9 PM.

The movie ended. But not the movie playing on the projection screen. In fact, the screen remained sadly blank throughout. What ended was the touching love story starring Adele, Kaiser, and Wofoo, each playing the leading role. The process was indescribable and wouldn’t be released, but it would surely become a cherished memory for Kaiser and Wofoo.

As for Adele, also a leading lady, she looked at the messy hickeys on her neck in the mirror after the lights were turned on, her lips twitching. After a while, she gritted her teeth and called out the girl’s name, “Kai—ser!” She shouldn’t have thought Kaiser would be well-behaved. This girl was just waiting for this opportunity.

Kaiser chuckled, buttoning her pants, the image of a carefree woman after a fling. “Don’t blame it all on me.”

“Your good little wolf also left something on your collarbone.”

Hearing this, Wofoo lowered her head in shame. She thought no one would notice. Because Wofoo drank after Kaiser, she saw the enticing marks on Adele’s snow-white neck. “Hickeys” was a more appropriate term. Feeling a pang of jealousy, but also timid, Wofoo secretly left a light mark on Adele’s collarbone. Because she was too gentle, Adele didn’t notice at the time. It wasn’t until Kaiser reminded her that she pulled down her collar and saw the small, faint hickey.

“...”

“S-Sorry!” Wofoo couldn’t bear the pressure and apologized to Adele.

Adele sighed softly. “You kissed me here, you were already being considerate.”

“I don’t blame you, it’s all because someone set a bad example!”

Kaiser shrugged, not understanding why she was the bad guy and Wofoo was forgiven. They did the same thing. But Kaiser wouldn’t complain. And Adele wasn’t really angry. She finally tied the bow on her collar, looking in the mirror, and left the private cinema.

Kaiser and Wofoo followed, both with satisfied expressions. They were full and energized. Just recalling tonight’s experience would be enough to keep them from feeling lonely for many days to come.

But Adele was different. Even with light makeup, she couldn’t hide the slight paleness on her face. Physically, she wasn’t uncomfortable. It felt like donating blood. She might order some late-night snacks to reward herself and replenish her nutrients. But unfortunately, although Adele was a vampire, besides the blood of beautiful girls, she hardly consumed any blood products. So “you are what you eat” didn’t apply to her. But there were plenty of blood-replenishing foods, so this pickiness wasn’t a big deal.

After leaving the cinema, Kaiser and Wofoo remained vigilant, acting as Adele’s bodyguards, until they took a taxi and sent Adele to the academy gate. After all, the academy was the territory of monsters, not just local gangs, but powerful beings. The human high-ups and those powerful ability users and mages wouldn’t allow any forces to target the academy students. This was also necessary to maintain the peace treaty between vampires and humans.

Kaiser and Wofoo had their own residence outside, a vacant property of the Kaiser family. It had been cleaned and prepared for them while they were at school. Wofoo was basically freeloading, but it wasn’t a burden for Kaiser at all. On the contrary, she occasionally needed someone to run errands, like picking up takeout downstairs. Although Wofoo’s status was low, her position in Adele’s heart was equal to Kaiser’s. This was a reality that Kaiser couldn’t change, no matter how helpless she felt.

“We’ll leave you here then. See you tomorrow, Adele~.”

“See you tomorrow, Adele!” Wofoo’s ears twitched as she placed her hands on the car window, like a puppy reluctant to part with its owner.

Adele reached out and patted her hair, saying goodbye to both of them, “See you tomorrow, good night in advance.”

Kaiser wouldn’t admit that she showed a hint of envy when she saw Adele patting Wofoo’s hair. Hmph, I won’t admit it. And I definitely don’t want to be patted on the head or anything. The girl’s stubborn pride was meaningless, but it was part of her personality. Without it, she wouldn’t be herself.

Adele glanced at Kaiser, smiled slightly, and turned to enter the academy. The gatekeeper was almost familiar with this girl who often stayed out all night. And he seemed to remember that the girls accompanying Adele were always different. Perhaps this was related to the Vampire Clan’s open customs. Or perhaps it wasn’t the Vampire Clan that was open, but Adele who was special.

Adele originally thought that she just needed to follow the familiar path back to her dorm. Unexpectedly, she met someone she didn’t expect along the way – her magic training instructor, Victoria.

When Adele noticed her, Victoria also looked up and saw Adele. At that moment, Victoria’s eyes lit up with an unfathomable glint. And Adele, in her surprise, didn’t forget her manners as a student and immediately greeted her, “Good evening, Teacher Victoria!”

A faint but maturely charming smile appeared on Victoria’s lips. She pushed up her glasses, which she only wore at the academy, and replied politely, “Good evening...Adele.”

“What a coincidence, I didn’t expect to meet you here.”

“I feel lucky too.” Adele’s words were always sweet, instantly making Victoria chuckle.

