Chapter 1062
I was born from blood.
A red liquid created by inscribing spells into the blood of the wicked woman called the White Blood Lord. That was my soul, and my body.
While human children sucked their thumbs in the warm wombs of their mothers, I was trapped inside a cold glass bottle, subjected to experiments for reasons unknown.
Beside me were countless siblings. They too were trapped in glass bottles like me, crushed by spells, fed human blood, burned by flames, or imprisoned in ice.
Siblings who could not endure the experiments fell to the floor along with their glass bottles. Each time I heard the sound of a bottle shattering, I felt pain as if my soul itself were being torn apart.
Hundreds a day. No, hundreds of siblings vanished, until finally only exactly one hundred glass bottles remained.
I was fortunate enough to survive the countless experiments and protect my bottle, which was like my home.
The humans did not continue the experiments and left us confined and neglected for a long time.
It was a boring and endless stretch of time. I knew too little, wondered who I was, and questioned why I had to live such a life.
After an immeasurable amount of time had passed, the door to the room where we were confined opened once more.
Humans dressed in pure white clothes dragged in humans whose red blood flowed like my own, pulling them by the hair.
“Begin.”
A man with a pale complexion shoved my sibling from the first glass bottle into the mouth of a human missing an arm.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
The one-armed human screamed loudly enough to shake the entire room, clawed at his own throat with his nails, and collapsed.
I could feel his life force slowly fading away. My sibling too seemed to melt inside the human body and vanish without a trace.
“He’s dead. Dispose of him.”
The pale-complexioned man waved his hand as if he had expected this, and the white-clad humans picked up the one-armed man, who no longer moved, and threw him outside.
‘Dead.’ Through that word, I learned what death was.
“Next.”
At the pale-complexioned man’s jerk of the chin, the second sibling entered the body of a white-haired human.
Just like the first, the white-haired human vomited blood, collapsed, and then stopped breathing.
Realizing that the experiments had begun again, I trembled inside my glass bottle.
Now that I knew what death was, I did not want to die.
The first sibling disappeared, and the first human died.
The second sibling disappeared, and the second human died.
And so the ninety-nine experiments continued, until at last I alone remained.
“Inject.”
The pale-complexioned man frowned as if he had given up and weakly lowered his hand.
I was taken into the hand of a white-clad human and placed into the body of the smallest human.
As I passed through the warm throat, my body spread throughout the human body against my will.
My body, made of blood, absorbed all of the human’s blood and even swallowed the soul the human possessed.
It was not my will. The instinct I had been born with devoured everything the human had.
The life the small human had lived flashed through my mind.
Most of them were fragmented memories, bubbling up and disappearing, but I was able to understand a little of what human life was.
“All failures.”
The pale-complexioned man sighed as if he assumed I had died just like the others.
What is this?
I felt human words resonate, and I heard them through my body rather than through my soul. It was an unfamiliar sensation I had never experienced before.
“Tsk, what should I tell Her?”
As he clicked his tongue in frustration, I opened my eyes.
Using what I had read from the small human’s memories, I naturally moved my arms and legs and raised my body.
I had entered a human body and was controlling it.
“Huh…?”
The pale-complexioned man stared at me with wide eyes.
“W-what!”
His chin trembled as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Huh…”
“S-succeeded?”
“To think this was really possible…”
“Then who is that?”
Not only the pale-complexioned man, but the white-clad humans in the room also stared at me and let out groans of shock.
“Who are you.”
The pale man looked at me and asked who I was.
Having gained a little human memory, I knew that question meant asking for a person’s name.
This young human’s name was Reywen, but that was not a name that meant me.
“Four thousand four hundred and four…”
I told him the number of the glass bottle that had confined me.
“Four thousand four hundred and four? Kehahahahaha!”
The pale-complexioned man checked the number of the glass bottle I had been in and burst into laughter loud enough to rupture eardrums.
“Bring Her here! Now!”
===
I stood face to face with a woman with golden hair and blue eyes.
Ziiiiiiing!
I felt my soul scream wildly that it had to return to that woman. I knew instinctively that I had been born from this golden-haired woman.
In human memory, the word for such a being was clearly ‘mother’.
“Did it really succeed?”
Mother narrowed her eyes as if she couldn’t believe the pale-complexioned man’s words.
“Yes. It said itself that it is number four thousand four hundred and four.”
The pale-complexioned man shook the glass bottle I had been in.
“Who are you?”
