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Episode 1:
Soiree on a Dark Night
THE MOON RESEMBLED A THIN SLIVER OF a sword hanging in the starry sky, and the smell of fragrant roses filled the air of the garden. The only light to be found was the little lantern sitting on the tea table. I couldn’t even make out the face of the person next to me, but those who lived in the shadows didn’t care about such trifling matters.
Not a single sound could be heard. Not the sound of tea being sipped or poured into the white porcelain cups, not even anyone’s breathing. Yet the attendees of this moonlit tea party were quietly enjoying themselves.
Clatter.
At least, everyone but me was enjoying themselves.
“Lady Yulucia, please stop making such loud noises!” The silver-haired Mylene had been sipping her tea with her eyes shut despite the bulging of the vein in her temple, but she finally lost her patience and shot up to her feet.
Е̄ n ūm а̃. і̌ d
“But it’s so dark.”
That’s right. Even though I was a demon and thus also a creature of darkness, my vision was that of a typical human’s. Why did I have to have that kind of human flaw?!
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My eyes never got tired when I read by lantern light, my vision never got worse, and I could see magic too, but I had no dark vision, demon’s eye, or even any girlish charm to speak of.
On top of that, the season being what it was, my eyes were feeling awfully dry lately.
My teacup clattered as I placed it back on the saucer, but I misjudged its location and the saucer went flying. My demon maid Tina caught it and casually put it back under my cup as if nothing had happened.
“Have you no manners, Lady Yulucia?! I thought you were a noble! A demon!”
Ẅ еb ňo v e l̈ Е̇ ńu må
“Awww, you make me sound like I’ve got my head in the clouds all the time.”
Mylene clearly had strict standards or beliefs or whatnot about how nobles should act. She took things so seriously! Why was she even a vampire? I had been wondering for some time now. She seemed be overly obsessed with her idea of her image as someone who thrived in the shadows. Like, to an absurd degree.
“Mylene, have you ever said anything like ‘my right eye is throbbing’ or ‘my left arm’s acting up’ before?”
“What is that supposed to mean?!”
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Whoops, well, at least the eighth-grader syndrome didn’t seem to be getting any worse.
It was so cringe. I would know.
Еñũm̄ â . і̃d
Putting all that aside for now, ever since the night Mylene and I became friends, we regularly held a Moonlit Tea Party for just the two of us.
She also routinely hosted tea parties (where all of the guests returned home safely) to avert any suspicion from the Holy Kingdom, but our private tea parties didn’t have any humans in attendance, since ours were exclusive to high-ranking non-humans lurking in the Holy Kingdom.
Just as an aside, we skipped the decadence for these more private tea parties. The ones with humans were much more lavish.
Though there weren’t many of us in attendance, we still had Mylene’s private lady’s maids and butlers, along with my own personal attendants who had flung their humanity out to sea. However, when these four devoted themselves solely to their work, they melted away into the darkness and it was hard to tell if they were actually with us or not.
On top of that, there was this rumor going around that when the two of us were together, things got very extravagant indeed…
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“Now, now, Mylene. There’s no need to get so upset. Make sure you take your vitamins. Want some wakame seaweed?”
“No, thanks!”
I didn’t blame her. I didn’t want it either. But I had a ton of it, so I had to get rid of it somehow. Wasting food would make me feel bad for the farmers (though this came from the sea).
I usually gave it out for free to the Glimmering Darkness or Whatever Society, but they weren’t really responsive toward it either because it reeked of seawater.
“You already sent a whole coach full of that dried…seagrass, was it? After I ate it, my belly was quite bloated and what happened after was quite unmentionable.”
I fell silent in surprise. She ate it? Even though she’s a vampire?
Е ṅ u ṁ ā . і d̃
Everyone behind me was stunned save for Noah, who had been the one to deliver the seaweed.
Hey, Fanny? Why are you suddenly wearing your clown mask? Surely you’re not trying to hide your laughter, are you? Even when you’ve fully transformed into a demon, your face is only half-covered, so why are you fully masked now?
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Perhaps it was something she’d picked up from her life as a demon.
Nevertheless, Mylene was just so upfront about everything. It was utterly adorable.
