Beast, Blue Blood - Chapter 87

Chapter 87

Cough…

Si-woo heaved and vomited blood. It felt as if his entire body had been torn apart. Pain had always followed him like an annoying stray dog, but this was the first time he had experienced such agony. He could barely breathe.

Next to his head, lying on the cold, snow-covered ground, stood a man with red eyes. Snowflakes fluttered down onto his dazzling blonde hair.

The man’s red eyes were unlike anything human, and his attire resembled that of a merchant from the Western region. However, Si-woo was certain that he was nothing of the sort, especially given that he was the one who had turned Si-woo into a bloody mess.

At that moment, Si-woo did not know it, but the man was Alex. He had been sent by the Clan Alliance, who were concerned about the series of ethnic murders occurring in Joseon and had deemed Si-woo a threat that needed to be dealt with.

Alex looked down at Si-woo and spoke.

“Chu Si-woo. The notorious ethnic murderer… Do you know how many people you’ve killed?”

Si-woo opened his blood-stained mouth.

“Are you… like me?”

Alex surveyed Si-woo with his expressionless red eyes. Si-woo’s hair was disheveled as if it hadn’t been combed for a long time, and his bare feet, caked with blood and dirt, were almost black. His robe was so filthy that its original color was unrecognizable.

Despite the appearance of a madman, there was a glimmer of sanity in the black eyes visible through his tangled hair.

After a moment, Alex said.

“You’re sane. I heard you were crazy.”

Si-woo twisted his eyes and managed a crooked smile.

“What’s crazy? What’s sane?”

Then Si-woo turned his gaze to the sky. The snowfall from the dark, gloomy sky was growing heavier. It didn’t seem like the snow would stop anytime soon.

Even though he felt almost numb to the cold, his limbs were trembling. It made him wonder if this was how the cold felt. Lying on the icy ground…

Alex looked at Si-woo and asked.

“Do you know what you have become?”

A snowflake caught on Si-woo’s eyelashes, whitening the edge of his vision. His eyelashes trembled. As if he had a fever, the high temperature melted the snowflake, causing it to drip away as water.

“I am a butterfly.”

Si-woo whispered slowly and closed his eyes.

“Everything is like a dream… It seems it’s time to wake up now.”

As Si-woo lost consciousness, Alex drew his sword.

“Don’t!”

At that moment, Ah-eun, who had been hiding behind a tree, rushed out.

“Please save him…! Please!”

Ah-eun knelt before Alex and pleaded. She had always thought Si-woo would be able to fend off foreign threats, but things were starting to turn differently this time.

“This person is not in his right mind! Therefore, he doesn’t know anything!”

Alex looked back at Ah-eun.

“Are you this person’s client?”

“Client… what?”

Ah-eun asked, not understanding the term. Realizing that further questions would be pointless, Alex changed his approach.

“Did this person turn you into this state?”

“Ah, no… I… this person…”

“You?”

Alex looked Ah-eun up and down and asked.

“When were you born?”

“Me…?”

“Yes.”

Alex’s unusually calm tone made Ah-eun feel that he wasn’t about to attack suddenly, so she swallowed and answered.

“In the 7th year of Yeongnak (1409).”

“You’ve survived longer than I expected.”

Alex muttered, realizing that it had been almost a hundred years. It was unusual for a vampire like Ah-eun to survive that long. Although sometimes vampires could overcome their nature and retain some humanity, for a vampire, humanity was just another word for weakness.

At that moment, Si-woo groaned quietly, and Ah-eun quickly turned to check on him.

“Young Master.”

Si-woo opened his eyes vaguely and tried to say something with his dark, sunken eyes. Then he noticed Alex standing and his expression changed.

In the brief moment of the wind, Si-woo’s sword almost sliced Alex’s cheek, cutting through the air by a hair’s breadth. Si-woo’s sword was blocked by Alex’s longsword.

With the attack thwarted, Si-woo staggered back. His eyes, previously filled with madness, now bore the unmistakable look of a lunatic.

Suddenly, Si-woo’s face contorted in pain, as if suffering from a headache, and he muttered as if biting his tongue.

“Kill me.”

Seeing this, Alex spoke.

“It seems you hear voices that aren’t your own.”

Ah-eun was surprised. She had been with Si-woo for years but knew little about his condition, whereas Alex had grasped it instantly. Although Ah-eun had occasionally thought Si-woo seemed not quite sane, she had attributed it to the natural changes after becoming a vampire.

Alex muttered.

“Sometimes there are those who are born with madness.”

If the infection is extremely painful, the person might be revived in a semi-dead state of mind.

Alex then looked at Ah-eun and asked.

“And you? Do you hear voices?”

“What? No. I don’t particularly…”

At that moment, Si-woo made a strange growling sound and lunged at Ah-eun with a speed she couldn’t even imitate.

