Chapter 157. Our Reunion (2)

We stared at each other for a few moments before Kaori with a forced smile replied, “Thanks for the very warm welcome, Lady Ayumi. It seems like you are dressed quite beautifully today.”

“My attire does not compare to the beauty of Your Majesty, the Princess, and her companions,” I responded before she chuckled as I took a glance at the servants before telling Fiona telepathically, “Tell the servants to move to the garden since the living room is a bit too tight.”

“No problem,” she replied before quickly informing the servants who were a bit confused but nodded as well since they most likely understood that Fiona was not some ordinary person that I invited, “All of them are now moving to the garden, also, I hope you can tell that demigod to not kill me with her aura… it’s too suffocating.”

“I understand,” I responded before turning my attention back to Mana and the others as I suggested, “How about we move to the garden and talk over there?”

“We will follow your arrangements,” Kaori said before we walked towards the garden as Kaori looked around with a smile, “You have quite the beautiful manor, even though the number of servants can be counted with five hands, the manor looks cleaner than most I have visited. Is there any secret to it?”

“There is one secret and that is having competent servants,” I replied before she giggled as we soon reached the garden where a marvelous sight greeted us. Tulips and beautiful flowers were planted around the garden, creating beautiful scenery as two trees with lamps hanging on their branches stood at two corners.

I had never visited the garden before which made me surprised over how beautiful it was as Kaori complimented, “The garden looks well-maintained, the flowers were positioned strategically to catch the eyes of the guests and the trees were decorated in a manner that made it beautiful to be near during nighttime.”

“Thank you for your compliments, Your Majesty. I will relay the compliments to the gardeners and servants behind the beautiful scene you are watching,” I followed after before we walked towards a table where Fiona and Tanya were waiting on my seat together with Raeliana and the others who were standing beside the other seats.

After reaching the tables, we soon sat down on our respective seats before the servants who were pushing the service carts approached us, swiftly placing the meals together with our plates, cups, and all those other stuff onto our respective sides.

The maids poured tea wonderfully onto our cups with Crystal and Flora opting for juice which the maids followed. The two didn’t like tea, neither did me or Kaori. It was only Mana who liked tea, in particular, Kaori and I loved coffee more than tea, but we didn’t have any coffee beans here which is why we are restrained with tea.

“How about introducing me to those beautiful companions of yours, Your Majesty?” I acted a bit impolite which Kaori took no offense as she looked at Mana and the others who nodded.

Mana stood up and spoke, “Greetings to the Ducal Princess. I am Mana Eve, the current head of the Eve Viscount family over at the Kingdom of Falva, this is my daughter who is currently the heir of the Queenshelm clan and my only successor.”

“Flora Eve,” Flora stood up and replied with only her name. She was visibly taking a distance away from me which made my heart ache as I looked at her with a forced smile before Mana and Flora returned back to their seats as the servants soon finished arranging our meals.

The meals were covered in cloches which added a sense of curiosity to them before I clapped my hands as the maids quickly followed, opening all the cloches at the same time, releasing a wonderful aroma to the garden that made Crystal drool almost immediately.

Among the meals were five burgers which were enough for us, vegetable salads that were placed on five plates, and five steaks which were glazed in what seems to be honey. The burgers, in particular, caught the eye of Kaori who was already preparing to grab one before noticing the sandwiches at another plate, specifically the ones that had wasabi.

“I heard the town had invented a new condiment that was never seen before, the product has made sparks among the nobility after the Duchess who was known to only advertise products that guaranteed quality started having tea parties once more while offering a bite of a dish with the new condiment. I suppose these sandwiches have the new condiment with them, is that correct?” Kaori looked at me with a smile.

“It is as you said, Your Majesty. The new condiment is used in a few of the sandwiches while the rest uses the condiments that which you have shown and the people of the land have created,” I replied with a smile, “How about we have a short meal for now?”

After saying that, I clapped my hands and gestured everyone near us except for Fiona to leave to which the servants including Raeliana and the others followed, leaving the vicinity, and heading back inside the manor as ten layers of magic circle appeared around us.

The layers of magic spells grew before a green layer that cubed us inside appeared. The spell was none other than a higher form of outside illusion and noise-canceling which seems to have come from Kaori who was smiling.

“You can talk freely now, the noise-canceling and outside illusion is active,” she said as I heaved a sigh of relief.

“It has been a long time, Mana and Flora,” I looked at Mana and Flora who looked back at me. Mana had a smile, but Flora had this unexplainable expression on me, it seems like she had a grudge on me which I wanted to know why “How have the two of you been?”

“We are doing fine over at our side, the gift from His Majesty allowed us to sustain for the first few weeks until Kaori started sending some support which came in different forms from platinum coins to even businesses which made me a bit busier as I had to manage my fief as well,” Mana replied with a smile, “How about you, Ayumi?”

“The town does look a lot beautiful than any other civilization I have seen, I am also curious over what you have done to make this place look like a mix of magical medieval-modern which is impressive since I would have never thought about doing something like this,” Kaori also intervened.

“It wasn’t much… well, it was quite stressful for me since I arrived on dry land with people that were pretty much on the brink of their lives. I arrived here in a rush, only carrying twenty gold coins and no clothes to wear… and that twenty gold coins vanished immediately as well since I had to use it to feed the people with bread,” I showed a bitter smile, “It was tough for me since I was never used to this.”

