No Hero

Translator: Raylight (proofread by Arcedemius & Trespasserby; C/E edited by lucathia)

I just want to damn it all and go to sleep!

Even if the sky falls down, I still want to sleep! Just let the sky crush me directly! Raaawwwrrrrr!

The sky didn’t fall down, but the phone rang.

“Aren, could you come over for a moment?”

I want to sleep! I really do! Even the sky falling down can’t stop me from going home to sleep! Neither can Charles-gē!

“I do not know who else I can ask this of.”

…

Where should I go?

Even if the sky falls down, I still want to sleep. However, there are some things that are even more serious than the sky falling down.

For example: Charles-gē begging me in a voice that sounds like he’s about to cry.

I opened my eyes. In front of me was an elderly woman. She looked down at me, her face full of heart-wrenching pain and sorrow. However, I did not know her.

Just as I was about to ask her who she was, both of my arms were suddenly grabbed, and then I was dragged away from her side.

“Cousin!” She shrieked, both her hands waving as though she wanted to drag me back. However, she did not even manage to touch my sleeve.

… Sadina?

I was dragged the entire way. However, I did not mind it. I merely stared at Sadina, and simply could not believe that I actually had not recognized her just now. Is it because she has aged? No, it is her expression… She was sorrowful, in pain, and even full of despair. None of those were expressions that my Sadina should have.

Sadina should be a woman who glowed with health and vigor and was full of hope. At the moment though, she was trapped behind iron bars. Both of her hands gripped the bars tightly, and she gazed at me with a heart-wrenching and despairing face.

The dragging stopped. I continued to look at Sadina. It had never crossed my mind that upon my first time seeing her after such a long time, she would have such an expression.

Sadina was actually trapped in a metal cage. I also saw Curtis, who was not in the cage. He was instead standing outside of the cage. However, he did not need to be caged, for he was already a blood thrall, the slave of a vampire.

Sadina’s face was full of worry for me. Curtis also looked at me, but his face was void of hatred. He merely remained expressionless as usual. The situation has already deteriorated to this point, yet why are these two people looking at me with that kind of expression?

“Long time no see, son.”

I turned around slowly toward the source of the voice. A lady in an evening gown was sitting on the throne. Compared to the large change Sadina had undergone, she remained completely unchanged. She looked as gorgeous as ever, as proud and unfeeling as before. If I were to say what was different, it was probably the fact that her gaze toward me had turned from disgust to a deep hatred.

Avexila Endelis. My mother.

Looking at her hatred, I smiled. I smiled as I told her, “Avexila, you should not have captured them. The Elysees family will never forgive you, and you cannot defeat the Elysees family. Do you still remember? Last time, you dared not even fight and just fled.”

“You dare to actually speak to me in such a tone!”

She abruptly stood up, so enraged that her good looks contorted horrifyingly. At this point, Krell and Gong Feng Xiang, who were standing to both sides, both had on malicious smiles. Krell even handed her a whip, and it was not a regular whip with a smooth surface. This one had many spikes jutting out of the body, but I was not surprised by it.

Avexila grabbed the whip with one hand and brandished it without hesitation. The whip sliced the air, bringing with it the sound of the wind tearing, and it came toward me like a huge, man-devouring snake. I did not avoid or dodge it, and I even stood up so that there would be a larger area for the whip to hit.

However, when the first lash landed, it hurt so much that I nearly fell back onto the ground again. The tips of the spikes must have contained some silver, for other than pain, I also felt like I was being corroded. With just a dozen or so lashes, I already felt a little dizzy.

It hurts! My entire body hurts. Why does it hurt this much?

I wanted to stand up straight, but could not do so. I could only kneel with one knee on the floor. Both of my hands were hugging my body, and my fingernails were already stabbing into the flesh, but I did not feel anything. I only felt the whip hitting me again and again, as though it had lit a fire on my skin that never went out.

“How is it?” This seemed to be Krell’s voice. “This is not only a whip with silver spikes. There’s even some silver powder scattered on it. The silver powder will remain in your wounds, and if you don’t get rid of it, a vampire’s recovery abilities will practically drop to zero.”

So that is how it is.

No wonder it hurts so much. No wonder the pain will not diminish at all. My entire body has practically been assaulted by the whip, and so my entire body is in as much pain as being burned in a fire. However… I feel much better.

This is what I deserve. Not worry, not forgiveness. Do not tell me that this is not my fault.

This is completely my fault!

