Her name was Haran.
She was the first daughter born after his mother returned to Leogrante and took a second spouse.
Although she didn’t receive the <Complete Pureblood> rank of 10 stars, she was an 8-star <Pureblood>.
With darkish skin exactly like her mother, dark red hair, and a cheerful personality.
Though disappointed that her first daughter wasn’t a Complete Pureblood, until then his mother hadn’t treated Haran and his other siblings quite so coldly.
While there was an absolutely insurmountable gap in how she treated Sarka, the legitimate heir, versus his younger siblings who were rejects, she occasionally showed interest in children who displayed exceptional talent.
Haran was the most talented child among Sarka’s siblings.
Especially since, unlike Sarka who was a psychic type resembling Allend, Haran resembled their mother who was a physical type, and she would often imitate and reproduce their mother’s techniques quite well.
Their mother became interested in her daughter’s talent for accurately learning techniques she’d never been taught just by watching over the shoulder.
Particularly, Haran was bold in character, fearless and knowing how to show off, exactly resembling their mother. Sometimes their mother seemed to see more of her younger self in Haran than in Sarka, who had a calm and cautious personality.
Feeling their mother’s interest, Haran became excited.
Hope swelled up in that small, wretched girl’s heart—that she might not be a <reject> who had disappointed their mother, but could become a child who received their mother’s love like Sarka.
Haran desperately tried to gain their mother’s recognition. To that young girl’s eyes, it didn’t seem like an impossible goal.
Sarka had been small in build when young, and Haran, with the rapid growth typical of girls and resembling their sturdy mother, had a robust physique.
By around nine years old, Haran was taller than her older brother and stronger. Against Sarka, who was weak in physical strength related abilities because he was psychic type, Haran was evenly matched or occasionally even gained the upper hand with physical type abilities.
Feeling she might be able to beat Sarka, Haran became excited.
That child seemed to think that if she beat Sarka, all the attention and affection their mother poured solely on Sarka would be shared with her too.
To Sarka, Haran was an uncomfortable and stubborn younger sister. Always looking for opportunities to beat Sarka in everything, she interfered in every matter and acted annoyingly.
When cautious-natured Sarka would try to calmly observe situations, Haran would jump out without looking ahead or behind, snatching their mother’s attention like a small predator.
Finding Haran’s greed and opportunism, never missing a chance, similar to herself in childhood, their mother found it cute and didn’t stop her, so Haran grew increasingly bold.
One day it was. At the breakfast table, Haran boasted.
That if competing only with physical type abilities, she as an 8-star could beat Sarka who was 10-star.
It wasn’t an absurd claim.
Vampires were divided into physical type and psychic type, and in their own ‘type’ they could fully display abilities matching their ‘bloodline rank.’
However, abilities outside their own type could only be used up to a level 2-3 ranks below their bloodline rank, and the stamina consumed in displaying abilities was several times worse than for their own type.
Sarka, a 10-star psychic type ability user, could use all 10-star level psychic abilities, but could only use physical type abilities up to 7-8 star level, and his natural stamina wasn’t strong either.
If facing off against Haran, an 8-star physical type ability user, using only ‘physical type’ abilities, numerically they would be equal or there was even a possibility Haran could gain the upper hand.
Although two years younger in age, with rapid physical development and good natural stamina and motor skills, it was a match worth attempting for Haran.
Their mother felt interest in her daughter’s spirited declaration.
Eventually by their mother’s order, a dueling arena was prepared.
The siblings, tutors, and servants gathered around to watch with great interest.
If she had really beaten Sarka, perhaps she might have become a daughter who received quite a lot of their mother’s attention.
Perhaps she might have been elevated to a position that received affection at a level similar to Sarka, at least in their mother’s heart.
Unfortunately, Haran was too excited about that fact.
Thinking that their mother’s attention, which she had craved so desperately her entire life, was right before her eyes, that young child became so nervous she made one ridiculous mistake after another.
Even Sarka, who had tried to face her seriously at first, soon noticed it was a match that was no competition at all.
As Haran became more flustered and began to show an increasingly ridiculous sight, Sarka eventually went easy on her and finished the duel appropriately.
Their mother, who hadn’t expected Haran’s complete victory but had expected a fairly watchable match, was displeased.
Standing up with a click of her tongue, without even looking back at Haran’s face, their mother spat out with an irritated expression.
“I was foolish to have expectations.”
It was a short sentence.
But it was enough to break that greedy, wretched child who had begged for their mother’s attention her entire life.
Their mother turned around taking Sarka with her, and Haran, head bowed, didn’t look back at their mother.
That night. Nine-year-old Haran took her own life.
It was a method of lying in bed and ordering the familiar she was raising to bite herself.
It would have been the easiest suicide method a nine-year-old could think of.
