Deep in the mountain forest, there was a small cabin. People living in the nearby villages always murmured in silence and started rumors about the old man and his granddaughter who lived there.
The rumor was that the old man had a grave sickness, and that the granddaughter was his only blood related relative left.
The rumors varied. There were some that said it was the granddaughter who was ill, and some even said it was neither, and that the granddaughter had gone mad crazy.
It was not a groundless rumor. The old man would sometimes come out near the village to buy necessary items, and each time, the old man wore a long and thick robe that one wouldn’t even be able to see his fingertips, let alone his face.
Naturally, people speculated that it was because the old man had an illness and that his face was mangled as well as his hands due to some birth defect.
There was also a reason for the rumor of the granddaughter’s madness. It was because they had seen hunters and woodcutters wandering through the forest several times, but ended up fleeing through the forest while hearing mysterious screams and shouts that frightened them to death.
“What do you say? The mountainside is quite pleasant, isn’t it?”
Frescan said as he turned back the robe’s hood. Despite being so heavily dressed, Frescan did not have a real human face since he was a Lich.
The words were directed to the petite girl, who was sitting in front of the fireplace where the embers from the fire showed her face. It was Aine.
“I’m not having fun.”
“Why? There’s plenty to eat in the mountains. Aren’t the berries pretty good here?”
Having said that, Frescan didn’t know the taste of the berries in the mountains. He thought he had eaten them before he became a Lich…… but it was so long ago that he couldn’t remember the taste.
Liches and other undead did not have to eat or drink. It was impossible to eat and taste in the first place without organs.
“There’s not only meat when it comes to eating.”
Frescan spoke in an affectionate voice. If one saw him, they couldn’t think of him as a Dark Wizard or a Lich, who once earned a name for himself and carried out numerous human sacrifices.
What did it matter though? That was back then, and this was now. That’s what Frescan thought at least.
It wasn’t hypocrisy. What was the most beautiful and brilliant emotion in the world? It was love. The noblest, truest, and purest of all, would be the love that parents had for their children.
Yes, it was paternal love, and that was what Frescan had discovered.
Frescan felt a little ashamed that he didn’t have a face that would show his affection to Aine and let her appreciate his emotional warmth.
If he could, he could have smiled at his daughter more affectionately than any father in the world.
“When are we going to the sea?”
“There’s plenty of time till then. Let’s enjoy our time here and go view the sea together.”
“I want to eat meat though.”
Aine grumbled. After the mess that had happened in the City of Endless Night, she had been having urges to binge eat meat.
(T/N : I think she is the apostle of the end or at least the Predator of Massacre. She fits the description most in my eyes haha)
It wasn’t enough to lose reason, but when the strong impulse came up, she would try to eat everything in sight.
Frescan wanted to let his daughter do what she wanted, but sometimes it was also the father’s duty to scold her and stop her from acting out impulsively.
Frescan had never been married, and never had a biological daughter. But he had a complete understanding of what he had to do as a father intuitively, because he truly regarded Aine as his daughter.
Besides, it wasn’t a good thing in the long run. If she ate all the people she saw, of course the number of enemies would increase and bounties would be put on their heads.
Most would not be able to threaten Aine or Frescan, but Frescan knew well that the world was wide and there were many people with far more monstrous powers than he could even imagine.
Because of this worry, Frescan came deep into the mountains to hide.
It was also because he wanted to do something along the lines of living a peaceful life, and to suppress Aine’s binge eating urge as much as possible. And that wasn’t the only reason.
Frescan was slightly hoping that Aine would be able to mingle with the other children. Even if it was a very small chance, he wanted her to be able to.
He knew it was contradictory to expect monsters and humans to get along, but this is also something that he felt was needed to happen in order for him to become a better father.
Frescan had never regretted being Lich, but occasionally…… He used to miss the time when he was human.
Eating delicious food, drinking alcohol to the point of being pleasantly drunk. Lying his tired body and spirit on a fluffy, wide bed to sleep.