“You should have told me to help you,” Kaori said as I shook my head.

“This is my battle which is why I never asked for a single cent from you. Well, after taking out a small loan from the bank and using the money in a strict budget, we managed to revitalize the town before entering into a stable state which is the state we are now,” I added with a sigh, slicing the steak on my plate, and taking a bite on it.

Flora was already eating the steak, which was made out of boar meat, her face despite trying hard to hide it, loved the steak a lot that she couldn’t help but look at the burger which was also steak, drooling which made me giggle as I turned towards Crystal who happily ate a balanced meal ever since I enforced a new meal plan for her.

“Right, I heard this town was cursed… how did you manage to break it?” Mana asked with curiosity, “Also, who is that servant beside you, and why are you allowing her to stay—it seems like you trust her a lot for her to stay inside the spell.”

“The curse was easily found on the first day, it seems like someone deliberately placed a large curse spell that was being supplied with mana from a large mana crystal hidden on a landmark which people ignored simply because it was a landmark towards the town,” I replied before looking at Fiona, “As for her, she is my newest servant who formed a soul contract with me which means she is unable to disobey my orders.”

“Your servant seems a little familiar to me,” Kaori frowned her eyebrows as I chuckled.

“She is Fiona… You know that Succubus Queen from the Dungeon of Fiona. I spent the last two days conquering the dungeon alone before forming a contract with her to be a strategist for me once more,” I said before Kaori’s eyes widened.

“How did you manage to conquer that dungeon which even I would have a hard time alone?!” she asked to which I simply smiled.

“It seems like they don’t know about your true powers,” Fiona’s voice echoed inside my head.

“Well, the only reason why I could conquer the dungeon was because of my second race… it may hurt Crystal so if you want me to transform then please cast the strongest defensive spell on Crystal first,” I said before Kaori nodded, summoning almost six hundred swords out of nowhere.

The swords soon danced above Crystal, turning into phantom blue swords that rained down in a circle radius around her as Kaori said, “You can transform now if you want.”

After receiving the signal, I soon transformed into my vampiric form before the entire ground around us trembled for a few seconds while I desperately control the pressure that was released from my vampiric form which seemed to shocked Kaori, “This is my second race which is Vampire Empress.”

“Do you want me to demonstrate half a percent of the strength of this form?” I asked before Kaori looked at me with a serious expression, nodding as I looked towards Crystal before one magic circle appeared a few inches above her head.

The magic circle was deep red in color and was only staring at the defensive layer on Kaori before I mumbled: “[Blood Magic: Defense Crumble]” before the six hundred swords that protected Crystal exploded, vanishing as I immediately transformed back to my Divine Human race which erased the pressure that was being released from the vampiric form.

Kaori couldn’t help but look at me with her eyes wide open, “You have to be kidding right, are you sure that is only half a percent of the total strength?! That was my strongest defensive spell, and it was easily destroyed with a single magic circle?!”

“What’s your current level?” I asked.

“I am currently at level 243 according to the system,” she replied as I shook my head.

“My vampiric form’s current level is equivalent to 485 in human levels, it’s a large gap between us,” I showed a bitter smile. It seems like Kaori despite being a demigod was weaker than my vampiric form, well… Vampire Empress is quite overpowered but then again, the drawbacks are painful.

Taking my knife in my hand, I tried slicing my steak before realizing the steak on my plate had vanished which shocked me as I looked at Flora who was averting her gaze, “Flora… did you just steal my steak?”

“Aywumi-mwa is accusing me!” she pouted while desperately looking away.

“Mama, I can vouch that older sister stole your steak!” Crystal rose her hand and looked at Flora with a disgusted look, “She almost stole my steak as well!”

“You can eat as much as you want, my cute daughter. Don’t worry,” I looked at Flora with a smile before taking the burger only to realize the burger suddenly vanished while I was trying to hold it… I looked around before seeing a fresh burger on Flora’s plate which made my jaw fall to the floor, “Err… can you at least spare me a bit?”

“PFFT—” Kaori started laughing.

Crystal looked at me with pity as she sliced a part of her steak and tried handing it to me, “Mama, you can take my stea—” only for the steak that she was trying to give to vanish as well, appearing on Flora’s plate which made Kaori laugh even more.

“There really is nothing that can beat a glutton’s instincts,” I let out a soft giggle.

Crystal looked at Flora with burning eyes, standing up from her chair as she grabbed Flora’s plate with a pout, flicking the gluttonous brown-haired girl’s forehead as Crystal scolded, “You should know how to be kind to Mama!”

“I am your elder sister; you should give that plate back to me!” Flora tried to refute as Crystal’s cheeks puffed up even more.

“Mama! Please give elder sister vegetables instead! Look at how fat she has become from all the meat she has eaten!” Crystal looked at me with puppy eyes that made it irresistible to reject. Kaori only kept laughing at the entire situation as I heaved a sigh.

“How about the two of you just eat what you wan—” I tried to side with both before the two of them shouted at me.

“Aywumi-mwa, pick one side!” “Mama, one side only!”

I felt an immense headache watching the two fight over food, heaving a sigh as I looked at Kaori and Mana who was watching me with pity, “AAAAAAAAAAAH! GIVE ME A BREAAAK!”