However, for the people who had to deal with the aftermath, it wasn’t a method they could evaluate as quite easy.
When Haran’s breath ceased, at that moment Haran’s familiars, released from hypnosis, went mad with hatred and fury and tore Haran’s corpse to pieces.
The servants who rushed out at the noisy sounds in the middle of the night sat down screaming chillingly at the scene inside the room.
The beasts branded with Haran’s seal as a Pureblood couldn’t be calmed by the mixed-blood servants’ abilities.
Eventually their mother, who woke belatedly, rushed over and calmed the rampaging beasts that had broken their seals.
But by that time, almost nothing remained of Haran’s body.
If it hadn’t been for the remnants of the clothes she wore, even their mother wouldn’t have been certain that corpse was Haran.
Their mother was furious.
Although not the legitimate heir, their mother absolutely couldn’t accept the fact that the daughter she had most expected among the rejects had ‘of her own accord’ given up on life.
A vampire’s greatest pride is <survival>.
Vampires who had survived 600 years of massacres weren’t ashamed to do anything to survive. No act was dishonorable.
Only <death> was the sole defeat, shame, and dishonor a vampire could taste.
The fact that her daughter had dared to choose that dishonor herself.
Their mother absolutely couldn’t tolerate the fact that she had become <the most shameful loser>.
Their mother dragged out Haran’s corpse and threw it into the living room.
With a terrifying expressionless face, their mother commanded in a cold voice.
“Leogrante doesn’t remember weak losers.
Erase the traces of this <loser> from my house.”
Haran’s familiars devoured their former master’s corpse according to their new master’s orders.
By their mother’s command, all the children stood around in the living room watching that scene.
When the young siblings couldn’t bear to watch and turned their eyes away, stern rebuke fell.
“Who dares turn their eyes away! Do you dare take the <Successor’s> command lightly! You weak things, things not even qualified to bear the Leogrante name!
From now on, anyone who turns their eyes away will share that <loser’s> end!”
Everyone trembled and couldn’t take their eyes off that scene.
As the eldest son and the highest Complete Pureblood, Sarka had to show the most unwavering example before his siblings.
Sarka stood quietly without even blinking, watching that scene to the end.
His younger sister’s end, who had wanted to surpass her own bloodline and become equal to Sarka.
Sarka learned clearly what the outcome was for those who attempted to transcend their birth.
That even if you denied the limits of birth and tried to overcome them, you ultimately got hurt, exhausted, and disappeared.
All people must live appropriately within their born position.
Hope shouldn’t be given either.
From the beginning, they must know their place and be educated not to even think of looking above.
Otherwise, they would ultimately crumble like that.
Sarka’s hand, recalling Haran, trembled again.
If I give up on life, to my mother I’m a ‘loser’ like Haran.
A weak failure, a worthless child who disappointed my mother.
Thinking of disappointing his mother, Sarka was afraid as if his entire body would crumble.
Even now when she was dead and gone, Sarka feared disappointing her more than death.
How could he not be afraid?
That cold-hearted person who crushed everything bothersome without batting an eye had always smiled brightly at Sarka.
Showed extreme interest and poured out affection.
That great person shared trivial small talk only with me, consulted worries, and even relied on me.
How could one dare disappoint such a woman?
How could one dare doubt that such a woman loved me?
[Do you believe she really loved you?]
[Yes.]
[How can you believe it?]
[Just. You can tell by looking.]
Sarka too could tell his mother’s love by looking at her.
It was love so vivid he couldn’t even doubt it.
It was the day Haran died.
After that child’s corpse completely disappeared into the beasts’ bellies, their mother stopped the breath of the familiars who had swallowed her daughter’s flesh and burned them together with all of Haran’s belongings.
Only after dozens of beasts turned to ash and disappeared did their mother command expressionlessly.
“…Sarka alone remains, everyone else out.”
The siblings and servants all fled out.
Sarka couldn’t move from where he had first stood and kept standing.
The door closed.
Left alone in the empty room, only then did sobs burst from his collapsed mother’s mouth.
Their mother wailed crying like a beast.
“How dare my daughter! My daughter! How!”
The woman who had stood coldly without a single waver before the siblings collapsed before Sarka in the form of a despairing mother.
Sarka watched his crying mother frozen.
Their mother lay prostrate on the floor crying with blood-boiling sounds. Only now on their mother’s face, weeping and soaking her entire face, could pain, sadness, bone-chilling regret be glimpsed.
Sarka stood blankly watching his mother, unable to even breathe.
Finally, their mother, who had cried to the point where no more tears would come, panted and whispered hazily.
“…That’s enough.”
Their mother’s voice was completely hoarse. As if pulling herself together, their mother clutched her chest, shook her head, and whispered.