Even if it wasn’t exactly that, just something similar to that kind of life. Frescan wanted to make children feel emotions and romance, as well as experience many things.
Life in the mountains was boring, but relaxing. While living in the mountains, he had rarely studied magic.
Frescan went in and out of town and bought daily necessities only for Aine. Never in his life, did Frescan truly enjoy day-to-day life like he was now.
“Didn’t my cooking get any better?”
“Not at all.”
Sometimes he would cook for Aine, and she always complained about the topic of eating all the dishes he placed on the table for her.
It was inevitable. This was because Frescan’s cooking, which was absolutely impossible to eat, was always a complete mess.
Frescan giggled as he listened to Aine’s grumbling.
It was at that moment that the door to their cabin was opened without either of them noticing.
It was Aine who reacted first. Her senses had been as sharp as ever since the fight in the City of Endless Night.
Aside from her poor understanding of martial arts, the strength and instinct of her body were comparable to those of those in the Realm of Transcendence.
Wha-boom !
Aine’s body flew backward as if the spring were bent and bounced. Aine’s right arm wriggles in front of the open door.
Around the cabin were various magical traps to intercept intruders.
But until the door of the cabin was opened at the last moment, Frescan and Aine had not even noticed the presence of the intruder.
“Oi don’t make such a fuss.”
Creakkkkk~
A whispering voice was heard through the crevice in the door that opened slowly. The voice made Frescan and Aine tremble.
Aine swung her right arm, which morphed into a blade, as if to deny how she felt at the moment.
As soon as the blade cut through the space at a speed so fast that it could not be seen, the Frescan heard a clear sneer from the owner of the voice.
Quaddeuk !
The blade couldn’t swing to the end of its intended trajectory. Aine’s right arm, which was connected to the blade, twisted like a snake.
The bones and muscles were smashed, and the blood vessels along with the skin were torn. But It wasn’t just the arms.
Spurrrrrrt!
Blood spewed from the twisted and torn skin as the head of Aine was smashed like a watermelon..
“What’s wrong? Don’t act like you don’t know who I am.”
“You……!”
Aine didn’t even die with her head blown straight off. Rather, the twisted body recovered and quickly regenerated as if nothing had happened in the first place.
Genniella, who was coming inside after opening the door, bared her canines in a toothy grin as she looked down at Aine.
“You’re stronger than you used to be.”
“Wha-wa….!”
Aine quickly stumbled to her feet.
Boom boom! Boom boom!
Aine’s whole body mutated. Countless blades and tentacles soared around her body and posed a threatening look at Geniella.
At the sight of the hideous figure, Geniella was not daunted at all. Standing up from his seat, Frescan trembled with astonishment.
This was a long ways away from northern Travia, where Geniella should have been located.
Why was the Queen of Vampires present? It was the same individual who hadn’t left Travia in hundreds of years!
“Don’t be too wary. I didn’t come here out of malicious intentions.”
“Th-then, why the hell are you here……?”
“Well, I think it’s time for when it has become necessary to act. Though I didn’t expect to have to act so soon.”
Geniella’s current actions were aiming to get as close as possible to the future she saw… or rather the one she wanted to see.
Of course, Geniella had no intention of explaining such a thing to Aine or Frescan.
But, what she saw through the special power she had received from a Devil, was among the several possible futures, there was one with Frescan and Aine alive together in an odd state.
‘Maybe that chimera is the Predator of Massacre?’
She actually didn’t think it to be too unlikely. The Black Heart created by Fresvan was full of possibilities that depicted the very nature of the prophesised Predator of Massacre.
But… if that chimera was the Predator of Massacre…
Geniella clicked her tongue wistfully at the thought.
Even if the level of the prophesised Predator of Massacre somehow dropped, Aine was too low of a level. The pace of regeneration couldn’t be better described, and the strength of the body was pretty good. But the way Aine utilized these incredible gifts was immature at best.
“I don’t mean to kill you or anything. You guys didn’t do anything to me in the first place to warrant your deaths.”
