Lonia shifted her entire body closer to Rafina.
“Read to me.”
“Okay.”
Without even looking up, Rafina put away her brick-sized book and used her tail to pull a thin booklet from beneath her pillow.
“《The Legend of the Hero》. How about this one?”
“I don't want to hear stories about humans! Besides, a Hero hasn't appeared in hundreds of years, right?”
“True, because the last Hero failed to defeat the Demon King.”
“Then there's nothing worth saying about someone like that! Change it!”
“If we're changing it...”
Rafina pulled another book from beneath the pillow.
On the cover was a round, chubby blue slime, with the title written in elegant cursive: 《Slime Adventures》.
The tip of her tail gripped the booklet and held it out in front of Lonia.
“Your favorite picture book.”
Lonia stared at the blue slime for two seconds.
“...Are you kidding me?”
“Didn't you say last time that big robots are cool...”
“How many years ago was that!”
Lonia slapped the picture book away from the tail. The booklet flipped twice in the air and landed on the floor with a smack.
The slime's eyes stared up at the ceiling, looking completely innocent.
“I'm thirteen! I'm not a kid anymore!”
“Yes, Nia is a big girl now.”
Rafina's tail swayed in the air, hooking another book down from the bookshelf.
This one was much thicker, with a dark blue hardcover and gold-leaf lettering.
“Then let's read this one. 《Basic Theoretical Application of Magic: Revised Fourteenth Edition》.”
“Isn't there anything a bit more adult?!”
“A bit more adult...”
Rafina looked at Lonia, an extremely subtle curve playing at the corners of her mouth.
“The kind Ellie likes?”
The tips of Lonia's ears turned red.
“Not that kind! I mean a normal novel or something!”
“The book you borrowed from Ellie last time, 《How to Tame a Fire Dragon》, has a dog-eared page on seventy-three.”
“That's—that—the page was already folded like that!!”
“You even wrote a note in the margin: 'Can you really tame a fire dragon this way?'”
Lonia grabbed a pillow and chucked it at her.
The pillow struck Rafina's horn, and stuffing burst from the tear, sending white fluff drifting all over their heads and faces.
Her long hair was covered in stuffing, and a clump of white fluff hung from the tip of her horn, making her look like she had sprouted a mushroom.
Lonia stared at the mushroom. She tried to hold it in for two seconds, failed, and burst into laughter.
Rafina laughed too.
The warm light of the magic lamp illuminated the two thirteen-year-old girls, one covered in stuffing, the other doubled over with laughter.
Scattered across the duvet were brick-sized books, picture books, deep blue theoretical textbooks, and half a pillow's worth of cotton stuffing.
That night, they squeezed into the same bed. Lonia's back pressed against Rafina's chest, the arrow-tipped tail wrapped around her waist, its cool tip resting on her lower abdomen.
Rafina's breath fell against the back of her neck, carrying a faint scent of paper and ink from old books.
Lonia closed her eyes, listening to the heartbeat behind her.
It was deeply comforting.
Lonia gently pinched Rafina's tail, her fingertips rubbing the smooth, arrow-shaped surface as a cool sensation seeped from her fingers into her palm.
“Fina.”
“Hmm?”
“Will you be here tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“What about the day after?”
“I'll be here too.”
“And the day after that?”
“...Nia, go to sleep.”
“Answer me.”
“...I'll be here. Every single day.”
Lonia gripped the tip of the tail a little tighter and closed her eyes.
...
Year 1376 of the New Calendar. Winter.
Many major events shook the world. The King of the Storm Empire was replaced, with the new ruler hailed as the Empress of Storms; a rebellion broke out within Esperfite, resulting in a purge of certain angels who were publicly decapitated.
But Lonia didn't know about them, nor did she have any intention of finding out.
She was seventeen this year. She had broken through to Rank Six in the training field.
At seventeen, she was much taller than she had been at thirteen, though she was still not considered tall among vampire women.
Even though her older sister Eliza's appearance had frozen at the age of eighteen, anyone standing next to them could still tell at a glance who was the older sister and who was the younger.
Her long black hair fell naturally, the ends brushing against her waist. Her pale face had completely shed almost all childhood softness, its lines as sharp as if carved by a knife, making her crimson eyes look cold and distant.
The lines below her collarbones had begun to curve, revealing a firm and graceful silhouette.
As she walked out of the training field, the thread deep within her consciousness vibrated.
Lonia closed her eyes, sinking her consciousness into the thread.
『Fina.』
The other end of the thread was silent for three seconds.
Then, a warm pulse traveled back, carrying a hint of proud warmth.
Followed immediately by an apology.
“...In a meeting?”
The pulse dissolved into vague fragments of thought: Royal Court, proposal, vote, sorry.
Lonia opened her eyes.
