Chapter 21: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
Jasmine knew exactly what kind of person Adele was. Although Adele treated her and the other maids in the castle differently from her parents and sister, she was essentially a young lady raised according to the template of a vampire noblewoman.
She was proud and noble, and even though she had an unusual fondness for Jasmine, she still possessed the arrogance of a master. She wouldn’t refuse Jasmine’s care, but fundamentally, she didn’t see Jasmine as an equal.
Therefore, Jasmine always believed that even though Adele had behaved differently from other vampires so far, she would eventually become like them. However, she never imagined that Adele would one day fight against another vampire for her, for another human.
Adele was truly fighting for her life. In terms of physical capabilities, she was no match for the doctor, especially while protecting a weak human. Without putting up a desperate fight, the maid would have been drained by the doctor, and the empowered doctor would have successfully defeated Adele.
Yet the current outcome was a mutual loss, with Adele severely injured and the doctor critically wounded. Although the doctor could still stand and appeared strong just now, Jasmine knew he was just a facade. He had used his last bit of strength to hypnotize her, craving blood to recover. In reality, if the maid had been brave enough, she could have easily killed the doctor.
—Just by finding something to pierce his heart or cut off his head.
Jasmine looked at Adele with a complex expression. While she was lost in thought, Adele briefly regained consciousness. Seeing the familiar ceiling, she slowly exhaled, looking much more at ease. Her crimson eyes moved, focusing on Jasmine.
Her eyes lit up at that moment, emitting a gentle glow in the dark night.
“Jasmine, you’re alright… That’s great…” The proud young miss showed a faint smile. She looked weak, and her smile was strained, but it was evident that she was genuinely happy.
Jasmine nodded, hesitated for a moment, and finally asked the question that had been on her mind, “Why… did you protect that human maid?” She didn’t think the human maid was unworthy of protection or that Adele’s life was more valuable. She was purely curious why Adele would protect her.
Adele was taken aback, then blurted out without hesitation, “Because you said that the strong should protect the weak. With great power comes great responsibility.”
Jasmine fell silent. She had indeed said those words. Jasmine had a good memory, and even trivial matters from twelve years ago were still vivid in her mind. But she never expected Adele to remember them so clearly. Was it because vampires had naturally good memories? Or was there another reason… Jasmine had no idea.
She just felt a bit awkward facing Adele, because that classic line was a quote from a movie. At the time, she had simply thought, “Wow, I must look so cool saying this!” and had uttered those random words to the young and naive Adele. Now that she thought about it, it felt like a dark chapter in her history.
Yet, Adele remembered them so profoundly. In fact, in the days that followed, Jasmine had often jokingly said, “Adele is the master, remember to protect me.” But she never truly expected Adele to protect her. More often than not, it was Jasmine who protected Adele.
Only Adele didn’t know that.
Amidst Jasmine’s silence, Adele began to feel drowsy again, about to fall back asleep. Before closing her eyes, she murmured softly. If it were an ordinary person, they might have missed Adele’s words, but Jasmine’s hearing was excellent. She heard Adele’s words clearly.
Adele said, “And… if I protect others like this… I can also hope that one day, if Jasmine is in danger… there will be someone who will stand up for her too…”
Jasmine looked at Adele as she slowly closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. This time, it wasn’t unconsciousness, but normal sleep. Her breathing was long and rhythmic. A vampire’s heartbeat and breathing were very slow, almost imperceptible, which was one of the reasons for their long lifespan. Now, it proved that Adele had mostly recovered and was relying on sleep to heal herself.
Her delicate eyelashes rested on her eyelids, making her look like a sleeping beauty, albeit a somewhat disheveled one, covered in bloodstains and dirt.
Adele’s words touched Jasmine’s heart.
Adele was different. She was different from all the other vampires. She had compassion and a desire to protect the weak, qualities that couldn’t be found in any other vampire. She wanted to protect Jasmine, and because of that, she had also shielded the human maid behind her, fighting desperately for her.
But Adele was the only vampire in the entire world who would do such a thing. If Jasmine were just a weak and helpless human and had encountered such a situation, there wouldn’t be a second vampire who would rush to save her.
Jasmine sighed helplessly, “Silly girl.”
She turned around, heated some water, poured it into the bathtub, turned on the faucet to add cold water, and after making sure the water temperature was just right, she washed her hands thoroughly in the sink, especially her right hand. Only after doing all this did she pick up Adele and carry her to the bathroom.