“Since we met, let me walk you back.”

“Even in the academy, don’t let your guard down when walking alone at night,” Victoria reminded her, seemingly intentionally.

Adele didn’t suspect the newly arrived instructor, the legendary mage, at all, just taking it as a reminder from an elder and nodding obediently. “Okay, if Teacher Victoria happens to be free.”

So the two, who were originally walking in opposite directions, now walked together because of Victoria’s sudden kindness. Victoria was a classical and elegant beauty, even by today’s standards. According to legends in the magical world, many mages who were also sculptors used Teacher Victoria’s image as a reference when sculpting goddesses in religious myths. Walking with such a mature big sister, Adele felt strangely good. At least, it was a feast for the eyes, wasn’t it?

As for the previous speculation about the stalker with Kaiser and Wofoo, the reason Adele mentioned Victoria was just because she was someone she had recently met. The girl didn’t have any other intentions and never suspected Teacher Victoria. After all, from her perspective, Teacher Victoria had no reason to covet her. And if she wanted to harm her, Adele had no chance of resisting. So why would she choose such a meaningless method as stalking? If she wanted to approach her, she could have used a legitimate reason, just like now. A teacher concerned about her student happened to meet the girl walking alone and offered to walk her home.

During this time, Victoria had plenty of opportunities to kidnap Adele unnoticed, imprison her, do whatever she wanted to her, and...devour her. But none of this happened. Adele returned to her dorm safely, waving goodbye to Victoria at the entrance.

The door closed with a click. Under the cold moonlight, only Victoria’s lone figure remained. But if you looked closely, you would find that Victoria’s shadow seemed strange, as if it had come to life, desperately trying to extend dark tentacles. What this meant, no one knew. Victoria’s expression was a mixture of restraint and regret, almost distorted, losing her usual beauty and elegance.

Yes, she could have done it. She could have easily fulfilled the desire that had been haunting and tormenting her these past few days, to understand Adele, inside and out, from bone to skin, to devour her completely. But she didn’t.

For a moment, Victoria felt a pang of regret, but she immediately killed that emotion. Then, a powerful surge of magic erupted, but it was extremely suppressed, almost using Victoria’s own body as a battlefield. She hurt herself, damaging her magic circuits, almost severing them with that powerful magic, only a few threads still struggling to connect.

But the result was obvious. The woman’s shadow no longer extended those strange tentacles. The monster from another world, or rather, the evil god, residing in her magic circuits, quieted down. Victoria fell to her knees, curled up in pain, and panted, her blue hair looking dull.

There seemed to be no record in history of anyone surviving after destroying their entire magic circuit. Of course, Victoria wasn’t cruel enough to do that. She just destroyed the part where she felt the monster’s presence with her magic control, and in doing so, hurt herself.

The effect was good, but Victoria still felt despair. She couldn’t torture herself like this every time she had an unbearable craving. Or was the best solution to bury herself, who didn’t belong to this era, in her own time? It was easy to think, but hard to make up one’s mind.

This era was so wonderful and new, with so many beautiful girls, so much delicious food, beautiful buildings, so many novel things, powered not by magic, but by something called electricity, and gasoline. So strange...they flow through machines like magic, creating fire, ice, and a speed many times faster than a magic broom. Cars, high-speed trains, airplanes, their power was even greater than the legendary magical golems. I don’t want...to give up this hard-won life so easily—even if it’s the easiest and most liberating way.

Yes, no matter how wonderful and new this era was, Victoria didn’t like it. It had nothing to do with her. She only felt the noise and her own loneliness. What she liked was the gentle breeze in the countryside, riding a magic broom, chasing after the girls she liked, collecting alchemy materials and having picnics in monster-infested forests, camping and kissing, meeting shy elves and slow-talking dragons, using her witch identity to teach greedy lords a lesson – mages were best at shifting blame. Finally, returning to the magic academy, turning these embarrassing moments into beautiful memories, pretending to be a new instructor, and then nurturing a group of unruly, lively, and interesting students.

With Victoria’s personality, which couldn’t stand loneliness, she would probably fall in love with her students, even at the cost of losing her position as a magic instructor or her identity as /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ a legendary mage. Because she was such a woman, seemingly classical and dignified, but with rich desires in her heart, full of contrast.

But she no longer had the chance to fall in love with her students. Her students died in that disaster. Her lovers also gave their all. Her mentors, the elders she angered when she was young, also... She desperately wanted to survive, to walk out of that chaotic space filled with magical turbulence, because she still wanted to see them, to use magic with them, to adventure with them, to...

If all this was no longer possible, then she would live on alone in this world, never forgetting them. Because if she did, then no one in the world would remember the beautiful times they had spent together.

Adele could probably understand all this, right? Victoria vaguely saw her own shadow in the girl. So there was another reason not to give in to the monster.