"Rejected. Next."
Lucian's crisp, unapologetic voice sliced clean through the thick tension hanging over his grand office.
Standing in a neat, single-file line before his massive desk was a collection of breathtaking, absurdly lethal women, they were his Grand Servants.
Having heard that their Supreme Master was planning a personal excursion to the Royal Capital of this Re-Estize Kingdom, every single one of them had shown up bright and early, clutching written proposals detailing why they deserved the honor of accompanying him as his personal escort.
The broader Area Guardians and general palace staff weren't present for this meeting; this audience was strictly reserved for his direct circle of eight Grand Servants
Present in the room were Scáthach, Elaina, Sophia, Kurumi, Sylphy, Yaya, and Lilith, along with Adele standing dutifully near his desk.
The only member of his core servants missing from the lineup was Shiraori, who was currently off handling a top-secret assignment Lucian had personally delegated to her regarding the search for Mizuki.
At the front of the line, the recipient of Lucian's latest flat rejection was Sophia. Her written proposal had been hilariously straightforward, boiling down to a single recurring point: she wanted to stay glued to her Master's side because she loved him.
"Also, Sophia," Lucian added, holding up the piece of parchment she had submitted and squinting at the bottom paragraph, "why did you write down in bold ink that you want to go 'hunting' for me? Do you think we're taking a trip to a human kingdom to go poaching civilians like wild game?"
"N-no, Master! That isn't what I meant at all!" Sophia stammered, waving her hands frantically as she tried to salvage her pitch. "I only meant that if any insects dared to look at you the wrong way, I could hunt them down and—"
"Still rejected," Lucian cut in calmly, setting her paper aside on the reject pile. His crimson eyes softened slightly as he looked at her. "Your overall level is still too low compared to the others, Sophia. Even if this world looks weak on paper, we don't know every hidden trump card out there yet. I don't want to put you in a position where you might get hurt."
The words were a firm refusal, yet the genuine, protective concern behind them struck Sophia's heart like a warm arrow. Her shoulders slumped,as a gentle, blissful warmth clenching in her chest that completely dissolved her urge to argue. Bowing her head with a soft blush, she stepped quietly out of line.
"Moving right along, Elaina, your proposal is rejected too," Lucian announced without even picking up her scroll.
Elaina's eyes widened. "B-but Master, I haven't even—!"
Before she could launch into her prepared speech, Lucian slowly lifted his gaze from the desk, locking his glowing, blood-red eyes directly onto hers.
"Was I not clear enough with my words, Elaina?" he asked, his voice dropping half an octave into a cool, quiet manner.
Elaina flinched as if struck by lightning, clamping her mouth shut instantly. Her lower lip trembled and tears immediately pricked at the corners of her eyes, now terrified by the mere thought that talking back had caused her beloved Master even a fraction of annoyance. She quickly bowed in apology and scurried back to stand beside Sophia.
"Next up is…" Lucian shifted his gaze toward the tiny elemental spirit floating near the center of the line.
Honestly, out of everyone here, Sylphy was the easiest to bring along incognito; since she could freely shrink her physical form down to palm-size, she could literally just ride around inside his coat pocket or perch in his hair without a single human noticing.
"Sylphy," Lucian began, tapping a finger against his armrest. "Unfortunately, I can't bring you along on this trip either."
Sylphy tilted her head curiously, waiting for his command.
"It's not because i don't want to bring you," Lucian explained smoothly. "Right now, I need someone I trust completely to keep a tight grip on the Sylvan Light Forest. I want you to thoroughly map out the surrounding woodland and its natural mana veins. While you're at it, coordinate directly with the Area Guardian, Myura, to run diagnostics on the World Item [Leohtfrassil], and [Sceadfrassil]and link up with Riveria to make sure our other World Item stored in that sector is completely secure."
Unlike the rest of the girls in the room, who were constantly starved for physical proximity, Sylphy shared a permanent, innate spiritual link with Lucian as his contracted Spirit. Because she could feel his soul humming in the back of her mind regardless of distance, she didn't suffer from the same separation anxiety. Offering him a bright, serene smile, she dipped into a graceful mid-air bow.
