Chapter 5: The Mysterious Man

"You are not bad." The deep voice sounded pleasing to the ears.

Irene's eyes narrowed at his words, suddenly her anger spiked up. She forcefully restrained her uncontrollable emotion.

She didn't know why this man's words could induce such a reaction from her. Besides Stelian, he was the second person in this Astral continent who managed to annoy her.

She didn't hesitate anymore to move very fast, the small nimble body jumped into the air, not impeded by the black dress in the slightest. She quickly sent him a punch, gathering the familiar power in her body.

The man wasn't about just becoming a sitting duck either. He parried her attack, sometimes dodging, and oftentimes attacking back.

In less than a minute, they had exchanged hundreds of moves.

Irene fought him fiercely, not annoyed at all when she found that he was harder to deal with than she thought. The more she fought, the more excited she became.

Obviously, the man also noticed her weird state.

The matter about her fighting beasts earlier... well, it was actually not suitable to be called fighting, but a mere one-sided slaughter. She simply wanted a way to vent. Lowering her own power to the beasts' level was the only way she could let out her pent-up anger and frustrations. Otherwise, these beasts were easily killed.

Now that she had found a worthy opponent, she no longer restrained herself.

The man proved to be very strong. The momentum in his body felt like a giant stepping onto the earth, causing a tremor to the ground. Trees were swept out to its root whenever they passed, like a small-scale, but very powerful tornado.

The look of amusement in the man's eyes had also changed into a look of concentration, not expecting the little woman to be so skillful.

Her hands were bloody, but her dress was clean. The pale white skin was the evidence of her race. She gave off the feeling of fragile, glamorous beauty, with a hint of deadly attraction of evilness between her brows. She was like beautiful porcelain.

For Irene, the man also radiated a very strong power. There was terrifying explosiveness under his slender but powerful body. She couldn't see his face.

It had been a while since she sensed such a strong aura from a person. She became a bit interested in knowing his identity, although it didn't hinder her original intention to decapitate him. 

Her hand moved with indestructible force, slamming against him. He was forced back to the ground, and she quickly followed the trajectory of his body. Her hand ceaselessly moved, intending to strike him again.

"You are quite a fierce one." He commented, withdrawing his body away, avoiding her attack yet again.

"You are very strong." She also said in a flat tone. It was a compliment. Her eyes were still expressionless, with disguised excitement for battle.

She moved again, kicking him and her hand reached out to grab his head, or in her hidden intention was his mask.

He gave her a very weird feeling, and this bothered her greatly. She had almost lost control just now. It was very risky in case her emotions fluctuate too high like a rollercoaster, and she couldn't control herself.

When she lost control, even she was scared.

The man seemed to perceive her hidden agenda, and he struck her wicked hand, causing her body to almost being pulled down. He was holding her hand, which in this position seemed as if he was hugging her instead.

His hot breath sprayed on her face, causing her to freeze. Her mind turned momentarily blank, and when she barely recovered her senses, she used her feet to kick him. Her body shot out, distancing herself from him.

Irene's gaze was rather terrifying as if she wished she could drown him in knives to stab his entire body.

With anger and slight humiliation, she spat out. "Pervert."

The man stood there, in shock and doubt at the place of small exposed skin he had just brushed off against her soft hand. 

However, at this moment, Irene didn't care anymore to bother about him. At an extremely fast speed, she teleported away.

A flock of beasts was scared away by her. However, realizing that it was a little creature disturbing their rest, they began to attack her. Irene also didn't hold back to release her anger, she turned each one into a pool of blood.

Her eyes suddenly turned bloodshot and she crazily slaughter her way in the encirclement of the flock of the equally maddened fierce beasts. They were attracted by the pool of blood around, which had already resembled a picture of purgatory.

Her emotions were on the verge of losing control. And after several long battles, she finally lost herself.

Her body moved by instinct, which was to slaughter anything that spilled killing intent toward her. It was a kind of self-protection, but equally also self-destruction.

In her nonconscious state, days had passed so quickly and Irene's movement didn't cease in the slightest. The claw marks were all over her body, but the most conspicuous one was the bruise mark on her wrist, which hadn't faded away, turning blue like it was poisoned.

Irene bit the neck of the giant tiger trying to claw at her face. The sharp fangs in her mouth extended out and embedded deep in its neck. She sucked the blood almost instantly and began filling the emptied energy like a dried lake.

Violent breath surged through her entire body, and she clutched the bracelet on her wrist. She finally managed to retain a little bit of clarity. With the little strength left, she realized that she began to understand the law of space needed for teleportation. She didn't hesitate to push herself and teleported to a place.

In an instant, she blacked out, her heart filled with the last trace of unwillingness. If she woke up again, he... just wait.

***

The moment Irene felt pain all over her body, it was when she realized with delight that she hadn't died. Instantly, she wanted to move, but pain shot up like thousands of ants biting at her insides.

