I followed the butler back to the mansion, feeling pleased with myself.
Nova was already back in her room and almost finished regenerating. It was much faster this time since she didn't go through a marble wall and stone fence.
We headed straight to Lady Nyx's office, where she looked slightly worried but masked it with indifference.
She may not completely like me, but at least she's nice enough. I know she wants to keep an eye on me while I'm in her city, which is another reason she offered me to stay here.
"Don't worry, she's fine and should be almost done regenerating to her usual annoying self already."
I caught a flicker of 'and who's the one that made her that way?' but then it warmed ever so slightly. "Thank you for your reassurance."
"I assume you wanted to see me for something?"
"Yes," she pulled out a paper with what seemed to be a list of rules, "these are the rules you must follow. When you are done reading them, I will give you your license to start a mercenary company limited to 5 members."
I read the paper with my divine sense in an instant while it was still in her hand. "I'm afraid the 17th rule might be difficult. I'm not going to follow the military's instructions and go into battle on their whim or whatever they want. Although if they say something like, 'Don't go to this area on the map in case you accidentally interfere tomorrow,' I'll follow that."
I could see the writing on the paper, although it was upside down so there is a reasonable excuse as to why I could read it.
"That is more what it's talking about. Mercenaries aren't forced to join the battle unless they have been hired by the military for that purpose."
"Ok then."
She stamped a certificate and handed it to me along with a sealed envelope. "Give the envelope to General Gregor Durnell. He's a subordinate of mine and will not bother you then."
The contents of the envelope were not hidden from my divine sense. Brat! How dare you call me a 'crazy rich old vampire'.
I put a happy smile on my face, and started to walk out of the room while talking, "Thanks Lady Nyx, I'll probably leave at breakfast and be gone for a few days. Don't miss me too much."
Annoyance was on her face since she thought I couldn't see it. After I was out of the room, the butler shut the door, and I heard her remind Lady Nyx it was time for supper.
I just went to my room and sat down in the middle to work on my cultivation. I'll work on it till breakfast tomorrow night.
My divine sense was fuzzy when cultivating except for very close to me, but not so fuzzy as to not notice a yell from someone in the dining room, "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!?!"
I muttered under my breath as I came out of cultivation and observed the dining room clearly. Nova was standing in front of her tipped-over chair and glaring murderously at the frightened servants.
Lady Nyx looked at her plate and glanced at the servants several times. On half the plate were breaded shrimp while the other half looked normal, and in the middle was some diced chicken.
"Nova. SIT!"
Nova grabbed her flipped-over chair, righted it, and sat down. Hahaha Nova is a bad dog and Lady Nyx is the trainer. Poor Lady Nyx.
Lady Nyx glanced at the servants while Nova's scary aura was still petrifying them, "What is this thing?"
One of the servants tried to explain while stuttering, "B-B-Breaded S-Shr-imp, M-My Lady, uh t-this is a n-new shrimp, there is and-uh-also some r-regular if you d-dislike it. I-It is very good though."
Lady Nyx picked up a piece and bit about half of it off. Quickly after, her eyes seemed to warm just a bit, and she looked at Nova, "Eat it."
Nova tried it also while Lady Nyx glanced at the servants again, "Whenever we have shrimp again, just buy this stuff."
The same one from before spoke again looking relieved, "My Lady, this is something you make not buy, so people will not find it at the market if you want more. I shall have everyone taught about it so they know."
Nova looked like a child eating too fast with her eyes glowing in delight and just on the edge of choking to death.
"Do that. How did you learn about it?"
"Mr. Frost showed us how to make it."
Bits of chewed food flew across the table as it spewed from Nova's mouth while she was sent into a fit of coughing. She quickly pushed her plate away from her and took a drink from her glass.
After a few seconds, she finished her glass and a blood slave came over to refill it.
Lady Nyx just ignored her and ate at a pace that would probably have been taught by an etiquette teacher, completely unlike her twin.
Nova just sipped from her glass while staring pitifully at the plate she'd pushed away as if it were some forbidden fruit.
Lady Nyx noticed she wanted to eat but was refusing and pointed at the plate, "I told you to eat, didn't I?"
