The Charming Villain Just Wants To Be A Salted Fish - Chapter 17.1

“So what you like is my blood.”

Joyce’s view was blurry as Sean turned around. By the time she regained herself, his figure had already disappeared at the end of the corridor of the castle.

……

Joyce sat dejectedly on the steps, both cheeks in her hands. She didn’t know what she was thinking. This was what Long Aotian saw as he passed by.

He considered for a moment and then went up to her.

Joyce looked up and smiled gratefully when she saw him. “Thank you for comforting me. I’m fine. I didn’t expect to be the most reliable…”

Long Aotian frowned and unrolled the scroll in his hand and formally declared, “These are the receipts of the seeds and fertilizer purchased these past few days. In addition, vampires patrolling the town came to report that vampires had attacked humans again in the town periphery. I went to examine the situation and felt that it did not seem to be simple at all. The bodies with emptied blood look like they had been deliberately disguised as a vampire attack. It was as if someone was trying to provoke a war between vampires and the royal family of Karnia.”

At Long Aotian’s words, the rare emotional feeling in Joyce’s eyes disappeared. She just knew… that Long Aotian could never be overestimated. All the emotions she had just evoked were restrained in an instant.

“I’ll leave these matters to you.”

Long Aotian was shocked.

“But…” He hesitated before continuing, “Doesn’t Your Highness want to check on such important things personally?”

“It is because it is important that it should be handed over to the one I trust the most,” Joyce said solemnly.

She patted his shoulder and continued, “Xiao Long, you have great potential, take this as an opportunity to use it. Go on.”

Long Aotian stared at her blankly,  a host of complicated emotions flitted through his eyes. He wanted to speak but hesitated.

Joyce thought, I am really a good leader who trusts and motivates my subordinates.

She patted Long Aotian on the shoulder again and was about to turn her head to continue to think about life when Long Aotian suddenly grabbed her wrist.

Joyce was surprised. “No need to thank me.”

Long Aotian shook his head and said with difficulty, “Your Highness, I have said many times. Do not call me that strange name, my name is Nicholas Long Aotian.”

“…” Joyce rubbed her temple and was once again impressed by Long Aotian’s IQ as a villain.

“Your Highness.” Long Aotian hesitated again before saying, “Our plan to exchange bags of blood with the town might be delayed because of the vampire incident.”

Joyce murmured to herself and nodded approvingly.

“”

Humans were constantly in danger because of the vampire murders. How could anyone be willing to exchange blood for food with the vampires?

But that was not what she was worried about, instead it was: “Have those humans already blamed this on us?”

Long Aotian nodded cautiously.

In an instant, Joyce became even more frustrated.

She had no choice but to deliberate over this problem right from the beginning—especially with the uncertainty of the Great Demon Dragon. Before she ran away, she also had to face Sean’s words.

“Say… does everyone think that vampires like blood?”

Joyce’s eyes were blank, she seemed to be asking Long Aotian, but it was more like she was asking herself.

Long Aotian ran a furtive gaze and made sure that there was no one else around them. Only then did he say, albeit hesitantly, “Aren’t we… meant to like blood?”

“…” Joyce put her hand to her forehead. “You can withdraw.”

Long Aotian failed to grasp the meaning. However, since she had signaled for him to withdraw, he bowed and started leaving.

But then, he considered for a moment and stopped.

“Although this is true, we also have other things we like that do not conflict with our love of blood. So we can have more things we like, such as farming, trying to eat human food… raising some small animals.” Long Aotian paused before adding, “You know what I mean.”

Joyce’s eyes instantly lit up. “Yes! Since he thinks I like his blood, why don’t I just not drink his blood?!”

“…” Long Aotian cleared his throat and quickly grabbed Joyce who was about to run away. “Your Highness, what I mean is, can I…”

“I have something very important to do now! We’ll talk about it when I come back!”

With that, Joyce dashed away. In her trice, she left Long Aotian behind.

Over the next few days, Joyce buried herself into working on the fields. There was an endless amount of things to do every day, and she quietly avoided Sean every time she saw him.

While she felt things were going fine, in reality, in the entire castle, she was the only one who thought so. ·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ ꜱᴜᴘᴘᴏʀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛᴏʀ ᴀɴᴅ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴏɴ ꜰᴏxᴀʜᴏʟɪᴄ.ᴄᴏᴍ ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙

Having gone without it for a few days now, her sensitivity and craving for blood had intensified.

When Joyce reached her limit, she wrapped a blanket around herself, and stared at the empty ceiling like she had nothing left to live for.

Long Aotian was a bit out of her view. He brought in several humans they had raised and they stood in a row beside her bed.

The blood vessels hidden under the delicate skin seemed to be tantalizing. Even after training for so long to master suppressing the blood cravings, Joyce was inevitably bewitched under her starvation.

She thought for a moment and her exhaustion raised her eyes and pointed at a human.