When Maria exited the room, her relaxed shoulders suddenly tightened up for a moment before relaxing again.
Her body was numb and she nearly crumpled to the floor but obstinately stood her ground despite having cold sweat pouring down her back.
“D-Dammit...that stupid Ash, I’ll never listen to what that idiot ever says again. Intimidate her, act callous and nonchalant―what a load of bullshit!”
Maria shook a little from her earlier act of dominance. She had thrown out a lot of rude words at Duchess Bathory and even said some really over-the-top things earlier. At first, Maria planned to approach the duchess amiably but Ash persuaded her against it.
“The Duchess isn’t one to take any favors just because you act kindly. Remember, she is called the Duchess of Blood for a reason. She’ll only look down on your amiability.”
“...So what do you say we should do then?”
“Act imperious and commanding! Show her that you aren’t a lamb that she can take advantage of.”
“...”
Maria gnashed her teeth a little in anger at Ash after remembering their conversation that they had earlier today. She spent most of the day trying to act tough and imperious to impress the duchess but when it actually came down to it, Maria was extremely intimidated herself by Duchess Bathory’s presence...and immense height.
If it wasn’t for Ash constantly nudging her back and keeping her calm, Maria would have collapsed earlier and the facade she put up would have been for naught. Thankfully, the duchess wanted to discuss something with Ash privately so she was able to leave the room quickly before she couldn’t take the pressure anymore.
Her level was low compared to the duchess. Duchess Bathory had a level of at least 100 or more because when Maria tried checking her status screen, all she found were a bunch of solid blocks that hid the duchess’ stats and level.
The pressure she was radiating also was a clear indicator that Carmilla Bathory was much stronger than her. Maria had to toughen her mind and push through all of the malice and fear she was feeling from the duchess but thankfully, she pulled through in the end.
Her acting looked convincing enough that by the end, the duchess had an impressed and amused look in her eyes.
“Well, mission accomplished, I guess. Now it’s up to Ash. If that fool screws things up, I’ll make sure to lock him in a room full of garlic!”
Maria floated away from the room and traced her footsteps back to where she came from. Well, at least she tried to. When Maria saw the winding corridors of the large castle, her head began spinning.
“C-Crap… everywhere looks the same. Maybe I should head back,” Maria said as she turned around and walked back the way she came.
“This is odd...I was walking for only a little while...how come I can’t find the room?”
Maria looked left and right, back and forth before picking a direction and saying, “It’s this way...right?”
While Maria was busy getting lost, back inside the room, Ash and Carmilla were left alone. Ash was still standing with his gaze locked in front of him, not bothering to take a single glance at Carmilla who was on her chair, tapping away at the armrest.
The tapping began to speed up until finally, Carmilla smashed the armrest with her fist.
“Are you just going to stand there and not say anything?!”
“...”
Carmilla scoffed and stood up. Her figure really was huge as she walked in front of Ash and blocked his view. Now, all Ash could see was Carmilla’s abundant bosom in his face. With his height, Ash was only able to reach up to Carmilla’s chest.
“Don’t you have anything to say to me? And what was that stupid letter you wrote to me?!”
“...I only came here to arrange a meeting between my Queen and you.”
“Hah!” Carmilla scoffed and crossed her arms. “You pledged loyalty and even a blood pact with that frail little girl. Where’s your dignity as a vampire―as the former Vampire Lord candidate?!”
“What dignity? Did dignity save me from losing to Siegfried’s underhanded schemes?”
“...”
“Listen here, Carmilla. The person I’ve chosen to serve...she’ll definitely be able to fulfill my desire and longing for revenge. We only came here because we seek to ally with you―no―to take control of you.”
Ash’s words were only met with Carmilla’s derision as she rebutted, “Take control? Of me? Rubbish!”
“Oh, we will. One day or another, my Queen will have you beneath her feet.”
“Hmph, I’d like to see that little lass try! I do find her interesting, maybe I’ll turn her into my servant girl?”
“You’ll be the one turning into her Majesty’s servant girl.”
“...Just what do you see in that child? She’s not even a vampire and yet she’s telling me that she wants to unite the Blood Continent? She’s claiming to do something that even our ancient ancestors weren’t able to do!”
“You always judge someone by their appearances and ability.”
“Naturally, what else could I use to gauge the worth of a person?”
“...I won’t argue with you anymore. I also won’t convince you. I’ll have my master convince you with her ax if the time comes for it.”
Carmilla’s eyelids twitched as she said with a growl, “You come to my land―my territory―and immediately threaten me. I don’t know what kind of trick your little Queen pulled off, but once I deal with it, I’ll immediately―”
“If you join us, I’ll take you as my bride.”
“...are you serious?”
