58: Chapter 58 The Little Nightingale's Panic! The Hunt Begins!

The next day, dawn broke.

Faint light spilled in from outside the window.

Elena woke up amidst a strange sense of soreness.

Memories returned along with her senses.

Only then did she realize what she had done!

The salon, the carriage, the manor, the bedroom...

Every detail was exceptionally clear, vivid to the finest hair.

She... she had been with a man she had only known for one night, a bard, a frontier baron...

"Buzz—"

Her mind instantly went blank.

Her body began to tremble uncontrollably before her consciousness could catch up.

Boundless panic and shame gripped her heart.

She lay stiffly, not daring to move a muscle.

She was terrified of disturbing the warm, solid body beside her.

She was even more at a loss for how to face this utterly absurd situation.

However, Rowan had already woken up.

Or perhaps, he had never been in a deep sleep.

A night of waiting was just to Drain this sweet and complex delicacy at this very moment.

He keenly felt the warmth pressed against him go rigid, carrying a subtle tremor.

Rowan chuckled and naturally pulled her into his embrace.

The Drain skill was quietly activated.

As expected, incomparably delicious...

[Drain Lv2 Proficiency +12]

[Obtained Free Attribute Point +6]

Elena bit her lower lip until she tasted a hint of blood, suppressing the sob that almost escaped her throat.

Her mind remained blank, leaving only her body's instinctive reaction and overwhelming panic.

"Good morning, my Little Nightingale." A low, slightly hoarse voice sounded right against her sensitive earlobe.

Warm breath brushed past, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

That "Little Nightingale" sounded jarringly intimate. It reminded her of how she had sung as melodiously as a nightingale last night.

Her body shivered again, her throat tightened, and she couldn't utter a single word, only her eyelashes trembled violently.

Rowan laughed softly.

He buried his face in the hair behind her neck, which emitted a faint floral scent and the smell of sweat, took a deep breath, and whispered:

"I should go now. See you next time."

"My Little Nightingale."

Elena remained stiff, not responding.

Rowan didn't mind; he leisurely picked up the clothes scattered on the carpet and put them on one by one.

Then, the door was pulled open and gently closed again.

The room suddenly fell silent.

Elena lay stiffly for a long time before curling up and sitting up bit by bit.

She sat blankly on the messy bridal bed, looking at that striking splash of crimson.

"What have I done..." Her lips moved silently.

Why?

She lifted the silk quilt with trembling hands.

In the morning light, her skin, which had originally been as white as jade...

"Ah—!"

A short, broken gasp escaped her throat.

She suddenly covered her face with both hands, and tears of collapse broke through the dam.

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, Elena stumbled out of bed.

The discomfort made every step difficult and humiliating.

She didn't dare look at her disheveled appearance in the vanity mirror.

Grabbing a scattered morning robe to haphazardly wrap around her marked body, she rushed into the bathroom connected to the bedroom.

...

On the other side, Rowan had returned to his Snow Velvet Manor.

He lay on the lounge chair by the floor-to-ceiling window, closing his eyes to rest.

His fingers tapped unconsciously on the back of the chair, and the panel in his mind unfolded.

[born succubus more children more blessings system]

[Name]: Rowan Flynn

[Age]: 22

[Innate Profession]: Succubus

[Innate Skills]:

Charm Lv3 (1536 / 10000)

Effect: Makes the target fall into a state of infatuation through eyes, language, or aura, lowering their psychological resistance.

Drain Lv2 (3164 / 4000)

Effect: By intimate contact, absorbs the target's emotional energy, such as pleasure, love, etc., to obtain attribute points.

Remaining Free Attribute Points: 928

[Second Profession]: Myriad Knight

[Profession Skills]

Myriad Furnace Breathing Technique Lv2 (3608 / 10000) (Senior Knight)

Current Traits: [Frost (Blue)], [Insight (Blue)], [Blood Rage (Blue)], [Shape-shifting (Blue)], [Wind Breath (Blue)]

Winter Oath-Keeper Swordsmanship Lv3 (745 / 5000)

Skills: Frost Heart Realm, Frost Flower Slash, Instant Snow Step, Frost Heart: Flash Ice Stab...

Silent Pilgrimage Archery Lv3 (1012 / 5000)

Skills: North Wind Arrow Rain, Frost Bridge Continuous Shot, Silent Funeral, Winter Veil Canopy...

...

His attention was focused on the [Drain] skill and [Remaining Free Attribute Points].

The [Drain] skill was now only 836 proficiency points away from reaching Lv3.

[Free Attribute Points] were already sufficient.

Upgrading the [Drain] skill to Lv3 would jump the efficiency of absorbing emotional energy to a new level.

It would be enough to maximize the reception of the most surging emotional waves when Aliyah bloomed.

Of course, absorbing emotions was just a side benefit.

Ultimately, what he wanted was for Aliyah to bear his children.

But he didn't upgrade the skill immediately.

Because there was still a stumbling block that hadn't been removed.

Ravenna Farrell.

After that guy sent tax collectors to retaliate against him, it was highly likely he still had people watching the Dawn Cathedral.

Rowan didn't want this guy to bring law enforcement officers to his door again while he and Priestess Aliyah were discussing their grand plan of creating life at the manor.

Originally, he had planned to use Elena to probe for information about Ravenna's whereabouts and intelligence, planning for the long term.

But after reading her diary, that was no longer necessary.

A ready-made opportunity was coming in two days.

Elena's diary mentioned:

Her arrogant brother, Ravenna, had recently hosted a friend from Suwa City in the Will Province.

It was a young knight named Kyle.

In two days, Ravenna would accompany this friend to go on a hunt in the inner circle of the Mess Mountains, and he had hypocritically invited her to go along.

She wasn't interested in this at all and flatly refused.

Since Ravenna would be leaving Gino City in two days to go deep into the mountains, a perfect opportunity had arrived.

The Mess Mountains...

Rowan pondered slightly.

He was relatively familiar with that place; the mountains were high and the forests dense, and it was sparsely populated. The key was that there were many high-level magical beasts, and there was no large-scale surveillance magic array like in Gino City.

Ravenna was a Second-circle Mage, with strength roughly equivalent to a Senior Knight.

Dealing with him wasn't difficult in itself.

His friend Kyle's strength shouldn't be much different, most likely also at the Senior Knight level.

A Peak Knight?

That wasn't something easily cultivated.

Viscount Gladstone possessed the prosperous Mist Forest territory, and that had only achieved him being a Peak Knight.

And himself, although only at the Senior Knight realm, his Winter Oath-Keeper Swordsmanship and Silent Pilgrimage Archery were both already at Lv3, which were profound techniques at the Great Knight level.

Plus the newly acquired battle aura trait [Wind Breath], which added to his archery and movement speed...

With a prepared mind against an unprepared one.

As long as no one at the Great Knight level made a move, the probability of failure was very low.

A Great Knight accompanying a hunt was basically impossible.

Even in the Golden Flame Earl Manor, only Count Farrell himself was a Great Knight.

"I can try sniping from a long distance first."

"Even if things go wrong, relying on the boost to movement techniques from [Wind Breath] and the concealment of [Shape-shifting], I can retreat calmly."

Rowan quickly deduced various possibilities in his mind.

Thinking of this, his mind was made up.

For the next two days, Rowan kept a low profile and silently practiced his Breathing Technique.

[Myriad Furnace Breathing Technique Proficiency +40]

...