in a surprisingly modest-looking living room within the vampiric royal palace. Multiple doctors, magicians, as well as priests, surrounded the couch located in the center of the room, with visible distress on their faces. The cause of their distress wasn’t the couch itself, but a silver-haired girl lying on it.

The ones surrounding her cursed the heavens as they couldn’t figure out what to do. The person in front of them was their princess, a pure-blooded vampire for whom this state should be impossible, yet there they were. The only ones having any results were the maids that applied bandages.

The doctors checked her condition while the magicians desperately tried to heal her. The priests were, meanwhile, performing a variety of rituals and sacrifices to get rid of any curse that might plague her.

"How is she?!"

The door was practically kicked open by Loriam. Her breath was haggard, as if she had run all the way. Based on the pink nightgown she had on, it was obvious that she had just woken up... or more precisely, was woken up by the guards.

"Your majesty."

The people within the room bowed to Loriam. She ignored them and rushed to Julia’s side, taking her hand in her own.

"Her highness suffered a heavy blood loss. Unfortunately, there isn’t much that our skills can accomplish. We managed to close the wounds, but we couldn’t replenish the lost blood."

Loriam squeezed Julia’s hand as she listened to one of the doctors. She looked to be on the verge of tears. Loriam felt a little bit of relief as she felt Julia’s breath on her hand while she brushed Julia’s hair away from her face.

"Will these do, doctor?"

Mirei entered the room with two elven girls wearing plain dirty dresses covering their bodies and a metal collar around their necks. The doctors, as well as the magicians, examined the girls closely.

"You! Heal her highness."

One of the magicians dragged one of the girls toward an unconscious Julia. Loriam glanced at the terrified slave, with tears forming in her eyes.

"I will give you anything, just please heal her."

It was a silent whisper, filled with desperation. The girl gulped nervously, feeling the gaze from all the vampires in the room as well as an extremely scary stare from a wolf girl sitting nearby.

With a deep breath, she moved her hands above the unconscious vampire and began chanting an incantation for a weak healing spell as a test. After all, she didn’t want to kill the vampire princess while being surrounded by soldiers. That would be suicide.

The condition of the girl didn’t change, so she started chanting a stronger spell. Cold sweat appeared on her forehead. Was it even possible to heal vampires with an elven healing spell? She shuddered as the vampire’s stare became uncomfortable.

"Your majesty, may I suggest that instead of this waste of time this elf performs. We could just feed her blood to her highness?"

"True elven blood is composed of a large quantity of mana. It might be an excellent cure for her highness’s strange condition."

A magician and a doctor nearby found themselves in agreement, to which others nodded. All of them turned to their queen, awaiting her decision. Both elven girls were filled with fear as they saw the queen contemplating the idea. The queen looked at her daughter’s face and, with a sigh, shook her head.

"She would never forgive me that. For now, let her try. If she fails though…"

Both elves shook at the implication. Why would the vampire princess be angry if they were killed? They couldn’t understand. Nevertheless, they were glad.

"It was my carelessness that allowed her highness to end in this state. Your majesty, the words alone cannot express the regret I feel. I shall accept any punishment you see fit."

A tall kneeling woman in a black cloak and a mask over her face appeared beside one of the elves, startling both of them. The lack of any reaction from the vampires, with the exception of the priests, who looked at her with contempt. suggested that this sudden appearance was a normal occurrence for them.

"Just tell me who is behind this."

"About that, your majesty."

The queen didn’t even bother to look at her. The woman gestured to another woman dressed in the same fashion as herself, who was holding a round object covered in a cloth. Just where are they coming from? The elves were left to wonder.

"One of the assassins that assaulted her highness was found dead in the garden, stabbed in the back, and the other one…"

The queen turned to the masked woman, expecting her answer. The woman grabbed the cloth and reviled the severed elven head beneath it.

"The other one was beheaded before we found her."

The masked woman informed the Queen with an apologetic look. The queen glanced at the severed head with disgust. Similarly, almost all of the vampires shared their queen’s disgust, the only difference being that theirs was addressed to the two elves forced to be there.

"The entire situation was due to my insufficient supervision. Once again, I request punishment for my folly."

The woman with the mask lowered her head as she repeated herself. Before the queen had time to respond, a third woman dressed in black with a mask over her face barged into the room. Unlike the other two, this one had a visible injury on her chest.

"Your majesty! Lady ZERO isn’t at fault. It was my fault. If I hadn’t arrived so late, then her highness wouldn’t…"

"SEVEN, that’s enough!"

The newcomer attempted to pledge her guild to the queen while the still kneeling woman, apparently called ZERO shot her an angry glare.

"As the leader of the black guard, it is my responsibility. No one else is to blame."

"Stop it, both of you."

The queen had a hint of annoyance in her voice, which silenced both of the women. The queen shook her head with a sigh while squeezing Julia’s hand.

