After entering her room, Reina finally realized something crucial.
'I did not eat a thing since I entered this world!' She gripped her hair as now she was feeling her stomach rumbling in hunger.
According to her memories, the last thing she had eaten was the pudding that Lady Marin's maid had offered her as a form of confession for her feelings.
'What a load of bull!' Reina scoffed as that was the same pudding laced with poison which later became Rein's cause of death.
While everyone believed that Lady Amaira's poison had not affected Rein Melk, she knew better than anyone about just how much that poison had tormented Rein.
'Enough to kill her.' She gritted her teeth while thinking of those ladies who were the cause of Rein's death.
She had seen the memories of Rein as the poor chamberlain suffered before dying all alone inside this same room.
The thought of those women whose actions cost Rein her life made Reina wish to pay them back with heavy interest for their devious deeds.
However, she was not powerful enough nor wealthy enough to openly oppose the two ladies who had been chosen by the Elders of the Kingdom to become King Zander's bride.
The Elders of the Kingdom were a group of powerful men who could be considered as mysterious benefactors of the Valanthur Kingdom.
Even the King valued their advice and sought their opinions regarding major decisions made in the Kingdom.
They could be considered as the silent well-wishers of the Valanthur Kingdom who only made their presence known in certain matters at certain times.
However, their most important task was to find suitable kings and queens to rule over this mighty land.
Valanthur's governance fell under monarchy and the King was the supreme ruler of the land.
But the title of the King and his throne was not passed down through generations to members of the same family.
In the cut-throat world that Reina was now in, only the powerful could stand at the top while the rest needed to bow and serve the one above them.
The Kingdom of Valanthur had always been ruled by the strongest man or woman alive.
This Kingdom was originally established by Vampires but each King assimilated new tribes, clans, and species during their reign.
Thus, Valanthur became a Kingdom with a wide concoction of species residing mostly in peace.
The strongest beings in Valanthur were vampires so the one who could stand above the rest and was chosen to be their King had always been a Vampire of the highest caliber.
The special aspect of Valanthur, which set it apart from other Kingdoms, was that any contender who deemed themselves to be worthy of the Throne could challenge the present King at any given time.
However, he would have to face a multitude of people before he could stand before the King to challenge him.
This was often a public event and everyone in the Kingdom could flock to see the King and his men in action.
The king's ministers, his generals, and finally, his aides would first face the challenger and only after defeating them all could the newcomer confront the final boss himself.
If the contender could defeat the King during this match, he would be immediately crowned the next King of Valanthur.
While the defeated King would either be banished or killed right there.
On the other hand, if the contender failed then the King would rip his heart out before the audience to display that the outcome of such defiance would only result in death.
After all, they could not let the man who undermined his authority and assumed himself to be above the King to survive lest he tried such insolence once again.
While this was the norm followed in Valanthur, the circumstances under which King Zander took over the throne were different from what had taken place in the past.
The previous King was said to have fallen ill to the point where he could not attend to the matters of his Kingdom and hence had to step down voluntarily.
Zander Chadwin Rudwick, a young and promising vampire was selected by the Elders and even managed to receive the approval of the previous King.
'The previous King disappeared without a trace after Zander took over the throne.' Rein rubbed her chin in thought.
Of course, there were rumors that King Zander disposed of the previous King in order to eliminate any potential threats to his throne and has been ruling this Kingdom ever since.
'Who knows? That scary man must have done it.' She shrugged her shoulders as she separated herself from such thoughts.
These events had taken place before Rein had joined the Palace to serve him so they had nothing to do with her.
What had nothing to do with her, she would not spend another second wasting her time and energy over it.
To her, right now, the most important task was to get back the memories of this body and to somehow pay back the wicked women who had cost Rein her life.
However, before she could achieve any of those goals, there was something else that needed her urgent attention.
Her roaring stomach indicated that it would carry on with its vocal protest if she did not find something to feed it immediately.
'What do vampires eat?' She rubbed her grumbling belly which was getting louder the longer she made it wait.
There was no way that she would drink blood as just the thought of that made her stomach churn.
'A vampire who cannot stomach the thought of drinking blood.' She mocked herself but she couldn't bring herself to do it no matter how she thought about it.
