Chapter 127
Chapter 127
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 127
Chapter Title: Epilogue
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Part 1 Epilogue
Ha-yun
Lustrous silver hair, eyes like glass orbs filled with crimson blood.
Elegant eyelashes and a muscular frame that perfectly filled out a red semi-formal suit.
The man, who brought the word "aristocrat" to mind at first glance, gripped the black-haired woman's chin between his thumb and forefinger.
He stared into her black pearl-like eyes as if he would devour them.
Perhaps finding his gaze burdensome, the black-haired woman struggled to turn her head away, but the man's firm grip forced her to meet his eyes.
The man, Adrian, spoke.
"I've found Lee Si-woo."
Was it because she had heard the unimaginable?
The black-haired, freckled woman, Ha-yun, widened her eyes.
"...What?"
The end of Ha-yun's voice trembled faintly.
Something about Ha-yun's demeanor, looking at him like a frightened skylark, must have displeased him. Adrian spoke in a cold voice.
"Why? Do you not believe me?"
"He... Si-woo... Where is he?"
Adrian's pale hand, with blue veins bulging, wrapped around Ha-yun's white neck.
At his touch, which felt like a snake affectionately coiling around her throat, Ha-yun flinched.
"I invited a summoner and had him summoned personally."
"You summoned Si-woo? Yourself?"
"Yes, for you."
"For me? What do you mean by that..."
"I hated seeing you sad, and the sight of you longing for him was an eyesore. So I took him. If I have him, you'll no longer search for that man in my presence."
"...Where is he? I need to see him right away."
Adrian twisted his lips into a smirk and roughly snatched Ha-yun's white wrist.
A fierce breath, like the growl of a wounded wolf, tickled her neck.
Startled by the hot breath, Ha-yun stepped back, but Adrian pulled her wrist, drawing her into his embrace.
Adrian whispered in her ear.
"Do you have any idea how much wealth it takes to invite a summoner? They are a notoriously stubborn bunch, unlikely to move even for the price of a picturesque castle. And yet... you intend to see him without paying me anything?"
"What... what do you want?"
Adrian's lips drew so close they nearly touched Ha-yun's earlobe.
He whispered.
"You."
"That... I can't. No, I won't."
Was he disappointed by her firm refusal?
Adrian roughly shoved Ha-yun away.
Ha-yun sank powerlessly to the floor.
Adrian shouted at Ha-yun, who was looking up at him with tear-filled eyes.
"Why—!"
Crash!
Adrian's fist shattered the glass window. The maids, startled by the shout, rushed over, but they retreated in shock at Adrian's fierce glare and voice.
"Get out! Don't let anyone in here! No one, until I call for you!"
As the maids withdrew, their faces pale, Adrian knelt before Ha-yun and gently brushed the glass shards from her hair.
"Ha-yun. I don't know why I'm like this either. I don't know why I'm clinging to a mere human woman like you, or why my heart aches just from looking at you. So at least pretend to consider it. Pretend to weigh me against him."
"I can't do that."
"Why not? Was he that good to you?"
"No. I can't say he was. He killed my father, after all."
Adrian's eyes shot up. It was the first time he had heard this.
"...He's your enemy. Then why do you still wait for him, long for him?"
"Because he made me this way. So that I can't even breathe without him. So that life has no meaning without him. That's how he... taught me, and drove me."
"That hardly seems like love, does it?"
Ha-yun spoke with a sorrowful smile.
"Love? Our relationship isn't something so beautiful. We crave each other, obsess over each other, and are mad for each other. Even though he's my father's killer... even though he abandoned me, I still long for his touch so much that I lose sleep at night. So please, my lord. Give up. I... cannot go to you."
Adrian pleaded with a sorrowful voice.
"...I will take his place. I will fill his void. I will satisfy your craving."
"You can't. I'd rather die pure than go to him sullied. So don't touch me. Or rather, just break me, torture me, kill me. I'd be happier dying with a clear conscience before him than living in shame."
Adrian let out a low laugh.
The madness seeping from that sinister laugh made Ha-yun lower her head.
Adrian looked down at her with bloodshot eyes and said.
"Even if I... kill him?"
"...My lord."
