---

Fighting a growing migraine from her extended use of her abilities earlier, Lucy quickly took the stairs to their dingy room. 

She was more than elated at how today had turned out but she was now utterly famished.

 Just as the two vampiresses finally returned to their room Lucy took off her red robe and Sera promptly returned to her human form.

“Whew what a day!” said Lucy with a sigh of relief, “I’m starving”

Tinkering with the ring on her finger, Lucy tried to remember what the instructions were for taking items out of a space ring.

“Aha” she said as she finally was able to get the magic beast blood she bought earlier out of the ring

With a click and pop Lucy popped open the rather large sized mason jar filled with the thick viscous liquid and bega to chug it.

‘Urgh’ grimaced Lucy, ‘ From the vein is definitely tastier and more filling but its better than nothing I suppose..’

“Here” she said as she removed another jar from the space ring, “I know you must be famished Sera”

With a nod of her head Sera readily accepted the food her master offered, she was definitely hungry but more than that she was now extremely curious and couldn’t hold her tongue any longer

“Thank you master” said Sera as she too took a big gulp from the mason jar, “but um I was wondering what was all that downstairs? What’s a blood slave? And who are these Nour and Mars fellows?”

While looking up at Sera’s inquisitive gaze, Lucy couldn’t help but release a dry chuckle.

 She knew Sera would have questions about these matters, they were pressing issues and she didn’t blame her for asking at all. In fact, she was surprised Sera was able to control her curiosity for so long.

‘Hm I guess it’s time to let the right hand know about the left’ thought Lucy as she prepared to tell Sera everything

As Sera waited patiently for her master’s explanations Lucy removed item after item she’d bought earlier from her space ring.

“Ok so where should I start” said Lucy as she eyed the rather large encyclopedias she’d removed from the ring, “ Well a Blood Slave is pretty much a living food source and an assistant of sorts. Most vampires keep at least 1 around to avoid having to hunt all the time. It is possible to own more than one, but the master would have to have the resources to meet their basic needs. Choosing any Blood Slave was a serious matter as Blood Slaves are bound to their masters forever and instinctually feel a sense of love and devotion to them as well as the master feeling a sense of protectiveness and territoriality in return.”

“Oh, so something like a lover?” asked Sera

“Hm no and yes” replied Lucy, “ While its extremely common to have a sexual relationship with your Blood Slave that’s not the point of their existence and definitely not my intention for Mars. In fact, it’s somewhat frowned upon to develop a sexual relationship with your Blood Slave. As vampires are much sturdier and get a lot wilder during intercourse, intercourse with a Blood Slave must be done with the utmost caution as it often leads to physical injuries. Some have even died from it. Also, the bond between the two causes the Blood Slave to instinctually know when their master is hungry and makes them do whatever it takes to keep their owner happy. They’d even readily die for them”

Sera listened intently as Lucy explained the relationship between Blood Slaves and their masters. 

She further explained that Blood Slaves were created through a prick of a finger on the dominant hand of the slave and that she had somewhat tricked Mars in the beginning into becoming hers.

 Lucy explained this wasn’t the usual way of forming a Blood Slave pact, but Mars was a mage and at at the time she thought he was the sole captain of his mercenary company. As such she did whatever it took to have him.

Lucy also told Sera all about the current state of things between herself, Mars, Ambrose, and Nour as well as how she’d met the latter.

As such, Sera was now all caught up and privy to her master’s plans. 

And she had to admit, her master’s plans were as well thought out as they were ambitious.

Lucy wanted to take out their two obstacles, Nour and Ambrose, so Mars could become the leader of the Blackthorn Mercenary company and a force to be reckoned with In the town of Port Blackwood. 

Of course, this wasn’t out of the goodness of her heart but due to the need for money. 

With the head of one of the top mercenary companies as her Blood Slave Lucy wouldn’t have to worry about finding a source of income and she’d be able to enjoy the power that came along with such status as well as the delicious blood of a mage as much as she wanted.

