Chapter 55

"Because when they killed my mom, they did this to me."

As she said it, her face showed an emotion of hatred she couldn't hide.

"A half-vampire...dhampir."

The daughter of the enemy who killed her mother. It wasn't hard to understand the meaning of the words.

"You planned to use us for revenge."

"Yes."

Lucia the Hunter said and hearing that, I asked.

"I assume you realize the cost of your actions."

"...I knew it from the beginning."

There was no way she could use the Black Snake and get away with it.

"Did you think you could get away with it?"

Scarlett, now at her side, mocked sarcastically.

"I'm afraid you're going to need a more specialized form of corporal punishment."

"Whatever you imagine, it will be more than that."

Aria, at my side, said the same.

Only Alice, as if such talk were none of her business, remains silent as she gazes at the fallen hunters.

"Otherwise, there's no point in inflicting pain."

The price of using Black Snake is never cheap. Still, her expression remains unchanged.

I am mildly intrigued by this unwavering expression and ask.

"How much do you know about pain?"

"Well, maybe nothing compared to the pain you know."

Lucia said, as if it were somebody else's business.

"The things I've been through, they're just common pain in the world."

There was a mild note of self-pity in her voice as she said it.

"It's just, it's just a little bit worse."

A pain that is common everywhere and is only slightly severe. Even without asking, I had a vague guess. Still, I wanted to ask.

"Tell me."

So I asked.

"What did they do to you?"

"Lucia, you bloody bitch...!"

"Gee, who gave a pig the right to speak?"

Scarlett smiled coldly at Billy the Hunter, who raised his voice and a scream immediately followed.

Nothing visible was cut off, but something lumpy fell from the hunter's mouth as he screamed. It was his tongue.

"Can Alice eat a pig's tongue?!"

"Hoo-hoo, tongue would be fine."

"How about the tongue, how about the tongue!"

"...Do as you please."

"Yes!"

With that, the shadow at Alice's feet laughed hysterically and swallowed the fallen tongue. Like a fish in the sea leaping up and snatching up a bird.

"Mmm, human tongues are a delicacy! Awww, it was a pig, I see!"

With that, Alice laughs like an innocent child.

Scarlett and Aria were stunned, as if they'd heard a joke but I didn't laugh.

The hunters' faces harden as they finally understand the situation before them.

They had picked the wrong opponent.

They were not afraid of death since dying for revenge would be better than anything else, so they didn't listen to the Organization's warnings.

But I never intended for this to happen.

"I don't know what they did to my mother when I was born."

As she said this, she pointed to Billy the Hunter, whose tongue had been cut out.

"But I do know that they didn't kill her on purpose, they kept her alive and tormented her until I was born-endlessly, endlessly, until I grew up-."

Lucia trails off.

"The man kept the secret about my mom, and told me he was my dad. He was strict, but he treated me like a real daughter."

I said nothing.

"I liked having a dad like that when I didn't know anything."

I just listened.

"He was like that, until one day he showed me my mom, all bruised and battered, locked in the basement."

"What did he say?"

"That this vampire was the one who killed your mom. I finally found her."

"...."

"I was angry, because I thought that monster killed my beloved mom...."

Lucia says.

"I joined in to make her suffer. I thought it didn't matter what I did because it was a monster, that it was righteous revenge, but the funny thing is...."

Her voice breaks into sobs as she continues.

"So when I was cursing her, hating her, causing her pain, my mom, my mom...."

So I waited until she stopped sobbing and regained her composure.

"Mom could have told me the truth anytime."

Still, I didn't speak.

"Until the moment I finally cut off her breath-."

For there was no telling what would happen to Lucia if the truth were known.

"They were laughing as they watched her die, a mother, at the hands of her daughter."

It's unclear whether vampires have maternal feelings, but for her, at least, she does.

"How did you know the truth?"

"My drunken 'father' told me himself, proudly bragging that it was the best pain he could have given her."

I frowned wordlessly at the words' best pain.

"Even then, after he passed out, he didn't remember anything, so I pretended not to know."

"And you still followed him even after you found out?"

"...Yes."

She had been raised by the Organization, trained by a man who had become a vampire hunter, the same way they had taught him.

Of course, he couldn't give her the same 'special treatment' they'd given her, but with vampire blood in her veins, it didn't matter.

