Bad Born Blood

Chapter 155

The night of the storm season was long. Even as dawn approached, there wasn’t the slightest hint of blue in the sky.

I entered the lounge of the Arch of Triumph, knelt on both knees on the floor, and began meditating.

I was on the verge of bursting. If my focus wavered even slightly, my sense of self and mind felt like they would explode and scatter.

How had I ended up here?

Life was complicated, and the universe was unpredictable.

The winner of this situation was Ivan Accretia. Francec stood in an ambiguous position, neither victor nor loser.

‘Hemillas died, but he did not fail.’

In fact, from the perspective of the Imperial Guard and the Custoria family’s survival, the current outcome was far better than the ‘Tribute Plan.’

At least, that was what I wanted to believe.

Now, let’s briefly consider other choices. I had plenty of time to think, after all. Let me reflect on my past. The time I had left to exist as myself was limited.

‘If I had sided with Kinuan and the Emperor...’

That would have been the most conventional path to success. I would have reported Hemillas’ actions to the Imperial Court and, when the time came, struck him down.

‘I would have become the dagger buried in Hemillas’ back. A fatal one at that.’

Had I chosen that path, I would have ended up like Kinuan—a man so lonely he stood aloof, unable to trust anyone. Even my feelings for Giselle and Ilay would have been reduced to mere memories of the past. And one day... Ilay would have died by my hand.

Ilay was competent, but he was not loyal to the Empire. Just as Rick Silva Núñez had been killed by Kinuan.

I had no regrets about not siding with the Emperor and Kinuan. That choice would have kept me alive while simultaneously killing me. I would have either suffered unbearable regret or transformed into someone incapable of feeling any remorse at all.

‘The other choice was helping Ivan.’

Avoiding that path had also been the right decision.

Ivan had emerged as the final victor, but it wasn’t due to his own abilities. According to him, it was ‘divine will.’

Looking back, aiding Ivan in assassinating Francec would have been the worst move.

The war would have broken out regardless... and with Ivan’s impatience, he wouldn’t have been able to outmaneuver the Emperor in a power struggle. He wouldn’t have been able to protect the Custoria family, either. That path would have led to the greatest disaster.

‘The ideal choice for me would have been to cooperate with Hemillas right before the storm season.’

But by that time, Kinuan had already driven a wedge into me. Because of that wedge, I doubted Hemillas and couldn’t bring myself to trust him.

‘At the time, I couldn’t trust Hemillas. I thought he was forcing unnecessary obligations and responsibilities onto me, demanding sacrifice and loss. I believed he was trying to use me.’

But in truth, the one who had seized control of my psyche wasn’t Hemillas—it was Kinuan.

‘I thought I was being used because I didn’t understand what family truly was. No... Hemillas did have some intention of using me.’

What Hemillas emphasized was the responsibility one had as a member of the family. He didn’t just stress duty to me; he did the same with all the household members.

‘He did use me, but he didn’t exploit me any more ruthlessly than his other children.’

Hemillas treated his other children the same way. In fact, he had even shown me a degree of favoritism.

Looking back now, the reason was simple—it had been Hemillas’ way of currying favor with me.

‘Things had gotten so bad that he had to stake the fate of the family on an adopted son like me...’

Now, all of Hemillas’ actions looked different in hindsight. He hadn’t been perfect—he had simply concealed his anxieties and vulnerabilities beneath his cloak.

Hemillas had navigated a precarious bridge, making estimations with nothing more than his intuition. And yet, he smiled as if he knew it wouldn’t collapse beneath him. He had to. He needed to appear flawless to those who followed him.

‘Just like Noel.’

Hemillas had borne all that fear and uncertainty alone.

But I had shared my own fears and anxieties with others.

‘I dragged Francec and Ilay into this mess.’

A series of irrational decisions had led to an outcome that was, at the very least, a second-best solution.

‘This is a decent enough conclusion. It turned out much better than I expected.’

Even if, by human calculation and logic, my choices had been the wrong ones, the result had still been correct. After all, the world was not so shallow that it could be neatly predicted by my own understanding.

The only reason I had managed to navigate the sea of possibilities was due to my faint intuition.

Well, this was enough. Luka. Lukaus Custoria. You did well enough. Enough that you wouldn’t bring shame to Hemillas.

I kept murmuring to myself.

