No matter how dark the night was, the sun eventually rises. A new day has dawned in the Capital. Today was a day of excitement for the young girls of the town. The reason for the excitement is probably those who witnessed the majestic figure of Her Royal Highness and thumped their hearts awakened by strange attributes. It abandoned their original hobby of choosing a spouse. They began to choose to be on the side of the Empress.
Unknowingly, the name of the Empress widely circulated among those noble girls in the Capital.
What about the gallant beauty.
Naiya’s charm is worthy of both genders!
In this era, where there was no strife and no war, the hearts of pure-hearted girls have unknowingly been conquered by the Royal Highness. She has been given the name of the hero and has the stature of a Valkyrie.
As for the reason of the excitement of the young boys… it’s because of the long years without war continent peace, the teenagers branch out into two factions. One was led by Meyer, the pursuit of combat and adventure as a way to prove their martial arts faction. The other was squatting at home to eat food and drink and wait for the death of the stay at home faction.
The profession of otaku will be there no matter in which world.
Today was the latter-day of excitement because it has disappeared for an unknown number of months. The idol of most of the world’s teenagers, the first singer-songwriter Starla Vernet, today announced the news of her comeback.
So, this group of otaku members was boiling!
They put on clothes with strange words and held strange words banners like a pilgrimage ignored the threat of the guards. They’re roaring towards the entrance of the Vernet family.
At this time, the Vernet family gate was crowded with people. This group of strange guys shouting strange slogans. It was simply more fervent than when they were praying to the Dragon Lord they believed in.
“Long live Lord Starla! Hail Lord Starla! Hurray!”
The roar shook the sky.
This was probably the number one songstress Starla Vernet’s terrifying charm.
………….
However, at this time, in a loft within the Vernet family residence.
Naiya leaned against the window and looked far below the sound of people. She didn’t know what kind of expression to show.
“Starla, you’re really something. Are they all here for you?”
Naiya admitted that she had seen many, many big scenes, but this was the first time she had seen such a strange big scene.
“Of course, they are all loyal viewers of Starla.”
“Eh… Is that so? They all like you a lot.” Naiya turned around and looked at the one standing with her legs in front of her.
Starla was swaying her knee-long skirt and enjoying the joy of being able to stand again. The skirt was too short. It seemed like there was always the danger of seeing the wisp of the blue-white panties inside. But she didn’t seem to care much about it. She was already immersed in the feeling of being able to stand up again.
“Do you like it? I guess so. But don’t you still have many admirers too, Sister?”
Now Naiya’s reputation in the Capital rose up. She almost matched the level of Starla’s popularity overnight. Within the Capital folk, her supporters to become the Empress was countless.
Her personality charm is one of the most important things to become an Empress.
“Don’t use that strange name, trust me!” Naiya shook her head with a blush on her face, expressing her denial of the strange name imposed on her by others.
“Eh? Are you blushing?”
“No, I’m not.”
After a few sessions of Lucius’s training, Naiya had been able to hide her inner emotions. Just in a blink of an eye, her expression changed back to normal and began to change the subject. “Starla, I heard that your leg injury has been healed, so I came to visit you. Because I didn’t bring any gifts, if there is anything you want? I will buy it for you.”
Naiya subconsciously treated Starla as the kind of child who is still in the midst of rejoicing after receiving a gift. It is because of Starla’s appearance, though.
“Thank you, Sister. It just so happens that there is something that Starla wants very much.”
The pupils hidden by Starla’s long silver-grey hair flashed a hint of emotion that she didn’t notice. The emotion was called sarcasm, but she was still smiling innocently.
“What is it?”
After pondering for a moment, Starla asked her back, “Well, before that can I ask you a question?”
“Go ahead.”
Naiya did not have much time to stay here. First of all, not to mention, the identity of the Royal Empress brought her to glory and trouble at the same time. For example, inside, the people were shouting strange slogans at the entrance of the Vernet family. There were more than just ‘Starla Banzai’ ‘Long live Starla’ and the like. Naiya heard a few lines of her own name and wondered who was calling it.
“Naiya, what do you think of that butler by your side?”
Starla’s smile was as usual. But somehow, at this moment, it gave Naiya a small devil-like feeling.
“The butler?”
The figure of Lucius, who was sitting in the carriage below and waiting for her to return, appeared in Naiya’s mind.
‘What do I think about him?’
“No… Nothing! He’s just a butler! There’s nothing at all!” Naiya’s inner mood swings began to rise and fall sharply when others inquired about Lucius.
