Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Juni
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Gamal asked.
“Is she Alex’s wife?”
“Yes.”
“Which one?”
Yeonha froze for a moment, and silence fell over the group. Gamal, not grasping the mood, looked puzzled. Soon, Yeonha flashed a chilling smile and said.
“For now, the first one.”
Ivan let out a small sigh.
“There’s only Yeonha.”
Doyeong couldn’t help but chime in.
“He’s an ancient relic with barely any modern common sense. Understand, Lieutenant Kang.”
Gamal turned to Doyeong in bewilderment.
“What?”
“In modern times, that’s rude to ask.”
Doyeong said in exasperation, and Gamal’s face turned aggrieved.
“I know that. But Alex…”
At that moment, Ivan raised his hand and said.
“Instead of standing, let’s sit.”
As if the eldest in the room had spoken, everyone sat without protest. In truth, Gamal was the oldest by age, but even if he’d claimed it, no one would have accepted it.
“I think we need to have a long talk.”
Ivan said.
“It was about two thousand years ago. Not long after I was infected. Gamal and I ran into each other by chance.”
***
Ivan was walking through the forest. Or more precisely, pushing through it.
The forest was dark and gloomy. No human would come this deep.
This deep, lush forest disoriented the senses and instilled fear. But Ivan pressed deeper. From some point on, he had become someone else’s terror—no one could terrify him anymore.
Ivan glanced back.
“Sorry, but I can hear everything.”
It had been two days since he noticed the presence trailing him. There was no hostility, so he’d left it alone, figuring it would watch for a bit and leave. But it was persistent.
Rustle.
A sound came. The bushes shifted faintly, and a slender figure emerged.
Red eyes, sharp with wariness, moved slowly, leaving afterimages in the air. She looked no older than eighteen.
Even to Ivan, who had seen all the wonders of the world, she was astonishing. Dressed in rags like a fugitive criminal beyond the law, yet her beauty alone carried something inhuman.
“Didn’t realize this place already had an owner.”
Ivan said in Latin—the most widespread language at the time.
The woman eyed him up and down suspiciously before asking.
“You too… ‘different’?”
Her speech was odd. She’d clearly learned Latin later in life. But Ivan caught her meaning and replied.
“You don’t seem human either.”
Back then, there was no specific name for vampires. Neither Ivan nor Gamal knew exactly what they were. Just that they were somehow ‘different.’
Gamal asked in a strange tone.
“But why aren’t you attacking?”
Ivan looked around, as if checking for something he’d missed.
“Any reason to attack someone you bump into on the road?”
“The other ‘different ones’ are vicious.”
“They seem possessive about their territories. But as you see, I’m the one wandering lost here too.”
But Gamal didn’t lower her guard. Ivan realized she had no intention of accepting him and turned away.
“Excuse me.”
After a few steps, Gamal spoke.
“Wait.”
Though they didn’t know each other, both Gamal and Ivan had gone a long time without talking to another person.
Gamal had fled into this forest after Kunis discovered her hidden village and had lived alone for about five years. Ivan, since his infection, had wandered endlessly without settling, searching for what he’d become.
Gamal had been watching Ivan since he entered the forest. At first, she thought he might be someone sent by Kunis.
But Ivan stayed alone. He could be pretending, but from the moment she first saw him, she knew. He was no one Kunis could command.
Dressed as a simple traveler, yet exuding imperial presence suited to armor—a commanding stature no one could control.
Gamal said.
“Have some food before you go.”
***
Surprisingly, what Gamal offered was human food.
Simple bread baked without yeast and stew with rabbit meat—it was quite good. Ivan, who had traveled extensively, had eaten worse in war camps, but he no longer complained about food.
He’d planned to eat lunch and leave, but the forest darkened quickly. As vampires, venturing into the dark wasn’t a problem, but wandering a damp, dark night forest wasn’t preferable.
Except when hunting.
Perhaps from his human memories, he still preferred crackling campfires and cozy beds. Gamal didn’t urge him to leave right away, so Ivan stayed the night.
“When did you change?”
Sitting by the campfire, Ivan asked.
“A long time ago.”
Gamal replied, scanning him up and down.
“You’re young.”
Ivan was not yet three hundred fifty. His eyes hadn’t turned red yet.
Ivan laughed.
“I can’t remember the last time someone called me young.”
He was used to not aging, but hearing it from Gamal, who looked eighteen, was absurd.
“Your eyes will turn red soon.”
Gamal said casually. Ivan looked at her. Her eyes were red and vivid, like the flames before him.
“Come to think of it, how did your eyes…”
“One day I woke up and they had changed. It happens when you live long. All the long-lived ‘different ones’ were like that.”
“Already conspicuous, and now even more so.”
Ivan muttered, nearly resigned.
He had triumphed in battle, collapsed at the victory feast, and suffered a fever for four days. When he awoke, he was an entirely different creature.
