Chapter 437: The Trial That Defies Fate - 2
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 437: The Trial That Defies Fate - 2
Even the vampires, who had been standing there apathetically as if they had no interest in Lyre’s trial, were surprised by her statement. The trial everyone had expected was a kangaroo court, one that would corner the suspect with only circumstantial evidence, without any proof or witnesses.
Vampires were a nation with an inviolable hierarchy. If the Progenitor and the Elders believed someone was guilty, they could be disposed of without even a trial. Everyone had believed this gathering was nothing more than a form of entertainment.
But for the suspect to suddenly confess?
‘Is it true? A mere Yeiling killed an Elder?’
‘The rumor that she broke free from the Blood Shackles… was it really true?’
‘The Progenitor who created the shackles could sever them. But for them to be broken not from above, but from below?’
The shock was even greater because the majority of vampires hadn't thought she was the culprit. After all, the vampires, who felt the Blood Shackles more intensely than anyone, didn't think a mere Yeiling could kill an Elder.
I glanced over at where the Elders were seated. Erzsebet was smiling, Kavila was aghast, and Lunken, who looked like he'd been dragged here while just trying to have fun, seemed bored. And then there was Valdamir, staring at Lyre with a blank expression.
It was impossible to expect any change in expression from Valdamir, the most political of the already emotionless vampires. However, the inner thoughts I read with my mind-reading ability were surprisingly colorful.
‘...This is unexpected. I didn't give her any specific instructions, but I thought any vampire would naturally deny it.’
How surprising. Lyre's sudden action wasn't planned. She wasn't taking the fall for Valdamir's crime either.
Then what in the world was this?
This was getting interesting.
“…Since you have announced your own sin, you must also know the punishment you will receive.”
“I do. You will take back the blood that was given to me. That cursed…”
Lyre trailed off and lowered her head for a moment. A conflict stirred within her. A situation where she had to speak, even if she didn't want to. Lyre made her choice.
“…The Progenitor's blood that my father implanted in me.”
Lyre confessed a hidden truth. Not to avoid punishment, but to tarnish the honor of her father and liege, Elder Luscynia.
Throughout history, scandals have often been a fatal blow to those in power, but to think one would erupt in the Duchy of Mist…
While Tyr stood speechless, shocked at the claim that a vampire had a child, a commotion arose from the other side.
“Your Majesty, there is no need to hear any more!”
One of Luscynia’s Ain shot to her feet and shouted. With feathers of unknown origin standing stiffly on her, she lashed out at Lyre.
“We are different from ordinary humans. Under the great Blood Shackles, a blood-kin with whom blood is directly shared is a deeper bond than one formed merely by receiving seed! Such a base relationship is a concept that applies only to livestock! Lyre is now trying to apply the laws of livestock to vampires…!”
“That is enough.”
Swish.
A red line was drawn across her chest. The Ain stopped mid-sentence, letting out a breath mixed with bloody foam. Blood-soaked feathers scattered. Behind her bisected body stood Valdamir, holding a thin dinner knife.
Catching the vampire's upper torso as it began to fall, Valdamir spoke in a low voice.
“The Progenitor's peace is at stake. Lower your voice and show some respect.”
“Hh… my apologies…”
“For the honor of the late Luscynia, if for nothing else. Do not make me act twice.”
Thump. Having finished his warning, Valdamir placed her severed upper body back on top. More bloody foam frothed up as the severed skin squirmed and fused back together. Luscynia’s Ain, having barely survived, dropped to her knees with a thud.
Valdamir, having performed the trick of slicing a vampire in half and putting her back together, dusted off his hands as if it were nothing and spoke.
“There was a slight disturbance. My apologies for not stopping it in time, Your Majesty.”
A lie. If he'd wanted to, he could have slit her throat before she even opened her mouth. He deliberately waited until they had said their piece. He allowed their opinion to be voiced while still upholding Tyr's authority. There's no other way to describe it but utterly political.
“It is fine. I will overlook it.”
