Chapter 193: ​​This treatment is really quite poor

“Is bloodsucking… also considered something extremely serious among the elves?”
Perletti looked at Olivia’s grave expression and asked hesitantly.

“You should phrase it differently,” Olivia corrected helplessly. “The act of feeding on blood is considered serious everywhere in the world outside the vampires’ own territory—no, for most races, it’s an extreme taboo that touches the very foundation of morality.”

“Eh? Is it really that outrageous?” Perletti unconsciously propped her chin with one hand while stuffing a soft sticky rice dumpling into the mouth of the howling, starving Seviala beside her with the other. “The Blood Witches occasionally use blood magic too. It never sounded like something that would make the heavens rage and everyone hate them.”

The little dragon girl had already wolfed down half a plate of rice dumplings.

Counting the time, Perletti had only been gone for a day and a half, yet this glutton had skipped five meals and had gotten so hungry she’d started chewing on the carpet.

Perletti couldn’t help grumbling internally: With fibers that tough, could her stomach actually digest that thing?

“The issue isn’t magic that uses blood,” Olivia said softly, shaking her head as her golden hair swayed slightly. “It’s the act of ‘feeding on blood’ itself.”

“Feeding on blood?”

“Mhm.” Olivia’s tone grew heavier, as though recounting a shadow she didn’t wish to remember. “Before the events of the Moon of Greed overturned the continent’s balance, the vampire race maintained a… horrifying way of survival in our eyes. They raised humans in captivity, treating them as a stable food source. But in the vampires’ eyes, humans were probably no different from what staple grain is to us—something slightly more valuable than roadside weeds, yet still nothing more than an everyday consumable.”

She paused, her fingertips unconsciously tracing across the tabletop.

“The vampires possessed an almost pathological obsession with blood quality. Ordinary blood could never satisfy them. Every year, they organized hunting parties to capture intelligent races other than the Winged Divine Race—especially individuals with powerful bloodlines or extraordinary talent, even heirs who carried divine blood within their races. Even the once-glorious dragons failed to escape.”

“Wuwuwu! Ptoo! Ptoo!”

The head-buried-in-food Seviala suddenly shot upright, cheeks puffed with indignation and her large violet eyes blazing with fury.

“What do you mean hunting dragons?! Total bullshit! Those stinking bats only dared sneak around catching isolated young dragons! If they’d run into me in my prime, hmph! Even if their so-called queen came personally, I, ZAN, would’ve ripped off her bat wings and roasted them for dinner!”

“Alright, alright, our little tyrant dragon is the strongest.”

Perletti reacted quickly and stuffed another dumpling into her endlessly chattering mouth.

“Just don’t end up getting beaten so badly your butt hurts for a whole week.”

She knew perfectly well the little brat was only acting tough.

If Thyra heard those words, she’d probably personally teach her what it meant to stand at the absolute ceiling of mortal combat power.

“Wait.”

Perletti suddenly caught an important detail.

“You said ‘other than the Winged Divine Race’? I remember the Winged Divine Race being incredibly powerful, with pure and noble bloodlines. Going by vampire preferences, shouldn’t they have been the ideal prey? Why were they the only exception?”

Olivia spread her hands, looking somewhat puzzled.

“That’s simply how it’s recorded in the historical texts. The exact reason was never explained. Perhaps… they feared the Winged Divine Race’s light element powers? Or maybe ZAN there was some ancient agreement? I don’t know.”

Perletti nodded thoughtfully.

As queen, the historical records Olivia had access to were highly reliable.

There was no way the vampires refrained from targeting the Winged Divine Race simply because they “couldn’t win.” They had even hunted dragons—why would they fear the Winged Divines?

The most likely explanation was that Sira had imposed strict orders within the vampire race forbidding it.

For example…

Perhaps the seemingly opposed Winged Divine Race and vampires actually shared the same divine origin.

Olivia’s voice pulled Perletti back from her thoughts, carrying deep helplessness within it.

“After the dragons and Winged Divine Race suffered catastrophic devastation one after another and their former glory faded, the vampires completely lost all rivals on this continent. At one point, they turned their gaze toward the elves, intending to raise us in captivity just like they once did humans—to reduce us into livestock within a ranch.”

She drew a deep breath, fingertips turning pale.

“But for reasons unknown, that plan was never carried out. In its place came continuous and increasingly rampant ‘raids.’”

“The vampires recklessly abducted elves along the borders and even deep within inland cities. For thousands of years, countless of our kin have been taken, never to be heard from again. And we…” Her voice trembled slightly. “We could only endure in silence. The gap in strength was too great. Resistance… usually only invited even crueler retaliation.”

“But…” Perletti lowered the dumpling in her hand, a sharp glint flashing through her violet eyes, “isn’t that even more outrageous than simply being raised in captivity?”

“How so?”

“Think about it.” Perletti counted on her fingers, her tone carrying an almost cold rationality. “If the vampires raised elves in captivity, they’d need to provide food, clothing, and shelter. They’d have to care about your health, maintain the ranch, invest resources into keeping it running. The cost wouldn’t be low.”

“But now?”

“You grow your own food through hard labor. You handle your own diseases. And the vampires can capture elves whenever they want at zero cost. If there’s resistance, it probably just makes the hunt more entertaining for them.”

“And maybe… if the captured elves are relaxed and in good condition, their blood even tastes better.”

“And you elves? You don’t even receive the basic food and shelter afforded to livestock. You bear the entire burden of survival yourselves while living under the constant terror of being hunted at any moment.”

She paused and stared directly at Olivia’s suddenly pale face before delivering the cruel conclusion.

“From a certain perspective, your current situation is worse than livestock. At least livestock owners make sure their animals stay healthy.”

“Bang!”

Olivia slammed her fist heavily onto the table, her knuckles turning blue-white from excessive force.

Her expression darkened terribly, emerald eyes churning with humiliation, fury, and bottomless pain.

Her chest rose and fell violently several times before she finally forced words out through gritted teeth.

“Of course I know that! I know it better than anyone! But compared to the vampires, the elves are too weak… As long as Thyra still lives, the vampire race remains the sharpest sword hanging over every race’s head.”

“Resistance? In the face of an absolute gap in power, it’s nothing more than a delusional dream that only adds more casualties!”

She slumped back into her chair and let out a long sigh, one filled with the helplessness and unwillingness accumulated over generations.

“So the reason you studied those curse arts under Caroline… was because you hoped that one day you’d possess the power to oppose Thyra, or at least gain enough strength to deter the vampires?”

Most of the curse systems Caroline researched were aimed at elemental lifeforms and energy structures. To some extent, they also accidentally harmed witches, who possessed elemental affinity bodies themselves.

But there was no denying those curses were bizarre, difficult to defend against, and viciously tricky in effect. Used against vampires unfamiliar with them, the first encounter would absolutely cause enormous trouble and… lasting psychological trauma.

As for the Forbidden School that imitated Caroline’s methods, their creations were even more notoriously difficult to deal with—like sticky medicinal plasters that clung to you forever. Encounter them once, and you’d never want to see them again for the rest of your life.