Ryan wanted to meet up and discuss the mission afterwards… Nikolai could only apologise, returning alone.

“Are you going to be all right, alone?”

Risa’s eyes looked at Nikolai with a smile. Yet the emotions that flowed from her body in Nikolai’s eyes were disappointment and worry.

“I should be okay, sorry… next time, I’ll make it up to you.”

He couldn’t explain his feelings—the thought that the strange presence in the tower appeared in his city and world made him feel uncomfortable.

‘Is there really anything I can do… someone who cannot even defeat an elder wraith alone?’

‘Who could I even turn to or get information from…?’

‘Yet who can I speak to about this… mother has been dead for so long, maybe she doesn’t even know. Dad isn’t due to return for a while and…’

Nikolai stopped thinking because a soft hand touched his cheek—Risa’s faint smile and narrowed eyes looked up at him outside his apartment.

‘It feels different from her usual playful self…’

“You seem to be worried about something, ever since we saw that cave… It’s something bigger than it seems, right?”

Risa’s body leaned against him, with a slight sigh leaving her lips. She slipped her hand down his cheek, along his neck and slowly grasped his hands. “I cannot force you to answer, but if you need someone, even if it’s just to talk or be quiet and listen… I am always here.”

As if to reinforce her words, the moon suddenly shone through the grey clouds, like the world trying to symbolise his feeling of momentary relief.

‘To have someone is a blessing, yet I have so many people who would help…’

“Thank you, Risa, then… when I need you, don’t turn me away. Alright?” He felt he wasn’t strong enough to do what he wanted to protect everyone. “But for now, you need to go home… last night, and today we should both rest well.”

She looked up, gazing into his eyes. The pair seemed to understand each other. He felt her acceptance, and then she nodded before standing on her tiptoes. “I won’t be able to hold back if you remained here… after all.”

“Nn… me either, Nikolai.” Her arms reached around his head and gently pulled him closer, and then their lips met—they wrapped around him softly and slowly. His emotions stirred with both excitement and serenity—a warmth passed through their skin.

“I really like you… at first, it might have been shallow, but I’ve really come to enjoy your company. Let’s slowly get to know each other more and more, Nikolai.” She whispered gently, her glossy lips kissing his ear before her body faded into the night, using her wind step to leave his embrace.

‘Her emotions… I’ve never seen her giving off such a pure colour before. The murky and hidden colours are now visible to me.’

His heart raced faster than he’d thought possible.

At first, he doubted her and knew she approached him for a reason. Despite this, his desire for her blood and ignoring his primal desires became too difficult to ignore.

“I really planned to use you at first… nothing more. Yet now…”

‘Though it might be something hidden, I will tell Selene and Nikita what I’ve done, though I won’t stop seeing her. I should be honest and tell them my feelings.’

‘That is the least respect I can give them…’

***

After Risa left, he found himself lying on his sofa and lost in thought about his life up until this point. Nikolai had never known such peacefulness in his brief life. Another struggle always followed the one he had just dealt with. Yet now, Nikolai found himself surrounded by friends and family. He could never have believed this a year ago.

‘I have two fiancees… a lover, and my father regained his will to live, and my goal, I cannot forget my true goal.’

‘Mother… how can I save you and dad?’

‘What if that corruption is spread deeper and is the sign of something irreversible?!’

“I don’t know what to do…”

In the depths of his mind, he once considered using the undead’s ability to create a body for his mother.

Yet there was something wrong with this. Nikolai felt rejection and wanted his mother’s body to be alive, a real working body, not some fake or undead corpse.

[You seem lost in thought, Nikolai…]

‘Mother…’

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Nikolai tried to hide his thoughts and feelings, unaware that his thoughts about Elizabeth awakened her and refilled the pendant with his soul force to recover her mind.

[I see you couldn’t resist that nekomata.]

His mother sighed, a low and gloomy voice, yet he could feel the faint smile from how she breathed.

[Well, I shall not blame you as I already saw it using my power..]

‘I won’t make any excuses, nor will I hide it from those two.’

He might become someone who doesn’t deserve blessing and forgiveness, but being a liar is something far worse. They might hear about Risa at another moment, and then he could lose them forever for deceiving them longer.

Elizabeth paused for a while, letting a soft breath through the communication. He could almost feel the cool sensation as if it blew against his neck. It was as if her hands were stroking his hair, a comforting sensation like telling him it would be alright because Nikolai didn’t use his obsidian tide. He couldn’t see her figure.

Nikolai relaxed before closing his eyes.

[You don’t have to feel the burden of anything; live how you want, fail or fall.]

