“You have? I knew i could count on you!” He responded with a bright smile.

Startled by his words and the smile, Sophie slowly looked away. Her cheeks slightly reddened as she did so.

“…Yeah.”

Seeing this, Xavier suddenly leaned in before pressing his hand against her forehead.

“You’re all red, did you catch a cold from staying out here in the rain?”

Sophie quietly shook her head and pushed away his hand. “I’m fine… More importantly, look at this.”

She showed him the cube. Before it was a regular hunk of metal with outlined parts, but just as Xavier had suspected the parts were a puzzle.

Sophie seemed to have figured out the order of the puzzle and was working on it. It’d reached the point where some of the parts were sticking out while still keeping its cubic shape.

“The outlined parts can protrude outwards.” Said Sophie as she fidgeted around with it. “If you pull this part here, this section opens up which allows you to pull out this part here.”

“But to open this section up you need to rotate this part here.”

*Click*

“The cube is locked in this puzzle. With this method you can slowly get closer to unlocking the cube. The only downside is how time consuming it is. It’ll take me a whi-“

While explaining Sophie glanced upwards, when she did, she instantly forgot the rest of what she was going to say.

Xavier’s face was incredibly close. He had a focused expression as he listened into her explanation. He was completely unlike the carefree Xavier which she knew.

“What’s wrong? Why’d you stop explaining?” Xavier asked, his eyes meeting her gaze.

Sophie averted her gaze before looking back down on the cube. “N-Nothing.” She muttered as she continued fidgeting around with it.

“As I was saying… It’ll take me a while. But look at this.” She muttered as she pointed at what was resting inside the cube.

Based on it’s shape it appeared to be some sort of sphere, only of quarter of it had been exposed.

“This is most likely it’s core… I feel like once we unlock the puzzle and it’s core is exposed, we’ll be able to move onto the next stage.” Sophie muttered.

“There’s a next stage?” Xavier sighed.

“I hope not.” She responded with an annoyed look as she continued to fidget around with it.

‘That being said she’s done really well, to be able to figure it all out in just an hour with no leads. Keeping her alive truly was a good idea.’ Xavier glanced over at the flustered girl. ‘As long as she stays on my side, that is.’

“Are you going to stay out here?”

Sophie nodded. “Don’t worry about me, you’re tired from the repairs aren’t you? You can go rest.”

“Is that so..” Xavier muttered before vanishing.

Sophie twitched at that moment, expecting another splash of water to crash on her, only to sigh in relief when she realised that he was truly gone.

“I can finally focus without worrying about getting splashed.” She muttered.

*Fidget* *Fidget*

After a few more turns, her eyes lit up as she unlocked another section of the puzzle.

“This isn’t that bad-“

*Fwoosh!* *Splash!*

Sophie twitched again as Xavier ahead of her without a moment’s notice. She expected another puddle of water to go crashing onto her but to her surprise, there was nothing.

“Ah, don’t worry about the water. I reverted it before it splashed you. There’s no point in reverting you though since you’ve been wet for longer than half an hour.”

Sophie looked up at Xavier only to find him holding onto an umbrella and chair. She tilted her head to the side with a confused look and watched as stuck the umbrella onto the chair before placing it beside her.

“This…”

The umbrella was blocking the rain, preventing it from hitting her. The sound the drops made as they crashed into the umbrella was also relaxing.

“You didn’t have to do this.” Said Sophie.

“I know.” Xavier responded with a smile as the rain drops crashed against him.

“…”

Sophie averted her gaze again before looking down at the cube. Her hands had stopped fidgeting around with it.

“You can sit down and watch if you want… Although it’s a bit wet.” Said Sophie as she pointed at the spot beside her.

The umbrella was also covering that spot hence why she chose it.

“If you don’t mind.”

“Just- Don’t make any noise… Let me focus.”

Xavier slowly nodded. “I’ll be quiet.” He muttered as he sat down beside her.

“…Okay.”

