Chapter 12

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Chapter 12

Even though I understood exactly what he was saying, I doubted my ears.

“My blood?”

Camian nodded with a serious expression.

“Even more effectively than holy water or holy artifacts, you’re the one who can subdue me effectively.”

“Why my blood?”

Camian let out a laugh and flicked my nose lightly.

“Ah.”

It happened so naturally and suddenly that I didn’t know what had happened just now. I could only look at Camian with a bewildered gaze.

“That’s something I can’t tell even you.”

“What. Don’t be shy, just tell me everything while you’re at it.”

“You’re already bullying me this much. If you know that, how much more will you hold me and try to sway me?”

“Can’t you be swayed just a little bit?”

Without responding, Camian only smiled. As I looked up at Camian’s expression from under the blanket, it kind of felt like I was a little relieved. If my blood was Camian’s only weakness, no one could do anything to him without my cooperation.

I hope I can become healthy, and once Camian doesn’t love me anymore… I wished that the day when I myself would lead Camian to ruin with my own blood would not come.

These days, Camian was so busy that it seemed like he couldn’t even sit still and relax. The harvest season had since begun in full-swing as the scorching sun’s energy faded away and autumn had arrived.

Camian went to help not only at my family’s farm, but he also helped out our neighbors who needed a young man’s strength for their farms. In return for his labor, he received some harvested crops and a small wage, but it was far less than what Camian should be compensated for.

It wasn’t that the neighbors weren’t paying him properly considering Camian’s contribution. It was the best they could do and the most sincere compensation they could provide, considering that they barely survived the year with crops they worked hard for over the span of an entire year.

Even so, every year during the harvest season, Camian tended not to sleep properly and had to work hard. But Camian helped the work obediently and with no complaints. So, it was natural that he monopolized the overflowing affection of the villagers.

“Aren’t you tired?”

Camian carried a sack of peanuts that he personally pulled out without showing any sign of heaviness. Even yesterday, he was stuck at the apiary all day and could only come back at dawn…. His monstrous stamina made me speechless.

“Liv, if you’re tired, just go in first and rest,” Debra said worriedly.

“What? No, I’m okay.”

My hand paused for a moment, but I soon moved it again to pull out the peanuts. Everyone was working, so it would be a fitful rest if I was the only one relaxing. When harvesting peanuts, all I needed to do was sit still and move my hands and eyes, so it didn’t consume much stamina.

“You don’t know how fortunate it is to have Camian. Thanks to him, we’ve expanded the scale of our farming so that our four family members won’t starve.”

Debra took more than half of the peanuts piled up in front of me.

“You should thank Camian. He showed up all of a sudden and stuck to our house.”

Debra and Jack, who didn’t know Camian’s identity, think of Camian as an abandoned orphan. They took care of Camian, who had no ties to them, just like their own son. They were generous people, even though they weren’t exactly wealthy themselves.

Not only that, but ‘Liv’ was also a stranger to Debra and Jack. Liv’s parents, who were Jack’s neighbors, both died of an illness. Debra and Jack took custody of Liv, who had a weak constitution.

“The moment I saw you two holding hands and going down the stairs, I thought that God sent me to this earth to take good care of you.”

I grinned and tossed the crushed peanuts to the floor.

“Why the grand revelation?”

“You don’t understand, but it really was like that.”

It seems that Debra had some pretty romantic memories of meeting Camian for the first time, but my thoughts were different. Immediately after being sucked into the novel, everything was frightening and flustering. The reason I was holding Camian’s hand that day was because Camian helped me overcome my panic.

At the time, I never imagined that I would become so close to Camian, nor did I know that I would regard Debra and Jack as a real family. This change in me was surprising. Were humans such adaptable beings? I nodded at the thought.

“How do you feel now that we have all grown up? I want to grow up really well, but Camian is too big now, isn’t he?”

“I’m not going to be there for you all the time. Watching you get married also puts my mind at ease.”

“Me and Camian? Don’t say that. We grew up together from a young age, so we were just like brother and sister…. Ah, that stings.”