"Don't move too much, idiot." 

She twitched her eyelids, and with a little more effort and enduring some pain, she was finally able to open her eyes. The familiar voice sounding in her ears caused her to sigh in relief. The blurry sight of her eye gradually turned clearer.

"Old... Re-Reyes, it-it's... you..." She forcefully spat out those words, wanting to frown at the uncomfortable sensation, but unable to.

The young man's temples jumped, and he shot an irritated look at the person lying on the bed. He glared at her. "Old Reyes, Old Reyes. This alchemist is still very young you know."

Irene wanted to open her mouth to argue. The little strength rendered her unable to do what she wanted, so she could only stare at Reyes with her pair of deep black pupils. Enduring such pain like she was being skinned alive just to argue with Reyes wasn't worth it.

The last memory of what happened before she arrived here filled her memory. She remembered the state she was in. Hurriedly, she closed her eyes again, pretending to be innocent.

It was a pity that Reyes just wouldn't let her go.

"You came here with so much blood, claw marks all over the body. I thought that you were dead." Reyes began, muttering under his breath while looking at her sleeping figure, knowing that she could hear him.

"Dare to do that again? Don't just say last time every time!"

This time, Reyes' eyes turned complicated.

He was slightly angry when he realized he was unable to incite any response from her. She seemed like she was sleeping. With a sigh, he relented.

He pulled a syringe and injected the silver liquid into her body. Her recovery ability was much faster than normal vampires, but it was still not enough.

She'd receive her awakening of vampire royal bloodline soon. He just hoped that it will enhance her recovery ability.

Such a silly little girl, getting hurt every time he met her!

As a capable doctor, when the patient was like this, he was also distressed. With a sigh, he held his hand on his chest, reminding himself that he was not really a doctor for like a thousand seventy-ninth time. He was an alchemist.

He was supposed to be an alchemist. This little girl was so lucky that she had practically turned someone as capable as him into her personal alchemist.

Irene's breathing gradually turned long, and much more even. She was really sleeping this time. Reyes' narcissistic thoughts also came to a halt when his eyes landed on her. He knew that she must have gone to the Forest of Beasts to vent her anger again. He just didn't know why she had lost control this time.

Reyes had made medicine that caused her to asleep for four days. He was worried that she'd disregard her body again and forcefully return to the vampire race, or even go back to take revenge on whoever had made her like this.

She hadn't even achieved a full recovery. Her current state was like an outwardly magnificent palace but was filled with fragile glass inside.

"What happened to you?" Reyes began as soon as she opened her eyes.

Irene put on a calm look, shrugging her shoulders. She felt extremely exhausted, but her body was no longer as painful as a few days ago. 

To respond to Reyes' question, she herself didn't know. There was no way she'd tell him about what that man did to her either. She also was surprised that her reaction had been so big.

After going through a lot of life and death situations together, Reyes had come to understand her a lot. After all, they came from the same place. He could see that she herself also wasn't sure.

"Don't recklessly throw your life away." He said.

"I am not throwing it away," Irene argued back as soon as she got her voice, hoarse as it was.

"Then, what happened?" Reyes was curious this time.

Irene didn't answer. Instead, she asked. "Do you have anything that can relieve pain and nourish vampires?"

"You need that kind of thing?" His voice was filled with doubts. It was a rhetorical question, so when she didn't answer, he didn't ask further. Irene was deliberate. She wanted him to misunderstand and not pursue the previous question any longer.

"I will give it to you later," Reyes said, seeing that she was silent. "After all, I am your personal alchemist."

Irene turned her head and suddenly grinned at his words. "Promotion accepted. Now, you are my personal alchemist. I will accept your sincere request."

Reyes' mouth twitched, and he cursed inside his heart. He harrumphed. "Isn't this also your purpose? I was pulled out from that place like a saint summoning."

She clicked her tongue. She had indeed stolen a treasure from a powerful figure. She had been desperate to get back to the human continent back then.

What she didn't know was that the function of that thing was for summoning people from other places. It couldn't teleport her away. She ended up bringing Reyes out.

She was at Reyes's cabin in the Forest of Beasts. He had put on an enchantment so that beasts would automatically ignore his existence. As long as there was no excessive amount of beasts, he wouldn't be discovered. Handling these beasts was a piece of cake, it was just that the lingering smell of blood would attract the whole horde. And if the whole horde was slaughtered, more would come.

Irene ate and cleaned herself with relish in Reyes' place. Until she remembered that she still had a lot of things to be taken care of in Blackcourt City.

At this time, after dinner. Irene was packing her little things; the unused arrows and bow, and a bag of Reyes' handiwork.

Reyes looked at her thin figure. He hesitated for a moment and finally forced out some words. "Do you still intend to go back to the human continent?"