Those were the last words the two exchanged with one another. The sound of clicks and Sophie fidgeting around with the cube as well as the rain were the only sounds the two could hear as they quietly focused on the puzzle ahead of them.

At one point Xavier stopped staring at the puzzle and instead stared at Sophie.

She had this ability which allowed her to pour all of her focus into the task at hand. It was as if everything else had stopped existing.

Her expression was stuck in the same exact one, her hands moved unbelievably fast, trying one formula after the other.

‘So this is what it means to be smart…’ Xavier thought to himself.

He then glanced over at Sophie’s pale neck. The thought of biting into it and draining her blood flashed by his mind almost instantly.

‘The cravings are kicking in even harder than before.’ He thought to himself as he clenched his hand into a fist.

Xavier felt as if his throat had been left to dry out in a desert for a whole week and that Sophie’s neck was the ice cold fresh river which he needed to clench his thirst.

‘Even after drinking all of that blood it’s still this bad? Is Vampire blood becoming less effective?’

Xavier knew what this meant. He needed human blood.

‘But is human blood even effective at this stage? Gluttony just wants me to devour everything… The more I devour, the more it wants…’ Xavier thought to himself. ‘That being said, Sophie’s a Half-Vampire. She’s a mix between a Human and Vampire…’

‘It’s probably why my craving is kicking in… Just one bite… Just one and I’ll find out if it’s effective or not-‘

*Clap!*

Xavier smacked himself in his cheeks, startling Sophie while he shook his head repeatedly.

“You good?” Sophie asked.

‘Fuck… This hunger… I almost bit into her neck just then… What the hell am I doing?’

Xavier who wasn’t worried about his self-control was starting to worry about how badly things could go now. There was a chance he could lose control and even attack his own family, and that was something he’d never forgive himself for. Even if he did Rewind.

‘Fuck… As if worrying about getting stronger wasn’t a problem, now I have to worry about losing control too…’

“Yeah, I’m good… Sorry about that.” Said Xavier.

“It’s fine.” Sophie muttered.

She didn’t pry any further with questions and just continued on with the puzzle. Xavier liked this part of her.

‘We should still have the bloodbags left. I’m pretty sure Anastasia put them in the freezer. I’ll go have some after this.’ Xavier thought to himself.

With that being said, the two continued on with their silent interaction.

Sophie continued on with the puzzle while Xavier continued to watch. With that, time flew by.

–

–

–

“Where’s Xavier?” Sangrea questioned as she walked around the mansion.

She’d asked the servants but they hadn’t seen him. Viera was down training in the hidden training room with the head butler along with Elaine, they too hadn’t seen him.

Anastasia was also too busy doing her maid tasks and tidying up to care, leaving Sangrea all on her own.

Sangrea quietly walked down the hall before looking out of the window. After doing so, she stopped as she found him.

Xavier sat underneath an umbrella besides Sophie. The two didn’t seem to be interacting and appeared to be focusing solely on the puzzle.

“So he’s out there with her…”

Sangrea thought about going there and interrupting but after thinking things through, she decided not to.

“We all have our specialties… He said.” She muttered. “If her help will be beneficial, than it’s better to not interrupt or distract them…”

Sangrea carried on with her walk, thinking about all the ways she was going to tease him as revenge.

“…”

After a few steps however, a servant passed by her and for some reason. She halted, turning back towards the servant.

When she did so however, her eyes widened. No one was there.

‘D-Did I just imagine that?’ She wondered. ‘That was a servant here right?’

But was it really a servant? Even though she hadn’t gotten a good look at his face, the structure and hair colour was completely unrecognisable, all she’d which even remotely resembled a servant was a butler’s outfit.

‘The ominous vibe that I got… That wasn’t my imagination… The enemy is still among us. If he had to speed to escape my sight and hide his presence then he’s not to be taken lightly.’

Sangrea slowly walked over to the shadow.

‘Either way, it doesn’t matter where he hides. I’ll find him.’