Chapter 97 – The First to Arrive

The news spread fast. Before dawn, every house in the kingdom already knew three things.

The first: the queen's heir had appeared at her debut in perfect health.

None of the sickly princess from the rumors.

None of the one who wouldn't wake up.

None of the invalid shut away in the royal wing.

She had walked in on her own feet, received the crown, spoken with forty nobles and had not shown a single crack.

The second: she had humiliated Kaela Ardent in a duel, without using either of her ego weapons, without taking a single hit.

That last part was what had blown up every breakfast table in the kingdom that morning.

That Princess Matt had two ego weapons and was strong was to be expected, given the rumors out of the cave.

That she would win a duel was also to be expected, given whose heir she was. But that she would win like that… against the heir of House Ardent, in hand-to-hand combat, which was literally that house's own ground...

Nobody expected that.

In House Azura they called it "absolute dominance."

In House Grisel they refrained from any public comment, as did House Noctra.

And in three separate minor houses, over the course of that same morning, somebody said the same sentence in the same words:

"Matt is worthy of the Nivea bloodline!"

Many nobles were thrilled.

A strong heir meant the kingdom had centuries ahead of it. It meant stability. It meant that when Elyra decided to step down, which obviously was not going to happen any time soon but which would have to happen someday, there would be someone capable of holding the crown without the houses tearing each other to pieces.

Other nobles were not thrilled in the slightest. Because a strong heir raised by Elyra would probably be exactly as passive as Elyra.

And that, for the houses that had spent decades wanting to expand south, into the neutral lands, or into the human world, was terrible news.

Another queen who watched the humans instead of taking them.

Another queen who signed protection pacts with the elves instead of annexing them.

Another few centuries of sitting still.

But the thrilled ones and the annoyed ones shared exactly the same question.

Where had the other princess come from?

Because that had no explanation.

All the kingdom knew was that Elyra had shut herself away with her heir after the girl came out of the cave.

That was all.

There had been no announcements, no visits, no strange movements.

And suddenly, on the day of the debut, a second one appeared.

One who gave off royal blood. Not similar. Not close. Full royal blood, the same purity, verified in front of the entire hall with the hair trick.

And this was where the problems started.

Because the method of taking a man and injecting him with royal blood until a vampire was born from him was known, yes, but it was rare, slow and failed constantly.

Most of the time the man didn't hold out and ended up turned into something without consciousness that had to be put down.

And in any case, Elyra had not brought any man into the castle.

Nobody had seen one come in.

And the other method, the seed, required a seedbed.

Elyra had no seedbed.

Elyra had not had a seedbed in centuries.

And above all: Elyra's abdomen had not shown a single sign of pregnancy at any point in the last year.

Not once.

And the queen's ladies-in-waiting were, by definition, people who saw the queen's abdomen every day.

So then, from where?

The rumors started that same morning.

That it was cloning.

That somebody in the royal wing had developed a duplication technique and that Princess Noxx was a copy.

That she was a laboratory experiment, and that the explosion at the banquet had been no accident.

And the boldest rumor, said only in very low voices and only among women who trusted each other a great deal: that the queen, or perhaps her daughter, had found a way to inject an ordinary vampire with enough blood to absorb her completely into the bloodline.

That would be insane.

That would change everything.

That would mean the royal bloodline could grow indefinitely.

◇◆◇

In the servants' wing, the room assigned to the six heirs was large, low-ceilinged, with six beds separated by cloth screens and a single high window.

Kaela opened her eyes. Her body still hurt. Not the wounds. Those had closed hours ago.

Everything else hurt: her shoulders, her arms, her stomach, her legs. That heavy, clumsy exhaustion that regeneration didn't touch.

Kaela sat up in bed and looked around with the satisfaction of someone who has just woken up first.

Then she looked to the left, and saw that Eris was already awake, sitting on the edge of her bed, lacing up a boot.

Kaela clenched her teeth.

"…How long have you been awake?"

"A while."

"How long is a while?"

"A while, Kaela."

Kaela ran a hand through her red hair.

"Well."

"…"

"Well, well, well."

Eris went on lacing her boot.

"Are you really that excited about serving this Matt person?" Kaela asked, mocking.

"Not especially."

"Then what?"

"I just want to do my job well."

Kaela blinked.

"…What?"

"That I want to do my job well."

"You do?"

"I do."

"Eris Noctra?"

"That's me."

"The one who spent four hours lying on a log while we looked for a dragon?"

"The very same."

Kaela looked at her with absolute distrust. From the other side of the screen, a flat and still half-asleep voice inserted itself into the conversation.

"…Why are you fighting this early?"

Celia appeared around the side of the screen with her blue hair a mess and her glasses crooked.

"We're not fighting," Eris answered.

"We're fighting," Kaela corrected.

"It's five in the morning," Celia said.

"Eris got up before me."

"…And?"

"That's annoying!"

Celia rubbed one eye.

"Kaela, yesterday you got beaten senseless in front of the entire kingdom and the first thing you do when you wake up is argue about the order we get out of bed in..."

"…"

"Just saying."

And at that moment, from the bed at the back, Virelle sat bolt upright.

"IS THERE STILL TIME?!"

The three of them turned.

Virelle's green hair was pushed completely to one side, her eyes were wide open and her face was pure panic.

"IS THERE STILL TIME TO GET CHANGED?!"

"Yes," Kaela and Eris answered at once.

Virelle let the air out and put a hand to her chest.

"…Ah."

"You've got forty minutes, Virelle," Celia explained.

"Thank goodness."

Celia looked toward the back of the room, and stopped on the last bed, the one in the corner, where there were two people.

Rosalind had her back to the wall, asleep, silver hair spread across the pillow. And Lisette was asleep against her, one arm across her waist and her golden hair tangled with the silver.

