Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1942: Blood Remembers: Part-1

Alucard Xal’thren’s POV / Aether’s POV

“Among all my kin, you two were the only ones born to disgrace me.”

I spoke with undisguised contempt, my fingers tightening around their hair as I dragged them down the corridor toward their useless mothers’ chamber.

Their feet struggled to keep pace with mine, but I paid no attention to their pain.

Their suffering meant nothing to me.

“F-Father… It hurts,” Aurelia cried, her trembling hands reaching for my wrist as tears streamed down her cheeks.

“N-No!” Morgana clenched her teeth, her tearful eyes filled with fear as she struggled against my grip.

“Silence!” I commanded, my voice cutting through their cries.

“Your very presence disgusts me. I explicitly forbade your mothers from allowing you anywhere near me, yet you dare to disobey my command?”

Morgana trembled beneath my grasp, struggling to speak through her fear.

“B-But today is Father’s marriage. W-We only wanted to see it. Is that truly a crime?”

I let out a cold, humourless scoff.

“A crime? You dare question me about what is right and wrong when you have failed at the very purpose of your existence? You two are nothing but disappointments, yet you presume yourselves worthy of standing beside me on such an occasion?”

As I reached the chamber, I delivered a single kick to the door.

Inside, Lilith lay motionless upon the bed, her once-regal figure reduced to a frail body with drooping eyes and pale, clammy skin.

Beside her, Mary tended to her sister, carefully feeding her.

The sudden crash startled them both. Lilith’s heavy eyelids lifted, while Mary immediately turned toward the entrance.

Their expressions changed the moment they saw me standing there, dragging their daughters by their hair.

Before either woman could utter a word, I released my grip and flung the two girls toward them as though discarding worthless objects.

Mary hurriedly reached out and caught them before they struck the floor, stumbling backwards from the force. She wrapped her arms around their trembling bodies, shielding them against her chest as their frightened cries filled the chamber.

“YOU!” Mary screamed, glaring at me with fury burning in her eyes.

I turned my gaze toward her.

Her expression stiffened.

The anger remained, but her body instinctively recoiled as the difference between us became painfully clear.

“A mere impure Vampire dares to direct such a gaze at me?” I asked, my voice quiet enough to make the threat within it unmistakable.

Mary tightened her embrace around the girls, lowering her head. “Forgive me… My Lord,” she murmured, though the hatred shimmering in her eyes betrayed every word.

A faint smile touched my lips.

Even in submission, she struggled to conceal her resentment.

How amusing.

The weak always mistook their hatred for courage, never understanding that defiance meant nothing when they lacked the power to make it count.

I stepped farther into the chamber, my footsteps echoing across the cold floor. My gaze passed over the three women before settling upon Mary, who continued to hold the children as though her arms alone could protect them from me.

“Did I not tell you to keep your useless children away from me?” I asked.

Mary lifted her head, pressing the trembling girls closer to herself. “They were your children too!”

“Children?” I repeated before releasing a faint laugh. “Mine? Do not insult me by placing such a title upon these failures.”

I extended one hand toward Lia, who immediately flinched beneath my gaze.

“Look at her. Her vessel is so pitifully weak that it can barely sustain the bloodline she inherited. What purpose does a child serve when even her own existence is a testament to inadequacy?”

Lia lowered her head, her small body trembling uncontrollably as she clung to Mary’s clothes.

I shifted my attention toward Morgana, who had buried her face against Mary’s shoulder.

“And then there is her,” I continued, my expression hardening.

“A child who possesses neither the strength of my blood nor the qualities of her mother.”

Morgana’s eyes widened with terror, and she pressed herself closer to Mary.

Neither girl dared to answer.

My gaze eventually settled upon Lilith.

The former Queen of Succubi lay upon the bed, struggling to raise her trembling arm toward her daughter.

I watched her struggle for a moment before stepping closer.

“Tell me, Lilith,” I said, my voice carrying a trace of mock curiosity.

“Is this child even ours?”

Lilith’s fingers came dangerously close to reaching her daughter before I struck her hand aside.

The sharp movement forced her arm back onto the bed, and she winced, her face twisting with pain.

I regarded her without the slightest hint of sympathy.

“The Queen of Succubi,” I murmured, shaking my head in disappointment. “A title that once commanded the respect of an entire race, reduced to this wretched state. Such a useless thing!”

“Stop it!” Mary suddenly shouted, her voice trembling with fury as she held both girls against her.

“Sister is not useless! She became like this because of you!”

I turned toward her, my expression remaining perfectly composed.

“Because of me?” I repeated.

“You blame me for the consequences of a body that failed the moment it bore a child. She is too weak to bear my child… that’s her fault, not mine!”

Mary’s fingers curled into fists. “You could have helped her! You had the power to do something, yet you simply watched her suffer!”

“And why,” I asked, taking one measured step toward her, “would I waste my time and resources on something that offered me nothing in return?”