"As you wish, Master. Leave the forest to me."
"Good girl. Now then, that just leaves the last three…"
Lucian's gaze swept lazily from left to right, looking the remaining trio, they were Scáthach, Kurumi, and Yaya—up and down.
Resting his chin on the palm of his left hand, he used his right hand to idly flip open a paperback novel resting on the desk. Clearly, he was already bored with reading formal essays and had decided to speedrun the rest of the interviews his own way.
"Scáthach," Lucian called out, his eyes skimming a paragraph of his book.
"Hypothetical scenario for you: we're strolling down the main street of this human capital, and some drunk local mercenary accidentally bumps into me or swings a rusty dagger my way. What's your immediate response?"
Scáthach didn't even blink. Crossing her arms beneath her ample chest, the crimson-eyed lancer lifted her chin with fierce, aristocratic pride.
"I would impale the mortal wretch through the heart before his blade moved an inch, then move to systematically butcher every last blood relative in his lineage down to the ninth generation, and, while I am already warmed up, I might as well incinerate the entire nation to ash so its filth never inconveniences your footsteps again."
She delivered the genocidal declaration with absolute confidence. Worse still, every other servant standing in the office nodded along in solemn, smiling agreement, treating her answer as the most basic common sense imaginable.
Even Kurumi, who normally clashed with Scáthach at every opportunity, covered her mouth and let out an approving "Kufufu, well said."
Lucian didn't even look up from his page. "Rejected."
Scáthach's proud, triumphant expression shattered like glass. "Wha—?! Master, why?!"
"Because I'm going there to sightsee and gather intel, not turn the country into a crater on day one. Next, Kurumi, you're rejected too."
Kurumi didn't even get a hypothetical question. Her heterochromatic eyes—one glowing crimson, the other a golden clock face—widened in dismay before she stepped forward, placing a hand delicately over her chest.
"Ara Ara… If I may be so bold as to ask, Master, why reject me before I have even spoken?" she purred, her gaze practically dripping with blatant, unhidden hunger to monopolize him.
"Because your kit is way too broken for a low-profile trip, and you have zero self-control," Lucian replied flatly, turning another page. "Messing with time-manipulation powers in a crowded capital is like setting off a flare for any high-tier magic sensors in the region. And knowing you, you'll start eating people's time behind my back just for fun."
He had personally designed her build and personality, after all. Sure, if he gave her an absolute command not to use her skills, she would obey, yet putting a muzzle on a chaotic troublemaker like Kurumi kind of defeated the whole point of how he made her. Better to just leave her at home where she could scheme in peace.
"And Yaya, before you ask–yes, you're staying home too," Lucian added preemptively.
"Eeeeh?! That's totally unfair, Master!!" Yaya immediately puffed her cheeks out in a massive pout, stomping her boots against the carpet and flailing her arms around like a tantrum-throwing child.
"Yaya wanted to go on a trip with Master too! Yaya wanted to hold hands in the town and do lovey-dovey flirting just like Shiraori-san got to do!"
Lucian's hand froze mid-page. Slowly, he lifted his head, squinting at the automaton doll in genuine bewilderment.
"…Hold on. How the hell do you know I flirted with Shiraori?"
Before Yaya could answer, Elaina piped up from the side of the room, wiping away her earlier crocodile tears as she stated matter-of-factly, "Why, everyone knows about it, Master! The entire staff of Great Luxuria is talking about how you declared in Carne Village that you intend to take your favorite Grand Servants to bed very soon!"
SLAM.
Lucian slapped his palm flat against the mahogany desk, burying his face in his other hand with a loud groan of sheer exasperation. "I literally said a one-liner joke! I didn't announce a schedule!"
Was this how harmless comments mutated into wild urban legends on old internet forums?!
Truly, a castle full of lovestruck, hyper-competitive women was a terrifying echo chamber; give them an inch of ambiguity, and the rumor mill would spin it into a mile of bragging rights inside twenty-four hours.
"Well, if all of us got shot down, that only leaves Lilith-san!" Yaya pointed a dramatic finger toward the side of the room.
