Bad Born Blood

Chapter 216

The traces I discovered in Border City overlapped and connected, eventually forming a single story.  

Anguis Regina must have always wanted to tell me this. However, if I were to be the Kinuan she wished for, I had to figure it out on my own.  

That was why Anguis Regina sometimes spoke and acted bizarrely, drawing me into the depths. Anyone who, unlike her, couldn't hold their breath would have perished.  

She wanted to tell me, but she couldn't.  

She wanted to hold me, but she mustn't.  

She loved, yet she hated.  

Anguis Regina's emotions were steeped in contradictions.  

Her feelings toward her stepmother, Jafa, were one such contradiction.  

'…She hates Jafa, yet she loves her.'  

I didn't know the details of the conflict between Anguis Regina and Jafa. But it was obvious that it hadn't been a smooth relationship.  

"How did you see through me? Can you tell what I'm thinking right now? How I feel?"  

Anguis Regina clung to me as she spoke. Her lively gestures and voice were as light as a fairy from a storybook.  

I remained as unresponsive as a block of wood to her behavior.  

"From my perspective, it doesn’t seem like such a great secret. Just the kind of discord often found in multi-racial families."  

"If Kinuan hadn’t come looking for us, that’s all it would have been. Just discord, not destruction."  

Anguis Regina climbed onto the bar. She knelt down and stretched out her arms, tracing a delicate line in the air. She took a posture as if she were reaching for something.  

"Oh, Kinuan, ahh, Kinuan… I was only fourteen at the time. And in my eyes, Kinuan was the perfect man. A mind as steadfast as an unshakable rock, and an intellect that shone through even in the smallest words and gestures."  

Anguis Regina spoke in an exaggerated tone. Lowering herself, she crawled toward me like a cat, lifting her face close to mine.  

"I didn’t want my widowed father to live alone either. But taking a Tajirun as his wife? That was unthinkable. Tajirun are heartless, cunning, and vile. Beyond their split voices, poison simmers, ready to melt and sever our nerves."  

It was like watching a play. Anguis Regina switched between emotional masks, sometimes striking dramatic poses to capture the attention of her sole audience as she unraveled her past.  

"Is that why you resented your father?"

"You have to understand—I was incredibly unstable back then. One day, Kinuan approached us. Like a savior in a moment of crisis. If it weren’t for Kinuan, I probably would have run away from home. To me, Kinuan was a teacher, a friend, a lover, and a father. Every direction of my emotions was drawn into Kinuan."  

Anguis Regina’s eyes gleamed with ecstasy.  

"You would have done anything for Kinuan, and wanted to."  

I propped my chin on my hand and calmly watched Anguis Regina’s performance.  

Whoosh.  

Anguis Regina stood up and spun in a full circle.  

Tap!  

She stopped. Her once-bright expression twisted into a fierce grimace.  

"I don’t even know why I did it. All the memories and emotions from that time feel unreal, like a dream. I suppose it’s because I entrusted my thoughts and feelings entirely to Kinuan. One day, Kinuan told me, ‘Shoot the father who betrayed you.’ And as if possessed, I picked up a gun."  

Anguis Regina swallowed hard and widened her eyes. Her pupils dilated so much they seemed to devour the whites of her eyes.  

Thump, thump, thump.  

I could hear her heartbeat clearly in my ears.  

I stayed silent and waited for her to continue.  

"You know what’s really strange? Even as I pulled the trigger, I didn’t think my father would die. When someone gets shot, they die, right? But for some reason, I thought he wouldn’t. Why did I believe that?"  

Kinuan had carefully and methodically brainwashed Anguis Regina. She had been a wounded adolescent girl. She had lost her mother early, had a strained relationship with her father, and her stepmother was a Tajirun.  

"Bang!"  

Anguis Regina mimicked shooting me.  

Sweat dripped from her pale face as she looked at me. Her cheeks were flushed, but her furrowed brows and sorrowful eyes betrayed her anguish.  

