Silver Cross and Draculea(Vol. 01 - 05)

(Vol. 02) Chapter 2 - Witch's Recipe

"Too slow! What on earth were you doing!?"

...Even though he expected this, as soon as Hisui stepped into his home, he was faced with Rushella's lecturing.

Standing at the entrance with her arms crossed, she resembled a stern door god. No answer, no entry -- this was the kind of aura exuded by Rushella.

"Hmm... Just something minor to do."

"Why didn't you chase after me!? Goodness knows how many times I halted or looked back, but I couldn't even catch a glimpse of your shadow!"

"...What. Aren't you the one who ran away? And you end up wanting me to chase after you?"

Hisui's question made Rushella's face turn scarlet.

"S-Shut up, you are obliged to stay by my side at all times! This is obvious!!"

"...So annoying."

Hisui muttered as he took off his shoes and entered the house.

Putting down his bag, he was planning to return to his room directly when Rushella grabbed him by the wrist.

"...What?"

"What happened to your wrist?"

Hisui's right wrist was wrapped in black medical bandages. It would be troublesome if others saw the scratch from the black cat, so he bought them along the way home to cover things up.

He originally intended to use a more fashionable sports-use wrist guard, but the wound was too long to be covered by ordinary wrist guards.

Rushella discovered it as a result.

"Just a minor sprain, nothing much."

"On your body... There's the smell of blood."

Rushella asked solemnly.

Hisui knew very well he could not hide things of this nature from her.

Regarding any issue related to blood, vampires were experts after all.

"A human killed a kitten, so I gave it some last rites in a human manner."

"What is that!? I forbid you to hide anything from me!"

"I'm not hiding anything. This is definitely not human blood, you should be able to tell, right?"

"...Indeed. But there's also the smell of your blood."

"Just a minor scratch when I sprained my right arm. Nothing much."

The dead cat and the magic circle, as well as that instant of revival and the cursed incantation -- simply explaining everything would be troublesome enough. Informing Rushella would be equivalent to bidding farewell to peace and quiet. In the worst case, she might even drag him back to school.

"...Well whatever. I have something else to ask you."

"What?"

"You also have a woman's smell on you... Different from that fake... It's that woman named Eruru."

Rushella drew her face near Hisui's chest, looked up into his eyes and questioned.

"...What is with your special sense of smell? I'm quite familiar with vampires thanks to circumstances beyond my control, but this is the first time I'm hearing about this kind of ability?"

"I know what I know. So you were with that woman?"

"......Yes."

It was not like he had done anything improper.