I hadn’t lost Giselle. I had protected the Custoria family. I had been able to face Hemillas. And I had learned that there were people willing to help me.

That was not a bad life. In fact, I had lived fairly well.

Of course, my life wasn’t clean. Many had died by my hands, some of whom were innocent.

Creak, creak.

My fingers twitched involuntarily. Even meditation couldn’t suppress my body from acting out.

The conversion between cybernetic signals and biological signals was not smooth, creating a disconnect between my cybernetic implants and my body. It reminded me of my cadet days when I first used prosthetics—I couldn’t even walk properly back then.

‘This isn’t my original body.’

If a human weakened even slightly, the machine would pounce as if to devour the flesh. I couldn’t afford to forget that. No matter how much it felt like my own body, in the end, it was just a machine.

I was dying. My brain was slowly deteriorating.

Only two endings remained for me.

Either I would die completely and shut down, or I would be half-dead, left in a state of functional decline.

Creak.

The door opened.

At the sound, I barely managed to capture the wavering silhouette with my auditory vision.

"Ilay, how’s the situation outside?"

I asked, keeping my head lowered.

Ilay walked in and sat across from me. He held a cigarette between his lips like a thug from the lower districts. Soon, a pungent smell filled the air.

"Busy with the cleanup. There are still occasional armed clashes. Can you believe that in this vast Akbaran, no one has a clear grasp of what’s going on?"

"One person knows everything. That’s Kinuan."

"......Finding Kinuan right now is impossible. He’s always been a ghost. In the chaos of storm-season Akbaran, at the height of this turmoil? Not a chance."

By the time the cleanup was over, Kinuan would be nowhere to be found in Akbaran. There were many things I wanted to ask him.

"Is Hemillas really dead?"

"I didn’t see the body myself, but plenty of survivors from the Security Division testified. He single-handedly wiped out the entire security force under the Bureau of Protection. More than ten of those strange former Imperial Guards were found dead as well."

Hemillas must have known from the moment he turned against the Emperor that he needed to wage a public opinion war. That’s why he seized the central communications tower of the Bureau of Information and Protection.

"Then..."

"Luka, before that, I need to ask you something. How much time do you have left?"

"At best, thirty minutes, judging by how it feels."

Ilay clenched his jaw, momentarily at a loss for words. He pressed his palm against his forehead and let out a deep sigh.

"You fucking idiot..."

"I don’t have much time left. Let’s just keep talking. Ivan may be unpredictable, but he’s not uncontrollable. You need to protect Francec and keep Ivan in check. Once the situation stabilizes, Ivan will try to eliminate Francec."

At the very end, the only remaining concern was Ivan. For the time being, his resources were stretched thin, so he wouldn’t be able to act recklessly.

‘If I kept Ilay by Francec’s side, I could use him to keep Ivan in check.’

I had seen Ivan’s true nature. He was a man who fell within the bounds of predictability.

"Ilay, to be blunt, you and I aren’t compatible. The only reason we could be friends... is because we met before your darkness awoke."

Ilay was even closer to the Imperial Court than I was. He was ruthless and coldhearted. At times, his actions even felt despicable. But that also meant he could make up for what Francec lacked.

"...Ha, you’re only realizing that now? Honestly, I’ve always thought we weren’t compatible. If I laid out every filthy thought inside me, you’d be horrified."

"And knowing that, why did you approach me?"

"At first, I wanted to find your weakness. It’s easier to take the top spot by exploiting a single flaw and breaking you than by working my ass off. You’re an Irregular, so even the smallest slip-up would get you expelled."

At first, I thought Ilay was joking. But he wasn’t. Those words... they were likely the truth.

...Now that I thought about it, his scheming nature had been evident from the moment he tried to entangle me with his first love, Lilian Lamones.

"Hmm, for all that, you never actually exploited any of my weaknesses. What changed?"

"Who knows? I forgot. At some point, I just started liking you. The way you act all serious whenever something happens—it’s hilarious."

Ilay smiled. I let my lips curve up slightly in a faint, helpless laugh.

In the end, that was how it was. Intent and emotion never aligned perfectly. That was also why, despite making the ‘wrong’ choices, I had made it this far. If I had chosen the most cunning, ‘correct’ answer, Hemillas would have killed me long ago.

Hemillas had tried to kill me, yet at the very end, he saved me. Even as he died, he helped execute my plan.

