Chapter 247: One Month Later

Serafall was the first to completely stop caring about dignity.

As soon as she was certain Victor was truly awake, she simply climbed onto the bed and settled against his left side, wrapping one arm around his waist and resting her head near his shoulder.

Carmilla did not take much longer to do the same from the other side, though with slightly more composure, hooking one of her legs around his while resting her face against his chest.

Scarlet, who had already been practically on top of Victor since he woke up, showed no intention of making room and remained wrapped around his neck, one leg draped across his waist.

Victor spent a few seconds looking at the situation.

All three of them were practically glued to him.

"You three are getting pretty bold," he commented, running one hand through Scarlet’s hair while the other rested on Carmilla’s waist.

Scarlet immediately raised her face.

"My husband was in a coma for a month."

Victor stopped.

"A month?"

"A whole month!" Scarlet repeated, tightening her arms around him even more. "So I’m going to stay hugged to you for as long as I want."

Victor blinked a few times, still stuck on the first piece of information.

"I was really out for a month?"

Serafall lifted her face slightly.

"Your body practically emptied all of its energy reserves. We expected you to wake sooner, but your body entered a kind of deep recovery state."

Carmilla slowly ran her fingers across Victor’s chest as though still checking that he was really there.

"You weren’t just sleeping. Your blood was working the entire time."

Victor became thoughtful for a few seconds before looking back at Scarlet.

She still wore an extremely serious expression, as though expecting him to argue against her right to remain clinging to him.

He laughed.

"Fine."

His hand returned to her head.

"You can stay."

Scarlet immediately closed her eyes and settled back against his neck, satisfied.

Serafall watched the scene.

"You spoil her."

"She came spoiled."

"Hey!" Scarlet complained.

Carmilla raised her head slightly.

"Is that my fault?"

Victor and Serafall looked at her.

Carmilla remained completely serious.

Scarlet grimaced.

"You’re all terrible."

Victor let out a small laugh and let his head fall back against the pillow.

Now that the initial impact of waking had passed, he was beginning to realize how much that lost month could mean.

Before the explosion, the political situation had already been at the breaking point.

Werewolf infiltrators.

A stolen artifact.

An unknown witch capable of hiding a gigantic magical formation.

Suspicions that someone was manipulating both sides.

A month was far too long.

"How are things?" Victor asked.

The change in Serafall’s expression was small, but immediate.

Victor noticed.

"That looks bad."

"Some things happened."

"Some?"

Serafall sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"A lot happened during the one month you spent recovering."

Victor turned his face slightly toward her.

"Start with the worst."

Carmilla looked at Serafall.

Scarlet also became quieter.

Victor noticed again.

"Rakshasa."

Serafall did not ask how he guessed.

"Rakshasa."

Victor waited.

Serafall took a few seconds before continuing.

"On the same night as the attack, after they confirmed you were alive but unconscious, she left the Capital."

"For where?"

"The Werewolf Kingdom."

Victor closed his eyes for a moment.

"Ah."

"It wasn’t a diplomatic visit."

"I figured."

Serafall rested her chin against his shoulder.

"She found one of the major lupine cities and simply attacked."

Victor opened his eyes.

"How much?"

Serafall became serious.

"Everything."

The room went quiet.

"Rakshasa completely lost control," she continued. "She didn’t attack only soldiers or military installations. She killed every werewolf she came across. Warriors, merchants, elderly people, women, children, disabled people... there was no distinction."

Victor remained silent.

Scarlet tightened her fingers slightly around his clothes.

"She wiped out the entire population of the city," Serafall finished. "She left only one survivor to carry a message to Fenrir."

Victor took a deep breath.

"How many?"

"We don’t have an exact number."

Serafall hesitated.

"Many."

Victor looked at the ceiling.

"She did that because I got hurt?"

Serafall took a moment to answer.

"It isn’t that simple."

Victor turned his face toward her.

"But it was related."

"It was."

She sighed.

"Rakshasa was already unstable before the attack. She isn’t the most sociable person, especially after what Anette did to you... Well, in short, she lost control..."

Serafall searched for the right words.

"The final push was finding out that the Werewolves had tried to assassinate all of them."

Carmilla calmly added:

"She needed something to hate."

Serafall nodded.

"Basically."

Victor became thoughtful.

"And now?"

"She went back to the Eastern Domain."

Victor frowned.

"To her father’s territory?"

"Yes."

"Yu Jin Cheon is with her?"

"He is."

Serafall rested her head against him again.

"She entered voluntary isolation after what happened. Not because she suddenly started feeling remorse, but because even she understood that she had completely lost control."

Victor stayed quiet for a few seconds.

Then sighed.

"I’ll need to go see her. I need to reward her."

All three women looked at him.

Victor noticed.

"What?"

Scarlet stared at him, almost waiting for him to say he was joking.

Victor did not.

"Victor..."

"Hmm?"

"She committed genocide."

"I heard."

Scarlet sat up a little straighter on top of him.

"She killed children."

Victor kept looking at her.

