It was a dark night. Despite the moon hanging high in the sky, clouds covered the majority of the sky, blocking the light of the stars from shining down onto the city.
On this night, two figures could not be seen flying up in the sky. However, one could still hear them.
"Mom, are we there yet? My wings hurt..." A young girl whispered. She wore a black mask, and two huge wings sprouted from her back, as dark as the night around her.
"Yes darling, we're here. Don't worry, I'll carry you back home since your wings aren't fully ready yet." An older woman said from beside her. She too wore a black mask, however, if the wings of the girl next to her were like those of a butterfly in size, hers were like those of birds: Gigantic.
"Thanks..." The girl said as she tucked the ponytail that had fallen over onto her face back where it belonged, on the back of her head.
When the woman and girl stopped, they were high above a city. Unlike what one would think of a magical world, this world did not seem particularly poor in terms of technology.
Although it was nowhere near what an earthling would call 'modern', it was still fairly developed. The streets were all organized, houses were all built in an organized fashion and every man and woman walking around wore either t-shirts or something of the sorts.
As the girl's jaw fell down enough to touch the floor, the woman laughed and rubbed her head. "I know sweety. Although humans are idiots, they can still build really well. In my opinion, though, demons definitely have the best architecture."
The girl, Luna, our favorite reincarnated monarch, nodded and looked at the city with a mixed expression.
'I never would have thought humans would advance so much... Wow, they even have the police!' Luna screamed in her mind. Back in her times, it was essentially the same as a low-medieval society. The lord held absolute power, and everyone else except the few lower nobles was basically a peasant. Now, it seemed as though a democracy of sorts had appeared.
She had no proof to confirm this speculation, but Luna strongly felt that this was the truth. This was an instinct honed through the countless times she had to study the politics of a country before attacking it.
Furthermore, she could feel that something was off. The faces of all the people walking around were either tense or grim, and a strenuous atmosphere surrounded the whole city.
However, this was none of her business. She had come to have fun with her mother, and nothing would take that away from her. To Luna, her mother and father were strongly itched in her mind. Although she refused to admit it, she cared for both of them a lot.
After all, they had been basically the only beings to show her love in all of her lives. The first life as a human was spent with trash, rich parents. The second had been spent with parents that would not bat an eye to killing her on the spot, and only now, in her third life, did she actually feel loved.
It was sad, and yet, somehow happy. For a person to truly realize how worth something is, they first have to completely lose it. Only then will they truly realize just how much they missed that thing, and in this case, love.
It wasn't really 'love', however. That would just be weird. No, this was a parental kind of love.
However, that didn't make it any less important. As the two of them flew down from the skies, they landed in a small street where no one was looking before covering their wings with a mantle to hide them.
Then, both of them clicked a small button hidden in the inner part of their masks. The moment they did, the masks seemed to merge into their faces and disappear, revealing two beautiful, but also very different faces.
This was the true power of the mask. Not only would it not appear suspicious, but it also completely disguised them. There was no way to tell they were Luna and Laura (the mother's name).
"Alright sweety. Just follow me and if you find someone that you fancy, tell me and I'll catch them for you, okay?" Laura asked her daughter with a kind smile as she took her hand and walked out of the alleyway. Luna nodded absentmindedly as she unconsciously caught her mother's hand with her own.
As the two beautiful girls showed themselves on the main street, they caught the eye of many people nearby.
This was only natural. After all, although their real looks were hidden, they still possessed very beautiful faces and attractive bodies, especially Laura, whom already had fully developed features.
Furthermore, their expensive-looking clothes and jewelry also caught the attention of some somewhat shady people, however, after they saw the two small wing-like earrings on Laura's ears, most of them instantly backed out, some even ran away.
Although it was already 9 pm, many shops were still open. Luna curiously looked at these shops, wondering whether to check them out or not.
Just as she was about to ask her mother to go and look at those shops, she caught herself in time. She realized that not would that be extremely girly, it would also be counterproductive! Yes, counterproductive!
For this reason, she tried to peel her eyes off the cute shoes on display in a nearby shop. However, before she could do anything, her mother suddenly pulled her and dragged her over to that exact shop.
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"M-mom! N-not now! We can go later!" Luna cried out, trying to drag her mother away. Frowning, Laura lightly hit her over the head and sternly said "Behave. Do not disgrace us in public."
Rubbing her head, Luna murmured "Yes mom..." and allowed herself to be dragged over to the shop.
Two hours later, the mother-daughter pair finally left the shop. Luna was hugging a small doll with a giant blush on her face. Meanwhile, her mother held over 6 bags filled with all kinds of clothes, making for a very surreal sight considering she didn't look particularly strong, and yet, those bags looked very full...
"So, Luna, don't you agree that that ruby ring was way too expensive? That should only be worth, like, a hundredth of a bloodgem, and yet it was like 1000$... How much is a bloodgem in terms of human money again...?" Laura asked, somewhat sheepish.
Sighing, Luna answered, "Mom, a pure bloodgem is worth around 10.000$...". She had already said this around 6 times since they entered the shop, and she was honestly starting to think her mother had Alzheimer.
Bloodgems were the vampire's currency. The reason they were so popular is that anyone could make them as long as they could collect enough blood and had enough mana. However, a single bloodgem would require around 5000 liters of blood, so one would usually need around 1000 humans to make a single bloodgem. And that was only for a middle-quality one!
