Her words sent a chill down Rosen's spine, because he knew she was right. The vampire Viken was indeed that vengeful.
"But I can't stay in the castle forever, can I? We'll have to leave the academy eventually."
"Of course not. Once we get to the castle, the mages will remove the blood mark from your body. That way, the vampire won't be able to track you."
"Blood mark?!" Rosen gasped. Right, there was the blood mark! How could he have forgotten about it?
Blood mark magic is a unique marking magic used by high-ranking vampires. Once someone has been bitten, they will be stained with blood mark magic. The characteristic of this magic is that it has no symptoms and is extremely difficult to remove.
He currently feels nothing at all. Even using his elemental senses, he can't detect anything unusual. If he can't even sense it, then removing it is out of the question.
The female hunter, assuming Rosen was clueless, began to explain, "The Blood Mark is a tracking spell used by high-ranking vampires. Once they've sucked your blood, it will be marked with their vampire mark. Don't ask too many questions; I don't fully understand it either. You'll understand when we get to Holderburg."
"One last question, how long will it take us to reach Holderburg?"
"Three days' journey. For these three days, we must be constantly on guard against attacks from high-ranking vampires."
Rosen's mood darkened considerably: "Oh, I'm so incredibly unlucky. Ride slower; the horse is making me want to vomit."
With their combined strength, the vampire Viken wouldn't need to ambush them; he could simply crush them. Coupled with the marking effect of the Blood Mark spell, they had no chance of escaping to Holderburg. The only outcome was that they would be intercepted and killed by Viken along the way.
The only way to survive was to fight the vampire Viken to the death!
How to fight to the death?
Rosen narrowed his eyes, his hand instinctively tightening its grip on the alchemical vial in his pack: 'Viken, perhaps you will ultimately kill me, but as long as I survive this ordeal, I will make you taste my power!'
The female hunter, unaware of Rosen's thoughts, shouted, 'No, we can't be slow! We have to be fast, or we'll all be dead!'
With that, the female hunter sharply cracked her whip and yelled, 'Faster! Faster! Lily, accelerate!'
Under the moonlit night, in the wilderness, a black horse galloped across the land.
On its back, Rosen was jolted wildly, his stomach churning. He was quite certain that if the jolting continued, he would vomit everything he had.
"Hey~ slow down~ I can't take it anymore~ Hey!" Rosen shouted.
"I'm not called 'Hey'~ I'm called Annie." The female hunter responded, slowing her horse slightly. She looked back anxiously: "We haven't gone far enough yet, that vampire will catch up soon."
With the horse slower, the ride became more stable, and Rosen felt a little more comfortable. He seemed not to hear her: "Annie~ Annie, that doesn't sound like a hunter's name."
"My name is none of your concern!" Annie's voice was cold. She looked Rosen up and down: "Hey~ are you feeling better? I'm going to speed up again."
"Wait, wait, wait~" Rosen hurriedly called for a stop.
"Young master, haven't you figured out the situation yet? We're running for our lives, we don't have time for sweet talk! Lily!" Annie quickly lost her patience, raising her hands to shake the reins and urge the horse to speed up.
Rosen could only quicken his pace: "Tell me, Lily, how long can you run at top speed?"
"About half an hour, covering about 50 kilometers," Annie replied immediately.
"50 kilometers in half an hour, that's 100 kilometers in an hour~ This Marco from another world is really fast," Rosen muttered, then quickly asked, "Do you know how fast a high-ranking vampire can run? How long can they run?"
Annie paused, "I'm not quite sure, but they should be faster than my Lily, right?"
Rosen chuckled, "It's okay if you don't know, I'll tell you. The high-ranking vampire who attacked my manor is called Viken, and his stamina is as amazing as his strength. He can at least, remember, at least run non-stop for two hours, covering 300 kilometers without stopping."
This data wasn't something Rosen made up; he measured it in the game. To defeat Viken, he tried 49 times, using every method he could think of.
Once, he tried to fly a Viken kite on horseback, but three horses died in the process, while Viken was unharmed. If he hadn't constantly harassed Viken with crossbow bolts, he wouldn't have been able to fly the kite at all, because Viken, in his monster form, was at least 20 times faster than a galloping horse at full speed.
Annie was startled: "How could he be so powerful? How do you know so much?"
"I read it in a book. The author is named Albert, a very powerful magician. His books are quite obscure, but the data is very reliable." Rosen made up a story.
Annie was clearly not easily fooled: "How could Albert possibly measure such data? Did he deal with Viken?"
Rosen was taken aback; this girl was actually taking him seriously, but this didn't stump him. He quickly came up with an explanation: "You guessed right, Albert did indeed deal with Viken. He's a master of illusion magic, and he trapped Viken in an illusionary barrier for two hours. Inside the barrier, influenced by the illusion, Viken was running at full speed the whole time. So, this data is very reliable."
"I see."
Perhaps because of Rosen's previous excellent performance, or perhaps because his explanation was logical and well-founded, Annie believed him. Her brows furrowed, and she bit her lower lip, seemingly deep in thought.