"Elderly people."

"Yes."

"Women."

"Yes."

"Disabled people."

"Scarlet, I understood the definition of the entire population."

She remained silent for a few seconds.

"And you’re going to see her?"

"I am."

"For what?"

Victor shrugged.

"I already said. To reward her."

All three went still.

Carmilla was the first to react.

"Reward her?"

"She did that because she loves me."

Scarlet’s eyes widened.

"SHE COMMITTED GENOCIDE!"

Victor looked up at her.

"Hmm? So what?"

Scarlet’s mouth fell open.

Victor continued as naturally as possible:

"They’re werewolves. They should be killed anyway."

Scarlet kept staring at him.

Serafall showed no surprise whatsoever.

Carmilla, on the other hand, slowly turned her face toward Serafall.

"You taught your son very well."

Serafall smiled.

"Thank you."

"I have to give you credit."

Carmilla then looked at Scarlet.

Her expression changed.

"Unlike this stupid daughter of mine who keeps making excuses."

She gave Scarlet a sharp smack on the top of the head.

"OW!"

Scarlet immediately brought both hands to her head.

"Mom!"

"Stop defending werewolves."

"I’M NOT DEFENDING THEM!"

"Sounded like it."

"I only said killing children was a little excessive!"

Carmilla narrowed her eyes.

"See?"

Scarlet looked outraged.

"SEE WHAT?!"

Serafall started laughing.

Victor remained there watching the three of them.

Scarlet complained while rubbing the top of her head.

Carmilla answered with the absolute conviction of a woman who saw no problem whatsoever with her own reasoning.

And Serafall was clearly enjoying the argument far too much.

Victor watched them for a few seconds.

Then something inside him simply gave way.

A laugh escaped.

Quiet at first.

He tried to hold it back.

He failed.

Another came.

Then another.

Within seconds, Victor was genuinely laughing, his head falling back against the pillow while his chest shook.

All three stopped.

Scarlet was still holding her head.

Carmilla raised an eyebrow.

Serafall looked at him with some confusion.

Victor kept laughing.

"What?" Scarlet asked.

He tried to answer.

Couldn’t immediately.

"Victor?" Carmilla called.

"Wait..."

Victor placed one hand over his eyes.

The laughter slowly began to fade.

Serafall tilted her head.

"What’s so funny?"

Victor took a deep breath.

When he finally lowered his hand, there was a different smile on his face.

Less amused.

More tired.

"I just realized something."

Scarlet frowned.

"What?"

Victor looked first at her.

Then at Carmilla.

Finally, at Serafall.

"I’m a fucking coward."

The three of them looked even more confused.

Serafall was the first to ask:

"What do you mean?"

Victor remained silent for a few seconds.

Throughout his entire second life, he had justified it in dozens of different ways.

He needed to protect them.

He needed to prevent interference.

He needed to confirm that the future had truly changed.

He needed to stop Serafall from making extreme decisions based on information that might no longer come true.

All of that was true.

But it was not the whole truth.

Victor took a deep breath.

"I keep telling myself that I’m hiding certain things because it’s safer."

Some of Carmilla’s smile disappeared.

"Victor..."

"Wait."

He gently touched her arm.

"Let me finish."

All three became quiet.

Victor looked at the ceiling.

"I was waiting to solve everything first. I wanted to reach the point where I could simply look at all of you and say it was over. That I had fixed the problem. That no one needed to worry anymore."

Serafall began watching him much more carefully.

Victor slowly exhaled.

"But that was only half of it."

He closed his eyes for a moment.

"The other half is that I was afraid."

Scarlet moved a little closer.

"Afraid of what?"

Victor opened his eyes.

"The conversation."

Serafall frowned.

Victor smiled without humor.

"Funny, right? I walk into laboratories full of hybrids, fight vampires, train with Rakshasa and Yu Jin until my bones turn to dust..."

He looked at the three of them.

"But I sat on a truth for months because I was afraid of how you would react."

None of them answered.

Victor noticed that Serafall no longer looked merely curious.

She was worried.

So was Carmilla.

Scarlet had stopped complaining completely.

Victor ran a hand through her hair.

"So..."

He took a deep breath.

"I want to apologize."

Serafall opened her mouth.

Victor continued before she could respond.

"Not because I did something against any of you."

He looked directly at his mother.

"But because I should have trusted you sooner."

The room became completely silent.

Carmilla slowly removed her hand from his chest and sat up properly.

Scarlet remained close, but also raised her face so she could watch him.

Serafall was the only one who stayed completely still.

"Victor," she said, serious now. "What are you talking about?"

He stared at her.

He thought of his first life.

The illness.

The Valentine headquarters burning.

Fleeing in Serafall’s arms.

The years that followed.

His death.

And then that impossible moment when he opened his eyes again in the past.

Victor let out a long breath.

"Can we talk seriously?"

None of the three joked.

Serafall simply nodded.

"We can."

Victor closed his eyes for a few seconds.

When he opened them again, his smile was gone.

"Then I think I’d better start from the beginning."