Faced with Vlad's question, the two centaur girls were briefly stunned. But when they saw the sharpness in his gaze, they immediately understood.
Elu looked conflicted, but her younger sister Leya nodded after exchanging a tense glance. Despite her agreement, the wariness in her eyes remained—if anything, it grew even stronger.
Elu didn't hesitate for long. Seeing her mother's brows furrowed in pain, she quickly cast aside her worries.
Vlad acted immediately after receiving their consent. It was clear the woman's condition couldn't withstand any further delay.
"Let me be clear," he said as he began untying the cloth strips. "No matter what happens next—don't interrupt me."
"This is to save your mother's life."
With that warning, Vlad loosened the bindings on the woman's chest.
As her pale breasts were freed, they gently rippled before Vlad's eyes. At the same time, a heavy herbal scent—mixed with something fishy and pungent—grew stronger in the air.
The wound near her chest and abdomen was shrouded in a thick, black mist. The surrounding skin looked decayed and darkened.
Vlad frowned as he examined the injury. To be honest, he wasn't sure if he could purge such toxins just by manipulating her blood.
But if he didn't try, given her current state, she could die at any moment.
With that thought, Vlad didn't hesitate. He began to manipulate Luanna's blood, silently probing her internal condition and starting the process of extracting the toxins.
It was obvious that Luanna was in immense pain.
Black and purple veins swelled beneath her skin, pulsing violently as if some monstrous force was thrashing inside her.
Seeing this, the two centaur girls behind Vlad clenched their fists, their faces pale. But they bit their lips and held back, not daring to speak.
They could see their mother's wound oozing foul, black blood, and the mist on her face slowly beginning to dissipate. Hope was returning.
Time ticked by slowly.
This time, blood manipulation was different than before.
Healing required precision and extreme focus. Even with Vlad's strong mental control, the process was exhausting.
Especially since the strange toxin had already invaded much of her heart—he couldn't afford the slightest mistake.
This was exactly why he had warned the sisters not to disturb him.
Vlad continued drawing out the black, poisoned blood.
Gradually, Luanna's body—once tense with pain—began to relax.
Seeing the healthy color returning to her pale chest, Vlad nodded slightly. He pulled a dagger from his belt and prepared to cut.
At that moment, Leia—who had been struggling to remain still—suddenly tensed up, alarmed.
Just as she was about to intervene, her sister Elu stopped her.
Elu shook her head and silently urged her to stay calm.
Leia hesitated but eventually forced herself to remain still.
When she saw Vlad skillfully using the dagger to remove the necrotic tissue around the wound, she finally relaxed.
"All right. Bandage your mother," Vlad said after stopping Luanna's bleeding and casting a blood-healing spell to accelerate recovery.
"Is our mother… healed?" Elu asked nervously.
"She's out of danger now," Vlad replied calmly. "But you'll need to clean the wound again tomorrow, or the toxins may start to spread again."
Hearing this, Elu let out a breath of relief and nodded tearfully. Beside her, Leia—seeing their mother's face regain some color—finally let go of the tension she'd been holding in.
After seeing her sister repeatedly thanking Vlad, Leia hesitated a moment, then walked over with a slightly embarrassed expression and bowed deeply.
"Now do you believe I'm not a bad person?" Vlad smiled lightly, raising an eyebrow.
"But I should clarify—I'm not human."
"You're not human?!" the sisters exclaimed in shock.
"But you look just like one," Elu asked curiously.
Meeting their suspicious gazes, Vlad revealed his sharp vampiric fangs as proof.
At the same time, he observed the sisters through a mysterious glowing orb—and discovered they had an astonishing amount of luck.
"Their luck is unusually strong. So, luck isn't just reserved for characters from movies or TV shows…"
"Their fortune even rivals heroines like Valerie and Verona. That's… strange."
"Unless—"
Vlad turned to look at Luanna, still unconscious. She had luck too, but it was sparse—barely comparable to someone like Amelia.
If luck could be ranked, then:
First tier: Protagonists of movies or TV series.
Second tier: Major supporting characters.
Third tier: Characters like Luanna—not particularly lucky or unlucky.
But why were Elu and Leia so lucky?
His gaze lingered briefly on their smooth, shapely legs—so different from their mother's.
A thought formed in Vlad's mind.
And now that Leia seemed quite enthusiastic after learning he wasn't human, he couldn't help but be a little speechless. Does this girl prefer non-human species?
He had just saved her mother, but she hadn't shown this kind of warmth before.
As the distance between them vanished completely, the sisters began to open up to him.
Through their conversation, Vlad learned that there were many other centaurs living in this secret realm.
But due to severe food shortages, most of them had built their homes close to their farming plots.
Because centaurs eat several times more than humans, the resources in the secret realm were no longer enough to sustain their growing population.
So they occasionally had to venture out in search of food.
Usually, their mother Luanna did the hunting. But since her injury, Elu had taken over the responsibility.
However, Elu had little experience and had rarely ventured into the human world. Naturally, she hadn't been able to find much.
The nearby forests had been scoured by other centaurs long ago, leaving little to hunt.
Elu, unable to venture far, tried her luck in a nearby human village—but was quickly discovered and driven away as a monster.
That was when she encountered Vlad.
Hearing this, Vlad was moved and asked:
"I saw a large forest in your secret realm. Why don't you hunt there?"
Unexpectedly, at the mention of the forest, the sisters' expressions turned pale with fear.
"That place is forbidden! No one's allowed to go in—and no animals can survive there."
"Forbidden? What do you mean?" Vlad's tone sharpened.
Elu hesitated for a moment before replying, "Everything changed there about three years ago."
As Vlad caught the fear in Elu's eyes and noticed how Leia suddenly went silent, his curiosity only deepened.