My gaze drifted toward Lilith, then toward the two girls trembling in Mary’s arms.

To me, these women and their children were nothing more than potential instruments in my search for a vessel capable of containing ‘that’. Their feelings, their suffering, and their pathetic pleas held no significance beside the objective I sought to achieve.

I had no intention of wasting my time on a woman who had become little more than a burden, much less on children who had already demonstrated their inadequacy.

Mary stared at me, her lips trembling as she struggled to contain her anger.

“W-We are your brides… Your par—”

Slap!

My palm struck her cheek before she could finish speaking.

The girls recoiled in terror, while Lilith’s eyes widened helplessly from the bed.

Mary remained frozen, one hand slowly rising to her cheek.

I regarded her with cold indifference before speaking.

“Bride?” I asked. “You seem to have misunderstood the nature of your position, Mary Scarlet.”

I leaned closer, ensuring that every word reached her ears.

“Remember your place. You are my slaves, Mary Scarlet.”

Mary lowered her head in obedience.

Without wasting another moment, I turned and left the chamber to continue with my next marriage. I had no intention of wasting any more of my precious time on such useless things.

And…. I, Aether, watched everything that had transpired through Alucard’s POV, utterly shocked by what I had witnessed.

Mary, the woman I knew, was nothing like the person I had just seen.

She looked like someone I had never encountered before.

But what shocked me even more was the woman lying on the bed… Lilith.

Morgana’s mother.

Her body looked as though she had been starved for months, with her bones protruding beneath her skin.

And yet, despite her deteriorating condition, her beauty remained untouched.

Even after losing almost everything, she still looked breathtakingly beautiful, like a flower plucked from its tree, its delicate petals slowly withering as it waited for the inevitable end.

Ba-dump!

I froze when I felt my heart skip a beat.

No, it wasn’t because of her beauty or anything of that sort. It was something else, something I couldn’t quite understand.

For some inexplicable reason, I felt as though I wanted to cry.

There was sadness and loneliness in her eyes, a sorrow so profound that I could almost feel its weight pressing against my chest.

Was she affecting me somehow?

I didn’t know. But as I continued looking at her, I somehow understood what she wanted. Even in her miserable condition, she had only wanted to save her child and protect her from everything happening around her.

Just like… my own mother.

For a brief moment, my mother’s face overlapped with that of the woman lying on the bed, and I found myself staring at Lilith in silence.

When I turned my attention toward Morgana, I couldn’t find the words to describe what I felt.

I could only watch as she cried in Mary’s embrace, her little body trembling as she desperately clung to the only person she had left.

Then I looked at Lia, and my confusion deepened.

Splash~

The sea of blood swallowed me once again, and my vision blurred before gradually becoming clear…

“P-Please forgive me, Father! I-I won’t come near you again! Please, please don’t hurt M-Mother! I-I will do anything you say… P-Please, N-NO!”

The blue-haired little girl, Morgana, knelt before me, crying uncontrollably as she begged me to stop. Her tiny hands trembled against the cold floor, and tears streamed down her cheeks as she looked up at me with desperate, pleading eyes.

“ALUCARD!! STOP!!!!!”

A furious voice erupted through the chamber, its sheer intensity shaking the palace. I glanced to the side and saw Mary struggling in the grasp of my other partners, who held her effortlessly as though she weighed nothing.

Finally, I lowered my gaze toward the woman kneeling before me.

Lilith was shackled in heavy chains, her body covered in wounds. Her once-radiant face had grown pale, and her breathing was weak and uneven.

Yet, despite the pain ravaging her body, she raised her eyes to meet mine.

There was no remorse in them, nor was there any hatred.

Only acceptance.

It was as though she had already accepted the fate awaiting her.

I regarded her coldly. “You dared to enter the forbidden zone and attempt to steal what belongs to me. Do you have anything to say in your defence?”

Lilith merely smiled, blood staining the corners of her mouth.

“No, my Lord… Just don’t harm our daughter,” she whispered as she slowly raised her shackled hands toward me.

I stared at her with cold, unyielding eyes.

For a brief moment, Lilith turned her gaze toward Mary, who was desperately struggling against the people holding her back. Her lips parted, and a faint, sorrowful smile appeared on her bloodied face.

“Thank you for everything, Sister,” she whispered.

“N-No… N-NOOO!”

Chuck!

Before anyone could react, I plunged my hand into her chest and tore her heart from within.

The frail heart rested in my grasp, weakly beating for the final time as blood trickled between my fingers.

Thud!

Lilith’s lifeless body collapsed onto the floor. Her eyes remained fixed on her daughter’s horrified face, as though even in her final moments, her only concern had been the child she was leaving behind.

Morgana stood frozen, unable to utter a single word. Her tear-filled eyes stared at her mother’s lifeless body, and her trembling lips parted as though she wanted to scream. Yet no sound came out. She could only stand there, lost in a moment of horror too immense for her young mind to comprehend.