“…Don’t need it. That kind of thing… that’s not my daughter.”
In that voice, madness and fury, eerie self-brainwashing were frozen solid.
While repeating the same words several times, their mother’s eyes, which had been shaking soaked in tears, slowly calmed. The panting breathing subsided, and the convulsing shoulders gradually quieted.
Slowly turning her head, their mother’s eyes turned toward Sarka.
Their mother, watching her son with mad green eyes, abruptly stood up.
Their mother who had walked to frozen Sarka knelt down and gripped Sarka’s shoulders with both hands.
Looking into her son’s eyes with burning gaze, their mother whispered as if declaring to herself.
“To me, you’re my only child.”
The frighteningly sunken voice didn’t waver at all.
Sarka swallowed dryly.
Their mother’s face, soaked with tears and sweat, gleamed with an eerie light.
Green eyes moved, slowly scanning Sarka’s features. Sarka felt fine hairs standing on end everywhere that gaze touched.
Their mother reached out and swept down Sarka’s face.
Sarka remained silent with mouth closed while their mother’s touch traced each of his features one by one as if confirming something seen for the first time.
After arranging and straightening her son’s hair strands one by one, their mother finally regained composure and nodded. A voice tinged with a faint smile flowed out.
“For mommy, I just need you.”
Sarka felt the trembling remaining in his mother’s hands wrapped around his neck completely disappear.
Their mother, having regained peace, looked into Sarka’s eyes. In her eyes, understanding, satisfaction, and tranquility arose.
Stroking her son’s cheek as if it couldn’t be more lovable, their mother whispered in a voice immersed in piercing affection.
“Sarka, you… you alone have never disappointed me even once since you were born.”
Cool joy spread in their mother’s eyes. Their mother’s eyes, where pride, self-respect, and arrogant confidence began to return, shone gleaming like carved glass beads.
Sarka felt his heart beating at a frightening speed.
Their mother pressed her lips to Sarka’s forehead, his cheek, and whispered frantically.
“Sarka, I love you. I really love you. I love you more than anything in the world.”
Sarka held back, pressing down his trembling hands.
Their mother, who had overlapped noses with Sarka and regulated breathing, pulled her face away and looked straight into her son’s eyes.
Close enough to feel each other’s breathing, their mother asked with eyes possessed by terrible conviction.
“Sarka, you… won’t disappoint mommy. Right?”
The green eyes were flashing with madness.
Sarka knew there was only one answer he could give.
Sarka calmed his violently surging heart and answered in a calm voice.
“…Don’t worry, mother.”
Ecstatic laughter burst from their mother’s lips.
Relief spread vividly across their mother’s face like water spreading. Joy burst in the green eyes, sparkling brilliantly like fireworks lighting up the night sky.
Their mother stroked Sarka’s cheek and whispered in a voice overcome with the most vivid happiness in the world.
“As expected, my son. My beloved legitimate heir. My brilliant diamond.”
The love was too clear.
It was brilliant affection no one else received.
Even while receiving such affection, Sarka always doubted anxiously.
If I disappoint my mother, will this love leave me?
Like Haran, will I too be abandoned?
While endlessly doubting, Sarka loved his mother.
There was no way not to.
Sarka instinctively knew that he would die the moment he lost this.
Just as a newborn baby desperately latches onto its mother’s breast and won’t let go, Sarka craved her love close to survival instinct.
He struggled desperately to satisfy her.
Satisfying his mother was his only reason for living.
The educators their mother assigned trained Sarka to be the Pureblood Faction’s greatest general according to her orders, and Sarka never once complained and obeyed the harsh training.
He won every match and smashed every competitor. He never once lost the top position in his class and met every one of his mother’s expectations without fail.
When he finally received the valedictorian diploma from the great Leogrante Basic School. Seeing her smile full of joy, tremendous relief came to Sarka’s heart.
That alone was the reward. Sarka loved that smile heart-achingly. There was no way not to love it.
Because he had begged for her love so wretchedly, so afraid that smile would disappear.
As Sarka met his mother’s expectations and trampled competitors while achieving grades superior to any legitimate children in the family, his mother’s competitors hated Sarka.
His aunt and his aunt’s children always looked for opportunities to mar Sarka, and attacked mercilessly at the slightest sign of weakness.
They didn’t even hide their desire to kill and eliminate Sarka. Daily life was a continuous series of vigilance, checks, and tension.
If he lost his mother, the moment he lost his mother’s protection, these competitors would rush in like a pack of dogs and stop Sarka’s breath.
Sarka didn’t know how not to love the person who protected him in such a world.
The being who gave birth to me, raised me, protected me, loved only me.
His mother was Sarka’s world, universe, and everything.
And Sarka lost her.
The moment he lost his mother, he lost everything together.
Just as he had always feared.
