After driving Gen away, a little while passed before the ward door opened again. Kanata thought Gen had come back looking to get beaten up, so she hurled the pillow straight at the door.

The pillow flew true and smacked the newcomer right in the face.

“Quite the temper. Got some grudge against me you’ve been waiting to vent?”

Alessia took the pillow off her face and set it aside. The mockery on her face was obvious.

She hadn’t meant to start with that, actually. Her beloved Bloodbond Thrall was injured, and for a while she wouldn’t be able to do anything too intense with her. Honestly, that was a real shame. As her master, she should’ve said a few comforting words first.

But once you got used to treating someone a certain way, it was hard to switch gears. So the moment she saw Kanata, she started sniping at her again.

“If you’ve got that much energy, you might as well leave the hospital early. The logistics department’s short on people. When those idiots heard you were injured and admitted here, they kept whining that you were faking it to dodge work. Annoying as hell.”

Alessia’s words made Kanata feel a little bitter. Those so-called colleagues wore the exact same uniform as her and lived on the same land, yet their words were this cruel.

Back when she was still the finance minister’s son, they hadn’t been able to flatter her fast enough. And now they couldn’t wait to kick her while she was down...

“Perfect. I don’t want to stay here wasting hospitalization fees either. I’m leaving right now. I still have to... go back and make dinner for Nozomi.”

Kanata tried to sit up and get out of bed, but the movement pulled at the wound in her abdomen. Pain hit her so hard she couldn’t move at all. Both hands clenched the bedsheet beneath her, and her knuckles turned white from the force.

“Damn it...”

She’d seriously overestimated her body. In this miserable state, forget going home to cook for her little sister. Even moving a little felt like being stabbed all over again.

The stitched wound seemed to have split open a little from that movement just now.

“If you can’t do something, don’t force yourself—because the way you just tried to act tough and failed has already provided all my entertainment for tonight. If the people who hate you saw it, it’d probably make their night too.”

Alessia stabbed in another merciless follow-up.

At first, the first half had almost sounded a little like comfort or concern. But then came the second half... heh.

“I never expected a heartless woman like you to say anything touching anyway. Because... even if you’re a little different from someone like Gen, deep down... you’re still the type who enjoys laughing at other people.”

Her attempt to get out of bed had failed, and it had pulled at the wound too. On the ugly pale gray hospital gown, one patch slowly turned brown. At last, the wound was bleeding again.

Thanks to the fact that everyone she’d seen after waking up had been someone she disliked, one burst of agitation had led to this.

“You’re bleeding.”

Alessia suddenly looked a little excited. She wanted to taste the blood flowing from her Bloodbond Thrall’s wound. It was an experience she’d never had before.

It sounded a little twisted, insane, even perverse, but who cared?

“Don’t move. Stay right there. Otherwise, I can’t guarantee it won’t hurt more, or bleed even more.”

This Sovereign, who never played by common sense, looked as excited as if she’d discovered a new continent. The excitement in her blood-red eyes was almost spilling over. Her attachment to blood, her craving for it, was no different now from the true vampires in fiction.

A very bad feeling rose in Kanata’s heart.

Alessia slowly approached the bed, kicked off her shoes, and climbed onto it. Without pressing on Kanata’s abdominal wound, she lifted the blanket. Then, with practiced ease, she untied the side straps of the hospital gown and pulled it down to Kanata’s waist.

That left her upper body completely uncovered.

“H-Hey... you... what are you trying to do?”

Kanata had never imagined something like this. And deep down, she really wanted to shout that she was injured right now, and this woman still had the nerve to make a move on her. She was worse than a beast.

Worse than a beast!

“What am I doing? Obviously, I’m doing you.”

Alessia’s answer was simple and blunt, carrying an authority that allowed no argument.

Kanata in this weak, fragile state only made her more excited.