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\'Ryan... I can forgive you because now I\'m not that naive kid who doesn\'t understand the responsibilities of the rich or those like your fathers.\'

\'However...\'

[Nikolai?]

The pendant\'s voice quivered with concern, for the first time unable to decipher Nikolai\'s thoughts or emotions.

It was unsettling for Elizabeth to be met with silence, as if Nikolai had erected a barrier, shutting her out completely, when she had done nothing to deserve it.

Yet it wasn\'t aimed at her but at the feelings inside his chest...

That was just how much Ryan\'s disappearance affected his mind and emotions.

\'Don\'t sound so worried or upset. Eliza... Just for now, can you let me pull this tantrum?\'

[Of course, anything you say, anything you want. I will do everything to accept it.]

***

"Nikolai, you\'ve probably guessed my true work after meeting last night, right?" Ryan\'s voice became serious.

He placed down his fork and stopped eating. Even the cheeseburgers the pair both loved in the past, never wasting one for years.

Now, it grew cold and dry...

\'After all, people change with time. We really aren\'t those kids anymore.\' Nikolai\'s thoughts were unhappy and filled with a nostalgic mood.

Yet the nostalgia wasn\'t positive, but negative as his memories of the times he was attacked, fought back, tried to win Mari\'s affections after her betrayal and being mocked for his poor lifestyle...

All the memories that Elizabeth had never seen or felt before began to flow into the crystal, a deep blue light flickering as she watched Nikolai curled up, countless times unable to move or go home on time because of his injuries, lying to Ivan and smiling as he cooked their pathetic meal of thin soup and bread, with some noodles on lucky days.

[This is how you lived once your mother (I) was gone?]

"You probably do work for the security bureau, but it\'s likely the anti-monster branch, right?"

\'Please deny it, say no. Don\'t become my enemy—we can become friends again, I know it.\'

However, Ryan\'s face looked calm and void of the same emotions that were bubbling inside of Nikolai\'s chest. Although he looked rough and heartless, the few friends he had were just that important to Nikolai.

\'Ryan, you\'re avoiding my question!\'

Ryan\'s eyes loosened, and he looked away, but he didn\'t need to answer. Yet he continued to speak, Nikolai\'s hopes shrinking the more that Elizabeth in the pendant also began to feel a dreadful feeling.

[A member of the SSS and my son, the Hybrid. His blood is basically an elixir. If humans ingest it, they won\'t turn unless they already have vampiric or monster blood inside them, or he hopes for that to happen. The perfect medicine and experiment subject.]

\'... That\'s what you think of him, too?\'

"You\'ll probably hate me after this, but I want to tell you everything. That is the least I can do for you."

"Okay, I can listen."

"On that day, I was attacked by a vampire, a rogue vampire, on the way back from school."

"..."

"Then the attack happened so fast that I had no one I could rely on, and I didn\'t want to cause my parents problems. My family\'s public position was enough that I thought the vampires would target them."

Nikolai\'s hands trembled as the story continued. It wasn\'t just an attack, but the vampire tried to turn Ryan into a vampire. A thrall because he was strong enough to fight the stray vampire, and his looks were decent.

However, the vampire gave him a chance... to gather money. If he got the vampire enough money, then Ryan and his family would be safe.

Ryan\'s father and mother were a world-renowned lawyer and politicians, though his father was a military man like his grandfather, and his older sister was a model and a famous social media influenced, all living their own lives, not even looking at the little brother who was less talented in every way.

\'Even though Ryan was amazing, his family saw him as inferior... so stupid.\'

It wasn\'t a secret, but Ryan\'s family never cared to hide the fact they were disappointed in their youngest son.

\'If their lives were threatened, of course, they would contact the authorities.\'

Yet Ryan didn\'t know there was a branch of the security division that fought against these superhuman monsters... That\'s when he met her, his master and current supreme leader of the SSS- subjugation branch. Madoka Foster.

"I\'m sure you heard of her and have seen the news about her?"

"She was the wife of the previous CEO of the Foster Group before she joined the government Security Bureau and then seemed to vanish. I think she has shown up in some PVs and Adverts for the SB." Nikolai responded. He remembered her name anyway because it sounded like an anime character.

Madoka was a beautiful woman. Some rumours stated she had a baby with the previous CEO before disappearing, though others said the child was a foster orphan and they were using her to garner public sympathy.

