Wolf of the Blood Moon: A Blood Magic

Scarlet

I wake up to the sound of my door opening, making me straight up jump out of bed before turning to find a robot walking into my bedroom with a basket full of… my stuff? Oh. They brought my stuff from the hotel I was staying at.

The robot ignores me as it places the basket on the ground and walks out of my room.

I stare at the door for a few seconds, only to pause as I realize that I don’t hear anything from the neighboring suites.

Soundproofing! Yes!!!

I’m guessing it’s because of my instincts, but it just feels wrong to switch back to using my human ears. Just really, really wrong. And the fact that I don’t have to switch back while here just makes the comfortable suite even nicer!

Although the robot waking me up was annoying.

I glance at the clock near the bed before my eyes widen at finding it already at about noon.

Okay, maybe it was a necessary wakeup call.

After stretching a bit, I get up and move over to the basket, noticing that the robot wasn’t very orderly in their transfer of my stuff. They didn’t break anything – mostly because I don’t have much to break – but all they did was stuff everything into the basket. Both clothes and non-clothes.

This’ll take a while to sort out.

“Why is your entire wardrobe so dark?” Tar suddenly asks, making me jump in fright, having briefly forgotten about him in my sleep addled mind. “Oh, well good morning to you too.” He huffs.

“Sorry,” I apologize while rubbing the back of my neck, only to frown and add, “Wait, leave my wardrobe alone!”

“But it’s all blacks, whites, and reds! There’s nothing else there!” Tar complains, making me wonder if tanuki’s wear clothes in their realm. Wherever that is.

Oh, right. He only has this form here.

Wait a second, I wonder if his form is anything remotely human?

“No, we fae do not look like humans in the slightest,” he says, reading my thoughts. “Although we are humanoid in form. And we do wear clothes thank you very much.”

Interesting.

Anyways, I kneel down next to the basket before beginning the long and arduous process of sorting things out. Following shortly after by putting everything around the new suite. Most of which is only the clothes, daily necessities, and other stuff like that. Very little actual personal items or decorations.

Much to Belle’s chagrin.

After putting everything away and changing shirts and pants but leaving on my jacket, I stretch once more before glancing at the clock and finding it to be about 2PM. Which is further announced by my growling stomach.

“Let’s go get something to eat,” I tell the tanuki that’s been following me around my room for some reason. Only to pause after just a single step where I turn to ask, “You do eat, right?”

Surprisingly, the tanuki shakes his head and says, “Fae are not mortals and therefore do not require the same sustenance that mortals do. Instead, we require the lifeforce of other living beings.”

My mouth forms an O in understanding.

So that’s why part of the terms of their contracts is to extract a small portion of the lifeforce we drain when killing something.

Wait, doesn’t that make them like vampires? Lifeforce vampires or something?

If the twitching of his ear as he floats past me is anything to judge by, the tanuki pretends he didn’t hear me.

Yep. Definitely lifeforce vampires.

His ear twitches again.

I smirk.

Guess I’m going to be eating by myself then.

I head towards the door to my suite before opening it with my handprint. Only to find three people standing on the other side having a conversation in a hallway that looks very different from what it looked like when I first arrived. One that stops the moment they hear the door opening.

One of them – a woman with golden hair wearing a Lion’s Heart Guardians University uniform with some jacket in her right hand – immediately smiles at me the moment she sees me.

Then she rushes at me while shouting, “You poor girl!” her form turning into a bit of a blur before she glomps me with so much force that I forcefully let out all of the air I had in me while backing up a couple of steps until she stops us. After that, my air is cut off as she holds me so tightly that it becomes difficult to breath, completely distracting me from the physical contact itself. I pat her arm multiple times as a sign to let me go, only to end up pushing her instead after that doesn’t work. “No one should have to fight a knight in their first Fracture! No one!!!”

Am I really going to die by suffocation through a hug?!

“Denise, you’re crushing her,” one of the others says – this one a man with short black hair with vibrant green highlights who looks to be about a couple years older than me. And only a second after he says that, the lady lets go of me, letting me gasp, finally breathing in air again. “This is what you get for unbalancing your stats. You need to fix that as soon as you can.”

The woman, who is wearing the same outfit as the other two but with a skirt instead of pants and a slightly different design for the blazer on the girl’s uniform than the guy’s, looks ashamed for a second before glancing back at me and saying, “I’m sorry. I got a little carried away…”

I look between the three while backing up so that there’s a whole meter between me and the lady before I finally manage to catch my breath and answer, “It’s… it’s okay. Just please don’t touch me. I don’t like physical contact.”

For some reason me saying that seems to make her sad, but it doesn’t really matter.

That aside, their uniforms are clearly for Lion’s Heart Guardians University. Which likely means they’re my fellow students there who also happen to be in the Silver Association.

I glance at the third of the little trio to find them standing about a meter behind the guy.

But the moment our eyes meet, she immediately rushes to the guy and hides behind him.

Guess she’s shy?

The girl is wearing the same uniform, but she has her hair – which is mostly black with much more vicious green highlights than the boy – flowing straight down her back, and unlike Denise, whose hair reaches down to about her hips, this one has long hair reaching all the way past down to her thighs.

Must be a pain to deal with. Assuming she doesn’t just use the clean skill, now that I think about it.

Which is a nice realization I made while checking out the bath and shower last night.

What strikes me the most interesting about the girl though, is that her eyes are glowing with a faint green light.

Interesting.