Chapter 143: W-Where did she take my brother?!

For a short moment, none of them understood what had just happened.

Lucian and Valentina had simply vanished—with no movement, no sound.

The room itself remained the same, yet the atmosphere abruptly changed the moment both of them disappeared.

Then suddenly—

Lia shot up from the couch.

“W-Where did she take my brother?!”

Her voice echoed loudly throughout the room as panic instantly settled in her face.

One second ago, Lucian had still been sitting right beside her, and then suddenly—that crazy, big-breasted redhead had taken him away with her.

Seraphina also stiffened faintly, feeling the familiar restlessness resurface within her chest again.

But unlike her, Lia couldn’t suppress her emotions outwardly at all.

Her golden eyes immediately snapped toward Vivienne.

“You—tell me, where did she take him?!”

Her voice echoed with obvious anger, but Vivienne, who had also noticed her mother’s absence, didn’t seem particularly surprised.

In truth, she had already suspected something like this would happen, especially after seeing her mother’s expression earlier, so… it was somewhat expected.

Finally, Vivienne turned her attention back toward Lia, who had a furious expression on her face.

“I don’t know,” she answered flatly, calmly leaning slightly against the couch.

“But according to her words… She probably took him away to train him as her disciple.”

Hearing her words, both Lia and Seraphina frowned.

“Train?”

Lia repeated the word again, confusion written clearly across her face.

“Train for what?”

Rather than answering her, Vivienne merely shook her head at their lack of understanding. She didn’t have the interest—or the patience—to explain everything thoroughly either.

Slowly, she stood up from the couch, the elegant silver nightgown draped around her body shifting softly with her movements.

“I don’t have any more time for pointless chit-chat right now.”

There was still work waiting for her, especially regarding the search for Lia’s mother—and according to their information, neither Lucian nor Lia knew the truth behind her disappearance.

Both of them believed their parents had died in a car accident, absolutely having no idea what had truly happened.

Vivienne lightly brushed her hand over her dress before fully turning toward them.

“If you have any questions, ask Kanna or any of the other maids.”

She spoke casually while ignoring their strange, quizzical looks. Then her gaze shifted toward the black-haired maid standing silently behind her couch.

“Kanna,”

Kanna immediately bowed her head respectfully.

“Take care of them.”

“Yes, Lady Vivienne.”

Then, Vivienne’s golden eyes shifted toward Lia once more.

“And Amelia…”

Lia instantly frowned again, seeing the sharp expression on the redhead’s face.

“I don’t care what you do, but start learning about vampires properly. And get used to your fire.”

Lia didn’t like the commanding tone and her expression, as though she was looking down at someone weaker than herself.

But—

“What about Brother?” she immediately asked instead, making Vivienne’s lips twitch slightly.

It genuinely felt as though Lia hadn’t listened to a single word she had just said.

In some ways, Lia was even more annoying than Lucian himself.

“I told you, I don’t know where he is,” she repeated herself, then seeing the restlessness and unease still lingering across both Lia and Seraphina’s faces, she finally added once again.

“You don’t need to worry about that bastard. Mother wouldn’t kill her disciple.”

‘But whether he’ll remain mentally alive afterward is another issue entirely.’

Of course, she didn’t add that part outwardly.

She enjoyed chaos, but she didn’t have the mood to deal with the mess those two would create after hearing something like that.

Lia and Seraphina’s expressions relaxed slightly after hearing her words, but the worry on their faces didn’t disappear completely.

Then suddenly, Vivienne turned her head toward Seraphina specifically.

“And Lucian’s mother, huh?”

A strange smirk spread across her lips afterward, making Seraphina faintly frown.

Her icy-blue eyes narrowed as she sensed some hidden meaning behind those words, causing a brief feeling of unease to rise within her.

But ignoring that uneasy feeling, Vivienne simply turned around and walked out.

And once again, silence fell over the chamber.

Seraphina quietly remained seated on the couch for several seconds, her gaze lowered toward the polished floor beneath them.

Lia stood there restlessly, unable to sit back down properly.

“Lady Amelia. Miss Seraphina.”

Kanna’s flat voice broke through the silence, making them shift their attention toward the maid.

“I’ll guide you both to your rooms.”

Lia glanced toward Seraphina, who slowly stood up from the couch, her expression outwardly calm once again—the same calm expression that only made Lia frown harder.

Despite that composed look, Lia could still see the distress hidden within her gaze, and honestly, Lia herself was just as worried, if not even more.

That insane woman had suddenly taken her brother somewhere unknown, and she genuinely had no idea whether he would be alright or not.

And trusting Vivienne’s words?

No.

There was absolutely no way she would blindly believe that bitch.

“Lady Amelia, you don’t need to worry about him.”

Lia turned toward the maid again, whose expression remained as emotionless and flawless as a carefully crafted porcelain doll, looking like someone who had never smiled a single day in her life.

Lia silently stared at her for a few seconds before finally giving a small, reluctant nod.

Afterward, Kanna quietly guided both her and Seraphina down the long hallway to their respective rooms, which were positioned right beside each other, separated only by a single wall.

