The stench of death reached Rose's nose and it had come to her like a wind. It was a terrible feeling that crept around her.

If she was a better Mage then perhaps she would have sensed the death mana first that coursed through the air, but similar to how the wind sometimes shielded her in the direst time... it carried to her the scent of blood first and she recoiled back away from the Vampire Lord.

She had done everything to stand and fight back against her nerves, she knew that the man before her was some kind of monster–but for a moment, she had been fooled by his demeanor, words and deeds.

He was far from a monster in terms of appearances, and he almost seemed human-like, but she only forgot herself.

Tears stung and burned her eyes as she covered her mouth and resisted the urge to puke, vomit.

While many of the assailants from Averon Kingdom were given orders to kill, Princess Eleanor was far from them and was more benevolent. She did not wish to kill and instead chose to flee, so as she looked up at the Vampire Lord and understood that he had killed without remorse, she felt sick. How could he look at her with such eyes?

"What is the matter?" he asked, as if he didn't understand. And he didn't... didn't he?

Rose's lips thinned into a smile as she looked at him. "You... you, the air of death does not bother you. The stench of people's corpses does not make you sick."

"Oh, so you can sense the ghouls."

Rose's eyes widened. "The ghouls–?! You're not just a monster but a Necromancer—"

His expression grew dark and for a moment, Rose wished to swallow her tongue whole. As a mere commoner, she did not learn how to hold her tongue around the presence of Princess Eleanor.

Not that Princess Eleanor told her to stop on her behalf.

However, since Rose was not taught manners or how to speak properly, it seemed to have lent her the bravery to speak right now even in the face of someone like him.

Her tongue seemed to have grown far more loose now that she was with him, as if time and being in the face of the unknowable had removed herself from worries of the court and everything came stumbling out of her chest.

Now she offended him.

And now he was furious, or so she believed.

"Prone to misconceptions and the lack of gratitude. As usual humans are one of the most insufferable beings known to this world and even beyond."

Even beyond? Rose's eyes widened, but the Vampire Lord continued, did not even seem to have registered his words as he looked at her crossly and with a hint of what Rose now discovered to be annoyance.

"Is this how you treat your Master who has been kind to you?"

"M-Master?" The words left out of Rose in a choked way.

For a moment, a look of amusement and also a hint of pleasure rippled across his face as he nodded. "Naturally. The way you speak it almost made me forget of your ungrateful nature, but let it not be forgotten that my actions which you deem as incredulous are nothing more but done in the benefit of you, for my own benefit."

"What do you mean?" Rose didn’t ask anyone to die.

"Come with me and see," he said.

Rose looked him in the eye, this time he didn't just grab her out of nowhere, and instead he offered her a hand. She didn't want to take it.

He let out a sigh and shrugged. "Very well, I suppose it is far better to simply teleport them instead."

Rose had barely gotten over the fact that he could use teleport–but then it appeared. A ghoul.

No, the entire seven of them.

Their faces still held a still freshness from death that despite the lack of life and color in their face, it seemed like she could recognize each of them still.

However, out of them all, one stood out the most.

Sir Ilmus Knight, his throat was torn and split open, dried up and crusted blood dripped around his white armor spectacled with the colors of light beige, blue and green.

This was someone who had given her a hard time when she and Eleanor were escaping, his skills were speed-based, and even when the weather had turned dreadful, this man had not stopped.

Rose detested him, very much so, and though she had sworn to protect the princess with all of her life, she did not wish for this man's death to be this way—he had a family, all of the seven did and now their families were no longer to see them.

"You've killed the people who were chasing after us."

"Very much so."

"Why?" Rose asked.

"Why not?" he said. "These people were assailing you and I did not wish for any more people to trespass into my manor while it's still not restored to its former glory. You should know that if you wish to deal with an enemy then it is far better to eliminate threats. Why haven't you done that?"

Rose clenched her fist and closed her eyes.

She thought of the others who balked whenever Princess Eleanor walked into the castle, saw the way they avoided her, and even knew the nickname they had given her.

Princess Eleanor the Cursed. The one who brought her mother's death and laid kingdoms to low—and still Rose knew that she would have not wanted this, even for someone an enemy.

"Your heart is weak," he said. "You lack the resolve to truly serve your Princess until death. It's obvious in the way that you throw yourself away like a tool to be disposed of. You'd rather suffer your own death than inflict it to others—excluding me, I suppose."

Rose knew that she was as weak as he said, she despised it. "Even so..."

"I don't think that's an entirely wrong notion to have," Lord Blackwell said.

"What?"

"Some people do not belong in the battlefield and it would be wrong to blame them for it."

Rose stared at him, incredulous. She did not think that someone like him would say such a thing. “Even if they don’t belong, if they are called to fight–”

“Then they will learn or die. That is all.”