Back in the room, Carmilla was getting it on with her new vampire groom and was about to move to the bed when suddenly, Ash disappeared from her embrace.

“Huh?!”

She had complete control of everything inside the Blood Castle so she was able to quickly find Ash’s presence. Carmilla used her [Farsight] skill and nearly went insane when she saw Ash appear next to Maria.

“ASSSSSSHHHH!!!”

She immediately burst into a cloud of bats and rushed to Ash’s location while screeching.

Ash was bewildered when he saw himself appear in a hallway but when he saw Maria next to him, he immediately understood why he was summoned.

“My Queen...are you lost?”

“Eh? Uhh...yeah...I’m lost so show me the way back to the auditorium. I’ve been wandering these halls for a while now and I can’t find my way back.”

“...I’ll be in real trouble later…but let’s go. Hopefully she doesn’t find us too―”

“AASSSSHHHHH!!!”

“...I knew she was possessive but to this degree?” Ash pinched the bridge of his nose and waited for a bit before he saw a dense cloud of bats rushing through the hallway making a mess of everything.

“Ash, what the hell is that?”

“...My newlywed bride…”

“Wha?”

Carmilla rematerialized in front of Ash and towered over him. She glared murderously at Maria before pulling Ash over to her.

“You disappeared! Was the previous promise a lie?!”

“...We already finished the ceremony, what’s there to lie about?”

“Then why did you disappear?!” Carmilla glowered.

Maria cleared her throat to get her attention and the duchess turned her glaring red, murderous eyes at the girl. Maria frowned when she felt her feathers stand on end but mustered up the will to answer Carmilla's question on behalf of her subordinate.

“I summoned him here.”

“You summoned him? I knew it! You’re trying to get your dirty claws onto what’s mine, aren’t you?!”

“Woah there crazy lady, back up! I can summon my subordinate whenever and wherever I want! And what do you mean by trying to get him? Let’s get things straight first, he belongs to me.”

“I’ll have your head on a pi―”

“Carmilla, stop it. Her Majesty only summoned me because she got lost.”

“Lost? Hah! I doubt that! She just wants to keep you at her side! Well, she can’t! Because you’re mine!”

Maria frowned and rebutted, “Listen here lady, I may have been scared of you before but just because you’re huge doesn’t mean you can walk all over me. If I have to, I’ll cut you down to size with Calamity! Even if it kills me!”

Maria was about to pull out Calamity but Ash quickly stopped her, “Your Majesty, please, may I handle this?”

“...Fine. But be quick about it, I’m missing the ball!”

“Yes, yes.”

What happened next caused chills to run up and down Maria’s back as the hair on her arms and the feathers on her wings stood on end.

It was the sight of her subordinate, Ash, coaxing the large Carmilla in his arms. He was touching her in places that Maria didn’t even dare to look and she quickly shielded herself from the monstrous display of vampiric affections with her wings.

‘What. The. Hell?!’

Now, Maria wanted to punish Ash for showing her this atrocity that tainted her eyes. There were no more rewards for him, only punishment awaited Ash when they got back to Heltania City.

“This bastard...I’ll lock him up in the office for this…”

After a bit, Ash had been able to successfully stop Carmilla’s outrage and coaxed her into coming with him to the Grand Ball that she hosted.

“My Ash won’t leave me, right?”

“Yes, my Dear. It was just a false alarm earlier. Her Majesty, Maria, was lost and as her loyal subordinate, it’s my duty―our duty―to help her.”

“Okay, baby~”

Maria gagged from hearing their conversation and after hearing some giggling and smooching sounds, she nearly threw up.

“Ah god...I think I threw up in my mouth…”

“What’s that, Your Majesty?”

“Are you done yet, Ash?”

“Yes, let’s all go to the Ball together.”

“Yeah, sure…”

Maria walked alongside Ash and Carmilla but kept one of her wings covering her eyes so she didn’t have to look at the disgusting couple. Even though she had her wings covering her eyes, she had been secretly peeping on the couple because she was curious.

Unfortunately, her curiosity had proven fatal because it subjected her to something...quite hot and unsightly for her eyes. She couldn’t believe that Unitale actually had that kind of feature for the NPCs.

‘This game’s just too realistic! Even NPCs have affection for each other and do these kinds of things!’

Maria was only ever exposed to this type of thing from her education in school and from the movies she’s watched. As for more intimate things, she wasn’t at all familiar with them. It was why just from watching Ash and Carmilla kiss and makeup, she was blushing madly in embarrassment.