Madoka discovered the rogue vampire before she became a senior SSS agent, and that was how Ryan Seong met and started his anti-supernatural path.

"She was the one to save me, and when I told her about wanting to fight back, she offered to teach me. So the last three days where I called in sick... was actually for this event, Nikolai."

\'Why do you tell me this... I don\'t want to hear this, Ryan. I wish you were just a normal human.\'

He wasn\'t prepared to face his best friend like this. He WAS a supernatural freak now... both werewolf and vampire. Could he still be friends with Ryan in this way? Would his former friend one day hunt him down and then use his blood as an elixir?

Nikolai wouldn\'t trust him.

"I was given a choice, and I chose not to return. It\'s not just vampires but werewolves, too. It seems that the werewolves have their organisation, and they like to run little gangs and mafias that cause trouble in the various cities. There are many monsters in this world, Nikolai, but that is why I vanished and how I was recruited into the SSS."

"So...?"

"So, onto the serious issue... You should quit being that woman\'s squire and cut off your relationship with Nikita Fenrir." Ryan\'s eyes were sincere for sure, yet the words he spoke were nothing but acid poison to Nikolai. To the man who finally started to awaken his so-called feelings of affection towards his childhood friend.

Ryan\'s words were like a blade, slicing through the soul and heart of Nikolai, who only sought to remain friends.

"Why?"

"Because, right now, if a member of the SSS saw you or recognised you from the duels, they would hunt you down and subjugate you as a supernatural being."

Ryan\'s voice was serious, and Nikolai could see that he was honest and knew he wasn\'t lying.

"Ryan, how could you say that? If you wanted to talk about something, then you should have told me before—why wait until now."

\'Everything is already too late... I already have feelings for her. She\'s been beside me for over ten years. A life without Nikita would not be life!\'

Nikolai felt anger. Towards Ryan and the humans of the SSS, he knew about vampires and werewolves now, even the wraths and other monsters that might appear one day to fight him.

Yet they didn\'t attack humans; vampires, for instance, those that needed blood, paid millions to hospitals for blood donations, while Werewolves normally try to live off human food to their limits; even the Fenrir will eat a pig heart raw rather than a human heart.

"So, because they aren\'t humans. They HAVE to die?"

"That\'s the rules, and you\'ll be considered a traitor to the human race, Nikolai. Nikita knows this, too. The only reason she is safe is because of her family and standing. However, if a high-ranking SSS-Subjugator found her, he would kill her on the spot!"

\'What... kill her on the spot? Are you a moron, that lovely woman your co-workers would kill her?\'

[Nikolai, calm down your blood frenzy...!!!]

\'Hahaha...calm down, when the closest thing I had to a brother tells me to leave her side? To lose this power and let her die in a ditch one day just for having cute wolf ears?\'

\'You\'re wrong, Human.\'

[N... Nikolai?]

"Ryan, you\'re wrong. I am already bound to Nikita, and even if I could leave her, I wouldn\'t."

"Nikolai, there is no turning back. If you don\'t..."

"Ryan, If you mention it again, then I will forget we were ever friends and tear your heart out right here."

The eyes of Nikolai, once a beautiful crimson, turned jet black, his gaze void of emotions or any of the things that made him \'Nikolai\'. instead, there was a ferocious beast that wanted to kill this ridiculous person who threatened the life of his mate.

[Nikolai!]

"I\'m not the kid from the part-time job or the loser at school. I am not a slave or a useless human but a member of the Volkov family, and we do not abandon those who stand beside us! You were too slow, much too late. Nikita Fenrir is already my woman."

It was at that moment that Ryan finally showed emotion: wet eyes, a regretful gaze as his face became loose, his lips drooped into a frown, and she looked helpless.

Before Nikolai reacted to his change, he left... only a simple sentence.

"I won\'t give up on you, Nikolai."

Maybe this sentence, which touched their faint heartstrings of Nikolai, stopped him from pouncing as his blood frenzy reached the last few digits before he would go berserk.

[You need to feed—find one of the two girls quick!]

Nikolai\'s eyes returned to normal, yet his hands trembled because his muscles started convulsing like last time, the intense emotions causing his blood frenzy to start faster.

\'Eliza, do you think I will ever be able to make Ryan understand?\'

[Sorry, but it feels impossible...]