The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss-Chapter 263: Pretty

"Haaa..." I sigh as I toss another failure into the trash, another failure from a material that’s just too weak.

"Another failure, huh Gehinnom?" The Vampire Queen Grimm asks with a bit of sarcasm about my latest failure.

"It’d be easier if you just disappeared from here." She thinks just because I’m the [Great Demon Alchemist] I can do anything easily, but that’s obviously not the case.

All this is beyond my knowledge if I don’t know how something is to be done, I have to figure out a way for it to exist, and I need the right materials, so many of the powerful relics I’ve made were the result of tens or hundreds of failures.

"Alright, I’m outta here Gehinnom, but hurry up and make my artifact. I already have a place to use it and I don’t wanna waste time because of your delays. And while you’re at it, why don’t you ever hide your appearance when you’re with me? Seriously, I don’t wanna keep looking at you." Grimm speaks with sarcasm.

’Damn bitch.’ I hate this, I hate how she’s always mocking my appearance as if we’re friends and it’s just a joke the reason I do this is obviously because she complains about everything about me.

If I hide my appearance, she’ll just start hurling even worse insults, calling me a coward and all sorts of other things. And the worst part is, I can’t refuse her requests for two reasons.

First, this damn bitch pays almost any price I ask, so I always end up with hundreds or even thousands of times the normal amount when I’m working for her.

And second, she always manages to find me somehow, so I can’t even run away from her if I tried, and I know if I refuse to do things for her, she’ll kill me, so all I can do is just accept it and charge outrageous prices.

"I’m going, if you want anything else, ask my clones." She says as she leaves the room. I just sigh as I continue my work.

I grab some ores and start using my skills to shape the material into something new. Honestly, I hate my job, I hate being an alchemist.

I’m always used for everything that others want, but I never get what I want with my relics.

"Another failure." I toss the deformed material to the ground and grab more ores. Finding the right combination is so irritating she had to make such a difficult request.

"...I’m hungry..." I murmur, then drop everything and go look for something to eat. I’ve been working non-stop for almost a week without rest or food.

As I walk through the halls searching for the kitchen, I notice Grimm rushing by and muttering something. This happens relatively often, it was more frequent in the earlier days.

But recently it’s decreased, apparently it has to do with her daughter, who keeps running off to who knows where.

I pass by a maid who "ignores" me it’s thanks to a relic I have, a headpiece accessory that resembles demon horns like a succubus. Only the strong or those with something special can see through this artifact and notice my presence. I don’t like constantly changing my appearance, so most of the time I use relics to hide myself.

Soon I reach Grimm’s kitchen and start rummaging, searching for something to eat. But as I expected, there’s only bottles and barrels of blood all around, the cabinets and other storage mainly hold blood or, in some rare cases, meat.

’Tsk...had to be vampires.’ I’m hungry and have nothing to eat, so I decide to just grab these blood bottles and start transmuting them into another type of material that I can eat.

"..." I notice Grimm’s daughter quickly crawling in with a silly smile on her face this explains why Grimm was rushing through the halls, she must be chasing after her daughter who wandered off.

’She’s so cute...’ I can’t believe there’s someone crazy enough to have a child with Grimm. I swore Grimm would die alone forever the fate is truly a cruel irony.

I just ignore the child who comes into the kitchen and goes to a blood barrel, while I transmute the blood bottle into a plate of normal food.

I take the plate of food and sit at the table, starting to eat. The taste is actually quite good, but the smell of blood in the place is irritating.

Also, the noise of the child knocking over the barrel and rolling it around the floor isn’t the best sound to have while eating.

"..." After some time of eating my food, I notice the girl standing still, staring at me.

’...She...is staring at me?’ I’m instantly shocked. I’m certain this girl is staring directly at me she’s looking right at me while standing there.

It can’t be just a coincidence. She’s gazing at me fixatedly, showing that she’s surpassed the capacity of my artifact. Of course, given the strength I sense from her, she’s very weak, so it must be some racial trait of hers or something similar.

"Why are you staring at me, girl?" I question her, bothered by this. She’s seeing my real appearance, not the one hidden by the artifact. I don’t like this I don’t want someone to mock who I am.

