Codename Vestia

Chapter 8: Joonie

Doyeong thought for a moment before asking again.

“When did you come to this island?”

This time, however, Gamal didn’t answer right away. She glanced back at the sea, almost as if she was looking in the direction she had once arrived from.

“A long time ago.”

A clear light passed through her eyes as she stared straight at the horizon.

“A very long time ago.”

Her hazy gaze suddenly made her look like a different woman. For some reason, though, Doyeong felt that her face was familiar.

But before he could figure it out, Gamal turned around and handed him a fully grilled fish.

“Eat.”

She said this with a bright smile.

It was hard to tell why, but she seemed as lively as a puppy—not in the insulting sense, but more like a fully-grown dog.

Doyeong accepted the perfectly grilled fish and took a bite.

“Did you make the salt, too?”

He had seen her earlier, sprinkling white powder onto the fish from a wooden container with a hole poked in it, so he asked.

“I boiled seawater.”

Gamal replied, her mouth moving as she picked out the bones. It seemed she had figured out how to refine salt. Doyeong muttered to himself.

“You’re like a real-life Robinson Crusoe.”

Vampires must have strong tongues, because Gamal didn’t seem to mind eating something still steaming hot. She devoured half of the fish in no time, as if no one had ever taught her table manners. Her way of eating was far from refined.

Even if one exaggerated a little, a vampire claiming to have lived for three thousand years should have the distinctive aristocratic arrogance of an ancient, long-lived vampire—or at the very least, the detachment, laziness, and listlessness typical of those who had aged to the point of decay. Yet here she was, squatting down and munching on a roasted sweet potato, like a country girl.

If this was any indication, she probably hadn’t been of high status even when she was human.

“Was she really born in the 14th century BC?”

Doyeong thought, filled with doubt.

Setting everything else aside, could a vampire who claimed to have lived for 3,300 years have a mind this pure? From her appearance, she seemed to have been at least twenty-five when she was human.

Even considering her slight handicap in French, her basic personality simply did not match that of a vampire with a four-digit age. It wasn’t as if she’d been frozen in ice like Dooly.

Just then, Gamal opened her tattered crossbody bag, took out a flower, and began chewing on it whole, as if she were finishing a meal by chewing on tobacco leaves.

Doyeong watched her for a moment before asking,

“Is it tasty?”

Out of curiosity, he, too, had once tried eating Flos, which Luas’s companions often consumed.

It was some time ago—it felt like a hundred years had passed with everything that had happened since then, but it was actually quite recent—when a sergeant had described it as tasting “like half-melted ice, mixed with saccharin, in a mojito that’s gone cold.” That description had been a bit harsh, though. It was more like drinking plain water.

If he had to describe it, there was a bitter, grassy taste lingering on the tip of his tongue, which made it somewhat fishy. That was why the sergeant had described it as tasting like a cold mojito mixed with saccharin, not sugar.

However, Luas’s companions said it was sweet. It wasn’t the kind of sweetness one gets from eating sugar, but they had no choice but to describe it as sweet.

“No.”

But Gamal shook her head.

“It’s bitter.”

“Not tasty?”

Gamal nodded.

“Not really.”

It seemed that even for vampires, Flos was pleasant, but the flowers used as its raw ingredient were not.

“Well, a lot of food ingredients don’t taste very good in their natural state.”

Doyeong muttered.

Apparently, the flowers themselves weren’t suitable as a staple food. That was likely why, for a long time, flowers hadn’t been able to replace blood.

It wasn’t until modern science came along that the flowers could become a main food source for vampires.

Pointing at the flowers, Doyeong said,

“There’s something called Flos. It’s made by refining these flowers.”

“Refining?”

“Like boiling seawater to make salt. It’s called organic synthesis, and it’s a bit more complex than that, but anyway, nowadays vampires can survive without drinking blood and only need to drink this. You can find Flos if you leave the island.”

But Gamal didn’t seem to understand. Even as he was explaining, she kept munching on the flower as if she were chewing on corn kernels. So Doyeong added,

“You don’t have to keep chewing on flowers as if you’re pouring water into a bottomless jar. So, if you leave this island….”

Just as he was about to get to the main point, Gamal looked at the flower and shook her head.

“It’s fine. I have enough flowers.”

Her tone was firm, almost as if she felt there was no point in continuing the conversation. It was unusually resolute for her character so far.

Doyeong opened his mouth to say more, but Gamal spoke first.

“Major, do you want more fish?”

She reached for the fish, ready to shove it into her mouth if he said no. Doyeong knew how voracious vampires could be when eating, but….

He sighed.

