Chapter 209 – This Vampire Princess Is Adorable

“I’ll be counting on you at lunch, Miss Lin Xi.” Sophie extended a hand with a sweet smile.

“Welcome to our class, Miss Sophie.” Lin Xi smiled back and took it.

The instant their hands met, a notification appeared in Lin Xi’s mind.

A new cuddle target has appeared-Vampire Princess Sophie von Transylvania!!!

Lin Xi: “…”

Was she grinding mobs in a video game now?!

What the hell!

Why had Sophie von Transylvania, a Vampire Princess, become a cuddle target?!

How did the Cuddle Witch know Sophie von Transylvania?!

And wasn’t Miss Sophie’s name a little too long?!

Lin Xi had so many complaints she did not know where to start.

“Um… Miss Lin Xi?” Sophie prompted softly. Their handshake had gone on a little too long.

“Ah-uh, sorry.” Lin Xi snapped back to herself.

Outwardly calm. Internally, she was freaking the hell out.

Sophie was a Vampire Princess. She was dangerous!

She had not come here with good intentions!

Why had she transferred into Class One at such a perfectly convenient time?

Was it really a coincidence?

Or had she done it deliberately? Did Sophie have some other purpose for joining this class?

What was her objective? Was there someone-or some suspicious organization-behind her…? Since joining ZERO, Lin Xi’s counter-surveillance instincts had sharpened considerably.

What unspeakable secret was this Vampire Princess from B City hiding?!

Lin Xi made a decision that flew in the face of everything her ancestors stood for: she would classify this dangerous Vampire Princess as a suspicious subject and investigate her!

She had to protect her classmates!

They might all be weirdos, but they were good people!

If Sophie was plotting something sinister-if she even attacked one of them and drank their blood-Lin Xi would not stand idly by.

Even if Sophie was one of her cuddle targets, Lin Xi would destroy this evil Vampire Princess for the greater good!

Sophie, of course, had no idea that Lin Xi had seen through her true identity in an instant.

Her impression of Lin Xi was… Was this girl some kind of shameless flirt???

Who held another girl’s hand for that long and refused to let go?!

Flirts were generally experts at seducing girls. Had Dragon Princess Thor been charmed out of her senses, leading her to make the idiotic decision to betray Lord Drax and become a Dragon Maid?

Sophie laughed inwardly. She would never fall for it!

Miss Lin Xi’s sweet talk and sugar-coated traps would get her nowhere!

Sophie von Transylvania was far too worldly to fall for tricks like those!

Sophie’s objective was to investigate Lin Xi and use her as an entry point to uncover the Queen of Lust’s whereabouts.

What Sophie did not know was that the Queen of Lust she sought was right beneath her nose… Yang Shanshan extended a hand to welcome her new deskmate.

“Hello, Miss Sophie. I’m Yang Shanshan.”

That one sentence was all the socially anxious Yang Shanshan could manage.

“Hello, Miss Yang Shanshan.” Sophie smiled in reply.

And that was the end of their conversation.

Sophie had transferred to this school for Lin Xi. She had no interest in anyone else.

Lin Xi, however, was rather worried about Yang Shanshan’s safety. After all, she was sitting next to a Vampire Princess!

Still, Sophie probably would not do anything dangerous in broad daylight.

Broad daylight… Wait! This Vampire Princess was not afraid of sunlight!!!

Lin Xi had found the flaw in her own reasoning.

Sophie was no ordinary Vampire Princess!

Besides being as adorable as a finely crafted doll, she could walk in sunlight, at the very least…

…

At noon, Lin Xi began carrying out her promise to show Sophie around the school.

“Miss Sophie, first stop: straight to the cafeteria.” Lin Xi smiled. “Let’s get lunch.”

Sophie’s brows drew together almost imperceptibly. “I’m… not very hungry.”

Ah! Of course… Realization dawned on Lin Xi. Sophie was a Vampire Princess. She did not eat normal food!

She would be more interested in choosing one “lucky” student at random and taking a couple of sips…

“How about this, Miss Lin Xi? You go have lunch first,” Sophie said. “I’ll wait in the classroom. You can show me around campus after you’re done.”

“Sure.” Lin Xi went to lunch with Yang Shanshan.

Perfect. She could warn Yang Shanshan not to get too close to Sophie while they ate.

Lin Xi’s warning was unnecessary. Yang Shanshan had known Sophie was a Vampire Princess the moment she entered the classroom.

She was rather curious herself. Why had a Vampire Princess suddenly transferred here out of nowhere?

Yang Shanshan had also assessed Sophie’s strength. She was roughly a Special-Grade Disaster.

Since she could not hurt Lin Xi, Yang Shanshan did not consider her new deskmate a potential threat.

What did surprise her was this: Lin Xi seemed to know Sophie was a Vampire Princess too???

How had Lin Xi figured it out???

Had Lin Xi grown stronger again? Could she now identify the species of Dark Realm Creatures by their auras, like the Seven Monarchs of Desire? Or was there… some other reason???

In Yang Shanshan’s eyes, Lin Xi was surrounded by far too many unsolved mysteries…

After lunch, Lin Xi returned to the classroom for Sophie.

“Miss Sophie, let’s go. I’ll show you around campus.”

Lin Xi stepped into the corridor, and Sophie followed behind, her footsteps so light they were nearly soundless.

May sunlight streamed through the corridor windows. Sophie instinctively edged closer to the shadows.

Lin Xi noticed and slowed down to wait for her.

“You’re from B City, right? What’s the weather like there lately?” Lin Xi asked casually, intending to learn more about this Vampire Princess.

“It rains all the time.” Sophie glanced out at the dazzling sunlight. “I’m not very fond of clear weather.”

Sophie really was from B City, so that much was not a lie.

She served Drax the Destroyer in A City, but had spent long stretches away on assignment in B City.

Summer was almost here, and Z City got plenty of sunshine. Had this Vampire Princess really come all the way here just to make herself miserable? Lin Xi wondered.

Lin Xi wanted to learn about Sophie, and Sophie wanted to learn about Lin Xi. With both of them probing for intelligence, their conversation flowed surprisingly well.

They were walking through an empty campus corridor in the afternoon when a breeze swept through an open window.

The May wind carried the last scattered petals of cherry-blossom season inside, sending them skimming past the two girls.

For that one moment, time seemed to stretch into amber.

The breeze lifted Sophie’s silver hair like a gauzy veil.

In the sunlight, it possessed an impossible texture-not an ordinary silver-white, but the luminous sheen of mother-of-pearl. Every strand looked like silk steeped in moonlight, unfurling with the air into a flowing waterfall.

The faint outline of her ear flickered between those strands, almost an illusion conjured by light and shadow.

Lin Xi’s breath caught.

Wait. This Vampire Princess was absolutely adorable!