[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Chapter 223
A man's corpse was left behind in the room where Sharen had stayed.
Before Sharin could step in, I approached the man first to assess his condition.
And from that, I could confirm one thing.
The man's body was completely drained of blood, left utterly hollow.
As if he had been attacked by a vampire.
The mont I saw it, sothing clicked in my mind.
‘Co to think of it, there was a ntion of a mysterious entity related to vampires in the Zerion Academy library.’
Zerion Academy has sothing called a “Library Quest.”
Originally, it was one of the introductory events designed to lead into the stories of ancient heroes.
You could browse through various books in the library, and among them were tos related to mysteries.
One such book briefly ntioned a mystery tied to vampires.
‘I thought it was just a passing event.’
Who would’ve thought that the vampire mystery had resurrection-related powers?
I hadn’t anticipated that.
‘Was Vulcan recruiting the Paladin Centriol actually a clue pointing to vampires?’
To think I’d only now realize that hint.
‘It’s because I didn’t visit the library that I’m realizing all this so late.’
In my case, I already knew all the heroes.
I had no reason to go to the library—never imagined that would co back to haunt .
“Sharin, if Sharen was here…”
“Yes, she slipped away while we were coming up.”
Sharin stared blankly out the window.
Did she jump from the fourth floor?
From the looks of it, her physical abilities seed to have been enhanced after becoming a subordinate of the vampire mystery.
‘The condition for enhanced physical ability must have been human blood.’
Finally, I understood the clear drawback of this mystery.
Vampires are beings that live by consuming blood.
The mystery must share that sa trait.
Once it tastes blood, there’s no going back.
“Sharin, we need to catch Sharen imdiately.”
If we lose her now, soone else will be the next victim.
Without hesitation, Sharin opened the window and took off into the air.
“My husband.”
As I grabbed Sharin’s hand, she took off into the sky with in tow.
Sharin clearly understood the urgency of catching Sharen.
Together, we soared through the sky.
In an instant, the view expanded and the capital of the Highsirion Empire ca into full view.
Magic surged through Sharin’s body.
She was tracking Sharen.
“There she is.”
Soon enough, Sharin spotted her.
With a wave of her staff, she brought us both quickly down to the ground.
In a narrow alleyway below—
Sothing was sprinting at incredible speed.
It was Sharin’s mother—Sharen.
“Sharin, I’ll handle this.”
“Please do.”
With a gust of wind, Sharin conjured a transparent stepping platform.
As I stepped on it, the muscles in my legs swelled.
At their peak, I kicked off the platform and leapt into the air.
Wind howled past , and just before the ground ca into view, I extended my leg.
Boom!
With a thunderous crash, I landed and rose to my feet.
Sharen, who had been running, stopped in shock.
“You’re…”
Her eyes trembled violently.
She rembered the na I had introduced myself with.
Duke of Whitewood has long managed and dealt with mysteries.
What, then, is the job of a Duke of Whitewood’s aide?
“You’ve realized sothing’s wrong with your body, haven’t you?”
Sharen flinched.
She, too, knew sothing was wrong.
She had drained a person completely of blood, killing them.
She couldn’t possibly be unaware of the consequences.
“Are… are you going to kill again?”
Sharen backed away.
A reddish glow flickered in her eyes.
At the sa ti, I could feel her eyes scanning .
She must’ve noticed I wasn’t holding any weapons.
Even though her actions were impulsive, she didn’t seem to view them as a sin.
“That remains to be seen.”
“If you don’t kill , I’ll surrender. I didn’t an for this to happen. If I wanted to kill, I would’ve done it long ago!”
Sharen shouted, her voice full of frustration.
Yet her eyes clearly showed that she was analyzing carefully.
“Then surrender. Making a bigger scene won’t help you.”
She had killed soone in the middle of the capital.
While things like this happen in back alleys, this was the capital.
Things were different here.
The empire scrutinizes its capital more than anywhere else.
No matter what, Sharen would have to pay for her cris.
She clenched her fists tightly—
Then, slowly relaxed her arms.
“…Fine. I’ll surrender.”
Her declaration of surrender ca more easily than expected.
“I hope that, because I surrendered peacefully, there will be so leniency.”
Arms limp, Sharen walked toward .
“You see… I’m just a prostitute who’s longed for dreams she could never reach.”
Between her clenched fists, I saw her nails subtly begin to extend.
“In the end, I wasn’t a butterfly chasing dreams—I was a moth drawn to flas.”
She carefully took one silent step after another toward .
There was no sound to her footsteps.
The distance between us shrank.
And then—
Fwiing!
With a slicing sound through the air, Sharen’s claw shot out.
But I made no move to dodge.
The claw aid straight for my neck.
Originally, she must have planned to pierce straight through it.
Clang!
But bladed weapons don’t work on my body.
Instead, it was Sharen’s claw that nearly shattered.
“Argh!”
Sharen scread in pain as the shock hit her hand.
Imdiately, I grabbed her by the collar.
Then twisted and hurled her to the ground.
Boom!
A crash echoed as Sharen hit the ground, groaning in pain and rolling across it.
She struggled to get up.
