Chapter 104: Chapter 104

SAMALAH:

My chest was threatening to explode with rage as I looked at the blood-red fertility stone in my hands, but it was Dahlia’s sudden burst into tears that had reminded me the part I needed to play at that moment.

“N-No… That can’t be right…”

“Yes. Maybe this was defective. Let’s try it again,” I whispered in a dull voice.

We waited some time to let the stone settle back into its original white color. After about thirty minutes, I pricked Dahlia’s finger once more and poured a drop of her blood into the stone.

Red. It produced the same red color.

“I… I am not pregnant… I cannot possibly be pregnant!”

That’s right. She cannot be of child, especially not with Tristan’s child!

I can’t help it. Even I was sent into fits of tears.

When we were both calm enough, she whispered towards me, “Who is he?”

“Who’s what,” I said, feigning ignorance.

“What’s the name of the sick bastard who fathered my child?”

Good… At least she believed that bit about Tristan being an evil husband. The greater the wedge between them, the better…

“His name is Tristan Abell. He is a count at Talandor.”

“Talandor?”

I nodded. “Yes, the Kingdom of Talandor, do you remember it?”

“It sounds familiar… Are we from that kingdom?”

“Yes, but we have just escaped, so we couldn’t possibly go back there for now. We’ll have to return some other time, but not now… Or else your husband will find you and kill us.”

“My husband… Was he really a terrible person?”

“Hmm, maybe demonic is the right term, Dahlly… He purchased you as a slave, took advantage of you, and planned to sell you… Who knows what else he has done to you? I bet he had done far worse things. Maybe that’s why your mind chose to forget about him…”

There was silence between us. I thought long and hard how I could dispose of Dahlia and her child without attracting attention to myself or raising Tristan’s suspicions towards me.

“I… I want to meet him,” Dahlia remarked quietly.

“What for? Didn’t you hear what I told you? He is an evil man! He would beat you up just so you would concede to make love to him!”

“I… I just want to know what he’ll say now that we’re having a-a baby…”

“What do you think he’ll say, sister? Maybe the real reason he was selling you off was because of your child. Didn’t you know that vampires purchase pregnant women for a much higher price?”

“What? Why?”

“Because they can –,” I stopped at my tracks.

That’s right! Why didn’t I think of that?

Vampires can smell pregnant women from the moment they conceive. They favor them as their meals because they can get double the amounts of blood when one was pregnant…

“Vampires can have an additional slave when pregnant women give birth,” I lied.

“T-Then, what do you propose I should do?... A-Are you saying I shouldn’t go with this pregnancy?”

I looked at Dahlia’s pained expression, and I felt happy inside.

It must really be a big ordeal for her to learn that she was pregnant with a monster’s child…

“It’s up to you… If you can bear to raise the child of a malevolent person, then why not just go through with it? That child is yours as well, after all,” I said.

Despite the pain in my heart, I tried to persuade Dahlia in my line of thinking.

“Don’t decide on anything yet, sister… Raising a child is a big responsibility. Just take things slowly for now. Tomorrow, let’s set out early and find a new place to rest. If we stay here, your husband might track us down... We wouldn’t want that, would we?”

Looking confused, Dahlia could only nod at my suggestion.

I’m sure that bidders from the vampire kingdom would go crazy once I send word about the kind of goods I plan to sell.

The next day, I roused up early from sleep.

I look at the sleeping girl next to me. She was too exhausted after crying her eyes out earlier.

I continued looking at her. Right now, she was utterly defenseless… weak… vulnerable…

If I slit her throat right here, right now, no one would ever know, right?

I wrapped my hands on the hilt of my dagger, the dagger I was going to use on her earlier…

If I kill her right now, my problems would be instantly solved. I don’t have to pretend to like her anymore…

“Hah, who am I kidding,” I mumbled as I placed the dagger back in a concealed space beside the bed.

At this point, Dahlia Hurst was definitely more valuable to me alive than dead. If she keeps the child until I sold her, it’ll even be much better. Her monetary value would be on an all-time high.

And the best part would probably be that she’ll suffer the same fate my mother and I had suffered in the hands of those Talandor royalties many, many years ago…

That’s right… This is the best kind of revenge. The day I sell her would be the day that I can finally feel like I have risen from the ashes of anger that has consumed my soul for a long time…

With a tight smile on my lips, I left the slumbering snake on the bed to sleep some more.

I went outside quickly and sent secret messages via messenger birds to my contacts in the black market, and then, I also sent a secret message to the leader of the rogue community in Payn.

Naskan, I wrote, please send word to our leader that I have the red ruby. He may also want to pay for my hostage when he sees her in person.

I would probably get a response within a week or less. Until then, I have to keep on pretending that I was close to this snake and that I care about her like a real sister.

When all of this is over, once I sell Dahlia off to either party, I’ll help Tristan forget about the love he had lost by welcoming him back into my arms… I’m sure he won’t be able to resist crying while cradled in my chest and being comforted by my body this time, just like the many times he used to come to me for affection…

Then after he forgets Dahlia, I’m sure he’ll begin to love me back the way he did in the past when only he and I existed in his world…