Sitting quietly on an ornate velvet sofa away from the main line was Lilith. Unlike the rest of the servants who had been jostling for position in front of the desk, she looked remarkably composed, crossing her legs with aristocratic poise.
Today, she had decided not to wear her heavy battle armor instead she wore a casual attire: a stylish, form-fitting one-piece dress that stopped just above her knees, paired with dark thigh-high stockings and a sleek pair of modern sneakers.
In a medieval fantasy world like this, an outfit like hers was completely alien, though back in YGGDRASIL, modern Tokyo street-fashion cosmetics had been all the rage.
On the outside, Lilith looked like the picture of serene, unbothered elegance.
On the inside, however, her mind was a category-five hurricane of panic and despair!
'He's ignoring me! Onii-sama isn't even looking at me! Did I miscalculate?!' she screamed internally behind her poker face.
When Lucian had first announced that anyone wishing to join his expedition needed to submit a written justification, the other servants had scrambled to write love letters and vows of violence to get choosen.
Lilith, however, prided herself on her intellect. Her analytical processing power stood at the absolute pinnacle of Great Luxuria, in fact, without meaning any disrespect to her beloved creator, she privately believed her raw tactical IQ even surpassed her older brother's.
Because of that, she had attempted a high-level psychological gambit, not to manipulate him, she can never do that, but to outmaneuver her rivals through reverse psychology.
On her parchment, she had written: "I humbly request to be excluded from this mission so that I may remain behind and reflect upon my shortcomings to better serve you." And right now, she was sitting quietly on the sofa to demonstrate how "mature, calm, and obedient" she had become!
What the overly brilliant vampire girl completely failed to grasp, however, was a very simple truth: Lucian had never once found her usual loud, clingy, bratty little-sister personality annoying. He had coded her that way because he liked it! For all her genius-level intellect in strategy and magic, when it came to reading Lucian's actual preferences, Lilith was a hopeless idiot.
"Lilith. My dearest little sister."
Lucian's voice drifted across the room, smooth as silk, sharp as a scalpel, and laced with an intoxicating undercurrent of amusement that slithered straight into her ears.
Instantly, Lilith's spine snapped straight, a jolt of raw, instinctual heat pooling at the bottom of her stomach from the mere sound of her brother calling her name like that.
"Y-yes, Onii-sama!" Lilith replied, rising swiftly from the sofa.
"Remind me of something real quick," Lucian said, leaning back in his chair and steepling his fingers. "I'm your older brother, right?"
"Yes, Onii-sama! You are my beloved brother and my Supreme Creator!" Lilith declared without a microsecond of hesitation, pressing both hands over her racing heart as her eyes shone with fanatical devotion. "You are my sun, my moon, my breath, my beating heart, my most cherished existence! You are my absolute everything!"
"Right. Glad we're on the same page," Lucian nodded. Then, his tone dropped flat, his crimson eyes narrowing slightly. "So tell me, Lilith… do you think your older brother is an idiot?"
At the sudden weight behind his words, coupled with a fractional flare of his innate racial authority as the progenitor of progenitors of all vampires, Lilith's knees buckled instinctively. She dropped straight into a crisp, trembling kneel on the carpet before she could even think.
Cold sweat broke out across her pale forehead. 'He saw right through my reverse-psychology play!'
Lowering her head until her bangs hid her panicked eyes, she stammered, "I-I would never dare harbor such a blasphemous thought, Onii-sama!"
"Then why are you putting on this stiff, quiet act and writing nonsense about staying home?" Lucian sighed, immediately switching off his passive intimidation aura as he pushed his chair back and stood up.
"Lilith…"
His footsteps were muffled by the thick rug as he walked around the desk, stopping directly in front of her kneeling figure. Reaching down, he took her by the arms and gently pulled her back up to her feet.
"I'm your big brother, remember?" Lucian said softly, looking down into her wide, flustered eyes. "That means you ought to know by now that I can read you like an open book."
Before Lilith's overthinking brain could compute a single response, Lucian did something she hadn't predicted in a million simulations.
He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a tight, warm hug.
Lilith's breath caught in her throat. Her entire body went rigid with shock for a second before melting completely against his chest.
