe even leave entirely.

However, Anastasia had spoken before she could make it a half-step ahead of them.

"In such a destitute world, your body’s demand for sustenance is higher than my own. You constantly breed cattle to feed off of their kind for your survival, no?"

"They’re animals hardly possessing intelligence, unlike us. It’s not as if we make them suffer for—"

"The line you draw between good and evil is conditional upon your perception of intelligence?" The cold blue of Anastasia’s eyes had only briefly drifted to glance at her, and whatever indifference had been in them sank deeper. Then she looked ahead, "Over the backs of the flora and fauna you have felled, you have built yourself confines so delicate and mundane for your protection against everything that threatens you.

The way you humans are struggling so wildly with merely the first awakening, I am hardly surprised to see how conflicted and disillusioned you are.

The sooner you humble yourself to understand you are an animal yourself, no different from those animals you so look down upon, only possessing different initial advantages than them, and that you are not exempt from the laws of reality built upon survival, the sooner perhaps you will give yourself the gall to survive.

If you are too weak to survive on your own, nurture the strong or make yourself important to their survival. Otherwise, spare me the pompous naivety of your fickle, human consciousness coddling constructs."

Xaviera did not say anything from there, and soon, they came to another alley, one that directly faced the building windows.

"You said the seventh floor, yes?"

"Ah... yeah..." Xaviera loosely responded.

Then, without them taking another step further, ice began to form again. Xaviera flinched, and she stuttered a few steps back.

At the same time, Anastasia began climbing a staircase of ice, inclined towards the sixth floor.

As soon as she realised this, Xaviera began hurrying to follow them up. Her eyes, strained onto Anastasia’s back, gradually fell grave, and then, glancing at the swaying, blood-wet hair of the young man she held in her arms, they hardened with commitment.

Soon enough, they had reached the top of the staircase, right before the seventh-floor window.

The glass shattered from the slightest tap of Anastasia’s foot against it, where it had, in those moments, frozen at the point of contact, and that ice ruptured throughout its frame.

There were over a dozen zombies within the hallway down both ends, and only seconds later, with the crackle of ice formation, spears of it lanced through their heads, felling them.

Xaviera gave a wry look as she landed behind them, and then she briefly glanced back to see the mystical sight of the tall ice staircase dissolving itself behind them. The particles flowed back into Anastasia, who had already been walking down the hall, looking at the numbers plastered on the doors.

"It’s that one," Xaviera hurried to say as she stepped ahead of Anastasia, pointing at apartment GY-624.

Anastasia’s steps faintly hurried, and they came before the door.

"Do you have the keys?" Xaviera asked as she stood off to the side of the door, a pleasant expression over her face as her smile quivered a little at its edges. "It might be in his pocket or wallet."

Without having answered her, Anastasia muttered under her breath, "Excuse me, my lord."

Xaviera had been surprised to hear it, so much that she thought she might have misheard. However, she tried her level best to keep the shock off her face, maintaining a kind, patient look.