I Tamed the Slave Male Lead Chapter 30

It was definitely the case. Even as she received the instructions from the professor, she kept her nose covered with a handkerchief the entire time, and I could see her previously pale complexion gradually turning as red as a tomato.

Her heavily bloodshot eyes and bangs drenched in cold sweat also hinted that she was not in a good condition.

Just then, the professor spoke to the candidates.

“We’ll have about an hour of rest before the practical examination begins. Wait, I haven’t finished explaining yet. Where are you going, Lady Ririen?”

“Professor, I, I just need to… go to the bathroom for a moment.”

Before the professor had even finished speaking, the woman who had jumped to her feet and was running toward the laboratory door twisted her body as she replied, her nose still covered with a handkerchief.

“…All right. Go ahead.”

“Pfft. She’s making such a big fuss over nothing.”

A mocking voice came from among the researcher candidates. But the woman called Ririen seemed to have no room to spare for such things. She immediately flung the door open and darted into the hallway.

“Gasp! You scared me.”

However, she was stopped in her tracks when she ran straight into the enormous man waiting outside the door—Yusiliph.

Without stepping aside, he reached out and closed the door that was open behind her.

Click.

“C-Could you please move? I’m in a bit of a hurry.”

Ririen anxiously pleaded, still covering her nose with the handkerchief she clung to as though her life depended on it.

“Of course. But before that, my employer would like to meet you.”

Yusiliph calmly stepped aside, paying no heed to her reaction. Naturally, I was already standing behind him.

I greeted her with a smile full of friendliness.

“Lady Ririen Mabel Ameshika. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Who… are you?”

“Hehe. This is our first time meeting face-to-face, isn’t it? My name is Arabella Violet Maiona. I’m the daughter of the late Count Roderick Maiona. Could I have a little chat with you?”

“W-What is this about…? Anyway, now isn’t a good time! L-Later….”

“I’m sorry, but I’m in a bit of a hurry too. It’ll really only take a moment. I noticed that the laboratory over there is empty. Shall we go there and talk?”

Without giving her a chance to refuse, I linked my arm through hers as though we were close acquaintances and dragged her toward the empty laboratory.

Ririen tried to pull away, but the enormous Yusiliph blocked her path and gave her a murderous glare, leaving her with no choice but to be dragged along, like a lamb to the slaughter.

Click.

“W-What is it you want to say? Hurry up, hurry!”

The moment Ririen entered the empty laboratory and the door closed, she anxiously cried out. Strangely, her pronunciation sounded even more slurred than before.

I carefully observed the change in her while keeping the same friendly smile on my face before speaking.

“I have a very important proposal to make to your father, Duke Ameshika. Could you arrange a meeting between us so that I can meet him?”

Among the countless nobles of the Empire, Duke Ameshika, the Master of the Magic Tower, was uniquely difficult to deal with and shrouded in mystery. His only daughter—and the gatekeeper of power who could lead me to him—was the pale young lady standing right before my eyes, Ririen Ameshika.

“Why are you telling me something like that, and why did you come all the way here to tell me? I don’t know anything about such matters, and I’m not interested either. Whether you go to my father directly or not, figure it out yourselves!”

“As you know, it isn’t easy to get an audience with the Duke—”

“I told you, I don’t know anything!”

Contrary to her shy appearance, she suddenly lost her temper and shoved me away. I stopped Yusiliph with a glance when he immediately tried to step forward, then politely asked her again.

“It’s because this is truly important. It will definitely be beneficial to you as well. Please, hear me out to the end. I promise you won’t regret it.”

“Just stop it, seriously! I told you to move! Do you want to die?!”

In an instant, she shouted with her bloodshot eyes rolling wildly. The veins on the back of the hand clutching the handkerchief against her mouth like her life depended on it stood out sharply.

What was unusual was that, unlike those of an ordinary person, those veins had a sinister purplish hue.

“Lady Ririen.”

“You’re making a h-huge mistake right now. If you keep this up, s-something terrible will happen! Please move! I said move!!”

She shouted in a voice that was gradually becoming strangely hoarse as she shoved me with all her strength. But because she was in too much of a hurry, our steps became tangled, and we both tumbled to the floor in a heap, almost as though we were embracing each other.

“Ah!”

“No!”

Beyond our tangled bodies, Ririen’s handkerchief fluttered to the ground.

I clearly saw her eyes fill with despair and fear.

She desperately covered her face with her hands to keep it out of my sight.