He was holding her so securely, radiating a heady, comforting warmth that made her want to freeze time right this instant and stay buried in his arms for the rest of eternity. Ever since awakening in this world, this was the very first time her beloved brother had initiated an embrace with her.
Leaning down slightly so his lips brushed the shell of her ear, Lucian whispered, "Drop the quiet act; it doesn't suit you. You're coming with me to the capital. Head back to your room and put on a casual dress. I want you to look beautiful for me."
A full-body shiver of pure bliss raced down Lilith's spine. The instant Lucian released her and stepped back, she snapped into a deep, euphoric bow, her face glowing like a lantern.
"Yes, Onii-sama!! Right away!!"
Practically floating on air, the vampire queen spun on her heel and bolted out of the office to get changed, leaving a room full of visibly envious servants glaring at her retreating back.
Standing quietly beside the desk, Adele watched the doors click shut behind her "aunt" before turning a slightly concerned gaze up toward Lucian.
"Will that truly be alright, Father?" Adele asked softly. "Bringing Lilith san along into a human settlement… Given her temperament, might she not cause unnecessary trouble for you?"
Lucian turned his head, a fond smile curving his lips as he walked back over to Adele and reached out to gently ruffle her silky black hair.
Adele didn't pull away or worry about her hair getting messy; instead, she tilted her chin upward, leaning into his palm like an affectionate kitten and savoring every second of the small gesture.
"It'll be fine," Lucian chuckled. "She might be a dramatic troublemaker around everyone else, sure, but do you really think Lilith would ever do something that might genuinely make me angry?"
"No… Of course not," Adele conceded quietly.
She understood that better than anyone in the castle. After all, among all the denizens of Great Luxuria, only Adele and Lilith shared the unique, privileged status of being designed and created as Lucian's direct blood family–Lilith as his younger sister, and Adele as his daughter. And, naturally, both of them harbored feelings toward him that went lightyears beyond normal familial affection.
"Now then, Adele…"
Withdrawing his hand from her head, Lucian suddenly focused the entirety of his crimson gaze directly down onto her.
Adele flinched slightly, her breath hitching. Her father's eyes were so overwhelmingly intense up close, looking at her as though he were drinking in every single inch of her body and soul.
A sudden, delicious wave of heat flooded into the pit of her lower stomach, making her toes curl inside her shoes, though she fought to keep her voice steady and composed.
"Y-yes, Father?"
Stepping half a pace closer, Lucian rested both of his hands squarely on her slender shoulders. "Get your travel gear ready. And dress up. You're coming with me too."
Adele's eyes flew wide open in utter shock. "W-what?! Me?! B-but why, Father?!"
Her reaction was born of pure, self-deprecating logic. Adele was painfully aware of her own status sheet, she was primarily built for command, administration, and support.
In terms of raw combat levels, she couldn't hold a candle to monsters like the Eight Grand Servants, nor did she match the specialized firepower of the Base Guardians.
As far as she was concerned, bringing her out into the field meant saddling her father with dead weight, it was a liability he had even pointed out back during YGGDRASIL days when organizing characters in the guild.
Even knowing that the natives of this New World were drastically weaker than them, Adele couldn't bear the thought of being an inconvenience to him.
Deep down, she was dying to go with him, of course, yet if her presence caused him even a drop of trouble, she would rather lock herself in the command room forever.
"What do you mean, 'why'? Because I want my daughter with me," Lucian replied simply. Giving her shoulders a light squeeze, he strolled back behind his desk and sank lazily into his plush leather chair. Resting the back of his head against the headrest, he looked at her with an amused arch of his brow. "Why? Have a problem with spending some time with your old man?"
Adele shook her head rapidly, her hair swaying around her flushed cheeks. She parted her lips to accept immediately, then hesitated, raising a trembling hand to clutch at the fabric over her pounding heart. She was so happy she felt dizzy, yet her sense of duty forced her to voice the obvious logistical flaw in a tiny, reluctant whisper.
"B-but, Father… what about Great Luxuria? If I accompany you outside, who will manage the central command post and oversee the guild base in my absence?"