“Your Majesty, we’re here.”

“Mhm.”

“Should I announce Her Highness’s presence first?” Carmilla asked, her voice containing just a tad bit of mockery in it.

Maria quickly shook her head and said, “No, I want to keep our alliance a secret until the last moment. I don’t want to alert the Vampire Lord just yet. Speaking of the vampire lord, why isn’t he here?”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Carmilla scoffed and replied, “Obviously because I didn’t invite him. If he so much as steps a foot in my lands...I’ll rip his head off his shoulders.”

“...I thought he was supposed to be the strongest vampire if he’s the vampire lord?” Maria questioned.

“Strongest? Hmph, strongest my foot!” Carmilla quipped. “My Darling, Ash, is the strongest vampire that ever existed! Past, present, and future! He was the prophesied leader of the vampires! He’s the rightful owner of the Blood Throne, not that insolent little fu―”

“Dear, please watch your words in front of Her Majesty,” Ash quickly interrupted. Even though they had just apparently sealed their vows only a moment ago, Ash seemed like he enjoyed being the duchess’ spouse.

“...”

Maria only had a skeptical look on her face. She did receive a notice earlier that had been buried within the string of notices of her quest completion. It read that Ash’s seal had been broken.

She could feel that Ash had become much more confident now and his face didn’t look so haggard anymore. The change was subtle but Maria had been with him every single day for the past few months in the game so she was able to notice it.

“It’s a pity, but it looks like I can’t enter the ballroom anymore. You 2 go in ahead of me. I’ll see myself out.”

“Your Majesty?”

“Remember to cover your face, Ash. We don’t want any of the vampires to recognize you. And as for the reason behind this ball...why not say it’s because Duchess Carmilla has finally found her spouse?”

Maria turned towards the tall lady and said with a smile. Carmilla’s eyes lit up a bit as her affection points rose quite a bit from just this single suggestion from her.

“Y-Yes...let’s have that as the meaning behind this grand occasion…”

“Okay…” Ash turned to Maria with a worried look but Maria only waved him off

“Ash, don’t be stupid. Did you honestly think that your lady wanted to invite me just to attend this gathering? She obviously had a trap installed for me here. The duchess only changed her mind because of you so go have your fun time together. I’ll be heading out.”

Ash frowned and looked up at his new bride. Carmilla looked away with a slight blush on her face.

It wasn’t that Maria had seen through her, but it was just so obvious after Maria met with the woman, face to face. She wasn’t friendly at all during their first meeting and she had been directing a hostile glare from the moment she laid eyes upon her.

It became even worse when Ash was defending her earlier when they were talking inside the room. The hostility only vanished after Ash had taken her as his bride.

“You really were going to do something to Her Majesty? Do you want me to hate you or something?” Ash said with an appalled look as they made their way down to the ballroom. He already had a mask on that covered the entirety of his face so no one would be able to recognize him in case some still did.

“N-Not anymore, okay, Darling? I was just really angry back then but not anymore okay? I couldn’t be more grateful to Her Majesty for letting us reunite!”

“...At least you know some gratitude. Remember, it was Her Majesty that allowed us to reunite. Never forget that!”

“Yes, yes. I never will!”

Maria crossed her arms and hummed as she listened in on their fading conversation. This marked the end of her quest as well as her failed social debut in the vampire’s high society.

It didn’t matter much to Maria since it wasn’t good to attract too much attention to herself. Her faction was still developing so she needed to remain subdued until her power had fully developed.

Things would be easier now since she and the Dire now had the support of Duchess Carmilla Bathory. Now, she needed to use the duchess’ connections to gather as many capable subordinates and subdue as much of the Blood Continent’s southern territory as she could.

The process of earning Duchess Bathory’s support had hastened her plans of domination by quite a bit so she needed to quickly use this opportunity to strike fast so that the vampires wouldn’t be able to react quickly enough.

Even though her actions were still under the radar, with her coming here to Carmilla’s gathering, it was bound to alert the Vampire Lord. She didn’t show herself today, but her subordinates did and they were eye-catching enough.

“...I wish I had some of my friends here to share my burden. My head is aching from all this thinking.”

Maria ended the stream after the [The Duchess’ Grand Ball] Quest had fully completed. Even though the objectives had been completed, she still needed to wait until the ball ended before the quest completion notice was issued so she could finally receive her rewards.

After everyone had exited the venue, it was only Maria and her people left inside the castle. So Carmilla stopped her pretense and quickly gathered all of her castle’s servants and the people loyal to her to gather inside of the large auditorium.

