Silvervein City, afternoon.
“Sophie, can you stop touching me?” Kaila asked helplessly.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m just drawing a skill; it’ll be over soon.”
“What is ‘drawing a skill’?” Kaila asked, confused. “And is this really necessary?”
“It is.” Sophie nodded solemnly. “It’s called sample contact.”
Kaila looked down at her.
Sophie was standing in front of her, holding Kaila’s right hand in both of hers, studying the thin calluses on her palm and knuckles with the intensity of a suspicious palm reader.
A Hero’s hands were different from those of an ordinary girl.
From years of wielding a sword, Kaila had a layer of fine, tough calluses on her palms, and her fingertips carried the roughness left by training. However, her fingers were long and slender, her knuckles were elegant, and her skin glowed with a faint warmth under the sunlight.
Sophie looked down for a while, then couldn’t resist poking with her fingertip.
“Miss Hero’s hands feel quite nice.”
Kaila: “...”
“Is this a necessary step for drawing a skill?”
“It’s researching class characteristics.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Sophie didn’t blink. “I’m a very rigorous person.”
“That’s a lie.”
Kaila didn’t pull her hand back.
She remained silent for a moment, then turned her head away.
“Then hurry up.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Sophie agreed quickly, but her movements were anything but fast.
She first squeezed Kaila’s fingertips, then lightly traced the lines of her palm, and finally, as if checking some mechanism, placed her fingers on the inside of Kaila’s wrist.
She could feel a pulse there.
Steady and powerful.
Unlike Sophie, a Low-tier Vampire, whose heartbeat was mostly just a performance to pretend to be human.
Although a reversed vampire needed oxygen to survive, they only needed the oxygen itself. It wasn’t actually used in blood circulation, and Sophie didn’t even know how her own body functioned at the moment.
This pulse really feels like a pulse, Sophie thought.
“What is it?” Kaila asked.
“Nothing.” Sophie blinked. “I’m just checking if you have a pregnancy pulse.”
“What’s a pregnancy pulse? And weren’t you just researching class characteristics?”
“Researching Miss Hero is also part of the class characteristics.”
“That’s a lie.”
Kaila said, yet she still didn’t pull her hand away.
Encouraged, Sophie pushed further.
She moved to Kaila’s side and pressed down on her shoulder.
Sophie’s hands were cold.
After all, vampires had no body temperature.
Kaila originally wanted to tell her to stop touching her, but the words changed when they reached her lips: “There are no skills there.”
“How do you know?” Sophie asked.
“Because that’s a shoulder.”
“Miss Hero, that’s just your bias against skill drawing,” Sophie said seriously. “Who says skills can’t be hidden in shoulders? Maybe there’s a Hero’s Secret Seal engraved on your shoulder.”
“There isn’t.”
“I don’t believe you. Let me check again.”
“That’s a lie, Sophie.”
“Fine, fine.”
Sophie regretfully withdrew her hand.
She circled halfway around Kaila and stopped behind her, standing on her tiptoes to look at the small section of blonde hair exposed at the nape of her neck.
Kaila noticed her gaze and her body stiffened slightly.
“What are you looking at now?”
“I’m wondering if Miss Hero has any hidden skills that look rare at a glance.”
“Like what?”
“Like dropping a holy sword if someone pats your head.”
“It won’t happen.”
“Then would it drop if I hugged you?”
“No.”
“You haven’t even tried, how do you know it won’t?”
Kaila finally turned around.
Sophie immediately put on an innocent expression.
The two stared at each other for a few seconds.
Eventually, Kaila offered her right hand back.
“Only the hand.”
“Fine, fine. But I might become weak, you know? If I get weak, I’ll be snatched away by some scrub villain. Miss Hero wouldn’t want her precious companion to be taken away to some ranch...”
“Then just draw the skill already,” Kaila said helplessly.
“As you wish~”
This time, Sophie didn’t touch anywhere else. She simply held Kaila’s hand with both of hers.
Skill Steal Voucher, activate—
Pale gold specks of light emerged from their touching fingertips, slowly swirling around the back of Kaila’s hand like debris caught in a breeze.
Kaila couldn’t see the system.
But she could feel Sophie’s fingertips tighten slightly.
It was very gentle.
As if afraid of disturbing something.
Or perhaps, as if she didn’t want this brief contact to end too soon.
Kaila lowered her eyes.
“Is this enough?”
“Yeah,” Sophie whispered. “Almost.”
“Then why haven’t you let go?”
“Because drawing needs a sense of ritual.”
“...”
“Miss Hero, holding your hand while drawing might give me a luck bonus.”
“I don’t have a luck bonus.”
“You do.”
“What is it?”
Sophie looked up and smiled at her.
“Miss Hero is very beautiful.”
Kaila froze.
“That’s not a luck bonus.”
“It is to me.”
The system notification rang at that exact moment.
【Log: You have used a Skill Steal Voucher on Kaila】
Rate on N.U.
