The male protagonist glanced at the mugwort, still maintaining his arrogant demeanor: "I allow you to pledge allegiance to me."
Then he rolled up his cloak, transforming back into a small black bat, and slipped out through the crack in the wood.
The flapping of wings outside the shed gradually weakened.
The sky slowly brightened.
Lillian let out a slow breath. She looked at Artemisia with a slightly bewildered expression and said, "Why are you helping me?"
Artemisia breathed a sigh of relief. She had considered the possibility that Lillian might dislike her, and the worst outcome would be that Lillian wouldn't know that she meant well—but now it seemed that as long as Lillian didn't become a vampire, she could still communicate with Lillian.
“I wanted to help you, so I did,” Ai Cao said. Seeing the obvious distrust in Lillian's eyes, she shrugged and said, “You look familiar, and I wanted to be friends with you. Is that reason enough?”
Lillian was silent for a moment. A smile slowly appeared in her light blue eyes: "...Artemisia, hello, I'm Lillian. It's nice to be your friend."
Artemisia smiled and said, "Hello, Lillian."
Lillian stood up. She patted her skirt and said lightly and quickly, "Artemisia, come in and sit for a while. Tonight, we're going to that lord's residence."
The mugwort nodded.
She left the stable with Lillian.
Outside the stable was a similarly dilapidated little house. Lillian pushed open the small wooden door of the house and beckoned Ai Cao to sit at the table. She brought over two bowls with chipped rims and offered Ai Cao some water.
Ai Cao took a sip of the somewhat cloudy water and said with a smile, "Thank you."
Lillian smiled shyly. After exchanging a few more words with Ai Cao, she was no longer as reserved and wary as she had been at the beginning.
Or perhaps, because she was about to be taken away by that vampire lord, she no longer cared about the present or the future?
Ai Cao still couldn't figure out what she was thinking.
She simply asked directly, "Lillian, can you tell me about that lord?"
Lillian didn't retort by questioning her, but remained silent for a moment before saying, "You don't seem to be from here." Her eyes were fixed on Artemisia, "But I don't know what that means—I just have a feeling."
Her eyes curved slightly: "Let me think, how should I tell you..."
Lillian thought for a moment, and before Ai Cao finished drinking the water in her bowl, she said, "The lord is the owner of this land." She pointed to the ground beneath her feet, "Because this land belongs to him, he can capture us to be blood slaves without asking our consent."
“Blood slaves… are humans who provide blood to vampires,” she continued. “We might encounter other blood slaves later. To avoid being exposed, may I call you sister?”
Ai Cao nodded: "If you don't mind."
Lillian smiled. "Sister Artemisia." She lowered her eyelashes and thought for a moment, then said, "I have a gift I'd like to give you as a token of our friendship."
She got up and dug out two small pendants from the corner of the room. Lillian wiped the dirt off them with a soft cloth, then handed one to Artemisia.
“This is for you,” Lillian said.
Ai Cao thanked him and accepted the pendant.
The pendant rested heavily in her palm. It appeared to be made of metal, with a woman blindfolded in the center, surrounded by sword-shaped decorations.
The system, which had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke up, saying, "Ai Cao, it seems that the female lead this time is not the same as in the original timeline."
"Um?"
The system said with difficulty, "Didn't you sense anything from this pendant?"
Ai Cao laughed: "Have you forgotten that I only have a D-level mental strength?"
Artemisia flipped the pendant over, revealing scattered star patterns carved on its smooth surface.
The system prompted: "This is a Western fantasy setting... never mind, I'll just be blunt." It paused, then said, "The female lead might be a witch."
"oh."
The system snapped, "How can you be so uninterested! That's a witch!"
Artemisia glanced at the pendant again and asked Lillian, "Can I wear it right away?"
Lillian nodded.
Artemisia put on the pendant, turned the woman's side over to the right side, and asked with a smile, "How is it?"
Lillian smiled and said, "It looks good."
She also wore another pendant. The rainbow above her pendant was decorated with several cup-shaped ornaments; and below it was an exquisitely carved city.
Only then did Ai Cao answer the system's previous question.
"Why would I be interested in someone who can't even protect themselves and has to bear the stigma?"
The system fell silent.
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