For humans, even a single day of recess can be unsatisfying. Though trials require prudence, to an impatient human, even a day feels long.
However, to a vampire, a day or so is merely a short break—just enough time to go out and drink some blood. The vampires leisurely left the hall, promising to reunite soon. Though a few Elders remained.
"O Progenitor. I shall take my leave for a moment. Please permit me to withdraw first."
"You must have urgent business. Go and return."
"I am deeply grateful."
Led by Valdamir, who left the hall first, the Elders also withdrew as if displeased. Before long, only Tir, Lir, and I remained in the hall.
Tir, who surveyed the empty hall once, relaxed her stern expression and spoke.
"You overcame the crisis splendidly."
"It was hardly a crisis. At worst, only I would suffer, right? Lir would die."
The moment you shift the risk onto someone else, it becomes a diversion. Without stakes, there's no tension.
Despite my candid answer, Tir smiled faintly and praised me.
"Hehe. You speak as if you were relaxed, but I know. The reason you tried to save her. As the king of humans, you favor those who save humans."
"No? I don't particularly like them."
"There you go again. You may have been difficult, but didn't you help Shea greatly? It was the same with Lir—you volunteered to help her even though you hadn't known her for long. I have watched you for so long, do you think I wouldn't know?"
Did I? It wasn't that I particularly liked saving humans; rather, my desire to observe their wishes a bit longer was greater. Even if she were a murderer rather than a healer, as long as she didn't try to kill me, I would have observed her first. It's usually a problem because they try to kill me first.
It seems Tir has somewhat misunderstood me... What should I do about this misunderstanding? Should I dispel it?
"...Or perhaps, you have some other reason? Could it be that you harbor dark designs?"
"No. Come to think of it, I suppose you're right."
Better not to dispel it, definitely.
Tir, having relaxed her expression, looked toward Lir. Lir was still lying face down alone in the hall. Since no one had taken her out separately or ordered her to move, she remained still.
"Lir Nightingale."
"Yes, O Progenitor."
"From now on, your position will be a testing ground for your qualifications. Whether you are worthy of receiving my true blood, whether you possess such strength—everyone will test and evaluate you."
However, trailing off, Tir glanced at me.
"It seems it would be somewhat easier to evaluate if I could know your abilities in advance."
Though phrased indirectly, it was a proposal: since I'll spare you, let's coordinate our stories beforehand. Because I took Lir's side, Tir is playing along. A ruler's benevolence and dirty backroom deals are indistinguishable. Actually, they're the same thing.
Of course, I'm not the only reason. Tir, who once walked a similar path, likely feels some kinship with Lir, who heals humans through Blood Weaving. If Tir still maintained her Blood Dominion, this trial might not have occurred at all. Every vampire under Blood Dominion would have felt similar sentiments toward Lir.
Hmm. Right. There was a reason the Divine Healer survived in the future the Regressor saw.
At this point, it's safe to say the Divine Healer has survived. However, Lir appeared devoid of emotion.
"...I have no skills to speak of."
"No skills? I heard that your ability to save humans is unmatched by any Elder."
"I don't save them. I have no interest in their lives. I merely involve myself in their deaths. It's similar to killing, isn't it?"
"Killing?"
"Yes."
Tir gestured with her chin, demanding explanation. Lir answered.
"I have no interest in their lives. Humans live as they please and die anyway. However they live, however they die, I've decided I don't care. I will only involve myself in their deaths."
"Isn't preventing death the same as saving them?"
"O Progenitor. Do you know the easiest way to save a person?"
"What is it?"
"Kill the killer. Or, swear to kill the killer."
She's young but hits the core well. It seems like a unique perspective, but it's actually common sense that applies anywhere in the world. It's also the reason murder is considered a sin in any country, any society.
Kill the killer. That firm promise creates order. Within solid order, humans can live.
"However, even if they are a killer, I won't care."
Lir declared without emotion.
"Even if the person I saved becomes my father's toy and suffers, screaming that they'd rather die. Even if they become fodder to fatten my father, or his diversion. I will cure my mother."
A father who sees humans as objects to be modified. He made a living of drawing blood, tearing flesh, and cutting bones. Elder Ruskinia wasn't satisfied with modifying his subordinate familiars; he even laid hands on humans. Even his concubine and daughter.
Lir, who inherited an Elder's blood and learned from watching his actions, unexpectedly acquired outstanding medical skills. Those outstanding medical skills were primarily used to treat her mother.
Only a bloodless, tearless vampire could do such a thing. There, Ruskinia conducted a forbidden experiment to break the Blood Shackle, and as a result, was killed. So that's how it happened...
However.
The culprit is Valdamir. Everyone is framing Lir as the culprit, and she herself believes so too. But within the gap of perception, something had occurred.
"This person is strange."
Perhaps right now, I might be able to uncover this gap.
"How does that count as killing people? You're just someone with a weak heart who can't accept people's deaths. Why attach such grandiose reasons? Is it puberty?"
Tir, who had been feeling similar sentiments, nodded in agreement. If she just explained it as human compassion, it would be simple, but piling on reasons made the picture strange.
However, the Divine Healer was a much more cold-blooded person than I thought.
"I did become a vampire around that time. Some influence probably remains."
"When you put it honestly, the picture gets weird!"