‘You're an evil genius haha’ snickered Sera to herself, “But do you really think you’re a match for that Nour fellow master, he seemed pretty power-“

“Alone no.” interrupted Lucy, “but together I have no doubt we can take him down. As long as we strike before he breakthroughs to the Great Mage rank my plan should be successful.”

Like so, Lucy and Sera came to a mutual consensus that they would work together to take out the ice mage, Nour Coldwind.

Afterwards Lucy would utilize Mars to establish her force in this town. 

After agreeing upon that Lucy continued to survey and inspect the items she’d bought earlier from the marketplace.

Using the gold coins, she’d gained through compulsion Lucy had purchased several jars of Class I beast blood, a few flasks, and some dresses and clothing for Sera.

Besides her space ring that she technically hadn’t bought Lucy’s most expensive purchase of the day had been the one or two encyclopedias and a tattered map of Aleria.

All together she’d spent about 1000 coins just on the encyclopedias and the map, which was more than half of the money she had. But Lucy wasn’t surprised at all at the exorbitant prices of these goods.

In any world accurate information was an invaluable commodity. 

However, this left about 500 gold coins for Lucy to buy the rest of their things, of which she only needed half to purchase the rest of the aforementioned items.

All in all, Lucy had a pretty good haul considering the amount she spent, and she still had about 250 gold coins left over.

As Lucy and Sera looked over their spoils from the marketplace Sera couldn’t help but exclaim, “Nice purchases master, I absolutely love this dress. I just wish we could have found something to enhance your cultivation. That was the whole point of our shopping trip”

“It’s fine.” Said Lucy without looking up from the tattered map splayed out in front of her, “ I have a feeling Mars’s blood may due the trick. After a couple feedings I don’t believe a breakthrough in my cultivation would be far behind but- what the …”

What is it?” asked Sera at Lucy’s confusion

At this moment Lucy’s eyebrows were knitted closely together as she stared down at the map.

‘T-this can’t be right…’ she thought to herself in disbelief

“Sera what’s the name of this continent right here?” asked Lucy as she pointed to the landmass on the map

“That’s the Hale continent master, that’s where we are right now.” Said Sera nonchalantly, “whats wrong?”

Lucy couldn’t believe what she was hearing nor what she was seeing right now. After blinking once, twice, and three times she slowly realized the reality of the situation. 

And suffice to say it was a tough pill for her to swallow.

After taking a deep breath and regaining her composure, Lucy tried to make sense of what was before her eyes.

“Sera, if this is the Hale continent why does the map call this continent Trench, the land of might and swords?” asked Lucy breathlessly, “We couldn’t possibly be on Trench, could we?”

At the end of Lucy’s question, a heavy silence hung in the hair that seemed to coalesce into a ringing sound. 

Sera was thinking long and hard before answering her master, it was evident that this was a very important question. However, after several moments Sera finally opened her mouth to say,

“Well, the Trench and the Hale continent are one in the same master this map must have been made before the change in powers. This continent was first known as the Trench continent but after a major war in the past the current monarchy of this land decreed it would be known as the Hale continent. My apologies master I thought it was common knowledge…”

Lucy heard everything Sera said, but after finding out that the Trench and the Hale continent were one in the same, she was now reeling psychologically.

 She stared down at the map with the image of the crest above the continent of Hale/Trench and realized she had seen this crest before. 

Flashbacks of her and Amara’s fragmented memories flitted through her minds eye all at once.

She recalled the familiar insignia she’d seen on Nox and many of the armored knights she’d seen around town, it was the Hale kingdom’s crest he’d said. 

Then she saw once again through Amara’s eyes as the various mages burst into her throne room to end her life and reign at least 1000 years ago. Mages that she now recognized were bearing the exact same crest of the Hale kingdom.

‘Those bastards overthrew the Trench monarchy but kept their crest! How shameless’ she exclaimed in disbelief.

“But it appears I’ve literally walked into the jaws of the beast...” Lucy mumbled with eyes as wide as saucers.

---