In a room less than five square meters, a disheveled girl with white hair yawned. After briefing Camilla on her desire to take a bath, Camilla quickly took care of the necessary arrangements. The process was indeed tedious.
When the request was made at six o'clock in the afternoon - the status bar displayed the time - it was already midnight when the bath water was ready. The maids had to chop the purchased firewood into small pieces, fetch buckets of water from the well, and wait for the water in the big pot to boil before filling the sturdy wooden tub with well-insulated covers. In order to fill the bathtub in the bathroom, this process had to be repeated at least five times. Because the hot water in the wooden tub would cool down, everything had to be done quickly. After finishing this task, nearly twenty servants in the mansion were covered in sweat.
"It's better to request baths less often in the future..."
Iss sighed. Taking a bath in this other world was a luxury, even for the daughter of a Count. It wasn't that the Count's daughter didn't like cleanliness, but the entire society lacked awareness of bathing. Only on major holidays would people spend a lot of time bathing. This was different from what Iss knew, where people believed that bathing could make them sick.
The mansion's bathroom was located on the first floor of a separate building. Compared to the average bedroom which was close to twenty square meters, the bathroom was only a small room of less than five square meters. After placing the bathtub, the entire space became extremely cramped.
Not only that, the bathing facilities were also extremely poor. Firstly, in this world, people didn't have the process of cleaning themselves before entering the water. They would simply undress and dive into the bath. As a result, there was no drainage ditch on the floor, so Iss could only soak directly in the tub. Secondly, there was neither soap nor shower gel, giving an impression of lack of ceremony.
Iss snapped her fingers after combing through her wet white long hair and feeling that the room was too dim.
"Light."
The originally dim room was instantly filled with bright white light. Iss squinted her eyes slightly.
"As expected, even simple magic like 'Light' can be replicated. It can't even be considered as first-tier magic. Unfortunately, 'Ragnarøk' is not omnipotent..."
Firstly, Iss could only use the skills she had learned. Secondly, there were some magic in this world that did not exist in 'Ragnarøk', such as 'Clean' which could clean clothes without water, or 'Food Creation', which could create food out of nothing.
However, it was worth mentioning that the food created by 'Food Creation' was exceptionally unappetizing. In the memories of the Count's daughter, most soldiers would rather starve than eat magically created food.
"Well, as long as the magic I learn can save my life, it's enough. It's too demanding to expect too much. Now, let's observe this body."
Iss let out a sigh of relief and sat in the small bathtub. Since there was a mirror hanging on the wall, Iss could easily see every corner of her body through the mirror.
Then her face turned red.
"How should I put it... this subtle feeling of guilt..."
This body was not her own. After seeing herself in the mirror, Iss naturally felt embarrassed, as if she was peeping at a naked young girl. Even though Iss knew that the person in the mirror was herself, she couldn't help but look away.
"Although I had relationships in college, they quickly ended before they even started. This should be the first time I'm seeing the entire body of someone my own age, or rather, a young girl..."
The body of the Count's daughter was only fourteen years old and barely had any breasts. Although the perfect features and the slender curve from waist to legs made one unable to help but swallow saliva, the white hair that covered the buttocks and the water droplets on the fair skin were extremely tempting. However, if anyone developed lust for such a little girl, they would be nothing short of a criminal.
This type of figure was not within Iss's area of interest. Besides curiosity and embarrassment, Iss had no other thoughts.
"Um, I still haven't confirmed something important..."
Would the symbol of masculinity as a male be preserved?
With a bit of apprehension, Iss looked down.
—It was gone.
An indescribable sadness echoed in the bathroom.
After a moment.
"By the way, is it true that a woman's breasts are sensitive...?"
In order to verify this question that had confused her in the past, curiosity overcame the feeling of guilt in Iss's heart, and she lightly placed her right hand, so delicate that it felt like it might break with a gentle squeeze, on her left breast and lightly pressed it. She could feel the strong beating of her heart, and slightly scratched it.Apart from itching, there is no other sensation.
It turns out that adult-oriented comics and manga are all deceiving.
Iss became tongue-tied.
The whole bathroom fell into silence, and after about a minute, Iss let out a long sigh.
"Ah, I wonder how things are on Earth. It seems like I have really been thrown into another world. I haven't finished playing the game I just bought, or had the chance to greet my online friends. Oh dear, if they realize I haven't been online for a while, those guys will definitely say that I went to another world to find true love. How annoying, they always joke around no matter what."
However, this also relieved Iss's worries. If everyone fell silent because of their disappearance, Iss would surely also become heavy-hearted. Iss disliked an atmosphere where no one spoke.
"But I haven't thanked the anonymous sponsor yet. I hope they don't feel regretful."
