Reborn to be Royal

Chapter 16: The Truth Comes Out

- Lucile's pov
900 years ago, when my mother was still alive and vampires would coexist with humans, my mother and I would walk down to a nearby human settlement. Just to visit. The humans there were kind, accepting of us and in return we were the same to them. We still took residents of the settlement to drink from however they came with us willingly, with three people every week coming to the castle for us to feed. In return for this, we helped them with their daily lives, taught them hunting, taught them the lay of the land, which forest flora was edible or poisonous. It was truly peaceful.

[Kai] "that didn't last long, did it."
[Lucile] "...no."

As the human population multiplied, the need for a leader arose. Without problem, one was chosen. A humble, kind and honourable man having good relationships with both humans and vampires. It was his son, that was the problem. Whenever my mother stepped foot in the ever expanding village, the men would be enamoured by her un-ageing beauty. While this created a small amount of jealousy amongst the women, that was easily solved by my mothers kindness. Bringing even the women to look up to her. That's when one man, the son of the village leader, began attempting to court her. He had never been at the village when my mother was around and so, the one time he was, he became obsessed. At first it was merely kind words, flattery and flowers but, as the years went by he became more aggressive, more... desperate. After ten years past he began proposing to her every time he saw her. My mother, being the kind hearted person she was, gently rejected him, saying that she already had a husband and child and besides, even if she did have feelings for him, a humans life span pales in comparison to her own. Five years later, he asked her to turn him. Turn him into a vampire. At this point he had become the village leader after his father passed away and even married one of the girls in the village ten years younger than him, they had even had a child of their own. I was there at the time. My mother, unable to bare his unfaithfulness towards his wife, child and village, slapped him. The sound could be heard throughout the village and on that day, my mother vowed to never return to the village as long as someone as greedy, selfish and disdainful called it their home. My mother stood firm to her vow and I never saw her return there. Another five years later... my mother and I were tending to this garden when the sounds of battle echoed from outside. That man had brought his entire village to attack us. Armed with magic that could harm us, they brought us the death we thought would not find us for many more years.

[Kai] "what kind of magic was it?"
[Lucile] "A derivative of fire magic they called Holy Flame magic."

Thanks to this magic the villagers were able to fight on par with us for a while, but eventually they succumbed to the vampires natural abilities and perished. What no one realises at the time however, was that the leader of the village had used his own people as a distraction, leading a smaller group of people into the castle and finding their way into the garden where the people who couldn't fight, including myself and my mother were hiding.
When that man saw my mother... his face twisted with greed and insanity as he sliced my mother with an enchanted sword. We're still not sure where he got it or who gave it to him but it was able to kill my mother. As her blood poured out, soaking the plants, myself and the man in the red liquid the man simply laughed. I couldn't move a muscle I was so frightened but he just kept drinking her blood. It's a memory I feel I will never be able to forget. Soon enough, his eyes became a dull golden colour and his hair turned a lifeless grey as his face twisted and his body distorted. The blood of a royal vampire is too much for even the most powerful vampires and often results in them becoming sick for weeks if not months. However if it is given to a human it will either kill them outright, or something much worse. They lose themselves in the vampires war mongering instinct and become twisted reflections of us. They become ghouls. The... beast, began tearing to shreds his former companions, bathing itself in their blood before it tried to move onto us. My father showed up just before I was killed by my mothers murderer. He took one look at the scenery, my mothers corpse, my terrified expression and the twisted movement of the creature and immediately annihilated it. He tore it apart in absolute anger and it never had the chance to fight back. The human village was then destroyed with the remaining women and children left to fend for themselves, quickly dying out in the harsh wilderness of Gehenna. As for me and my father... my father never visits this place because he says it brings back too many dark memories, where as I want this place to thrive, for the sake of keeping my mothers memory alive. I've also developed a...fear of humans. If I see them I'm brought back to that day, the fear, the death, the pain...

[Kai] "I'm sorry you had to go through that."
[Lucile] "it's okay... I feel like somehow.. you understand how I feel."

As we sat beside each other underneath my mothers tree, I rested my head on Kai's shoulder, I'm comfortable, I could almost fall asleep here.

[Kai] "perhaps... it's because we've both lost our mothers that you feel that way."

Ah, it looks like I've brought back unpleasant memories for Kai as well.

[Lucile] "I-I'm sorry..."

Kai smiled at me as I looked up at him with a sorrowful look in my eyes.

[Kai] "when I was younger... I was extremely sick and because of that, my father left us, leaving my mother to pay for the fees to try and get me better. She was the kindest person I knew, she'd do anything for her children. Thanks to that kindness both my brother and sister had become very important people in their respective industries. My condition wasn't getting any better though and the final straw... news that my condition was fatal, leaving me with only two weeks left to live, no treatment, my mother couldn't handle it. I woke up one day and the familiar scent of her morning coffee was nowhere to be found. When I found her... I saw that she had hung herself from the ceiling. She left a note to me saying that she couldn't bare to go to her youngest sons funeral, to see her child die before her. She left me with enough money for the last few weeks of my life. When the news reached the rest of my family they were understandably sad and angry. At me. They blamed me for my mothers death saying that if I was never born that she wouldn't be dead, and they're right. Not much they could do about it though since I was going to die soon enough anyway. After that, I went to the only people I had left, my friends. I spent the day with them and was almost able to momentarily forget about it. Unfortunately, they also felt the same way as everyone else. One of them even tried to kill me, stabbed me in the neck. After all that, I was brought here, met you, and you know the rest."

Tears began forming in his eyes as he thought of his mother and for a while after that, we simply sat there, my head on his shoulder and his head resting on my head.

- Kai's pov

[Kai] "Lucile..."
[Lucile] "yes?"
[Kai] "there's something I have to tell you. I'm afraid you'll hate me afterwards but if I don't say it I'll feel like I betrayed you."
[Lucile] "I wouldn't hate you."
[Kai] "that's because you don't know what I'm going to say....... I'm... I'm human."
[Lucile] "w-what?"

I cleared away my disguise and looked into her eyes with my grey ones. The truth of my words hit her suddenly as she froze for a moment before fear rose on her face and she ran from the room as fast as her legs would carry her.

[Kai] "I'm sorry... damn it..."

I put my hand to my face and let out a large sigh as I leaned back against the tree.

[Kai] "why the hell did I do that... If it were anyone else I'd just keep my mouth shut and keep lying through my teeth but because of her... I'm reverting back to my old... naive self. I don't... want to hurt her..."
[Verren] "then go explain that to her."
[Kai] "wha-?!"

Removing my hand from my face and looking around I saw Verren standing there leaning against the tree.

[Kai] "I thought you didn't come here?"
[Verren] "I thought you didn't want to hurt her. If you want to keep that promise then go to her already."
[Kai] "why are you trying to help me?"
[Verren] "well, after everything you've done here in such a short time, you're already family. I trust you, Valentina trusts you, Seyird trusts you... and Astrid does too. You wouldn't have received that fruit if she didn't."
[Kai] "wait, you mean-"
[Verren] "Lucile doesn't know so keep quiet, please."
[Kai] "alright. I suppose I better get going then."
[Verren] "what are you going to do!?"

Verren asked as I was running out the door.

[Kai] "Probably something stupid!"
[Verren] "Haha!"