But without hesitation, I pinned her shoulders and body down.
"Let go, let go!"
She thrashed beneath .
As expected of a vampire—she had considerable strength.
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
But I wasn’t lacking in power either.
Thanks to my body of steel, I didn’t exactly have a light physical presence.
"I'm an elderly woman! How can soone serving Lord Whitewood treat the weak this way?!"
“For soone weak, you’re pretty lively. And the mont a ‘weak’ person kills soone, they’re not weak anymore—they’re a criminal.”
Don’t try to justify yourself as a petty criminal just trying to survive.
That, I can never forgive.
"I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you, I swear!"
She started screaming, perhaps because she realized words wouldn’t work on .
"Stop it. You're disturbing everyone around us."
Just then, Sharin arrived in front of us.
Sharen's face lit up as she saw her and cried out.
"Daughter! Please, help your mother! This person is trying to kill !"
She scread as she pleaded for Sharin’s help.
Could soone be any more shaless?
Judging from Sharin’s drained expression, she seed to be thinking the sa thing.
Sharen saw in her daughter’s eyes that no help was coming.
Maybe that’s why her face twisted into sothing almost demonic.
"What’s that face for? I’m your mother! The one you should serve and follow for the rest of your life! What, you think you’re noble just because you have the blood of the Blue Tower Master in you? You think you’re different from ? We’re the sa! You’ve got the blood of a whore in you too!"
"Enough."
I quickly pressed against her throat to stop her.
Blood began to drip from her mouth.
Looking closer, I saw that her sharp fangs had torn her own lips.
With her mouth drenched in blood, Sharen trembled and laughed.
"Heh, hehehe… acting like you're different makes sick. In the end, you grew inside ."
"Mother."
Then, Sharin spoke.
Sharen slowly looked up at her.
"I rember, just once, you told you loved ."
Sharen gazed up with a slack, broken face.
"Was that a lie too?"
Sharen remained silent for a while.
Then, finally, a dry laugh escaped her lips.
"What are you talking about? I’ve never loved soone like you."
Whoosh—
At that mont, flas erupted around Sharen’s body.
Sharin’s staff had activated a fire spell on her.
Before she could even scream, the flas consud her.
As I stepped away from her, Sharen burned—eting death once again.
She had already been dead once, only revived by the power of mysticism.
Her dying again posed no problem.
But in this mont, what decision had Sharin made to burn her own mother?
My eyes turned to Sharin.
She stood there, still holding her staff aloft.
In her eyes, like galaxies swirling, raged emotions I couldn’t quite understand.
Before I knew it, I was walking toward her.
And then, I embraced her.
Sharin leaned her forehead against my chest.
Tears began to fall from her eyes.
Soon, her entire face was drenched in them.
“…I thought I’d be fine.”
Her voice barely erged.
“No matter what she said to , I thought it wouldn’t affect .”
Sharen, the mother she had already cast aside.
And yet, Sharen had still been her mother.
"Maybe, husband… maybe I don’t actually know how to love."
Sharin had believed she was loved.
But after hearing Sharen’s words today, her thoughts had changed.
"The way I treat you… maybe it’s just mimicry. Just knowledge. I’ve never truly received love before…"
I held her more tightly.
“That’s not true.”
I was sure I had lost the ability to love.
But when I looked at Sharin, I often thought, Yes, I am in love.
“Sharin, what you give is undoubtedly love.”
At my words filled with certainty, Sharin looked up at .
“Then why… why hasn’t the love you lost returned?”
She asked desperately.
“If I truly love you, shouldn’t your feelings have co back already?”
Sharin cried.
A child who didn’t know how to love, crying so sorrowfully.
The curse of the Veil’s Bandage is complicated.
Even to recover a faint sense of anger, I needed to experience an overwhelming emotional upheaval to break past the curse’s limits.
So to regain love… I would need sothing just as intense.
But the emotions surging through now were a little different.
“Sharin.”
She stood before , crying so bitterly.
And yet, I felt no empathy, no emotion in response.
That truth pained , filled with regret.
I hated myself for not being able to sincerely comfort a weeping girl.
Maybe that’s why—
The emotion stirring deep within my chest might just resemble it.
Sadness.
A feeling of grief, born from pain, that allowed one to feel empathy—for others, and even for oneself.
Sadness blood like a flower bud, finally breaking through the curse of the Veil’s Bandage.
“When I regain all my emotions…”
Finally.
Only now.
I feel like I can begin to understand what Sharin’s tears an.
“Ask again then.”
A smile ford on my lips.
It was a smile filled with bitterness and sorrow, one I hadn’t worn in a long ti.
“Then, I’ll give you a proper answer.”
I didn’t want to see her crying.
"Sharin, what you need isn't tears—it's laughter."
To bring that back to her, for the first ti ever, I gently pulled her cheek in and kissed her.
Sharin’s eyes widened.
It wasn’t a kiss filled with love—not yet—but at least it was an answer to her question.
Slowly, her eyes drifted shut.
The tears that soaked her lashes were finally replaced by a small, fragile smile.
The most beautiful smile she could offer.
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Reviews
All reviews (0)