Naturally, although vampires liked to compare bloodgems to other race's money, there was no way they'd ever exchange them. After all, nobody really wanted bloodgems, and vampires didn't really care for paper or metal money, so the estimates were meh at best and completely off at worst.
"Oh, yeah. I knew that." Laura nodded, making Luna's face turn like that of a dead fish. Nonetheless, she didn't correct her, as she saw something that piqued her interest far more.
"Mom! I can we go over to that restaurant? I can smell something really good from there!" Luna practically shrieked, her eyes twinkling with excitement.
Sniffing a bit, Laura's eyes too twinkled with excitement. "Yes, sweety... I'm surprised I didn't find it earlier... You have a good nose sweetheart..."
Like so, both women entered a restaurant called 'The 9 Gluttonous Jades'. Unknown to the two, this restaurant was actually quite famous inside of the city and it even held some reputation outside of it, so it was no random inn.
Once inside, a hostess approached the two and said: "Hello, how may I help the esteemed guests?"
After she saw the two's clothes, the hostess immediately became respectful. "We have an appointment with the man in cabinet 11, so lead us to him." The older woman instantly said, her voice implying that no refusal would be accepted.
"Uh, madam... The esteemed guest did not warn us of anyone visiting..." Before she could continue, the hostess' eyes were suddenly drawn into those of Laura.
"You will lead us to cabinet 11... and then you will forget and go back to work..." Laura's eyes seemed to contain endless charm and power. The hostess was like a moth drawn to a flame as she nodded and did as ordered.
Soon, Luna and Laura both arrived in front of a large room. From inside, the smell of alcohol and roasted meat drifted towards both women. This smell alone could make even the most iron-willed salivate, however, to Laura and Luna, this was like smelling the air. They felt nothing from it. Only blood could truly excite a vampire after all.
Laura opened the sliding door and went in as though she was the boss, quickly followed by an excited Luna. Inside the cabinet, a thin, tall blonde-haired man sat, eating roasted wyvern meat.
Looking at the two women, the man raised his eyebrow and whistled whilst licking his lips. As to whether it was because of the small trace of meat stuck to his lips or due to the two beauties that entered, nobody but him knew.
"And to what should I honor this visit for, fellow magicians?" The man asked, his eyes twinkling with slyness and wisdom. However, before he could do anything more, he suddenly found himself, or rather, his neck, in the hands of the older woman.
"Sweety, since you found him, I'm going to give him to you. You can enjoy him all you want, actually, do kill him when you're done. I don't want to leave any traces that might lead to us visiting here since Leon told me that a powerful adventurer will be coming in a couple weeks. Call me when you're done, okay? I'm going to eat someone else." Laura said with a small wink as she easily crushed the man's limbs.
He screamed a soundless scream since Laura had long since put a sound barrier around his head. She had also destroyed his mana channels with her own mana, effectively dooming the man even if they wouldn't kill him.
Powerful people relied on power and wisdom to survive, and wizards were no exception. Most wizards would make a great number of enemies during their lives, and the moment they showed weakness, they would be torn apart without hesitation. To be a cripple means death not only in vampire society but also in wizarding.
"Mmmhm..." Luna nodded as she crouched down next to the fallen wizard. His expression was ugly, it was obvious he was in great pain. However, Luna couldn't give a smaller fuck then she did.
Biting his neck, the wizard's eyes bulged out. His veins expanded and began to pulsate as blood was forced out of them, some even shriveled after no blood was left.
After 30 seconds, the man's limbs had all rotten and dried up. After 2 minutes, his hair had fallen off and his entire body had basically turned into a dried husk. Only after a total of 3 minutes did Luna finally let go, licking the small trickle of blood falling from the corner of her mouth.
She smiled as a feeling of ecstasy rushed in her. A feeling similar to that of drunkness manifested, but through her iron will forged through countless years, she resisted and sat down cross-legged and began to meditate.
An aura similar to that of an ancient god manifested itself for a couple moments before disappearing. Only after 20 minutes had passed did she finally get up and inspect herself.
Her core that had only been around 75% complete had rushed up all the way to 90% completeness. Furthermore, she could feel that her body had grown leaps and bounds in strength, boosting her power by almost 30%.
This was the real reason the Blood Monarch got so strong. He could consume the mana in the blood of people and strengthen himself from it. Naturally, the stronger he got, the harder it was. Also, a normal human's blood was basically manaless, so he needed to gather several high-ranked wizards to strengthen himself.
Now, Luna had done the same. This was called the Soul Devouring Tactic, and right now, after only one meal, it allowed her to skip another 15 years of slow, painful waiting.
A vampire's body would constantly improve naturally, however, it was painfully slow. Hence, before she was reincarnated as the Blood Monarch, she had asked The Manager to gift her something that would allow her to defeat all her enemies, and he had given her this.
However, it was extremely taxing on her body. Her eyes felt like mountains as her body trembled and refused to stand. Thankfully, before she fell, she felt herself get picked up by a pair of warm, loving arms and heard someone whisper in her ears, "Dear, don't worry. I know you must be tired, so let me carry you home..."
And like this, Luna fell asleep, her body still digesting all the energy she stole from the poor, nameless wizard that no one will remember...