I Am The Game's Villain

Chapter 881: Are You Upset, Senior?

”I was a little afraid at first,” Levina said.

Edward, seated between Levina and Alicia on the long cushioned bench, turned his gaze toward her.

”Afraid?”

He reached for his glass of red wine and took a slow sip. Then he rested one arm along the back of the bench behind Levina.

Levina nodded.

”When I saw you on the screen in Veyra,” she said, ”you looked different.”

Edward glanced down at the wine in his hand, turning the glass slightly as the dark red liquid moved inside it.

”This is my real body, Levina,” he replied. ”It has changed over time, but this is who I truly am.”

”I know.”

Levina’s voice became softer.

”I was just afraid that you would not be as close to us anymore.”

Her blue eyes lowered.

”To me.”

Edward smiled faintly.

He reached out and gently stroked her golden hair.

”I may have changed,” he said. ”But my affection for you has not diminished in the slightest.”

His fingers moved carefully through her hair.

”If anything, it has only grown.”

Levina’s cheeks became warm.

She looked away, clearly embarrassed by his words, but the happiness in her expression was impossible to hide.

”Does that only concern Levina, Senior?”

Alicia’s voice interrupted them.

Edward turned toward her.

Alicia sat on his left, watching him with a pointed stare. Her crimson eyes were calm, but there was something cold beneath them, an emotion she was making no effort to conceal.

Levina seemed to notice it as well.

”I will go out for a little while,” she said suddenly, rising from the bench.

”Vina.”

Edward called after her.

But Levina only smiled faintly.

”You will have plenty of time to speak with her later,” Alicia said. ”You are taking her with you, after all.”

Edward did not answer.

Levina gave him one final glance before walking toward the door. Then she left the room, closing it quietly behind her.

The silence that followed felt entirely different.

Edward turned his gaze toward Alicia.

”Are you upset?”

”Should I be?”

Edward looked away again.

He lifted the wine glass toward his lips.

But before he could drink, Alicia slapped it from his hand.

The glass flew across the room.

It struck the wall with a sharp sound and shattered. Red wine splashed over the dark surface and spilled across the floor, staining the wood beneath it.

Edward looked at his now-empty hand.

Then he slowly raised his eyes toward Alicia.

Alicia had already moved.

She pushed him back against the bench and climbed onto his lap, straddling him with both knees resting on either side of him. Her long golden hair fell forward over her shoulders as she looked down at him, her crimson eyes appearing cold.

Edward was half-reclined against the cushions.

He looked up at her.

”I am not as lenient as Vina, Senior,” Alicia said.

”I can see that,” Edward replied calmly.

Alicia’s fingers reached for the front of his shirt.

Her hand closed around the fabric, tightening her grip.

”I have a very disagreeable feeling,” she said, ”that you have been casting us aside for your other women.”

”I already told you why I could not visit often,” Edward replied. ”Especially not Sancta Vedelia.”

”And yet you have had plenty of fun with them.”

”I have.”

Alicia narrowed her eyes.

The lack of denial did not help.

Her grip tightened further, pulling Edward closer until there was barely any distance between them.

”Who am I to you, Senior?” She asked.

Edward stared her face.

Then he answered simply.

”A mother to Vina.”

Alicia pulled him forward by his shirt.

Their faces came close enough that her breath brushed against his lips. Her mouth hovered only inches from his, yet she did not kiss him. Instead, she stared directly into his silver eyes, searching for an answer he had not given her.

”I missed you, Senior,” she whispered.

Her voice lost some of its earlier sharpness.

”A lot.”

”I thought you would not,” Edward said quietly. ”You used a blood art to remain emotionally attached to Elizabeth.”

Alicia’s lips curved faintly.

”You noticed.”

”Did you ask Elizabeth for permission before using it?” Edward asked. ”There is no way Elizabeth would not have noticed. I wonder whether you used it with her approval, or whether she realized afterward and allowed it to remain.”

If Edward had to guess, it was the second possibility.

Alicia had used the Raven blood art on Elizabeth without asking.

Elizabeth had noticed.

And she had chosen not to stop her.

Alicia slowly shook her head.

”So she simply allowed it,” Edward said.

A faint smile curled his lips.

”She certainly has a special place for you.”

”I think,” Alicia said, ”that Beth wanted me to understand something.”

Her fingers loosened slightly around his shirt, though she did not pull away.

”She wanted me to feel that she was the one closest to you, Senior.”

Alicia’s gaze remained locked with his.

”To feel the real thing.”

”You did not think I would notice a Raven blood art?”

”Are you upset, Senior?”

Alicia asked the question almost in a whisper.

Edward did not answer.

For a moment, neither of them moved.

Then Alicia lowered her eyes.

The coldness in her expression cracked slightly, revealing something more vulnerable beneath it.

”I only wanted to be closer to you,” she said.

”You used a dangerous spell,” Edward said.

His tone was not angry but more reprimanding.

Alicia remained seated on his lap, her hands still loosely holding the front of his shirt. The coldness she had shown before had faded, leaving her expression more guarded now that he had brought up the blood art directly.

”Even if it was only for half a year,” Edward continued, ”you have been sharing Elizabeth’s emotions.”

Alicia did not deny it.

The Raven blood art was not powerful enough to let her experience every emotion Elizabeth felt. It only allowed fragments to pass through the connection, usually when Elizabeth’s emotions became particularly strong.

When her feelings reached a peak.

And Elizabeth was not someone whose strongest emotions were soft or ordinary.