Regardless of the process, the argument from Luscynia's side was accepted as valid. Tyr, composing herself, spoke.
“She is correct. Lyre Nightingale, your relationship with Luscynia is irrelevant. He is an Elder, and you are a Yeiling of his coven. The sin of defying fate, of a Yeiling daring to kill an Elder, still stands. A great sin that has never existed until now. You must pay the price for it.”
Tyr's judgment was the most correct one. Meaning, it was the verdict all the vampires had expected and would accept. Just as Tyr was about to deliver a solemn sentence in the Progenitor's name, Lyre snapped her head up and spoke.
“I object.”
“Object?”
How dare a reactionary who shattered the Blood Shackles talk back to the Progenitor's judgment. It was unacceptable. Tyr had no intention of listening, and neither did the other vampires.
But I did, so I cut in before Tyr could say anything.
“If you have an objection to the Progenitor's judgment, you must have a very important reason, right? What is it?”
My official position was the Progenitor's consort. I myself was nothing, but my words moved the most important being in the duchy, the Progenitor. Tyr, who had been about to deliver the verdict, leaned back in her throne as if to entrust the matter to me. She was stepping back for a moment to bolster my authority.
Thanks to her, I, with my borrowed authority, permitted Lyre's objection. Lyre spoke with a vampire's characteristic indifference.
“Because my father was a man who deserved to die.”
Such an un-vampire-like family matter.
Vampires didn't pay much attention to family matters. After all, earning someone's grudge was a common occurrence over their long lives. But I was different. An Elder's family drama? How could I not be curious?
I read Lyre's thoughts. I read Valdamir's thoughts. Lyre was not the culprit, Valdamir was. My mind-reading conveyed this clear fact.
But mind-reading alone had its limits. Even if I had two books that contained only the truth, there were still dark, obscure parts. What I read was, at the end of the day, only the experiences and memories possessed by a person. The facts that remained, separate from the person, were still shrouded in mystery.
Normally, I would have just said, "Ah, whatever," and moved on. But reading their intentions with my ability made my curiosity surge.
Lyre had tried to kill the Elder.
Valdamir had tried to save the Elder.
Though the result was the exact opposite.
“The late Lord Luscynia. In other words, could you tell us why your esteemed father deserved to die?”
“He killed my mother and…”
“Whoa, whoa. If you just jump ahead like that, I can't sympathize, can I? From the beginning, if you please.”
If only to uncover the truth hidden in the darkness. I wanted to hear Lyre's story. Was it because she wasn't that old yet, or was she just special? Lyre understood my meaning and calmly began her explanation.
“My father was the Elder everyone knows. The powerful and cruel Blood Aura practitioner, Lord Luscynia. In contrast, my mother was nothing more than a refugee who had wandered in from outside the country, seeking to survive in the duchy. She had no power, no wealth, no family or friends. A drifter who came all alone, hoping to survive by selling her blood, if nothing else.”
“I think I've heard of that. There were rumors circulating in secret that the duchy was seeking blood.”
“It's true. The newly arrived refugees have a different flavor of blood than the humans here in the duchy. Therefore, vampires who enjoy fine dining often seek out these refugees to critique their blood.”
The flavor of blood was probably much of a muchness, nothing compared to the food humans eat, but it seemed that vampires who had lived for hundreds of years developed the fastidiousness to distinguish even the most subtle differences.
“My father was no different. His coven treated humans harshly, so they were always short on their numbers, and my father himself was thirsty for blood. To a father like that, refugees who lacked knowledge about the covens were the easiest prey. My father met my mother there, and something terrible happened.”
“Something terrible?”
“My mother's blood suited my father's palate. Quite well, in fact. My father, who had never taken a consort in his life, immediately made my mother his.”
“Hmm. Just hearing it, that doesn't sound so terrible. Isn't that what your mother wanted?”
It might sound terrible at first, but in the duchy, suiting an Elder's palate is a considerable blessing. One need look no further than me for proof. Just because I'm the Progenitor's consort, I can order Ain around with a nod and go wherever I please. In the duchy, where the hierarchy is absolute, a consort is a symbol of power. It's the only way to be elevated from livestock to a pet.