I hate being so beautiful that it becomes an ugly "perfection." And now, in addition to Grimm, I have her daughter to mock me as well. Great, now I have to review and analyze why the artifact didn’t affect her.

"..." The little girl crawls up to me, covered in blood from taking blood from the barrel she knocked over. And since the floor got dirty, she got pretty messy too. I’m sure Grimm will be upset about that.

’Tsk...’ She just keeps looking at me. Her gaze isn’t one of judgment like I’m used to, so for now it’s acceptable not to do anything against her.

"P-P...P-Pret...P-P-Pretty..." She speaks in a cute, drawling tone, looking at me with...admiration?

"...What...did you say?" I’m incredulous. I think I must have heard wrong, but did this child just call me "pretty" with the most messed up pronunciation I’ve ever heard?

"Hey, say that again!" I approach her, speaking firmly. She puts her finger in her mouth and looks at me innocently she doesn’t seem to understand what I’m trying to say.

’I’m sure of it! She called me pretty.’ Calling me "pretty" is impossible. Even if it’s a lie, no one can look at my real appearance and lie by calling me "pretty."

"Say it...say it again!!" I hold her and look at her closer, using magic to analyze every bit of her anatomy. What is she? She clearly isn’t normal.

Not only has she managed to see through the capacity of my artifact, but she called me "pretty." She can’t be just a normal vampire not even Grimm can call me "pretty."

It’s psychological. I’ve researched enough to understand how my anatomy affects others. Just remembering me automatically triggers a reaction in the brain, connecting to something disgusting.

Making the only feeling towards me one of disgust or revulsion only I myself am not affected by this. But after having so many see me as disgusting, I’ve stopped liking what I am.

Yet this girl just called me "pretty," something that nothing has managed to do so far. Analyzing her anatomy, I discover a perfectly balanced genetic level between two races.

So she’s only half-vampire, a division so perfect it almost seems unnaturally made 50% of each, a hybridization that few races can achieve.

’What race is this?’ I don’t know. Thousands of attempts to find the answer in my brain fail I don’t know this race. The best I can say is that I know what it is, but without a complete affirmation.

I seem to have some information about this race, but it’s incomplete, indicating I’ve only analyzed a small part of it, like sweat or a bit of blood at most.

It seems to be some kind of monster, but the physiology is too unique to be a common monster, and the hybridization complicates the identification of what she is. But I know I’ve seen something about it before.

It must be recent, but it’s still difficult to know. For now, I’ll leave this to research later.

The child doesn’t say anything else. I gently place her back on the floor. She just keeps staring at me. She’s undoubtedly very cute, even covered in blood, and this is the most interesting genetics I’ve seen in millennia.

’Is this admiration? Is that why?’ She reminds me of someone admiring something they find beautiful. I’ve seen this look many times, from one being to another, but I’ve never received it before.

’Does she think I’m beautiful? I don’t understand.’ This leaves me confused. I don’t want to stay here any longer, it’s uncomfortable.

’She’s Grimm’s problem...’ I use Transmutation on a table to make a rubber ball, which I give to the girl to play with and stay here until Grimm finds her.

Grimm must be taking a while to find her because she first looks through all the halls, then goes room by room when searching for her.

"..." After giving her the ball, I leave the room. I don’t know why I did that I’ve never given anything away for free before. I’ve always heard that if you’re good at something, you should charge for it. I’m good at alchemy, so everything I do always has a price.

This is the first time I’ve given something away for free. But this child has destabilized me more than the looks of disgust and the insults. I’m smart, I know what’s happening to me.

I’m emotionally shaken because of a single childish compliment. It’s the first compliment I’ve received since I’ve existed.

’...I need to work.’ I’ll try to regain my composure by working. It was just a compliment, just a single compliment, and it’s Grimm’s daughter. There’s no way she can be good to me.

It’s just madness in my head. I have to forget this before I get too confused to work. What does it matter if that Hybrid complimented me and is capable of surpassing both my relic and the mental effect my race causes?

"...It’s nothing." I murmur as I hurry back to the room where I’m working. I must return to work right away.