"It wasn’t until I saw my father collapse, bleeding, that I realized what I had done. The girl who had been living in a dream finally returned to reality. When I came to my senses, Kinuan was gone. As if a demon had passed through and vanished."  

"He wasn’t a demon. Kinuan is a man who exists in reality."  

"Kinuan was once my god. Now, he’s my devil."  

"And I’m the devil hunter?"  

Anguis Regina laughed at my dry remark. She began stripping off her clothes one by one, letting honeyed words drip from her lips as if reminding me of a promise.  

Creak.  

I rose from my seat and walked toward the door. Anguis Regina narrowed her eyes at me.  

"Are you not going to keep your promise? That if I told you everything, you’d hold me?"

"It would be more like Kinuan to deceive you here."  

Anguis Regina pouted like an abandoned child, then suddenly smiled. Her emotions shifted so drastically and frequently that it was alarming. At this rate, her brain would break.  

"Until the very end, you always pick the answer that haunts me, Luka."  

Anguis Regina picked up her discarded clothes.  

"I'm quite the model student, after all."  

She laughed at my words.  

"The Jafa I hated so much protected me until the end. She paid off witnesses, spent a fortune to have my entire body reconstructed. That’s how she erased my past. That’s why she never told you about it. If you were to expose it, I’d go from being Border City's idol to a disgraceful child who shot her own father."  

"There might be fans who like that version of you better. I doubt Border City’s people are all that ethical."  

"Jafa & Co. is a legitimate business. There are several enterprises outside of Border City as well."  

Dressed again, Anguis Regina pulled out a handkerchief. Taking out a pen, she wrote something on it before handing it to me.  

"What’s this?"  

"Go check it out. It's the house we used to live in. If it's you, maybe you'll find something we missed."  

Anguis Regina stepped closer and kissed my cheek. I didn’t pull away from her soft lips.  

…Well, this much wouldn’t count as cheating.  

*         *         *

I hadn’t slept in over 24 hours. Somehow, things had ended up like this.  

'Deus Ex Machina, Jin Gaw, Gaya’s hospital, Gabriel. And now, Anguis Regina and Jafa’s old house.'  

The events flowed seamlessly, one into the next.  

Going a day without sleep wouldn’t kill me. But fatigue was starting to accumulate. I could feel my cognitive abilities dulling.  

Step, step.

I walked through the streets. Dawn was creeping in, hazy and indistinct. It wasn’t quite day, but it was no longer night.  

Because it was an in-between time, Border City was eerily quiet. Nocturnal species had gone to sleep, while diurnal species were just beginning to wake.  

'Anguis Regina.'  

I thought of her as I walked.  

'I could get more details if I asked Jafa.'  

But Jafa wouldn’t willingly reveal anything that could be used against her. She wouldn’t be pleased to know that Anguis Regina had confessed her past to me.  

'So, I’ll finish searching the house before speaking with Jafa.'  

The flow of time was roughly mapped out in my head.

Jafa had been driven out by the Menoa Family. She was under the protection of her former lover, but after even that lover died, she drifted into Border City.  

In Border City, Jafa met Anguis Regina's father, and not long after, she established Jafa Trading Company.  

‘Jafa was able to negotiate a non-aggression pact with the Menoa Family thanks to Kinuan’s help. For a while after founding Jafa Trading Company, she stayed with Kinuan. No, the very establishment of Jafa Trading Company itself must have been Kinuan’s doing.’  

It must have been Kinuan who protected Jafa from the Menoa Family.  

‘This is similar to what he did in Akbaran.’  

I recalled the arena gangs.  

‘Helping people in distress, building up power while gaining their trust, then using them at a critical moment and discarding them.’  

I needed to figure out why Kinuan had approached Jafa and Anguis Regina’s father.  

‘Even Jafa probably doesn’t know why Kinuan approached her. Kinuan never reveals his true objectives to others. That’s what makes them even harder to find.’  

I recalled Kinuan’s words from the fake Valek’s memories.  

‘Ascension.’  

Did he think he could become a god or something? What nonsense. I couldn't believe it. Kinuan spread false information to conceal himself.  