Jasmine bathed Adele, combed her silver-white hair, and washed away all the bloodstains on her body. Human blood was indeed the best nourishment for vampires. When she had seen Adele earlier, there were still five nail marks on her abdomen, and her blood had dried up. But now, after washing away the bloodstains, only her smooth and fair skin was visible.
She wrapped Adele’s clean hair in a towel, dried her entire body, put on a bathrobe, and carried her to the sofa outside to lie down. Then, she entered the bedroom, removed all the bedding from the bed Adele had been lying on, replaced it with clean ones, and finally carried Adele back to the bed.
Jasmine sat by the bed and gently dried every strand of Adele’s hair. After finishing, she went to the living room, made hot water, and poured it into a thermos. Then, she drew the curtains in the room, ensuring that no light would leak in when dawn arrived, before saying goodnight to Adele and leaving her room.
When Jasmine returned to her own room with the laundry basket filled with bedsheets, duvet covers, and changed clothes, it was still pitch black outside. However, amidst the darkness, Jasmine heard a faint commotion. She wasn’t surprised, because the commotion at the doctor’s small building was so significant that even if no one noticed it immediately, after so much time had passed, the patrolling vampires should have discovered it and reported it to the school authorities.
Jasmine, however, acted as if nothing had happened. She first took out Adele’s clothes. They were torn and tattered, completely unwearable. If it were an ordinary person in this world, they would definitely try to mend them with needle and thread, continuing to wear them as long as they weren’t completely falling apart. But Adele was a noble lady, so proud and refined. She wouldn’t even consider wearing clothes with a single hole, let alone such tattered garments.
The bedsheets and duvet covers, on the other hand, were only stained with Adele’s blood and dirt. They could still be used after washing and drying.
Jasmine even went to the dining hall for a meal midway. After all, food was essential for survival. Adele had drunk her blood, her exceptionally delicious and high-quality blood, which should provide Adele, who had never tasted human blood before, with energy for a long time. She didn’t need to worry about Adele being hungry.
She ordered a bowl of mushroom chicken soup, two pieces of pumpkin, and some bread, and sat down to eat.
From time to time, she could hear the maids around her gossiping, “Oh my god, have you heard? It seems like a vampire has been killed.”
“Who was killed? How could this happen…”
“Shh—I’ll only tell you, don’t tell anyone else. It seems to be the school doctor. My master returned to the dormitory just now and summoned me to attend to her. I heard her complaining that because the school doctor was dead, they were investigating the culprit and had taken all the teachers away for questioning. Now there are no classes, and all the students have returned to their dormitories.”
The vampires were indeed efficient. She hadn’t expected them to have already made all the arrangements. Their course of action was reasonable. After all, the doctor was an adult, high-ranking vampire. Even if he wasn’t a noble, he wasn’t far from it. Such a vampire wouldn’t be easily killed. They could only consider it to be the work of a vampire of the same rank or higher.
Moreover, they could only consider it to be the work of an adult vampire who had been alive for a long time, which naturally narrowed down the suspects to the teachers.
However, these two maids were being a bit too obvious. The vast majority of those in the dining hall were low-ranking vampires, and their conversation was practically on loudspeaker in each other’s ears. Their “I’ll only tell you, don’t tell anyone else” sounded like utter nonsense to Jasmine, devoid of any credibility.
As for why they insisted on gossiping in front of everyone when they could have chatted privately, it was nothing more than showing off that they had information others didn’t and that they were favored by their masters. Although Jasmine found it rather foolish, it was normal for low-ranking vampires to boast like this.
After finishing her meal, Jasmine took her tray to the dishwashing area and left. She returned to her room and sat on the balcony for a while, leaning back in her chair lazily, looking up at the bedsheets and duvet covers she had hung out to dry. She slowly contemplated what to do next.
Honestly, she hadn’t handled the situation perfectly this time. She had acted impulsively and hadn’t thought things through. Adele’s injury had disrupted her composure. Ideally, she should have disguised the scene, making it appear as if the maid had died and she had never been there. But in reality, she had simply carried Adele away, not even properly dealing with the maid’s situation, instead leaving the choice to the maid herself.
The incident had occurred during the vampires’ class time. Except for a few teachers who didn’t have classes, most of them could be immediately ruled out as suspects. As for the remaining teachers, a quick investigation would reveal that they were also unrelated to the matter. Then, they would investigate the senior students and gradually work their way down, eventually discovering Adele’s anomaly.
It was only a matter of time before Adele was found.
Leave a Reply