Chapter 11: 11. Carriage ride

Ele laid in her bed in the room allocated for her by the elves in their royal palace, she was staring at her brother’s graduation photo. Tears started to slowly run down her cheeks. Just few minutes ago she wore a mask of composure in front of Olia, but once she was alone that mask started to show cracks.

“…Julian…just why did you had to go…”

Ele wailed in to her pillow about how unjust the world was for taking her younger brother away. Sure, they weren’t related but they did grow up together in the Beleng household as proper older sister and younger brother. It was rather surprising how well did they get along.

So even though it was more than a week since her brother’s death, she had hard time getting over it. Almost everything was reminding her of him; group of children playing reminding her of the time when Julian was being made fun of in elementary school.

The woods reminding her of the treasure hunt adventures they had when they were little kids. It brings a bitter smile to her when she remembers her brothers happy face when he found an old vampiric coin in the river.

“…come to think of it, vampires believe in reincarnation….”

Ele muttered amid her tears, it was actually a comforting thought for her. The idea of her brother getting reborn right now was simultaneously sad and comforting. Ele wiped tears from her eyes and clapped with her hands two times before putting them together while shutting her eyes.

“…Oh, the heavenly lady Lerenpe, though I am a mere human I beg of thee. To grand a happiness to my brother in his new live, as my humble thanks I offer thee this blood.”

Ele sliced her palm and let little bit of her blood drop in the small plate. She than proceeded to burn it. The smell disgusted her just like the ritual she just performed and the prayer in vampiric tongue. But it didn’t really matter to her as long as the gods would bring her brother happiness in next life, she didn’t mind to pray to anyone, even if they were vampire gods. Brother may you find happiness.

…

It had been month since Julia’s transformation. During last month she learned the vampire language to the best of her abilities under Mirei’s guidance. And her hard work has paid off, as she is now able to converse with maids other than Mirei as well as the guards. Only one person was out of the equation; Loriam. Ever since Loriam let Julia drink her blood, she was constantly busy with something so they didn’t really interact. Until this morning.

“Julia〜 It’s time to get ready to go.”

“Ugh… what?”

Loriam abruptly entered Julia’s room with couple of maids including Mirei. Julia lifted her head from her pillow and looked tiredly towards smiling Loriam, which gave Julia urge to punch her.

“We going to the birthday party, did you forget?”

Loriam waved with a letter that was most likely an invitation to the party, in her hand to emphasize her words. Julia looked at Loriam before looking at the window and back at Loriam.

“It’s still night ….why the hell you waking me up now.”

Julia wasn’t trying to hide her annoyance. The moon was yet to set so outside was complete darkness. She wandered whether somebody was even awake in the city yet. Other than guards that is.

“It’s a long journey, you know? So better get ready early.”

Loriam signaled to the Mirei who nodded in response and entered the room with folded clothes in her hand. Loriam herself sat on the couch as Julia slowly sited on her bed. Before standing up visibly tired.

“Your highness if I may.”

Julia yawned as she allowed the maids to change her clothes all the while Loriam looked at her. Seemingly dissatisfied with something. Julia ignored Loriam and instead did her best to keep her blood red eyes open. The maids put on Julia few different dresses with grumbles. Each time asking Loriam what she thought. It wasn’t like the maids didn’t care about Julia’s opinion, after all she was the one wearing the clothes. But they realized over the last month that it was pointless, she would complain every time they put skirt on her.

“What do you think? Your majesty.”

“Oh, these suit her.”

The maids left out a relieved sigh as Loriam finally gave her approval. Julia was now wearing a light green dress that revealed her right shoulder, the dress was adored by a red ribbon on Julia’s waist. And Julia herself was just happy that they were done picking the dresses, thou she wondered where did these even came from, her closed was still empty after all.

Mirei urged Julia to sit on the chair before pulling out pair of stocking and shoes both in matching black color. Julia happily obliged and sat down.

“Your highness, please raise your leg.”

Julia did as she was instructed and raised her leg. The maids wasted no time before putting the silky stocking on Julia’s slim legs one at the time. Julia wasn’t sure how to feel as she felt their fingers touching her legs. Sure, she did kind of get used to the princess treatment over the last month. But the way they were now putting stockings on her leg seemed almost sexual to her.

“Are you done? Then let’s have a breakfast while we still have the time.”

Once Mirei putted shoes on Julia’s feet Loriam impatiently signaled for Julia to go with her. And since she was too tired to argue she went without objections. The maids lowered their heads as Loriam and Julia went past them. Once Loriam left the room while dragging tired Julia by hand, the maids straightened their posture and went back to whatever they were doing before.

Mirei and Liora were attending their respective mistresses during breakfast, but just as Loriam said they didn’t seem to have much time to indulge in the food. Unlike the days before this time there were only few dishes, Loriam pealed few boiled eggs hurriedly and placed them in front of Julia. After which Liora poured blood-wine to Loriam, Mirei in the meantime poured hot tea to Julia who began snacking on toast and boiled eggs like usual

.

