As expected, Strigon, sensing something strange, tilted his head and stared intently at Todd.
“It’s not like you had a child in the meantime… So where did this little guest of ours suddenly appear from?”
Todd’s legs flailed helplessly in the air. He clawed at Strigon’s hand, desperately trying to breathe, but the hand squeezing his neck didn’t budge in the slightest.
“He’s just a child! Please, let him go!”
Laurus, coming to his senses belatedly, shouted desperately at Strigon. If he could, he would’ve smashed his head into the floor in a plea, but his entire body felt as though it was bound tightly by something, making even the slightest movement impossible.
“Grrgh!”
Matteus was in the same state. He twisted his body, trying to charge at Strigon, but it was all in vain.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t afraid of Strigon. But he couldn’t just stand by and watch a child die.
He was sure Strigon would kill them all anyway. If he was going to die regardless, it would be better to die fighting.
But if he couldn’t even move a finger…
So the two of them, like prey caught in a spider’s web, were left helpless—forced to watch Todd slowly suffocate under Strigon’s grip.
In the meantime, Strigon continued muttering to himself, refuting each of his own assumptions like he was working through a theory.
“He’s too big to have been overlooked… Did he just randomly get caught up in all this? But no matter how I look at it…”
“Gasp… Ghhk…”
Strigon, not loosening his grip on Todd’s collar, reached out with his other hand and grabbed a fistful of Todd’s hair. Even while suffocating, Todd’s glaring eyes burned with defiance—it was almost insolent.
To glare at Strigon like that?
Most humans were so terrified of meeting his gaze that they did everything they could to avoid eye contact. This was rare.
A long-buried image from his past vividly overlapped with Todd’s face. Strigon, eyes gleaming, stared at him and muttered through clenched teeth as if spitting venom.
“Just like that damn Van Drake brat.”
Even in the muffled haze of suffocation, Strigon’s words hit Todd’s ears one by one. His heart pounded furiously.
Right now, Todd was barely concealing his eyes thanks to the artifact Vasha had crafted for him.
But his opponent was no ordinary man—he was a master sorcerer.
Vasha’s artifact was well-made, but it wasn’t strong enough to fool someone like Strigon.
‘If he realizes I’m a Van Drake…’
The pain of being choked was agonizing, but what would follow if he were exposed would be far worse.
Almost as if mocking Todd, Strigon’s grip on his neck tightened even more.
“Gghrk—! Hrk…!”
Strigon stared straight into Todd’s eyes as they gradually dimmed and lost focus.
The eyes of an excited Van Drake always change—his pupils would elongate, especially in the face of life-threatening danger.
Strigon waited for that moment—for Todd’s pupils to stretch, as if pressed by his grip.
But Todd’s pupils remained round.
On closer inspection, what had looked like golden irises were, in fact, a bright brown.
Strigon clicked his tongue.
“Hmph. I was being overly sensitive, it seems. Just an ordinary human.”
As if the very idea of touching Todd any longer disgusted him, Strigon flung the boy aside.
Granting the honor of being personally killed by his own hand? That was far too generous a reward for some mere human child.
SPLASH!
Todd’s body hit the canal, water splashing around him.
With his face dunked into the water, Todd struggled to lift himself and gasped for breath. His whole body trembled and his limbs shook from exhaustion.
Even so, his mind was spinning furiously.
‘…Did Vasha’s charm really fool Strigon?’
It was true that Vasha was highly skilled at making magical artifacts—perhaps by sheer luck, she’d managed to craft something on Strigon’s level.
But hiding something from a true magician was a completely different matter.
This wasn’t about talent or even the quality of the artifact—it went beyond that.
‘No matter how exceptional it is… With the magic power of a low-tier vampire, there’s no way this should’ve worked…’
Instinctively, Todd knew: a high-ranking vampire, one on Menorah’s level, could always see through the tricks of those below them.
Vasha was hiding something from him—something significant…
But now wasn’t the time to reflect on those doubts.
The charm had hidden his identity—but it wasn’t going to protect his life.
Todd was still at Strigon’s mercy.
Strigon glared down at him with visible disgust. His red eyes looked just like Vasha’s, and yet there was a chilling malice in them that he’d never seen in her.
But beneath all that malice was a feeling Todd knew too well.
Killing intent.
If Strigon was going to kill him, Todd wished he would just bite into his neck and drink his blood.
Because the blood of a Van Drake was a deadly poison—strong enough to harm even a vampire like Menorah.
But Strigon was cautious—cunning to the core.
He only drank the blood of verified humans, betraying Todd’s expectations.
“Ugh, you remind me of those unlucky bastards… This is unpleasant. Just go die.”
As Strigon swung his arm, a crimson spear materialized in midair.
Its sharp point aimed directly at Todd.
Despite the terrifying situation, Todd glared at the red spear with wide, unflinching eyes.
Seeing that, Strigon let out a snort of amusement.
‘Seems like he can’t quite believe what’s happening to him… Well, dying without knowing anything isn’t the worst way to go.’
Strigon flicked his fingers again.
The red spear shot forward like an arrow—straight toward Todd’s heart.
Strigon’s assumption was half right and half wrong. Todd knew exactly what kind of situation this was—better than anyone else present.
He just couldn’t believe it was actually happening.
Was he really going to die like this?
Not even a proper revenge—just this meaningless end?
He was so frustrated he could cry.
His eyes, wide open, began to glisten with moisture.
Even for a resilient Van Drake like Todd, a pierced heart—the core of one’s magical energy—meant certain death.
Facing death, time seemed to slow down.
Everything froze—everything but his thoughts.
A flood of memories raced through his mind like a flashback.
His father’s back as he held off the followers of Lamphas.
His mother’s smiling face as she pushed him toward the emergency passage.
The Van Drake estate engulfed in flames…
As those flames burned in his mind, he recalled the moment he first met Vasha.
Come to think of it, he almost burned to death back then too.
If it hadn’t been for Vasha, he surely would have.
Just before coming to the auction house today, Vasha had warned him—
<It’d be a disaster if you ran into Menorah before you’re fully grown…>
<You think Strigon would reveal himself so easily?>
He had insisted it wouldn’t happen.
Yet here he was—face to face with Strigon, about to die by his hand.
How stunned would Vasha be if she found out?
‘She’d probably explode, saying, “I told you so!”’
A wry smile crept onto Todd’s lips at the thought.
When had he last smiled, anyway?
He thought he’d lost the ability to smile along with his family…
He had only been with Vasha for half a year.
Yet somehow, she had not only shaken his foundation, but also slowly drawn out the venom that had once filled him.
Maybe that was why—
In this moment before death, the strongest feeling wasn’t resentment at dying to a vampire, or regret at not getting revenge for his family…
‘If I die, she’ll be hit hard… She’s just a lower rank. It’ll be hard for her to withstand the collapse of the familiar bond…’
As that thought crossed his mind, Todd was struck by it.
‘Ha!’
Facing death, all he could think about… was Vasha?
The old him wouldn’t have cared.
What did it matter if Vasha, a vampire, suffered from his death?
The old Todd might’ve even preferred it—so long as he survived.
The only reason he couldn’t now was because their souls were bound by contract.
He couldn’t believe it himself—
That even for a moment, he had worried about Vasha.
~~~
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