Chapter 179: 28
Of course, with such a chaotic turn of events, it was impossible for Silas to continue.
In fact, if Prince Silas could still play domineering black-bellied prince while a horny leopard in skinny jeans ran around next door, both Jia Hyson and Bebe would applaud his ability.
After all, even Jia Hyson, a very libido-driven person, would not be in much of a mood with such an exciting thing happening so close by. Of course, he had had sex so many times, so no matter how fun and pleasurable it was, it was something he could get more or less easily. But seeing a leopard in skinny jeans trying to fuck someone in a dormitory library was something you might not even see while high on hallucinatory drugs. The choice was easy.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on perspective, the prince had been long instilled with leadership qualities drilled in painstakingly by Jia Hyson and the coven elders. Not to mention he was a character written expressly to step in and help the protagonist. While lazy, at critical moments, Prince Silas tended to feel uncomfortable if he didn't step in and help. So despite blackening, it was not enough to completely change his actions outside his personal relationship problems.
Alaric, who is a much more active caretaker type, would, of course, not stand idly by either.
After an awkward silence, Prince Silas reluctantly separates and adjusts his clothing. Jia Hyson also makes himself look presentable, groaning softly as the fabric of his pants rubs against his sensitive erection. He wasn't the type who could just get over this physiological reaction immediately with a cold shower and a few thoughts; Jia Hyson needed at least ten to twenty minutes to calm down. But with Prince Silas so close by, such a thing was naturally impossible.
In the fairly quiet room, of course, Prince Silas could naturally hear his soft groan, and his own breath picked up, chest twisting and fluttering with a sense of guilt and excitement. Alaric was aroused because of him! He was hard because of him! Even if he doesn't have his heart, at the very least, he can hold his body and use this opportunity and time to change the other's mind.
Thinking about that he can't help but be complacent and stares at Alaric with a twisted smile gracing his handsome features full of happiness tinged with dark-hearted possessive obsession. He was like a handsome white lion, staring at his injured prey, hungry, but still sitting idly with full confidence that it would eventually end in his mouth.
Of course, how can Jia Hyson not understand? It was like a student who was stressing over the deadline of a big project but was suddenly given a five-week extension. The sudden high pressure in your mind being suddenly released was an indescribably relaxing feeling. It was far too easy to slip into the contented mindset of taking their time once more, especially for people who have trouble with self-discipline. Though usually, this sort of turn of events generally ends with procrastinating until the deadline draws near and panicking once more.
While matters of the heart were far different from a school assignment, the behavioural pattern can be said to be very similar, especially for Prince Silas who struggles to fight his lazy demeanour. Even if he's improved, it's still extremely difficult to change his core, and when faced with an easier solution, he will definitely waver. Jia Hyson understands it, and in this manner, he also is similar. After all, to be able to make the same result with half the work is practically a definition of success and efficiency. However, there are simply times when you just have to work hard, and shortcuts will not give you repercussions you may not necessarily desire.
Prince Silas was smart and powerful, but his downfall was he wasn't particularly wise, and he was not good at scheming. He had all the cards in his hand, higher status, good looks, this addictive powder power, and a fairly strong grasp of Alaric's character. Yet, while his actions were underhanded, they were straightforward, blunt, and almost unrepentantly honest. To say it nicely, he was courageous and bold. To say it poorly, he was an impulsive idiot who had waited for so long and snapped too early, causing the timing to be not good and only serving to raise Jia Hyson's wariness.
If Jia Hyson was in Prince Silas' position, he would've pushed the boundaries between friendship ages ago with Alaric. Self-improvement is sexy, but you can't also neglect your chosen partner either.
Brushing up the favourability with moments of consideration and thoughtfulness, doing your best to proactively not only find things they like but also find activities, places and events that they would be interested in going to. Once the emotional connection is there, then it's good to establish a form of a physical connection.
Initiating physical contact often, starting at the most tolerable range for your partner until they get used to it before trying to a bit further. If they can't stand touch at first, then respect it and acknowledge you simply just have a few extra steps to achieving a good effect. At the same time, it's good to try to see if they see you in an attractive and possibly sexual light. Teasing them, hugging them, as long as the observation ability is good enough, you can tell their receptiveness from their reactions. But if you aren't, it's potentially better to be bolder and more honest, kissing them on the lips, the cheek or even on the hand, confessing straightforwardly, in a letter or through a gift
For Alaric, Jia Hyson would have established a strong friendship based on mutual growth and help while occasionally dropping hints and gifts, fostering a sense of dependence on each other.
