"Tell me more," the vampire spoke.
"The wine is cheap, something that was placed in an expensive bottle to make it look like it was an expensive wine. But the bottle could not hide its taste. Still, it had a decent quality. Although the wine had a nice flavor, I found it too cloying for my palate. The sweetness of the wine is overwhelming. It is something that a young woman would have liked."
"You spoke as if you are not young," the vampire suddenly smirked.
"I—" Eve lowered her gaze. She was not young. Evelynn Rosetta had lived for tens of years before she died.
"No need to get flustered now," the vampire said. "You have insulted the chef and the one who provided you food. You are fearless. I will forgive the transgression if you are able to provide me the year that the wine was made. If you cannot… then you will die."
Eve's lips twitched. Manipulative and vindictive.
The man must have expected her to cower. Yet, she did not. Instead, she lifted her chin.
"It was made last year. Year 809 of the Human calendar, 1003 of the Vampire Calendar and year 5008 of the Demonic calendar."
The man lifted an eyebrow.
"You sound knowledgeable."
"I read."
"I have heard," the vampire spoke before he disappeared in front of her. He appeared next to the Mistresses. "Take one woman from each table. Except that woman." The vampire looked at Eve. "You are lucky you have the knowledge required or this would have been your last day."
Almost immediately, knights wearing armor appeared and randomly took one woman from each table. It did not take too long before screams and cries for mercy echoed inside the large hall.
Eve on the other hand maintained a calm expression on her face. Her back was straight, her chin lifted. She did not need to ask to know what was going to happen to those women.
They were going to become the vampire's dish for the night.
She swallowed her nonexistent saliva.
For years, she had fought for the humans to be free, for them to avoid this fate.
In the end…
She gritted her teeth.
"For someone who just impressed a vampire, you look like you were chosen to die instead of being praised for her knowledge," Trinity's voice interrupted her stupor. She turned towards the woman but immediately noticed the vacant spot next to Trinity.
"Someone was taken," Trinity said, her expression morose. She pursed her lips before she got up. By now, the other women have started to leave the dining room in a line. Seeing this, Eve followed behind them, her head lower, hiding the anger in her eyes.
She wanted to burn them, the vampires who only wanted to entertain themselves at the expense of humans. Sadly, she could not do it now. Not now.
When they arrived inside the room, Mistress Ophelia was already there waiting for them. She was with eight other maids.
"Before the celebration tonight, the maids will teach you everything that you need to do to make yourself presentable. What you should do and not do around them. What you should wear and not wear in a banquet where they can make you into their food any time they want. You have four hours to learn everything before another set of maids will start preparing you for the banquet." She then turned her attention to Eve.
"Prince Maximilian will be present tonight, and he has the authority to eliminate any contestant that he sees fit." Again, she looked at Eve. "The vampire earlier was one of the butlers of this mansion. His name is Casimir, aged two hundred and seven. He is the kindest among the other three butlers of the mansion. Beware if you meet them, they are not as generous as him."
Calling that man generous? Eve snorted inwardly.
"Over the next few days, you'll become acquainted with the other inhabitants of this mansion. Without my permission, you are not to run outside of this room as it could be dangerous. Although the vampires here only harm humans if they've been ordered to do so, human blood can be very enticing and some spawn might not be able to control themselves," Ophelia reminded them.
"The rules for the Night's Courtship are absolute. Breaking them could result in death," she said before she gave them one last look and then she left the room.
Almost immediately, the maids started teaching them some major rules that they must adhere to during events. This time, all women listened carefully and even started asking questions, showing their interest in the rules.
While she was already familiar with some of the rules, Eve could not help but admit that some were more strict than what Lucius told her in the past.
Was it because they were currently in a Prince's mansion?
Or was it something else?
She noticed that the rules emphasized the fact that they were not allowed to leave this room as it could be very dangerous. Apparently, this location was near to the place where they kept some spawns or humans who just became a vampire.
Spawns lack control over their urges. They were also pretty strong and could easily kill someone in a few seconds. They were very dangerous.
So this begged another question.
Why were they kept in a place like this?
Eve thought about the Vampire's Royalty. The Vampire Lands were called the Night's Realm of Imperion, or simply, Imperion. This was not exactly located in another realm, but just south of the great forest. It was located in between Valtara, the Human Empire and the Home of the Dwarves. South of Imperion was the Kingdom of Weres, where Werewolves, Weretigers, Werelions and many others thrived.
The Vampires had been very secretive about their Royalty. In fact, they only knew the name of the King of Vampires. The strongest among his kind, King Octavious de Imperio.
The titles of the Vampires were actually based on strength, or at least that is what Lucius told her.
The thought of Lucius made her blood boil. She helped the man become stronger until he was able to challenge a Duke and became the new Duke.
In the end, he betrayed her just like everyone else.
"Do you think there will be other nobles tonight?" one of the women with a freckled face suddenly asked. It had been two hours since they started and they were given a break to drink tea and eat pastries.
"What does it matter? We are only here to marry the Prince. If we survive that is," Trinity answered. She looked at Eve. Seeing that Eve seemed to be thinking about something else, she scoffed. "Unlike other people who had the time to study the taste of wine and various dishes, we were born in a struggling household. We should do our best to survive."
Hearing this, Eve looked at Trinity, her gaze placid.
Cat fights… were not actually something that Eve enjoyed, even in the past. Eve used to find it tedious.
"What are you looking at?" Trinity frowned. "Did I say something you disliked?"
Was this woman trying to get a reaction from her? Eve snorted, then she looked away.
"Did you just dare to scoff at me?" Trinity asked.
....
A/N: I am currently making some timelines. I really like creating lores and histories of places. If you like the novel please add some reviews. I need 10 reviews so the rating will show. Thank you for the support! Happy Reading!