The Werewolf King's Bride

(From Cyan's Perspective)

From my childhood, I hated everyone, every single person I had met, and those who I never met. I did not have any motivation.

It was not like this all the time. I once had motivation, a motto. There was a time when I wanted to win my father's love and affection. I had wished he would care for me more and think I was worthy of a lot of things too.

But that never happened. He always mentioned a girl who was apparently my twin sister. He kept making plans that involved her, but not me.

I thought he was disappointed in me because I was not doing well as his son. It did not take me a long time to know that it was not because I was not doing well, but it was because I was not born the way he wanted me to.

There was already someone who was far better than me.

I stopped trying. It was all for nothing. I had nothing to do. At some point, I lost the point of life. I was just living, not knowing why. I did whatever I wanted to because there was no reason for me to not to do so.

I cut my hand, I hurt myself physically because pain meant nothing to me. I was just trying to find something that mattered to me. Did pain matter to me? I did not know. But when I hurt myself, I at least felt something, an emotion.

Even if it was just a bit, I wanted to feel it more.

The girl I met who was supposed to be my sister was unlike anything I had imagined. I had heard about her only but never met her before. I had known about her family and the fact that our mother's husband did not like her. But I did not know about anything else. I just did not care.

I hated her.

Even when I found out she was brought to this world as per the plan, I did not try to find out about her. I was interested. I wanted to see what kind of girl she was and why Father was so hopeful about her abilities. What if she did not possess any power at all? But she did.

I forced myself to not be so interested. In the end, my stubbornness won over my curiosity.

But she was strange. She was weak and pathetic. How could such a girl even work for Father?

And she revealed a lot of information that I did not know about. But I was interested. I was not a particularly curious person, but her life interested me. I wanted to know how Father could rely on her abilities so much and not me who had been trying so hard to be useful.

Branding was an important process, according to Father, to be a real part of his clan. It was bullshit. It was just a mark. I was forced to have one as well when I was twelve. It hurt like hell.

Father had the same mark as well. Only three people could have this mark. Before two people had it and the other person was not ready yet. But now, even she had it.

It was a mark resembling a snake wrapping a sickle. The sickle was the Moon Goddess's weapon and the snake was the black lord's mark. It actually showed the black lord defeating the Moon Goddess.

"Ugh…," she groaned. I lay her down on the bed on her stomach. Her back looked heinous, with the mark glowing on her skin, surrounded by burnt flesh.

I stood there, watching as she writhed in pain. Since my childhood, I wanted her to be in pain. If only she was not there, I would have gotten Father's love. But now that she was actually in pain, it did not feel as satisfying as I thought it would be.

Did I want her pain to stop? I did not know.

The mark was permanent. Nothing could remove it. The flesh around the mark would go back to normal within a day. It meant she would have to feel pain for a day.

'One day of pain. It's nothing. Why does she look like she is dying?'

I looked at my hand that I had burned a few days ago. She felt the pain as well. I knew about it because I had also felt a burning in my mouth when she was eating a very spicy pasta. That time, I was in her body.

She did not tell me she was feeling the same thing as I was, but I knew she actually could feel it. Perhaps she thought I would tell Father and he would use this against her. Well, Father did not know about it. How could he? It was very rare for mages to have twins. Not much of a thing about how twins functioned when they were mages was documented.

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"Uh, do you want a change of clothes?" I asked, not knowing what else to ask. "The back is torn."

"… I want to go home," she cried.

"Your world? I thought you don't like your family," I muttered.

'Ah, she has a husband. Why does she like him anyway? He is strange. Who likes another person that much? Who gets obsessed with someone? I heard he even threatens her that he will tie her down if she tries to run away.

So weird!'

I pondered for a while. What did I have here? What did I get living with my father? Nothing. Did I get any recognition? Except for the title, there was nothing.

They mocked me anyway.

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'Whatever. I am too tired to think about it now.'

"It will go on for a day, the pain I mean. The wound will heal within one day, leaving the mark only," I said. "So, try to bear with it."

"… I thought you were with me…!" she muttered. It looked like she was having a hard time talking because of the pain.

"Have I ever said that?" I asked, thinking about my previous actions. I was pretty sure I never said so.

"You bastard!"

"Yeah, I am," I grinned. "What did you think I am? Your beloved brother?"

I held her chin and made her look at me. "I still want you dead," I said, pronouncing each word clearly so there was no doubt.

I thought she would glare at me. But what I got us fearful eyes that were trying to look brave. Her hands were shaking.

Why was she afraid of me? Because I said these things? Well, in the end, it was not me who hurt her. I just wanted to scare her. I was too lazy to hurt her myself.

I sat on the same chair that I had been using since she was brought here.

If I was not here, Lloid would come here. I caught him trying to do something funny when she was sleeping, so since then, I had been staying so he would not. Father did not care whether Lloid or anyone else did something horrible to her. He only wanted her to be able to use her power.

"Use too much power and she will probably die because of exhaustion," I muttered.

But not if her power was awakened fully.

My power was awakened fully. It was not a huge amount of power. But it was quite a good amount if compared to normal mages.

That was I why could not die, not even when I desperately wanted to.