Act 9: The Oathbreaker (XIV)
fourteen
When Yubi woke up, it was already dark.
“Why didn’t you take off my ring and wake me up?” He sat on Yakov’s horse, rubbing the back of his head. A large bump was swollen there. “It’s been half a day…”
"What if you get burned to ashes in the sun?" Yakov said sullenly behind him, wearing a helmet. "I wouldn't dare take that risk."
"Aren't we going back to camp?" Yubi asked, turning his head. "It's so late."
“I don’t want to go back to that hypocritical place,” Yakov replied. “Or do you want to flirt with that young girl?”
"Don't say that, I don't want to, and she didn't have a choice..." Yubi complained while lowering her head in shame. "What did you tell her?"
“I told you I was your servant and that I would take you home.”
"Then why didn't you go home?"
"When you get home, I'll have to watch you drink the blood of other blood slaves again."
"Look at how jealous you are!" Yubi teased him. "So, where are we spending the night tonight?"
"In the forest."
“How shabby…” Yubi couldn’t help but sigh, “But it’s just like the day we first met, Yakov. Just you and me, riding a horse in the forest.”
Yakov said nothing. He quietly took off his helmet.
The two cleared a space and gathered firewood to start a fire. This time, Yakov didn't use a trap; he easily shot down two pheasants with their tails using only his bow and arrow. Yubi sat by the campfire, watching him pluck and gut the pheasants. The mountain air turned bitterly cold at night. Yubi wrapped himself in the utterly useless cloak for a while, then tried to take off the ring on his hand—but Yakov stopped him. "I'm all alone here," the Blood Slave said casually, turning the roasting chicken. "If you take it off, you'll bite me unconscious again."
Yubi thought about it and felt his words made sense, yet he also sensed an underlying meaning. So, he moved closer to Yakov, studying those icy blue eyes that flickered with flames. "Do you only want me to bite you?" the vampire asked. "Why are you so bothered by me drinking other people's blood?"
Do I mind?
"You don't mind at all?" Yubi nudged his shoulder. "You made Donatus and Mattia's blood taste awful. Did you think I didn't know it was you?"
Yakov frowned. "How did you know?"
"Their blood tastes just as bad as yours."
"Didn't I save one for you?"
"How do you plan to make her blood taste bad too?"
“…I haven’t decided yet.” Yakov took the roast chicken off the rack and took a bite. “Originally, I planned to teach her Greek or Latin first.”
“How do you know she can’t?” Yubi blinked. “Because she’s Black?”
“Shumer said he couldn’t understand a single word the little girl was saying.” Yakov turned his head. “Could it be that she speaks more than just that one language?”
“She managed to fool you all; she truly deserves to be called a ‘Lifeform’.” Yubi laughed, looking at the campfire. “If we could communicate, what would you say to her?”
Yakov thought about it carefully for a while. "I might laugh at her for being an outcast, a born slave," he said, "just like I've heard before."
Yubi sighed and shook her head. "She's not like you, Yakov." The vampire tilted her head back, gazing at the starry sky. "Do you know why she's called the Living One?"
"have no idea."
“She said she wasn’t born far away,” Yubi recounted. “Like you, she was born a slave and did hard labor every day from the time she could remember. When she got older, she was sold, whipped, and violated, living a hopeless life.”
"Later, just like you, she ran away—but unlike you, she didn't develop strength and martial arts skills, and could still hunt in the forest to survive. She was a girl, and no one had ever taught her those things. She didn't know how to hunt, and she didn't know anything about herbs, so she had to hide in the mountains and eat wild fruits—of course, she had no choice in winter."
Yakov stopped chewing his chicken. He couldn't help but wonder how he would live if he were a woman. Tatiana's face suddenly came to mind.
“She’s done everything,” Yubi continued. “Every horrible and disgusting thing you can imagine. Scamming, cheating, murder, arson, all just to survive. And yet, she still struggled to make ends meet.”
"So she sold herself to her sister."
“She willingly became a slave.” Yakov turned his head. “She’s a fool.”
“You can’t judge someone just because they chose life over freedom.” Yubi closed her eyes sadly. “Even if she really is a fool, as you say, does dying for freedom make someone wise?”
"There are things more important than life." The firelight flickered in the blood slave's eyes. "A slave's life is considered as insignificant as a feather, only a free life is truly precious and rare."
Yubi curled up, hugging himself tightly. "I believe that for everyone, life is above all else," he said firmly, without a trace of hesitation. "Life is hope and future. No matter how noble the reason, one should never give up."
"And what about your mother?"
“She’s just running away.” The young vampire buried his face in his knees. “No matter what her reasons or hardships may be, no matter how commonplace or even unavoidable death may seem to her, I don’t want her to do that.”
Yakov felt a sharp pain in the mark on his chest. He looked away, silently gazing at the burning flame. After a long while, "...that living being," the blood slave asked, "is her blood palatable?"
“You still care about this?” Yubi looked up at him in surprise. “...At first I thought her blood tasted just as bad as yours, but as I tasted it, I found the aftertaste to be delicate and had a special flavor.”
“Since you say so, then I will allow you to drink her blood from now on.” Yakov picked up a branch and added some firewood.
"Ha, you're clearly just jealous again." Yubi rolled up her cloak. "Tonight I can only bite you, you should be happy now."
Yakov sighed and opened his chainmail.
