Codename Vestia

Chapter 47 : Joonie

「It’s because of you!」

Nika kept shouting like someone who had lost her mind.

Rato knew he had to get out of there. Pushing past Nika, he staggered outside.

His vision blurred. His knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground.

No matter how strong a warrior was, there was no way to withstand a stab to a vital point. Nika hadn’t struck him by accident. She had aimed precisely for the weak spot. She had truly meant to kill him.

「Rato.」

Nika called out to him, trembling.

But Rato didn’t answer. Blood seeped from beneath his body, soaking into the dirt and disappearing. At a glance, he looked as if he were merely lying there.

Nika looked down at the sword still in her hand.

Haah, haah, haah…

Her breath trembled.

It felt like her mind was on fire.

What little reason she had left burned black from the edges, crumbling into ashes.

Her hand, turning the blade toward herself, felt like it belonged to someone else.

At that moment—

「Nika.」

Suddenly, Rato grabbed her arm and shoved her so forcefully that she slammed against the wall with a loud crash.

「Don’t do it.」

Covered in blood, Rato’s dark eyes seemed to glisten as if filled with tears. They held a deep sorrow—so much so that it was hard to believe he was looking at the person who had just stabbed him.

And even as she faced death, Nika knew why Rato had that expression.

No—she believed she knew.

A twisted smile spread across her face.

「Why? Because Marti would be sad?」

***

Gamal whipped around.

「I smell blood.」

Tora, who had been pulling up turnips nearby, straightened his back and asked,

「Isn't it just animals fighting?」

Without taking her eyes off the distance, Gamal replied,

「It’s human blood.」

Tora looked dumbfounded.

「You can even tell that apart?」

「It’s sweeter.」

Without another word, Gamal abruptly turned and started walking.

「Let’s go.」

「Marti, aren’t you taking this?」

Still oblivious to what was happening back at the house, Tora held up a basket of freshly harvested vegetables and asked nonchalantly.

Gamal turned back and spoke with an expression more resolute than Tora had ever seen before in his life.

「Tora, come now.」

The two of them headed home.

Tora still didn’t understand what was going on, but as they walked, the grave look on Gamal’s face began to unsettle him.

Finally, they arrived at the clearing in front of the log house.

At first, Tora didn’t even recognize who was lying there.

「Rato!」

Gamal let out a scream-like cry and dashed forward.

Tora couldn't believe what he was seeing, but he instinctively ran after her.

Rato had lost so much blood that his face had turned deathly pale. He was already unconscious.

「Rato, what happened…!」

Tora frantically checked Rato’s condition, but then noticed that Gamal wasn’t moving.

When he turned to look at her, he saw that she was staring, unblinking, at something.

Inside the house, past the open door…

A dreadful feeling slithered down Tora’s spine like a cold, clammy hand.

He rushed into the house.

There, submerged in a pool of blood, was a woman so drenched in red that it was impossible to recognize her at first. A dagger was lodged straight into her chest.

「Nika!」

Tora shouted as he ran to her.

「Nika!」

Unlike Rato, who remained unconscious no matter how much they called him, Nika flinched and barely managed to open her eyes. She was, quite literally, on the verge of death.

「Nika.」

Tora’s body trembled.

「Who… why… how…」

His hand hovered in the air, shaking, unable to bring itself to caress her cheek—afraid that something might go even more wrong.

Nika coughed up blood.

「Tora, you love… only me, right?」

「Nika.」

At that moment, realization struck Tora like a blow, leaving him reeling.

「Was this… you?」

Nika reached out a hand. But Tora couldn’t take it.

His beloved wife was dying before his eyes, yet her hand looked to him like a hook, reaching out to drag him into hell.

As if sensing his hesitation, Nika gave a faint smile—like all of this was just some sort of joke.

Then, with air slipping into her damaged lungs, her voice came out ragged and husky, so unlike her usual self.

「Tell me… that you only… loved me…」

She spoke only of herself, even at the very end, before closing her eyes.

All the blood had drained from her, leaving the skin around her eyes blue and her lips a ghostly purple. It was as if the Grim Reaper’s hand itself had seized hers, pulling her soul away.

Through the open door, Tora’s gaze met Gamal’s.

She looked even paler than when their twin siblings had nearly died of measles in childhood.

「I can save them.」

Tora understood immediately.

Turning them into vampires.

But when they were children, he still remembered the words Gamal had told them—

「But most of them die. I’ve never seen it succeed.」

Even so, Tora had no choice but to say it. He couldn't lose them both.

「Please, Marti.」

Gamal didn’t hesitate.

She lowered herself over Rato.

With her eyes gently shut, she looked less like she was trying to save him—

and more like she was about to devour him.

Gamal’s red eyes gleamed as if emitting light. The scent of blood seemed to excite her.

***

That day, for the first time, Tora truly saw Gamal as a "vampire."

What loomed over Rato wasn’t just a human—it was more like a beast.

She had a sleek, black mane and eyes that burned like torches.