“Don’t hit him. Don’t hit him anymore! You’ll beat him to death!” Sadina’s cries rang out continuously in my ears. Her voice sounded like she was in pain, so much pain…

Gong Feng Xiang lazily said, “Don’t worry, Madam Sadina. Vampires don’t die this easily. Last time, he was a mere hundred-year-old vampire, and he didn’t die from our handling. Now that he’s a hundred and fifty years old and has even become an adult, we can play even more to our heart’s content. Madam Avexila, whipping has become boring, right? Do you want to switch to something else, Madam?”

“Hmph! Business first.”

Business? I raised my head. Avexila threw the whip aside and sat back on her throne. Following that, someone grabbed me on the left and right, forcing me to stand.

Gong Feng Xiang walked in front of me and said with a smile, “Now, Young Master Charles, let us not have to resort to extorting the information out of you by torture, okay? Anyway, there are many various ways to play later. You should directly hand over the contact information of E.X.!”

“X?” I felt a little puzzled. Right now, what they wanted should be the Elysees family. Once they owned the Elysees, X should be of no importance at all to them.

“Are you going to say it or not?” Gong Feng Xiang growled.

They kidnapped me, for the sake of X? I thought they just wanted to silence me, and also torture me in passing for the sake of their revenge for the past. “What do you want X for?”

Hearing my question, Gong Feng Xiang’s face darkened. Her gaze turned to Curtis.

I also followed and looked at him. He took out a gun and then aimed at the caged Sadina. Sadina, who had the gun pointed at her, did not show any kind of pleading expression. Instead, it was Curtis whose face turned extremely pale.

“You will not kill Sadina.” I tried my best to keep my voice steady. “If Sadina disappears like this, Curtis will become a suspect. If it is found out that he is a blood thrall, he can no longer be the family head of the Elysees.”

Hold on… No matter what, Curtis would not be able to stay as the family head for long. The Church is not so easily dealt with. They would discover it sooner or later.

Back then, the reason I could remain as the family head for ten years was due to the fact that I was at least my father’s child. I had been raised by humans since young and was the only successor in the family still possessing the blood of the Elysees. In addition, my father had donated an unfathomable amount of money to the Church. Only then did the Church reluctantly turn a blind eye to it. But even so, the Elysees had still withstood a lot of pressure from the Church.

However, Curtis’s situation was different. He was a blood thrall and completely followed the orders of Gong Feng Xiang. As for Gong Feng Xiang, she was a true vampire. No matter how much money one donated to the Church, the Church would not tolerate such a thing.

A hesitant expression appeared on Gong Feng Xiang’s face. She walked back to Avexila’s side and whispered into her ear.

Avexila had been watching me from the beginning to the end. After hearing Gong Feng Xiang’s words, her mouth turned into a sneer as she said, “So what if we tell him? I already know what he would do. As long as one thinks of the most foolish thing they could do, that would be the course of action my son would choose.”

“Understood.” Gong Feng Xiang returned to me and said, “Madam and the Church have made an agreement.”

Agreement? The Church would have an agreement with Avexila, a fifth-generation vampire?

“We will hand over E.X. to them, and they will not interfere with the matters between the Elysees and us.”

To think that there is actually such a thing… Because of their hatred toward X, they actually formed an agreement with vampires and abandoned a human family. Moreover, it is even a large family like the Elysees. With such a large influence at stake, how would they dare let vampires take charge of the Elysees? What exactly is the Church planning?

“Therefore, if we cannot capture E.X., your Sadina is going to become useless. We will make Curtis topple the entire Elysees family and then escape far away with the Elysees’s money. Although it’s really a pity to lose such a large influence like the Elysees, if we can’t have it, we can only destroy it. Don’t you think so? Young Master Charles.

“Put your gun away, Curtis.” Gong Feng Xiang commanded and turned to me with a smile. “Shooting Sadina to death with one shot is simply too merciful for her. She really gave us a lot of trouble. Therefore, we definitely have to torture her precious Charles until he is half dead in front of her. Then, we will snap her bones one by one in front of you, to make you two a pair of wretched, affectionate lovebirds. Only this will make up for the hatred that you have instilled in us!

“Hm, since Young Master Charles has already been beaten, then next is Sadina’s turn!” She turned to face Sadina. She seemed a little vexed as she said, “Which bone of hers should I let Curtis break?”

“Email.”

Gong Feng Xiang paused for a moment. She turned to me and asked, “What did you say?”