Likewise, I had fought Rick Silva Núñez to the bitter end, even knowing I couldn’t defeat him. Because of that, I had managed to reach the center of the Emperor’s network—the Overseers.

Sometimes, the wrong answer turned out to be the right one.

What was ‘correct’ depended on perspective and timing. Even the same choice could be judged differently based on who was looking at it and when.

The choices I made during this storm season had been the right ones for me. From someone else’s point of view, I might be the worst villain who had ruined the Empire. But I didn’t care about that kind of judgment.

"What do you think Kinuan really was? A Bellato or Coritan spy?"

Ilay let the burnt-out cigarette slip from between his fingers as he spoke.

I was about to answer but hesitated. My language function was starting to fail. I steadied my mind and forced the words out.

"If we see Kinuan as a loyalist, he will gladly become a traitor. If we think of him as weak, he will turn into a strongman. If someone calls him ruthless, he will show glimpses of humanity that evoke pity. If we regard him as an enemy, he will become an ally, and if we consider him an ally, he will drive a dagger into our backs. That’s Kinuan. A creature of chaos, wielding randomness as a weapon."

Ilay looked at me, then tilted his head.

"So what’s his goal?"

"If we figure that out, we can drag him down from monster to human. That’s... your task, I-Ilay."

This was as far as I could go. Someone else would have to uncover Kinuan’s true intentions.

"Hey, don’t sleep yet. I called Giselle too. At least wait until she gets here..."

His voice grew faint in my ears.

I just wanted to rest now. To finally get some proper sleep. This was enough, wasn’t it?

I felt drowsy. It was as if my brain had sunk into a steaming bath, my nerves unraveling strand by strand. Flickering lights danced inside my head, and a pleasant tingling sensation spread through my body.

Ilay moved closer and shook my shoulders. Then he slapped me hard across the face. The pain felt distant, like it belonged to someone else.

The urge to sleep only grew stronger.

"Damn it, please! I told you I called Giselle! If you leave without saying goodbye, I swear I’ll make a move on her! You know I’m better-looking than you, right?"

That... was a little provoking. With great effort, I weakly threw a punch at Ilay’s solar plexus.

Thud.

It was so feeble it made me sigh.

‘You know what? Your personality is so garbage you’ll never land a good woman.’

The words wouldn’t leave my mouth. Damn it.

"Luka, listen carefully. From now on, I’m going to do a lot of dirty things. I already have, in places you haven’t seen. But just know—this isn’t for my own selfish gain. I’m still the same Ilay Carthica you know, the same wretched bastard. Somewhere along the way, we became nothing more than cogs in the vast machine of the Empire. This isn’t normal. Something is wrong."

Ilay’s voice sounded as if it were coming from a great distance.

I sat still, like an empty doll. I couldn’t hold on anymore. My senses were numbing, and everything below my neck felt as if it no longer existed.

"Lu..."

Ilay’s voice wavered at my ear.

And then—darkness.

I couldn’t feel. Cold. Death. Sensation. There was no light, only an abyss. I was alone. Already, I longed for warmth.

And just then, a small light arrived to delay my death.

"Lu, ka."

A voice rippled like a glass bead dropped into water.

Twitch.

My finger moved.

Giselle was holding me.

...Warm. Thank god this wasn’t a man’s embrace. If I had come to my senses in Ilay’s arms, it would finally be time to question my sexuality.

A clumsy, hazy kiss followed.

Giselle, why do you love me? I’m unpleasant, arrogant, and barely express my emotions. I’m dangerous and full of secrets. Selfish, too. I would only make you miserable, and yet—I held you.

There was so much I wanted to say. If only I had a little more time.

At the very end, I was certain—I had made a better choice than Noel. Noel had died alone, unrecognized and misunderstood even by those he loved.

...Suddenly, I remembered a fairy tale tucked away in the corner of the orphanage’s bookshelf. A book so old that the pages crumbled into dust whenever I turned them. Back then, who knows why, but I had read that useless fairy tale just to pass the time.

In fairy tales, a sweet kiss awakened the princess who ate the poisoned apple, and a cursed frog turned into a prince. No matter the story, a kiss filled with love was always the key to a miracle. freeweɓnovel.cѳm

Of course, no grand miracle happened for us.

I wished for Giselle’s happiness, and for the well-being of not just my friends but also everyone who had helped me.

...This was as far as my consciousness would go.