"It's the truth. Besides, I was in a position where I had to harbor such doubts. The humans I saved soon returned to the same state."
True. If an ordinary child living in the Empire had harbored such concerns, I would have threatened them to wake up and face reality. But growing up as an Elder's daughter, reality was bloody, so it's understandable.
"If you had told Lord Ruskinia, wouldn't he have listened?"
"When I protested to my father about it, he said he'd eliminate my worries and turned me into a vampire."
"I'm sorry. It was a more dysfunctional family than I imagined."
The more I hear, the more it's a sewer. Do you have to be driven to such extreme conditions to produce a twisted existence like the Divine Healer?
"I'm not sure about the past me, but the current me can no longer feel sympathy. That's why I had to establish principles to move by. If I don't attach such reasons, I'll eventually forget why I'm moving."
Just as Tir made hating the Holy Imperial Court a principle, she set this as her principle. That way, she can perform equal treatment regardless of which human she faces.
This is why she became the Divine Healer in the Regressor's future. With unchanging stubbornness, she must have gone around saving humans.
Which makes me even more doubtful. I read her memories once more and spoke.
"Did you really kill Ruskinia?"
"Yes."
Surprisingly, she's sincere. Then it's the truth. She broke free from the Shackle after Ruskinia's long efforts, and attempted it on Ruskinia.
But Ruskinia was killed by Valdamir.
There's only one reason for the discrepancy in perception. Lir failed to kill Ruskinia.
"Did you have the ability to kill Ruskinia?"
"Yes. Definitely."
...It's not impossible.
Because she twisted and disrupted the Blood Shackle, Lir was repelled from it. If Ruskinia had resisted, she could never have accomplished it, but with his tacit permission, it might have been possible. No matter how strong someone is, if they don't resist, they'll die.
However.
"Let me ask one last thing."
If she had the ability but failed, there's only one reason, right?
"Do you truly hate your father? Someone like you?"
Even Lir couldn't easily answer this question. No matter how coldly she reflects on herself, even she might not know herself.
Vampires are beings where reason precedes emotion. They have no caprice. The characteristic of being neither dying nor injured made them existences closer to some phenomenon than humans.
It was the same for Lir and Tir, who had broken free from the Shackle—meaning they didn't receive the Patriarch's command. They needed some reason to act.
Still, they are still human.
"Humans are more consistent than you think; it's hard to be kind to all other humans while hating only your own father. Saying you'll treat all the dying while trying to kill only your father is also strange."
I read human hearts. It may seem impressive, but it's strictly limited to 'humans.' What they saw, the smells they smelled, the tastes they savored, the textures they touched. I cannot reproduce all of that. Because it wasn't retained in memory. Only a fraction, filtered once, remains and is read.
Since the heart isn't perfect, I who read hearts am not perfect either. If I were perfect, I would have known how Ruskinia thought, moved, and died.
However, I do know Lir's heart before me.
"Do you truly want to kill Ruskinia?"
Where her stubborn and twisted kindness originated from.
"...I don't know."
Lir calmly faced her own heart. Vampire coldness allowed her to coldly observe even the deepest emotions within.
"Even if I had yearned for affection, since he made me a vampire. I can feel no affection."
Lir dispassionately gathered her belongings. A bag containing sharp scalpels, forceps, and scissors. Tools needed to sew humans together. In Ruskinia's hands, they were used to create pain, but in Lir's hands, they were tools to alleviate pain.
"Even if I had wanted to save him, he wished to die himself. So I had no choice but to kill him."
Pain is only felt by the living. Surprisingly, Ruskinia was familiar with keeping humans alive. The detailed knowledge of the human body and its functions that the Divine Healer possessed was all received from her father.
What is a parent to a child? They could be hated, resented. But at the very least, it's certain that they hold a considerable portion of one's life. Even if unwanted.
"Even if I had loved him. Since he commanded me to hate. I hate him."
And Ruskinia, who was both father and Patriarch, was most of Lir. Lir walked unwanted paths because of her father. The life of a vampire, the life of an Elder killer. And even the life of an Elder.
"He gave me nothing I wanted. Then, I have no choice but to hate him, don't I?"
Having gathered all her belongings, Lir bowed deeply to Tir.
"Thank you for your help. O Progenitor's concubine."
"It was nothing. Consider it saving one person."
"No. I mean for revealing everything about my father. Now that everyone knows he was a human who deserved to die, I'm satisfied."
It might have been different back then, but her current feelings of hatred seem genuine. After sincerely expressing her gratitude, Lir withdrew, leaving only the two of us.
"...So in the end, we didn't get to see what ability she possesses."
"Right. Since it's the ability to heal humans, it wouldn't be very useful to vampires."
"How about bringing someone and inflicting a wound?"
"In front of the vampires? That's a slaughterhouse."
"If we revive them afterward, isn't it similar to a veterinarian?"
"If her ability is like a veterinarian's, her qualifications seem a bit lacking."
I wonder if the Divine Healer can prove her qualifications among the Elders—a nest of monsters notorious as puppeteers, blood-soaked, and bearing vicious epithets. It won't be easy.
Then Tir spoke as if to reassure me.
"What is there to lose? My concubine is human, after all. It wouldn't be bad to keep a capable doctor by my side."
...The Divine Healer should be grateful to me. Without me, she wouldn't have survived this easily.