Edited

2. The Blood Bag Decided not to be Kind (1)

I didn’t realize that I was Leonie at the beginning.

I wondered if I had been kidnapped by vampires in the Middle Ages.

However, the flag I see every time I walk around the territory.

At the Duke’s castle, that pattern fluttering at the top was all too familiar.

A crouching hawk with folded wings and a green laurel tree.

It was the mark engraved on the last pen my friend lent me.

<It’s important, so don’t lose it and give it back. Make sure of it!>

I paid attention to the pen after knowing what it was about.

It was a limited edition product of ‘The Duke Who Drinks Blood’.
After realizing that it was in a novel, I was troubled for a while.

Who am I?

I also had a little expectation for the word ‘chosen’.

Maybe I was invited to be a prospective fiancée?

It didn’t take long for the happy imagination to disintegrate.

After the Duke returned from battle, I was the busiest person in the mansion.

I collapsed while blood was drawn, ran away, fainted, and barely managed to wake up.

Not as a bride.

I was brought in as a blood bag and a living tool for war.

The moment I realized that I was a hostage and a bag of blood for the
Duke, I wondered how many others were being held hostage.

There was a redhead in the illustrations, but no way, no way…

I’m not lucky.

The previous blood bags had different saturations, but they all said they had red hair.

I calmed my confused mind and headed to the dining room, led by the maids.

A meal that looks ordinary at first glance, but is not ordinary.

When I sat down on the edge of the chair, the maid poured water into an empty glass.

“Do you know how many guests there are?”

“…”

She didn’t say anything.

Is my voice too small?

I cleared my throat and coughed. And asked louder.

“So, how many times do I have to give blood?”

“…”

Oh, I see.

It was a clear disregard.

The employees were treating me like an invisible person without talking to me.

The maid went out after pouring the water into the cup.

I was left alone in a large hall.

I picked up a fork and pushed a bean into my mouth. The beans wrapped around the tongue were crunchy…

The food did not go down my throat.

Even in the bathroom, I insinuated and asked how long it had been since coming here, but the maids avoided answering or pretended not to know.

But it wasn’t difficult to find out what number I was.

Because there were four tombstones in the empty lot behind the duchy.

Oh, My God.

Besides, there was an empty grave next to it.

‘Why? Are they going to bury me here when I die?’

I couldn’t help but think so.

Everyone is waiting for my death.

The year of birth on the tombstone varied, but the date of death was similar.

5 years ago, 3 years ago, 1 year ago…

All died within three years.

Perhaps, a tombstone with my name engraved has already been made in the basement.

A stone tombstone with only the last digit of the year of death left out.

Four headstones and an empty grave next to it.

And I was the fifth woman.

It was destined to be sucked until I die and then discarded when the sixth child appeared.

***

“The Duke is looking for you.”

The maid who served me a poor meal called me.

I was still dizzy, so I was staring blankly at the ceiling in bed.

Hey. I lost so much blood that I passed out and woke up less than twelve hours ago!

If you donate blood once, you can rest for two weeks. To be dragged back in one day! Isn’t that too harsh?

I wanted to shout out loud, but I didn’t feel like it.

They pulled me up roughly. As I faltered, the maid gestured to the maids waiting behind me.

They grabbed me by the arms and dragged me into the Duke’s bedroom.
Crossing the long hallway, we arrived at the Duke’s bedroom.

When I looked up with a miserable expression…

I could see why Leoni couldn’t escape.

I saw him lying sideways on a large bed.

It was dark under his eyes, but thanks to that, the white and transparent skin stood out even more.

His black hair was neatly curly.

He was looking at the papers with his head slightly down.

Then he looked up.

I inhaled involuntarily.

In the illustration, he only looked cold because his face was covered in blood, but looking at his neatly groomed face, he was a rare handsome man.

He slowly opened his eyes.

I could see eyes as deep as the sea and dazzling blue eyes. The eyes shimmered like jewels.

He looked up at me languidly.

And opened his red lips.

“Young lady, come here.”

He tapped on the empty seat beside the bed.

I’m sure I’d say if she were next to me.

Leonie, you’re an idiot.

“I heard you collapsed. I needed a lot of your blood, but it must have been a little too much.”

I didn’t answer.

Because his face didn’t feel real until then.

He didn’t care, even though she remained silent for a long time.

It seems that Leoni usually didn’t speak in front of the Duke.

“I won’t do it until you collapse this time.”

He strode with his long legs and narrowed the distance in an instant.

Before I knew it, the Duke came up to me and bent down.

‘Am I getting bitten now?’

I squeezed my eyes shut.

But regrettably, he pulled the armchair next to me to the side of the bed.

And put a blanket on top of it.

“Send her to her room when you’re done collecting blood.”

The head maid and the other maids all bowed their heads to him.

The butler opened the door, and the Duke went out.

I was embarrassed as I became nervous.

Fingernail marks were embedded in her palms.

The butler sat me down on a chair and held up a needle. The preparation process seemed familiar.

“Stretch out your arm.”

A needle with a transparent hose was inserted into my arm.

Little by little, blood began to drain through the hose.

With the experience of donating blood, when he rubbed my hands, the blood filled the pack faster.

“Butler”

The butler, who was tying a cloth around the wound he had stabbed with a needle, raised his head.

“Isn’t blood originally meant to be drawn while lying in bed?”

“…”

“No, even if we don’t do that… I heard previous guests said so.”

Wasn’t it? All the vampires I’ve seen in the movies bite the scruff of the neck and drink blood.

Are you using a different method here?

He said as I scratched my head.

“In principle, it is…”

The butler didn’t answer immediately and hesitated.

“The Duke said the bed was uncomfortable…”

Is that what this is about?

