NAPE - 73

The emergency exit was extremely narrow and dark, like a ventilation shaft. It was barely wide enough for an adult to crawl through. Bibi, being small, moved easily, but Namwon struggled immensely, like a snake shedding its skin.

“Why the hell did he tell us to go to the basement? If it were up to me, I’d just charge right in, but that River guy’s been taken hostage... Ugh.” Namwon, crawling ahead, grumbled. Finding the mansion was fine.

Bibi, who had smelled Doyoon’s blood and was ready to rush in, was persuaded to infiltrate instead. While River contacted Isabel, they used the emergency passage on the first floor to crawl up to the attic and observe the situation. But then River got caught.

“Even if River hadn’t been caught, it would have been disadvantageous for us. They have a lot of numbers, and they’re all armed. Doyoon... he was injured and trapped in an iron cage.” Bibi said, watching Namwon’s waddling backside. Her voice sounded calm, but in fact, her mind was in complete chaos. Through Doyoon and the Trainer’s conversation, Bibi finally understood her exact birth background.

—She got pregnant. That bitch. She was carrying that cunning Executioner’s brat.

—She was still an untainted pureblood vampire. So I decided. I would raise her meticulously as a family member solely for myself. And at the same time, gradually gather useful vampires around her using her.

In fact, the revelation that the head of the Executioner Ecstecold’s family was her father was less shocking than the fact that the Trainer was her blood relative, her uncle.

She had been raised by the very enemy who had eliminated her father and mother, treated worse than a slave. He exploited and brainwashed her, yet he used the word “family.” A wave of molten lava crashed through her chest.

This feeling was so unfamiliar and painful. Bibi compressed her breath and exhaled slowly.

“Family is often the most vicious,” Namwon muttered from ahead, apparently noticing her disturbed breathing.

“...The Trainer isn’t my family.”

“Then I should correct that to ‘bloodline is often the most vicious,’ I guess.”

He spoke like someone who had gone through terrible experiences and was fed up with it. For the first time, Bibi felt curious about Namwon.

“...What about your bloodline?”

“Me? Hmm... My family’s bloodline is messed up too. My mom was the mistress of a big corporation chairman. When I was little, she dragged me around everywhere, badgering relatives for money. So as soon as I became an adult, I declared severance and ran away. Ugh, I don’t even want to associate with them anymore.”

“...You were the son of a big corporation chairman?” Bibi’s eyes widened at the unexpected revelation.

“Yeah. But I didn’t have an easy upbringing. I have three older half-brothers, and do you think those bastards saw me in a good light? They constantly picked on me. But well, since middle school, I got bigger. So they couldn’t openly mess with me and resorted to secretly playing dirty tricks. Oh, don’t pity me, okay? I’m perfectly happy. If only it weren’t for this... crappy crawling situation right now.”

“Why pity Namwon? I had a much harsher upbringing.” Namwon chuckled at Bibi’s words.

“That’s true... Hey, wait. Did you just... call my name!?”

“So what?”

“Whoa, damn, I think this is the first time you’ve called my name. Did you finally memorize it? Wow. I thought you were dumb. Not bad, huh?”

At first glance, it sounded like a compliment, but on second thought, it felt like an insult. Bibi narrowed her eyes.

“Do you want your butt bitten?”

“Hey, we’re here.” Namwon reached the end of the passage and straightened up. Bibi followed him, raising her waist and looking around the basement.

The moment she looked around, the olfactory stimulation hit her first. The musty smell of mold and a peculiar dampness that had accumulated. Wait, this was... a familiar smell. The blurry remnants of memories swirling in her mind became clear, and things deeply buried in her subconscious erupted.

Bibi’s legs gave out, and she sank to the floor. She looked around the basement, which was like her hometown. That’s right... it used to be this dark. There were so many rats and cockroaches; she used to hear rustling in the corners every time she slept... There’s the bed over there... and she used to measure her height on this pillar here. And...

“That woman, that woman was here. With me...”

The smell of blood, the animalistic cries the woman made when giving birth to her, the warm body heat of her arms desperately embracing and protecting her, the comforting embrace.

She was named Bibi, but she had called herself “baby”... the strong English accent in her voice, the Servant family crest carved into the bed.

