"This… should not happen again," Lucinia didn't spare the Duke any glance as she finished tucking her long black hair.
"I can ask someone to create the best dresses for you."
"That's not what I meant."
"Then what do you mean?" he asked, almost innocently.
"This! You sleeping in my room!"
"Then you want to sleep in mine instead?"
She stared at him, disbelief flashing in her eyes. Seeing this, Mo Li laughed. The crease in his forehead lightened as his eyes shone against the light inside Lucinia's bedroom. "Let me guess," Lucinia continued. "You won't listen to whatever I say, and you would continue staying here without my consent?"
"You are right. You are still as smart as ever," he shrugged and walked towards her. She expected him to touch her face, or do another round of teasing. However, Mo Li walked past her and stared at the flowers next to her mirror. "Where did you get these?"
"That— That was a gift." She stood next to him. "From Zach."
"Zach… " Zach's nickname rolled on his tongue. "Shall I kill him?"
"You were the one who asked me not to kill them."
"Do you know what kind of flower is this?"
Lucinia stared at the yellow flower that looked like roses but it was bulkier, there were more petals, and some sort of silver, lined each petal. Now that she thought about it, she actually doesn't recognize this flower. "No idea."
[Quest: Discover the source of the flower. Reward: 20 Coins. No option to decline.]
The robot's voice echoed inside her as she looked at Mo Li, waiting for him to answer her question.
"We call it the flower of death. This is deadly to vampires like us."
She frowned at his words. Deadly? Then… why was she still alive?
"Watch this." Mo Li suddenly touched one of the petals. A hissing sound followed as the flesh on his fingers started burning. He instantly let go of the petals that lost all of its colors and now looked like a dried flower. He held his wound in front of Lucinia.
"You're not healing?" she asked.
"Because… I can't. The flowers can do that to us."
Frowning, Lucinia stared at the flower. This flower had been here for as long as she can remember. At that time, she honestly thought it was beautiful and even asked Zach to give her this type of flower every day. However, she actually can't remember if she had touched this before. Without having second thoughts, Lucinia touched the petal.
"What are you— " Mo Li tried to snatch her hand but stopped moving when he notice that she wasn't reacting to the flower. "You— "
"I wasn't sure if I have touched this flower before since it has been here since… Zach started working for me." She let go and looked at her flawless hands. "It seems that it's not working on me?" She looked at Mo Li's worried face before her eyes lowered towards his hands. "So… it is going to stay like that forever?" she asked.
"There are ways, but it will take some time."
"Oh," she nodded as she held his hand. Then she accessed her space and found a potion for healing from her previous world. This was one of the potions that she put into her pitiful small space. She used his finger to apply it to Mo Li's hand and watched as his hand started healing.
Seeing this, Lucinia let out a sigh of relief. Knowing that the potion worked in this world, was enough to make her day.
"What was that?" Mo Li frowned as he looked at the wound that was healing faster than his ability to heal himself.
"My secret." She said and turned towards the flower. She wasn't planning to explain anything to him. Moreover, she wanted to confirm something from this man.
"A potion?"
She froze, his gaze sprang back to him. He knew that it was a potion. Does that mean that he also knew about the previous world she was in? If that is the case then, Mo Li and her, they must have met in the previous world, and that is the reason why he knew about the painting and her fear of ghosts! "It's my secret," she answered as she tried to calm her racing heart.
"A healing potion." She heard him say. She didn't miss the realization swirling in his eyes as he stared at her. "I see," he nodded and turned his attention back to the flower as if… as if she didn't just show him one of her secrets. "This flower should not be here. Witches use this against us. As you can see, we are helpless against it. A young vampire wouldn't be able to survive an arrow laced with the oil of this flower."
"So, this flower should be banned."
"It was banned in this empire. However, the Kingdom in the south has more humans and witches. They were using this to hunt vampires who— who killed people for their blood."
She nodded. "If this was banned then, how come Zach would bring me the same flower every day?"
"He wanted to harm you. That's for sure. However, since you don't drink human blood, then you are immune to its effects. Zach must have realized this too."
She frowned. Zach was actually forced by the Queen to become her knight. Since the day that he met her, he had shown her nothing but dislike and disgust. How could the previous Lucinia like someone like that? Was she some sort of a masochist?
"So he wanted to kill me," she stated, eyes narrowed.
"You can't kill him."
She instantly glared at him. "This is my business Duke Mo. It has nothing to do with you."
He shook his head at his stubborn gaze. "I already told you. I needed to make sure that vampires survive."
"What does it have to do with him?"
"Zach is vital to the plans of the witches."
She clenched her jaw at the Duke. However, the fact that he was willing to tell her about all this seemed to make a little bit of her anger dissipate. Her chest raised and fell. "So I can't kill him?" she lifted an eyebrow.
"You can't," his eyes glinted. "But you can do whatever you want just, make sure not to kill him."
....
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