Is the comfort of the Duke more important than the person being bitten?

Oh, of course, since this is a Duke’s residence, that’s probably the case.

“When the young lady donates blood a lot, she sometimes vomits, so it’s cumbersome to change the sheets every time and more than anything…”

“More than anything?”

“Didn’t the young lady say you were ashamed?”

“Yes?”

“The young lady asked me if I could pull it out with a needle on the first day you came here… Don’t you remember?”

My head throbbed. I raised one arm and put it on my forehead.

I didn’t know if it was the dizziness from the belated blood donation or the headache from the butler’s words, but I knew one thing for sure.

That Leonie was a fool who couldn’t even ask for anything.

Leonie.

You kicked off your good fortune. Very good.

Willing to give blood to your beloved Duke.

Poor Leonie said that while she hadn’t even looked at the Duke’s face properly.

***

After drawing blood several times, the body did not have strength.

Even when I was lying still in bed, the chandelier hanging from the ceiling was spinning round and round.

Perhaps the reason Leoni died quietly was not because of love or the weather in the North, but because of dizziness.

At this rate, it seemed that she would die quietly like the original Leoni.

This can’t go on.

I can’t lie in bed and wait for death.

I stood up.

It reminded me of the original, which I barely remember.

A three-page prologue.

A novel that has now become a reality.

The sixth bag of blood.

And the fate of blood, which he solves after meeting the female protagonist.

All encounters began with the arrival of the sixth blood bag.

So, the only way for me to survive is to hold on well without dying and run away at the right time. Make a time when you don’t need blood to come early. It was either one.

I scribbled the two plans on a blank piece of paper.

[Plan A.

Let’s make him an emperor who will no longer need blood.]

Blood is worthless if you have absolute power.

The reason he drank blood in the first place was to win the war and become emperor. The reason he stopped taking blood after receiving the holy relic was that the holy relic could replace the power of blood.

However, I don’t know if he will become Emperor, because I haven’t read the original work to the end, and I’m powerless.

I don’t know much about the international situation, geography, and political battles here.

I erased plan A and wrote plan B.

[Plan B.

Let’s leave the castle and run away before the new blood bag arrives.]

Let’s touch the baton after remembering the next two years, when the next blood bag will arrive.

T/N: a long stick carried and twirled by a drum major or drum majorette. I found this, but I’m not sure what she is saying.

The other problem can be dealt with like the original…

Wouldn’t it be a chance to win if you put your mind at ease as if you were adjusting well here and then hit the back of your head and hide? You’ll be a fugitive for life, but if you steal gold and run away…

I put the pen down.

Okay.

I decided to run away.

To escape unharmed and to survive this prologue.

***

In the north, it snowed every other day.

I stepped out while watching the endless snow falling in the garden.

‘I think I’m about 163 cm tall.’

I took a step and my foot sank.

‘It’s up to my knees. It’s about 50 cm.’

It is approximately 50 cm.

The problem was that the maids had cleaned up to this extent.

Snow piled up and piled up again.

There must have been more snow piled up on the snowy mountains in the distance.

I don’t know how she got here because the story started with the death of Leonie. She probably arrived safely in the carriage sent to the duchy. It is a precious body to be dedicated to the Duke.

The knights who were going out said that it would take about four full days to get out of the territory.

Four days of trained soldiers… So it should take me at least a week?
The tall trees covered the sky.

The branches had no leaves, but the end was not visible.

Besides, you can’t even start a fire while you’re on the run.

The whole area is covered with white snow, and if you light a fire, you will be caught immediately.

At least I have to steal a few of the magic tools called ‘warmth stones’.
Even so, I heard that the warmth only lasts for three days, so I have to cross the mountain in it.

To do so, you’ll need snowshoes to walk on snow.

We also need thick winter clothes, not clothes that we wear inside the castle.

I need to build up my stamina.

The provisions are a few jerkies that can withstand hunger…

‘Should I hide a bit of the food that comes out as a meal?’

Thinking about breakfast this morning, I shook my head.

It’s barren, but it’s an incredibly rich duke who owns all the surrounding estates, and the only thing that came out for my meal was vegetable stems and stiff meat.

Vegetables withered quickly and could not be hidden.

Anyway, I thought there would be no problem hiding it if it only came out with it.

Because the natural reservoir is all over the north.

Since it was snow everywhere and the freezer, it seemed that it would be easy to take it later if you dug up the ground and buried the food, leaving only a recognizable mark.

The problem was that it was too hard to get food.

As a rule, those who were not permitted to enter the Duke’s house could not enter the warehouse.

If you cross that snowy mountain without preparation… You will die without hesitation.

According to the maid who came and went, bears and wolves also haunted the mountain.

In the snowy mountains, there is nothing, so the animals are hungrier.
It was terrible to die by the blade of the Duke, but it was terrible to be torn apart by a wild animal.

Should I learn to bow? No, what’s the point of a bow facing a bear? I’d rather learn how to climb a tree…

“Young lady, please go in now. You’ll catch a cold.”

The maid came to me in agony.

Contrary to her worried words, she rolled up her sleeves.

She was ready to drag her if she didn’t go willingly, blue tendons on her arms.

It was funny. Pretending to worry, looking at the safety of the blood.

How did this happen?

In my previous life, I… How did it happen?

How did I get in here?

Laughter suddenly broke out.

“Ha ha ha…”

Looking up at the sky and seeing me laughing, the maid stopped her hand, which was trying to control my body.

She looked perplexed.

There was a look of bewilderment in her round eyes, as if she were looking at a madman.

Yes. It’s not bad to look crazy.

Surviving the crazy prologue.

It was far away.

The road ahead of me was as desolate as the cold Northern Territory.