Adrian gently stroked her black hair and said.
"Fine. It seems it will be difficult to take you as my consort. And you won't become my vassal, either. You don't want to be bound to me."
"Yes. That's right."
As if trying to bewitch her, Adrian whispered with a sweet breath.
"Then what about a True Progenitor?"
"A True... Progenitor?"
"Deep within my family's estate lies a drop of blood from my ancestor, the one known as the first vampire. Drink it. Then you can become a member of my family. And you can stand on your own, belonging to no one."
"And if... I don't wish to?"
"I will kill Lee Si-woo before your very eyes. I'll tear him to shreds and feed his corpse to the dogs."
At Adrian's threat, Ha-yun crumbled.
"...Why are you doing this? Even if I become a True Progenitor, I won't belong to you."
"True, you won't belong to me. But at the very least... we can build a bond and a sense of kinship as the same species."
Faced with Adrian's inexplicable obsession, Ha-yun clenched her fists.
Realizing she couldn't escape this man, no matter how hard she tried, she reluctantly opened her mouth.
"Let me... let me see Si-woo, and then I'll decide."
Adrian gently swept Ha-yun's straight hair, which cascaded down like a black waterfall, with his index finger and said.
"Very well. But... become a True Progenitor first. It won't be too late to meet him after that."
A red glint flashed in Adrian's eyes.
'Yes, I knew you would willingly become a True Progenitor to save Lee Si-woo. Even if this is all a lie... Of course, you may resent me for today's events. But it doesn't matter. I will make you the greatest jewel of the Demon Country, I will cultivate you like a flower. So that everyone... will look up to you.'
Adrian's lips curled upwards.
'Lee Si-woo cherished you so much he wouldn't even let you dress up... but I'm different. I'm not cut from the same cloth as that narrow-minded fool. Yes, I will make you the most beautiful woman in the Demon Country. But... will he even be able to recognize the changed you? With a new name, a new face, a new species...'
He would make Ha-yun a woman desired by all, and he would raise a human woman with a similar appearance to present before Lee Si-woo when he one day appeared.
And then, what if Lee Si-woo couldn't recognize her?
What if he turned his back on the beautified Ha-yun and chose the empty shell of her past self?
Even then, would Ha-yun still want to stay by Lee Si-woo's side?
'When the heart grows distant, the body follows. Yun. You may long for Lee Si-woo now... but I am certain. Before the passage of time, your feelings will not just rust, they will rot away completely.'
***
Jin
Crack!
The black whip left a red mark on the white-haired young man's body.
His once jade-like flesh was stained with blood, and his flawless skin was covered in hideous scars.
The handsome, white-haired young man, Jin, spoke with a dry smile.
"If this is all you have, I'm disappointed."
Provoked by Jin's taunt, the muscular, bull-headed monster, a Minotaur, let out a roar and swung the whip fiercely.
Crack!
Blood splattered, and skin was mangled.
But no amount of pain could wipe the smile from Jin's face.
"This is nothing... This is nothing..."
How many years had he spent alone after betraying his brother?
When he recalled those days when his heart felt like it was being torn apart, the pain of this moment was nothing.
His brother's black eyes as he looked up at the younger sibling who had betrayed him.
The yellow eyes of the woman who had whispered words of love until yesterday, as she pressed a knife to his heart and demanded his divinity.
And then the day he let her go, after one last kiss, as she passed all responsibility onto him.
Compared to the pain of that day, this mere physical torment didn't affect him at all.
"The funny thing is... when that woman left me... rather than feeling resentful... damn it... Brother. I'm sorry. But I had no choice. You... you were trying to abandon us... You were going to leave us and become human..."
As Jin's voice broke, the Minotaur, thinking his torture was finally taking effect, roared and continued his brutal whipping.
With the sound of tearing flesh, Jin's body swayed from side to side.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry for everything... I just, I just... didn't want to be alone. I was afraid that if you became human, and she followed you, I would be left all alone... That's why I betrayed you. I know it's a cowardly excuse. But... I hate being alone... It's so lonely."
The despair of the moment he carved out his brother's heart, the ecstasy of the moment he stole the woman his brother loved. Now, they were all meaningless.
