“So let’s ask for some reasons. Why won’t you listen to me when I have complaints?”
Finally managing to sit beside Jeil, who was sprawled out like sun-dried fish in a spot where sunlight streamed down, I voiced my rightful grievances as a victor.
Of course, I couldn’t just sit on the sandy ground where fine sand was swirling around.
My cloak and the clothes underneath were already a mess from blood and sand, looking more like a tattered rag than anything else, but it’s a matter of mood.
I tore at the outerwear of Jeil’s uniform, who was completely out cold, and sat down on it, urging him for answers, while the pathetic loser rolled his eyes as if flabbergasted.
“You… no, forget it. I don’t have a personal grudge. It was a choice made out of necessity.”
“Necessity for what?”
“To overcome the hateful sun. If we divide a day into light and dark, that boundary is merely a fleeting moment. Yet, the moment we step beyond that instant, we are mercilessly killed. Only the Progenitor can be free from such fate.”
I remembered when I first met Martini, and she said, “Grand Duke Jeil Helraig believes that by taking the blood of the Progenitor, one can gain tremendous power.”
Was the power she sought about overcoming the sun? I thought it was simply wanting to be stronger.
Well, I couldn’t really blame her. Just looking at Plona, I understood how terrifying it was to lose power for half a day.
Since this was related to Plona’s future freedom, it was an area I was also interested in.
“Have you found a specific method?”
“To be honest, there’s nothing certain yet.”
“What the… do you want to die?”
Are these people really insane?
From the day I was born, they were so hell-bent on finding me, and now, upon seeing my face, they tried to kill me without even wanting to talk, making me think they at least had some certainty.
But? Nothing certain?!
Even with no sharp solutions, you made me break into the castle and suffer until dawn without listening to a word I said?!
“Until now, there hasn’t been a way to verify it. If the Progenitor isn’t present, nothing can be said for sure. There are only hypotheses.”
“I want to rip your mouth apart.”
“…I can’t be certain of the specific means, but I firmly believe that the True Blood holds the key.”
What makes him so confident, Jeil remained unapologetically defiant.
It felt like he was saying, “Go ahead, kill me. Even if I could go back in time, I’d make the same choice.”
Throughout today, no, among all the events over the past year, I felt the strongest urge to smack him, but regrettably, I managed to restrain myself, aware that one wrong move could actually be lethal.
I couldn’t just flip the table after coming this far. Rationally, I knew that, but it was deeply frustrating.
“And the second reason is that I cannot trust the Progenitor.”
Still feeling incredibly wronged, I managed to suppress my anger and nodded as if encouraging him to continue.
I glanced over at Plona and Eleonora, who had returned from tidying up and were keeping watch from a slightly distant shade, regaining my composure.
Right, I must not forget the initial purpose of all this suffering.
My goal was to gain reinforcements to help the Sahelrn Duchy.
For now, thanks to the sun, Jeil couldn’t brush me off, allowing for conversation, but I couldn’t do anything from my position, practically unable to kill him even if he closed his ears and laid flat.
I thought he was a typical Vampire following a strong-weak dynamic; I reckoned that if I inflicted a few hits, things would turn out okay, but I realized I was overly optimistic.
Given the good excuse of “Next, we aim for the Helraig Duchy,” I thought he was a wild card who disregarded both power and reason. Had I known that, I might have rethought the plan from the start.
But what can I do now? I’ve come this far already.
Considering sunk costs in decision-making might be irrational, but I didn’t have any sharp ideas left.
So, I had to grab any part of the negotiation that I could.
From my perspective, the barrier to break through was Jeil’s resentment towards the Progenitor.
If I could understand why he hates the Progenitor so much and prove that I’m different, only then could I sit down at the negotiating table.
A moment later, Jeil, who seemed to hesitate for a brief moment, finally spoke up.
“Well, fine. It’s merely an old tale, but it’s not something I need to keep secret.”
*
“As you might have guessed, it’s a story about the first Progenitor. The first and most powerful Vampire that once plunged the entire continent into fear. You’ve heard of it, right?”
