Some guests looked at the doors where the Duke had disappeared, pitying that he couldn't enjoy such rare meat, while a few couldn't help but laugh at Lady Marceline's fallen face.
The vampiress felt like she was drowning in humiliation, and her mood that had brightened up after bringing this mermaid in front of everyone turned damp. Before she could fix her fallen face, one of the women there picked up a pearl formed by the crying mermaid's tears.
The female guest softly laughed and turned to Marceline. She said, "Lady Marceline, it seems like you weren't able to get your hands on a quality mermaid, and instead you got your hands on a low-quality mermaid."
Marceline's eyes snapped on the female guest. Hiding her anger behind her polite smile, she politely asked, "What do you mean, Lady Dayleza?"
"I mean look at the pearl," said the woman, turning the little pearl between her two fingers to show everyone, which lacked any shine and was rather dull looking.
Someone in the crowd murmured, "To think that we thought it was a quality mermaid as if we have never tasted anything beyond a low-quality mermaid."
Lady Annalise turned embarrassed and turned to Marceline, who looked slightly frozen. Marceline tried to hush the matter by saying,
"Mermaids, be it high or low quality, they still taste better than the other blood or meat one of us can get our hands on. I wonder when was the last time you had a mermaid yourself, Lady Dayleza?"
Lady Dayleza stared at Marceline, realising the young vampiress was irked and didn't like being unnecessarily poked. "I think it has been a while, milady," replied the woman.
"Of course, that's given. Only the lucky ones get to eat it," smiled Marceline, internally fuming like a volcano.
Outside the ballroom, Noah looked left and right. He hadn't seen Eve anywhere in the ballroom and wondered where she was. He then asked the nearby guard, "Have you seen Ms. Barlow? The governess for the youngest miss of the Moriarty family?"
"She went home, Sire," the guard replied as he was instructed earlier by Vincent.
Noah's eyebrows furrowed. Earlier, he wasn't too far from the gates and would have caught sight of Eve walking through the gates. To make sure, he asked the guard once again,
"Are you sure she left and you didn't mistake someone else for her?"
"I am definitely sure, sire. It was the governess of Miss Allie in a bluish cream dress," informed the guard, and Noah nodded because that was the colour of gown that Eve had worn. He looked at the pocket watch and noticed it was past eleven at night.
Leaving the front of the ballroom, Noah took another look before saying in a low voice, "I hope you went home safe, Eve." Not having any reason to stay back in the Moriarty mansion, the Duke left.
On the other side of the Moriarty mansion, on the above floor, which was quiet and deserted from any disturbance, the wind passed through like a ghost. Vincent watched Eve with a blank expression while supporting his face with the edge of his palm.
Three minutes had passed since Eve brought her injured foot to rest on her left lap, but in those three minutes, she could not pull out the shard of glass.
Eve was struggling to remove the glass piece. Every time she braced herself to grasp the glass piece and pull it out, the candlelight would flicker and waver her confidence.Â
When she looked up at where Vincent sat, their eyes met. He said,
"A glass piece usually doesn't pierce the way yours did. Nails or screws yes, glass piece," he tilted his head and said, "That's a tricky one."
"It is," murmured Eve, and they stared at each other for a few seconds before she noticed a small smile appear on Vincent's lips.
She then confessed, "I am not able to remove the glass piece."
"I can see that quite clearly," Vincent replied with an amused expression, but seeing he made no effort to move, Eve softly requested,
"Can you help me in taking it out, Master Vincent?"
"I wouldn't dare. Imagine what people would say, if they find out that I didn't just stare at your delicate ankles but also touched them?" Vincent looked appalled by the idea, and Eve's eyebrows furrowed. And though he said it, he stood up and went to where she was. "What a reckless, little girl," he hummed before pulling another chair next to her and sitting down. "Place your foot here and let me take a look at how deep the glass is."
With Eve's foot which was earlier dipped in the bowl of cold water, she went to place her clean foot on the vampire's lap. But before she could do that, Vincent's hand wrapped around her ankle from below and he placed the candle stand closer to him.
"You took too many steps with the glass and it pushed itself deep in your flesh," commented Vincent. His eyes shifted from her sole to look at her blue eyes, "Were you planning to sacrifice yourself to save the mermaid?"
"I couldn't pull out the glass piece earlier in front of everyone," Eve replied, and she heard him hum.
Vincent then said to Eve, "Once I pull out the glass piece, your foot is going to bleed a lot more and I don't want it to go to waste."
Alarmed, Eve was about to pull her foot, but Vincent tightened his grip on her ankle. She panicked, "I think I will pull out the glass piece later when I reach home."
Vincent used his free hand to run on the sides of her foot. Looking at her foot, he said, "For three days, I have been wondering why the bones in your feet aren't structured like the humans, vampires or werewolves. But now I know why."
The blood in Eve's face drained as she turned pale by his words and her heartbeat quickened.
"I d-don't know what you are talking about…" Eve played ignorant, but the look in Vincent's eyes told her he had found the truth about her.
Vincent's eyes darkened as he said,
"I might not have tasted the mermaid that my dear sister brought in the ballroom. But I am no saint to resist blood, especially when it is dripping right in front of me."