"What are those scars on your face?"

"Marks of training."

She said,

"To them, it's a game packaged under a name like that."

That was the mark of the life she had lived, the identity of the scars on her face.

"So I've been waiting for this day."

"I see."

"For them all, for the day they would know pain for what it is."

I nodded meekly. That was the end of the story. It was a harsh story. But, as Lucia had said, it was a common pain that was everywhere.

"So, you expect us to obediently torture them as you wish."

"They insulted the head of the Black Serpent, isn't that reason enough?"

I replied, seeing the look on her face.

"You say that, and you tried to use us."

"...Yes. I'm already prepared for any pain."

Lucia nodded with determination. Seeing that, I wordlessly took the cigarette from my arms and lit it in my mouth. The embers of the cigarette sparked spontaneously.

At the same time– the hunters' bodies also ignited.

.

"!"

The screams of the male hunters echoed through the pain of burns. As they struggled in the agony of burning flesh, Lucia shouted behind them.

"You, what are you doing!"

"Didn't you say you were ready for any pain?"

I asked.

"There is no such thing as the idealized revenge you seek."

"!"

"That's your 'share of pain' for trying to use the snake."

"Well, what about them?! They insulted you, and you said you'd make them suffer worse than death!"

"Because I thought it was enough."

Her face contorts. As if the pain of being burned alive isn't enough to satisfy her, never mind their howling, glowing voices.

"Don't be ridiculous, it's not enough, it's not enough...!"

"Not enough?"

"Yes!"

"That's what you must have thought."

I said, looking at the hunters, now reduced to ashes. Losing a loved one at the hands of a vampire, they must have thought that no amount of pain was enough. In that way, there was little difference between her and those men.

"Your revenge is over. At least the last one had a miserable end, burning to death. Isn't that enough?"

"It's not enough, it's not...! What they've done to me, I still remember, I'll never forget!"

"They're dead."

I said.

"But it is your choice to remember them, to relive their pain endlessly."

In a voice that no longer held any interest for her.

"Whether you choose to live your life haunted by delusions of a past that never was, or whether you choose to put your vengeance behind you, is none of my business."

This is just a meaningless trivial incident.

"Go away. I have no business with you."

"You're letting her go?"

Aria asked from beside me and I replied.

"She has paid her price. I'm sure she's suffered enough."

"Hoo-hoo, you're the master."

"That's so Rain."

Aria giggled in amusement at that and Scarlett did the same.

"That would be worse than death."

"...."

I didn't answer. Pain, in a sense, yes. But I hadn't made that choice for the sake of pain alone.

"There is so much work to be done in the Holy Kingdom."

It was my own mercy, even if it wasn't fully realized.

"I have no time to waste on such frivolities."

*

Peter, the man from the organization who had warned the hunters earlier, was on a nearby ridge, looking through a telescope at Count Bathory's citadel.

"Foolish of you to lay a hand on the Black Serpent's Jinzo."

Mocking their foolishness.

However, after looking around for a while to see if he could see anything, he gave up and stood up.

"!"

He jumps to his feet, sensing the man standing behind him.

The man, who had been there for who knows how long, was dressed in an immaculate suit and smiling.

The smiling man is.

*

~Sometime after the assassination of the King by the Holy Maiden and the revelation of the truth about her~

With tensions on the border with the Duchy of Germania growing by the day, the people, faced with the shocking truth, decided to take action.

A revolution that would overturn the country's system from the ground up started.

"Do you want to keep this country?"

"Revolution or death!"

"Revolution or death!"

In front of the people who had begun to overturn the capital, Charlotte, the new ruler of the Holy Kingdom, bit her lip in silence.

With the loss of the country's core power at the hands of the "Black Snake" and the Holy Maiden, who has become their henchwoman, being called upon to turn the country upside down and overthrow the system.

Funnily enough, the last thing she believes are the words of the man who destroyed her entire country.

"If you want to keep it, you must listen to me from now on."

"I have no interest in the fate of this country. If you play along, I promise to keep the system and the country in its current form."

That day, she remembered what the man said to her.

Remembering the words, Charlotte said to herself.

"I'll follow your word... no matter what it is."

She begged, her voice filled with humiliation and shame, unbecoming of the new head of a nation who had succeeded the king.

"So please...keep your promise."

At this moment, to the man who had appeared at his side.