Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 225: Because you don’t want to

With that answer, Aylin let the matter drop even if the look in her eyes was still that of intrigue. They both went silent for a while as the class continued. When they arrived at the practical sections of the day’s lectures, Caius found that he liked having a seat-partner of equal or at least similar Alchemical acumen to do the work with.

That meant he didn’t have to explain things to Aylin as he usually had to do with Doran. If anything, he got to look in her notes for tiny bits of information that he may not have deemed important enough to include in his.

”Yeah, it’s this way...” Aylin said at some point.

”Are you sure?” Caius asked. He didn’t sound dismissive. More cautious.

Aylin smiled.

”I’m sure,” she insisted and proceeded as she believed was right, succeeding with the experiment.

”Well done,” Caius praised her as he directed his attention to his kit to do as she had done.

Although they were being cooperative, both Caius and Aylin were working on individual experiments.

Aylin looked back when she felt she could afford to take her eyes off the bubbling solution before her. She saw Kaya and Eloise struggling with the experiment and smirked. She looked over at Delia and when she saw it was also the case over there, her smirk got deeper.

It dawned on Aylin that of the girls at their table and maybe even all of those who had their eyes on Caius, she was the only one with even a lick of Alchemical talent.

It was occurring to her now that, should she play her cards right, this could be her and Caius’s thing. A shared interest they didn’t have to share with any of the other girls.

It was while this was still on her mind that she turned her eyes to Caius and nudged him slightly in the ribs.

”Careful,” Caius told her gently while managing to keep his hands steady as he measured an Alchemical solution.

”I was just thinking to ask,” Aylin said, ”When?”

”When what?” Caius asked her lightly.

”When will you finally make good on your part of the deal?” She asked.

This time, Caius paused his experimentation to look to the side at her impossibly beautiful face.

”What’s with that look?” Aylin asked, ”We had an agreement as I’m sure you recall. And I’ve been nothing short of a sweetheart to keep my end of the deal.”

”’Sweetheart’ is a stretch,” Caius said, ”But I suppose you have done your best.”

”YES!” Aylin said in a loud enough voice that many eyes looked over at her.

There was even the sound of glass shattering as someone dropped a tube of Alchemical solution and it broke into many pieces.

”Careful, students,” Arlette called out and right from the front of the class, she waved her hand and caused a tiny wave of Dark Magic to fire at the pieces, eroding and turning them to nothing in a second.

That impressed quite a few of the students. There were other ways and other elements—basic elements—that could have been used to do that but Professor Arlette Louvene opted for a unique element and used it with a mastery that would not come naturally to anyone below the Mid level of Affinity.

Arlette was at first surprised by the attention she had garnered due to her magical display but then it dawned on her that this was the first time she was showing off her magic in any real capacity during class.

There are subtle uses for the basic elements during Alchemy, especially Fire to light the flames and water to stir mixtures and they are considered normal.

This Dark magic use felt like a slip.

And that was because it technically was.

So far, Caius was the only one who knew Arlette was an adept at Dark Magic and he used to also be the only one to know she even wielded it at all. That second part now included the entire class but it didn’t matter. At least, Arlette decided it didn’t matter and carried on with the class as usual.

After all, the students were looking at her with surprise and admiration but never with suspicion.

”Replace your kit, dear,” she told the student who broke the kit she had just eroded into nothing and when that was done, experimentation continued as normal.

”See what happens when you’re loud?” Caius told Aylin whose emphatic expression of joy had led to all that.

”Oops,” Aylin said, not because she cared to have disrupted the class but because she thought it would sound and look cute to say.

It did.

Cakes shook his head as he continued with his work.

”So when will it be?” Aylin asked.

”All I said was that you’ve tried your best. I didn’t say it was good enough,” Caius said in a somewhat cheeky tone.

”Oh come off it,” Aylin said with a little bit of a pout.

”It’s bubbling over,” Caius gestured at her work which Aylin had left to simmer for a bit.

”Oh—shit!” Aylin let out and quickly got to work remedying the situation.

Caius thought that would distract her completely but, of course, he was wrong.

”Caius, it’s been long enough,” she said, ”You’ve held off long enough. I’ve endured days of teasing that you have the ability to put a stop to.”

”Is that what this is about?” Caius asked, ”Kaya’s teasing.”

”No,” Aylin said and blushed really hard, ”of course it’s not. But I know that will finally get her to shut up. What else would be left for her to be annoying about when I’ve had my piece of you too?”

”That makes me sound like candy,” Caius said with a little laugh.

”And you hate that?” Aylin asked in an incredulous voice, a smirk on her lips and a brow raised.

Caius laughed a bit more and shook his head.

”Not particularly, no. A bit of an ego trip actually,” he said.

”Oh, I’m sure,” Aylin said and got closer to Caius to press her shoulder against his arm and whisper in his ear,

”And just so you know, I don’t just want a piece. I. Want. It. All.”

As she said those last three words with quite a bit of enunciation, Aylin angled her body just right to get her sideboob touching Caius.

It was then that she felt a stare at the back of her head and knew already who it belonged to. She turned her head and saw Kaya who had completely neglected her experiment (she wasn’t getting the hang of it anyway) to glare at her.

”My, my, how the tables turn,” Aylin said in a whisper and a very elaborate mouthing so Kaya could read her lips.

She wanted the half-elf to really take note of how perspective had shifted. Of how she was now the one close to Caius while Kaya could only look on jealously and silently seething.

”It’s bubbling again,” Caius said.

Aylin reluctantly pulled away to tend to her work again and when she had it under control, Caius said,

”You just antagonizing Kaya proves what I said earlier by the way; You may have been doing your best but you’ve not quite done as I asked.”

”If I’ve tried my best, then what more is there?” Aylin asked.

Caius shrugged.

”Simple, you go beyond your best,” he said and then he looked to the side at Aylin to raise a brow and smirk as he added,

”Don’t tell me the Genius, Aylin Khione has a limit.”

Aylin opened her mouth and then shut it. She opened it again and she shut it again.

Caius continued after she seemed to find it so difficult to get any words out.

”The truth is the only reason you haven’t truly made peace with Kaya is because you don’t want to.”

”You’re not wrong there,” Aylin said, now capable of finding words to say again.

Caius smiled.

”You both have that in common,” he said, ”Maybe you could bond on that.”

Aylin just scoffed. But then she was looking back at Kaya who happened to also be looking in her direction. With that, they were locked in a stare—icy blue on Leaf green—and the longer they stared at each other, the more their frowns softened...

*psssssstttttttttttt!!!*

... Until Kaya’s neglected experiment, which seemed to have been on the fritz already, shot up and splashed some hot liquid all about.

”Kaya!” Eloise called by the side and with a wave of her hand, she erected a water shield to protect them both from the splashes.

The tables closest to them took precautions as well because despite how spaced out the tables were especially in case of situations such as this, the splash still traveled far enough to threaten others with its scalding.

Many looked at Kaya with concern. Even those who had been in danger of the splash didn’t look angry at her carelessness. As much as Kaya didn’t engage with many of her classmates, she always radiated grace, beauty, and ease—not unlike a nature breeze—that made it hard for anyone to look at her in a bad light.

There was an exception to this ’rule’ though.

Aylin, who especially believed her stare exchange with Kaya caused this, threw her head back in a hearty cackle. Kaya frowned in return.

The little moment of expression softening from earlier was quickly lost as the two chose—as Caius believed at least—to continue to ’hate’ one another.