Julia had no intension of not consuming blood, she already experienced why is that a bad idea after all. But she still wished to at least be able to feel like human in the morning and so Mirei had to get creative and mask all blood dishes to look like something human would eat.

To her relieve a steak was on the table making her job much easier. Though Mirei’s job wasn’t really hard in the first place, Julia did get over her initial disgust over blood and didn’t mind drinking it in its purest form. But Mirei as well as Loriam opted to keep the fact that most of the blood on the royal table comes from slaves for themselves.

“Can’t you slow down? I still didn’t wake up properly.”

“No, we have to hurry or we will be late.”

Just as Mirei was getting lost in her thoughts her mistress’s complaining voice brought her back. Loriam was now walking out of the dining room with Liora closely behind her. While Julia was grumpily standing from her chair and following her, Mirei of course followed as well.

The group continued to walk hurriedly through the hall until they reached big double doors. The guards that stood by the door opened them as they lowered their head. Julia shook slightly as the cold air from the outside hit her. Until now she didn’t really comprehend how much colder the east of the continent was compared to the empire’s mild climate. She especially couldn’t understand why are they going out in this cold without wearing warmer clothes.

Luckily for Julia who felt like she was turning in to an ice cream. They weren’t walking for a long, just few meters in front of the door of the palace stood a carriage drawn by a horses, with an approximately 20 guards riding on horses of their own.

Julia was stunned by the carriage, it was simply beautiful. The carriage had dark red color with several intricate golden patterns, on the door was proudly depicted royal crest made of the gold.

“Just how long are you planning to stand in the cold for?”

Julia was pulled out of her awe by Loriam who was already sitting in the carriage while Liora was getting ready to set off. Julia glanced at Mirei who was still by Julia’s side, Mirei only smiled lightly at Julia and waited for her. Julia sighed and walked towards the carriage, it was after all better than standing outside in cold.

Julia got on to carriage with an Mirei’s help and sat herself on the soft seat opposite from Loriam. Once Mirei closed doors behind Julia, Loriam putted little bit of her mana in to a red stone placed in a bronze cage. Immediately a red magic circle appeared on the stone and started to emit pleasant warmth.

Seriously magic is so convenient. Lamented Julia as she looked at the glowing magic circle. Not even a minute after the circle was activated, was inside of the carriage filled with a pleasant warmth thanks to which Julia almost forgot that she was freezing just a moment earlier. Her face briming with curiosity and jealousy as she observed the circle. Noticing this Loriam started to smile at Julia who looked just like a curious little girl.

As Julia noticed Loriam’s look, she realized what expression she was making and with slightly reddened cheeks looked from the window embarrassedly. Outside was dark only source of light Julia could see was a torch in hands of one patrolling guard. Even though she could barely see anything, Julia was determined to admire architecture of the vampiric capital. After all, this was the first time that Julia left the premise of the palace.

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Once they passed through the checkpoint at the city gate and went out of the city Julia started to be drowsy. There was nothing to do in the carriage and outside was too dark for her to see anything, the fact that she didn’t sleep much wasn’t helping either. And so, Julia became sleepy again as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

Loriam watched as her daughter yawned before closing her eyes and leaning against the wall. Not so long after that Julia started to snooze, undisturbed by the carriage’s bumping. Were you really this tired sweety? Loriam thought as she looked at Julia’s calm sleeping face. Well, the road is long so it’s okay to take a nap but… that looks uncomfortable.

As Loriam thought so, the carriage run in to a bump in the road which cause it to jump a little. Damm this old road! Loriam cursed as she heard Julia’s dissatisfied grumble but her face quickly relaxed back in to previous calm expression. Loriam left out a relieved sigh as her daughter continued napping undisrupted. The road is bumpy there is no way she would be able to nap like this… unless.

…

Yawn

Julia slowly opened her eyes, it appeared that the sun was up for some time now so she got to sleep for a few hours. But there was something amiss in the carriage. Huh? Where is Loriam? Julia wondered, the seat opposite to Julia’s was empty but the carriage was moving on so Loriam should not be away and yet…

Oh, yea this has to be a dream. Julia thought, there was no way that Loriam would disappear so suddenly. So, this situation had to be a dream brough by the soft pillow that Julia was laying on. Huh, pillow? Julia questioned herself. She was sure there were no pillows in the carriage and she didn’t take hers with her. As she wondered where did this pillow came from, someone stroked her hair gently.

Julia was surprised by the sudden sensation and slowly looked up. Above her she saw Loriam looking out the window as she absent mindedly stroked Julia’s hair. So, this is where you were, I started to get worried you know? Why are you even… !? Julia realized something suddenly, the ‘pillow’ that she was laying on was in fact Loriams lap.

Why the hell is she giving me a lap pillow?! Julia panicked slightly with embarrassment while Loriam continued to stroke her hair. Loriam noticed the sudden movement from Julia and turned to face her.

“Good morning sweety, did you sleep well?”

