Chapter 164: The Blood Noble
As night fell, Alena returned home, her injuries still not healed.
The doctor on duty at the medical facility said it would take a considerable amount of time for her to heal the burns inflicted by the Dragon's Breath.
However, advanced Blooded had strong regenerative abilities, and she only needed a drop of higher life's blood to recover, which was not available in the medical facility.
She could only go home to retrieve it.
Every time she returned home, she never entered through the main door but instead used the side entrance because the entire building was designed in an ancient castle style.
Not every Blooded liked antiquity, but the older Blooded always had a preference for ancient castles situated on mountaintops, which were easy to defend.
After all, who wouldn't want a Stornwell Castle?
This stemmed from the brutal reality of Blooded being persecuted throughout history. Only by hiding in deep mountain forests and constructing lofty and secluded castles could they live in peace, as attacking such remote fortresses was utterly fruitless. Yet, now this aesthetic has become a symbol for the Blooded to showcase their faded aristocratic taste and racial culture, which is perplexing.
Alena was still a young Blooded and naturally not particularly appreciative of this aesthetic, but she wasn't resistant to it either.
She had two reasons for not using the main door.
One was that she was injured and didn't want others to see. With such a big mansion, there were bound to be maids and servants around.
The other reason was due to the architectural style of the ancient castle. Upon entering through the main door, one would inevitably come face to face with a wall and a staircase in the shape of an inverted person. Along the staircase, adorned with a red carpet, there was a section of wall where a huge portrait hung. It was surely an oil painting in a realistic style and often portrayed the male and female masters of the house. Each time she saw the portraits, she couldn't help but feel a sense of unease.
Because the people in the portraits were her elders and also the highest leaders of the Blooded.
Alena's surname was Capesh, which was one of the three highest-ranking surnames among the Blooded. This also meant that she was closely related to Sasha, the Blooded governor, within three generations.
Sasha only allowed blood relatives within three generations to use the surname 'Capesh'. Beyond three generations, they had to change their surnames.
She did not allow her controlled family's power to grow. It was precisely because of this unwavering selflessness that she had held the position of governor for 170 years.
The reason she had held the position for only 170 years was because the disappearance of Liliana had greatly affected Sasha, causing her to languish in a dazed state for several centuries.
It was only recently, with the rapidly changing international situation and internal divisions among the Blooded, that Sasha had reluctantly started to clean up the mess and reassume the position of governor.
And the place where she governed was the Highden City.
Rather than being afraid of fear, it is more like awe.
She is a high-ranking pure-blooded Blooded, but her mother was a woman from the Capesh family who eloped for love, only to be deceived, returned pregnant, and hoped that the other party would change their mind after giving birth to a child. The result, of course, was... and then she died, full of sorrow.
After she died, Alena suddenly became rootless, and when Sasha finished her ten-year mission as an ambassador abroad and returned home, she found chaos everywhere. Afterwards, despite opposition, she went directly to the Blooded family and demanded a drop of the unfaithful man's heart blood, and issued a curse in front of him, "May you spend your remaining days in loneliness and solitude, struggling in pain, enduring endless tortures, and never finding peace even in death." After that, she was kicked out of the family and stripped of her surname, finally putting an end to this tumultuous affair.
Alena was present throughout the whole ordeal; she was only six years old at the time.
A six-year-old child wouldn't understand the complexities of revenge; she only felt extremely fearful and unsettled.
Especially when the father who had blood ties knelt beside her, begging for forgiveness and saying how rebuilding the family would be good for her, she was even more scared and burst into tears.
Afterwards, Alena was taken in and raised by Sasha. Because she lacked parental love from a young age and was treated as a pawn for several years, she could only read the moods of adults and stayed close to Sasha, being cautious in everything she did and having little breathing room.
Although Sasha was not strict with her loved ones, Alena still held deep respect for her nominal aunt.
She bypassed the servants and went to the third floor of the family's mansion, remembering that there was an apothecary room there.
Sasha, having learned from her mentor, was skilled in potion-making and concoction. She only needed fifty milliliters of potent blood.
But as soon as she pushed open the door, her heart skipped a beat because there stood a silver-armored knight statue in front of her, with red light emanating from its eyes, scanning her face.
"Come to the study and see me," came the voice from within the silver-armored knight.
Alena lowered her head, feeling dejected. This meant that something had happened at the academy and Sasha already knew.
Arriving at the study on the top floor, Alena knocked on the door, and a young woman's voice from within said, "Come in."
She pushed the door open.
