"Your majesty, please, you must eat something."

Mirei was desperately trying to convince Loriam to eat her meal. Loriam, though, only absent-mindedly looked out the window.

She was thin, far thinner than she ever was. This was making Mirei worry. She had never before seen vampires starving themselves, and she had likewise never heard anything like this before. So, with each passing day, her queen didn’t eat anything, which caused her immense stress.

At first, Loriam ate normally. But as time went on, she began having problems sleeping. And with those, she also started to eat less and less, and one day she stopped completely.

"Your Majesty, please, you have to eat. If her highness saw you like this, then..."

Before Mirei finished talking, Loriam began sobbing. She has done that quite often lately. Primarily when her daughter was mentioned.

"Mirei… Why are you still here?"

"Yes?"

After a few minutes of sobbing, Loriam asked her the strangest question so far. Catching Mirei completely off guard.

What should she even answer? Wasn’t it clear why she was there?

"You are Julia’s maid... You should be with her and don’t waste your time with me."

"Your majesty…"

Mirei didn’t know what to say; in a way, by all traditions, she should be loyal to her mistress only. Had Julia ordered her to kill Loriam, then that would be what she had to do.

"I am loyal to the royal family, your majesty."

However, Mirei always thought it was stupid and that it would only lead to disaster. Not to mention, she knew for a fact that Princess Julia was not at all interested in becoming queen. So, as far as Mirei saw it, by being by Loriam’s side, she was already being loyal to her mistress.

"As such, I will follow you to the weary end."

Mirei bowed her head. But Loriam didn’t so much as look at her. She only continued to silently look out the window.

"My daughter is the queen now... and I can’t even congratulate her."

Loriam sounded more down than ever before. Mirei bit her lips.

"I don’t believe she is."

Mirei lifted her head and nervously said so. which surprised Loriam, as she ended up turning to face her.

"Her highness disliked the idea of inheriting the throne. I don’t believe that she would organize a coup."

Loriam looked like she was thinking about it. Thinking about it, she remembers that her daughter did say something like that. And based on their last interaction, she could guess that her daughter wasn’t behind the current situation. Though she couldn’t really say why someone would overthrow her and put her direct descended on the throne.

"What should we do? At this rate…"

Loriam arrived at a single conclusion. That her daughter is being used. This single thought made her heart ache. Having the throne or not was secondary when compared to her only daughter’s safety.

"I have to get to her, and take her back."

"As you wish, your majesty."

Mirei lowered her head. She was happy that her queen had returned to her senses. At least to a degree.

For the past few weeks, Mirei has been the only one of the two to go outside. As she did, she made sure to listen to what was happening. As far as she could tell, the coup ended successfully. Taking over the lands of vampires and succubi.

"Your majesty, supposedly the new queen is supposed to meet with a succubi queen next week."

She overheard a couple of soldiers talking about the succubi homeland becoming part of the motherland again. And that was the imperatrix, which, as far as she could tell, was what they called princess Julia. Was going to have the succubi queen swear fealty to her.

"What of it? It's not like it helps us get to her."

"You can leave that to me."

All of a sudden, the door was kicked open by an azure-haired woman. Shocked by it, Mirei froze for a second but quickly recovered and assumed a fighting stance.

"Relax; I am not an enemy."

The woman said this and kneeled down in front of Loriam.

"I am here out of loyalty to the Leranpe family. I shall help you get to the palace."

The woman lowered her head as low as she could.

Mirei didn’t see a reason to trust her. and she hoped that Loriam would neither.

"Your service will be appreciated."

Unfortunately, she didn’t seem to distrust her at all. Which made Mirei wonder whether Loriam’s brain took a vacation when her daughter was involved. Gods protect her majesty.