He would be a little indulgent and listen to Alaric's nagging, but when it was too much, he would also not spoil the other and will calmly point out the problems that he couldn't stand. Knowing how hardworking he is, he would not laugh but remind the others to eat well and offer pointers and tips to help improve his powers, as well as patiently explain the psychology of others and improve the other's weak social skills. Alaric was also weak for praise and was insecure over his hobby, so finding out his crossdressing as early as possible and strongly expressing praise and support is the best way to enter the other's heart.
In Jia Hyson's opinion, Prince Silas ticked maybe 3 out of 10 checkboxes and relied on a lot of his inherent qualities and constant contact to try slowly carve a place in Alaric's heart, resulting in a very stable failed score.
To be honest, Jia Hyson did understand. Though changed, it's impossible for him to completely ignore their status gap. Alaric served, and Silas was used to being served, and showing a little initiative, in his opinion, was more than enough. And maybe there was a chance it might be for Alaric, who held a deep appreciation for royalty, but in his opinion, Alaric may be flattered at best but not necessarily moved. Not to mention Jia Hyson himself wasn't particularly like that at all. He had long realised he preferred to be the spoiled one.
Being there constantly, acting cute and coquettish, showing off their sex appeal, boldly asking for credit for their hard work like a puppy, pushing and pulling There were many pathways to pursue a person and few ways to succeed.
Not to mention, each person will have different roads to get to their heart, some twisted, some straightforward, some full of traps, and some with hidden shortcuts. If you take the wrong way, sometimes you can turn back and start again; sometimes you can just jump flexibly sideways to a new path. If you're very stubborn, you can just keep persisting on the same road, but more often than not, once failed, there's usually not a second chance.
Jia Hyson hides his own dark and twisted smile. Unlike Prince Silas' who was full of obsessive love, Jia Hyson was full of anticipatory lust and sadism. If the man wanted to play as a loyal servant, Jia Hyson would kindly play the game too. Whether or not he follows the rules, though, is another matter.
After re-adjusting his pants a few times until his hard-on was no longer as obvious, he sneers at the prince's heated gaze before striding to slam open the door with a dark face. Prince Silas lazily follows after him.
The library they walked into was in a chaotic mess. Since it was fairly early in the day, there were fortunately not too many people present, but the ones that were were in all different states of disarray. Jia Hyson could see one student stubbornly hiding underneath a table, there was another who had scaled a bookcase, and one student impressively hanging on the ceiling fan.
With his vampiric hearing, he could hear two girls crying behind the check-out desk, and there was a faint scent of blood. Jia Hyson's eyes flash red before it's quickly suppressed, and he frowns slightly. The student who was on the bookcase should be a vampire, so when he looks at the other, the young vampire immediately jumps down with a relieved expression and trots over to them.
"Alaric, Your hi- Silas, it turns out you were here," The vampire breathes a sigh of relief. Because there were human students here, he couldn't casually reveal himself and fight, so he could only be cowardly and run away until someone in charge could come and handle the situation. "It looks like Fiero unexpectedly lost control of his powers." He rubs his neck helplessly, "Fiero Ricci is from an Italian Bianchi coven, he has the dual ability to turn into the leopard and lock doors, but that's all I know. We're not really very familiar. It's just that I room with another person in the Greco coven, so there's a little overlap."
"Thank you," Jia Hyson nods gratefully. There were so many vampires it was impossible to remember their names, covens, and abilities. St Lailah's was a famous academy for vampires, so foreign exchanges and sudden new foreign transfer students were considered the norm.
Jia Hyson had some impression of Fiero Ricci, who was sent here late last year. He was considered a student to keep an eye out for, mainly because he had some problems controlling his power. And since it was a 'were beast' type of power, it was incredibly concerning in terms of protecting the secrecy of vampirism.
In this world, there were no such things as werewolves. What humans perceive as werewolves were actually just sightings of vampires with the ability to turn into beasts. Maybe because of a vampire's inherent nature, the majority of those with this beast transformation ability were predators, specifically wolves and other members of the family Canidae, such as foxes, jackals, and coyotes. After all, like these animals, the current vampire society does resemble various 'packs' of social hunting animals with a strong instinct to protect the younger generation.
Of course, this was just a theory. But the main point was this was the source of all the werewolf stories in the world, and it was from this you could also tell it was really rare to have a vampire that could transform into a different type of animal. Because of this rarity, those beast abilities that go against the norm were usually cherished and given high expectations, but at the same time, they all consistently showed more difficulty in controlling themselves compared to the wolf-type beasts.
Fiero Ricci was a stunning leopard beast transformation type, and he also had the secondary power of locking doors. It was easy to tell that the other must've been considered the apple of his family's eyes. Jia Hyson did not personally watch over him, but he had others who helped, and other than one or two instances where the other became very emotional, there had been no slip-ups, allowing Jia Hyson to focus on other people and things.