I said in a flat voice, “I send emails to X.”

A sweet smile appeared on her face, and Gong Feng Xiang said, “You sure are nice to your old lover. So it’s okay that you are beaten up until you’re nearly dead, but you can’t bear to have even a single bone of hers broken?” Following that, she turned to tell the person beside her, “Bring a pen and paper here.

“Write down your email account and password, as well as X’s email address. Don’t misspell anything. If X does not come five days after the email is sent, your old lover will become of no use to us.”

I took the pen and paper silently. However, I realized that my hand was shaking violently. I could only write one letter at a time slowly, and it took a very long time before I finished. I even checked it five or six times, before Gong Feng Xiang became impatient waiting and pulled the paper away.

She reported to Avexila with a smile, “Madam, business is finished. You may now reminisce about old times with Young Master Charles to your heart’s content!”

Avexila stood up, looking down at me with a content smile.

“Child, I have waited for so long, for such endless years. Every day and night, I have thought about and missed you… Finally, you are here.”

She rose from her throne and walked in front of me. She looked at me and smiled, amorous but still maintaining elegance and nobility. When I first saw this smile, one of the questions that I had always had was answered at that moment.

Back then, why did my father become intimate with a vampire?

I had never asked before, for fear that my father would become ill at ease. A female vampire definitely had the ability to force a human male. However, the first time I saw Avexila smile, I then thought that perhaps things were not as I had guessed. That was because she was very beautiful, extremely beautiful.

Avexila reached out a hand and gently caressed my face. She lamented, “You really look more and more like your father. Your appearance had already been very similar to his. Now, even your gaze is similar. Your father would always look at me with those eyes. What I always wanted to know was, what exactly was he thinking when he looked at me with such eyes? Child, could you tell me? What are you thinking?”

“What a pity…”

“Pity?” Avexila asked, seeming a little confused.

I found it a great pity as I said, “You are beautiful enough to make anyone fall in love with you. However, you yourself do not understand what love is. You do not know how to give others anything else other than pain.”

“Love?” Avexila chuckled as she said, “Charles, my child, once you have lived hundreds of years after another, you too will not understand love… Ah! Pardon me. I’m afraid you will never understand because you don’t have another hundred years more to live. This time, I will definitely thoroughly destroy you!”

Gong Feng Xiang suddenly shrieked, “Madam, don’t kill him yet!”

Avexila’s face was cold as she shouted back, “He is already useless! What is the point of keeping him?”

“Madam, Young Master Charles has a very vast network of connections. He can be used to control a lot of people. Keeping him will make things more convenient for us.” Gong Feng Xiang smiled as she said, “Madam! You have held back your anger for more than ten years. Your anger is not something that will be quenched with just a few days of torture, right? Though I have not spent a long time with Young Master Charles, he is a very easy person to understand! To him, death is not a terrifying thing. He has always been waiting for death, waiting to be released! Madam. If you were to kill him, wouldn’t that be exactly what he wants?”

Avexila suddenly roared with a vampire’s Hollow Roar, “Don’t order me!”

“That is not Feng Xiang’s intention. Feng Xiang does not dare to do so, Madam!”

Seeing that, Avexila gave a laugh. She gave a small reprimand, “Feng Xiang, stop playing around and go do your business. I already can’t wait to see what exactly the legendary E.X. is like. Especially what kind of expression he will have when I hand him over to the Church… Ah!”

“Understood, Madam.”

Avexila lazily said to her other childe, “Krell, you should have many interesting toys, right? Find some that are not as lethal. I want to play more!”

“Understood, Madam.”

Avexila lifted my chin up and said with a smile, “Now, son. Before E.X. comes, show some other expressions to me to relieve my boredom! I still remember that your sorrowful expression was just as good as your father’s enraged expression. Especially when you were begging while crying…”

I gave an indifferent smile. This time, I will no longer beg her for anything. Avexila was not qualified to have anyone implore to her.

Her smile faded as she slapped me hard. Her slap was so strong that my face was flung to one side. I could feel a burning sensation of pain on my face, and at the same time, I tasted blood in my mouth.

Slowly, I turned back and looked at Avexila with a faint smile.

I was thrown into the cage. After I tumbled a few times, I lay flat on the ground.

“Cousin!”

