Lilliana Roseblood POV
"-iana…"
A distant voice brushed against Lilliana's awareness, faint and indistinct, as though it were coming from the other side of a thick wall.
"Hmm…"
"—lliana."
Her pen paused mid-stroke.
"Lilliana!"
"Fweh—! Y-yes?! Sorry!"
Lilliana jolted upright in her seat, nearly knocking over the stack of paperwork beside her.
Her chair scraped loudly across the floor as she stood in a panic, her heart pounding as she turned toward the voice.
Standing beside her desk was one of the administrative staff members, a woman with neatly tied hair and an expression caught somewhere between concern and mild confusion.
"Is something wrong, Lilliana?" the woman asked gently. "You're never usually lost in thought like that."
"Ah…"
Lilliana quickly straightened her posture, smoothing down her skirt in an unconscious attempt to compose herself.
"No, it's okay. I was just tired, that's all. Did you need something?"
"I see."
The woman nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer.
"In that case, I was wondering if you could have this report about the midterm practical completed by the end of the week."
"Yes, of course," Lilliana replied without hesitation, accepting the thin bundle of papers. "I'll make sure it's done."
"Thank you. I'll leave it to you, then."
With that, the woman turned and left, her footsteps fading down the corridor until Lilliana was once again alone in the staff room.
The silence returned almost immediately.
"…Sigh."
Lilliana slowly lowered herself back into her chair, her shoulders sagging slightly as she stared down at the report resting on her desk.
'I suppose I should get started on this now.'
She pulled the papers closer and began scanning through the contents, eyes moving automatically over student names, rankings, and brief performance summaries.
Then a familiar name appeared.
"Soren…"
Her lips parted as the name slipped out unconsciously.
Her fingers tightened around the edge of the parchment.
That name.
That was the real reason she had been so distracted lately.
Just yesterday, Soren Arden had suddenly asked her to teach him blood magic.
It wasn't the request itself that unsettled her; students asked strange things all the time, but the way he had asked.
Calm, resolute, and disturbingly sincere.
It had dragged memories to the surface that Lilliana had long tried to keep buried.
It also left her deeply confused.
As a professor at Stellaris Academy, she had no formal reason to refuse a student who wished to learn.
On paper, blood magic was a powerful tool, one that could even prove useful in battles against demons and other inhuman threats.
If anything, researching it further could have academic merit.
And yet…
'It's dangerous.'
Lilliana closed her eyes.
As a dhampir, she was painfully aware of just how dangerous blood magic truly was.
More than that, she knew why humans were never meant to wield it.
Woongg—
Her lime-green eyes dimmed, slowly bleeding into a deep crimson hue.
A scarlet magic circle formed above her palm as a wave of weakness washed through her body.
"「Hemokinesis」."
With that single word, dark red blood manifested around her hand, floating obediently in the air as though it were an extension of her own body.
This was magic reserved for those born with a true heart.
Vampires.
The true heart was an organ designed to store mana-infused blood, allowing it to be expended without risking immediate death.
Without it…
'They would die.'
The moment a human activated blood magic, their own blood would be consumed as fuel.
Blood loss.
Shock.
Organ failure.
Death.
Lilliana let the spell dissipate, the blood evaporating into nothing as she steadied herself against the desk.
And yet she didn't understand.
'Why did he ask?'
That was the part she couldn't understand.
The Soren Arden she knew was physically weak and emotionally fragile, but he wasn't foolish.
If anything, he was cautious to a fault.
He thought before acting, weighed risks carefully, and avoided unnecessary danger whenever possible.
He should have known all of this.
And yet, he had still asked her.
'Should I ask him?'
As a professor, she wasn't supposed to let personal fear interfere with a student's growth.
Even if she was worried, no, especially because she was worried, she owed him at least an explanation.
Or perhaps…
She owed him the chance to explain himself.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
Soren Arden POV
A week after the midterms, inside the class F classroom.
'This is… awkward.'
Soren sat stiffly at his desk, painfully aware of the situation he had somehow found himself in.
To his left sat Lilliana Roseblood, quietly arranging her lunch with a distracted expression.
To his right…
"Something wrong?" she asked in a husky voice.
He turned his head slightly.
It was Amelia.
Ever since the midterms had ended, she had been following him around like a shadow.
When he had finally worked up the courage to ask why, her answer had been infuriatingly simple.
– Because we're friends.
That single sentence had shut down any further protest.
So when Amelia arrived at the classroom to pick him up for lunch and discovered that he was planning to eat with Lilliana, she had simply taken the seat beside him without hesitation, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
There was something else Soren had also discovered during the past day.
'She has absolutely no sense of personal space.'
Even now, their shoulders were almost touching.
Back in the lounge after the midterms, she had sat so close that there hadn't been even a centimetre of space between their legs.
He had asked her about it, and she had shrugged, proceeding to do it anyway.
'I'm not complaining, though.'
Soren sighed inwardly.
It wasn't every day you got to sit this close to someone who looked like Amelia, so after a while, he had simply stopped resisting.
Which was how he ended up here.
He turned his attention back to Lilliana.
'She looks troubled.'
Her gaze was unfocused, fingers idly tracing the rim of her lunch container.
Given that they hadn't spoken since right after the midterms, Soren already had a good idea why.
Deciding it was better to address it directly, he spoke first.
"Is there a reason you can't teach me blood magic, Miss Rose?"
She froze.
Then slowly turned to face him.
"…You already know the answer to that, Soren."
'Of course I do.'
He had agonised over it the moment he received the skill.
The risks.
The consequences.
The very real possibility of death.
But…
"Because it's dangerous and I'm human," he said evenly. "I know. But I still want to learn it."
"…Why? It doesn't make sense," Lilliana asked quietly.
The worry in her voice was unmistakable.
Instead of answering immediately, Soren raised his hand.
A crimson magic circle bloomed above his palm.
Both Lilliana and Amelia reacted instantly.
"「Hemokinesis」."
Flinch.
Lilliana recoiled as though struck.
Blood drained from Soren's body, forming a small, unstable sphere above his hand.
A wave of dizziness followed, but he forced himself to stay upright.
"T-That's impossible!" Lilliana gasped, shooting to her feet.
Her face had gone deathly pale, fear plain in her wide eyes, a faint red tint bleeding into her pupils.
"Soren, how did you learn this? Humans can't use blood magic. Do you have vampire blood? No—if that were the case, we would've detected it during your application. Then how—?"
"Miss Rose?"
She snapped back to herself.
"Ah—! That doesn't matter right now!"
She grabbed his shoulders, panic written all over her face.
"Are you feeling alright?"
"I'm a little dizzy," he admitted. "But I'm fine."
He met her eyes steadily.
"Is this a good enough reason?"
Silence.
Lilliana's expression twisted with conflict.
It was clear she wanted to agree, but something deep inside her was holding her back.
Soren understood why.
After several long moments, she finally spoke.
"Soren…"
Her voice trembled, cold sweat visible on her skin.
"Can you come to my dorm after classes today?"
At any other time, those words could have been misunderstood.
But right now, there was no mistaking the fear behind them.
"Wow!"
Amelia's voice cut in cheerfully.
Soren turned to see her clapping enthusiastically, eyes wide with interest.
Lilliana flushed violently upon noticing her presence, stumbling over her words as she tried to explain, but Soren was already smiling faintly.
'It worked.'
She hadn't agreed yet.
But she hadn't refused either.
That was more than enough, for now.
————「❤︎」————