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A man's corpse was left behind in the room where Sharen had stayed.

Before Sharin could step in, I approached the man first to assess his condition.

And from that, I could confirm one thing.

The man's body was completely drained of blood, left utterly hollow.

As if he had been attacked by a vampire.

The moment I saw it, something clicked in my mind.

‘Come to think of it, there was a mention of a mysterious entity related to vampires in the Zerion Academy library.’

Zerion Academy has something called a “Library Quest.”

Originally, it was one of the introductory events designed to lead into the stories of ancient heroes.

You could browse through various books in the library, and among them were tomes related to mysteries.

One such book briefly mentioned a mystery tied to vampires.

‘I thought it was just a passing event.’

Who would’ve thought that the vampire mystery had resurrection-related powers?

I hadn’t anticipated that.

‘Was Vulcan recruiting the Paladin Centriol actually a clue pointing to vampires?’

To think I’d only now realize that hint.

‘It’s because I didn’t visit the library that I’m realizing all this so late.’

In my case, I already knew all the heroes.

I had no reason to go to the library—never imagined that would come back to haunt me.

“Sharin, if Sharen was here…”

“Yes, she slipped away while we were coming up.”

Sharin stared blankly out the window.

Did she jump from the fourth floor?

From the looks of it, her physical abilities seemed to have been enhanced after becoming a subordinate of the vampire mystery.

‘The condition for enhanced physical ability must have been human blood.’

Finally, I understood the clear drawback of this mystery.

Vampires are beings that live by consuming blood.

The mystery must share that same trait.

Once it tastes blood, there’s no going back.

“Sharin, we need to catch Sharen immediately.”

If we lose her now, someone else will be the next victim.

Without hesitation, Sharin opened the window and took off into the air.

“My husband.”

As I grabbed Sharin’s hand, she took off into the sky with me in tow.

Sharin clearly understood the urgency of catching Sharen.

Together, we soared through the sky.

In an instant, the view expanded and the capital of the Highsirion Empire came into full view.

Magic surged through Sharin’s body.

She was tracking Sharen.

“There she is.”

Soon enough, Sharin spotted her.

With a wave of her staff, she brought us both quickly down to the ground.

In a narrow alleyway below—

Something was sprinting at incredible speed.

It was Sharin’s mother—Sharen.

“Sharin, I’ll handle this.”

“Please do.”

With a gust of wind, Sharin conjured a transparent stepping platform.

As I stepped on it, the muscles in my legs swelled.

At their peak, I kicked off the platform and leapt into the air.

Wind howled past me, and just before the ground came into view, I extended my leg.

Boom!

With a thunderous crash, I landed and rose to my feet.

Sharen, who had been running, stopped in shock.

“You’re…”

Her eyes trembled violently.

She remembered the name I had introduced myself with.

Duke of Whitewood has long managed and dealt with mysteries.

What, then, is the job of a Duke of Whitewood’s aide?

“You’ve realized something’s wrong with your body, haven’t you?”

Sharen flinched.

She, too, knew something was wrong.

She had drained a person completely of blood, killing them.

She couldn’t possibly be unaware of the consequences.

“Are… are you going to kill me again?”

Sharen backed away.

A reddish glow flickered in her eyes.

At the same time, I could feel her eyes scanning me.

She must’ve noticed I wasn’t holding any weapons.

Even though her actions were impulsive, she didn’t seem to view them as a sin.

“That remains to be seen.”

“If you don’t kill me, I’ll surrender. I didn’t mean for this to happen. If I wanted to kill, I would’ve done it long ago!”

Sharen shouted, her voice full of frustration.

Yet her eyes clearly showed that she was analyzing me carefully.

“Then surrender. Making a bigger scene won’t help you.”

She had killed someone in the middle of the capital.

While things like this happen in back alleys, this was the capital.

Things were different here.

The empire scrutinizes its capital more than anywhere else.

No matter what, Sharen would have to pay for her crimes.

She clenched her fists tightly—

Then, slowly relaxed her arms.

“…Fine. I’ll surrender.”

Her declaration of surrender came more easily than expected.

“I hope that, because I surrendered peacefully, there will be some leniency.”

Arms limp, Sharen walked toward me.

“You see… I’m just a prostitute who’s longed for dreams she could never reach.”

Between her clenched fists, I saw her nails subtly begin to extend.

“In the end, I wasn’t a butterfly chasing dreams—I was a moth drawn to flames.”

She carefully took one silent step after another toward me.

There was no sound to her footsteps.

The distance between us shrank.

And then—

Fwiing!

With a slicing sound through the air, Sharen’s claw shot out.

But I made no move to dodge.

The claw aimed straight for my neck.

Originally, she must have planned to pierce straight through it.

Clang!

But bladed weapons don’t work on my body.

Instead, it was Sharen’s claw that nearly shattered.

“Argh!”

Sharen screamed in pain as the shock hit her hand.

Immediately, I grabbed her by the collar.

Then twisted and hurled her to the ground.

Boom!

A crash echoed as Sharen hit the ground, groaning in pain and rolling across it.

She struggled to get up.

