§
“My Lady, the… specialists have arrived,” the maid called from the door, while kneeling and bowing. She did not enter the room as would normally be proper before doing this courtesy, because I had expressly ordered all mortals to stay out. Mireia convinced my husband to make them obey, fortunately. She had to tell him why, of course, which was horribly embarrassing, but unavoidable.
Well, in truth, the maid very likely didn’t need to be told, in this case. I mean, I was sitting on my bed in my backless chemise with my wings fully grown, looking like a nightmare in daylight. I was also breathing hard and sweating.
I was also fighting the urge to fly, not walk, across the room and nom on her neck that very instant.
Where and when did I pick up that word ‘Nom’? I wondered. I don’t remember ever hearing it before?
That thought distracted me for a moment from the previous thought, which was a good thing. I noticed a key detail from what the maid had said.
“Why ‘specialists’, plural?” I asked.
The maid sat up, keeping her gaze facing down, and stated, “Lady Mireia ordered us to send for two, My Lady.”
“I see. They’ve already been contracted?”
“They have, My Lady. His Royal Highness has guaranteed their pay.”
“Thank you. Please withdraw. You’re in danger, even that far away. Send them in, one at a time.”
More than one might drive me out of my mind, in this state.
She bowed again, then stood and backed out of sight. Then, Mireia appeared with a kimono-clad young woman at her side. From both the quality of her clothing and the well-manicured beauty of the newcomer, I deduced that they had contracted a high-priced brothel. She was clearly higher class than the brothel girls I hired while traveling with the Hero’s Party.
Violating my orders, Mireia entered the room alongside her, but Mireia wasn’t in danger of any worse fate than a little pneuma depletion if I fed on her again, so soon. She was already my Servant, after all.
The girl, who seemed to be right around the age of adulthood, also kept her gaze down. As the door closed behind her, I commanded, “Raise your head.”
She looked up, then surprise lit her face. “I… I was told you were a vampire?”
Mireia giggled. “My Lady is not a succubus. No tail or horns, right?”
It was annoying, but it seemed to have broken the ice. The girl’s brows rose, but then she smiled and looked apologetic.
“Don’t approach me,” I warned her. “Go over to the couch.”
She seemed a bit mystified. As they went there, I asked, “Do you have experience with feeding vampires?”.
“Only one time, My Lady,” she answered as she and Mireia sat where I asked them to. “It was a pleasant experience.”
That last comment might have been her reminding herself of the fact. I’m sure the atmosphere my condition was creating was making it necessary. I certainly must have looked rather scary.
“I’ve never had the necessity come upon me so fast,” I explained. “I’m struggling to control myself right now. I… don’t want to just up and attack you, you see. I hate that kind of behavior.”
I meant every word of it. It was weird, but ever since waking up with amnesia, I had needed to feed daily. I never needed to feed so often, before. And today, the need had doubled. No, it had tripled. I was raging with thirst for it, enough that I had already drunk once from Mireia’s veins. Even though she had just fed me the other day. I managed to stop myself, but I was still hungering horribly.
Mireia dimpled slightly, then teased the girl, “It would be a pity to get blood on such a pretty kimono, wouldn’t it?”
Thanks to my Servant so skillfully changing the topic to the purpose for her visit, the girl flipped easily from nervous commoner to professional without any further encouragement. She gave Mireia a coquettish smirk, touched her cheek and wondered, “Who will help me out of it?”
“Mir, you had better do it,” I said, my voice shaking slightly.
It was Mireia’s turn to be surprised, but I begged, “Please, Mir. I don’t need any help growing my fangs. They’ve been grown for an hour. I just need her to… be ready for me.”
The ‘specialist’ chuckled and Mireia blushed a little. I thought she might have misunderstood what I meant. I mean, I wasn’t asking for them to start for me, just to undress the woman.
I guess they both misunderstood, because the courtesan leaned over and gave Mireia a more-than-friendly kiss on the cheek before saying, “Help me with the obi, sweetie?”
Mireia reddened more, but complied. In the process of unwrapping the pretty girl, she also ended up losing most of her clothing. And they did indeed progress at least a short distance into starting as I continued to restrain myself.
Properly, I didn’t need to. The woman already met my definition of ‘ready’, considering she was now wearing nothing but a silver coin pendant, similar to the one Melione used to wear. But I was afraid of simply attacking one of them if I so much as rose from the bed.
My Servant finally looked over at me, pleading with her eyes as the courtesan lovingly nursed on her, and prompted, “She’s ready, right?”
Honestly, I think that, any other day, I would have liked to watch them keep going, but my need was getting too much to deny. I nodded.
“Lead her over here, okay?” I requested. “I don’t dare move right now.”
The way I sounded probably alarmed the woman a little. She looked a bit nervous again as Mireia stood her up to approach the bed.
My Servant’s voice changed as she told the courtesan, “Don’t be afraid. She’s not intentionally being this way. Her condition is just very bad right now. You’re going to help her.”
I don’t know why, but for some reason, I felt certain that it was Mireia’s goddess, Rhea, speaking through her at that moment. I don’t know why I was confident of that. But as the two women climbed onto my bed together, looking terribly delicious, Mireia’s eyes seemed to show the same thing. And I thought something was slightly different about the courtesan, as well. It was like all the nerves had vanished with the words, Don’t be afraid.
Forcibly controlling myself, I folded a wing around both of them, since the two still had their arms around one another’s waists, then bent in, intending to aim for the neck.
