“Hey, Rafina, do you live all by yourself?”
Three days passed.
During these three days, visiting Rafina became Lonia's daily routine.
Her sister was busy with meetings, and since Lonia wasn't wandering into any dangerous areas anyway, the maids who occasionally spotted her chose to turn a blind eye.
And every time she went to find Rafina, Lonia couldn't help but marvel at how such a wonderful person could exist in this world.
Rafina didn't mind her blunt way of speaking, didn't criticize her for not acting like a princess, knew so much, was gentle, was cute...
Most importantly, being with Rafina made her happy.
It was a completely different kind of happiness than what she felt when she was with her sister.
They talked about many things: books they had read, things they had learned, and even stories from their pasts.
Rafina had no memories of her early childhood and didn't know who her parents were. According to the librarian, someone had paid him to raise Rafina, which was the only reason he forced himself to swallow his disgust and look after her.
Lonia, on the other hand, shared stories about her sister.
A once-in-a-millennium genius of the Catori family, the rejuvenator of the vampire race's glory, the strongest vampire of the current generation, the wielder of the Authority of Blood, and a woman expected to reach the heights of the legendary Ancestor of the Vampires...
Time slipped away, and before Lonia knew it, she realized she would have to return to the Vampire Royal Court with her sister tomorrow.
The meeting held by the Ten Clans' Royal Court had been as smooth and successful as ever. Most of the Court Heads had gotten what they wanted, and her sister was no exception.
But for Lonia, this was not good news.
If she left, wouldn't she have to wait until the next meeting to see Rafina again?
So Lonia nudged a bit closer to Rafina.
“That Uncle Librarian isn't good to you, is he?”
“...It—it's already enough. I'm already...”
“Why don't you come to my house and live with me?”
The tip of Rafina's tail popped up from the floor.
Lonia's crimson eyes reflected the flickering flame of the oil lamp, as well as the side of Rafina's face, which was half-hidden by her silver-white bangs.
“We just need my sister's permission. My sister is so good to me; she won't refuse.”
She spoke with absolute certainty, as if stating an unshakeable truth.
“If you don't mind, I'll take you to see my sister right now, okay?”
Rafina froze on the spot, her crimson pupils dilating slightly as something shook violently within them.
“...Me?”
“Who else? It's just the two of us in this library.”
“Live... at your house?”
“Yeah. It's much better than huddling in a place like this all by yourself. It's cold and dark. Is there a bed in your little room?”
“...Yes.”
“Is it big?”
“...Not really.”
“Then you definitely have to come. The bed in my room is big enough for four of you.”
Lonia stood up and reached out her hand.
“Let's go.”
Rafina didn't take it.
She sat on the floor, clutching the book to her chest as she looked up at Lonia, a complex light flickering in her eyes.
“...Your sister won't agree.”
“Why?”
“Because I'm...”
Rafina's voice caught in her throat. She lowered her head, her gaze falling upon the satin dress she was wearing.
Catori. The spokesperson of the Vampire Royal Court, the highest nobility of the pureblood vampires.
Thun. A surname of unknown origin, simply what someone had called her ever since she was born.
Grotesque crystal horns, an arrow-tipped tail that belonged to no known demon race, and an odd eye color.
Even Uncle Librarian refused to bring food trays into her room, leaving them at the door instead, like feeding an unwelcome stray cat.
“Because I'm a hybrid.”
There was no bitterness, no anger—only a dry, flat delivery.
Lonia didn't pull her hand back.
“What's wrong with being a hybrid?”
Rafina looked up.
“...Don't you know? Hybrids in Abyss City...”
“I know. My sister said hybrids are impure. But didn't I say I don't care?”
She thrust her hand forward, almost poking Rafina's nose.
“Come on. If my sister doesn't agree, I'll keep begging her until she does. That's what I did whenever I wanted her to keep me company. I begged for a long time, and then she came to play with me.”
“...That's because your sister had no other choice...”
“But it worked!”
Rafina stared at the hand.
Pale and small.
She placed the book on the floor, then reached out and placed her hand in Lonia's palm.
Lonia's fingers immediately closed around hers, squeezing tightly enough to hurt, as if afraid she would back out.
“Let's go!”