The vampire nestled into his arms. Yubi had grown considerably larger and stronger than when they first met. He removed his ring, gripping Yakov's shoulders firmly, pressing his fangs against the fading scars on Yakov's neck. Yakov closed his eyes, quietly feeling the life flowing into the person in his arms. Something warm was connecting to his cold soul through that channel, persistently nourishing him, ensuring that even in his strength he was free from cruelty, and in his nobility he was free from indifference. Yakov gently supported his back. "I have something to tell you."
"Hmm?" Yubi mumbled, her voice muffled as she nestled in his neck.
“I will go out to sea in September,” Yakov said. “The Knights have ships that go to Acre.”
Yubi relented in surprise. "Why?" Blood dripped from the corner of his lips. "Do you really have to go by yourself?"
“I have to go myself.” Yakov looked into his eyes. “It’s my wish, it’s what I want.”
I will miss you very much…
“I will come back,” Yakov reassured him. “I will bring you spices. And…”
"what else?"
"And gold coins."
"Anything else?"
"And there's the army and the territory."
Yubi hugged his neck, feeling wronged—this time she didn't bite him. "...Why can't I do these things myself?" he sighed, as if blaming himself for his incompetence. "If I were as strong as my mother or sister, maybe you wouldn't have had to do anything, and Schumacher wouldn't be in this situation."
“That’s exactly what I did, so that this day would come.” Yakov patted him on the back awkwardly but with relief. “That day will come.”
The next morning, they were awakened by birdsong.
The two smothered the campfire with mud and cleaned their clothes and armor, which were covered in dust and grass. Yakov helped Yubi into the stirrups—Yubi thought to himself that he should throw away those carrot-shaped, foolish shoes. "Why aren't you riding?" the vampire asked, watching Yakov rummage through his baggage. "What are you trying to do?"
“You also made a bet with your friend.” Yakov pulled out a large net. “Going back empty-handed will make him laugh at you.”
“You really want to prove you’re better than ten hunters…” Yubi rolled her eyes. “So competitive!”
“Who said I need to prove this?” Yakov led his horse away. “Listen carefully to everything I’m about to say.”
For the first time, Yubi found Yakov to be such a patient man—the Blood Slave had meticulously taught him how to navigate the forest, how to identify healing herbs and poisonous mushrooms, speaking calmly and patiently answering all his questions, big and small. Around noon, Yakov stopped under a tree, picked up a pellet of dung, and showed it to Yubi. “This is deer dung. It’s pointed at one end and flat at the other, moist and not shriveled, which means it’s fresh.” The Blood Slave looked around. “Look around and see if there are any similar ones.”
Yubi was helped off his horse, and after a few steps, he took off his cumbersome shoes, leaving only his socks on as he stepped onto the ground. The forest soil was incredibly soft, and the sound of flowing water could be heard. "You said that animals look for water..." Yubi listened carefully, and after a while, he found a stream behind a tree. "There's one here too, and there are even footprints next to it."
Yakov followed him over. "A newly matured deer, in its first breeding season." He compared the size of the hoof prints with his palm.
Yubi nodded. The two dragged a net from their bag and tied it to a sturdy vine beside the animal trail. Yubi realized that his gloves made it impossible to do delicate work, so he had to take them off. His fair palms immediately became red and swollen from the rubbing—"This work is really hard," he couldn't help but sigh. "I always thought that hunting with traps was the easiest way."
“The real challenge is yet to come,” Yakov warned him. “Let’s wait and see.”
They found a secluded place to hide. Yubi soaked his brightly colored cloak entirely in the mud so that it wouldn't be easily spotted. The two watched the sun move from overhead to the horizon, until the sky began to faintly reveal its vibrant purple-pink hue again. Finally, a wary fawn emerged from the trail, its eyes and ears darting around, searching for anything dangerous.
Yubi didn't dare say a word. He gripped Yakov's hand tightly.
The deer cautiously moved to the stream and sniffed around. It then moved to the net covered by leaves and mud and lowered its head to drink. Just a little short of the trap, Yubi stared intently at the deer's legs, his fingers digging white into Yakov's.
The deer took two sips and turned to leave—Yubi thought his first hunt was about to end in failure—but then its leg touched the bent vine. A loud crash followed, and the net tightened instantly.
"It's done!" Yubi shouted excitedly. "Yakov, look!"
He rushed over and saw the deer struggling and kicking in the net. The prey cried out in terror, attracting flocks of birds that circled in the treetops. Yubi looked into those large, watery black eyes and suddenly felt a pang of pity.
Yakov shoved a hunting knife into his hand. “If you want the whole pelt,” the Blood Slave said, “go for the neck or the belly.”
Yubi looked into his blue eyes, then into the frantically throbbing veins in his prey's neck. He mustered his courage, but his hand still trembled—Yakov thought, he had seen many corpses, but never killed one himself. Like a blindfolded person who only tastes delicacies and never cooks, refusing to understand the price of his own existence. He thought, it's time to let Yubi remove the blindfold. He won't go astray, nor should he be cowardly.
The young nobleman made up his mind and lunged forward. He embraced the fawn as if it were his own, then plunged his hunting knife deep into its neck. The deer struggled, its hooves striking Yubi hard in the face, leaving a large mark. Yakov thought that it would swell and bruise in a moment—it would be his first medal.
Blood gushed from the wound like a fountain, seeping into Yubi's sleeve. "This is your first deer," Yakov said, collecting the blood in a wine sac and handing it to Yubi. "Have a taste."
Yubi released the corpse and took his wine flask. He drank it all down, savoring the taste of fear and despair.
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