“But you still love him, don’t you?”
“Yes, from the bottom of my heart. Our marriage may have been a political one, but I have always loved him.”
Meiru looked into Anya’s eyes, saying nothing. Miledi and the others knew it wasn’t their place to say anything, so they just silently watched on.
Eventually, Anya seemed to see something in Meiru’s unwavering crimson eyes and shook her head with a slight smile.
In response, Meiru muttered, “You don’t want me to meet the king, do you?”
“No, actually, I very much do. However, I’m afraid it’s no longer possible.”
It didn’t escape Anya’s notice that Meiru said the king instead of my father.
“King Alesand passed away two years ago.”
“Oh no...” Morgan and Nevrai muttered in shock. Miledi and the others looked disappointed as well.
“So he’s no longer...?”
“Yes, the illness took him. But he passed away peacefully, in his sleep.”
“I see,” Meiru said simply, closing her eyes. Anya wasn’t sure if that was Meiru’s way of mourning him or not, but she decided to interpret it as such. Her expression softened as she looked at Meiru.
“Y-Your Majesty. Forgive me for speaking out of turn, but if...if His Majesty is dead, then is Alfard-sama the new king?” Morgan asked, shaken.
Anya, Miledi, and the others quickly changed gears. It was time to talk about matters of state once more.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get sidetracked.” Anya turned to Morgan.
“Alfard is currently missing.”
“Wh-Wh-What do you mean?!”
“He eloped.”
“Wait, what?!”
“I suppose to put it simply, he takes after the two of us in ways I hadn’t expected.”
“That’s not an explanation!” Morgan and Nevrai shouted simultaneously.
Apparently, the heir to the throne had eloped with his sweetheart and ran away. When Morgan and Nevrai finally understood that, they cradled their heads sadly.
“Umm, is what you want our help with related to the fact that the prince vanished?” Miledi asked hesitantly, and Anya nodded with a sigh.
“Before I explain, I need to confirm something. Morgan, Nevrai, what have you been doing for the past three years? Judging by your reactions, I doubt it, but you aren’t helping Alfard hide, are you?”
“Absolutely not.”
Morgan calmed himself down and explained what had happened to them. When he touched on the experiments and body modifications, Anya furrowed her brow and said, “How could they sully your blood like that? Both the Curtis and the Fist families come from a long line of pureblood vampires...”
Morgan and Nevrai frowned unhappily upon hearing that, but only for a moment as Anya instantly realized what she was saying and shook her head.
“I’m sorry. I know you yourselves haven’t changed, nor has your loyalty to Alfard. I shouldn’t have said such insensitive things.”
Morgan and Nevrai had expected Anya to berate them for letting their blood get tainted, so they were surprised to hear an apology.
“O-Oh no, it’s quite all right!”
“Please raise your head, Your Majesty!”
Naturally, Anya came from a pureblood noble family as well. One that could trace its lineage back to one of Dastia’s ancient kings, even. Thus, it wasn’t too surprising that she had the same conservative, traditional views as most vampire nobility. She respected blood purity and the history that could be traced back through blood. Mixed breeds were deserving of nothing but scorn, and both the parents of mixed breeds and mixed breeds themselves weren’t worthy of being true citizens of Dastia.
Considering the fact she held such views, it said a lot about how much she must have loved Alesand if she’d guessed that he had an illegitimate mixed-breed child and kept that secret for him. However, her ability to accept Alesand for who he was also helped her accept Morgan and Nevrai despite their changes. Plus, it was also what allowed her to rethink her own mindset.
“No, it’s important that I apologize. As someone who loved Alesand-sama, I need to be able to accept these things. Besides, it was exactly this mindset of mine that must have driven Alfard to such desperate lengths.”
Anya looked down, her voice full of regret as she explained what had happened.
For many years now, there had been someone Alfard loved deeply. However, she was a human woman. After Alesand died and people were preparing to name him king, Alfard publicly acknowledged the existence of his lover. Furthermore, he stated that so long as Dastia didn’t accept his marriage to her, he would never take the throne.
Upon hearing that, Morgan and Nevrai nodded in understanding.
“I see... That was why he wanted to find Meiru-dono so badly...”
“He wanted to prove there was precedent with the past king to force the people to accept his own marriage.”
Of course, it was possible he also just wanted to hand the throne over to Meiru instead. Either way, he’d been searching for Meiru to shake up the isolated conservative vampire society’s values regarding blood purity.
“I thought this nation was home to only vampires? Did Prince Alfard find his lover in the outside world?” Lyutillis asked, cocking her head.
“Our country is dotted with human villages.”
“What for?” Miledi asked, her voice dangerously low. She was imagining the worst-case scenario.
“We don’t mistreat them, if that’s what you think. We take in those who have nowhere else to go in the outside world and shelter them in exchange for a token amount of their blood. After all, it’s human blood that suits our tastes the most.”
Surprised, Oscar asked, “Does that mean...you guys shelter heretics?”
“Some of the people living within our borders would be considered such, yes. However, most of them have done so for generations. They’re all natives of Dastia,” she explained, prompting Miledi and the others to exchange glances. They felt a measure of relief knowing that there had been somewhere for heretics to go even before the Liberators had been formed.
“Still, I can’t believe the crown prince went and eloped...” Vandre said, speaking up for the first time in a long while.
Anya could sense the unasked question in Vandre’s tone, and a frown crossed her pretty features as she replied, “Do you think it was irresponsible of him? He had no choice but to run, since his beloved was in danger of being assassinated.”
“Assassinated?!” Miledi shouted.
“That’s pretty extreme,” Oscar said, his expression grim.
Apparently, one of the hardline factions among the nobles had plotted the assassination. Alfard’s brother, Sveit, had been aware of the plot, but he’d allowed it to move forward.
“When he discovered the plot, Alfard protected his beloved from the assailants. He captured them and forced them to spit out the names of the ringleaders behind the plot, then barged into their mansion and beat them half to death.”
“Th-That’s pretty impressive,” Miledi muttered, and Oscar and the others nodded along. However, that wasn’t the end of the story.
“After that, he stole their fortune and razed their mansion to the ground.”
“Wait, so he’s a thief?!” the Liberators shouted in unison.
Morgan and Nevrai just looked off into the distance. Their expression made it clear that it was the kind of thing Alfard might do if pushed to it. However, that wasn’t even the full extent of Prince Alfard’s wrath.