A thorn mixed in between the piles of peanuts pierced the tip of my index finger. Red blood formed in circles like dots, trickling down a little.

“Are you hurt? Let me see.”

“It’s just a slight jab.”

“Hey, you’re bleeding.”

I stared at the slow drops of blood running down my hand. I suddenly looked up and looked for Camian.

Camian, covered in dust and sweat, was holding the water bottle Jack had offered to him. Drinking water with one hand on his hip, he looked like a sculpture that was crafted perfectly. His adam’s apple moved sensually, and his sweaty shirt revealed his chiseled muscles without hiding anything.

In him, I could feel the vitality of life that I did not have within myself. As I gazed at the strong body that seemed unlikely to be pierced by any ordinary needle, I glanced at the blood on my hand.

His only weakness was my blood?

But then didn’t he drink my blood well enough every full moon? Oh, come to think of it, the ceremony was performed every night. Relying only on the moonlight shining down in the dark darkness, the blood was sucked up and sucked again.

“…Are you afraid to see my blood?”

When the thought went crazy, I couldn’t help but stand up.

“Debra, I’m going to visit Camian for a while. I have something to tell him.”

“Sure, but wash your hands first. You can’t let your wound be infected.”

“Okay.”

I stood in front of Camian without wiping the flowing blood. Camian looks down at me with his head tilted at an angle.

“You want some?”

He offered the bottle of water he just drank from to me. I shook my head, then Camian drank all the remaining water and set the water bottle aside.

“Camian.”

I raised my hand high and pushed my bloody index finger in front of him. How is it? Are you scared? However, contrary to my expectations, Camian simply stared at my hand without showing any sort of reaction.

Opening his eyes once, his long eyelashes fluttering, Camian wrapped his arms around me. Then he narrowed his eyes halfway as he put my finger in his mouth. The tip of his red tongue was visible through his slightly opened mouth.

“Hey, what are you doing…!”

I hurriedly pushed his forehead with my hand. Camian only moved his eyes and looked at me.

“Aren’t you asking me to suck it?”

“Why are you drinking this? You’re crazy.”

If he sucks my blood here, I’ll get aroused. In broad daylight, with Debra and Jack watching us! There’s no way I can make him suck this.

Of course, just a little bit of blood on my finger wasn’t going to make me so excited. But… the problem was that the act of sucking blood itself made me feel strangely excited. It reminded me of how Camian would bite my neck periodically for two years. I was conditioned well, like Pavlov’s dog.

To my great embarrassment, Camian just shrugged. I narrowed my eyes and stared at him, but Camian didn’t care and casually replied, “What?”

I grabbed my wrist and asked to the back of the man walking to the sink.

“My blood is your weakness. Was that a lie?”

“It’s my weakness.”

“Then why are you okay?”

“Because the way it was used was wrong.”

“What. How should it be used? Tell me.”

“What good would it do to me if I tell you?”

“Good for me, for me!”

Camian turned on the faucet, grabbed my hand, and brought it to the running water. The cold liquid ran through my fingertips and its temperature spread to my head. Shaking slightly, Camian quickly pulled my hand away and blew it. A warm breath tickled my skin.

“Even if you ask, I won’t tell. So, don’t waste your breath.”

“How can your weakness be….”

Camian inspected my finger, then as if his job here was done, he bluntly pushed me away with his hand and turned back.

“Go.”

It felt like I’m being kicked out after being treated like a child who’d always been in a bunch of accidents.

“Hey, wait a minute.”

I looked back, but Camian had already gone too far.

“Mean jerk. You really won’t tell me.”

I grumbled and returned to Debra. I threw away the crushed peanuts, imagining that they were Camian.

Harvesting wasn’t something that could be finished in one day. Around the time my eyes and back became unbearably sore, Debra cleared it all up, saying that this was it for the day. I did as Debra had done and swept the sorted peanuts into a sack.

Again, Camian was called to the neighbor’s farm as soon as he was freed from the peanut field. Thanks to that, I had to exercise by myself today.

I was thinking about going jogging, but Uncle Dragg called the villagers to hand out the tomatoes he had harvested. Just bringing it home with me was enough exercise.

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