“Then, he stripped the ringleaders naked and left them tied up in the middle of the city square with their crimes written in blood on the floor.”
“Holy shit, this guy is hardcore!” Miledi exclaimed.
For a noble, being humiliated in such a fashion was a fate worse than death. Alfard had clearly tried to make them suffer as much as possible. Meiru seemed suitably impressed by his deeds, while Lyutillis looked like she wished someone would do that to her. Laus hit them both with a small Soul Shock to scold them.
“Since then, two years have passed and no one’s found him. Right now, Sveit is serving as the acting king in his absence.”
Anya, meanwhile, was serving as his adviser.
“Alfard probably knows that Sveit allowed the assassination plot to happen. The two of them were never really on good terms to begin with. It started with Sveit’s one-sided grudge, but at this point, they probably both hate each other,” Anya explained.
Sveit was the reliable older brother who’d always fulfilled his duties and stayed true to the old ways, while Alfard had been the free-spirited misfit who never seemed to care much about bloodlines or blood purity. The two of them couldn’t have been any more different. Things had finally come to a head when Alesand had named Alfard the successor, and Alfard had claimed he wouldn’t take the throne unless his human lover was allowed to formally be his wife and queen. Sveit had, of course, seen that as a rejection of everything vampires stood for.
“Sveit has always been obsessed with blood purity, more than most vampires, I’d say.”
Moreover, he was part of the faction that believed that vampires were the ultimate race. His overly serious personality had led him to easily get set in his ways in the worst way possible.
“Incidentally, while most vampires do care about blood purity, it’s not for discriminatory reasons,” Morgan explained. He didn’t want Miledi and the others getting the wrong impression. “We value the history that ancient bloodlines have built up, but we don’t use that as an excuse to look down on other races as inferior.”
“So what, you’re just proud of who you are?” Miledi asked.
Morgan simply nodded with a smile. Nevrai then added, “Plus, our ideology is a way to protect us against Ehit.”
“How so?”
“Vampires are less fertile than most other races. That’s why our population is the lowest among the sentient races. Put simply, we’re a rare specimen in Ehit’s eyes.”
From Ehit’s perspective, it was much easier to play around with numerous, easily replaceable pawns than rarer, more precious ones. Essentially, the vampires were protecting themselves by making themselves so scarce that Ehit couldn’t toy around with them without risking driving them extinct.
Sighing, Anya brought the conversation back on track by saying, “Part of the reason Alfard left was likely because he realized he couldn’t trust me either.”
“Wait, you also let the assassination plot go through?” Miledi asked, shocked.
Anya shook her head and replied, “No, I didn’t know about it. However, I suspected from the moment Alfard made his declaration that someone would probably try something of the sort. And yet, I did nothing.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was hoping it would open his eyes. I was confident he would be able to protect his beloved, but I wanted him to see just how dangerous consorting with non-vampires was for royalty.”
“So you held back for the same reason my mom left, and for the same reason the king gave up on taking my mom back with him? Is that right?” Meiru asked.
“Yes.”
“I see. That’s what you meant when you said he takes after both of you.”
Anya let out another long sigh upon hearing that.
“We need to talk about the royal line of succession. This is the part that concerns your request.”
Anya went on to explain that it took more than just being named the successor by the previous king to ascend to Dastia’s throne. Unless someone underwent a very specific coronation ceremony, they couldn’t officially become king.
“There’s a special magic circle in the basement of the royal palace.”
That magic circle read the memories of whoever stepped into it and determined whether or not they had what it took to be a true king. If they did, a pillar of light would shoot up from the palace, announcing to the citizens the birth of their new leader. This was a very ancient spell that had been created back during the age of the gods. However, Alfard had refused to enter the magic circle and it had rejected Sveit.
“Only after being recognized by the magic circle is the new king granted access to the Font of Knowledge.”
“Let me guess...” Miledi said with a knowing look, and Anya nodded.
“That’s the entire historical record of our race, passed down from king to king. All of that history is directly implanted into their brain.”
“I see... That’s why you can’t help us, then?”
Dastia currently had no king. The vampire nation’s vast historical records weren’t kept in a library, they were all stored in the reigning king’s head.
“That’s...rather unexpected. And a bit of a problem,” Oscar said, adjusting his glasses.
“If it checks your memories, it’ll be hard to fake too. If all it did was check to see if you had royal blood, I could have just swiped that knowledge for myself, but...” Meiru mumbled, seemingly unconcerned about the repercussions of stealing the vampire kingdom’s entire history.
Anya, Morgan, and Nevrai all looked at her, aghast.
“I’m sorry, she just has a bad habit of thinking like a pirate!” Miledi said, apologizing on Meiru’s behalf. Laus hit Meiru with another Soul Shock, this time hard enough to rattle her.
“Ahem! Anyway, now you know where we stand,” Anya said, then snapped her fingers. It seemed that was the end of their secret conversation, as the soundproofing barrier vanished and she called in one of the maids who’d traveled here with her.
A taciturn black-haired vampire woman walked into the room, pushing a cart in front of her. Sitting on the cart was a teapot full of fragrant tea and a dozen or so teacups.
The maid poured everyone a cup, bowed gracefully to the party, then retired to a corner of the room, looking so inconspicuous that even Miledi and the others almost lost sight of her.
“W-Wow...” Oscar said, impressed. As a maid fan, he obviously fully appreciated her skills. A little surprised, the maid smiled back at him. Miledi also smiled at him, but her smile made his blood run cold. He said nothing more as he picked up his teacup and hid his expression behind his glasses.
Anya gave Oscar and Miledi curious looks, but she refrained from prying and instead went on to formally make her request of the Liberators, saying, “Would you be willing to find Alfard and bring him back to the capital?”
“In return, you’ll give us the information we’re looking for?”
“Correct. You only need to bring Alfard back. We’ll persuade him ourselves. All we want is a chance to reconcile with him.”
“By we, you mean Sveit as well?” Morgan asked, and Anya nodded.
“As I said before, you need the approval of that magic circle to become Dastia’s king. The people will not accept Sveit, as he was unable to pass that trial.”