Chapter 296 Understanding My Origin



<Elysia POV>

Yumi returned with a coffee and gently placed it next to me. I gave her a pat on the head and a smile. I wanted to show some gratitude as well as make sure she wasn't too scared of me.

'I hope she understands that I cannot show her too much kindness in this place, not until I know I am safe.' Looking at Yumi's face, I saw her blush and relax a little, which was a good sign. However, I didn't want her to accidentally get killed because she got too comfortable, so I glared at her to move away.

She quickly tensed up and walked back to the door, but this time she didn't tremble. Perhaps she understood what my intentions were, but only time will tell. I haven't even spent a day in here, so I have no idea how things operate behind the scenes.

'Let's go through what I learned from the journal.' I thought about the contents and tried to explain to myself the history of my family.

**

It all began 2,000 years ago when a relatively high-ranking young vampire got together with a kitsune. It so happens that this Kitsune was part of the Dahlia family, who at the time ruled over the Fox realm. It was a time when territories were not as clearly defined as they are now, but the Fox Realm was already big enough to be recognized by the forces that be.

There was nothing inherently wrong with a vampire interloping with other races, other than the torment of losing said partner due to age. It could be said that dating a kitsune was the worst choice, as our life spans are long. The longer you have with your beloved, the harder it is to lose them.

Another reason why it wasn't ideal was due to their incompatibility to become vampires. Most half-beasts actually cannot be converted, leaving only humans as the main target for vampires. Conceiving a child was also impossible unless the vampire in question had a pure bloodline, but those were rare, only appearing every few thousand years.

However, the vampire decided to bear the consequences regardless of lifelong partnership being impossible with a kitsune.

The vampire in question was named Alice, a rather simple name, but she was determined that everything would be okay. Time continued to progress and life would go on like normal, but as the kitsune began to age, reality was finally sinking in for Alice.

She was yet to age by a single day, yet her partner was progressively getting older. It drove Alice to depression, being forced to accept that one day her loved one would leave while everyone else in her family would simply move on.

Soon her depression turned into an obsession with trying to find a way to preserve her partner. She had to do this behind everyone's backs, but it was the only thing that kept her sane.

More time passed without much progress, and her partner was in their final years. Left with no choice, it was now that Alice took drastic measures to achieve her goal. She first tried forcing her blood into her partner, and even tried finding a different way to produce a child, but it was when all else failed that she truly fell into insanity, no longer paying morals any concern.

She kidnapped a Kitsune woman and forced her to bear a child. Then, partway through the process, Alice tried to turn the undeveloped child into a vampire. Once the child was born, the moment of truth finally came, and her experiment worked. She successfully created a vampire kitsune.

Her partner as well as the woman she kidnapped passed away soon after, but Alice didn't care anymore. She had a child who had her partner's DNA in them, and that's all she cared about. She finally created something she could love forever.

Another couple hundred years go by, and Alice raises the child, even becoming his lover once they are old enough. She also raised him to continue ruling over the Fox Realm, as technically he was the son of the previous ruler.

Unfortunately, the child she raised, even though he'd become a fully-fledged vampire, still aged like a normal kitsune, continuing to age even when normal vampires should stop growing.

This set Alice down a spiral, but there was still one last thing that she could do to preserve the bloodline. Even though the crossbreed she created still ages, he is still able to produce offspring.

Through some more unorthodox experiments, the family reached the point where every child would inherit the vampiric bloodline, coming out with black hair with a slight red highlight. So thus began the Dahlia bloodline, all because of a love-obsessed vampire.

**

'What the actual fuck did I just read.' There was a feeling of disgust in the pits of my stomach. To think Alice went so far just to keep her partner and even become the lover of her child just because they shared the same DNA.

There was still so much more to go through, but I honestly didn't want to keep reading.

'To think we started as a result of an experiment. Technically, we were an actual bloodline, but it transformed into this.' I looked at my hands, feeling like there was some kind of dirt on them. It wasn't pleasant to think about, but now I had an idea who the Dark urge might be.

'Alice, she must be still alive... I know vampires are immortal when it comes to their lifespan, so there's still a chance she hasn't been killed.' It was a likely possibility, and she might be seen as our god, the one who gave us life and power.

'This is actually so fucked up. They must be raising us to treat Alice like a god and embrace our vampiric nature to honour her. No wonder she has been trying to make me transform into one... she is the voice of God to the people of this underground city.'

'I need to message Shaman, I needed to anyway, but she needs to know my family is just a fucking cult of some kind.' I quickly opened up the system and began writing a message to Shaman, informing her of what I found out. At first, I thought we were some kind of lost noble family, but now it's turning into some blood-crazed cult wanting to return to power like it did 2,000 years ago.

'Alright, with that sent, I should skim through the rest, surely it isn't as bad.' I had gotten through a big chunk of the journal already, so my assumption was that we lived on and eventually Shaman's family took over.

However, I remember the comment my father made about them being from the stars, so there might be some interesting information that Shaman doesn't know about.

'Okay, let's get this over with quickly.' I began to skim through the book's contents in my mind, and just like I guessed, things went smoothly after Alice figured out the thing she created could reproduce.

Once there were enough offspring, Alice took to the shadows, watching from afar. Since every offspring had her blood, she now had a permanent connection to our family. This basically confirmed who the Dark Urge was, but why hasn't she made a physical appearance? For such an old vampire to still be around, wouldn't they be extremely strong?

'There are too many questions for now. Hopefully I can get some answers whenever she decides to come back.' I wanted to interrogate Alice, as there was still that slight uncertainty in my mind, but I had no way of drawing her out.

I doubted my heightened emotions were even the reason she spoke to me in the first place. It must have just been her attempt to manipulate me when I was unsure of what to do.

'Anyway, let's continue.' Picking up from where I left off, Dahlia managed the Fox Realm with Alice pulling the strings from behind the scenes until the Shiroi family came by to wipe them out. It is said that our goddess Alice ordered that they be put to death because they were not of this world, but in the end, they proved to be too powerful for us to handle.

'That explains what Teivel said about them, I mean, Shaman literally comes from a different world, but I doubt her parents did. Shaman's element is also related to space, so maybe the power is not hereditary.'

I tried getting to the bottom of things, but it was all just pure speculation on my part. In the end I wasn't going to make any progress until I found more clues.

'Bloody hell, that was a ride.' There wasn't much after the Shiroi takeover that caught my attention, as it was history I already knew. However, a slight detail I did notice was the order to capture or kill my parents.

It gave me a little hope that they might still be alive, but with how much resistance they put up, I believed they were most likely killed.

'Well, well, look who is finished going through the journal. What did you think?' Out of nowhere, a voice echoed in my head.

"Alice..."