Thinking about this, Iss shrugged his shoulders, and the sound of water splashed in the room.
In the original world, Iss's parents had already passed away when Iss entered junior high school. There was only one person who had never met, but regularly deposited the necessary living expenses into Iss's parents' account. Although Iss had thought about thanking the other person, there were no clues to start with. Only later did Iss learn through various means that the person who sent the money seemed to be an entrepreneur who had once received assistance from Iss's parents. However, Iss had no idea who that person really was.
"At this point, regrets are useless. Let's just continue living honestly."
After crossing into a fantasy world, the usual first thought for the protagonist was to find a way back home, but Iss did not have much sentimentality. There was even a slight anticipation in his heart for the future. Since he was still alive, it didn't matter in which world he was in, right?
Moreover, the original fantasy-loving self had a longing for another world. It was not easy to fulfill this wish, so he couldn't just go back like this.
The most important thing was that he could taste various flavors of blood, which was an aspect that humans could not touch.
Setting aside the disgusting act of drinking blood, Iss had just tasted the flavor of blood a while ago. That taste, which brought about a sense of happiness, was experienced only once, but Iss had an inexplicable feeling of being unable to extricate himself. If possible, Iss even wanted to use the rights of the Countess to search for various flavors of blood.
"And there is also the legend of blood among the vampires… like the taste of champagne..."
Legend has it that there is blood with the taste of champagne in the world. Once someone who belongs to the vampire clan tastes it, they would find other flavors of blood insignificant. Its richness and fullness are enough to drive the blood clan crazy.
Of course, this was only a memory from the Countess, and Iss was not sure if it was true. However, it gave Iss a direction. Legends were often the result of exaggerating reality. In other words, there indeed existed blood with the taste of champagne that could addict vampires.
"What kind of taste would it be?"
Instinctively, Iss licked his lips, perhaps already indulging in the blood.
"Darn it, just thinking about blood makes me have the urge to randomly find someone to drink from. But unfortunately, I am a pureblood, and being sucked by me would make people become infatuated with that feeling."
The saliva of a pureblood vampire had a strong hallucinogenic effect. Once anyone, regardless of who they were, was drank from by a pureblood, they would become addicted like to a drug and couldn't be freed from the control of the pureblood. Although the symptoms would lessen after several months, the current situation did not allow Iss to do so. After all, if there were suddenly a bunch of blood slaves infatuated with the Countess, anyone would have suspicions. It would be terrible if someone discovered his true identity.
If his identity was really discovered, the only option would be to abandon his plans of gathering information through the Church and staying in the human world, and instead use advanced teleportation to leave this place.
This was the last resort. It hadn't reached the point of no return yet, so Iss planned to avoid using it as much as possible.
"In the future, I'll collect various kinds of blood while building relationships with the people around me. Connections are meaningful at any time. As for tomorrow's plans..." Iss put his finger against his chin and pondered for a moment, "I should definitely grasp the distribution of power in this world first, then utilize all the skills I have learned so far. Hmm... I also need to imitate the actions of the Countess, I must master her commonly used tone and lines."
This was the basic principle of hiding one's identity.
Realizing this, Iss became eager to try it out. Other than the lines spoken during torture, the most common ones that the Countess used were "kneel" and "shut up".Clearing his throat, Iss stood up from the bathtub, facing the mirror, putting aside the lingering shame in his heart, and squinting his eyes. It must be said that the countess's eldest daughter, with her indifferent appearance, exuded an indescribable dignity when she made this move.
"Kneel down."
A calm tone.
"It seems a bit lacking in momentum. Shouldn't one use a louder voice at a time like this? Impulsive personalities usually do this, right?"
Muttering to himself, Iss took a deep breath, regained his momentum, and this time added a slight tilt of the chin, as if dismissing the other person's actions.
"Kneel down!"
There was an irresistible flavor in his tone, but compared to the elegant atmosphere of the countess's eldest daughter, it still fell short.
"Ha, I can only try slowly. Imitation is not that simple, huh."
...
Ten minutes later.
"Kneel down! - Oops."
The fierce appearance almost made Iss think that the countess's eldest daughter had come back to life. After calming his emotions for a while, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Does it resemble her 80%...? Let's stop here for today. My throat is a bit dry. Let's take a break for now."
After making this decision, as if to release all the accumulated pressure in his chest, Iss relaxed his whole body, sank back into the bathtub emitting white steam, stretched lazily, and then leaned his head against the edge of the bathtub, letting his white hair spread in the water, staring blankly at the ceiling.
"When I have nothing to do, I can't help but want to taste the blood of other flavors... Maybe I'm already addicted."
No one heard Iss's muttering.