The footsteps of the two little girls echoed alternately on the stone steps of the spiral staircase.
Lonia led the way, pulling Rafina with one hand while holding up her skirt with the other.
Rafina followed behind. Her leather boots, which Lonia had practically forced her to wear the day before, clattered against the stone tiles. Unaccustomed to walking like this, she stumbled as she was pulled along.
Lonia had walked the path from the old library to the side hall more than a dozen times. Gloom Castle's corridors flashed past beneath their feet, the eerie blue phosphorescence overhead casting shifting patches of light and shadow across the two little girls' faces.
She bypassed the side hall and headed straight for the room where her sister was resting. Pushing open the door, she stepped inside.
Eliza Catori sat on a high-backed chair in the center of the side hall.
Her wavy, ink-black hair cascaded over her shoulders, spreading across the dark velvet of the chair's backrest.
Two vampire maids stood beside her, keeping their heads low and holding their breath in submission.
“Lonia, what is it?”
Eliza's voice wasn't loud, but every syllable sounded as if it had been dipped in ice water, sharp enough to cut through the air.
Lonia released her skirt and puffed out her little chest.
“I was playing downstairs. Sister, I have something to tell you...”
Eliza's gaze drifted from Lonia to the silver-white head half-hidden behind the doorframe.
The air grew cold.
“...What is that thing?”
Lonia didn't catch the underlying malice in her words.
She stepped aside, revealing Rafina behind her.
Rafina shrank into the shadow of the doorframe, her translucent crystal horns refracting the faint blue glow of the phosphorescence.
“Look up.”
Eliza said coldly.
The crimson eyes met a pair of blood-red, slitted pupils, and all the color drained from Rafina's face.
“Sister, this is Rafina! She lives all alone under Gloom Castle. The librarian is mean to her, she barely has any clothes to wear, and she never has enough to eat. I want to bring her home to live with me, is that okay?”
Lonia blurted out everything in one breath, looking up at her sister with eyes full of hope.
Eliza stood up.
She walked over to Lonia, squatted down, and pinched Lonia's chin, forcing her to look up.
The movement was gentle, but her eerie, red slitted eyes held no warmth whatsoever.
“Lonia. Do you know what it is?”
“Her name is Rafina Thu—”
“I didn't ask for its name.”
She straightened up, looking over Lonia's head to stare down at the silver-white figure by the doorframe.
“A mongrel.”
“Sister?”
“An aberration with three or more abnormalities, born from two mongrels—trash that not even the Scavenger Court would take in.”
“Sister! You...”
“Let go of its hand, Lonia.”
“I won't! Sister, she's really nice. She reads to me and knows so much—”
“Let go.”
Lonia's fingers trembled.
“I won't...”
Eliza didn't move.
The two maids in the side hall had already retreated to the corner, pressing their backs against the stone wall, holding their breath.
Lonia gripped Rafina's hand tightly, looking up at her sister, a thin layer of tears welling in her red slitted eyes.
“Rafina didn't do anything bad... She's just going to share a room with me... It won't hurt anything...”
Eliza showed a look of annoyance.
Rafina stood by the doorframe, the borrowed satin dress hanging loosely on her frame.
“Lonia, do you know who made that dress?”
Lonia was taken aback.
“...The Catori family tailors.”
“The Catori family tailors, using Catori family fabric, crafted to Catori family standards, sewn for the Catori bloodline.”
Eliza spoke very slowly.
“And now, it is worn by a mongrel.”
Lonia's lips trembled.
“I gave it to her...”
“You have no right to give it away.”
Eliza finally moved.
She took a step forward.
A sensation welled up from the depths of Lonia's heart. It wasn't fear, but something far more primal—an instinct arising from the very core of her bones, making her knees weak.
Since the departure of the Creator, the concepts of Authority had scattered across the world, waiting for those strong enough to bear them to be born.
Eliza was the one who had inherited the Authority of Blood.
Thus, simply by standing there, without even releasing her aura, the oppressive weight of one who governed the laws of the world was enough to suffocate Lonia.
Lonia gritted her teeth.
“Sister...”
“You have run wild outside for so many days, and I did not question it.”
Eliza reached out and brushed away the stray hairs on her younger sister's forehead, her movement surprisingly gentle.