Lyre coolly acknowledged that fact.
“…Until then, there were no problems. My mother sold her blood, and my father tasted it. But the problem arose after that. My father was a cruel Elder, and he wasn't satisfied unless he got whatever he wanted. My mother was powerless and could only be swayed by him.”
“Well, that's unavoidable, isn't it? That's just how it is for a couple with such a power imbalance.”
“And I, too, am unavoidable. Just as a child born from such a union would be.”
Tsk. She had me there.
“And it didn't just end with discord. My father didn't want my mother to die, cutting off his supply, nor did he want her to grow old and have her blood's quality change. So my father attempted various things. Experiments… that would be difficult to proudly reveal even in the duchy.”
“Experiments, you say?”
“They are too numerous to count. Mixing her blood with that of others like a cocktail to increase the volume. Transfusing my mother's blood into a half-dead human. Attempting to modify her body. There were many attempts, but I am the most representative example.”
“You?”
Lyre explained her origin with a blank face.
“‘If the mother's blood is delicious, then the child's blood will be as well.’ With that belief, he impregnated my mother. And in the process, to test the hypothesis that blood more similar to his own would be more delicious, he insisted on using his own seed.”
“Are you saying a vampire had a child?”
Tyr reacted to the mention of a biological father, not just a sire. Unfortunately, Lyre did not give Tyr the answer she wanted.
“Vampires cannot have children. However, it is possible in cases like my father's, where the seed was preserved. Because it is the woman who carries the child in her womb.”
“So you mean a female cannot have a child…”
“A female vampire, that is.”
Lyre emphasized the point once more and continued.
“I was born to be my mother's replacement, but my blood did not suit my father's palate. It was fortunate. Had it been delicious, I might have had to carry my father's seed as well.
In any case, most of my father's attempts to preserve my mother's blood ended in failure. This was because my mother was still human, and he was worried she might die by accident. Of course, he wasn't worried about my mother, but about being unable to get any more blood from her.”
Even her cynicism was cold. The one called the Doctor Sage, in contrast to her usual kindness, recounted her past in a chilling tone.
“My father, believing all these failures were due to my mother's fragility, finally… foolishly, made my mother his own Ain.”
“I'm human, so I don't really get it. Why was that foolish?”
“Because the moment you share blood to dominate someone, the blood itself is altered. It becomes less delicious, shall we say. My mother, too, had to take the blood of others to maintain her own Bloodcraft, and my father could no longer be satisfied by her blood. He ruined his own little project, so I can only imagine how heartbroken he must have been.”
With a cold smile on her lips, as if mocking her father's past self, Lyre looked around the assembly and spoke.
“Of course, a story like this will likely not move any of you. It is too human a topic for vampires to accept.”
That wasn't entirely true. Vampires live quite closely intertwined with humans. With cold reason, they understood why Lyre hated Luscynia.
“However, there is also a reason why my father deserved to die in your eyes as well. Because the one who committed the great sin first was none other than my father.”
And from here, it entered a realm beyond their understanding. A statement that touched upon the emotional realm, a taboo for vampires, came from Lyre's lips.
“To turn my mother, who had become a vampire, back, my father researched a way to break the Blood Shackles. And he succeeded. I, who personally killed my liege and father, am the result of that success.”
Several vampires shot to their feet. The sin of defying fate, of a retainer going against their liege—that was not a concern because it was thought to be impossible. Even when Lyre was suspected of being Luscynia's murderer, it remained mere suspicion and didn't cause much of a stir.
But now it had actually happened, and the one responsible was speaking. The vampires were overcome with fear and worry. Now that even the Progenitor was free from the shackles, if a way to break them from below appeared… then lieges being murdered by their retainers might become a frequent occurrence.
Lyre continued with her statement, one that could overturn the entire duchy.
“That sin of defying fate which enrages you all—the first vampire to commit that sin was none other than Elder Luscynia.”