IWTRAE Chapter 124

 124

[Check TOC of this Novel to see where to read chapter 1–117]

If there was any silver lining, it was that,even though she was only a half-blood, Lucy was still a Menorah. That meant Strigon’s abilities like [Brainwashing] or [Telepathy] didn’t work on her.

A long time had passed since Lucy had been thrown into that pitch-black prison, buried in darkness as if in a tomb.

If it weren’t for the second Menorah who came looking for Strigon-Mirkala-happening to discover Lucy trapped there by chance, she might still be imprisoned even now.

Mirkala, who was nearly as tall as Strigon, pointed at Lucy in shock and cried out in horror.

“Are you insane, Strigon? This is…!”

Lucy's body was pierced by spears, and it seemed all her blood had drained out through the wounds. Her vision blurred and her ears rang.

She could barely hear anything over the tinnitus, yet Mirkala’s scream pierced through her like a lightning strike.

“This is a replica of Mother!!”

***

The shocking revelation about her origins made Lucy feel dizzy. She couldn’t believe it.

She turned to Strigon, hoping for an explanation-some kind of denial.

Even with her blurred vision, Strigon’s expression was the one thing she could still make out clearly. For a brief moment, she could see a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance on his face.

Lucy desperately shook her head, refusing to believe what that expression implied, and shouted.

“B-but Homunculi are a failed form of magic! Even I know that making a homunculus is no different from creating a corpse…!”

She wasn’t wrong.

But Strigon was no ordinary person. Even when he was still human, he was renowned for his extraordinary magical prowess. That was why he had been chosen as the first Menorah of the Lord.

Strigon sighed quietly. Gazing down at Lucy with dry, emotionless eyes, he muttered as if talking to himself.

“A soul... you just bring it from somewhere else.”

By then, Strigon had already perfected the forbidden spell that could bind a soul to an empty vessel.

He used part of the Vampire Lord's essence to craft a body, and then transferred a soul he had previously prepared into the empty shell.

That’s how Lucy first opened her eyes.

Lucy's body, while technically qualifying as a Menorah because it originated from the blood of the Vampire Lord, wasn’t a true Menorah, she hadn’t been directly created by the Lord herself.

Her unstable magical power was also a result of her artificial origin. Her soul was unstable, so naturally, her mana would fluctuate and weaken after each use.

Even after Mirkala exposed the secret he had been hiding, Strigon remained calm.

In truth, even if Lucy had found out the truth, it wouldn’t change anything. That’s why Strigon, utterly unfazed, drove a nail into Lucy’s heart with his next words.

“I’ve told you over and over again. I’m your brother… and at the same time, your father.”

Strigon had used the soul of his own bloodline to anchor it into the homunculus body made from the Lord’s flesh, intending to control it more easily.

However, even he hadn’t expected that the homunculus body-created from the Vampire Lord’s origin-would be able to repel his mental interference.

Had he been able to brainwash Lucy, she wouldn’t have acted so freely, or become a nuisance after discovering her identity.

These dry, indifferent thoughts of Strigon’s were plain to see-he made no attempt to hide them.

His apathetic attitude, not even bothering with excuses, left Lucy stunned and shattered.

It all felt like a terrible nightmare.

But the pieces of the puzzle had already started falling into place and now the image was almost too complete to deny.

Blankly, Lucy recalled the alias she had always gone by.

Iscariot.

Strigon had given her that name because she used giant iron spikes as her weapons, like daggers.

But 'Iscariot' had another meaning: a fraud, a betrayer.

From the very beginning, Strigon had been subtly hinting that everything about Lucy was fake-a lie.

Why had all of this happened?

With hollow eyes, Lucy looked at Strigon and asked.

“Why did you create me?”

Strigon stared back at her with an unreadable expression.

Lucy hadn’t asked expecting a real answer. Normally, he would have brushed it off with, “You don’t need to know that.”

But this time, Strigon actually chose to speak.

“So I could make better use of you.”