Celia adjusted her glasses. Then she walked over to the bed, gathered momentum and threw herself on top of it.

FWUMP!

"GOOD MORNING!"

Rosalind shot upright with her eyes like saucers.

"WHAT?!"

Furious, Rosalind tried to take a swing at Celia, but Lisette woke up all at once too, only much faster, and in less than a second she had understood the entire situation and already had Rosalind by the shoulders.

"Rosalind…" Lisette said.

"What's going on?!"

"Rosalind, calm down," Lisette whispered into Rosalind's ear, and that made her blush.

"Celia's lost her mind!"

"Calm down."

Rosalind breathed, and stopped. Then she looked at Celia, who was sitting on the edge of the bed with insulting composure.

"…What is wrong with you?" Rosalind said, annoyed.

"No romances at work," Celia answered.

Rosalind went red all at once.

"Romances?"

"Yes. Romances."

"What are you talking about?!"

"That," Celia said, pointing at Rosalind, who was still being held by Lisette and not putting up much resistance.

"There's no romance!"

"Present your evidence," Celia said in an irritated tone.

"You're the one who has to present evidence!"

"I already presented it."

"What? WHAT EVIDENCE?!"

Celia pointed a finger at the entire bed.

"You're sleeping together, in a room with six beds."

Rosalind felt the rage start climbing up her chest, but before she could answer, Lisette whispered to her:

"Rosalind, she's provoking you."

"I know she's provoking me…!"

"Then don't take the bait. We have work."

Rosalind shut her mouth. Lisette patted her arm twice, smiled at Celia with all the sweetness in the world, and got up off the bed stretching her arms.

"Right. Time to get dressed."

And then Kaela lifted her head.

"…Where's Eris?"

Silence.

They all turned.

Eris was already at the door, boots on, jacket on, hand on the handle.

"Eris!"

"Yes?"

"You have to wait for us!"

"Why?"

"Because we're a group! We have to present ourselves together! It's protocol!"

Eris opened the door.

"I'm going to greet the master first."

"ERIS!"

"Good morning."

And she was gone.

Kaela stood in the middle of the room with one sock on and the other in her hand.

"…I hate her."

"We all hate her," Celia said with a smile.

"I hate her the most!"

"Get dressed, Kaela," Celia said, letting out a sigh.

◇◆◇

Eris moved through the corridors of the royal wing without making a sound.

She wasn't exactly walking. She was walking, yes, but her outline came apart in the dark stretches between one lamp and the next, and when it formed again she was already three meters further ahead.

It was fast.

It was efficient.

And it was completely unnecessary for the job she was about to do.

Eris reached the junction of the main corridor and a voice stopped her.

"Halt."

Eris stopped. Her outline reassembled completely in the middle of the hallway. A guard in light armor with a spear in her hand was watching her from the other side, frowning.

Eris straightened up and bowed to her.

"Good morning."

"…What are you doing?"

"I'm on my way to Princess Matt's room. To serve her."

The guard looked at her. Then she looked at the shadow of the corridor she had come from. Then she sighed at length.

"Ah… I know who you are," the guard said.

"…"

"You're the heir of House Noctra."

"I am."

"I completely understand your using that kind of magic. It's your house. It's what they do."

Eris nodded.

"But," the guard went on, "if you're going to work here as a maid, you shouldn't use it in the corridors of the royal wing. It looks very bad. And there are guards on the morning shift with a lot less judgment than me."

Eris inclined her head again.

"Thank you for the advice. I won't forget it."

The guard blinked, slightly disarmed by how polite the answer was, and stepped aside.

"Go on."

Eris went on, walking normally this time. It took her a few minutes longer than planned because the royal wing was enormous and nobody had given her a map, but near the end of a side corridor she stopped, and closed her eyes.

Eris felt two presences, almost identical, which confused her a little, but since she didn't want to pry too much in case one of the princesses caught her at it, she opened her eyes and looked at the door.

Eris raised her hand and knocked twice, then opened the door. The first thing she saw was an unmade bed, the sheets a disaster and half of them dragged onto the floor.

And the second thing was the two princesses.

Eris's eyes went wide.

They were identical.

Genuinely identical. The same short white hair. The same skin. The same face. The same red eyes.

At the banquet she had seen it from a distance, one in a dress and one in a suit, different postures and different light, and that had been enough to tell them apart.

Like this, up close, both of them in black pajamas, it was another matter, except for one detail.

One of them was kneeling on the floor, hands over her face, her ears red, her shoulders shaking.

One of them was crying, or something fairly close to crying, in a state of embarrassment so absolute and so visible that Eris could feel it from the doorway.

And the other was sitting in a chair near the window, one leg crossed over the other and an elbow resting on the chair back, perfectly at ease, with the same look of administrative annoyance she had used to receive forty nobles the night before.

Eris didn't need a second.

'That one is Matt.'

Eris bowed deeply.

"Good morning, Princess Matt. Princess Noxx."

From the floor, Princess Noxx made a small noise and covered her face further. From the chair, Matt raised a hand in a lazy greeting.

"Morning."

"Eris Noctra. I'm at your service."

"Sure."

Matt pointed at the bed with his chin.

"Change those sheets."

Eris followed the direction of the gesture.

"…Yes, Princess."

"And bring something to eat."

"Right away, Princess."

Eris straightened up and walked toward the bed. From the floor, Noxx made another noise, higher-pitched than the last one.

"If you smell that I'll kill you…"

Want to keep reading? 

The next 10 chapters are already available on Patreon, so you don't have to wait for future updates. (≧▽≦)

Continue the story right now [PATREON] ヽ(>∀<☆)ノ