‘What is he trying to gain from all this chaos?’  

I also pulled in Ragnata’s advice to add to my thoughts.  

‘Has Kinuan truly become a monster whose sole purpose is chaos itself?’  

If his goal and joy were merely deceiving others, sowing confusion, and placing himself at the center of the chaos…  

Just the thought made me feel sick. If chaos was his purpose, then he had no weaknesses.  

‘If I finally find him, subdue him, and get the chance to kill him, he’ll probably smirk and say that dying at my hands was his goal all along.’  

His purpose changed constantly, making it impossible to defeat him.  

‘Almost there.’  

I looked around. Following the address Anguis Regina had given me, I arrived at a food alley.  

Sizzle, sizzle.  

I saw chunks of unidentifiable meat sizzling in oil. The heat from the cooking process filled the air. People of various species walked the streets, each carrying food suited to their own tastes.  

“Hmm.”  

I stopped walking. A cluster of residential buildings came into view, packed so tightly together that sunlight barely reached them.  

This complex seemed to be home to the merchants from the food alley. The entrance was filled with a mixture of food ingredients and spice aromas, occasionally pierced by the sharp stench of something that might be fermentation—or possibly decay.  

Creak.

I simply entered the building and searched for the address. It was an apartment on the fifth floor of a ten-story residential complex. I looked at the electronic lock, covered in dust.  

‘If I open this, Jafa might get a signal.’  

I took off my coat and wrapped it around the iron bars of the window.  

Creak.  

With a faint noise, the bars bent.  

After checking my surroundings, I pressed my coat tightly against the windowpane and tapped around the edges multiple times with my fingertips.  

Crack—shatter!  

As fatigue fracture set in, the glass broke. I stepped over the shards and entered.  

‘That smell… I know it.’  

It was the scent of Jafa Burger’s sauce. I blinked and let my eyes adjust to the darkness inside.  

‘There’s dust everywhere, but everything has been left exactly as it was when someone lived here.’  

The household items were placed according to where they were needed. If not for the stale air and dust, it would have been easy to believe that someone had just stepped out after cooking.  

‘Did they want to preserve the past as it was?’  

The place looked as if its inhabitants had suddenly vanished one day.  

As I examined the home, I discovered Anguis Regina’s real name and her father’s name.  

‘Elize Kwan, Paolo Kwan.’  

I checked the bed in the master bedroom. Tajirun were thin, but they were significantly taller than humans. Their average height was in the low two-meter range.  

If Paolo and Jafa had been in a common-law relationship, the bed would be sized for a Tajirun.  

“…So it’s true.”  

Looking at the bed, which was nearly three meters long, I found myself lost in thought. I couldn't help but wonder how Jafa and the human Paolo had been intimate.  

‘Well, not that I actually want to imagine it. So, Jafa’s human-style name would be Jafa Kwan?’  

A pointless thought crossed my mind.  

At one point, Jafa, Anguis Regina, and Paolo had lived here together.  

In the kitchen, several sealed glass jars were lined up, filled to the brim with sauce. That was the faint scent lingering in the air.  

‘Was Paolo a chef?’

The kitchen utensils were suited for human hands. There were no signs that a Tajirun had ever cooked here.  

Lastly, I stepped into the study. As soon as I opened the door, the scent of aging paper filled the air. On the desk, a stack of papers was pressed down by a paperweight.  

‘…They responded faster than I expected.’  

I sensed movement in the living room. A quiet sigh escaped me.  

‘Jafa must have anticipated that I would eventually find my way here.’  

As if preparing for what was to come, I lightly rested my hand on the hilt of my blade. A chill ran down my spine. I hadn’t even heard the front door open. The only reason I knew someone was here was the subtle shift in the air.  

- That’s far enough with the trespassing, detective.  

The mechanical voice of a translator sent a cold sting down my nape.  

When I turned around, the distinctive scar-like stripes of an Equessian glowed orange in the darkness.  

‘Equessian mercenary, En.’  

People called En Jafa’s hunting dog.