That woman had passed her memories onto him and forgotten everything.
And that wasn't all. His brother had forgotten everything too.
So, in this world, he was the only one left to bear all the memories, responsibilities, and guilt.
Crack!
A diagonal red line was drawn across Jin's face.
Blood seeping from the wound left by the whip mixed with his tears and rolled down his chin.
"But don't worry anymore. The part about poison was a lie, but the part about me dying soon wasn't. You can live happily now, in a world without me. A world without traitors or betrayers. It's just... the one thing that bothers me is..."
Suddenly, a pair of yellow eyes surfaced beyond his eyelids.
The one who was once his brother's woman, and in the end, his own.
The woman who had wanted his brother, but was ultimately abandoned by him.
She who was like a scorpion, like a viper, but had always been kind to him, and in the end, sweet.
"The day I no longer have any lingering attachments to this life. On that day, I will make my last wish to her. I'll wish for her to never approach you again, to forget everything about you, and to never interfere with you... That should be alright, right? You'll... forgive me, won't you?"
But why?
He could let go of his attachments right now and make his wish to her.
But Jin couldn't do it.
'Perhaps, I still...'
A drop of blood hanging from the tip of Jin's chin fell forlornly.
For a long while, only the sound of the whip echoed within the shadowed cell.
Rustle.
Jin, who had lost consciousness, barely managed to lift his eyelids.
The torturer from Black Night had asked no questions, only inflicted pain upon him.
It seemed their plan was to wear down his spirit, to make even living an agony, and on that day, ask him everything about Lee Si-woo.
Drip, drip, drip.
The cracked wall of the cell.
Through a gap where droplets of water fell like dew with a certain rhythm, a faint moonlight seeped in.
Jin, who had been staring blankly at the moonlight, raised his mangled right hand.
Then, from the palm of his hand, a single blue butterfly took flight.
This blue butterfly was a memory, it was the past, it was a fragment of his sin.
As Jin watched the blue butterfly, infused with his memories and recollections, as if mesmerized, he heard a presence nearby.
Hee.
Through the gap under the cell door.
Through the opening where the meal tray passed, two round eyes were curiously watching Jin and the blue butterfly.
The owner of the two eyes, having met Jin's gaze, seemed embarrassed and quickly raised their head.
But was the blue butterfly too impressive?
The owner of the round eyes pushed their soot-stained, cute face back into the gap of the cell door.
The appearance of the unexpected visitor, a little kid, was briefly unpleasant.
But soon, Jin found some comfort in not being alone and closed his eyes.
A wave of drowsiness suddenly washed over him.
***
Yellow Eyes
A magnificent, pure white vanity.
A beauty with ash-grey hair sat before it, carefully arranging her hair.
Her hair, the color of settled grey ash, was bleak yet strangely captivating. After tying it into a ponytail, she painted her lips with pink lipstick.
Beneath long, grey eyelashes, yellow eyes like the full moon appeared in the mirror.
"I wish he would hurry up and use his third wish."
An androgynous voice, reminiscent of a beautiful boy's clear tones. Flawless features and thick eyebrows.
The beauty, with an allure so captivating one could get lost in her gaze, gently traced her lips with her index finger and murmured.
"That's why I took his power, so why won't he use it? Jin. Isn't it painful? Don't forget. You can escape that place anytime, if only you use your third wish."
As she stroked her hair, which fluttered in the breeze, she let out a sultry nasal sound and tilted her head back.
"You need to use the third one... so that he can become mine even a day sooner."
Why was it?
Whenever she thought of the last contractor, her heart would pound.
Eyes as melancholy as storm clouds. A shadowed, expressionless face.
But when he smiled, he had an air of warmth, like a bonfire in winter.
Thinking of that man, she smiled without realizing it.
She didn't know why.
From the first time she saw him in the ruins, she was drawn to him, wanted him.
It was as if she had come across a beautiful, precious jewel she had long since forgotten.
Dressed in an evening gown that revealed the lines of her divinely sculpted figure, she rose from the vanity.
"Lee Si-woo..."
Savoring the name that resonated so pleasantly, she smiled.
On the table beside her vanity, a faceless mask glittered silver.