[Your father and I will always do our best to catch you and secure your landing.]

A cool breeze entered through the window as Nikolai began to snore lightly.

Then a figure appeared; looking at the figure stroking Nikolai’s cheek, the golden eyes were sharp at first, quickly widening.

‘Who is that?!’ Nikia’s tail fluffed out, thinking that yet another woman had appeared, though she forcibly accepted the cat, Risa.

There were feelings of dislike and anger that she wanted to take out on Nikolai. Yet, during the day, he was beaten so badly by the elder wraith she feared his ego might shatter.

“Mother Eliza?!”

[Oh… you can see me now, little Kita?]

Her form was ghostly and translucent. She could not even touch the boy’s head but just looked down at him from above, a faint smile appearing on her lips.

Elizabeth’s fingers ran across his head, but she could only feel her soul force tingling along the surface of her son’s skin.

“Ah… since when could you, does Nikolai know?!”

[Of course, you look so happy to see me. How lovely it is that you grew up to be such a beautiful young woman.]

Nikita couldn’t stop her tail from wagging. The person she adored after Nikolai was her mother and her best friend. Nikolai’s mother.

When young, she failed to be the first to meet him because of Selene. So, instead, she became close to his mother and used that to meet Nikolai even after he lost his memories.

“I see… I am so glad.”

Her voice and sigh of relief caused Elizabeth’s illusory figure to chuckle and smile at the young woman. It felt like only a few days ago when Nikita, Selene and Nikolai were playing in the garden.

[You two always used to fight over who would play the wife… Fufu, still, I never thought you both would aim for that position.]

The last part seemed slightly mumbled to herself before turning back to Nikita.

“How are things with Nikolai? Do you know how much he likes you, Kita?”

The pair spoke for a little while before that little while became hours… as they watched over Nikolai, who could finally get a proper night’s sleep.

[Nikita, please wait for him to speak to you… about everything. I promise he won’t make you wait much longer.]

Nikolai’s eyes seemed to shine in the darkness, her hand stroking the sleeping man’s cheek. Her eyes happily narrowed while pinching his flesh slightly.

“I know, Nikolai doesn’t like to lie or hide things… he is a little too innocent for this world sometimes. Then others, he makes my heart tremble with excitement and anticipation.”

[Fufu, I remember everything. Do you remember bringing me pretty shells so I would let you stay or visit our house, even though you were grounded?]

‘Ah… Mother Eliza hasn’t changed, since her soul still exists here. Is there no way to save her…’

It was at that moment that Nikita remembered questions that Nikolai had asked her mother. About souls, alchemy and the interest he showed once when they read about the Nosferatu clan.

[I cannot read her mind like Nikolai… but her face, it’s just like his when he seals me out.]

[What are those two thinking about?]

However, the young werewolf only gazed at Nikolai’s face, her hands holding his cheeks. She could feel his warm breath and the loud thumping of his two hearts.

‘You want to revive her, to give Mother Eliza a body… don’t you, Nikolai?!’

Nikita’s eyes narrowed as she looked back at Elizabeth’s figure; biting her lower lip, she seemed to have made a choice.

‘Although I am angry at you about that cat… If you tell me and apologise sincerely… I can forgive you. So please… ask me to help you! Tell me you need my help, and I will give you everything I have. No even what the Fenrir clan has to bring her back.’

‘I promise you, Nikolai.’

An earnest wish; she didn’t want to see him fall apart, knowing the burden that he carried. Unlike Nikolai, she remembered that night and all the blood after that girl went berserk and the tragedy started.

A tragedy that was being covered up by the highest tier of werewolf, vampire and human leaders in the city.

‘If you learn that night was the reason for everything, and all your suffering…’

‘Nikolai, will you hate me and Selene?’

[After all… these two stupid children want to help me, even after I caused so much suffering… all because I was weak and tempted by those voices.]

[How could Vlad ever forgive me… or those girls’s mother?!]

Elizabeth could only gently smile while watching the two cuddling each other on the large sofa, a small white wolf and a large black wolf.

[This sly boy and sneaky boy!]

[When alone, he changes his hair to his dad’s colour, but when with me, he turns it black again.]

[I cannot tell you how much I adore you… thank you for always thinking about me, Nikolai.]

[But I, too, have to do something…]

[Luckily, those things you think and practice, even Mother, can do alchemy now!]

The illusory image suddenly formed a beautiful pink flame shaped like a lotus on her fingertip. It resembled the flour Nikolai created, yet a different colour.

[You want to save me, but I want to save that girl…]

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