Jia Hyson touches his nose awkwardly. He doesn't know if the system had caused the other vampire to lose control or the other had already lost control, and the system just manipulated things so Fiero would run into the library and make a fuss, but if its the former, he had really wronged Fiero who was fairly outstanding in his self-control.
Bebe also didn't speak. After all, it wasn't omnipotent and knew every inner workings of every item and program.
"I can't seem to sense them," Prince Silas frowns as he gazes around the library calmly.
The vampire that had been on the bookcase nods, "There are two other vampires here. Unfortunately, none of us has attack abilities, it seems. But one of them has a shrouding ability, so they used it to at least hide some of the madness, as well as protect some of Mr Welp's dignity in the process."
Jia Hyson's face turned bad. "Wait, you mean protect his chastity, right?"
The vampire's face became embarrassed.
Prince Silas doesn't comment, and after a moment of looking around, he walks in the direction of the furthest private library room. Jia Hyson still trusted his abilities, so he didn't complain and easily followed along. As they got closer, Jia Hyson could feel a sense of dissonance that he wouldn't have noticed unless he had gotten close enough. It was like he could feel something was off, despite nothing being out of the ordinary, a very creepy feeling that could deter many ghost-paranoid people.
Unfortunately, it was a bit weak, so only after faltering for a moment both vampires still continued onwards, walking in the direction where the strongest feeling of unease was produced. Once they opened and stepped through the door of a private room, it was like a fog in their hearts immediately disappeared, and the strong scent of wild animals and harsh panting was heard.
As he focused on massaging the other's forearms and tried his best to ignore both his admiration for the perfect amount of muscle sculpted onto it and the way his body heats up so close to the prince, Jia Hyson completely missed Prince Silas' complicated and warm gaze. But even if he caught it, there won't be many fluctuations in his heart. Rather, it could be said his body would be far more affected.
"Oh thank god," A weak voice coughs. "You guys are finally here."
"Could do without this dog food though." Another voice hoarsely mutters, "Honestly, you didn't even notice us at all?"
Jia Hyson and Prince Silas glanced over to the source of the two voices. In the back corner of the room, crawling out of a pile of furniture in an extremely embarrassed state, two male vampire students were staring at them balefully. Jia Hyson vaguely recognised the voices as the ones belonging to the sassiest and sarcastic people when the chaos started. He could only remember this because he had been deeply impressed with the content of their words.
Touching his nose awkwardly, Jia Hyson used this as an excuse to let go of Prince Silas' arms and walk over to them, taking a quick look at Mr Welps along the way. It seemed during the fight the poor teacher had fainted and was currently unconscious. Well, he did have a very stressful day today.
Looking over his shoulder at Prince Silas, he tilts his head in Mr Welsh's direction, "Silas can you take a look if there's any broken bones or anything other than his skin abrasions?" As a human, of course, his injuries would be much direr even if the two younger vampires looked far more terrible at first sight. The prince nods, only showing a little unhappiness at their separation before he professionally kneels down and conducts a preliminary check on Mr Welps condition. Because of their high positions, it was normal to have learnt both fighting skills and basic emergency first aid.
Meanwhile Jia Hyson had helped the two injured vampires out of their little furniture barricade and let them sit against the wall. Sitting down in front of them, Jia Hyson kisses his fingers and shakes his hand a little before activating his power and manipulating the ice crystals forming in his hands into many small ice cubes and hands it to them. "Use this to make an ice pack for yourself, don't put the ice directly on your injuries. Your lips are chapped too, take some cubes and put it in your mouth as well, don't worry I've made them normal ice cubes there's nothing strange about it."
The two vampires: 'We weren't worried before, but now that you specifically emphasised it, we're a little worried now.'
Still, despite a moment of hesitation, the two looked at each other and popped two to three ice cubes in their mouth and the shorter one who was more beaten up directly tore his shirt and used it as fabric to make ice packs for both of them. As he was doing so, he revealed the terrifying bruises on his body as well as some scratches that were not shallow at all. Seeing that Jia Hyson was looking at the injuries of his friend intently, the other vampire takes it on himself to explain.
They were first year vampires from the Eclipse Coven, the more injured vampire's name is Conner Vania, and the other was Edward Hook. Edward was the vampire with something like a space ability, where he could create a space difficult to be sensed, and at the same time he could control whether anyone could leave his domain or not once they entered. Because of this, he was responsible for hiding their presence and also trapping the group into a smaller area away from the other students, and Conner was responsible for helping coax the frenzied vampire over, hence his more injured state.