Loriam gave Julia a gentle smile, without stopping stroking Julia’s hair. Julia was embarrassedly looking back at Loriam’s smiling face, before nodding to her question.

“Is that so? I am glad. But if you still tired you can sleep some more, you know? There is still plenty of time before we arrive.”

“I am not tired now so…”

Julia started to get up from Loriam’s lap, Loriam looked disappointed but Julia ignored her and leaned against the wall as she looked from the window. It looked like they were passing through some small poor village, Julia noticed how rugged were clothes that the villagers wore. Some of the villagers looked at the carriage with curiosity before hurriedly returning to whatever they were doing before, Julia wondered why they reacted like that.

The answer presented itself quickly, Julia saw a woman in black armor riding on the horse close to the carriage looking hostility at the villagers. Well that explains it. Julia couldn’t really blame the guards, after all they were guarding their queen. But she still felt bad for the villagers.

Her feeling of pity only grows stronger once Julia saw group of villagers working on the field, in particular her eyes felt on 2 little kids that were carrying heavy looking wood buckets. Julia’s heart ached as she looked at them.

“Ouch.”

“Are you okay?”

All of sudden carriage abruptly stopped which cause Julia to hit her head at the wall. Loriam regardless of the fact that she ended hitting her own head on the floor, she looked at Julia with worried expression. Before standing up and closely inspecting Julia’s face.

“I am fine. And you are too close.”

“Ah, sorry I was just worried.”

Seeing Julia’s discomfort Loriam retreated back to her seat without taking her eyes off Julia. Julia herself didn’t pay much attention to Loriam as commotion outside caught her attention. Julia couldn’t see what was happening from the window, only thing she know was that they have stopped at the edge of the village and that the guards were for some reason gathering in front of the carriage.

“What the fuck are you doing!? Get up now! or I swear to gods.”

One of the women, who most likely was an comander yelled from her horse. Not even five seconds later was a painful yelp followed with a sound of thud heard from the front of the carriage.

“Stop pretending! As you wish, if you refuse to move than maybe this will beat some sense in your head!”

The commander yelled again her voice filled with hostility as she got down from her horse and raised a sword sheath in her hand.

“What is going on?”

“Your highness!?”

Commander’s hand frozen in midair as she heard Julia’s voice from behind her. The commander and the others guards put their clenched fists at their heart as they made path for Julia to be able to approach the commander.

When Julia approached to see what was all of this commotion about, she was meet by a sight of multiple guards surrounding young dark-skinned girl lying on the road. Julia couldn't help but notice the lingering sweet smell of blood lingering from her injured leg. The girl was dressed in clothes that would be better descripted as rags. Her black hair ended slightly under her chin but what caught Julia’s attention was pair of black wolf ears peaking from her hair.

A dark wolf? Why is she here? Julia wondered as she realized what race the girl belonged to. Dark wolfs were a sub-group of Beastmen known for their ferocity and honor as well as pride. Unfortunately, their homeland was conquered by succubae and vampires twenty years ago. Because of that, this would be a first time when Julia saw one in person.

As Julia got closer the girl looked towards Julia in fear, thanks to which Julia got better idea of this girl’s circumstances. On her neck was thick metal collar with a lock hanging on it. Base on her appearance and the bucked of spiled water on ground near the horses it was apparent that she was slave.

Julia wasn’t really surprised by it, she already knew that vampires practiced slavery but she never expected to see one. What did this girl did to God to deserve this? Just quick glance at the guards and those few villagers close enough to see, told her more than she would like to know. All of the vampires were looking at the girl as if she was garbage, Julia was most likely only one with any empathy for her.

Julia approached frightened girl and kneeled next to her, by the look of it she couldn’t stand up thanks to which the guards were irritated. The girl closed her eyes in fear preparing herself to be smacked.

“Your highness!? I don’t think that’s neces-”

“Be quiet.”

But instead, she felt someone light touch on her leg. When she opened her eyes, she saw Julia inspecting her injury with a worried expression on her face. The girl was shocked by this just like everyone present but Julia ignored them.

Doesn’t look too bad but she will have hart time walking like this… maybe I could use it? Julia thought for a bit and moved her hand above girl’s ankle. A light red light appeared and started to envelop girl’s ankle. The girl was surprised when she felt her ankle healing and looked at Julia’s face. Even thought Julia was smiling the girl could thanks to her keen senses tell that something was bothering her.

Just as expected its hard. Julia decided to try heal girl’s ankle with a healing spell she learned some time ago from Olia. Since vampires are naturally more versed in magic, she has easier time using it that when she was a human. However, she also felt like her body was protesting use of originally elven magic. But that didn’t stop Julia from healing the girl.

“This should do, try standing up.”

Julia gave the girl reassuring smile and helped her back on her feet as the guards around them looked like they wanted to say something.

“T-Thank you…. Mis-”

The girl took few light steps and after confirming that her ankle wasn’t injured anymore, she timidly thanked Julia, but the sound of approaching footsteps interrupted her.

“I leave you out of my sight for few minutes and you already causing troubles!?”

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