Chapter 35
Seated at a table adorned with elegantly blooming roses, Eligos silently admired the essence Yudel had personally presented to him.
True to the refined aesthetic of one who cherished beauty, the essence was contained in a crystal bottle with exquisite, tasteful cuts. The liquid inside was a remarkably deep, weighty crimson.
Ordinarily, when bright sunlight passed through one of these bottles, the light would dilute the color of the essence, allowing the contents to become faintly translucent.
This one was different. Even when he held the crystal bottle up to the brightest, clearest rays streaming through the window, the color neither lightened nor became transparent. Instead, the essence’s natural crimson only grew richer and more vivid.
“Hm…”
A smile of quiet intrigue spread across Eligos’s lips as he noticed the difference.
He gave the bottle a gentle shake. The liquid inside sloshed slowly before settling back into place. Its movement was heavy and sluggish, unmistakably testifying to the extraordinary concentration of the essence it contained.
“……”
After studying the small bottle for a long moment, Eligos finally set it down on the table. He carefully removed the intricately crafted stopper and slowly poured the contents into a crystal cocktail glass. Beneath the brilliant sunlight, the transparent glass caught both the light and the crimson liquid, holding them together in a single gleaming vessel.
Eligos lifted the glass. Closing his eyes, he took a moment to savor its aroma before gently tipping it to his lips. The quiet sound of the liquid sliding down his throat echoed softly through the room.
Yudel watched the entire process with quiet tension. His heart pounded steadily in his chest.
At last, Eligos drained the glass and set it back on the table. Yudel spoke with careful restraint.
“…How was it? Did it suit your taste?”
Eligos offered no immediate reply. Instead, he simply closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, savoring the lingering flavor of the essence on his palate.
The silence stretched on, unbearably long, tightening around Yudel’s heart.
At last, Eligos spoke.
“…It’s good. I like it.”
Of all the judgments Eligos could have given, it was a decidedly favorable one.
His master possessed an exceptionally discerning palate and could distinguish the subtlest differences in the taste and aroma of essence with uncanny precision. For someone like Eligos to call it good meant the essence was of remarkable quality.
In other words, the woman possessed essence refined enough to satisfy even Eligos’s exacting tastes.
Having quietly worried that it might fail to please his master, Yudel finally released a deep sigh of relief inwardly.
‘At least I won’t have to lose sleep worrying about running short on essence for a while.’
Since the escape of the prisoners, Yudel had devoted considerable time and effort to ensuring Eligos’s supply would never run dry. He had been searching for regions from which new humans could be abducted to replace the escaped captives and conducting exhaustive inventories of the castle’s remaining stores of essence.
Yet no matter how meticulously he calculated their reserves, there was simply no immediate way to replace the amount that seven escaped humans would have provided.
Kidnapping humans while avoiding the Holy Knights was an undertaking that was troublesome, tedious, and enormously labor-intensive. Humans were not something one could simply pick up by the dozen as though buying fruit at the market.
For the time being, they simply had to endure until they could procure more humans. The problem was that Yudel had been increasingly uncertain whether their existing reserves would last that long.
Then, at precisely that moment, a certain woman had produced more than forty bottles of essence in a single day. The very woman who had plunged him into difficulty had demonstrated productivity more than forty times greater than that of an ordinary human.
It truly was like rain falling after a long drought.
Better still, even after yielding that staggering amount of essence, she had remained alive. Once she regained consciousness, she had even found the energy to openly voice her bewilderment and dissatisfaction with the punishment he had imposed.
And on top of that, she had passed his master’s exacting standards.
If he made proper use of the woman, the problems of maintaining their essence supply—and the troublesome task of constantly acquiring new humans—would become far less pressing. It meant buying themselves precious time.
For that reason, Yudel felt a profound sense of relief. It truly could not have come at a better time.
There were, however, a few shortcomings that Eligos pointed out about the essence he had just tasted.
“But it lacks the richness I prefer. And the color…”
He studied the empty glass for a moment.
“I would have liked a much brighter, purer crimson. A cleaner shade of blood-red than this.”
“…I will continue my research and make the necessary improvements.”
“A commendable attitude, Yudel.”
Eligos rose smoothly to his feet.
“If you have nothing further to report, you may go.”
“Yes. As you command, Lord Eligos.”
Still kneeling on the floor, Yudel bowed deeply to him once more before quietly taking his leave of the bedchamber.
As he strolled down the silent corridor with light, unhurried steps, a pleasant mood settling over him, Yudel’s thoughts turned to a single question:
How could he draw even richer, finer-tasting essence from that woman?
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