Recap of events so far Blood > Drank it all up (｀・ω・´) Oni > What are you doing? Are you stupid? Gonna die?! (##゜Д゜) Spider > Not my problem (-_-) They glared at each other.
I was desperately trying to suppress the rage welling up inside me.
If I let that anger explode here, it was obvious I'd lose myself to fury once again.
So even as I stared daggers at
What Sophia had done was unforgivable in my eyes.
Charm. Brainwashing. Forced servitude.
Those were the things I despised most.
She'd carried them out without batting an eye, and on top of that, she had the audacity to play the "I'm a vampire, so what?" card. There was no way I could forgive that.
At the same time, some small corner of my mind recognized that the conversation had gone off track.
Originally, it had all started with Sophia turning
If you traced it back further, it connected to Sophia spreading her charm left and right beforehand, but I was trying not to think about that.
Which meant what truly mattered right now was how Wald felt about having become a vampire.
"Wald."
"Y-yes."
Wald's voice wavered as he answered my call.
To him, both Sophia and I were outright monsters.
Being in the same room as the two of us glaring at each other had to be an incredibly uncomfortable experience.
It was no wonder he couldn't fully hide the tension in his voice.
"Wald, how do you feel about becoming a vampire?"
My question gave Wald a moment's pause.
"I consider it an honor."
He'd probably used that brief silence to weigh which answer served him best.
In that short reply, he'd conveyed that he had chosen this willingly—that he'd heard about the charm and still made his judgment.
If that was the case, then I had no further grounds to weigh in on Wald's situation.
But there was one other matter.
"Wald says he's fine with it. Since it's what he wants, I won't say anything more about that. But you owe Fermina an apology. Her life was derailed because of you, Sophia. Anyone can see that's your fault—and it's got nothing to do with the whole vampire business."
I kept my eyes locked on Sophia as I made my declaration.
In the short time we'd been at this, I'd come to fully understand how fixated Sophia was on her identity as a vampire.
But that was a separate issue entirely.
Vampire or not, the crime of ruining someone's life didn't just vanish.
And the fact that she'd apparently forgotten all about it made her behavior inexcusable.
Sophia didn't move, still glaring at me.
But her eyes darted away slightly.
She knew she was in the wrong.
She looked exactly like a scolded child desperately searching for some way to escape.
Then a strange thought struck me.
Sophia, like me, was a reincarnator.
Counting her previous life, she'd accumulated a fair number of years.
And yet her mind felt as immature as her appearance suggested.
What was going on there?
"Sophia."
My train of thought was cut short by Shiro's voice.
Quiet, yet carrying an unmistakable presence that couldn't be ignored.
Sophia's eyes brightened a little when she heard it.
Was she hoping for backup?
"Apologize to little Fermina."
But the words from Shiro's mouth weren't what Sophia had been expecting.
For an instant, Sophia's face went blank—then it flushed crimson in a heartbeat.
She shot a sharp glare at Fermina.
"Don't let it go to your head just because she added 'little' to your name!"
With that, she stormed off.
If that was supposed to be a parting shot, it was a pretty weak one.
I wasn't the only one left speechless. An indescribably awkward atmosphere settled over the room.
The first to move in that heavy silence was Wald.
He glanced at the three of us, then kept stealing glances toward the door Sophia had just left through.
Fermina looked to Shiro as though seeking permission.
Shiro gave a silent nod.
Fermina then rose and left, Wald in tow.
Only Shiro and I remained.
I looked at Shiro's face.
Expressionless, as always.
Though something about it seemed mildly displeased.
"Could I have a moment of your time?"
Sensing that Shiro was about to stand, I spoke up first.
I'd come here to talk to Shiro about something in the first place.
I'd just gotten caught up in Sophia's mess.
What happened between them was their business—normally, I had no right to interfere.
"Why is Sophia like that?"
And yet, what came out of my mouth was this question instead.
There were other important things I needed to ask.
Maybe it was because we'd fought side by side to the death—some strange bond had formed?
Shiro didn't answer for a while.
I'd grown accustomed to the long pauses from our exchanges in that other dimension, but conversing with Shiro required patience.
The fact that she hadn't gotten up to leave meant she was willing to answer.
If she didn't want to, she'd probably just walk away without saying a word.
"Because she's not human."
After a generous pause, the answer she gave was so blunt I couldn't quite process it.
Not human—fine, but I wasn't human either.
And yet, despite both of us being non-human, I couldn't understand Sophia at all.
"A spider can't know how a spider feels. A frog can't know how a frog feels."
My confusion must have shown on my face.
Shiro's words brought a small measure of understanding.
Even among non-human beings, I was an oni, and Sophia was a vampire.
We might fall under the same umbrella of humanoid monsters, but there were clear differences within it.
That's what Shiro was saying—that's why I couldn't comprehend her.
It was true. I knew virtually nothing about vampires.
I didn't understand why Sophia clung so desperately to her vampire identity, or how that shaped the way she lived.
She was clearly in the wrong, yet she'd refused to apologize so vehemently—perhaps there was something about being a vampire that she simply couldn't compromise on.
Even thinking that, though, I still couldn't bring myself to forgive her.
Then again, maybe it wasn't my place to judge her unilaterally.
Perhaps I needed to learn a little more about vampires.
I gathered my thoughts and looked up—only to find Shiro eating something.
If my eyes weren't deceiving me, it looked like a very large frog leg.
Shiro stuffed it into her mouth, expressionless as ever.
Yeah. I clearly didn't understand non-human beings nearly well enough.
That single image drove the point home.
I had no heart left to ask further questions. Without having confirmed a single thing I'd originally come to discuss, I slunk away in defeat.