Alex blocked with his sword and delivered a swift counter. Si-woo narrowly evaded the sword by leaning back impossibly far. Then, while maintaining that position, he twisted his waist and, with his robe fluttering, scattered the snowflakes and moved out of range.

“Slippery as a snake.”

Alex said with a serious face and adjusted his grip on the sword hilt.

“For someone who seems to have been recently infected, you’re remarkably skilled. Did you know how to handle a sword when you were human?”

Before Ah-eun could reply, Si-woo’s sword clashed with Alex’s again. The clash created a burst of energy that made Ah-eun’s hair stand on end.

But then Alex did something that made Si-woo get pulled towards him as if their swords were sticking together. Si-woo kicked off the ground to evade Alex and landed again.

However, in an instant, his knee buckled and he drove his sword into the ground, bracing himself. The blade, stained white with wounds, slid down with a chilling light.

Realizing that Si-woo had used his last ounce of strength, Alex lowered his sword. At that moment, Si-woo collapsed onto the ground, scattering snowflakes.

“Young Master!”

Ah-eun rushed to Si-woo.

“It’s cold…”

Si-woo mumbled.

“The snow… is… cold…”

And then he lost consciousness.

Confirming that he had merely lost consciousness, Ah-eun looked at Alex with a determined expression.

“Someone whom the Young Master loved was murdered. By the person the Young Master is searching for. Although we encountered and killed some vampires on the way, they were all ones that had attacked first or committed evil acts such as preying on people.”

It turned out that many of those reported to have been killed by the vermin were killed by vampires.

“We have never harmed fleeing or passive vampires. The Young Master… is certainly not a murderer.”

“Will you come with me?”

Alex suddenly asked. The unexpected offer left Ah-eun stunned.

“With you…?”

“From what I see, it seems like both of you don’t know what you have become.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Ah-eun’s heart pounded. It was the first time she had met a vampire who wasn’t trying to kill them recklessly and who seemed to understand what a ‘vampire’ really was.

Alex looked at Si-woo, who was in a pitiful state. He was so emaciated as if he hadn’t fed on blood just before death, that he truly resembled a walking corpse.

Ah-eun wasn’t much different. Her clothes, more out of concern for how others would see her rather than feeling cold, were tattered. She too was suffering from malnutrition, and her complexion darkened.

Alex spoke.

“Nosferatu, Strigoi, Borolakas…”

The words, incomprehensible to Ah-eun, sounded like some sort of incantation.

Snow had accumulated, casting a hazy glow around. The cold wind swept the ground, rustling their clothes. Amidst it all, the man with the red eyes spoke in a somber voice that carried an ominous aura.

“Although we are called by many names, we are ultimately vampires.”

* * *

For a long time, they were called vampires. Blood-drinking ghosts.

Even though the world had changed and vampires were no longer called vampires, their true nature had not vanished. A vampire was always, and forever, a vampire.

“I have killed many vampires. Eventually, I was called a murderer.”

Si-woo spoke calmly.

“Then the Clan Alliance deemed me a dangerous individual and sent a hunter to deal with me. That hunter was Captain Alex.”

Ah-eun knew that Si-woo had made a distinction between evil vampires and others, but Si-woo himself was well aware that wasn’t true. He was solely thirsty for blood. If Ah-eun hadn’t continuously followed and stopped him, he would have killed anyone blocking his way, even if they were innocent children.

Blood called for more blood, and thirst led to deeper madness, pulling him further into a pit of insanity.

“Emily infected me, but she couldn’t control me once I lost my sanity.”

Si-woo looked up at Ha-yeon.

“So, Captain Alex accepted me as a client. If there had been the same laws and regulations back then as now, I would have had to stay in prison for a very long time as a consequence of killing many of my own kind.”

At that time, it was enough for Alex to simply promise to train him properly. Unlike Ah-eun, who could only sympathize with Si-woo, Alex had no mercy.

There’s a saying that ‘a beating is a remedy for a mad dog,’ and Si-woo had been beaten enough to bring him back from the brink of madness. By today’s standards, it could be said that a Patronus abusing a client would be considered a severe case.

“I infected Changwon-gun.”

Si-woo said quietly.

“And he is still alive. Somewhere in this world.”

“But you haven’t found Changwon-gun in six hundred years. He could be dead somewhere, right?”

That statement indicated that Ha-yeon knew about Si-woo’s situation, but he just said calmly.

“You’ve investigated me.”

“I wasn’t sure, but I suspected it. The timing fits, and there were many suspicious aspects in the story, like the sudden death of Gap-sa Chu Si-woo and Changwon-gun’s untimely demise at a young age. And…”

Ha-yeon spoke slowly.

“I saw it. The sword you have.”