But I had already seen them.

The two yellowish, sharp fangs protruding from the corners of her mouth.

“Ah….”

She looked at me with a face filled with shame and fear, her eyes brimming with tears. Feeling sorry for her, I reached out my hand and carefully asked,

“Are you all right?”

“Don’t!”

But the moment I took her hand, she recoiled in horror and knocked my hand away.

“Ah.”

Unfortunately, the ring she was wearing happened to scrape across the back of my hand.

A red slash immediately appeared against my snow-white skin, and beads of blood welled up along the cut.

The moment Ririen saw it, her pupils shrank to pinpricks.

The experimental instructions she had received from the professor earlier slipped from her hand and fell to the floor.

“N-No… That’s not what I… No. No… Kheugh.”

It was definitely not my imagination.

Her fangs were growing longer by the second.

Drool streamed from the corners of her mouth, while the purplish veins on the back of her hand swelled to a frightening degree.

Our eyes met.

I could clearly see tears welling up in her bloodshot eyes.

‘This is bad. I’m too late.’

The moment a regretful sigh escaped my lips—

“Haaah!”

With an animalistic sound, she bared her teeth and lunged at me.

Even though I had been mentally prepared for it, her movement was so fast that I couldn’t dodge.

In the blink of an eye, Ririen’s blazing red eyes filled my entire field of vision, and I felt a cold breath against the nape of my neck.

Goosebumps erupted all over my body, and my breathing quickened with instinctive fear.

“That’s enough.”

If Yusiliph hadn’t intervened at that exact moment and torn her away from me with tremendous force, something truly horrifying might have happened.

“Grrr… Haaah!”

Ririen thrashed wildly while Yusiliph held her down.

“Do it quickly.”

He spoke quietly as he applied more force to pin her down.

I shouted without even having time to regain my composure.

“Don’t let her bite you. Where’s the gag we prepared earlier?”

“In my pocket.”

I barely managed to get to my feet, then quickly pulled the gag from Yusiliph’s pocket while he was busy restraining Ririen and fastened it over her mouth.

“Grah! Haaah!”

Ririen glared at me and clawed at the air with fingernails that had transformed into hooks.

Seeing her ferocious movements, Yusiliph pressed down on her even harder and subdued her.

“What in the world is this…? It’s beyond anything I imagined.”

Yusiliph clicked his tongue when he saw the yellow fangs protruding from Ririen’s mouth and her frighteningly elongated claws.

I had warned him on the way to the laboratory about what was going to happen, but apparently seeing it with his own eyes was still shocking.

Without even having time to answer, I struggled to untie the flask strapped around his waist.

“It’s tied too tightly! I can’t get it loose!”

The cord had been tied so tightly with his grip that my weak fingers couldn’t budge it.

Even while I struggled, Ririen drooled from the corners of her mouth and kept eyeing me, looking for an opportunity to attack.

Her glasses had vanished somewhere, and her bloodshot eyes greedily followed my every movement.

Strangely enough, she showed no intention whatsoever of attacking Yusiliph, the one actually restraining her.

Noticing her reaction, Yusiliph scoffed.

“Looks like she’s really fixated on your blood.”

“Kaah!”

As though she disliked the sound of his voice, Ririen glared at him and hissed.

“Here!”

At that moment, I thrust the flask in front of her eyes.

After struggling for quite some time, I had finally managed to untie it from Yusiliph’s waist.

“Stop this and drink it. That’s how you can return to normal.”

The moment I said that as I opened the flask, I clearly saw Ririen’s eyes roll back.

As soon as Yusiliph removed the gag, she knocked his hand away with tremendous strength and greedily snatched the flask.

Then she began gulping down the animal blood inside as though she were ravenous.

She drank so aggressively that streams of blood spilled from the flask, running down Ririen’s mouth and neck and soaking the collar of her dress.

“Drink slowly.”

I said that as I tried to wipe away the blood running down her with a handkerchief.

That was when it happened.

Perhaps she thought I was trying to take the flask away from her. Ririen rolled her eyes wildly and slapped my hand away.

The flask shook from the impact, and the blood that spilled out soaked my hand.

And then came the problem.

The moment Ririen saw my blood-covered hand, her eyes snapped toward it. She threw the flask away, and before I even had time to react, she sank her fangs into the back of my hand.

Crack.

“AAAGH!”

The pain of her fangs piercing through my flesh made me cry out in agony.