The Weight of a Promise, The Burden of Love

Huh?

What!?

[True Ancestor’s Blood] typically drains thirty hit points per second from its bearer. However, considering Seraphina’s current twenty hit points, it would take roughly twenty seconds for her life force to be completely depleted.

“Also, don’t forget, you’re carrying a [Divine Blessing],” Cardo added. “It makes you immune to any external healing or purification.”

Cardo’s smile gradually twisted into something perverse.

“Right now, the True Ancestor is weak, so the [True Ancestor’s Blood] effect hasn’t fully activated yet…”

“But… if one day, she recovers her power and restarts the [True Ancestor’s Blood]’s life-draining… your life will only have twenty seconds left, you know~”

“Dying once every twenty seconds… even my little Iqiyah couldn’t withstand that kind of drain, could she?”

Upon hearing Cardo’s words, Seraphina’s eyes went wide with shock.

Cardo was right.

“Now… do you still think there’s a need to find the True Ancestor?”

“I… I’ll lead them to fight!”

Seraphina was on the verge of tears.

None of this had anything to do with her originally.

If Godia, the True Ancestor, hadn’t taken an interest in her abilities, she wouldn’t have fallen to such a plight.

‘How could this True Ancestor be so wicked!’

“Oh, little one, don’t be too sad.”

Watching the pitiful Seraphina, a warmth spread through Cardo’s heart.

“Your current predicament is, to some extent, partly my responsibility.”

As Cardo spoke, a hint of guilt flickered within them.

‘Partial responsibility? No… many things were already set in stone from the very beginning.’

“So, I’ll take good responsibility for it ❤”

“…Don’t make it sound like you’ve gotten me pregnant,” Seraphina retorted.

“Oh, don’t make it sound so ambiguous; we’ve only just met ❤”

‘That was a lie too. Of course, only Cardo knew.’

****

Bringing the perspective back to the present… To avoid suddenly dropping dead in twenty seconds on some random day in some random year, Seraphina mustered her resolve. Alongside Iqiyah and Levian, she arrived at the ancient Scarlett family manor.

Stepping into the dim, dark corridor, Iqiyah paused before the first door. It was her own room.

“Let’s start searching in my room first.”

Though her voice betrayed no anomaly, Seraphina noticed that as Iqiyah gripped the doorknob, she hesitated for half a second.

However, sensing the gazes from behind her, Iqiyah seemed slightly flustered and quickly opened the door.

‘A room untouched for millennia…’

Seraphina couldn’t help but let her imagination run wild. Would it be like something out of a vampire film, covered in cobwebs and thick with dust?

Upon entering the room, however, Seraphina realized she had been completely mistaken.

The room was exceptionally clean.

If tidiness could be quantified, then all the rooms in Blood Manor combined wouldn’t score as high as this single room. It was practically spotless.

‘My goodness…’

Looking at the slightly reflective wooden floor beneath her feet, Seraphina hesitated to even step on it.

Levian, gazing at the windowpanes that were so clean they were almost imperceptible (though, of course, they were magically connected to the celestial phenomena outside), couldn’t help but reflect on her own daily work.

Iqiyah looked at her room, virtually unchanged from how it once was. She felt as though a lemon was lodged in her throat, making it difficult to breathe and filling her with profound sorrow.

‘Father… has he kept this room for me all this time?’

Iqiyah didn’t know that Godia had instructed the manor’s maids to clean the room every twelve hours and to photograph its interior, so he could compare it with its previous arrangement.

Everything about it overflowed with Godia’s unspoken love for his daughter.

Whether this love stemmed from inherent affection or from guilt, Iqiyah felt its weight, as heavy as a mountain.

Looking forward, one could see golden-framed glass. White walls adorned with diverse, intricate bas-reliefs. A dark wooden writing desk, upon which sat a golden clock, along with ink, paper, and a pen.

Above the writing desk, a massive, golden-framed portrait of Cardo hung prominently.

Looking at the portrait, Seraphina offered a wry smile.

‘This girl… seems to have a bit of a sister complex.’

To the left, an enormous eight-meter red bed dominated the space, easily rivaling the grandeur of anything in Blood Manor.

Additionally, there was a white wooden wardrobe and a reddish-brown nightstand, topped with a lamp featuring a green shade and a golden base.

Seraphina scratched her head. “From the looks of it, there aren’t any clues about the True Ancestor here.”

“If there were any clues, they’d surely be in your father’s room, wouldn’t they?”

Iqiyah didn’t turn at Seraphina’s reminder. Instead, she quietly walked to her sister’s portrait and silently gazed at it.

“…Of course, I know what you’re saying.”

She knew, deep down, that her own room was unlikely to yield anything. Yet, she simply wanted to return to it, for no particular reason.

After a long period of silent contemplation, she finally moved, stepping behind Seraphina.

“Let’s go.”

****

Leaving Iqiyah’s room, the trio headed directly for Godia’s room.

More accurately, it was an office. It was incredibly cramped, with every inch of the space filled with various pieces of furniture.

Upon entering, they were met by a massive writing desk, where a half-used bottle of ink sat beside a neatly placed ink pen.

Behind the desk’s chair, a colossal bookshelf stretched, almost entirely filling the room.

Following the line of the bookshelf, Seraphina only discovered Godia’s bed when they reached the window.

The bed was squeezed tightly between the bookshelf and the window, so much so that even a nightstand was compactly placed against the wall at the head of the bed, making it difficult to imagine how one could retrieve anything from it.

Without hesitation, Iqiyah began to ransack Godia’s bedroom.

Seeing the mistress of the house begin, Seraphina and Levian also let loose, haphazardly rummaging through Godia’s bed and bookshelves.

“Crimson Hospital?” Seraphina pulled a thick folder from the bookshelf. “Your father was involved in this business?”

“Oh, that,” Iqiyah replied, still searching. “You know, our vampire abilities are all related to blood. So, we have a few tricks up our sleeves when it comes to treating blood-related diseases and cardiovascular ailments.”

“Holy… a Krieg family contract?”

She pulled out another folder, from which countless papers spilled out, all uniformly embossed with the Krieg family’s distinctive golden eagle emblem.

“Oh, our vampire medical skills are quite renowned, you see…”

“But aren’t humans quite prejudiced against us vampires?”

“That’s why we cooperate with their oligarchs,” Iqiyah said, looking up with a wry smile.

“Oh, I completely forgot, a few human pharmaceutical companies are coming soon to discuss contract revisions…”

“I need to go deal with them; the searching task is temporarily yours~”

With that, Iqiyah tidied her clothes and departed from Godia’s bedroom.

‘…As expected of the new Head of House, so busy…’

Seraphina felt a sense of helplessness watching Iqiyah’s retreating back.

“What else?”

Waaah!

Suddenly, Cardo’s golden figure appeared beside Seraphina, startling her.

“Hey, hey, hey… just appearing like that, is that okay?”

“It’s fine…”

Saying this, Cardo walked over to Levian, who was busy rummaging, and waved a hand directly in front of her eyes.

“See, they can’t see me.”

“Alright, alright… By the way, why are you out here?”

“What am I doing?” Cardo crossed their arms. “Giving you headless flies a hint, of course~”