“Stop right there. Let’s be fair and stick to our own portions.”

“I’m not human.”

When she replied with this dry joke, Doyeong’s gaze turned sharp, and Gamal quickly withdrew her hand.

“Yes, but you still have to stick to it.”

Doyeong wanted to ask. Really, how was this woman supposed to be a vampire who had lived for 3,300 years?

***

It felt like he had finally had a proper meal in a while.

Normally, Doyeong avoided overeating because he disliked feeling sluggish. But here, he had nothing pressing to do, and he figured eating more would help him recover, so he ate his fill.

Now, he was lounging under the shade of a tree, indulging in a moment of endless relaxation.

Gamal spoke, but instead of leaving, she stayed in place, prompting Doyeong to turn around and raise an eyebrow.

“You’re not going?”

Gamal pointed beyond the bushes.

“I’m nearby. Call me if anything happens.”

“What could possibly happen here?”

The island didn’t seem like a place with dangerous predators when he had looked around briefly.

“You could drown.”

Doyeong was at a loss for words. Gamal didn’t seem to fully grasp the tenses in French, speaking mostly in the present continuous, which made it sound as if she was telling him to go drown.

And yet, with that innocent, clueless expression on her face, Doyeong still wasn’t sure how to take in this peculiar character.

“Alright. But don’t spy on me.”

“I won’t. Why would I?”

Gamal regarded Doyeong as if he were the strange one, then disappeared behind the bushes. Doyeong shook his head in disbelief and lifted his T-shirt.

From behind a tree, Gamal watched him like someone with a sinister motive.

But it wasn’t what it looked like. She was just worried that Doyeong, with his injured leg, might slip.

Just as Doyeong was about to take off his pants, he suddenly turned around and said,

“Hey, I can feel you staring.”

Gamal quickly turned away.

“What are you talking about? I wasn’t looking.”

She had an incredibly quick sense for someone who wasn’t even supposed to be human.

As she stared at the leaves, she heard the splash of water and Doyeong entering the lake. Gamal sat there for a while, wiggling her toes under her folded knees.

She felt strange. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but….

He was the first human who wasn’t afraid of her like this. In fact, he seemed so unafraid that she sometimes wondered if he was even human.

But Doyeong was, very much so.

Until now, he’d mostly been frowning, scowling, or raising his eyebrows in displeasure, but his expressions were rich. His deep, low voice, which she’d found pleasing from the first time she heard it, was full of energy.

Vampires, after all, were beings who had died once. They were usually quite beautiful, but they felt more fitting for words like dark, damp nights, bluish coldness, or eerie moonlight. They didn’t radiate the warmth Doyeong had.

Even when he was angry, there was strength in it. When she first met him, even under the waterfall, when he was pushing her back and threatening her, she had found herself staring, completely dazed.

“I’m done.”

Doyeong’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Gamal came out, and Doyeong had already finished washing and returned to his spot.

Noticing the wood used as a splint was wet, Gamal asked,

“Do you want me to change the wood?”

“Sure.”

“Hold on.”

Gamal went to find a suitable piece of wood to use as a splint, then sat down in front of Doyeong and began to replace the splint.

As she bent over, her cleavage became visible through her worn-out T-shirt. Doyeong, however, kept his gaze fixed on her forehead, as if he hadn’t noticed at all.

He couldn’t help but think there was a disconnect between her blank, almost naive personality and her mature body—enough to make one wonder if she was a bit of an airhead.

Yet, at times like this, Gamal focused as if she were performing the most important task in the world.

A fresh, cool breeze filled with the scent of water passed by.

Droplets of water dripped from the ends of Doyeong’s damp, tousled hair.

At that moment, Gamal looked up and met his eyes. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, shining directly onto her red eyes. Her irises, like layers of overlapping crimson petals, had a strange, wavering quality to them.

Doyeong had many vampire comrades, but he had never looked so intently into their eyes before.

Biologically speaking, vampires were predators, and humans were their prey.

Vampires were specialized predators that fed solely on humans, making them natural enemies. As if his prey instincts, hardwired into his genes, were reacting, he felt a shiver of fear, like looking straight into a snake’s eyes—an eerie, paralyzing sensation that kept him from breaking eye contact.

A prey that encounters a predator too beautiful often doesn’t even think to resist.

Gamal felt strange as well. She was unusually conscious of his smooth jawline, the prominent Adam’s apple on his neck, and his hands resting on the rock. It made her feel… tense.

Moreover, the humans she had met so far had never looked at her so directly. Even when they did, it was with fear or unease.

To humans, she was always one of two things.

A god, or a monster.

But to this man, she was….