"As long as it's something humans can eat!"
"Of course it's something humans can eat. What else would it be? You didn't think we vampires drink blood every single day, did you?"
"Hm? You mean you don't?"
Elena was puzzled. Her shallow understanding of vampires still amounted to the notion that they lived on blood.
Although admittedly most of that had come from picture books and a few ancient tomes.
Seeing Elena's puzzled look, Lilith rapped her lightly on the head.
"Of course not. We eat normal food too."
As she said it, she suddenly fixed her eyes on Elena the way one looks at prey, and licked her lips.
"But~ I do get the urge for blood now and then. It's been such a long time since I last tasted any~"
Under that stare, Elena's body gave a shudder.
"Wh-what are you looking at me for! You aren't planning to eat me...!"
Her voice had already gone shaky. Lilith looked exactly as though she really were about to devour her.
"I'm telling you now... I don't taste good! And my blood's sour, so don't get any ideas!"
"Pfft... Enough. Blood Iris suppresses the craving nicely, so don't worry~ At least for the time being you needn't worry about me drinking your blood."
Lilith reached out and ruffled Elena's hair.
"Even so, I'm very much looking forward to the day you offer me your blood of your own accord~ Elena is so cute, her blood must be sweet too, don't you think?"
As she spoke Lilith licked her lips again, tilted Elena's chin up lightly, and slowly leaned in...
Faced with this sudden teasing, Elena felt her cheeks grow warm and flush before she could stop it.
Only once she noticed did she hurriedly grab Lilith's hand, fling it off, and leap down off the sofa.
"Wh-who would ever offer up something like that of their own accord, hey!"
"Heh heh~ So cute. Do keep it up~"
Lilith only laughed at the sight of her, then rose and left the living room to cook.
"Dammit... has this woman been pent up too long or something!"
***
Before very long Lilith came into the living room carrying dinner and set it on the table in front of Elena.
Dinner was simple but generous: a stew, a pan-seared cutlet, a vegetable salad, and noodles.
What was more, it all looked like perfectly ordinary food, with nothing strange about it.
But with the precedent of being tricked into drinking Blood Iris, Elena still hesitated.
Yet the thick aroma of the stew and the smell of the meat kept battering her nose, and having not eaten since the night before, how was she supposed to resist that temptation?
Her hand reached for the cutlery in front of her without her meaning it to, while her brain kept telling her: don't eat it!
The two contradictory impulses left her outstretched hand hovering in midair, trembling faintly.
"What's wrong? Not to your liking?"
It took Lilith speaking for Elena to stop wrestling with herself.
"It is not! I'm just not hungry yet..."
Grrrrrowl~~
The words were barely out of Elena's mouth before her stomach spoke up and slapped her right across the face.
Her cheeks went red on the spot and she dropped her head.
"There now, stop being stubborn. Your stomach is very honest~"
As she spoke, Lilith took up a fork, speared a piece of the cutlet, and held it to Elena's lips.
"Don't worry, it's ordinary beef. Eat up. Ahh~"
She was coaxing Elena the way one coaxes a small child into eating.
Elena looked at the meat at her lips and meant to open her mouth for it — and then it struck her that being fed by Lilith was unbearably humiliating.
But the meat by her mouth really did smell wonderful, and it kept on tempting her.
After a long inner struggle she failed to hold out in the end, and took the whole piece into her mouth in one bite.
The instant it went in, the flavor of the meat burst across her mouth along with the juices, seasoned so precisely that the taste lingered on and on.
She had never imagined that Lilith, a vampire of all things, could cook this well!
Compared to the steamed buns and flavorless vegetable soup she used to gnaw through day after day, this was not even in the same league!
"Heh heh~ There now, don't rush so. There's more if that isn't enough~"
Lilith smiled, speared another piece of the cutlet, and held it to Elena's lips, exactly as though she were feeding a small animal.
Elena had been about to open her mouth again when it dawned on her that something was off.
Lilith was playing some weird feeding play with her!
The moment that occurred to her, she swallowed the meat in her mouth in a hurry and snatched the fork out of Lilith's hand.
"I'll do it myself!"
Lilith did not resist. Elena eating looked like a little hamster, and simply watching was enough to lift the spirits.
After that, the scene in the living room grew rather strange.
Elena, the maid, was stuffing herself with utter abandon and no dignity whatsoever.
Stew, cutlet, noodles, salad... except for the salad, which she took a single bite of and then left alone, she put away a great deal of everything.
And Lilith, the Master, sat propping up her chin, smiling, watching Elena eat in silence.
Under Elena's enthusiastic assault dinner was cleared away in short order, while Lilith barely ate anything at all — she only finished off the salad Elena had abandoned after one bite.
Full and content, Elena sprawled on the sofa, gently patting her slightly rounded belly, the picture of satisfaction.
"So fuuull—"
For a moment it struck her that if she could eat food like this every day, she really would not mind being a maid!
Wasn't this a great deal better than being an assassin?
The instant Elena realized she had thought that, she shook her head hard. How could she be so utterly corrupted!
Was she going to betray everything over this tiny bit of kindness?
Assassin's soul of a woman she was not!
"Don't lie down right after eating."
Before Elena could enjoy it very long, still locked in her internal war, Lilith hauled her upright.
"Besides, I made dinner, so you can go and wash the dishes like a good girl~"
"Ngh... I know!"
Elena did not much want to move, but she was nominally still Lilith's maid, and she had eaten the good food Lilith made.
Even if Lilith had not said anything, she would have washed up on her own initiative — though when she would have gotten around to it was another matter.
"Oh, and I have work to do this afternoon. Once you've finished cleaning, go amuse yourself. Don't come and disturb me, and don't go wandering off anywhere~"
Lilith gave Elena the reminder, then started up the stairs toward the second-floor study.
"I know, I know! You talk too much..."
Elena only gave her a perfunctory answer.
With an opening this good to move around on her own, how could she possibly settle down and clean like a good girl?
There were still plenty of places on this estate she had not been, and she needed to learn them properly — better safe than sorry!
And she might even turn up some secret of Lilith's. She might even find a weakness!
Lilith had not actually been all that cruel to her, but the humiliation of last night's punishment was not something she would forget so easily!
Lilith was definitely putting on an act, pretending to be kind to her, and then when the time was right she would harvest her and turn her into a blood slave who could not fight back!
This woman really was the worst!