For whatever reason, the courtesan managed to intercept me with her lips and we wound up kissing first. My need was too much to stay that way, though. I took the lead, moving down to the curve between her neck and shoulder. I sank my fangs into her flesh almost by instinct.
“Slow… slow down,” she begged. I grew a little annoyed at myself and forced myself to do so. Aunt Elianora had stressed that it was a kindness to go slower with those who feed me.
Even so, I wound up taking more than was safe. After the woman began shuddering in pleasure, Mireia had to whisper into my ear, “It would be dangerous to drink further, My Lady. Even if she’s wearing that amulet of protection, it’s still possible for you to go too far.”
I was definitely not full yet, but I realized she was right. I had been drinking too long. So that silver coin pendant she wore really was an amulet of protection like Melione’s? It might have been a good thing she had it.
After reluctantly withdrawing my fangs, I helped the girl over to the couch to rest while Mireia put on a yukata and went out to fetch the second girl.
Mireia took the pendant chain off the first courtesan and put it on the second before we went any further.
My fangs had vanished during the interruption. Mireia, wearing that knowing expression again, took care of matters again, this time more skillfully disrobing the woman while flirting, then shifting the woman’s attention to me when they got to the stage of starting.
I’m not sure why that seeming change in personality convinced me that Mireia’s goddess was acting through her, but I had a certainty now that it was Rhea in the room with me, gently directing matters. I put the thought aside though, because my need was still present. One girl had indeed not been enough, even though one feeding used to sustain me for many weeks.
The second girl definitely had an amorous embrace in mind when Mireia turned her over to me, and I had to be a little strict with her to get her to stop with the amorous part, which began to get… rather steamy, I admit. It reminded me of… someone. I couldn’t think of who, though.
§
The next morning, the strange being named ‘Sirth’ once again came to my suite. Lady Benedetta had nothing but dark scowls for her.
She answered my lady-in-waiting’s dour greeting with a wide grin. “Are we really on such bad terms, Ma’am?”
“Ponder the trouble you caused at Upper Town Citadel yesterday, Captain,” was Benedetta’s dark reply.
I didn’t understand one bit of Falerè’s report about it, except that beings somehow associated with this woman had temporarily released the hellspawn from anti-magic restraint in order to examine her up close. And that they intended to take her out of there at some point soon.
Sirth scratched the back of her head. “Yeah, well, that wasn’t precisely me…”
“I am not going to pretend that I understand everything that is going on, but I do already know that you and these other entities are somehow all tied together,” Benedetta countered, her forehead creasing even further. “By all appearances, according to my [Mana Sight], you are one entity changing forms. Each disguise does seem to have its own persona, but you are one being in the end.”
Something about that statement resonated inside me. I couldn’t say what it reminded me of, but I thought it sounded terribly familiar.
With a sigh, the strange sailor woman quirked her lips, then stated, “We already admitted we made a mess, a’right? We apologized yesterday.”
Benedetta had arrived the previous night to find the fortress on general alert, complete with combat mages and magic-weapon-armed infantry laying siege to the cell block. Leveraging my husband’s authority — or I guess it was technically my authority, but he was the one that granted it while I was unconscious– to get herself into the command post, she learned that the field to prevent magic casting and the tool locking the cell had both turned off simultaneously, without warning. Naturally, this set off the security system remotely monitoring them.
“My friends made a mistake, underestimatin’ your people,” she admitted, looking away. “Somethin’ about the way things worked there made them not consider your security might remotely monitor the cell. We really didn’t intend to cause such a stir.”
My lady-in-waiting sighed, then nodded. “That… male persona said something to that effect yesterday.”
“Male persona?” I echoed, perplexed.
Still looking more apologetic than suited her, Sirth stated, “We’ll think things through more carefully from now on. In retrospect, underestimatin’ the people who Mother hired is pretty stupid.”
“Mother?” I echoed again, now quite confused.
“Ah! I mean Deharè,” Sirth revised.
“Why would you call her ‘Mother’?” I asked, now growing apprehensive. Something seemed to be nibbling at my thoughts. A weird idea. A feeling of familiarity, perhaps? Like she might be yet another unknown sister? Had I met this woman somewhere, a long time ago?
“It’s complicated, Yer Highness,” she answered. “And not important right now. We have other stuff to discuss.”
“More training?” I wondered.
“That’s… well, that might have to wait. With yer people on their way to ‘Oto’, we’re runnin’ outta time.”
“How do you know about that?” my husband demanded as he strode into the room.
Benedetta gave him a blank-faced look that had ‘I would be angry at you right now if you weren’t the Royal Prince’ written all over it. In a stiff voice, she noted, “Your Royal Highness, you’ve arrived rather suddenly.”
That’s about as close to ‘how rude!’ as Benedetta could get with him.
But he heard what she meant. His frown twisted in an effort to look contrite as he answered, “Sorry. I heard she was here, so…”
He had my maids informing him if my strange visitor showed up again? No, probably, the royal knights standing guard outside had informed him. My husband wouldn’t go as far as turning my maids into spies.
But I, too, was a little miffed at his invasion. “Make sure to have them announce you properly, Husband.”
“Right,” He nodded, then cleared his throat and repeated it. “Right. So how do you know that name, woman?”
Sirth scratched the back of her head, then twisted her mouth. “This would go better if you lot just got it through your heads that I ain’t no normal bein’. I know things ’cause o’ means outside o’ your world, ‘cause goddesses and the like tell me. And I meant what I said. With your people on their way to ‘Oto’, we’re runnin’ outta time.”