In front of Starla, who was already a hundred years old and a legitimate young girl, Naiya was still too young. And Starla sensed her difference, “Is that so? So that means the butler doesn’t matter to you?”
“Yes! It’s doesn’t matter, but I don’t know where to hire a ser.. butler!”
Naiya couldn’t say the word servant because, in the class of the vampire race, it would be a treacherous act for her to say that word.
“Ah, then I’m relieved… Then I want that butler, Sister. He is just some random butler from nowhere, anyway. You are the Royal Highness. You should be able to find another more excellent. So it doesn’t matter if you give him to me, right?”
“NO!!!”
Almost the next second after Starla’s words fell, Naiya shouted out loudly. Starla was also taken aback by her reaction.
“Why? He’s obviously a very incompetent butler.” Starla was a bit distressed.
“Because… Because…”
Naiya couldn’t find any excuse for a moment. Indeed, Lucius, as a butler, was very incompetent. Every day he likes to tease his master. He can’t even clean the room. Cooking? He only can taste the pasta.
As a butler, he was utterly unqualified.
But Lucius is the master, and Naiya is a servant.
She hadn’t forgotten this fact!
“Then why do you want him?”
She snapped to a good excuse and asked Starla rhetorically, changing his topic once again.
“Why do I want him?”
Starla, with a finger against her chin, appeared with a cunning look in her eyes. With an expectant tone of voice, she softly said, from the bottom of the heart, “Because I have fallen in love with that butler!”
“Eh?“
Naiya looked at Starla’s expression, and listening to her confession, her head went blank for a while!
“Like the real meaning of love. We can be together! Become a lover! Finally, we will walk hand in hand together to the wedding hall! The kind of relationship where Starla will give birth to his baby!”
The young girl with a lot of experience in life said these words with no disguise. They sounded so impactful in her ears.
‘Walk up the wedding hall… Have a baby…’
“How can I! No way!”
Naiya shouted out again. She was late to realize that she had lost her temper!
“Didn’t you say that you don’t like that butler?”
“No means no!!! He…” Naiya thought after biting her lip. “He’s dangerous!”
“But that butler looks so gentle.”
“That’s just an illusion! He’s really dangerous, so dangerous that you have no way to imagine!”
‘I can’t let this ignorant child fall into the hands of Lucius, that’s the only reason that matters’
“Then… Since you know, he is so dangerous, why don’t you leave him?” Starla asked. Her voice was no longer with a hint of teasing. It was serious. She let Naiya feel that the person in front of her was not that innocent young girl.
‘Why… am I not leaving him?’
“He’s obviously dangerous and made people tremble all over. Why don’t you run away?”
“Because…” Naiya went silent for a moment.
‘How to answer it? Is it because I’m afraid of him? If so, I should run away, but…’
“….In this world, I don’t have any place to go.”
‘Except for following Lucius,’ she added in her mind.
From the moment she became Lucius’s servant… at the time Lucius said, ‘welcome your new life… Naiya no longer belonged to this world again.
“Is that so?”
Starla lowered her head. Now her hand was behind her back. That time, Naiya didn’t notice the dark grey energy faintly coalesced Starla’s hand.
Starla didn’t forget her duty. Her real identity is the creator of “The Mourner”. Although the Emperor offered a price ten times higher than the hired man to take the hired man’s head in turn, Starla wouldn’t do it. Because… the man who commissioned to kill the Empress was Lucius.
That demon and the payment that Lucius gave to her, even if the Emperor offered a hundred times the price, it could not buy her!
What Lucius gave to Starla can’t be purchased with money. It has even exceeded human perception.
Lucius was an existence beyond human perception!
“Actually… There is another place you can go…”
“What place?” Naiya wasn’t wary of the childish young girl in front of her.
Starla’s cold face was about to say the word ‘death’ and crush the soul of this Royal Highness when the door was suddenly opened at the wrong time!
The person who walked in overwhelmed the power gathered by the saint, “Your Royal Highness, there seems to be some trouble on the outskirts of the Vernet family.”
Lucius courteously stood in the doorway. The scarlet silk thread attached to his hand instantly snapped, “I think you should go and take a look at that trouble. It seems to be directed at you, Your Royal Highness.”
“Me?”
Naiya saw Lucius rashly barged. At first, she was stunned, then immediately reacted. She listened sideways. The crowd below also seemed to appear commotion.
“I’ll go check it out then”.
Staying with Starla, for the first time, made her feel a little uneasy.
