Before Ethan could answer Royce, he heard an eerie harmony - the giggling of a group of girls echoing from somewhere far away along the third-floor corridor of the Field Hospital.
Leading the group were Anya and Yara. The beautiful twin sisters took turns yelling in Royce's face, leaving the Vampire with no choice but to silently endure their onslaught without daring to argue back.
"Liar! Who told you we wore nothing but underwear in last year's Halloween Costume Contest?"
"We spent an entire week making an angel outfit for each of us, you know."
"You think sewing a steel-boned corset is easy, you stupid Gorilla?"
"Can you even walk in 20-centimeter platform heels like we did before you start complaining?"
From what Ethan could see, the fangs in the pink-haired Anya's mouth had grown long and gleaming again. It seemed she had regained both her strength and her sharp tongue after spending several days recovering at the Field Hospital.
Meanwhile, Yara's pale sky-blue hair had returned to its normal length. Ethan wondered what Yara had done with all the hair that had once wrapped around her body, forming that enormous blue ball.
He had heard that on the black market, hair from young girls like Yara could fetch a pretty good price.
Otherwise, donating all that hair to charities so they could make wigs for cancer patients would also be a good idea. But Ethan wasn't sure Yara would ever think of something like that.
"You coward didn't even dare blow a thousand kisses to the audience."
"Your Halloween performance last year was terrible. It wasn't attractive, seductive, or sexy at all."
"You didn't win because you sucked, not because of us, okay? Loser!"
Apparently overwhelmed by Anya and Yara's relentless verbal assault, Royce quickly ducked behind Ethan for cover.
Did Royce seriously think Ethan could protect him in a situation like this?
And Ethan could swear to Heaven and Earth that Royce was actually trembling and drenched in sweat. The most seductive Vampire at Harmony School was having another episode of his highly selective fear of girls.
"Come on, girls. We don't need to waste our breath on a patriarchal, arrogant, and overconfident man like him. What we need to do now is conserve our energy so we can make our outfits for this year's Halloween Costume Contest."
Sitting in a wheelchair pushed by Autumn, Ruby waved her hand and gave orders to the twin sisters, Anya and Yara.
And at Ruby's command, the twins immediately moved aside, surrendering the heroine's spotlight to their Queen Bee.
But from Ethan's point of view, the fact that Ruby had to sit in a wheelchair was absolutely ridiculous.
On the day of the battle against Kai's Infected form - in the VIP Girls' Dressing Room at Harmony School's Grand Theater - the most seriously injured member of the Femme Fatale group should have been Anya.
And yet Anya had recovered quickly, strong enough to bully Royce alongside Yara, while Ruby had to sit in a wheelchair. As if she were terribly frail and sickly. Even though anyone could easily see with the naked eye that Ruby's smooth skin didn't have so much as a tiny scratch on it.
But what surprised Ethan the most here wasn't Ruby pretending to be weak in that wheelchair. His heart nearly stopped because of the outfit Autumn was wearing.
Autumn wasn't wearing the Field Hospital nurse uniform like she had when Ethan caught her carrying out a nurse's duties nearly two weeks ago. Right now, Autumn was wearing a black Gothic Lolita maid dress with lots of ruffles and bows. Bows were everywhere. Big bows, small bows. Bows on the collar, bows on the apron, even bows on the white stockings Autumn was wearing.
And as if to further embellish that strange yet adorable appearance, Autumn was also wearing a pair of cat ears with bells attached. Whenever she moved, the bells on the cat ears and the bell attached to her fake cat tail jingled pleasantly.
Catching Ethan staring at her, Autumn's face turned bright red. She turned around as if to run away, but Ruby quickly grabbed her fake cat tail with the bell attached.
"Autumn! Be a good girl. If you run off, I'm not paying for your service."
For a moment, an evil glint flashed through Autumn's clear eyes, as though the owner of those brown eyes wanted nothing more than to bite the head off the person ordering her around.
But then, in an instant, Autumn's gaze softened again. She tilted her head, lifted her skirt with one hand, dipped into a graceful curtsy, then gave Ruby an exceedingly gentle smile, just like people in the service industry smiling at a big-spending customer.
What kind of service was Ruby talking about that Autumn had to put herself through something like this?
"That's right. Now push me forward. I need to have a proper talk with my boyfriend."
"Who the hell wants to be your boyfriend?"
From behind Ethan, Royce opened his mouth wide and protested at Ruby. In response, Ruby merely gave him a mocking smile.
"Not you, Gorilla. You think those abs of yours look that delicious or something? To me, they look no different from a bunch of brioche buns now."
Royce's mouth fell open. It was the first time in his life that anyone had ever criticized his physique that badly.
And it wasn't just Royce. Autumn's pretty little mouth also fell open when she heard Ruby's declaration.
"Ethan here is my boyfriend."
"That's not funny, Ruby!"
Ethan immediately protested in a stern voice when he saw the pain and shock on Autumn's face. Even though the cat ears and tail Autumn was wearing were both fake, somehow they both drooped down - just like a cat's ears and tail when it was sad.
"What joke? You signed a contract with me. Anya and Yara are both here as witnesses."
"That was a blood donation contract."
"Didn't you read the contract carefully, Ethan?"
Ruby sighed. But there wasn't the slightest trace of sympathy or empathy in her sigh.
"There's a small clause in the contract stating that if Party B - that's you - fails to donate blood to Party A - that's me - within twenty-four hours of signing the contract, then you have to become my boyfriend."
"No way! Why would there be such a ridiculous clause in the contract?"
Ethan cried out in shock.
He looked toward Autumn, seeking her protection. But at that moment, Autumn was intently reading the electronic contract on the tablet Yara had just handed her.
And after she finished reading the electronic contract, Autumn merely bit her lip in a daze, her eyes brimming with tears, standing silently like a ghost behind Ruby's wheelchair.
"Listen, Ethan. I sent breakup messages to all five of my ex-boyfriends at once. Thanks to that, you get to be my number-one boyfriend now. Yeah, you're number one. You're my Queen. Ah, no, I suppose I should call you my Prince Consort, shouldn't I? Never mind, I like calling you my Queen better. So? Aren't you happy? Hee hee hee?"
Of course, there was no way Ethan could feel happy after Ruby's words of encouragement.
Ruby wasn't an ordinary schoolgirl. Perhaps she didn't need her boyfriend to take her out to eat, take her out for fun, or take her shopping. And maybe she would never pester her boyfriend to give her gifts or flowers on special occasions either.
Because the only thing this beautiful Vampire - the most alluring girl at Harmony School - wanted from her boyfriend…
…Was to drink as much as 500 ml of his blood every month.
That meant becoming Ruby's one and only boyfriend was the same as becoming a dried-up corpse before he even got to experience the sweetness of first love.
"No! Ethan will die. He lost a lot of blood last month. And just the day before yesterday, Ethan was seriously injured trying to save all of you. Is that how you treat your savior?"
Only now did Autumn finally speak up in protest. But her voice sounded terribly weak.