Since her loyalties had changed, the people in the castle had to know of it. Naturally, only her most trusted servants and followers had been gathered to bear witness to this moment.

Earlier, the only reward she got in advance was the level-up rewards. The material rewards such as the items and currency were only rewarded after the quest had been completed because Duchess Bathory had to personally hand them over to her.

It was her quest reward as well as Carmilla Bathory’s tribute and pledge of loyalty to her. It was why the Duchess gave her one of her favorite weapons, the Bloodthorn Whip, and a few Sanguine Sigils that could promote a vampire below a Count a rank higher.

“As does my husband, I, Carmilla Bathory Garm the Duchess of Blood, pay my utmost respect and loyalty to you, Queen Maria of the Dire. Let these gifts be a tangible tribute to my vows.”

Received: [Sanguine Sigil] x10, 1,000,000 Blood Coins, 100,000 Universal Gold, [Bloodthorn Whip] x1, and [Pureblood Droplet] x1

There was an extra reward that she had received from Carmilla but it was labeled as a quest item.

“What’s this?” Maria asked as she waved the vial that held the [Pureblood Droplet].

“It is a droplet of pure vampiric blood. Ingesting it will give you some abilities that we vampires have.”

“Oh?”

“It was congealed and purified with both mine and Ash’s efforts. Please accept this as my―no―our token of thanks for reuniting us husband and wife together.”

“Hm. I’ll accept this then.”

Maria quickly popped open the vial where the single droplet of blood was contained and poured it down her throat.

“No, wait! Your Majesty!” Carmilla and Ash both tried to stop her but it was too late. They didn’t think that Maria would accept their token of thanks and recklessly pour it down her throat right when she received it.

“Hm? What’s up?”

“Your Majesty, I am sorry in advance….but this is going to hurt a little,” Ash said with a resigned smile.

“What?”

When the droplet of blood settled into Maria’s body, it immediately dispersed through the walls of her stomach and began permeating her entire body. Maria immediately felt a rising heat welling up inside of her and it slowly caused her some discomfort.

Her body began to feel itchy and even more uncomfortable but the vampires around her that watched as she ingested the blood all had jubilant looks on their faces...including her own people.

When Carmilla’s subordinates had gathered earlier, many were dissatisfied upon knowing that their Lady had pledged loyalty to some bird-winged brat but after they saw her ingest the [Pureblood Droplet], their expressions immediately changed.

“A-Ash? What’s happening? I feel...I feel a little sick…”

“You only feel sick, Your Majesty?”

“Y-yeah...ugh...this is so uncomfortable. And it’s hot! Tell everyone to clear the room before I chop their heads off!”

“How about we bring you to a different room?”

“Yes...preferably a freezer or somewhere cold!”

“At once!”

Maria noticed that her Taint value was skyrocketing but she didn’t have the mind to spare any thoughts on it right now. Even though this was a game, the heat she was feeling was so real.

It felt like her insides were being roasted but thankfully, Ash and Carmilla brought her to the ice room where the Duchess stored the blood of a few animals and prey.

“Th-this is...a little bit better...Leave me!”

“...Yes.”

Ash and Carmilla left the ice room and once they got outside, the two immediately began to argue.

“Why didn’t you stop her?”

“H-How was I supposed to know, Darling? I didn’t think that Her Majesty would be dumb enough to drink the blood right away!”

Normally, Ash would have admonished Carmilla for disrespecting Maria like that but he didn’t say a word because inwardly, he was scolding his airheaded Queen.

The Pureblood Droplet wasn’t meant to be ingested like that. There was supposed to be a ceremonial preparation beforehand to allow Maria to ingest the blood safely.

“...Darling, you better be prepared…”

“I know. Ugh, if Her Majesty goes berserk, I don’t know if I can even hold her back…”

“Don’t worry, you have me now.”

“...Even with your help, it will still be a daunting task. Her Majesty’s observable strength is indeed quite low, but when she’s in battle...her fighting instincts coupled with her vast assortment of skills and magic spells make her a hard opponent to deal with…”

“Hmmm, so she has potential. No wonder you didn’t hesitate to pledge yourself to her.”

“Yes...and she’s also the Death God’s Champion.”

“...What?”

“You heard me...the Death God speaks through her. If it was only her potential, I wouldn’t have wholeheartedly given her my loyalty, but with the Death God behind her...she’s destined to bring greatness to her allies and Calamity to her enemies…”