“It's fine. Let me know when you're done.”
Another wave of apology came from the other end of the thread, even stronger than before.
Lonia withdrew her consciousness from the thread and continued walking forward.
Rank Six.
It had taken her four years to climb from Rank Five to Rank Six.
In those same four years, Rafina had gone from Rank Eight to Rank Nine.
What kind of existence was a Rank Nine?
The Pope of the Church of Radiance, the Demon King of Abyss City, the Chief of the Mage Tower, the Sword Saint of Avalon, the High Priest of the elves, the Beast King of the Fanged Wastelands, and the last fire dragon.
“A monster.”
Tia, who was already in her twenties and at Rank Seven, had said as much upon hearing the news.
Meanwhile, the Demon King's body was failing him.
He spent most of his time lying in the sanatorium room in the deepest part of Gloom Castle, cared for by dedicated attendants.
Every three days, Rafina went to perform a magic stabilization treatment, but the effects grew weaker and weaker, lasting a shorter time with each session.
The daily affairs of the Royal Court, joint conferences, diplomatic negotiations, military deployments—all of these responsibilities that originally belonged to the Demon King had gradually shifted into Rafina's hands over the past two years.
Bit by bit, naturally, the flow of power redirected from the Demon King's sanatorium room to Rafina's study.
At seventeen, Rafina sat behind the Demon King's desk, managing the operations of an entire empire.
The last time Lonia had seen her was three weeks ago.
It used to be once a week in Maple Town, then once every two weeks, and eventually once a month.
Lonia walked into her guest room in Gloom Castle.
Eliza had applied for a permanent guest room for her two years ago under the pretext of “facilitating affairs between the Vampire Court and the Demon King's direct territory,” though everyone knew it was actually to keep her closer to Rafina.
The guest room was at the end of the hallway, separated from Rafina's room by three doors—less than twenty steps away.
Lonia sat on the edge of the bed, her crimson slit-pupils staring at an old map hanging on the opposite wall—a topographical map of the area surrounding Maple Town.
She closed her eyes, sinking her consciousness into the thread.
『Fina.』
The pulse came back. It was faint and exhausted, like the final flicker of an oil lamp about to burn out.
Apologies.
More apologies.
Along with a vague fragment of thought—Eliza, proposal, vampire privileges, rejection, sorry.
Lonia's fingers clenched against the edge of the bed.
Eliza's proposal.
She knew about that proposal. The Vampire Court demanded double voting rights in the Ten Courts Joint Conference, citing the vampires' historical status and contributions to the Demon King's direct territory.
During the suppression of the Black Tide, one of the only Rank Nine experts in vampire history, the one later generations called the Ancestor of Blood, had held the gates of Abyss City at a critical moment.
On that day, the beast that broke through the earth was born of blood and resentment.
The coupling of curse and consciousness birthed a seed of twisted evil.
A dead thing that craved, envied, and went mad.
—The 『Beast of Blood』, the complete manifestation of the Authority of 『Blood』. It transformed everything around it into a hunting ground for a beast's slaughter.
He had held the city gates, and because of this, the Vampire Royal Court rose to rapid prominence.
Countless years had passed. Eliza had spent half a year preparing the documents, securing the support of the Shadow Demon Court and the Lich Court, and officially submitting the proposal at the Joint Conference.
Rafina rejected it, stating that double voting rights would shatter the balance of power among the Ten Courts, triggering a chain reaction from the other Courts and ultimately leading to the collapse of the Joint Conference system.
It took her less than fifteen minutes at the meeting to tear apart every single loophole in the proposal, turning the documents Eliza had meticulously prepared for half a year into a pile of waste paper.
After returning to the vampire territory, Eliza sat in her study all night.
The next morning, she said a single sentence to Lonia.
“Your friend rejected your sister's proposal.”
Lonia didn't reply.
The pulse on the other end of the thread gradually faded as Rafina's consciousness withdrew from the connection.
She had more important things to do.
Meetings, documents, decisions, the demands of ten Court Heads, the operations of an empire.
Lonia opened her eyes.
The guest room was very quiet. The old map on the wall gleamed grayish-white under the blue light of the phosphorescent flame. She had carved a small cross over Maple Town's location with her fingernail, and the groove of the cross was now filled with dust.
Looking up, she stared at the ceiling.
Fina was busy.
Truly busy.
Lonia reached her hand inside her collar, her fingertips brushing against the copper hairpin hanging below her collarbone.
It was Rafina's.
Rafina had taken it off last year and handed it to her for safekeeping, saying the Demon King told her it was inappropriate to wear in public, so she wanted Lonia to keep it for her.
Lonia squeezed the hairpin in her palm, gripping it so tightly that the edges of the copper leaf dug into her skin, leaving a faint red mark.
Rate on N.U.
