Chapter 21: Brutal Training

At 3:00 a.m., I opened my eyes to the relentless blaring of my alarm clock, only to see Rion's infuriatingly stern face. "Darling, the early bird gets the food. You need to stay alert, or else the vampires will turn you into a mummified corpse before you even open your eyes!"

I was afraid I'd die from his torment before any vampire could even drain me dry.

Groggily clutching my head, I groaned, "I only fell asleep at midnight last night—just three hours of sleep! My skin will deteriorate. Don't you know how important beauty sleep is at my age?"

"You'd better get dressed now, or I'll strip and join you in bed!" he threatened with a lecherous grin, pretending to loom over me.

I surrender! I surrender!

With my body feeling like a rag, I got dressed and was forced to sprint around the garden for three hours—this was the so-called "learn to run before you learn to fight."

After being chased by a simulated vampire for three hours, I stumbled, drenched in sweat, to where Dene was elegantly having breakfast. I had no energy left to flirt with him.

I could only pull his long, muscular arm aside and collapse onto his lap, weakly saying, "Darling, let me lean on you for a bit, just a bit. Don't let that devil Rion near me."

Dene gently brushed the damp hair from my forehead, smiled elegantly, and then, with no regard for my well-being, pushed me onto the carpet. "The only way to keep the devil at bay is to defeat him. So, you'd better surpass the speed he demands—then he'll have nothing to say!"

My first attempt failed!

Rion had said that if Dene showed even a little concern for me, it meant he cared… But even if he didn't care, did he have to push me onto the carpet? He was utterly cold-hearted!

Feeling aggrieved, I thought to myself, if it were that vampire Baron Albert, he would surely pull out a chair for me, maybe even serve me the most delicious breakfast, hand me a knife and fork, and then pour me a glass of milk.

Of course, he'd probably also make me his breakfast, savoring my blood, his crimson eyes gleaming as he said, "Darling, you're so delicious!"

Stop! Stop this bizarre train of thought immediately!

This was truly a world devoid of humanity. I wished I could just end it all and reach nirvana, vowing to reincarnate into a purely human world next time.

My inner lamentations were lost on Rion, so before I could even get up from the carpet, he loomed over me, preening in his ridiculously self-obsessed white suit. "Darling, breakfast time is five minutes. You'd better eat slowly but finish quickly, or else you won't get anything to eat all day!"

Eat, eat, eat… After saying these words three times, it took me a full minute to get up, half a minute to sit in the chair, and then three and a half minutes to devour a fried egg, a sandwich, and a glass of milk. I thought I had done perfectly.