“That’s what you want, right?”
“...”
“I’ll immediately grant your wish if you join us.”
Carmilla’s eyes flashed with a bit of delight before she frowned, “Then what of your Master? That little girl seems to like you...and what of your wife? You do know that she’s alive...right?”
“My wife...she died with me all those years ago. I have no spouse. As for my Master, she likes me only because of my ability to get things done. She’s the type to turn an enemy into an ally as long as she finds them useful and amusing. From what I’ve seen, her Majesty will use any resources and means at her disposal to get things done for her.”
Carmilla thought for a moment while pacing around the room before she turned to Ash and said, “...If I were to wed you, then it has to be on my terms!”
“Fine, have it your way. As long as I can bring you to my Master’s side, I don’t care about the method.”
“...I’ll make you regret this decision for the rest of your life. Just like I’ll make you regret not choosing me the first time around.”
Carmilla’s eyes flashed red as she approached Ash. She leaned down while Ash tilted his head and showed her his neck.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“...”
The Duchess didn’t hesitate as she bit down and smiled while sucking a little bit of Ash’s blood. Once she was finished, Ash did the same to her in the next moment.
“There, the ritual is finished. You are now my bride and me, your groom.”
“Hmmm…”
Somewhere in the castle, Maria received a sudden notification from the system while she was wandering around trying to find the way to the auditorium where the ball was being held. Maria had given up on going back to the room where Ash and Carmilla were since after retracing her footsteps, she still had gotten lost.
*DING*
Your Champion: Ash, has formed a blood relation with the Vampire: Carmilla Bathory.
*DING*
Quest Update! Objective: Persuade Carmilla Bathory, the Duchess of Blood, to join your faction! (Complete)
“....Huh?”
*DING*
Quest Complete! Quest: The Duchess’s Invitation has been successfully cleared. Rewards will be distributed according to the degree of completion!
Processing...Complete. Completion rate: (150/100)%. You will receive 1.5x the normal rewards!
“...What the hell?”
Quest rewards: [Sanguine Sigil] x10, 1,000,000 Blood Coins, 100,000 Universal Gold, [Bloodthorn Whip] x1, and Level+6
Level up! You... Level up! You are... Level up! You are now level 75! +120 Free Stat Points!
Her level had risen by quite a lot after she made the journey from her territory to the Duchess’s territory. A lot of the monsters on the way had been personally dealt with by her and she had gained a lot of EXP, not to mention that back at home, her soldiers were actively clearing areas of monsters which in turn fed even more EXP into her character.
Maria’s leveling speed had finally reached the speed of the average player that was in the top 500 leaderboard rankings. Basically saying, with her handicap of needing an absurd number of EXP, she was now leveling up like a normal player that had a normal EXP requirement to raise their levels.
Maria swiped away the level-up screen and saw that the Bloodthorn Whip and the Pureblood Droplet were highlighted in yellow, meaning that it was a high-grade item. She didn’t know what Ash did to persuade the Duchess to so easily side with her, but that was fine since she only needed the vampire to get things done for her.
Of course, Maria didn’t know that Ash had used the reverse honey-trap to entice Carmilla Bathory to side with her. If she had, she probably wouldn’t be able to look at Ash the same anymore.
“Huhuhuhu, good work, Ash! I’ll reward him greatly when we return, hahaha!”
Maria let out an uproarious laugh that sounded a little evil but she quickly stopped and corrected herself.
“I-I mean...haha…”
All of her antics didn’t go unnoticed, however, because she was actually streaming. She had turned on the stream the moment the next in-game day had arrived and it was time for her to head to the Sanguine Castle to attend the duchess’ ball.
She just didn’t know that she would be called on so early so all of the edgy things she had said earlier to Carmilla were witnessed by all of her audience. Naturally, no one called her out for being corny since they were all amused by her acting skills.
The audience knew about Maria and Ash’s plans to ‘intimidate’ the Duchess but they didn’t think it would be so amusing to watch. They all thought that Maria would just go around swinging her ax and send the quest into its final stage that everyone was hoping for and that was a boss battle between Maria and the Duchess.
Contrary to everyone’s expectations, that didn’t happen. Instead, Maria only acted, got lost inside the castle, and suddenly finished the quest after leaving her subordinate behind to sort things out with the duchess.
...: Holy crap...is this a new way to finish quests? I was honestly thinking we’d see a boss battle today! ...: IKR, from the way Maria worded things out earlier. I thought she’d be hit on the back of the head by the duchess! ...: The one above me, no one hits our Maria! ...: I thought this was going to be a showdown… ...: It became a search for a way out now! ...: LOL ...: Haha!