Mother looked at me with interested eyes.
“Mother.”
Without rejecting the violent resonance of my soul, I uttered the title ‘Mother’.
“Are you insane!?”
The pale-complexioned man glared at me with a furrowed brow. The moment I met his gaze, my whole body trembled, and I couldn’t breathe.
“Let it be.”
Mother waved her hand as if it didn’t matter, and the pale-complexioned man bowed his head and stepped back.
“It’s not wrong. This child was born from my blood.”
She nodded as if to say it was fine for me to call her that.
“Ah…”
I was happy. About my existence. The fact that Mother acknowledged the existence that had been trapped in a glass bottle and slowly withering away made me so happy. This seemed to be the emotion humans called ‘being moved’.
“M-my name is…”
Just as I was about to ask Mother to give me a name, the human body stopped obeying my control and collapsed.
“Huh?”
I could not move a single finger, nor could I breathe. Pain so intense it felt as though my soul were twisting filled my mind.
“Gasp! T-this!”
The pale-complexioned man trembled as if he hadn’t expected this sudden turn.
“……”
Mother said nothing and simply watched me die with cold eyes.
I must live! I’ve only just been acknowledged. I can’t die!
After living as an existence that didn’t even know what it was, I had finally met Mother, who saw me. I absolutely could not die.
Crackle!
I forcibly escaped from the human body that wouldn’t release my soul, crawled back up the throat the opposite way from when I entered, and came out.
Sssssss.
I became the red blood I had been at birth and flowed across the glass-covered floor.
“That body’s wavelength doesn’t match.”
Mother lowered her hand herself, gathered me up, and placed me back into the only unbroken glass bottle, number four thousand four hundred and four.
“Soon, we’ll be able to find a body that suits you.”
She drew a red smile as she looked at me sloshing inside the glass bottle.
“I will give you the thirteenth name.”
===
From that day on, I entered different human bodies every day, possessed them, and gained memories and knowledge.
Whether for a long time or only a short while, human bodies could not withstand me and shattered apart just like my siblings’ glass bottles.
Each time, pain so intense it made me wish for death came over me, but I endured by thinking of Mother.
After so much time had passed that I couldn’t even remember how long it had been, a man exuding nobility was dragged before me.
The man with red pupils like my soul seemed to possess a will and spirit firmer than any human I had ever seen.
“This is the last chance given to you. Denier Zieghart.”
Mother, who had newly obtained the body of a black-haired, black-eyed woman, placed her finger on the forehead of the man called Denier.
“Answer my question. Zieghart is…”
“Kill me.”
Denier Zieghart shook his head calmly as if he truly meant it.
“I am the Black Tortoise Palace Lord of Zieghart. Rather than do something harmful to the family, I will end my own breath here.”
He raised shining eyes that seemed to hold no fear of death.
He wants to die?
It was shocking. Every human dragged to this place had clung to our trouser legs, begging to be spared.
I had thought that was simply how this world worked, so I never imagined such a person could exist.
“No choice.”
Mother smacked her lips briefly and grabbed the glass bottle I was in.
“You enter this human’s body, read his memories, and come back out.”
She told me to grasp everything about Zieghart, even the smallest detail, then put me into the mouth of the man called Denier.
Crackle!
The moment I entered Denier’s body through his throat, I felt it.
My soul and this man’s body meshed perfectly, like gears locking together.
I realized that the body with the matching wavelength Mother had spoken of was Denier.
“Grrrrk!”
Denier resisted as if he would never hand over his body. His soul was larger and harder than any human I had encountered, without the slightest opening.
But I am an existence Mother created from birth for the purpose of swallowing human souls and seizing their bodies.
I chewed through Denier Zieghart’s life piece by piece, swallowing his memories and power as my own.
Aaaaaaaah!
Even while his soul was being sliced apart and devoured, Denier did not give up and resisted to the very end.
Even though he had to be suffering pain greater than death itself, I couldn’t understand how he endured it. Such a human was truly the first.
Ooooooooh.
Perhaps because the wavelength matched, the human memories I had only ever seen in fragments now felt as vivid as if I had lived them myself.
I could engrave all of Denier’s memories into my mind as though I had lived at his side.
The body was the same. Unlike the rough rejection I had felt from other human bodies, I could feel everything down to the tips of my fingers. No, even to the ends of my hair. It felt as though I had truly become human.
So I was born in the White Blood Cult.