Nova dragged the plate back now that she had the perfect excuse, although it still looked conflicted, "What if it's poison or something?"
Poison? You brat! Do I need to punch your face again? I think you're just looking for a reason not to eat it since it tastes good.
One look from Lady Nyx sent her back to eating, although it was much slower than before. I could almost see the inner turmoil in her head, it was so good, but at the same time, a recipe from her enemy.
Ohhhh I found another fun thing. I'll have to give the cooks more good recipes once I get back.
I went back to cultivation again now that I'd seen the interesting bits.
---
I saw fuzzy figure sneaking through a passageway between walls and immediately stopped cultivating, ready to teleport.
The figure snapped into focus and I saw it was Nova. Oh, this looks fun. Why would Nova be sneaking around in a secret passageway? So far in my stay, I think none of the servants know of the passageways in the walls, so that is not a normal place to be. It was dawn and the mansion was going to sleep with only a few servants staying awake through the day.
I mapped out the routes she could take to see where she was going. She could be coming to me, Lady Nyx, the kitchen, or the servants' quarters.
If she's just going for a late-night snack she would just have it brought to her.
Maybe she wants to kill me while she thinks I'm sleeping? No, she would have probably brought a weapon if that were the case.
Maybe she's going to the servants' quarters to meet a secret lover? All the servants are girls but maybe that's her thing. That destination seems most likely.
Unfortunately, my guess was wrong as she went by the passageway that leads near the servants' quarters without so much as glancing at it.
So my or Lady Nyx's room. Maybe she's going to apologize to Lady Nyx for causing trouble.
She passed mine right by as she quietly made her way through the passageway. Soon she came to a ladder leading to the floor above where Lady Nyx's large master bedroom was located, nothing else except what she had to herself as the Lady of the estate was located on that floor.
Nova jumped through the hole without using the ladder and landed above silent as a cat. Then she went down the passage toward her twin's room before knocking on a seemingly random place in the wall if you didn't know there was a door there.
Lady Nyx was laying on a very soft looking deep red rug, wearing a robe in front of a roaring fireplace and sipping some Vein's Harvest. A wine made from the blood of a blood slave who was fed exorbitant amounts of wine before it was harvested. When she heard the knock, she quickly set down her glass and appeared in front of a place in the wall. She pushed on a block of marble and the door was pushed open by Nova.
Lady Nyx grabbed Nova's arms and pinned them against the wall over Nova's head with one of her hands. Her claws were extended and piercing into Nova's wrists, little drops of blood ran down Nova's arms or dripped into her hair. Nova's lips parted slightly seemingly happy.
The claws on Lady Nyx's other hand gripped into the side of Nova's chest, piercing through her nightgown and in between her ribs allowing little spots of blood to stain the white clothing.
Lady Nyx smiled and I could see her fangs were extended. Is she punishing Nova? Claws won't give pain to a vampire like silver will, nor suppress their healing, so I kind of think she's bad at giving punishments.
Lady Nyx brought her fangs to Nova's cheek where they skated across, leaving a thin line of blood that went away almost as fast as it was created. Suddenly Lady Nyx threw Nova on her back down to the rug where she had been laying before and instantly appeared on top of her, pinning Nova's hands behind her back with her claws once again piercing her wrists.
Her other claws went into Nova's shoulder and her knee was on Nova's stomach with her shin going between Nova's legs.
Nova, this crazy girl, just kept her eyes closed and a small smile on her lips. Lady Nyx is really terrible at beating people up.
She lowered her fangs to Nova's neck where they skated around for a few seconds before she bit down hard into Nova's artery. Nova began squirming and moaning which caused Lady Nyx to grip even tighter.
I suddenly realized this was definitely not a punishment and suppressed my divine sense enough I was unable to see them. I know my servants do it also but it felt a little weird seeing these 2 for some reason. Something Zenobia once told me came back to my mind, vampires are sometimes violent and often share blood while playing bed games. She also told me there were rumors the twins might be in a relationship.
I suddenly got the urge to play a little game of my own with them. I returned to cultivating, deciding to flesh out the details after leaving for the battlefield.