Chapter 141: The Birth of a Progenitor

A heavy silence descended throughout the castle of the Scarlett Duchess.

Even Valentina had gone quiet after her maniacal laughter, her eyes now locked entirely upon Lucian and Lia, or more specifically… upon the man.

The expression on her face looked strangely restrained, as though she was barely stopping herself from walking over and ripping him away from Lia entirely. Even her fingers faintly twitched before clenching once more.

Because what Lucian had accomplished…

It was impossible—no. Not just that, it went beyond even the concept of impossibility.

Even the Queen of Vampires herself had failed to become a Progenitor despite the countless years of her existence.𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

And if even she could not achieve it—

Then no vampire should have been capable of reaching that position for at least several more millennia.

That was the natural order, the absolute truth… and yet… someone had become a Progenitor regardless.

And it was not an ancient vampire or some legendary noble, but a mere human who had only become a vampire a few days ago.

Yet somehow, he had surpassed them all.

A couple more minutes passed in the corridor.

Lia had long since stopped feeding from Lucian; her lips merely pressed weakly against his neck. The puncture wounds there had already healed completely.

She felt full, completely fulfilled… but Lucian still hadn’t stopped sucking her blood.

And throughout everything, she could do nothing except remain limply trapped within his arms.

“Ah~ Br–Brother~~”

Her brittle voice broke into moans as she weakly tried to stop him, but couldn’t as she didn’t have the strength to.

The overwhelming pleasure was muddying her brain.

Her body felt hot, and she could even feel the heat pooling in her nether regions, even while her blood was draining rapidly, maybe even quicker than her vampire regeneration could replenish it.

Valentina noticed it and, seeing him not stopping, she finally spoke.

“Lucian…”

Her voice echoed calmly through the corridor, carrying an authority that instinctively forced everyone present to lower their heads.

Everyone except her daughter, who merely gritted her teeth harder while remaining upright, both feet firmly pressing against the cracked floor left behind by the earlier outburst.

Lucian’s body suddenly shivered faintly; his glowing crimson eyes brightened dangerously, a violent irritation surfacing as he sank his teeth deeper into her.

“Lucian, stop before you kill her!”

Hearing those cold words laced with a faint trace of killing intent, Lucian’s blood-hazed eyes flickered slightly, regaining some of their clarity.

His gaze lifted from her neck, only to see Lia’s golden eyes half-lidded and hazy. Her body rested limply within his arms, and if he hadn’t been supporting her, she would have already collapsed from the weakness.

Lucian stared at her silently, then slowly, the feral glow inside his eyes began to dim.

And finally, with one last gulp, his mouth slowly parted from her neck, the sharp, extended canines separating from her flesh before gradually retracting back to normal.

“Haa… bro… haa… ther”

Lia’s uneven breathing brushed weakly in his ears, and as he looked down at her face, he saw her half-open eyes, her flushed cheeks.

For a brief moment, it looked like she didn’t even know what or where she even was.

Lucian’s gaze gradually lowered slightly further, toward her lips, now stained crimson with his blood.

He raised one hand toward her face and gently tilted her head upward. Then, with his thumb, he softly wiped the blood from her lips, the touch finally jolting Lia back to reality.

Her hazy eyes focused on him once more, and the moment she fully realized her brother’s fingers resting against her lips, her heart pounded violently inside her chest.

Her already flushed face instantly turned even redder.

For a few seconds, she looked completely lost, as though she hadn’t fully understood what had just happened.

Ignoring her disoriented expression for now, Lucian lifted his gaze away from her, turning his head toward Valentina, standing a short distance away with her arms crossed over her chest.

The moment his crimson eyes met hers, Valentina’s smile widened once again.

***

Inside another massive room within the Duchess’s castle—

Lucian, Seraphina, and Lia sat together on one large couch, their bodies slightly sinking into the soft black cushions beneath. While across from them, Valentina and Vivienne occupied another couch.

The atmosphere in the room felt strangely tense.

Kanna stood silently behind the two redheads, her presence so faint it almost felt as if she had vanished into the background, her emotionless eyes quietly watching whatever was unfolding inside the room.