More often than not, those emotions came through bloodlust.

Or simple lust.

Edward did not believe Alicia was weak enough to be completely overwhelmed by them. Alicia had endured far too much in her life to lose herself so easily.

But the spell had still affected her.

He could see it.

There were moments when Alicia’s mannerisms reminded him faintly of Elizabeth. Not enough to make her seem like another person, not enough to erase who she was, but enough to make him wonder whether the connection was awakening something buried deep within her.

Something darker.

Something more instinctive.

No.

It was not exactly Elizabeth whom Alicia reminded him of.

It was the Vampire Witch Alicia.

The woman she had once become, or perhaps the woman she might still become if the dark parts of herself were allowed to surface.

Edward did not know whether that was good or bad.

What concerned him was Alicia’s sanity.

He did not want her to become a second Elizabeth.

Alicia was different.

And he wanted her to remain that way.

”I have shared Beth’s emotions,” Alicia said softly. ”But most of what I felt was good.”

Her crimson eyes lifted toward his.

”When she was close to you, Senior.”

Alicia’s fingers moved to Edward’s shoulders.

Then, slowly, she pulled his black hoodie coat down from one side. The fabric slipped over his shoulder, followed by the collar of his shirt, exposing the pale line of his neck.

Her crimson eyes darkened.

The color in them seemed to throb faintly.

”May I?” She asked, her pupils contracting into narrow, vertical slits as her hunger flared.

Edward offered a faint, resigned smile, tilting his head slightly to the side.

In an instant, Alicia lunged, sinking her fangs deep into his throat. A shudder racked her frame as the rich, potent warmth of his blood flooded her senses. Edward’s arms came around her, wrapping around her back to anchor her weight as she straddled his lap, drinking deeply.

The crimson glow in her eyes pulsed violently, her pale cheeks flushing a dark, feverish red. The sheer, ravenous vigor of her feeding mirrored Elizabeth’s so closely that Edward’s jaw twitched, a familiar thrill sparking through his veins. Years of being subjected to Elizabeth’s intimate hungers had left him acutely sensitive to the act.

Unable to resist the rising heat between them, Edward slid one hand down her back, catching the hem of her blouse and slipping his palm beneath the fabric to press directly against her bare, hypersensitive skin.

”Hmnn!” Alicia choked out, a muffled whimper escaping her throat.

The moment his fingers stroked her spine, her fangs slipped free from his flesh.

”Aahnnn—ahhh!!”

Her entire body locked, bowing backward before violently shuddering. A cascade of spasms racked her frame for long seconds, her breath catching in a broken gasp.

When the wave finally crested, she collapsed forward, her forehead resting limply against his shoulder, her breath coming in ragged pants as a deep blush burned across her skin.

Slowly, Edward withdrew his hand from beneath her blouse, looking at her with a calm gaze.

”S—Senior... I—I am sorry...” Alicia whispered, her voice trembling with mortification, hot tears pricking the corners of her eyes. She couldn’t bring herself to lift her head or meet his gaze, utterly humiliated by how quickly her body had betrayed her.

She had expected the intense arousal—feeding was, by its very nature, an inherently intimate, deeply carnal act for vampires. But she hadn’t anticipated the dam breaking the moment he touched her skin, his scent and proximity flooding her senses all at once.

Edward remained silent for a moment, taking in the suddenness of her climax. He doubted his touch alone possessed such overwhelming power. The true culprit was much clearer.

”This is what happens when you tether your emotions to Elizabeth,” he said dryly.

Given how many times Elizabeth had fed on him, how deeply intertwined their bodies and desires had become, Alicia had unknowingly inherited a ghost of that conditioning. Even if she had only experienced a fraction of it secondhand, her nervous system had learned the language of his touch through Elizabeth. And when reality finally collided with fantasy, her body had reacted with devastating sensitivity.

Alicia stayed pressed against him, offering no defense as the last remnants of her dangerous confidence melted into utter shame.

As though Alicia’s embarrassment had not already been enough, she suddenly felt something press against the inside of her thighs beneath the layers of clothing between them.

Her entire body froze.

”S-Senior...?”

Her voice came out in a stutter.

Edward didn’t spare her a glance.

One of his arms still rested gently around her back, holding her close despite the way she had begun trembling in his embrace.

”What did you expect?” He asked.

Alicia’s face turned completely red.

She shuddered faintly, her eyes widening as she realized that Edward had not been unaffected by what had just happened. The closeness, the blood, the warmth of their bodies against one another, it had not only stirred something inside her.

Edward let out a quiet breath.

Then a faint smile curled his lips.

At least Alicia had not changed that much.

Not completely.

She had certainly become bolder.

The Alicia he remembered from before would never have sought this kind of intimacy so openly. She would have hidden her feelings behind pride, coldness, and carefully chosen words. Even when she wanted to be near him, she would have found a reason to deny it.

But people changed.

And Alicia had changed with them.

It was not only because of the blood art connecting her emotions to Elizabeth’s strange instincts and overwhelming bloodlust. That connection may have brought certain feelings closer to the surface, but it was not the true reason Alicia had become this way.

She had grown through the Utopian War.

She had changed through the Blood Moon War.

And then the loss of two of her brothers.

She had faced fear, loss, responsibility, and the possibility of never seeing Edward again. She had been forced to become stronger, to understand what she wanted, and to stop pretending that her feelings for him meant nothing.

This was still Alicia.

But she was no longer the girl who could only watch him from a distance and remain silent.