Without looking at Aria, who quietly nodded, Jeil Helraig laid back, staring at the sky.
“That era was the golden age of Vampires. Until then, the kind called Vampires didn’t exist, so no one recognized the potential of the first Progenitor. By the time tales of the dark spirits drinking human blood stirred the continent, they already wielded power beyond control.”
The most sure-fire weakness of the Progenitor, who had boundless growth potential, was her flawed childhood.
But since the first Progenitor was the first, no one interfered with her, easily surpassing the singularity, and she and her followers rapidly expanded their power.
At that time, even the hateful sun could not hinder them. Endless nights continued, and only glory remained.
The only Vampire who could fight outdoors during the day was the first Progenitor, yet even she was feared; not even the powerful Dragonkin dared encroach on the Vampires’ territory.
“You wouldn’t know this as a Vampire born from the start, but for our followers, life as a Vampire was immensely complex.”
Born human, now no longer human.
The sun, once the source of life, turned into an object of hatred, and those once loved transformed overnight into prey.
“Did you know that the first prey our followers drink from are often their family or friends? Initially, they can’t accept reality. They foolishly believe they are different.”
Those who became followers, once human, genuinely believed they would be the exception.
They mistakenly thought that their thirst for blood could be resisted by love and friendship, thinking that they could live as humans without sucking blood.
Then, one day, they suddenly come to their senses.
And they find themselves clutching the corpses of their family and friends. The bodies of those they lost control and devoured.
“About half of them take their own lives. Those who continue living as Vampires, without exception, have overcome such a hurdle in one way or another.”
Some abandon their human values, while others commit sins, bearing guilt.
Regardless of the method, the common factor is that only those who are obsessively desperate to live can accept life as a Vampire.
“That’s why, to those followers who survived, the first Progenitor was akin to a god.”
The source of all Vampires.
The ones to blame had ended their own lives long ago.
And for those who wished to survive, the first Progenitor was the one who granted immortality and the only being to protect vulnerable followers during the harsh daylight.
It was only natural for the followers to gather around her.
“From follower to follower, the Vampires spread out across the continent like clouds. With each passing day, their power grew, and although we had to hide in the darkness of the night, we ruled firmly over the center of the Terra continent.”
During that time, everyone was full of confidence.
Jeil, Martini, and even the brothers and followers who are now long gone believed without doubt that the glorious nights would last forever.
Whenever the first Progenitor moved, that place became the territory of Vampires, with defeat being foreign to their vocabulary.
As if saying that the mundane life they led after shedding their regrets of human life was simply normal, they constructed underground facilities where they could spend time openly during the day. When night fell, they leisurely drank blood.
They thought it would last forever. Blind fanaticism clouded their eyes.
Even though all of this was tenuously upheld by that one existence known as the first Progenitor, no one suspected that she would reign forever as the king of paradise.
None doubted that the fleeting peace, so absurdly short in comparison to eternity, was nothing more than an unstable fortress built on the whims of someone.
Until that day came suddenly.
“And one day, the first Progenitor abruptly abandoned us and left.”
It was a night when she, who always seemed bored, rarely revealed emotion.
Among Martini, Jeil, and the brothers gathered together, without any prelude, the first Progenitor announced that she would leave.
“We cried and begged. Please don’t leave us.”
It wasn’t hard to imagine what would happen when the absence of a king, which they had never conceived, became real.
Especially Martini Sahelrn’s reaction was intense. She had completely worshipped the Progenitor.
“Please don’t abandon us, I’m so sorry, I’ll do better, please forgive me, at least take me with you.” She begged in every possible way, not understanding the situation.
But even after more than a hundred years spent with her followers, kneeling and crying, the Progenitor would not yield. The reason was astonishingly simple.
-I’m bored now. I want to fight with my heart racing.
With that remark, the first Progenitor vanished as swiftly as the wind.
Abandoning her followers who had followed her for over a century, discarding the dream of dominating the continent together, casting aside the promised eternal boredom, she left.
With nothing but the trivial and inconsequential reason of “I’m bored,” she etched an unhealable wound in the hearts of all Vampires.
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