“You’re not wrong…” I had a feeling I was about to stir the hornet’s nest, so I flicked my teacup as a means of changing the subject, making a ting noise. “But I must say, while I understand that this tea was made with high-quality leaves, when we’re the ones drinking the tea…”
“You have a point,” Mylene said after a moment, stifling her fury as she corrected her posture in her seat.
Е̃_nu m̊ä.і̀ d̆
Sweet, I won… Or maybe not.
Us non-humans didn’t find human food to be tasty at all. Although vampires were closer to humans than demons were, they were no exception. Eating food for us was simply a matter of mimicking human behavior.
Why did human food taste bad to us? And why did vampires thirst for blood? Mylene and the other vampires had yet to realize the reason for it.
“And so!”
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Nia dramatically interrupted me by smacking her scabbard behind me.
“Why are you suddenly acting so suspicious?” Mylene asked.
Е̌n_ú mа .і̄d̃
“Now, now, Mylene. As it so happens, I have something I would like to recommend for you to try.”
“Is that so?” Mylene eyed me with suspicion. She clearly didn’t trust me after the wakame incident.
“Hey, Noah.” I snapped my fingers.
My demon butler Noah gave a slow bow. “Right away, Lady Yulucia.” He made a fresh pot of tea and silently placed it in front of Mylene.
She stared at it quizzically. “Isn’t this just the same exact tea my people made?”
“Indeed it is.” Noah wore a smile like a mask as he took out something that looked like a white mist from his breast pocket and wrung it out like a fruit, letting it drip into the tea. “Please give this a taste, Lady Mylene.”
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Mylene didn’t even try to hide her scowl.
Well, of course she was scowling. I understood completely. This whole thing was quite shady, but when someone stronger than you was addressing you politely and with a smile, you couldn’t possibly say no.
Mylene glared at me as she reluctantly brought the cup to her lips and…
The taste left her wide-eyed with surprise. I could see my reflection in her pretty purplish-silver irises.
“Well? Was this good-quality soul to your liking?”
That’s right. With help from my four attendants, I had at long last obtained better food! Ta-da!
È n̄ům̄а . і̇d
How was I to get rid of my picky eating habits? As all mothers of the world knew, it was best to mix a child’s dislikes in with something they like.
Nia and Noah’s twin powers of absorbing and releasing played a huge part here.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“Huh? What’s this? A soul? In this tea? Impossible.”
Vampires had the power to absorb souls through the bloodstream. Surely Mylene recognized this mellow flavor. Despite her confusion and surprise, she proceeded to drink the entire cup of tea down in one gulp. It was most ungentlewomanly, if I could say so myself.
“Ahh… Do you have any more?” Mylene looked at me greedily. It was evident that she liked the soul tea.
However…
Ŵ еbǹӧ ṽеl Е̇ n̈ u_m а
“My apologies, Mylene. That soul belonged to a sinful corrupt priest in his forties, making it a rather valuable commodity.” And there was a sad story behind it too.
A brother and sister had grown up in the slums. As they were citizens of the Holy Kingdom, they were pure of heart and lived honest lives in reference to the Goddess despite their destitute circumstances.
However, their peaceful days ended when the sister fell sick. The disease had not been one that was hard to cure, but the church required a generous donation in exchange for their healing services.
The boy’s younger sister died as a result of the unobtainable cost of the cure. The once kindhearted boy began to begrudge the gods and detest the church. He managed to infiltrate the church as a priest and bided his time for decades to get his revenge, which involved many of the church’s faithful. It was a tale of a foolish and miserable boy, but…
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“Fanny harvested him during one of her evening walks.”
“Hee hee hee.” Fanny was innocently pleased to hear me praise her so—but she still had that clown mask on!
W e_b n о́ v̊e l̊ Е nůmа_
“I see,” Mylene replied, clearly disappointed to learn that this delicious tea wasn’t readily available.
I decided to move on to the main topic I wished to discuss. “That said, how about the two of us take an evening stroll as well, Mylene?”
“Huh?”
The purpose of tonight’s tea party was to teach the vampires how delicious souls were and get them accustomed to being fed. My real aim was to get the vampires to more proactively help me and get Mylene and her vampires to manage the underbelly of the Holy Kingdom for me as my minions.
I flashed her a demonic grin, flapping my golden wings as I held my hand out to Mylene.
“Tonight, I’m going to teach you how to pick out delicious souls.”
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