For a brief second, their eyes met each other’s. Neither of them spoke, because there was simply too much weighing upon their hearts right now.

Slowly, Lia pushed open the door and stepped inside.

The room was enormous, perhaps even as large as the hallway in their own house.

When she had woken up earlier, she hadn’t properly noticed the room around her. Even now, her mind was overwhelmed with too many thoughts—concern and worry for her brother most of all—and she barely paid attention to the room itself.

The moment the door closed behind her, she walked toward the bed before collapsing face-first onto the mattress, sinking into the soft surface beneath her.

Her face buried deeply into the sheets while her black-and-crimson hair spread messily across the bed.

Complete silence fell over the room. Her body remained motionless, and she didn’t even lift her face from the mattress.

Inside her head, all the memories slowly resurfaced one by one.

The enormous worm tearing through the ground.

The screams.

The blood.

Her brother—disappearing inside that monster.

Her fingers curled against the bedsheets.

Then even more memories began flooding into her mind—memories that felt as though they belonged to someone else.

Despite being consumed by her furious rage at the time, she still remembered every single second clearly.

And buried within the mattress, Lia’s hidden face gradually grew paler and paler.

‘I… did all that… to my…’

The thought nearly shattered before she could even finish it. Her body trembled faintly as she remembered attacking her brother, forcing herself onto him when he had already been on the verge of death.

Her breathing grew heavier and uneven, and heat silently exploded throughout the room. The air itself grew hotter and hotter, enough to make a normal person start sweating the moment they stepped inside.

But Lia didn’t even notice as her mind was already too overwhelmed.

Just then, her eyes widened slightly.

Back then… against the enormous monster, she had used her fire affinity—something she had been struggling to even grasp. Yet at that moment, she had wielded it as naturally as breathing.

Even now, she didn’t understand how, but she could clearly feel the power of fire flowing within her.

But there was another question that kept surfacing in her mind.

Just earlier, when Lucian drank her blood, she had heard something—like a chime in her head.

But before she could think further, her mind drifted to the memory of Lucian tightly holding her against the wall, his arms wrapped around her body.

His eyes filled with something dangerous and hungry.

Then—

His fangs sank into her neck as he roughly sucked the blood from her body.

“Mmh—!”

Letting out a muffled sound, she abruptly rolled onto her back, her breathing growing heavier as heat spread across her entire face.

Her breasts rose and fell rapidly.

If someone had entered the room right then, they would have immediately frozen upon seeing her appearance. Her pale skin had turned completely red, almost unnaturally so, the color spreading all the way down her neck.

“Ha… ha…”

She was almost confused for a moment. Her mind felt chaotic, as if every emotion seemed amplified far beyond reason.

It genuinely felt as though someone had taken her emotions and multiplied them a hundredfold.

She couldn’t think properly. She couldn’t calm herself down.

But then, remembering what she had been thinking about before, Lia forcibly redirected her attention elsewhere.

“Haa… Status.”

The moment those words left her lips, a large golden screen flickered into existence before her eyes, the familiar system panel silently in the air.

Lia slowly read the words before her, but after only a second—

“W-What?”

Her voice broke, trembling violently as she stared at the panel before her.

The embarrassment that had been consuming her only moments earlier vanished in an instant, as though cold water had been poured over her entire body.

The heat on her face disappeared immediately, replaced by sheer horror.

…

Meanwhile—

Seraphina was now inside a different room from the one she had originally woken up in.

Though it was just as luxurious, if not even more so.

She slowly looked around the room, and despite having already seen such extravagance, the sheer luxury still left her a bit stunned.

But her mind wasn’t focused on that right now.

She was deeply worried about her son, just like Lia was, but… Seraphina still had some trust in him.

The women in this place didn’t seem like they would harm him—no, on second thought, they looked like the kind of people who might tear him apart without hesitation if they wished to.

Seraphina’s expression tightened once again, unease stirring within her chest.

Absentmindedly, her fingers slowly trailed along her opposite arm.

Her brows furrowed faintly, and lowering her gaze, she quietly looked at her hands and the exposed skin not covered by her nightgown.

The clothing she was wearing was soft and comfortable, but it did nothing to hide the old scars stretching across her pale skin—the ugly reminders she had always kept concealed from others.

“Miss Seraphina.”

The sudden voice startled her faintly.

Her body stiffened before she immediately lifted her head, only to see the expressionless maid standing just a small distance from her.

She hadn’t even heard the maid enter the room, making her narrow her eyes.

Kanna, completely ignoring the suspicion in Seraphina’s gaze, spoke calmly.

“Do you have a problem with your clothing?”

Her tone remained flat and controlled.

“Would you want something else?”

Seraphina blinked once.

She was genuinely surprised by the maid’s observation, not expecting her to notice something so subtle so quickly.

For a moment, she said nothing.

Lowering her gaze once more, Seraphina’s fingers slowly brushed across the old scars covering her arm.

Her eyes dimmed faintly, drawing forth the darkness buried within her heart once again.

“Yes,” she answered quietly after a few seconds.

She hated showing her scars to others, disliked seeing the sympathy in their eyes—or the strange looks they often gave her.