Ah... how could she have forgotten her? No matter how long she had been in a state of suspended animation, how could she have forgotten that memory? Luna Servant, who was her entire world. Mama, my mother.

She clutched her chest at the piercing sensation. Bibi was not a hound, but a loved, cherished child. She was not someone mixed-blood vampires could carelessly kick around.

Bibi finally witnessed the true nature of what she had lost. Hatred boiled up towards the one who had stolen her precious things. There was no limit to its ignition point.

“Oh, there’s something here.” Namwon, who had turned on his phone and was looking around the gloomy basement, picked up something lying between the bricks.

“It’s a frame. Oh, it’s a portrait of a person. He’s handsome.”

Though not clearly visible due to blurry stains, it was a painting of a man. Bibi opened the frame entirely and took out the painting to look at it. It was a handsome face with a stoic expression. His blond hair and strong eyes were impressive.

“What’s written on the back of the paper?” Bibi, checking both sides of the paper, found something written in small letters.

“It’s coordinates again. Let’s keep this for now.” Namwon reinserted the paper into the frame. Bibi, with slightly moist eyes, looked around the basement again.

The reason she hated fire so much, why she was extremely afraid of being left in the dark, the cause of remembering the pain of silver bullets, and even the mystery of why she could understand English—all of it was solved. Bibi restructured her floating sense of self. Not as a hound, but as Luna Servant’s daughter.

“Hey, by the way, you... that, what was it. Doesn’t what Kwon Doyoon said bother you?” Namwon asked quietly in the silence.

“What?”

“He said he tried to use you. Even if it’s not now, he probably had that intention back then. I... I knew about him meeting the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Though I didn’t know he dreamed of vampires going into the light.”

Namwon worried that Bibi might be hurt. Bibi shrugged her shoulders, indicating she didn’t care.

“...I don’t care. The Trainer and Doyoon are different. Even if I don’t know anything, I can tell the difference. Doyoon is...”

Doyoon was Prometheus. Even if he had impure intentions, this fact remained unchanged. Thanks to Doyoon, Bibi learned the taste of pudding, wore new clothes, and regained her health and sense of self. She even experienced the pain of falling out of the false world that had firmly structured her.

“I want to save Doyoon quickly. Let’s go back up...”

Just as she was about to suggest going back up to Namwon. Suddenly, a tremendous roar struck her eardrums. A sandstorm erupted overhead, the ground beneath her feet swayed, and the surrounding walls shook terrifyingly like glass.

It felt as if a giant had seized the entire mansion like a Lego toy and was shaking it. Bibi ducked her head and frantically looked around. She desperately searched for a place to hide, but nowhere seemed safe.

To make matters worse, lightning-shaped cracks spread across the ceiling above. Large and small chunks of concrete began to fall like meteorites. Namwon and Bibi threw themselves aside, not even having time to scream. CRASH!

The ceiling collapsed significantly, and the vibrations that had filled the building stopped. Bibi coughed at the acrid smoke and managed to get to her feet. Fortunately, the basement pillars were sturdier than expected, preventing a complete collapse.

What on earth had happened? It wasn’t an earthquake... something must have exploded. Bibi looked up and gasped in horror. The ceiling was completely blown open, revealing the evening sky. With an explosion of this magnitude, even vampires would find it difficult to emerge unscathed.

Where was Doyoon...? If he was still in that attic, he must have fallen. She had to find him!

Bibi hastily got up and ran frantically, dodging concrete debris.

“Ugh... Ughhh...”

Terrible groans continuously emanated from beneath the concrete debris. The hounds who had fallen from the upper floor were buried alive. Bibi, surveying the situation with quick turns of her head, spotted Namwon sprawled beneath a pillar. Fortunately, he had managed to avoid the worst in time.

As she rushed towards him, a sharp, salty smell of blood hit her nose. An unpleasantly chilling sensation crept up to her toes. Bibi, who had stopped in surprise, took a trembling step forward.

“N-Namwon...?”

“Uh... Are you okay?” Namwon struggled to lift his head.

“Your chest...”

A thick iron bar had directly pierced his chest. A vital area for a human life.