"If it hadn’t been for you, then she would have been dead for sure. Thank you."

To the shock of all present, the vampire queen lowered her head to a nameless soldier. The most baffled ones were the priests present. What should the queen even thank a soldier for? After all, all she did was protect a princess, a descendent of the Leranpe. Throwing one’s life away was expected.

The queen, ignoring the stumbled guard that she thanked as well as all the shocked stares, turned towards ZERO.

"Zero, do you have an idea of who was behind this?"

"No, your majesty. But we will find out."

ZERO lowered her head as she faced her queen. The queen nodded and returned her attention to her daughter as well as the increasingly nervous elf.

"Glory to the blood clan."

Taking it as a clue, ZERO left the room. Once she was out, she called on one of her subordinates.

"Yes, lady ZERO?"

A young woman appeared in front of ZERO and immediately kneeled down. ZERO gestured for her to stand up while checking her surroundings.

"I need you to interrogate that elf. Beat him up if necessary, just make him spill out who sent them. Also, not a word to anyone other than me, got it?"

"Understood."

The woman saluted and disappeared into thin air. Aren’t the culprits just the elves? What else does her majesty need? ZERO sighed and looked out the window to her right. She watched as the few brown leaves slowly fell from the tree in the garden. Winter is coming soon, huh? To attempt to kill her highness so close to her birthday, how disgusting.

ZERO’s face twitched with disgust at the ones that attempted this horrendous act. She began regretting not being able to kill them herself, vile criminals that tried to kill a young girl just like that.

ZERO aimed her anger at the two dead elves they found in the garden while pushing aside how many she killed herself, but that was in the service of the royal family, so that doesn’t count. At least, that's what she thought.

She shook her head as she walked down the hall. Why even bother questioning that guy, it was the elves for sure. Their queen is one cunning bitch. It wouldn’t be a surprise that she would want her highness death.

ZERO pushed her opinion to the back of her mind and refocused on the task assigned to her by her queen.

…

"Her highness's condition improved, your majesty. All that is needed now is for her highness to get proper rest."

The doctor, examining a still unconscious Julia, informed Loriam, who, alongside an extremely nervous and tired elf, let out a relieved sigh. The elf girl was glad that she could save the vampire princess since it meant she and her sister would be spared.

Loriam scribbled something onto a piece of paper, added a seal, and, along with a small leather pouch, handed it to the exhausted elf. She examined the paper and the pouch for their content. The paper was in short guaranteeing her and her sister’s freedom, while the pouch was filled with vampiric Aurem coins.

"Thank you for saving my girl. You may go now."

She didn’t intend to object to what she heard, and so with a quick bow, she took her sister and ran off before Loriam would have time to change her mind. On her part, Loriam watched the two former elven slaves leave in a hurry while a wolf slave that was in the room started to snuggle towards her resting mistress.

Relieved of the worry for Julia’s life, Loriam began thinking about the possible culprit. The obvious choice would be elves, but that can’t be right. Olia and Julia are engaged. Why would they try to kill her…. I sent that letter, didn’t I?

Well sure, sending a letter to a girl about the man she was supposed to marry and whom she thought was dead. is actually alive and a girl of a completely different race would definitely sound crazy. But still, there was no reason to try to kill Julia for it.

If you didn’t believe it, then you should come after me, not her. Why is it that every time somebody broke in here it was to hurt you, sweety? Loriam looked at Julia sadly, wondering if there was something she could have done.

Loriam shook her head, seeing her daughter’s calm face as she rested. She didn’t want to even imagine Julia’s reaction if the elves were actually responsible, that her beloved would be her enemy. Would she be sad? angry? Loriam didn’t want to know, and in order to not have to find out, she had to get in touch with the elves, something she hadn’t done in over 20 years.

I should write to her but before that. Loriam crouched and gently picked Julia up into her arms. Lily visibly wasn’t happy about her mistress being taken from her, but she begrudgingly chose to not complain; her mistress needed to rest after all. Loriam made sure that she held Julia firmly. Once she was sure, she walked out of the room with Lily silently following her all the way to her room, where Loriam immediately began writing.

"Don’t forget that this is only for the elven queen’s eyes."

"Of course, your majesty."

A blackguard woman saluted as she took an envelope from Loriam and disappeared into thin air. leaving Loriam in her room alone, almost. After closing the door, Loriam walked toward the bed. on which Lily was curled against Julia’s chest.

Loriam checked on Julia, once she made sure that Julia’s condition wasn’t getting worse, she lightly patted Julia’s head briefly. She lost lots of blood she is going to be thirsty.

Remembering what the doctors said, Loriam set a bottle of blood with a goblet onto the nightstand and lay on the bed so that she could protect her this time. Taking Julia into a gentle but firm embrace, falling asleep soon after.