After combing my mother's hair, I accompanied her to the garden. This was the place she visited most often because she "liked" to look at the flowers.
Her preference for this place was because it was the first place she visited after coming to life. Since she was not allowed to visit other places due to her status as a homunculus, she used to get lost in her thoughts.
As I watched my mother sitting quietly, a presence appeared behind me. I knew very well who that person was, so I controlled myself as best I could and tried to ignore them. All this was in vain, as they approached and spoke.
"Are you wasting your time in this place again?"
he asked, standing next to my mother.
That person was my father, the person I hate most in my life and the duke of these lands.
I completely ignored his words, keeping my gaze on the garden. Anyway, the question was not directed at me.
"Darling, the flowers have started to wilt, we need to change them,"
my mother replied, with the same smile as always on her face.
"I'll do it soon, Victoria."
Although my father's words might seem kind and attentive to his wife, I knew that was not the case. The only reason he had not discarded my mother, and therefore me, was because he could not.
It all goes back to the reason my mother was created. This man was always characterized by his greed; he was never satisfied with anything or anyone. His greatest desire was to be king or emperor of a kingdom, but his status as a peasant made this impossible.
At first, he was nothing more than a simple cattle breeder with delusions of grandeur. The moment everything began to change for him was when he discovered the remains of volumes from extinct sects after the 'Great Massacre'. He nourished himself with this knowledge and began to rise through the ranks, working as a mercenary and later as a guard for nobles.
Over the years, he began to form relationships until, after more than 30 years of effort, he managed to obtain a title of duke. But nothing was enough for him; even after all that effort, he had not fulfilled his dream. After a while, the king had several children, which led to the search for suitors for each of his sons and daughters. Unfortunately, he never focused on relationships that did not bring a direct benefit.
Therefore, he had to come up with several ideas capable of fulfilling these purposes. He began by adopting several orphans and training them to fulfill the wishes of their partners. The more there were, the more likely they would be to win the pairing of a king's child. He quickly realized that this was not working, so a couple of years later he discarded each of the orphans.
His second idea was to buy slaves. Thanks to magic, curses, and medicine, he would be able to make them submit and easily comply with physical training and etiquette. Unfortunately for him, this worked too well. He stripped each of the slaves of their will, turning them into rag dolls, so they were also discarded.
And finally, his third idea was to create a descendant with his own hands and raise it. For a normal person, this would be the first idea and would be achieved naturally, by forming relationships with someone and so on. Unfortunately, he did not want to waste time on trivial relationships.
With his power and connections, he contacted several alchemists who helped create the "perfect woman." That woman is my mother. In this process, the nobles who belonged to my father's duchy gave several ideas to make her more beautiful and ensure that her offspring would inherit all these characteristics.
The most notable was to nourish her with immense power. If she could not win the heart of a prince or princess, a relationship of convenience would be forced. That is where I came from.
Everything went well for my father until that moment. The homunculus in charge of bearing his child was ready and perfect. She was notably nourished with the best foods and medicines to obtain a being as close to perfect as possible.
Fortunately or unfortunately, I was born with the expected defects and those I am most unaware of. The relationship between a homunculus, lacking a soul, and a normal person, with a healthy and strong soul, resulted in a daughter with deformities and a broken soul.
Although several of the other deformities were cured thanks to the addition of blood from various races, the situation of the soul worsened. After all, nothing good comes from an amalgam. The only deformity that was not cured was my mouth, but it was easily covered by a cloth, unlike my soul.
Knowing this, I decided to go ahead with it and get involved with the younger prince, the least likely to ascend to the throne, but at the same time the most closely related to the older one. Until then, everything went according to plan. Until the prince discovered my mother, her role, and of course, mine.
This led to my father losing his rank as duke, several lands, and being placed under the supervision of the entire kingdom. He was also forbidden from laying a hand on my mother or me. This was because all homunculi are treated as objects due to their lack of a soul. This was in contrast to those who did have one.
At the time my father was punished and stripped of many of his treasures, my potential and status as a "champion of the mixed race" was discovered. So I was taken to the strictest academies and trained by masters of various sects of different types of weapons.
It was on that journey that I met Conan. Right now, I am ashamed that my first emotion was anger at his childish antics. But at the same time, I am grateful that it was, because it was a genuine feeling. For that reason, I forced myself not to forget him. I wanted to see him again and feel more.
So, when I came of age at 16, I searched the entire continent for his village and begged him to remember me. The indescribable feeling that ran through my body when I received the news that everything in the village had been destroyed by magical creatures was something I will never forget.
But I am not as foolish as they thought. The invasion of magical creatures into a territory full of magical crystals was normal, but not in the intense and rapid way that it was in that village. That's why, now that I'm so close to discovering who it was, this guy intervened
"Stop searching in that village. This is my first and last warning to you."
In front of me, my father was sitting with his face in his palm, looking disinterested. He had called me for something important.
In all these years, he had never called me before, but now that I was here, I could guess why.
A bag full of heads flooded the room. Just by glancing at it, I could tell that they were the mercenaries he had hired and several of my direct servants.
"May I ask the reason?"
At my words, my father sat up straight and looked me straight in the eye.
"Even though it was an order from the king, it is okay to disobey him. That village was destroyed on the king's orders."
Was that man to blame for this...? Unconsciously, my bloodlust began to rise, which was extremely strong due to my own will.
"This was the only thing I wanted to inform you of, now leave."
"Before that, may I ask the reason why you are telling me this? You have never disobeyed any order from the king since 'that incident'."
It was obvious that by "incident" I was referring to the time they discovered his secret. Just as I thought, a strong pressure fell on my body as soon as those words came out of my mouth.
"Don't push your luck, it's not that difficult to make you lose all the funding you have."
Yeah, right, you never wanted to give it to me in the first place. Although I thought those words, I didn't say them and swallowed each one.
With nothing else to do, I left the office, leaving my father alone.
"If you think I'll give up on Conan, you're wrong. Even if I have to kill countless people, I'll make Conan stay by my side and me by his."