The future in which Aine and Frescan could be seen, it was odd because the transaction with Arbeth had happened successfully in that possible future.
In fact, even until that day in the City of Endless Night, Geniella had thought Arbeth would achieve his goal and take Aine’s body away, becoming the Predator of Massacre.
“I never thought Arbeth would die like that.”
But even up to now, Geniella didn’t know that Lee Sungmin was there that day, nor did she know there were originally two black hearts.
Not just that. In the futures she saw, Lee Sungmin was never this strong or much of a singularity.
“Did you enjoy playing house up until now?”
Geniella looked around as she spoke. The house was decorated in a way that didn’t suit her, let alone any kind of monster or undead for that matter. Geniella reached out to Aine, who stared directly at Geniella, without reducing the hostility in her gaze.
Geniella mocked Aine with a smiling face.
“An artificial creature who doesn’t even know the difference between us.”
“Huh- STOP!”
As Geniella tried to snap Aine’s body in half, Frescan rushed forward and blocked her.
Geniella grinned at the desperate expression of Frescan.
“Are you standing in front of me believing in your chance of living again due to creating a new Life Vessel?”
“Well, I just don’t want to see my kid in pain…….”
“You’re saying something that doesn’t suit you.”
“What do you want from us……? Why did you come all the way here……!”
“Why would I be here?”
Geniella uttered Frescan’s question aloud, putting her outstretched hand down.
“I’m here to take you with me.”
“…… Yes?”
“To my mansion.”
Geniella’s red eyes bent into crescents.
“In Travia.”
* * *
“Are you sure you’re alright?”
Lee Sungmin asked Scarlett with a worried face.
Scarlett, who was standing in front of the mirror with a light brown robe around her body, replied, pressing her down on her disheveled hair hard with both hands.
“What do you want to say this time?”
“It may be dangerous.”
“I think it’s more dangerous for me to stay here alone.”
Scarlett replied with a snort.
“If you and the Sima Ryunju leave me here, the Sama Order will be an empty house. Thanks to you turning the Murim Alliance into an uproar, the party’s dissatisfaction with your master and the Sama Order is increasing. What am I supposed to do when you and your master go out and attack the Murim Alliance head-on?”
“……I don’t think they’re going to do anything too rash.”
“Did they know that the heir to the Sama Order would suddenly turn their subjugation of Kim Jonghyun into a circus? You don’t know about these people. The world is wide and there are many crazy people. That includes the Murim Alliance.”
“……hmm.”
When Scarlett did not bend in her attitude, Lee Sungmin let out a forced cough as if he were embarrassed.
It’s already been planned out with Sima Ryunju.
Lee Sungmin and his master, Sima Ryunju, planned to leave the Order for the time being, and head for the headquarters of the Murim Alliance. Hearing this, Scarlett decided to accompany them, judging that it was dangerous to remain in the Sama Order without one of the two present.
“Why are you acting like this? Are you uncomfortable traveling with me?”
“That’s not true Ms. Scarlett.”
“Remember back in the day, when you left Behenger for the Shaolin? At that time, we traveled together. It’s been less than a decade ago, but I had a good time back then.”
Scarlett chuckled with such a murmur.
“At that time, you acted older than your age, but you were pretty cute because you still looked young.”
“It wasn’t cute.”
“That’s what you think. But, it’s okay since you’ve grown handsomer since. Do you know? When Kim Jonghyun was defeated, you wore a hideous skin mask. Do you know how sad I was when I thought that your face had gotten damaged beyond repair from the cuteness of youth?!”
“What’s the shame in that mask?”
“I felt sorry for your life because I thought your face was ruined.”
Scarlett giggled and teased Lee Sungmin. Then she turned around and looked at Lee Sungmin again. She grabbed the robe with both hands and twirled around as she asked Lee Sungmin.
“What do you think?”
“Pretty.”
“You’re so dull.”
Scarlett grumbled in discontent at Lee Sungmin’s blunt response.