Blood slowly spread across the floor, creeping toward my boots until it stained their polished surface.

“Tsk. Clean this up,” I said with clear annoyance, glancing down at the blood on my boots.

“I despise having her disgusting blood touch me.”

With that, I turned and walked away without another word, leaving behind the bloodied chamber… and a little girl whose world had just been torn apart before her eyes.

And I, Aether, silently swallowed everything I had just witnessed. I didn’t know why, but my heart trembled at the sight of Lilith’s lifeless body and Morgana’s broken eyes, which seemed to have lost everything they once held dear.

And Mary… she looked as though something inside her had completely shattered. She couldn’t do anything other than stand there and watch the horror unfold before her eyes, powerless to save either her sister.

I quietly sighed. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if all of this had driven them completely insane.

After witnessing such cruelty from someone who was supposed to be their father and husband, who could blame them?

Splash~

The sea of blood swallowed me once again, and my vision gradually cleared as another scene unfolded before my eyes.

Mary was holding Aurelia’s lifeless body in her arms.

She had died too, following Lilith’s death.

Her death had been caused by the health complications she had suffered since birth. Her body had been frail from the moment she entered the world, and it had already been determined that she wouldn’t survive for long.

So, fortunately for me, her own fate had finally claimed her.

Nothing else I did!

I had barely given her a second glance. After all, I considered it a blessing not to have such a useless member among my kin.

“If you have nothing else to say, then leave.”

I waved my hand dismissively at Mary.

Who would want a dead body occupying their throne chamber?

Mary didn’t respond. She simply stared at me with cold, indifferent eyes, her expression so devoid of emotion that it almost seemed as though she were looking at a complete stranger.

I frowned at her reaction.

“What? Do you think I had something to do with this?”

My other mates in the throne chamber immediately burst into mocking laughter.

“Haha! Has she decided to blame our Lord for this?”

“She must be insane to think our Lord caused this! That useless thing was born ill!”

“Indeed! She was never worthy of carrying our Lord’s bloodline in the first place!”

“She should be grateful that she died so quickly. Otherwise, who knows how much longer our Lord would have had to tolerate such a pathetic creature?”

“Lord, please give me another child so that she could at least have something competent… ahaha”

Their cruel words echoed throughout the chamber, striking Mary’s ears one after another. Yet she continued staring at me with those same cold eyes, refusing to offer even the slightest response.

For some reason, her silence amused me even more.

Her expression gradually twisted with fury, and for a brief moment, she looked as though she wanted to tear every single one of us apart with her bare hands.

“Hahahaha!”

“Weak!”

“You’ll die just like your pathetic daughter!”

“Hahaha! Bitch, you’d better be careful not to anger our Lord!”

Everyone continued hurling insults at her, their laughter and wicked remarks filling the chamber with an unbearable atmosphere of cruelty.

Suddenly, a small, trembling hand tugged at Mary’s clothes.

Morgana.

Mary’s expression faltered as she glanced down at the little girl. For a brief moment, she seemed lost, as though she had forgotten where she was or what she was supposed to do next.

Then, without uttering a single word, she turned around and walked out of the chamber, carrying Lia’s lifeless body while Morgana followed beside her.

I watched them leave without the slightest change in my expression.

To me, everyone was nothing more than a mere slave.

Their lives and deaths had nothing to do with me. If they survived and proved useful, I would reward them accordingly.

If they died, then that was simply their fate.

I had nothing to do with it!

As long as I found the perfect vessel, everything would eventually fall into place.

That was what I believed.

At least, that was what I believed until—

SSSHHHHNNNN!!!!!

A sudden brilliance of rainbow-colored light descended upon my palace, illuminating the entire palace with an overwhelming radiance.

Huh?

Now, that was new!

I raised an eyebrow, staring at the extraordinary phenomenon unfolding before me. There was only one being capable of producing such a ridiculous display of brilliance.

Had Arcane finally decided to choose my mates?

How merciful of her to finally acknowledge her brother’s worth!

A faint, amused smile crept across my face as I turned toward the source of the radiant light.

“Have you finally realised your brother’s worth, Arcane?” I called out, my voice dripping with mockery.

“How touching. I was beginning to wonder whether you had forgotten that you even had a brother.”

I immediately approached the source of the brilliant light, eager to see which fortunate woman my dear sister had finally chosen.

However, as the radiant glow gradually subsided, the figure within it became visible.

And the instant I recognised who it was, my expression turned utterly ugly.

“Mary…”

“Hehehe~”

Bathed in the brilliant, multicolored radiance, Mary stood before me with a wicked grin and a twisted smile, looking at me as though she had just won something far more valuable than I could possibly imagine.

For a moment, I simply stared at her, unable to process what I was seeing.

Then my face turned beet red with fury.

“ARCANE!!!!”

My furious roar thundered throughout the entire Empire, shaking the palace to its very foundations.

I knew it.

I knew she had done this on purpose!

That BITCH!

Splash~