Chapter 6: Memories of the Past

…

Boom—

Thunder exploded overhead in Eternal Night City as torrential rain poured down, the icy water seemingly intent on washing away the city’s darkness.

Deep in ruins far from the great hall, a figure curled beneath a broken wall, letting the freezing rain beat against her body.

Cassia…

Or rather, the remnants of the one once known as Cassia Fironiya.

Her silver hair was matted with mud and congealed blood. The crimson gown that had clothed her was now tattered beyond recognition, soaked through and heavy with cold, clinging to her like cruel irony.

She lay like an abandoned stray dog, sprawled amid cold rubble and puddles.

It had been three weeks…

After Klal’s humiliation, she had been discarded outside like a dead dog.

The shame clung to her heart like poison! This feeling was far worse than death!

And now… she had not fed in a very long time…

Rainwater trickled down her cheeks and into her parched lips. Those once-arrogant crimson eyes were now dull and lifeless, like dead things.

At her side lay a sharp stone silently…

“If I just… pierce my heart…”

“This pathetic life would end…”

Cassia thought this, but with her severed tendons, she couldn’t even move a finger.

She couldn’t even choose suicide…

Despair seeped into her skin like the icy rain, intent on freezing her completely beneath these ruins.

She closed her eyes, letting her consciousness drift in a vortex of agony, humiliation, and regret.

Perhaps being drowned by the rain and buried under rubble was the ending she deserved. Perhaps sinking into despair was her final destination.

Until…

“The ground is quite cold, you know…”

A young voice pierced the curtain of rain, echoing through the ruins.

Cassia’s brows furrowed. She lifted her heavy eyelids and saw a petite figure standing nearby, draped in a heavy black cloak with the hood obscuring most of her face, revealing only a pale chin.

Her hoarse voice drove the intruder away.

“Get… away… Stay far from me…”

“But you look like you need help, vampire miss.” The girl tilted her head, continuing innocently.

“I don’t need… anyone’s charity… Get lost…” Cassia growled lowly once more.

Yet the girl showed no fear, crouching right before her eyes. She glanced at Cassia’s limbs and continued.

“You can’t move, and you’re very thirsty… right?”

Those words utterly shattered the humiliation in Cassia’s heart once again.

“I told you to get lost—did you not—mmph.”

Before she could finish, a slender wrist was suddenly pressed without warning against her cracked lips.

In that instant, the sweet scent of blood overwhelmed all reason and resistance.

Survival instinct crushed pride and dignity. She sucked greedily, uncontrollably.

Warm blood slid down her throat, dispelling some of the cold and weakness, bringing an almost painful solace.

But this taste… why was it so familiar…

“Ugh…”

The girl allowed the sucking, her small body swaying slightly in the rain, her face growing even paler, but she did not pull away. She simply watched quietly.

After a while, once Cassia’s suction weakened slightly, the girl slowly withdrew her wrist.

“Do you feel a bit stronger now?” She asked with a gentle smile.

In that moment, Cassia seemed to realize something. She raised her head, staring blankly at the girl. Her clouded crimson eyes cleared once more, filled with disbelief.

“You seem to have recovered a little… Hey, can you tell me your name?”

The girl asked, slowly reaching up to remove her hood…

Emerald eyes, long black hair—but the face that appeared was one Cassia could never forget.

She smiled and said,

“My name is… Sylvie.”

…

“Mm…”

The sleeping girl let out a dreamlike moan. Sylvie struggled to open her eyes. Her groggy mind awakened, blurred vision sharpening to reveal Cassia with her head lowered, staring unblinkingly at her as if lost in thought.

“I’m sorry! I fell asleep without realizing! Lady Cassia can’t move, so having me lying on you like this must be uncomfortable! I’ll get up right—”

Sylvie apologized hurriedly, intending to rise quickly, but in the next moment…

“Don’t move…”

A hoarse yet unusually calm voice interrupted her.

Sylvie froze completely, her arms poised to push up halting midair.

In the moonlight, Cassia kept her head lowered, silver hair veiling most of her face, but those crimson eyes gazed fixedly at Sylvie.

