Chapter 44: Chapter 44 Bloodline Prince_1
At dusk, with the sound of a whistle, the prisoners in the core area of the small exercise yard were gathered and led batch by batch to the showers by the guards.
The selected prisoners lined up beneath the cross-mounted long pipes as showerheads poured cold water "whoosh whoosh" downward.
The female prisoners scrubbed with soap and rinsed off their bodies, quickly returning to the changing room after washing.
Prison showers generally provided only cold water, which was barely lukewarm even in winter. Bathing in such a place was purely a routine for cleaning oneself, with no enjoyment to speak of.
Vampire Ophelia meticulously wiped her body with a towel. As one of the undead, she didn’t sweat; she simply disliked dust on her skin.
"So you’re the infamous Royal Vampire Ophelia, huh? I never imagined I’d be in the same prison as someone like you," someone took up the position next to her and started chatting while washing her hair.
Ophelia glanced sideways, recognizing her as the alchemist who had been confined to solitary by Aiden for five days.
Without saying a word, Ophelia withdrew her gaze and ignored her.
Undeterred, Meiruki continued, "I heard that you once spent two years digging a tunnel trying to escape, what a pity."
This time, Ophelia finally reacted.
"A mere human comes to mock me, fancying you have a surplus of life?" she warned coldly without even looking at Meiruki.
Meiruki smiled and kept trying to get close, "Don’t get me wrong, I’m not mocking you. I actually admire your spirit of defiance. There are too few people in this prison who still retain their dignity—ugh!"
She was interrupted before she could finish—Ophelia had suddenly grabbed her throat and was pressing her hard against the wall.
"I have not fallen so low as to need sympathy from someone like you. Do you think I wouldn’t dare lay a hand on you?" Ophelia gripped Meiruki’s neck tightly, glaring at her from an extremely close range.
Cold water poured over her head, and her black-as-ink curly hair clung to her pale-as-snow skin. The only vivid color on the vampire was the crimson of her eyes, now radiating with an unmasked, icy killing intent.
The few remaining female prisoners in the shower room glanced over then left. Such minor skirmishes were commonplace in the core area. Even if the two were to really fight, it was a matter for the guards to handle; getting involved would only bring trouble upon themselves.
Meiruki felt an unusual strength emanating from the fingers around her neck; even with strict dietary control and sealed magic power, the vampire before her still possessed strength beyond that of a normal human.
But she didn’t panic. Seeing that everyone else had left the shower, she quickly got to the point, "I want to help you."
Ophelia scoffed, "You think you can use me? If you truly want to help, why not offer your blood to me? I’ve been hungry for so long that even if I drained you dry, you’d have no complaints, right?"
Having said that, Ophelia grabbed Meiruki’s shoulders, brought her face close to her neck, parted her lips slightly, and her vampire’s sharp fangs quickly touched Meiruki’s throat.
The closer a vampire’s bloodline to their supreme progenitor, the higher their status and the upper limit of their magic power—and, consequently, the greater their appetite. Feeding a Royal Vampire to full satisfaction was more than a regular human could handle.
Yet Meiruki was not afraid; she even laughed "giggle giggle," "Don’t frighten me now, my Prince. If you take a sip of my blood, the curse mark on your neck would make you suffer unbearably," she paused, then added, "However, I can help you break such shackles."
"You understand this curse script?" Ophelia’s expression changed.
Ophelia’s neck bore a curse mark applied by the Heretic Tribunal, which would afflict her with the agony of being scorched by the sun if she swallowed human blood. Because of this constraint, she could only drink the beast blood provided by the prison.
"I’m not just knowledgeable, I am an expert in this field!" Meiruki said with a sly smile, her hand gently caressing the curse mark on Ophelia’s neck, and then she leaned in close with her pale neck, "Consider this a welcoming gift, try it, to taste the flavor of human blood once more after so long."
Ophelia only felt a slight sting as if tape being peeled from her neck. She looked cautiously at Meiruki for a while but ultimately could not resist the temptation and bit down on her neck.
The warm, rich blood flowed over her tongue and down her throat as though rain upon a long-parched earth.
Ophelia immediately began sucking greedily, she had not tasted human blood in far too long.
"Although it’s a welcoming gift, you are being quite impolite," Meiruki said after a while, trying to push Ophelia away, but finding that she was holding on to her shoulders tightly, "Don’t forget, if I can remove the curse mark, I can just as easily reapply it."
She tapped Ophelia’s nape lightly, and the curse mark on Ophelia’s neck lit up immediately.
Ophelia opened her eyes in agony, clutched at her neck, and stumbled back coughing, the blood she had just swallowed spilling from the corner of her mouth.
"Now you believe I have real skill," Meiruki said calmly, blood still oozing from the wound on her neck but quickly washed away by a stream of cold water, "It seems you were really starved, a vampire prince like a dog with a collar, don’t you feel stifled?"
"What exactly do you want to do?" Ophelia asked, having somewhat recovered from the pain of the curse, her gaze fixed intensely on Meiruki, "Or, maybe I should be asking who you are."
Anyone who could decipher the Heretic Tribunal’s secret arts surely couldn’t just be an ordinary alchemist.
"Who I am does not matter, what matters is our common enemy," Meiruki said with a smile.
"A common enemy?"
"The warden. You want to leave this prison, and it just so happens I also wish to take someone out of this prison. We have the same goal, and those with the same goal should cooperate," Meiruki said, spreading her hands.
"What do you expect me to do?"
"I can get my hands on a special Magic Potion that will allow you to regain your strength inside this prison."
"You plan to use my strength to break out of this prison forcibly?" Ophelia asked with a bitter smile, "Unfortunately, even if I were restored to my prime, my strength alone wouldn’t be enough."
"That doesn’t sound like something a vampire prince would say. Even if you were defeated by that man, with some help, the odds should be pretty good, right?" Meiruki said, her arms folded, "I’ll handle the manpower."
"No matter how you arrange it, you won’t beat him. He has better pieces to play," Ophelia replied with unusual certainty.
"What do you mean?"
"Inmates. Here, there are other dangerous inmates as dangerous as I am at his service," Ophelia said slowly, "As far as I know, there are three: the necromancer in cell fifteen, the witch in cell twelve, and ’Tainted Avansa’."
"Avansa?" Meiruki’s expression changed slightly, "Could you explain in detail?"
