The Extra's Advent: My Villainess Fiancée is a Yandere

Chapter 170: Lucian Vayne [3]

"I am right, aren’t I?"

Cael’s voice cut through the rain like a blade. It was sharp, mocking, and filled with a bitterness that had been festering for years.

His sword was still pointed at me, the tip trembling slightly from his drunken grip. The rain streamed down the blade, mixing with the water dripping from his hair.

I was silent. I could not answer. I could not agree or disagree, because both would be a lie.

Cael continued his laughter. It was bitter and hollow, a sound that did not belong in this place. It echoed through the cemetery, carried by the wind, swallowed by the rain.

Then he spat out a single word,

"Hypocrite."

He threw away the empty bottle and reached into his space pouch for another bottle; his movements were clumsy, uncoordinated.

But the bottle slipped from his fingers and fell to the ground. Fortunately, it did not break.

Then Cael was clutching his hand in pain. It was the same hand that had punched my face. The hand bone was fractured.

I took one step forward, wanting to say something. Wanting to help. But I stayed silent. What could I possibly say? What words could bridge the chasm I had created?

Just then, amidst the heavy rain, soft footsteps approached us. I turned my head and saw a girl approaching.

She had black hair and blue eyes; it was Elowyn Strix. She held an umbrella, her expression calm and unreadable.

The rain slid off the fabric, pooling around her feet.

She nodded softly at me and said,

"I will take him from here. You can leave."

I immediately understood by just a few words. She was not requesting. She was ordering. Her voice was quiet, but there was no room for argument.

I nodded and left. Cael’s words still echoed in my mind. I had a feeling I would never be able to forget this day.

The following day, I started to enquire about Cael in the academy.

I learned that due to Cael being an [Iron] ranker, students compared him to me. They whispered behind his back. They called him the failure of the Vayne family.

I also learned that the students somehow learned Cael had been kicked out of the family.

And seeing that I never approached him, the students started bullying him. Not physically, but mentally.

Words. Whispers. Glances.

The kind of cruelty that left no visible marks but cut deeper than any blade.

As time passed, as I gained recognition and praise, the bullying against Cael only increased. That was one of the reasons he dropped out of the academy.

This news shook me to the core.

A few days later, I heard Elowyn had also dropped out. She seemed to be taking care of Cael.

From then on, I paid attention to Cael and his health. I never tried to talk to him. I never showed myself to him. I watched from a distance, too ashamed to bridge the gap.

Months passed.

Elowyn finally managed to get Cael back to his usual self. They even planned and held an engagement ceremony. The following months were peaceful.

The graduation exams were nearing. I had to focus on them. They were hard, but not impossible. I gained first rank, as usual.

It was the grand celebratory day for every graduate, just as it was for me.

Until I received a message.

"Your brother, Caelir Vayne, has died."

...

When I arrived at the scene, they had already buried him.

My eyes fell on Elowyn. She had dull eyes, the same kind of eyes I had seen in Cael a few months ago.

Her clothes were dyed with blood. Her hands were clenched tightly, a few drops of blood dripping from them.

Then I learned the truth. Cael had been bewitched by a high-ranking vampire.

That vampire wanted to gain information from Cael due to his social status, then use him as a puppet.

But the vampire was strangely unable to fully bewitch Cael. Cael still had some rationality, very little, but enough.

He could no longer control his body. He could not disobey the vampire. But using that last bit of rationality, Cael asked Elowyn to kill him.

Standing before Cael’s grave, I slowly muttered from the bottom of my heart.

"Cael, you were a good brother. And I am sorry. I am truly sorry."

...

A year passed.

A secret passage opened in the middle of the borderlands.

People called it the Death Valley manifestation. I went to that zone, where the war was intense with high rankers.

Then the passage closed.

Thousands died in that war. High rankers fell like leaves in autumn; their bodies scattered across the blood-soaked earth.

The ground turned red, then brown, then black as the days stretched on. The sky was thick with smoke and ash. The borderlands became a graveyard, and the stench of death clung to everything.

Even now, I cannot forget the sounds, the smells, the weight of that place.

Soon, I learned that Elowyn had gone missing. She had also come to this war zone. I searched for any clues. I found none.

The possible explanation was either that she was dead or that she was in that closed passage.

Either way, both outcomes were bad.

I did not know how to even feel about this.

Over the past year, I investigated many things.

I learned that the vampire who killed Cael was none other than the Vampire Prince, the crown prince of his kind. And he seemed to be searching for something.

So, I started preparing to avenge Cael. I gathered the best team. I received approval from the Council. The mission was officially started: Kill the Vampire Prince.

But the mission went wrong, terribly wrong.

Instead of the Vampire Prince, we encountered someone else, someone deadly... Kira Crimson.

But during the fight, I realized she was nothing but a puppet being controlled. Her movements were too precise, too mechanical.

There was no emotion in her eyes, no hesitation in her strikes.

But strangely, she could use both vampire bloodline abilities and human elements, a combination that should have been impossible.

Blood and lightning. She wielded them all with deadly efficiency.

Although she was just a lifeless puppet, she was too strong for my team to take her on. We were outmatched. Outclassed.

We barely escaped with our lives.

The mission was a failure. But not a complete one.

I learned the Vampire Prince was looking for the Demonic Vampire Mask, which had been kept in the hands of an old vampire in District Kazi.

Today was the day the Vampire Prince was supposed to come and claim it. But instead, he had learned about my mission in advance.

That meant there was a mole in the Council. Someone high up. Someone with access to classified information. But there was nothing I could do about it. Not yet.

On the bright side, I had stopped the Vampire Prince from getting his hands on the mask.

Little did I know that this mask was not just a mask. It was a... Artifact. And getting my hands on it changed my fate in a way I didn’t expect. But that is a story for the future.

After that mission, I learned I needed to grow even stronger. Otherwise, I was just one of the many fodder for the coming war.

I had seen what true power looked like. The Blood Princess, even as a puppet, had nearly killed us all.

If I wanted to survive, if I wanted to avenge Cael, I had to be better.

So, I started preparing for my [Mythril] rank breakthrough. I trained harder than ever before.

I pushed my body to its limits. I studied combat techniques, refined my skills, and sought out every advantage I could find.

Two years have passed since the Death Valley incident.

On that day, a red pillar of light pierced into the sky, rising from the area where the Death Valley passage had once moved.

It was massive, stretching beyond the clouds, beyond the atmosphere itself.

The entire sky of the planet turned red. The color was deep and unnatural, like dried blood spreading across the vast sky.

For the next few hours, the world existed under a crimson dome.

Forces were mobilized within hours. Wraiths, humans, and vampires, it was a three-way death lock encircling the red pillar.

Thousands of mid-stage rankers stood ready. Hundreds of high-stage rankers gathered, their auras clashing against each other.

All waiting. All watching. The tension was suffocating.

Then a suppressing force enveloped the entire army. The air grew heavy. The ground trembled.

Even the strongest [Origin] rankers struggled to breathe. It was as if the world itself was bowing to something greater.

The red pillar tore open. A lady with white hair and red eyes walked out.

She wore an elegant dress, but her aura, her mere presence, instilled fear in all the forces gathered there.

She looked upon them as if they were insects. Her gaze was cold, empty. But her eyes paused on the vampire’s.

And then what followed was a... bloody massacre.

It was the darkest day in the history of the vampire kind.