Naiya really didn’t know how to answer Starla’s childish questions. So, she said goodbye to the young girl and ran down the stairs quickly. She didn’t forget to take Lucius’s hand and run down together.
If she left Lucius here, it could be dangerous!
…………
Starla’s smiling face turned cold after seeing the closed door.
“Didn’t you want me to kill her, Mr. Devil? And now why are you backtracking?” Starla questioned into the empty air.
A dark red hue floated through the air.
‘Kill? Of course, you’re going to kill her. Now is just not the right time.’
“Then when exactly is the right time? The day she ascends to the throne as the Empress?”
‘The moment you are at your most beautiful, the moment she was immersed in your beauty.’
“She? It won’t be.”
Starla had been unable to understand what Lucius was trying to do, but her hand gripped the hem of her skirt. She took a deep breath and spoke faintly. “If I’m not mistaken, that child has feelings for you, not only awe but also fondness. This matters, do you know it?”
‘Of course, I know….’
“Then what do you want to do? Playing with hearts is a game that the devil does well, isn’t it? But the only thing I can’t accept is this! I can help you kill that foolish girl, but please stop playing with her feelings!”
‘Foolish girl?’
The low voice in the air was tinged with ridicule.
‘Are you mistaken about something? The Royal Daughter, Her Royal Highness Naiya Dodran, from the beginning, knows everything… What I’m going to do, what my purpose is, and who I am! She even knows more than you do! Compared to her, you are the foolish girl, Miss Vernet.’
Starla froze.
‘Knows more than me? Naiya knew Lucius’s identity? How could she still defend him like that?’
Suddenly, the information in her brain in a flurry linked together smoothly into a line. It was starting from the appearance of her in Buried Gold City then everything.
Astonishment appeared in her eyes.
‘The rise of Her Royal Highness.’
An obscure little girl grew to such heights. Behind all events, there seems to be a pitch-black man in the shadow.
“Your purpose is it possibly…” Starla said it with some disbelief. This was beyond what she can accept.
‘The killing, the human experimentation, the underground trading… His real purpose… What this man really wants to do is… Those crazy things…’
Lucius’s voice echoed in her head as if it mocked her, ‘Hush, you guessed right. That Empress and you are the same. You’re my puppet. She is very loyal. Keep this feeling called loyalty in your mouth!’
Starla choked a little. She is the existence of the darkness, but now unknowingly found that there was a suffocating shadow that has surrounded her!
Even the entire Capital, the entire world!
‘When was it exactly? I should have known that! The real purpose of this guy, the Empress, and the real truth of the series of events.’
Since Starla had been on his side, he had been an ally. No matter how dirty his sins were, she couldn’t wash away his sins… and there was no place for her to escape. This man has all the elements tightly in his hands. It just needed a perfect time, hell will descend.
‘And what about the Empress? Is she also the same demon as this guy?’
Starla has a good eye for people. She was able to see that Naiya is someone who possesses a good heart.
In this way, the end of Naiya…
‘And you’re mistaken about one thing…’
That voice once again echoed as if it was whispering in her ear. Deep into Starla’s bone marrow and makes her whole body tingle.
‘Emotions are for fun.’
How did I forget that this guy is a demon!
Starla fell to her knees. Even as a saint, she began to feel fear for the darkness that would follow.
………….
[Blood Clone skill.]
Lucius was using it more and more skillfully.
Since he advanced to the True Vampire rank, his ability to manipulate blood was so powerful that it was simply unimaginable. It’s almost like alchemy. He can give each drop of blood different special details, such as strong, soft, piercing, tearing, erosion, deep soul poison.
The original sticky blood should not have the characteristics, but Lucius was able to modify it.
For example, he used blood to create walls that were harder than steel and a long sword made of blood that can tear through all objects.
It can be said that blood in the hands of Lucius has transcended the realm of liquid.
In addition to the not yet mature vector manipulation and Yamato Blade, the Blood Control skill was the only way Lucius fights. It was also Lucius’s strongest way of fighting.
The Blood Clone skill has currently enabled Lucius to split two things with about fifty percent of his own power.
The clone can also vaporize and liquify and other things.
As for… why do I have to introduce Lucius’s ability in such detail now?
Because the battle… is about to begin!
…………
“What’s that?”
After Naiya ran outside, she let go of Lucius’s hand and looked with some gravity at the black shadow outside the Vernet family. It’s stirring up a large area of dust with a thunder-like might that knocks away those guards. That shadow’s rushing towards the Vernet family gate with great force.
“Humans.” Lucius replied to Naiya.
“Humans who act on their own desires,” Lucius added.