Sadina rushed to my side. It appeared that she wanted to support me up, but she did not dare to touch me at all. In the end, she merely covered her mouth with her hands as she choked with sobs, “Oh, Cousin. Oh god, oh god…”

I looked at her and actually felt a little thankful that Avexila had not stabbed my eyes and blinded me. Therefore, I was still able to gaze at Sadina. She really had become rather different from before. Many wrinkles had appeared on what was originally a young girl’s smooth face, and her head of brown hair had turned white and was coiled at the back of her head. She was much thinner than before. She really had become an old lady, but she was filled with wisdom and a mature charm. Compared to her younger days, it was a different kind of beauty.

“Cousin?” Sadina caressed my face, seeming a little worried. The only place left unmarked was my face, making me wonder whether Avexila had wanted to look at my face that was very similar to my father’s. “Are you okay? Does it hurt a lot?”

“I am looking at you.”

Sadina froze, and then she smiled. This was the first time I had seen her smile since our encounter here. She smiled as she said, “What’s there to look at? I have aged and don’t look good anymore. Unlike you, who is still so young and pretty.”

I laughed, but nearly coughed out a mouthful of blood. I quickly shut my mouth tight and swallowed back all of the blood. However, I instead choked on it and ended up coughing non-stop. Sadina gently patted my chest, wanting to help me feel better… I dared not tell her that her gentle patting was actually making me feel very pained. I did not know how many times Avexila had used a soldering iron to burn my chest. She had even scattered a lot of silver powder on the wound.

After a long time, I finally regained my breath. Only then did I manage to say the words that I had already said before umpteenth times, “You are saying that I am pretty again. How can you use pretty to describe a man? You should say that I am handsome.”

“You are pretty! Which part of you is handsome?” Sadina stroked my facial features, as she said, “Look at you. Gentle eyebrows, slender red lips, an egg-shaped face, white skin, and even your hair is fine and silky. Which part of you is not pretty?”

“You are much more beautiful than I am, really!” I said sincerely, “Even now, you are still much more beautiful than I am.”

Sadina smiled, and she stroked my hair affectionately…

“Don’t be a hypocrite. You don’t love my grandmother at all! Otherwise, you would not leave her, abandoning her!”

Sadina and I were both stunned, and we looked in the same direction. Curtis was standing outside the metal cage. His back was facing us, so we could not see his expression, but he was indeed the one who had uttered that sentence just now.

“Who told you that Charles doesn’t love me?”

Sadina chuckled as she said, “It is precisely because he loves me too much that he dares not stay by my side. He is afraid that I would become just like his father, and die bit-by-bit every day in front of his eyes, until the end when my eyes never open again. That year, he told me while crying that if I also died in front of him, he really would go crazy. That was why I let him go.”

Curtis did not say a single word.

“Curtis, you are always so quiet and keep everything to yourself, refusing to say a single word more. Why didn’t you tell me earlier about what you felt toward your great uncle Charles?”

“… Great uncle?” Since when did I have this kind of status?

Sadina said as though it were obvious, “Curtis is my grandson, and you are my cousin. Naturally, you are his great uncle. However, these addresses seem to be a little troublesome. When Curtis’s child is born, you would have to be called grand great-uncle. Following that, I really have no idea what you should be called.”

Following that… Are you sure there is still a “following that”? I gave a distressed smile and said, “Sadina, I am truly sorry. I have caused harm to befall your only grandson, and I have caused harm to come to you.”

“Cousin.” Sadina said gently, “Don’t speak any further. This is not your fault.”

No… Sadina, do not forgive me. Do not indulge me any further. Your forgiveness and words of comfort make me feel even more pain, even more despair than Avexila’s cruel torture made me feel.

Curtis, why do you not curse me further? Why do you not shout that you hate me?

I had once thought, and even once told the young master, “When I have given up all hope, I will only pray for death to come faster.”

But at this point, I finally understood. When even the option of death is taken away from you, then you are truly at your rope’s end. That is true despair!

X, I beg of you to quickly open your email. I beg for you to come… No, don’t come!

What could you do even if you came? There is only one of you. No matter how strong you are, you cannot be stronger than an entire clan. You would not be able to save Sadina and Curtis, and you would even be captured by Avexila and handed over to the Church. Moreover, since the Church hates you so much that they would even bargain with vampires to catch you, then how would they treat you? I do not wish to cause harm to any more people.

Who exactly could come and save Sadina and Curtis? Save the Elysees family?

“Young Master…”

Young Master, I was the one who turned my back on you, but please, I beg of you, do not abandon me! Please come and save Sadina, save Curtis, save the Elysees family…

I beseech you!