Blood Queen Reborn

Somehow, Layla knew exactly what to do when it came to dealing with a dead body, and despite being clearly bothered by murdering someone, acted calm enough to tell them all of that information about the watches.

It wasn’t immediately suspicious, but it was certainly strange. It wasn’t very common knowledge one would know off the top of their head.

"How did you know what to do?" Erin asked.

There was likely a reasonable explanation for this, in that with Layla being a ghoul, she wasn’t as upset about dead bodies in the same way Erin was.

However, the moment Erin asked that, Layla suddenly looked very guilty, something which even Quinn caught on.

"Layla..." Quinn spoke in a low voice.

Their eyes bore into Layla, and she had to come up with something. With how Erin’s blood was flowing within her, she felt obligated to tell the truth, to listen to her demands, but thankfully, she didn’t have that much within her. Erin didn’t regularly feed her her own blood.

"The QR codes!" she blurted out, "They have them around the school halls that tell you about the watches."

Both Erin and Quinn faced each other, confused, but it did seem like it was a possibility. They had seen them around the school just like Layla had mentioned, and their watches could scan them, but no one really read the messages attached. It was all about getting stronger, not reading manuals.

Still, it was a slightly odd thing for the military to write down, and that kind of information didn’t seem like it would be encouraged to be read by the students.

"You could get her to tell the truth, Erin," The system advised, "If you feed her your blood, then she would have no choice but to do as you say, even if she doesn’t want to"

Erin frowned, ’There’s no need to. I trust Layla, she wouldn’t lie to me.’

Although Layla kept a straight face, internally, she felt awful lying to her friend. This was something she was taught to hide, but it didn’t make it feel any better.

Just then, all of their watches started going off, and a holographic video of an older looking man appeared, preparing an announcement.

"This is an emergency broadcast. I repeat, this is an emergency broadcast. Student Brent Tanner is suspected to be escaping military base 2. If you have any whereabouts regarding Brent Tanner, report to a military faculty member immediately."

An image of the person in question popped up on the holographic message, and Layla’s eyes widened. She recognized it as the person she just killed. It was a little scary knowing how fast they worked, but it was also relieving. They didn’t suspect her at all.

Once the announcement was done, the three in the room felt a small weight come off of their shoulders. They didn’t need to worry about Layla getting caught, or worse, sent to the dungeon.

Still, this kind of situation could happen again, and Layla had a feeling she wouldn’t be so lucky.

"... Erin, can you do me a favor?" Layla hesitantly asked with a serious look to her, "Can you command me using your influence skill, or feed me your blood to make sure I can’t lose control over myself again?"

In her mind, Layla was thinking that having an extra layer of resistance could get her to mentally willpower herself out of her hungry state.

{Erin} System, is there any way to make sure that Layla no longer has a constant hunger for human meat?

"There is, but you won’t like it."

The system voice opened up a quest window.

[2/7 Human flesh eaten]

[Feed your ghoul, Layla, seven different types of human flesh]

[Reward: family member evolution]

"If Layla consumes all 7 unique pieces of meat, she will very likely evolve into a subclass that won’t have a constant hunger," the system explained.

{Erin} Very likely?! So you’re not even sure?

{Erin} And how are we meant to get 5 more pieces of meat?

{Erin} Unless you expect us to dismember 5 more students without getting caught, then you’re out of your mind, you damn annoying system voice!

"See, this is why I withheld that information. Your reactions are not pleasant," The system dryly commented, "Although, they are getting less violent."

{Erin} Don’t try me.

Despite this, it was useful information, even if she didn’t like it. They couldn’t keep using that one guy forever. There was an end to this, they just needed to reach it.

Erin coldly replied, "No, I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to command you like a slave."

"But what if I—"

"You have eaten 2 out of 7 unique pieces of flesh. As soon as you evolve, you won’t get regularly hungry anymore, and be able to control yourself," Erin explained.

Quinn, upon hearing Erin’s response, internally approved. He had a bit of lingering resentment over Erin trying to command him to back off on Caladi, it reminded him of how high levels would act towards the low levels, so it was nice to see Erin reject that mentality now.

"Just 5 more?" Layla repeated, then grimly chuckled, "I guess with the expedition being tomorrow it won’t be an issue."

Her chuckle turned into a deeply disturbed frown. She still didn’t like the idea, and cared about other people, but at least if she ate someone, she’d prefer it if it happened to someone who was already dead.

’This is just the life I’m going to have to live,’ she thought to herself, ’If only I became a vampire like Erin, at least if I fed on someone, it wouldn’t be fatal.’

With nothing else to talk about, Quinn got up and prepared to leave. As he was partway through the dorm room door, he tripped on the same vase of flowers Cia mentioned.

Thankfully, he didn’t fall over, and still stood on two feet, but he looked down at the vase a little confused.

’Who’s flowers are those anyways? Erin’s? Layla’s? Cia and Peter said it wasn’t theirs.’

Ultimately, Quinn just assumed it wasn’t meant for any of them and was just a misplaced gift from someone else. They were going to need to rest early that night as tomorrow was the day of the orange portal expedition.