The study had a bright layout, with bookshelves adorning both sides of the walls. The office desk was placed in front of the windows, which were five meters tall and four meters wide, providing excellent lighting and a scenic view from the balcony.
Sasha Capesh stood between the windows and the desk, leaning against the frame of the floor-to-ceiling windows. She held a cup of hot cocoa in her hand and gazed at the distant golden tree. Despite the night having fallen, the tree still emitted a golden glow, illuminating the city.
The city where Tulip Academy was located was one of the ancient cities with a long history. It was built upon the ruins of the old empire but was remarkably well-preserved.
This city is known as the Golden Apple beneath the Golden Tree.
At its city center, in the heart of the Tulip Grand Library, stands a massive Golden Tree.
Only one of these trees remains today, as the rest were burned to ashes, for the imperial royalty regarded the Golden Tree as their emblem.
The last emperor was a dominant figure, with historians offering both words of praise and deep condemnation, resulting in extreme polarization in assessing his reign.
As a symbol of the old empire, the historical traces left behind by him were deliberately erased, including the Golden Tree he himself planted. Now, five hundred years later, many people look back at history and regret the extensive obliteration of the marks he left behind.
Golden Trees in various places inevitably faced the fate of being eradicated by those who wished to settle historical accounts... This viewpoint is met with mixed opinions today, but no one dares to criticize too much.
Apparently, the one who carried out such acts was that mentor.
Seeing Sasha's expression, Alena knew that she must be reminiscing about the past.
Sasha's figure was not tall, just a little over 1.6 meters, not very tall, but it didn't mean she lacked authority.
Her appearance was very youthful, looking like a high school student, even more naive than Alena.
Blooded beings indeed age and undergo the process of aging. The longer they live, the harder it becomes to maintain their human form. Some elders rely on prosthetics and wheelchairs.
Sasha has lived for over five hundred years, managing to maintain a youthful appearance like that of a girl. This is partly due to her prolonged periods of hibernation and also because of her good care, utilizing potions and techniques as much as possible. The Blood Noble's obsession with youth and beauty is well-known, with rumors even circulating about her long-term purchase of young women's blood on the black market.
Alena didn't dare to inquire why Aunt Sasha was so obsessed with youth and beauty. It didn't seem like her personality to be so concerned with appearance. It seemed as if she wanted to hold onto her age, perhaps waiting for someone.
"The wound is not light, is it?" Sasha looked at the Golden Tree, her gaze gradually shifting focus away from her memories.
"It's okay..." Alena replied softly.
"The regenerative ability of Blooded beings is indeed strong, but if blood absorption healing were that effective, there wouldn't be so many of our kind dying." Sasha placed a small bottle on the desk, about the size of a finger. "Drink this."
Alena glanced at the label. "Is this... the Tears of the Phoenix?"
The Tears of the Phoenix are the raw material for the potion, but they themselves have remarkable healing effects.
The honorary president of Tulip Academy is a Phoenix, which has lived for over 1,800 years and undergone several rebirths, with the most recent one being five hundred years ago.
It has a quirk of pretending to be a Fenghuang (a divine bird which looks similar to Phoenix) and has built a complete set of mahogany furniture in the wooden house on the Golden Tree at the center of the tulips.
"Are these tears from the board chairman?"
Sasha replied calmly, "These are remnants from the past, and there are still quite a few..."
"The past?"
"Because tears of the Phoenix are excellent raw materials for potions, even their feathers and feces..." Sasha narrated, "Most of the phoenix tears we have now were collected from his childhood. Back then, the phoenix was often bullied and scolded, and our mentor often beat it with the reason like 'You stepped into the room with your left leg first'."
"What kind of reason is that?" Alena chuckled, having heard such stories countless times in her life.
The mentors in history and the mentors Sasha mentioned were like two different people.
She drank the tears of the Phoenix, and even after all this time, the potion's effects remained, though the taste was very faint.
Sasha said, "Give me your hand, let me see your injuries."
Alena rolled up her sleeves.
"It's Dragon's Breath..." Sasha glanced at it, "But the power was controlled, just a minor injury. I used to get burned frequently when I fought with Liliana."
"I feel ashamed," Alena lowered her head, "I lost to her."
"Do you think you're invincible? Even I have only won against Liliana a few times," Sasha continued, "But I'm quite curious about what Michelle Hope has gone through to become so powerful in an instant."
"Do you know her?"
"She received the scholarship I provided and moved into the same dormitory as you. Do you think it's a coincidence?"