Just a few minutes earlier, Valentina had explained about the existence of vampires, telling Lia how she had turned into one without going too much into detail.

Mostly because she was just too lazy to explain everything so thoroughly.

She had told Lia about how the seal inside her broke, how she turned into a vampire, and how she ended up within Bloodveil. That was about it.

Lia, now completely clear-minded, still had a slightly blank expression on her face as she stared around the room—the polished floor, the elegantly pristine walls, and the strange lights along the ceiling casting a dim white glow throughout the area.

Everything about this place felt unreal to her.

Too luxurious.

But then, suddenly sensing an instinctive danger, her gaze snapped toward Valentina, only to find the red-haired woman already staring directly at her.

Just looking into those golden eyes made Lia feel deeply uneasy.

For a second, her gaze lowered to the woman’s chest, and immediately her expression darkened.

‘Melons…’

Before she could even complete the thought—

“Did you get what I said?” Valentina asked calmly, noticing that the brat had barely been paying attention at all.

Lia awkwardly nodded slightly.

“Yes… I somehow turned into a vampire… and somehow ended up in this place…” she muttered uncertainly, eliciting an inward sigh from Valentina.

“I told you, she’s exactly like that bitch.”

Vivienne lazily spoke in between, comfortably leaning against the side of the couch.

Throughout the conversation, her gaze kept unconsciously drifting back toward Lucian again and again, unable to stop herself from observing him.

Even she didn’t like her eyes drifting toward him, but she couldn’t help feeling that something had changed in him, and even the air around him felt slightly different, which only deepened her confusion.

Lia instantly turned toward her, and immediately she remembered the earlier words Vivienne had said, something about beating Lucian.

“And who the fuck are you, bitch?” she snapped back furiously without hesitation, the words directly slipping from her lips without restraint.

Vivienne’s eyes narrowed as she slightly shifted forward from the couch.

The atmosphere tensed instantly, but feeling her mother’s glance silently land upon her, Vivienne clicked her tongue in irritation and leaned back again before turning her face away.

Valentina quietly turned away and looked at Lia for a few more seconds, but seeing her clueless expression, she inwardly sighed once again.

‘She’s exactly like her mother…’

Even she felt her daughter wasn’t entirely wrong, and somehow, she felt even more disappointed seeing a shorter copy of her sister sitting before her.

There was honestly no point in continuing to explain things to the girl, and she had no interest in repeating herself either.

So Valentina gave up bothering.

Then suddenly—

“Can I ask something…?”

A quiet, flat, yet slightly hesitant voice suddenly echoed out, making everyone shift their attention toward Seraphina, who had just spoken.

Seraphina paid no attention to their gazes and instead stared directly at Valentina.

“When you talk about vampires… did my son become one too?”

She had carefully listened while Valentina explained Lia’s transformation—how Lia had turned into a vampire due to the breaking of some seal, and mostly because her emotions had spiraled out of control, causing her anger to reach the threshold required to break it.

Unlike Seraphina, Lia had at least understood parts of it, though she hadn’t paid much attention to Valentina’s explanation.

Most of what Lia knew about vampires came from the fantasy concepts she had seen in games and movies before.

But… for Seraphina, this entire fantasy world remained completely foreign to her.

Vampires. Bloodlines. Seals. None of it truly made sense to her yet.

Still, she had understood enough to realize that her son had changed.

And for now, the only thing she cared about was understanding what had happened to Lucian, because he was clearly different from the last time she had seen him.

“Who is she anyway?”

Vivienne suddenly muttered quietly, asking Kanna as she looked at the unfamiliar blue-eyed woman before her.

Kanna immediately answered in a low voice, only loud enough for Vivienne to hear.

“Miss Seraphina is Young Master Lucian’s mother.”

“Mother?”

Vivienne’s brows furrowed slightly as her gaze shifted from Seraphina to Lucian—who was sitting between his mother and sister with a thoughtful expression—and then back to her again.

And the more closely she looked at the two of them, the deeper her frown became.