Therefore, the only other option she could come up with was to satiate her hunger with normal human food.
She had seen the poisoned pudding that the maid had fed Rein.
This morning as well, she had seen something at the dining table where the King sat to eat with his Queen candidates.
There was normal human food present with just the addition of chalices filled with a bright crimson liquid and she could guess what those might be.
'Forget about that and just focus on the food!' She diverted her mind from the suspicious-looking drink towards what she could actually eat in this world.
If she wished to survive long enough to avenge Rein and leave this Palace then she would have to sustain her health and energy.
Since Rein was a nobody in this place, no one would notice that she was living only on human food so she decided that she could follow this plan until she thought of something else.
Glancing at the dim state of her room, she was sure that it was already too late in the night and she would not find any kitchen staff awake to cook something for her.
Despite this setback, Reina's stomach did not quiet down as it demanded to be filled to the brim.
Wondering how she could overcome this obstacle, Reina decided that heading out of this room and finding the Kitchen was her best option.
'I might find something to eat there.' She planned to raid the pantry if she could not find any cooked food there.
Stepping out of the room, she followed her instincts and headed in the direction that she knew would lead her to the kitchen.
In no time, she was there and had only come across a few guards who were watching the corridors during the night shift.
When their eyes met with Rein's there was no fluctuation as though they had not even seen her passing by.
Reina sighed as the people here truly treated Rein like she was air and did not bother to even look at her twice.
'This means that no one would be able to tell if Rein was not behaving like she usually would.' She cheered as this sad reality of Rein's life had somehow worked out in her favor.
Just as she had thought, she found the kitchen deserted upon entering it.
Her eyes scanned around and found that there was nothing that she could eat.
'Do these people not even have any leftovers?' She grumbled as she was willing to eat anything right now.
In her previous life, Reina had been spoiled by her parents and sister so she was useless in the kitchen for the most part of her life.
However, when she had begun working her dream job in a wildlife research team as their animal behavioral psychologist, she had matured a lot.
She had learned how to be independent, how to take care of herself in places where luxury was nowhere to be found, and also to take care of the true friends she had made there in the forests during her exploration missions.
Though she would not call herself as proficient as Rozella, who in her opinion was the best maid and chef in the world.
She most certainly could cook food that was edible.
'At least I do not burn the kitchen down each time I enter it.' She snickered at the thought of her elder sister, Tanya who was even worse than her in the kitchen.
The thought of her sister made her gloomy but she smacked her cheeks to bring some back color to them as she needed to live better and hope that Tanya did the same over there.
Her cheeks stung as now her body had greater powers thanks to her identity as a vampire.
'Note to self, do not smack yourself.' She rubbed her throbbing cheeks which were bright red right now.
Looking around this kitchen, Reina found that while certain parts of this world had modern technology, the rest seemed to adopt more historical nuances.
For example, the lights in this place were similar to the LEDs from her world but they did not run on electricity but through the power of magic stones.
The stove before her was an older version of the gas stoves people used in her world but there was no connection for gas pipes anywhere to be found.
'This.' She pushed a button on the kitchen counter which ignited the stove through the power of the magic stone embedded in it.
Turning it off by pushing the button once again, Rein scanned her surroundings while remembering information about magic stones based on Rein's memories.
Magic stones were readily available but were volatile in nature.
If used without proper instructions and precautions, they might explode and harm everyone in its vicinity.
Therefore, they needed to be sent through numerous people who were professionals at this task, to be tested and assessed.
Those considered to be experts were various skilled witches of numerous covers residing in this land.
It was their job to ensure that the right magic stones were selected for different purposes based on their attributes.
Fire, ice, and light were a few attributes that were commonly found and used.
Once the stones were separated based on their attributes, they would then be refined and regulated to make them safe for public use.
The final products would then be sold to the citizens for everyday use after they passed all the regulations demanded to ensure the safety of Valanthur's citizens.
These magic stones substituted most of the modern technology that Reina was used to living with all her life.
Electricity and gas were just two examples she had noticed in this kitchen but she was excited to figure out what else these magic stones based on different attributes could do.