Only then did Tora realize just how much Gamal must have suppressed herself while raising two human children.

Gamal bared her fangs. They were long and sharp, like the canines of a predator long extinct.

But as everyone would later learn, the only one who survived the infection was Rato.

Nika convulsed several times before breathing her last.

Even back then, and even now, no one knew what determined the difference.

If one had to guess—Nika had already lost the will to live the moment she chose to take her own life.

Tora carried Nika’s body back to the village. The place was in an uproar.

「It’s because of you twins!」

Nika’s mother clutched her daughter’s lifeless body and wailed.

「Nika died because she married those cursed twins! I should’ve known when Ota abandoned you!」

She screamed for Tora to be banished from the village.

「Don’t worry. I won’t be coming back.」

Tora replied calmly and turned away.

And then—

「Nika took her own life.」

Gamal suddenly stepped forward.

「There is no such thing as a cursed person! The only cursed thing is your hearts!」

Her thunderous roar made the villagers flinch.

Tora was just as shocked.

Gamal had never raised her voice before. Not even once—except when the twins had done something reckless.

「Ota abandoned his own children. That was wrong. That was something to apologize for!」

Her voice rumbled like a beast’s growl, and the villagers were nearly paralyzed with fear.

「Here.」

Gamal’s tone suddenly calmed as she swept her gaze across the gathered crowd.

「Is there anyone here who doesn’t know that Nika tormented herself?」

Silence.

Everyone in the village had known about Nika’s obsession with Rato.

Gamal had never interfered in their marriage.

No matter how loud the fights were, she would simply stand a step away with a sorrowful face. Because she knew that stepping in would only make things worse.

But now, Gamal looked as if she might cry.

「Nika was a fool. She had everything, yet she envied me.」

A loving family who wept for her. A husband who adored her.

Yet she had still envied this wretched woman—

who had nothing except an eternity she never wanted.

「When it came to anything involving Brother-in-law Rato, my sister wasn’t in her right mind.」

A voice suddenly spoke up.

It was Wudan.

Wudan, Nika’s younger brother—the very reason she had first come to the forest—had now grown into a respectable young man.

「Mother, you know the truth.」

His voice carried a trembling sorrow.

「Please calm down. You’re only saying this because your grief is clouding your judgment.」

Nika’s mother broke down in tears. The sorrow of losing her daughter, the desperate need to blame someone, and the weight of despair and emptiness all poured out of her at once.

Wudan swallowed his own tears and looked steadily at Tora.

「Don’t leave the tribe. We are family.」

If Wudan hadn’t been there that day, Tora might have abandoned the tribe altogether.

But the flame that would one day reach Ituhas was still there.

***

Tora gazed at the sea.

The view from this hill had always been the same.

Soft light began to spill over the ocean, and before long, it burned red—

as if someone had set fire to it.

Gamal, who had been silent beside him for a long time, turned to him and asked,

「Tora, do you want to become a vampire?」

It was the first and last time Gamal ever offered to infect someone.

「Yeah, Marti.」

Tora answered as casually as if he were saying he’d have breakfast.

A light shimmered in Gamal’s eyes, faint like tears.

「You might not wake up.」

Like Nika.

Tora watched the burning sea.

Now, he understood—Nika was never light.

She had been fire.

The intense glow that had led them out of the forest had been the very seed that would one day consume her.

Tora spoke calmly.

「I can’t leave Rato alone.」

Rato had survived the infection, but he had yet to wake.

When he did, the shock would be immense.

That Nika had tried to kill him.

That she had taken her own life.

That he was now something entirely different from before.

He needed someone by his side.

Gamal reached out and pulled Tora into her arms.

Tora leaned into her embrace.

It felt strange—his Marti, whom he had always looked up to, suddenly seemed so small.

Her voice trembled as she whispered,

「Don’t let go of Rato. Your šizi.」

Tora shut his eyes tightly.

「I won’t, Marti.」

As fangs pierced his skin, the ocean continued to burn.

***

Jain was speechless, staring at Tora.

Tora looked back at her.

“Nika was pregnant. Given the situation back then, it was almost certainly my child.”

Jain instinctively parted her lips to respond, but in the end, she couldn’t say anything and closed them again.

Tora murmured,

“But she didn’t know. At least, I choose to believe she didn’t.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Jain didn’t know what else to say.

Tora let out a dry chuckle.

“Yeah. It really is a shame.”

“No, I meant—”

“It’s fine. I think so too.”

“Tora, stop talking now.”

Jain tried to dissuade him.

He didn’t look well.

“If I stop talking…”

Tora moved his lips slowly, as if trapped in a different flow of time.

“…I think I’ll lose consciousness.”

A dark glint flickered in his eyes.

Jain felt a chill run down her spine.

Even with her iron nerves, her instincts screamed of danger.

Tora slowly exhaled—

then inhaled again.

A fragrant scent…

It was overwhelming.

Like someone had poured an entire bottle of perfume into the air.

Tora.

Someone whispered.