No longer human, but ‘something else,’ he was cast out from the life he’d taken for granted, left to roam the wilderness.
He’d wandered long seeking answers, but found none, arriving at this day.
Ivan asked.
“Are you hiding in the forest because of those eyes?”
Red eyes wouldn’t pass for human. Albinos existed, but even ‘unusual’ like that drew attention back then.
But Gamal didn’t answer. At that time, she was searching for a place to hide forever. Her mind was most closed off, nearly autistic.
Ivan shrugged and asked no more. Silence fell, broken only by the crackling fire.
Suddenly, Ivan covered his mouth and coughed. After a few coughs, blood stained his palm. It wasn’t surprising. He hadn’t drunk blood in a long time.
“You haven’t had blood in a while?”
Gamal asked, surprised by the sight. Ivan indifferently wiped the blood from his hand.
“After half a month without, I vomit it up.”
“Your organs get damaged.”
“You know well.”
As if she’d gone without blood for a long time too.
Ivan looked at his blood-streaked hand. Outside, empires rose and fell in cycles, but he still hadn’t figured out what he was.
Then suddenly, Gamal thrust something at him.
“Eat.”
Ivan was puzzled.
“A flower?”
What Gamal pulled from her pocket was a red flower the color of her eyes.
Ivan waved it off.
“Sorry, but chewing raw flowers isn’t my hobby…”
But Gamal pushed it toward his mouth again.
“Eat.”
Ivan was exasperated. No one had ever treated him this way. Not wanting to argue, he took it to drop into the boiling soup.
But Gamal grabbed his arm.
“Raw.”
She shook her head firmly.
“Cooking ruins it.”
“Ruins what?”
“You’re thirsty, right?”
Her eyes suddenly gleamed intensely, as if piercing his thirst.
“No matter what you do, that thirst doesn’t go away.”
Gamal reverted to her usual gaze.
“But this helps. Not enough. You’ll get hungry soon. Still, it helps.”
Ivan looked at the flower. It was blood-red. He’d tried substitutes for blood, but nothing worked.
‘Different ones’ like them needed blood.
He put it in his mouth and chewed, figuring he’d humor her. A bitter grass taste hit first. Even as a human, he preferred meat and酒 over greens, so it wasn’t pleasant. But the more he chewed, the stranger the flavor.
Bitter grass, yet sweet and fragrant like blood…
Ivan glanced at the flower pouch by Gamal’s feet.
“Never seen a plant like this.”
“It doesn’t grow here. You need high mountains.”
“Where’d you get it?”
“A mountain reaching the sky.”
Ivan was puzzled.
“Why go there?”
“To escape.”
Her tone was like someone who felt nothing anymore.
“From what?”
Gamal looked up.
Crackle, crackle.
The fire twisted her form in an avant-garde dance. If he’d known later fairy tales, he might’ve thought the fire like Karen in red shoes.
“Bad dreams.”
***
Before coming to this forest, Gamal had fled to the mountains to escape Kunis.
The mountains were high and snow-covered. She’d climbed aimlessly for the tallest, learning later it was the Andes.
The eternal snow’s cold pierced even vampire skin, insensitive to temperature. Extreme cold wasn’t just chilly—it felt like white flames licking fingertips and toes.
Crunch.
Even snow froze underfoot, shattering. Amid swirling dry snowflakes, a massive presence appeared.
A crevasse. Like a giant had slashed the earth’s surface with a crescent moon blade.
Seeking any shelter, Gamal descended into it.
No sane human would explore such a place—except, later, Dr. Mariette Blandus, who’d discover the flower there first, leading to Phlos development.
But Gamal just sought space to stay. Then her keen sense of smell caught a scent from some point.
Instinctively, she followed. Not blood, but evoking it.
Deeper in, beyond snow and ice, bare earth appeared. It felt like approaching Earth’s core. Like a ‘lost world’ might emerge.
And Gamal found it. Red flowers blooming endlessly.
If she’d known Korean folklore, she’d think she’d found the Western Paradise Flower Field. Strange flowers she’d never seen stretched beyond sight.
Mesmerized, Gamal approached. She plucked one—utterly unfamiliar. Living in forests and mountains had made her expert in plants.
But…
「Smells delicious…」
Starving, she bit into it unconsciously.
Strange taste. Bitter grass with odd sweetness. Chewing released a blood-like flavor.
Soon, she was devouring them frantically.
That was when Gamal discovered the ‘flower.’
She stayed in the cave a while, but even vampire strength couldn’t make it livable. Food was plentiful, but too cold, too empty—no one, not even animals. Madness loomed.
Days: light, snow, silence. Nights: dark, snow, silence.
Eventually, Gamal gathered as many flowers as possible and descended.
***
“Bad dreams?”
When Ivan asked, Gamal stood.
“Here.”
She went somewhere else.
The first time she saw Ivan, she thought him like Mars descending an altar. But no Mars protected her. Just another victim.
Gamal squeezed her eyes shut.
“Leave.”