“You dirtied your clothes, and I did not question it. You ran back and forth, taking food, clothes, and other miscellaneous things, and I did not question that either.”
“But there are some things you cannot obtain simply by throwing a tantrum.”
Her fingers slid down from Lonia's forehead and came to rest on the hand that was gripping Rafina's.
“Let go.”
“I don't want to...”
“Lonia.”
“She is my friend!”
This was the first time Lonia had ever used that word.
In the Catori estate, she was surrounded only by maids, vassals, and her sister. No one was ever called a friend.
Eliza's eyes narrowed slightly.
“A vampire of the Catori family has no need for a mongrel friend. Fema of the Flame Demon Court, Tia of the Nightmare Court—they...”
“I don't care! I already promised her! I want Rafina to be with me!”
Lonia's voice grew shrill, cracking with tears. The moisture she had held back for so long finally spilled over.
Eliza looked at Lonia and let out a disappointed sigh.
“And so, Lonia, never make promises so lightly. Do you understand?”
A Catori always keeps their word.
“You are the one who has broken this family rule. But I will forgive you, Lonia.”
“Then... what about Rafina...”
“No.”
Eliza stood up and turned to face Rafina, who was standing by the doorframe.
“Are you going to continue making things difficult for Lonia?”
Rafina slowly let go of Lonia's hand.
Lonia snapped her head around, watching as Rafina gently slid her fingers out of her grasp. The movement was slow and tender, as if afraid of hurting her.
“Rafina—!”
“...It's okay.”
Rafina's voice was flat.
“...Nia, thank you.”
Her crimson eyes looked at Lonia. Something within them had shattered, but it broke in complete silence, like a thin sheet of ice sinking into deep water without leaving a single ripple.
“The dress... I'll return it to you.”
She reached behind her back to untie the laces.
Lonia grabbed her wrist.
“Don't take it off! I gave it to you! Once I give something, I don't take it back!”
“Lonia, let go.”
Eliza's voice came from behind, as cold as a bucket of ice water poured over her head.
“As for the dress, let the mongrel take it.”
Rafina's hands froze, her entire body beginning to tremble.
“It is already nothing more than a rag tainted by the scent of a mongrel.”
“Sister!”
Lonia still refused to let go, but the two maids stepped forward, separating her from Rafina.
Rafina's wrist gently slipped from Lonia's fingers.
Then, a hand clamped onto Lonia's shoulder from behind, pinning her in place.
It was Eliza's hand. The grip wasn't tight, but though Lonia struggled twice, she couldn't budge an inch.
“Rafina—!”
Rafina was led out the door by the two maids. She did not look back.
Her silver-white twin tails swayed gently behind her, and the hem of the satin dress dragged along the stone floor, collecting a thin layer of dust.
The arrow-tipped tail hung limply behind her, its tip nearly touching the floor, motionless.
She stepped over the threshold.
The phosphorescence in the corridor shone upon her, dyeing her thin, small back in a swaying shade of blue.
Then she rounded the corner of the corridor.
And disappeared.
Lonia stood in the side hall, her shoulder held fast by her sister's hand, her entire body shaking like a withered leaf in the wind. Tears dripped from her chin, forming a small, dark puddle on the stone floor.
Eliza released her grip.
“Go back to your room. We leave Abyss City tomorrow.”
Lonia did not move.
She kept her head lowered, stray hairs clinging to her tear-stained cheeks. Her hands hung limp at her sides, the palm of her right hand still holding the lingering chill of Rafina's fingertips.
“...Sister is a bad person.”
Her voice was raspy and muffled, squeezed out from the very depths of her chest.
Eliza did not reply.
“Remember to take a bath. Don't make me despise you too.”
With that, she turned, her long hair tracing an arc behind her as she walked toward the other door of the side hall. Her footsteps clicked against the stone floor in a steady, unhurried rhythm, identical to when she had arrived.
The door closed behind her.
Lonia was left all alone in the side hall.
The phosphorescence drifted silently overhead, casting its eerie blue light upon the empty high-backed chair and the two sets of dusty footprints of different sizes on the floor.
Lonia squatted down and reached out a finger to touch the smaller footprint.
Dust clung to her fingertip. It was cold.
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