Without realizing it, Lucy found herself listening.

She shouldn’t have.

Strigon reached out, gently brushed her cheek, and whispered.

“So you’d be more precious to me.”

“But unfortunately, you were a failure. Useless… At best, you might serve as a substitute for my mother.”

Ah.

Only now did Lucy fully understand.

Whenever Strigon spoke kindly to her, it was only to shred her heart.

The special treatment, the gentle manner-none of it had ever truly been for her. All of it had always been meant for one person only: the Vampire Lord, his mother.

With a faint smile, Strigon grasped Lucy’s face in both hands and looked down at her-like he wanted to see the hurt in her expression. Or perhaps… not even that was really about her…

“So stop making a fuss and just stay quietly by my side.”

While Lucy’s world was spinning, turned upside down, shaken to its core-Strigon’s deceitful expression didn’t waver at all.

As if he had never expected anything of her to begin with.

Only now did Lucy realize: to him, she had always been nothing more than a pet.

In the past, Strigon would never raise his voice at her. He pretended to cherish her, but the moment Lucy disobeyed even once, all that fake warmth was gone.

And it finally dawned on her-everything she had enjoyed as a Menorah was no more than a castle built on sand.

The high status that let her look down on others, the superiority she once felt.

All of it had been thanks to riding on Strigon’s coattails. Once he withdrew that support, it all vanished.

Lucy finally saw how foolish she had been.

Now that she had learned the truth of her origin, Strigon no longer felt the need to hold back-he unleashed all his pent-up frustration on her.

“I spared you, even though you were a failure. And this is how you repay me-getting above yourself and acting out?”

“…”

The old Lucy would’ve panicked, thinking Strigon was furious with her, desperately trying to calm him down and ease his anger.

But now that she realized that rage wasn’t even about her-but about his twisted feelings toward the Vampire Lord-it all just felt… hollow.

Powerless, Lucy silently endured Strigon’s wrath.

“Good. That’s right-stay still like that. The only thing of value you have left is that pretty face of yours.”

Thinking she had repented, Strigon smugly played the role of a benevolent master and set her free.

But Lucy knew: now that she had lost favor with him, being released from the prison didn’t mean her life would get any better.

And yet, strangely, life after her release wasn’t that different from before.

Wearing a luxurious dress-so expensive that even most human nobles couldn’t afford it-Lucy strolled leisurely through Strigon’s castle. Her days in the dungeon now felt like a distant lie.

Strigon’s behavior was also just as deceptive.

He approached her again with the same tender face he had worn before.

“When I saw this necklace among the offerings from the bloodline this time, it reminded me of you.”

“…”

“As I thought-it suits your neck beautifully.”

But Lucy’s heart no longer fluttered at his words. On the contrary, it made her feel sick.

This castle was nothing more than a stage for Strigon’s puppet show, and she was just one of his dolls, forced to dance to his satisfaction.

She understood that clearly now.

Dressed up prettily according to Strigon’s wishes, smiling as expected… yet to Lucy’s eyes, all of it now looked warped, like a world seen through broken glass.

Still, no matter how much she hated the world she was trapped in, she was far too weak to resist Strigon.

Perhaps because she had once tried to escape, the surveillance around her became even more suffocating.

Only thanks to her continued obedience and effort to stay in Strigon’s favor did she eventually earn permission, after several years, to leave the castle under his watch.

All of Lucy’s quiet compliance had been for this moment.

She had waited patiently to stop whatever it was Strigon was planning-to uncover what he wanted to use her for, and in the end, to ruin the grand scheme he had so meticulously built.

Smuggling away the human he wanted to capture alive was also part of the plan. And since that human turned out to be Laurus, the very one she had longed to reunite with, there was no reason to hesitate.

Lucy felt no guilt about it.

She wanted to deliver at least a fraction of the betrayal and despair she herself had felt-back to Strigon.

And for that… she would do anything.

Her alias, Iscariot, had yet another meaning.

It meant: The Betrayer.