Draco gestured to Hermione beside him. "My wife can't stand seeing ordinary humans get hurt in the fights between us extraordinary races, so she stepped in to stop it."
Upon hearing this, Raze's gaze fell on Hermione, and he said with a hint of approval, "I didn't expect Miss Granger to be so kind."
Hermione shook her head slightly, about to respond politely, when Raze continued, "Actually, we wouldn't harm innocent people. It's just that we were being followed by vampires—they specifically hunt Werewolf, so we had no choice but to fight back."
"Why do vampires specifically hunt Werewolf?"
Hermione was very puzzled.
"Initially, we Werewolf were irrational," Lucian began recounting the past of Werewolf and vampires to the group, "Which is why we would uncontrollably transform into beasts and slaughter indiscriminately."
"The vampire elders Victor and Marcus joined forces to suppress, capture, and then enslave us—making us their slaves and even playthings in the arena."
"Then, I was born." Lucian's lips curled into a self-deprecating smile, tinged with a barely perceptible hint of pride.
"I underwent a mutation, becoming the first new Werewolf unaffected by the full moon. Moreover, I can freely switch between human and werewolf forms while maintaining my sanity. My people were also transformed into rational Werewolf by Victor, because it's easier to control them this way."
Looking down, the light in Lucian's eyes dimmed slightly.
"Later, I fell in love with Victor's daughter, Sonja, and we secretly became a couple. She became pregnant with my child."
At this point, Lucian's voice became hoarse, as if something was stuck in his throat, "We were discovered by Victor. He was afraid that the Werewolf would get out of control, afraid that their bloodline would be tainted, and even more afraid that his rule would be shaken, so he burned Sonja and her unborn child in public."
The room was eerily quiet.
Raze stood rooted to the spot, as if nailed to the ground. He had only just learned of this secret, never expecting the leader to...
Hermione's brow furrowed deeply. "Just because of this, you burned your own daughter and the child in her womb to death?"
Trillian even cursed out loud, "Is this old man sick? How could he lay a hand on his own daughter? What kind of father is he? He's worse than an animal!"
Lucian wasn't surprised by their anger; he was angry too, but he knew anger was useless. "From that day on, I led the Werewolf pack in rebellion..."
" Victor is clever. He has molded us into ferocious, bloodthirsty beasts, constantly sending people to hunt us down. This purge, which has lasted for six hundred years, has not stopped to this day..."
As Lucian recounted the story, Hermione's face gradually darkened. When she heard that it had continued for six hundred years, right up to this day, she could no longer hold back. Her voice trembled with barely suppressed anger. "This... this is utterly absurd!"
Hermione was reminded of the plight of House-elf, who were also enslaved and deprived of their freedom by Pure-blood families—the same oppression, the same lies, only in different ways.
Trillian, unfazed by such occurrences, scoffed and mocked, "Those in power always use the same rhetoric—plundering others' freedom and then justifying their massacres with a righteous cause."
"Those vampire soldiers who rushed out to hunt Werewolf were just henchmen kept in the dark by their superiors from beginning to end."
"Absolutely right!" Raze agreed vehemently, as someone spoke for him, voicing what he had been holding back for so long, "Those young vampires were fed lies, considered hunting us an honor, and died without ever realizing they were nothing more than a knife in Victor's hand!"
The centuries-old ferocity in Lucian's eyes faded somewhat.
He forced a bitter yet somewhat relieved smile, "Very few people are willing to see through this. Most people only want to believe the stories written by the nobles, to believe that we were born to be hunted, and they don't even have the courage to question them."
Hermione paused for a moment, then asked:
"Do most young vampires have absolutely no idea that Werewolf were once their slaves? Aren't there any who noticed that there's a discrepancy between history and reality?"
Lucian's expression was somewhat melancholic, and his voice was extremely helpless. "Almost all the new generation of vampires know nothing about it."
"After Victor took power, he destroyed all the original files and rewrote the history of the vampire clan. All the new generation of vampires received the same brainwashing education: Werewolf are savage beasts, evil spirits, and it is the vampire clan's duty and justice to hunt Werewolf."
"A very small number of extremely senior vampires are either under house arrest and silenced, or have already passed away. Even if some individuals harbor doubts, they dare not question the ironclad rules set by the elders, because questioning is tantamount to betraying the vampire clan, and the consequences will only be more tragic."
At this point, Lucian gave two examples. " Selene hunted Werewolf for centuries, always believing she was eradicating evil, living a carefully crafted lie from beginning to end."
"There's also Erik, who was Victor's personal guard captain, fought alongside him for many years, and earned countless merits."
"As a result, he was executed the very next day on charges of 'treason and collusion with the enemy' simply because he questioned this history."
Lucian's lips curled into a bitter smile, "Since then, no one has dared to mention that history again."
"It's that female vampire, one of the top combatants in the vampire race. You kidnapped that one," Raze added for Lucian.
Trillian clicked her tongue lightly:
"The most convenient tool for those in high positions is this kind of person: loyal, capable in combat, and with their values firmly welded to their core. Victor has nurtured her for centuries, honing her into the sharpest blade, yet he refuses to tell the blade whether it's cutting down good or bad people."
"However..." Trillian's lips curled into a playful smile, "If this knife sees through the deception, it will either completely collapse or turn around and slash at the person wielding it; the latter would be far more interesting."
Lucian nodded. "That's true. The more resolute a person is, the more violently they bounce back when their beliefs crumble."
Hermione shook her head. " Selene herself would probably find it difficult to be exposed to the truth so easily, wouldn't she? Once she learns that the 'justice' she has upheld throughout her life was all a lie, she would likely find it hard to accept."
Then Hermione asked an even more pointed question:
"If the situation reverses and you gain the upper hand, will you launch a large-scale retaliatory massacre against the vampires?"
The questions directly addressed ethnic stances and core values, but Lucian's eyes were open and honest, showing no trace of narrow-mindedness or violence. He stated:
"I am only fighting for the right to survival of my people. Ordinary vampires are not among those I target, but Victor, and those high-ranking vampires who condoned this purge... They are the source of this war, and they should bear the consequences."
But Raze disagreed, saying, "It's not just the higher-ups..."