But without hesitation, I pinned her shoulders and body down.

"Let go, let me go!"

She thrashed beneath me.

As expected of a vampire—she had considerable strength.

But I wasn’t lacking in power either.

Thanks to my body of steel, I didn’t exactly have a light physical presence.

"I'm an elderly woman! How can someone serving Lord Whitewood treat the weak this way?!"

“For someone weak, you’re pretty lively. And the moment a ‘weak’ person kills someone, they’re not weak anymore—they’re a criminal.”

Don’t try to justify yourself as a petty criminal just trying to survive.

That, I can never forgive.

"I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you, I swear!"

She started screaming, perhaps because she realized words wouldn’t work on me.

"Stop it. You're disturbing everyone around us."

Just then, Sharin arrived in front of us.

Sharen's face lit up as she saw her and cried out.

"Daughter! Please, help your mother! This person is trying to kill me!"

She screamed as she pleaded for Sharin’s help.

Could someone be any more shameless?

Judging from Sharin’s drained expression, she seemed to be thinking the same thing.

Sharen saw in her daughter’s eyes that no help was coming.

Maybe that’s why her face twisted into something almost demonic.

"What’s that face for? I’m your mother! The one you should serve and follow for the rest of your life! What, you think you’re noble just because you have the blood of the Blue Tower Master in you? You think you’re different from me? We’re the same! You’ve got the blood of a whore in you too!"

"Enough."

I quickly pressed against her throat to stop her.

Blood began to drip from her mouth.

Looking closer, I saw that her sharp fangs had torn her own lips.

With her mouth drenched in blood, Sharen trembled and laughed.

"Heh, hehehe… acting like you're different makes me sick. In the end, you grew inside me."

"Mother."

Then, Sharin spoke.

Sharen slowly looked up at her.

"I remember, just once, you told me you loved me."

Sharen gazed up with a slack, broken face.

"Was that a lie too?"

Sharen remained silent for a while.

Then, finally, a dry laugh escaped her lips.

"What are you talking about? I’ve never loved someone like you."

Whoosh—

At that moment, flames erupted around Sharen’s body.

Sharin’s staff had activated a fire spell on her.

Before she could even scream, the flames consumed her.

As I stepped away from her, Sharen burned—meeting death once again.

She had already been dead once, only revived by the power of mysticism.

Her dying again posed no problem.

But in this moment, what decision had Sharin made to burn her own mother?

My eyes turned to Sharin.

She stood there, still holding her staff aloft.

In her eyes, like galaxies swirling, raged emotions I couldn’t quite understand.

Before I knew it, I was walking toward her.

And then, I embraced her.

Sharin leaned her forehead against my chest.

Tears began to fall from her eyes.

Soon, her entire face was drenched in them.

“…I thought I’d be fine.”

Her voice barely emerged.

“No matter what she said to me, I thought it wouldn’t affect me.”

Sharen, the mother she had already cast aside.

And yet, Sharen had still been her mother.

"Maybe, husband… maybe I don’t actually know how to love."

Sharin had believed she was loved.

But after hearing Sharen’s words today, her thoughts had changed.

"The way I treat you… maybe it’s just mimicry. Just knowledge. I’ve never truly received love before…"

I held her more tightly.

“That’s not true.”

I was sure I had lost the ability to love.

But when I looked at Sharin, I often thought, Yes, I am in love.

“Sharin, what you give me is undoubtedly love.”

At my words filled with certainty, Sharin looked up at me.

“Then why… why hasn’t the love you lost returned?”

She asked me desperately.

“If I truly love you, shouldn’t your feelings have come back already?”

Sharin cried.

A child who didn’t know how to love, crying so sorrowfully.

The curse of the Veil’s Bandage is complicated.

Even to recover a faint sense of anger, I needed to experience an overwhelming emotional upheaval to break past the curse’s limits.

So to regain love… I would need something just as intense.

But the emotions surging through me now were a little different.

“Sharin.”

She stood before me, crying so bitterly.

And yet, I felt no empathy, no emotion in response.

That truth pained me, filled me with regret.

I hated myself for not being able to sincerely comfort a weeping girl.

Maybe that’s why—

The emotion stirring deep within my chest might just resemble it.

Sadness.

A feeling of grief, born from pain, that allowed one to feel empathy—for others, and even for oneself.

Sadness bloomed like a flower bud, finally breaking through the curse of the Veil’s Bandage.

“When I regain all my emotions…”

Finally.

Only now.

I feel like I can begin to understand what Sharin’s tears mean.

“Ask me again then.”

A smile formed on my lips.

It was a smile filled with bitterness and sorrow, one I hadn’t worn in a long time.

“Then, I’ll give you a proper answer.”

I didn’t want to see her crying.

"Sharin, what you need isn't tears—it's laughter."

To bring that back to her, for the first time ever, I gently pulled her cheek in and kissed her.

Sharin’s eyes widened.

It wasn’t a kiss filled with love—not yet—but at least it was an answer to her question.

Slowly, her eyes drifted shut.

The tears that soaked her lashes were finally replaced by a small, fragile smile.

The most beautiful smile she could offer.