The title of Maria’s stream was ‘The Blood Duchess’ Grand Ball’. Naturally, many thought that this was just Maria’s artistic way of putting ‘Beating up the Grand Duchess’, but it wasn’t like that at all. Instead, some people said the stream should be called ‘Getting Lost and Winning’.
The viewers were amused by Maria’s way of completing a quest but other, more serious players of UT that were watching her stream, were taking notes of the way she completed her quest.
She didn’t even need to pull out her weapon and somehow, just through dialogue, had been able to complete her quest and subdued the Duchess, turning her into one of her subordinates now.
Previously, players were only completing quests that had objectives like Maria’s quest through a repetitive sequence of steps. First, obtain the quest. Second, search for clues regarding the quest. Third, find the quest target. Lastly, beat the shit out of the quest target or fulfill the quest target’s demands and then beat the shit out of them.
Maria had been able to talk her way into finishing her quest and this was a new approach to the subjugation and target-type quests. They had previously seen it before already.
It was when Maria was battling Orh’bankhur and instead of killing him like any other player would have done, she had instead subdued the monster, brutally incapacitated it, and turned it into an ally. It was something very new to most players but Maria had been doing this for a while.
She had been constantly treating the NPCs and monsters in the game like she would a real-life person or creature. Since disciplining a pet or a child would make them obedient, Maria applied the same thing to her way of interacting with any hostile NPC.
Discipline them to ensure absolute obedience and then take them under her wing. She didn’t even need to be a [Monster Tamer] to subdue a monster and make it her subordinate.
Her playstyle was pioneering new forms of interaction between the players and the game world, however, she wasn’t the first to do this. There were many other players in the world that treated the game like the real world but they weren’t known like her because they didn’t stream like her.
They attributed a lot of Maria’s success in her current quest due to the game’s hyper-realistic feature. Unitale shouldn’t be treated like previous games where you, the player, go around and start hacking and slashing your way through quests and stages. Instead, NPC, monster, environment, and player interaction would also affect how the game can be played.
Of course, what people didn’t know was that there was a crucial chess piece to this time’s quest for Maria, and that was Ash Garm, her Vampire Duke subordinate. Maria was able to complete the quest so easily due to the history of her subordinate and her quest target.
No one knew of the history behind Ash and Carmilla and even Maria didn’t know of it. The quest [The Duchess’ Grand Ball] without Ash in the picture would have originally been [Blood Duchess, Carmilla Bathory], and in this questline, the player who accepted the quest would have to subdue Carmilla either through wealth or force.
Ash’s presence had allowed Maria to finish the quest so easily because Ash’s offer of becoming the Duchess’s spouse was like a cheat algorithm written by the game’s AI that made use of the two NPCs’ history together that would allow for quick and easy completion of the quest at the highest possible completion rate.
In their history, Carmilla Bathory had always eyed Ash Garm as her only potential groom candidate. Unfortunately, he was taken by another vampire but she was unreconciled and didn’t give up.
She waited and waited for Ash’s spouse to ‘tragically’ die so that she could take her place but Ash was very protective of his family so none of her methods, underhanded or not, could work.
Unfortunately―or rather, fortunately―for Carmilla, something happened that betrayed Ash’s expectations that caused him to be banished and sealed away on another planet. Carmilla had wanted to take revenge against Siegfried and the other traitors that betrayed her love’s expectations but she couldn’t do it by herself.
Carmilla lost all interest in everything when Ash had disappeared but upon hearing of his return after receiving the letter he wrote to her, Carmilla’s lost motivation was ignited again.
Thankfully, this time around, she was able to achieve her long-held desire to have Ash as her spouse, all thanks to his loyalty to his new Master. Since she would do absolutely anything to achieve her wish, Carmilla didn’t even hesitate at all as she ‘sold’ her loyalty to Maria.
Maria had been fortunate enough to be Ash’s Master and thus received Carmilla’s now undying loyalty. If Maria knew about the reason why Carmilla had been so easily subdued by Ash, she would have labeled Carmilla a stalker and Ash a hustler.
While her chat was rowdy with her antics, Maria was oblivious to the discussions about her in her stream’s chat because she had been so into the act earlier that she forgot she was even streaming and after getting lost, she had even less time to care about the stream even more since she was frantically trying to find her way.
“Well, since the quest is finished, my job here is done! Now...how do I get to the auditorium?”
Maria had noticed that the yellow names above the knight statues she saw along the way as she wandered the castle had all turned green after the notification she received earlier.
They had been fluctuating from yellow to orange and to almost turning red but it had suddenly all turned green. She didn’t know why her UI was acting up like this but she didn’t care since her quest was finally finished and she received her rewards already.
“Since Ash is finished, I’ll summon him and tell him to lead the way for me.”