"Fortunately," Conner coughs and hisses as he presses the makeshift ice pack to his stomach, "Fortunately that fucking asshole was more interested in getting his dick wet than mauling me."
Edward nods with relief, "Once we hid ourselves the guy didn't even bother to pay attention to us."
Jia Hyson frowns at their attitude. You could tell they really didn't put much value on Mr Welps well-being at all. But then again, they were from the Eclipse Coven so this sort of attitude was natural. Not to mention, from context clues, Jia Hyson could sense Fiero, even in leopard form, had no intent to harm or kill Mr Welps. However if he wasn't confident he could completely stop Fiero, any other actions against him could just aggravate his instincts and cause irreparable damage. Therefore, if he had been in the same situation, he may have probably also focused on waiting for help.
Still, as Alaric, he was obligated to preach a little bit.
Just as he is about to do so, the back of his neck prickles warningly, and he suddenly turns around. Instinctively he converged the ice cubes on Conner and Edward into a sharp icicle, much to their cries of surprise, and threw it back.
"Good reflexes." A light and charming young voice mildly comments.
Jia Hyson sees as Prince Rigel crushes his icicle which had stopped in mid-air, into snow. "You, how-?"
"Don't think too hard about it, I won't explain it anyway." Prince Rigel smirks, "And also, don't bother trying to teach my coven members any human equality bullshit, it's a waste of time for both of us." His tone was cocky and arrogant, not a trace of the blushing, dirty mess he was last night. Jia Hyson's lips twitched at the memory.
"Your highness." Conner and Edward both lowered their heads respectfully.
Prince Silas raises his head from where he was kneeling over Mr Welps' prone body, and stares at the other prince with an ugly expression. Prince Rigel glances over and his cocky smile became a touch cold as he stares back, a sense of tension seemed to permeate in the air before the blonde prince wilfully turned away, ignoring Prince Silas contemptuously.
Jia Hyson blinks and furrows his brows a little. Prince Rigel's attitude was very different to his previous submissive appearance in the face of Prince Silas. Since the Eclipse Coven prince's powers were still painfully vulnerable to Silas', this either meant the other was acting like this for no reason and it was simply his erratic behaviour coming to light, or there was something he learned recently that made him unable to hold back his disdain.
Given they've barely interacted, and that he was still the same yesterday, that meant this new information would have happened between last night and this morning, which was not very possible since there was only a small gap where Jia Hyson wasn't with either of them. Unless one of Prince Rigel's abilities allowed monitoring
"Edward. Conner. Both of you have done a good job." Prince Rigel nods, "I will send you to the infirmary. Alaric, you come with me, I am unfamiliar with the modern formalities in accordance to handling these things, but I am aware as the representative of my coven, I must help my members."
Jia Hyson nods, "But what about Mr Welps?"
Prince Rigel sneers, "Why should I do all the work? Get Prince Silas to bring him. Besides, we have an agreement that I'll behave well enough as long as I can avoid being around him as much as possible, do you want to go back on your agreement?"
Their agreement was certainly about helping Prince Rigel avoid Prince Silas but the reward for it was Jia Hyson quickly understood and wanted to smile. It seems the other did have a monitoring ability and wanted to help him have an excuse to escape from the Golden Rose First Prince. Of course, it could also just be that Prince Rigel didn't want to admit the true reward Jia Hyson had asked for his agreement, but something told him that the former was more likely.
"I don't agree." Prince Silas immediately says. If Jia Hyson can think of this, of course Prince Silas could too, and his expression barely restrained his hostility. "Alaric is from my coven, and also my future advisor. It's inappropriate for you to always bring him around."
"I think it's more appropriate than hanging around with you right now." Prince Rigel laughs, his smile angelic but his silver eye showed a chilling lack of joy, "Not to mention, your coven elders approved it. Are you going against them, Prince Silas? Haha, it turns out the golden child is also such a rebel?"
"You-!"
"Hey! You two! Stop this now!"
"Is it just me, or does Prince Silas and our highness Prince Rigel remind you of Silva and Ridel from ShiningGreenTea's newest story?" Conner whispers in Edward's ear as they watch the drama unfold.
"I didn't read it. It's gay romance, right?" Edward mutters.
"Tsk, you're so uncultured. Not to mention, a hypocrite, don't you follow Jasmine?"
"Fuck, liking traps doesn't make me gay okay?"
"Oh, yeah, it's super not gay to be attracted to the idea of girls with penises. That's, like, soo straight."
"So, is the new story really that good?"
"Yeah, I'll send the link later. The plot is solid, the characters are interesting, and world-building is fairly unique, even though it's only eight chapters-"
"Ugh. Only eight chapters? Never mind then, I'll wait."
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