They no longer held empty deathliness or distant coldness, but surged with extremely complex emotions.

Struggle? Confusion? Even fleeting vulnerability…

This sudden change left Sylvie astonished and puzzled. She held her half-risen posture, not daring to move, her emerald eyes widening slightly with incomprehension.

“Lady… Cassia?” She called tentatively in a soft voice.

Cassia did not respond to the title.

Her gaze slowly shifted to the two clear, not-yet-fully-healed fang marks on Sylvie’s neck.

Time flowed in silence, the room filled only with their faint breathing.

After a moment of quiet, Cassia’s hoarse, low voice broke it. She simply asked,

“Why… did you save me…”

“…”

A flicker of surprise crossed Sylvie’s eyes.

She slowly, slowly lay back into Cassia’s embrace… and fell silent for a long time.

A relieved, genuinely happy smile appeared on her face.

This smile… was more real than any she had shown those vampires before.

She did not answer directly but said softly,

“This is the first time Lady Cassia has spoken to Sylvie on her own… If I tell the truth, will you promise not to mock me?”

Cassia said nothing, merely gazing at her calmly with crimson eyes, quietly awaiting the answer.

Sylvie turned her head, staring blankly at the silver moon outside the window as if recalling something. After a long silence, she spoke slowly.

“Do you remember, Lady Cassia… the time we first met?”

Her emerald eyes gazed into the darkness, sinking into distant memories.

“It was raining heavily that day, with loud thunder… I was just passing through those ruins, looking for shelter from the rain.”

“Then I saw you… lying in the cold rainwater and mud, so wretched, so… despairing.”

“Strange, isn’t it?” Sylvie suddenly turned her head, looking at Cassia’s face mere inches away, the corners of her mouth curving into a puzzled, self-mocking smile.

“You looked so dangerous. Vampires are natural enemies to us humans… Yet my first thought wasn’t to run or be afraid.”

“It was a… very strange feeling, as if… as if I had…”

Her voice paused before continuing.

“Seen you somewhere before.”

“Not your face, not your voice… just an indescribable… familiarity. A voice in my heart told me I couldn’t just leave, couldn’t watch you… disappear there.”

“It drove me to approach you. Even when you glared at me with the fiercest eyes and drove me away with the harshest voice, that impulse to get close, to help you… was so strong it astonished even me.”

“As if… deep in my soul lingered some obsession I myself no longer remembered.”

“It wouldn’t let me ignore you. It made me bring you out of those ruins, even against reason.”

Sylvie finished, and the room fell silent once more.

She offered no further explanation—nor could she.

But what she had said about that inexplicable familiarity and irresistible urge to approach was all true.

Cassia knew… it was something etched into the soul’s instincts even after memories were erased—an emotional imprint of herself that had not fully faded, complex and profound.

“I’m sorry, Lady Cassia. Does this sound too strange? Like ‘love at first sight’… or something. Is it too…”

Sylvie smiled embarrassedly, withdrawing her gaze from the moon. But when she looked back at Cassia before her, she froze.

Those crimson eyes staring at her were wide, pupils trembling violently…

“Lady Cassia?” Sylvie called worriedly.

Perhaps that call snapped Cassia back. She turned her head away, her face once more shrouded in shadow.

A low, icy rebuke came as usual.

“Get up.”

“Ah… okay.”

Sylvie rose reluctantly from Cassia’s embrace. The latter slowly turned to lie on her side on the bed, ignoring Sylvie once more.

Her aura grew cold again, as always.

“Lady Cassia, did I offend you? I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!”

The sudden shift left Sylvie at a loss. She instinctively reached to touch Cassia’s turned back, only to be coldly rebuked once more.

“Don’t touch me.”

“…Okay.”

Back to the same old way…

She had thought Lady Cassia’s attitude toward her had finally softened.

Sylvie withdrew her hand, brows furrowing slightly with a hint of grievance. She said nothing more, simply gathered her things and quietly left.

In the dim room, only Cassia remained.

Her silver fangs clenched tightly, as if enduring intense struggle. Finally, she murmured to herself,

“All of this… is worth it.”

…