The Vampire Empress.

After our meal, the two of us wandered around a little bit since there was still plenty of time before the second bell. We walked through the roads after purchasing dresses for Ayaka to wear. People around us gazed at us with a bit of oddness. It could be mostly attributed to the fact that the two of us don’t really look like commoners at all.

The dress I wore was pretty luxurious by itself since it was gifted by that puny ruler who is probably relaxing with some concubines of his. Even though I hate that brat, the dress he gifted is pretty nice which is why I couldn’t complain at all.

“Mama, look!” Ayaka pointed at a tiny stall that seemed to be selling some jewelry, her eyes sparkled as she looked at the stall which surprised me a bit since Ayaka is not an ordinary girl which means there must be something on the stall.

Walking over towards the stall, the sight of an elderly man selling some dusty and ugly jewelry came to sight. They were jewelry that was pretty old-looking and worn-out which confused me as to why my little cutie was interested in this stall.

“Young lady, welcome! How may this elderly help you?” the elderly man who suspiciously spoke in fluent formal language asked while staring at Ayaka.

“Mama, that!” Ayaka pointed at a very worn-out bracelet that looked super dusty, “It feels warm!”

Warm?! If Ayaka who is super sensitive to mana feels the warmth from a worn-out bracelet means that bracelet is not ordinary at all… I would think of it as her just seeing something nice if she never said ‘warm’ which was her way of telling me that there’s mana.

Taking the bracelet she pointed, I looked at the elderly man who showed a suspicious grin as I asked, “How much is this bracelet?”

“It’s only one silver coin, lady,” he replied, “Your daughter is quite impressive, she can tell that bracelet is indeed not ordinary. Do you want me to explain that bracelet to you?”

“I’d rather ask who you are, first. You don’t feel like a human,” I threw a glare straight at him, pressuring him as he showed a smirk.

“You don’t have to know, young vampire. All you have to know is that I am your ally,” he smirked which surprised me greatly as he was able to sense my vampiric aura which is the only thing that we vampires aren’t able to hide.

Feeling an ominous feeling, I materialized my scythe with my free hand and tried swinging it straight towards him as a loud clang echoed throughout the town. The force from the collision surprised me as I backed off a bit, causing a loud crowd to surround us.

The dust cloud dissipated, revealing a black-haired man with golden eyes. The man looked to be around his twenties as he held a single black sword with an ominous aura. Everyone can tell with a single glance that the sword was abnormal.

“You don’t have to be wary of me, young Duchess,” he showed a bitter smile, “Attacking me out of the blue like that indeed surprised me.”

“Mama… I feel scared,” Ayaka suddenly started trembling on my embrace as the man showed a bright smile on his face.

I could feel her heart beating even though her chest isn’t touching me… it was like the two of us were connected somehow as I focused my attention on the man who looked at his sword, inspecting for damages like I wasn’t here.

“You really didn’t have to damage my sword that much…” he looked at me with a childish gaze, “Well, to think that the Kingdom has managed to summon a jackpot by using a forbidden spell that would cause all the summoning spell to be forgotten forever.”

Amidst his talks, the sound of guards rushing towards our direction entered my ears as he looked at the direction of the sound with a wry smile. I felt like an ominous feeling as I tried to take a step forward only for Ayaka to stop me as she screamed, “Mama, don’t!”

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“What do you mean, Ayaka?!” I looked at the girl who looked afraid of the man.

“You can’t kill him, Mama!” she replied.

“It seems like your daughter can tell our power differences. Well, little Duchess… I am quite interested in you, so this won’t be our last meeting.” he winked almost as if showing a feminine action before looking at the skies as the running of the guards came closer, “It’s time for me to go, see you later… beautiful Duchess.”

After he spoke, his body suddenly turned translucent with a slight flash of a beautiful black-haired lady appearing on where he was standing as a sudden shockwave exploded in a short radius from here which caused some glasses of the buildings to explode as I gritted my teeth… if Ayaka said that I can’t beat him(?) then that must be true.

“MOVE! WHO DARES TO MAKE TROUBLE IN THE TOWN?!”

A voice echoed from the distance as I looked towards the direction with a bitter smile before a heavily armored knight carrying a giant sword together with several average-sized knights came to view, surrounding us as I dematerialized my scythe.

“RAISE YOUR HANDS UP IN THE AIR!”

Feeling a bit annoyed, I decided to take out the beautiful tiny crown emblem and pointed it to the armored knight who looked a bit shocked as his face paled, “Do you want to apprehend me even though you already know my identity?”

“N-no! We won’t do such thing, Your Majesty!” the knight immediately dropped his sword which surprised the other knights.

“Captain! We should apprehend the culprit!” one of the knights asked before the knight turned around and punched him straight in the face, smashing him to the floor.

