The Vampire Empress.

After some time of waiting and scrolling through dozens of documents, the door opened, revealing the Demon Queen with her black hair tied in a ponytail, dressed in an apron as her two hands held onto a metal baking sheet which confused me a bit.

“Weren’t you going to make some meat dish?” I tilted my head.

She smirked before replying, “When did I say I was going to make a meaty dish—this one is called mango pie and it’s my specialty!”

Amidst her explanation, the little girl who was sleeping peacefully on the sofa suddenly started sniffing around before hopping off from the sofa as she looked at the mango pie that was somehow fitted inside a baking sheet for no reason.

“Mama, it smells weird!” the little girl complained.

My eyes immediately gazed onto the Demon Queen who started whistling around suspiciously as Ayaka quickly ran up to me, hopping on my lap as my hands immediately started to unconsciously pat her around.

“Tell me, did you place anything weird on the pie?” I asked before she looked away, “So, you did… What did you place on the pie?”

“I didn’t put anything at all… well…” she started to hesitate which made her a thousand times more suspicious before she averted her gaze, “The mango comes from the Forest of Alcanes which means… it could be one of those weird mangoes….. BUUTTT, HEY! I looked properly and it should be a normal mango, everyone told me as well!”

Her eyes looked into mine with seriousness that screamed innocence, to be fair, I know nothing of this forest she is talking about and the mangoes it has. At most, I can only think of a mango that tastes sour as ‘weird’ for them but then again, this is another world… who knows what kind of stupid mangoes they have.

“Fine, I will give it a try but only after you try it,” I said before her lips curled.

“Mama,” Ayaka grabbed onto my dress, looking at me in the eye with her adorable innocent eyes, “I want to taste as well!”

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Heaving a sigh, I took all the documents on my desk and stashed them inside a drawer before resting my head on the little girl's adorable head while looking at the Demon Queen with a smile, “I trust that you didn’t intentionally place anything bad on the pie, you can place it there and we'll have a bite at the same time.”

Her eyes sparkled for a second, showing genuine happiness as she placed the baking sheet onto the table before flicking her finger as a dark-purple cutting knife that looked a bit like a stainless knife but a bit sharper. It made me wonder a bit whether the blacksmiths who are in charge of kitchenware make tools sharper out of instincts.

Slowly, she sliced the square pie into… you know, squares which revealed its delicious-looking yellow filling. The crust of the pie looked flaky which added to its delicious appearance, a sweet smell flourished throughout the room. A drool unknowingly escaped from my mouth as we stared at the pie which looked incredibly tasty.

“Ayaka, can you get some plates from the kitchen?” I looked at my adorable little daughter who snapped back from her hunger and nodded as she adorably hopped off from my lap and ran to the kitchen before coming back a few moments later with three wooden plates.

She also brought along with her some spoon and forks while running towards me and hopping back to my lap like a rabbit as she happily placed the plates onto the table with those adorable sparkling eyes of hers that screamed of pureness.

“Which one do you want?” the Demon Queen looked at Ayaka while asking as the little girl frowned a bit before pointing at the piece that was near the edge where there was more crust. The Demon Queen—Helesta immediately nodded as she grabbed the piece with her knife and placed it on Ayaka's plate before looking at me.

I looked at the pie for a bit. It looked more like a cake, to be honest, but with the appearance of a pie. It was rectangular unlike most pies which usually are round, “I'll let you pick mine.”

“Then I'll give you the best piece,” she smirked before taking the slice that was next to where Ayaka's was and placing it on my plate as she took hers as well and placed it on her plate.

Ayaka was holding onto the table hard which indicated she really wanted to eat now but because she was a good girl, she also must have wanted to eat the same time as us which made me giggle a bit as my hand continued to pat her soft hair, “Let’s eat now, shall we?”

The two of them nodded happily before we took up our spoons and sliced a tiny piece of our piece. I took a short five-second glance at the pie before biting into it as an incredibly sweet taste blasted throughout my taste bud. The taste of mangoes covered my mouth, it was incredibly delicious to the extent that tears fell from my eyes.

All of a sudden, my entire body felt a bit hot which made my eyes widened as I looked at Ayaka who seemed to be acting normal as usual as she continued to rampage on the piece of pie that she ate, “Mama, it’s delicious right?”

My eyes looked at the little girl with a warm smile, patting her as I nodded: “It really is delicious, I'll give you that…” before a smile appeared on the Demon Queen's face which looked incredibly pretty.

Amidst my gaze on her, my body suddenly became, even more, hotter… it was like the entire sun was shining on me which made my eyes widened. I couldn’t help but wonder if what I ate was poison… but Ayaka didn’t look to be affected… am I allergic to mangoes?

“What's wrong, Mama?” Ayaka looked at me worried, as expected of my little girl, she can even tell when I am feeling unwell…

“It’s nothing, you can continue eating. I will head up to my room for a bit, don't run around too much, okay?” I answered while biting my lips a bit as she tilted her head but nodded anyway before I took her away from me, standing up as I walked my way up to my room.

Everything was spinning around, it looked like my sight was turning blurry before all of a sudden, everything turned dark as Ayaka's loud scream echoed into my ears, “MAMA!”