Paperwork, paperwork and even more paperwork. That was basically my life at this point. I didn’t complain though, I could achieve great things just though giving it my signature or not in some cases.

Did someone want to extend their orchard? Sure, go ahead, you can rent my lands for a 50% discount.

An administrator of one of my properties wanted to buy a few slaves to reduce costs? How about no?

Did Laura want to stay the whole night instead of just eating here? Signed!

Okay, I went a little bit overboard and closed my eyes to relax a bit. Signing a letter was a bit … too much? At least the sun was already going down the horizon and as Lucinda didn’t come back during the last night, I guessed she was still within the hidden chamber. I massaged my hurting fingers a bit and then stood up to stretch myself. I felt as if I aged a few years during the last stressful weeks. Already feeling exhausted, I put my things down, ordered them and then left everything behind.

The two guards greeted me outside and followed me closely as I walked out of the servants building we used as our temporary home and strolled towards the burnt down mansion. Unerring, I descended the stairs after ordering my guards to wait and soon opened the hidden room. It was a good decision to make the guards wait because I immediately noticed the intense smell of blood.

I stepped into the room and looked at the magical sword at first. She didn’t do anything with it, much to my surprise. I shrugged as I turned towards the table and left it at that. The door towards the storage was open, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to see much with the sparse illumination of the sword, so I picked up a lamp, lit it up and entered the next room.

At first, I didn’t see her as she sat in the corner of the room, completely still and unmoving. As I spotted her though, I started to think she had another mental breakdown as she just wore her underwear. Trying to avoid scaring, angering, freaking her out or giving her any strong feelings in general, I placed the lamp on the floor and crept closer to her. Much to my surprise, she didn’t make a mess out of this room as the bottles, now probably empty, stood neatly on the shelves.

As I was halfway there, she looked away from the bottle in her hands towards me.

“This one tastes like puke.” She stated and moved the bottle over to me. I swiftly took it and smelled at the lid. It didn’t seem to be that different from the rest I collected. “It´s one of the better ones though. Tastes like mould. This one here, ” She stood up and pointed towards another bottle right next to her. “ is horrible. If disappointment had a taste, this would be it. It started off great as a slightly foul cheese, but then tasted like pure shit. I´d rather eat manure directly.”

She walked towards another shelf where she took out a single bottle. “Have you ever wondered how bark with a lot of salt tastes like? Feel free … oh, or this one here is great as well: Tastes like sugar … with a lot of sulphur.”

“Are you alright?” I asked concerned. She turned around, the bottle still in her hands, her eyes opened wide and with a crazy smile on her lips.

“I´m perfectly fine! There is absolutely no reason to worry about this glutton who feeds on old shoes, dirt and shit.” Her right eyelids twitched heavily and her whole visage distorted into a furious grimace. She stepped towards me, gripping the bottle tightly.

Honestly, she was incredibly scary at that point. I knew she failed to control herself occasionally and this may be one of these times. I stepped backwards, away from her as she probably had a mental breakdown. Maybe she took a few drugs again, although I made sure to restrict her access to these as much as possible. I even went through her things from time to time … not that she had much.

Lucinda stopped closing in on me as she realized that I was scared of her, swiftly regained control of her face again and relaxed her hand around the bottle. She sighed unhappily as she turned around and placed the empty bottle back on the shelf.

Once again, she proved how volatile her emotions were, or how good she could mask them as she turned around, a friendly smile on her lips and pointed towards another bottle.

“This one tasted good though.” Did it? As far as I knew, vampires never fed on anything except humanoids, probably because all other living beings tasted bad.

“And how did it taste exactly?” I asked, regretting it immediately as I noticed her conflicted expression.

“Like chilli… with a bit of wasabi ... and a lot of salt.” Lucinda shrugged, turned towards her attire and started dressing. She neither looked happy, nor unhappy as she finished and strolled towards the door, only waiting for me in the doorframe.

“Is there really nothing you like?” I asked, although I already knew the answer.

“There is … but I can´t have that right now, can I?” I didn’t answer. She never asked for human blood in the first place, probably for several reasons and her consideration for me. “But, I can always make good food myself!”

The smile returned to her lips as she strolled out of the room and went right. I shook my head in amusement as I turned left and waited for her to realize that she went in the wrong direction.

“Why are you so bad at finding your way?” I asked as soon as she stood by my side once more, this time slightly embarrassed.

“So that others are better at something?” She said, but I couldn’t believe that reasoning at all. She fiddled with her dress as she stumbled on the stairs and I caught her as she fell backwards.

“You fail at empathy, swimming, taking care of oneself and even I could overwhelm you during the day.” Unhappily, she used the tip of her shoes to ascend the stairs. She only replied as she stood between the guards as it apparently took her full concentration to keep her balance.

“Okay, you won. Have you ever confused left with right?”

“No?” I answered as I seriously could not understand where her question was coming from.

“Great, me neither. Let´s go, there is food to be made!”

Well … whatever.