Zieghart of the Six Emperors, and the White Blood Cult of the Five Demons.
Through the memories I gained from Denier, I learned where I was and who the human called Denier was.
Denier Zieghart, though a direct descendant born into a prestigious family of swordsmen, had an affectionate and gentle personality.
Rather than becoming strong with the sword, his goal was to create a good family and a good clan.
The Head of House and father, Glenn, had gone mad for the sword and abandoned his humanity; his Noona had left on a long journey because she hated the cold-hearted household; his Hyung had cast out his own children as if following in their father’s footsteps.
His youngest sister had left home saying she would marry, only to return as though driven out, and his younger brother was a fool.
A dysfunctional family. It was the sort of broken household that only appeared in stories, so I thought I understood why Denier dreamed of a good family.
However, compared to his other siblings, Denier had originally lacked ability, so not many people listened to his words.
Instead, all he ever heard was the scornful label of ‘incompetent coward who fled the competition for Head of House’.
Still, Denier did not give up. Wanting somehow to save the crumbling Zieghart, he carried out many missions alone, but unfortunately he was captured by Mother and dragged here.
Strangely, my chest ached. It seemed I had accepted not only Denier Zieghart’s memories but also his emotions.
It’s different.
Is this what true human life is like?
Born from Mother, I had lived thinking I was human, but after reading Denier’s memories, I felt that something was twisted. It seemed I was not human, but a monster.
“Mother. I…”
“As expected, you took it!”
Mother looked at me and smiled brightly, as if she had believed in me from the start.
“How much of Denier’s memories did you read? Tell me!”
She nodded with expectant eyes.
“…Strangely enough, I gained all of his memories.”
I wanted to see Mother smile more, I wanted to hear her praise, so I pushed aside my questions and told her I had taken all of Denier’s memories.
“Really?”
Mother exclaimed that it was incredible and grabbed my shoulders. I felt my soul tremble violently with emotion.
“Then tell me everything!”
“Yes. First, currently Zieghart is…”
Because I had gained not only Denier’s memories but also his emotions, I knew that speaking these words would bring something terrible into this world.
But in order to be of even the slightest help to Mother, I told her everything I had learned.
Strangely, the thoughts Denier had kept hidden even from himself never once made me think that I should reveal them.
“Well done! Truly well done!”
Mother wrapped me in both arms. That alone washed away the feeling that I had done something wrong.
“Maintain that body for a while. If this works, we can make a new plan.”
Mother said she was entrusting me and left the room.
To fulfill Mother’s request, I spent a long time delving deeper into Denier’s body.
I felt my body and soul, made of blood, merge into one with the blood flowing through Denier’s body.
Now I don’t even know how to leave this body. If Denier dies, I will probably die too, but I had no regrets.
“Good.”
Mother looked at me still maintaining the body even after a month had passed and smiled in satisfaction.
“You can imitate Denier’s swordsmanship, speech, and actions, right?”
“Yes.”
Having absorbed all of Denier’s memories and emotions, I was able to imitate his swordsmanship, his words, and even the way he acted.
I showed Mother everything I had practiced during that time.
“Perfect.”
Mother watched me acting as Denier, clapped, and rejoiced.
“From now on, your name is Denier Zieghart. Live under that name until I call for you.”
She nodded, as if declaring that from now on my name was Denier.
“Yes!”
I was happy. Receiving a name from Mother, seeing Mother pleased, everything was happiness.
Without even realizing the ominous emotion writhing beneath my soul, I simply smiled.
“And…”
Mother flicked her finger, and the 10 Apostles brought in a little girl who did not even seem to be ten years old.
She resembled the body Mother was currently inhabiting.
“She’s a child I’ve marked as my next body. Since she’s from a village we destroyed, if you say you found and rescued her yourself, you’ll have an excuse for why you hadn’t contacted us until now.”
Mother nodded, telling me to take this child to Zieghart and adopt her as a foster daughter.
“She was originally brought here with her mother, but I’ve manipulated her memory so that she remembers surviving alone in the village.”
She laughed, saying that since it was not memory manipulation done through a spell, even Glenn would not notice.
“You said memory manipulation?”
“Yes. I implanted memories of surviving alone in a village attacked by us, of trying to take revenge, and of being rescued by you. If you simply act convincingly as Denier, she’ll be easy to handle.”
Mother said it would be simple and handed over the child named Martha.
That was my first meeting with Martha.
(T/N: Shit….now I feel bad about Denier.)