“ARE YOU AN IDIOT?! THAT’S HER MAJESTY, YOU HAVEN’T HEARD ABOUT THE NEWS THAT WAS SENT TO ALL TOWNS?!” the large knight shouted which made my eyes widened.

That brat…?! DID THAT BRAT LITERALLY ANNOUNCE THAT WITHOUT ASKING ME?! WHAT THE ACTUAL F#@#?! WAIT, YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS RIGHT?!

“I apologize for my subordinate’s mistake, Your Majesty!” the large knight immediately kneeled as he looked at the other knights and screamed, “WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS WAITING FOR? DO YOU WANT TO BE EXECUTED FOR TREASON?! KNEEL!”

Almost immediately, the other knights paled as they kneeled which gave me quite the headache. It would have been fine if it was only announced towards some guilds since I could simply tell them to fix the misunderstanding but to think that F#@#ING IDIOT announced it even though it isn’t real…

“All of you stand up! I don’t want to make a mess over something I indeed did… take this gold coin and use it to fix the windows of the stores that were affected. Tell your knights to search for a man with black hair and golden eyes, don’t engage in battle since he is super strong,” I said before taking out three gold coins and throwing them as the large knight caught it with supersonic reactions, saluting.

After handling the situation, I turned around and started walking towards the direction where we came from… I could hear the gossips of the people around us as they looked at me with curiosity, some gossips were malicious talking about ‘how the Queen is rude‘ while there were some who saw the entire situation, gossiping ‘the Queen is quite strong’.

The remaining people gossiped about my appearance and Ayaka which kind of irritated me as I walked out from the crowd and started running back to the parking spot where Felice was already waiting. The carriage was visibly full as the three people I hired were also waiting.

“Did you four wait long?” I asked before they shook their heads.

“Not at all, Your Majesty!” one of the twins whose name I already forgot replied, “We were chatting around with your knight over how the town looks like so we can start preparing our designs ahead of time.”

It seems like they are already acquainted with Felice which is good since it’s one thing that is out of my list. I need them to be acquainted with the knights more since they will be wandering around the town a lot with the guards watching over them.

“Do you mind if I take over this, young miss?” the other twin who approached us, looked at Ayaka with a soft smile. Ayaka didn’t look as afraid as she was with the black-haired man, handing over the bag that held her clothes as the twins smiled.

“How about we start moving now since we need to be at the town in case any critical situation arises?” I looked at Felice who also nodded as she hopped on the driver’s seat together with the man as the two of them conversed with one another.

“Do you want to take the fastest route back, my lady?” Felice asked while we walked towards the carriage.

“You can take any route you like as long as it brings us home,” I answered before she nodded as the twins together with me and Ayaka entered inside the carriage while the man continued to converse with Felice.

After closing the doors of the carriage, we soon started moving as I listened in to their conversation which was mainly about their hobbies as swordsmen which surprised me as the man was actually a swordsman which also solidified my thought that the man was not some kind of commoner but a noble going incognito.

“Mama… sleepy,” Ayaka looked at me while reaching my hands as the twins looked at us with a smile.

“You can sleep on my shoulder or on my lap if you like, my little cutie,” I kissed her forehead before she nodded, sitting on my lap as she wrapped her hand on my neck, resting her head on my shoulder as I patted her back.

The twins looked at me with warm gazes as one of them asked, “Forgive me for being a bit impolite but is she your actual daughter, Your Majesty?”

“What makes you think that?” I asked.

“Well… the girl looks quite like you especially when her gaze, smile, and aura,” she replied.

“This girl isn’t my actual daughter though; she is simply someone I found on my first day on assignment and also stop calling me ‘Your Majesty’… I am not someone of royalty,” I showed a bitter smile.

“But aren’t you the Queen of the kingdom?” the other twin asked.

I shook my head almost immediately, “I am not the Queen, it’s just something that brat announced while I was busy on work… what kind of crackling would make someone like me a Queen unless that crackling wants an entire annihilation of the kingdom.”

“Hahaha…” the twins showed a bitter laugh as one of them responded, “You sound like you wouldn’t mind being a Queen if you were given the opportunity, Your Majes—my lady.”

“If I was given the opportunity, I would immediately kill the person giving me that opportunity. Being a Queen has too many responsibilities and not to mention, I am someone from another world which means people won’t easily recognize me as someone they will obey to anyway,” I replied before their bitter smiles grew, “Anyway, if anyone calls me that title again, please correct them.”

“I don’t want to be a Queen of some sort. I just want to simply live my life on a soft bed, rolling around before falling asleep,” I smiled while looking at Ayaka which kind of reminded me how I am suddenly talking kindly with them.

It’s odd since I was clearly annoyed a few moments ago but having a soft conversation with the twins while Ayaka’s breathing entered my ears somehow soothes me… I wonder if this is what it feels like to have people you can open up to… it doesn’t feel bad though.