She almost hated herself for asking. What if her Father simply forgot about the base administration, and reminding him makes him change his mind and leave me behind?!
"Oh, that? Relax, I already arranged for someone to cover your shift," Lucian said, waving a hand dismissively.
Right on cue, as if summoned by his very words, the towering double doors at the far end of the office swung smoothly inward.
Stepping across the carpeted floor was a woman of breathtaking, regal beauty, she was covered briefly by the armored Valkyrie guards standing at attention in the outer corridor before they pulled the doors shut behind her.
She was dressed in an intricate, flowing gown of midnight black, and her cascades of glossy, dark brownish-black hair were so impossibly long that the tips hovered just an inch above the polished floor as she glided forward.
She didn't walk with the subservience of a maid or a servant, she carried herself with the effortless, haughty arrogance of an empress who owned the very ground beneath her heels.
The exact millisecond her golden-brown eyes landed on the man lounging behind the desk, however, that icy arrogance melted away completely.
She didn't spare so much as a passing sideways glance toward Scáthach, Kurumi, or the other servants lined up to the side, nor did she look at Adele. In her vision, only one being existed in this room.
"You summoned me, my beloved King?"
Semiramis came to a graceful halt before the desk.
Notably, she did not drop to her knees. There wasn't an ounce of disrespect in her standing posture; rather, Lucian himself had explicitly written into her settings that a queen should never kneel before lesser eyes. Frankly, he found her proud bearing endlessly appealing.
Of course, both of them knew the truth behind the facade: if Lucian so much as crooked a finger and told her to grovel, Semiramis would gladly drop flat on her stomach and kiss the leather of his boots without a second thought.
He was her King, her Lord, her obsession, her everything. In fact, her instincts screamed at her to kneel right now, she only refrained because displaying a subservient posture in front of the other servants would violate her King's aesthetic preferences he has created her with.
"I'm glad to see you're looking as radiant as ever, my Queen," Lucian greeted her, his voice warm and velvety.
At the sound of him calling her 'my Queen' in that sweet tone, Semiramis's breath hitched, as a sudden, violent jolt of pure pleasure broke through her regal composure. It was a rush so addictive it sent a shiver down her spine, setting the golden ornaments in her dark hair trembling softly against her neck.
Outwardly, however, she maintained her poised, aristocratic demeanor, offering him a slow, sultry smile.
"How could I ever be anything less than radiant so long as my King is hale and content?" Semiramis murmured.
Her reply was not just courtly flattery. Every breath she took felt vibrant and alive solely because he was sitting right there in front of her.
'Ah, my beloved King… my most precious treasure…' Looking at him lounging so casually made a dark, possessive ache coil inside her chest.
Part of her wanted nothing more than to pull his head onto her bosom, feed him a cup of her sweetest poison just to watch him fall asleep in her arms, and cradle him forever, or better yet, have him throw her down onto that desk right now and ruthlessly dominate her until she forgot her own name. Still, she kept those bubbling desires neatly locked behind her regal smile.
"May I inquire what task requires my humble presence today?" Semiramis asked, tilting her head slightly as she reserved a softer, private smile exclusively for his eyes. "Though, naturally, if my King merely wished to gaze upon my face and ask after my well-being, I would consider my day thoroughly blessed."
Lucian chuckled softly, lifting a hand to tap a few floating runes on the translucent guild console hovering above his desk.
"As nice as a social call sounds, I actually have an important job for you today," Lucian said.
With a final flick of his finger, a chime echoed through the room as a secondary administrative halo materialized beside Semiramis. "There. I just granted your ID temporary sub-master clearance to the Ariadne System, the exact same tier of administrative access Adele uses."
Semiramis glanced once at the complex stream of defensive diagnostics and mana-grid controls floating beside her, her razor-sharp mind grasping the implications in less than a heartbeat. In terms of sheer intellect and governance capability, the Wise Queen stood on equal footing with geniuses like Lilith and the sharpest minds of any world.
"I see," Semiramis murmured, her eyes shifting back to Lucian. "You wish for me to assume the duties of Vice-Guild Leader and govern Great Luxuria as Queen Regent while you take Adele out to stroll through this pitiful mortal world, my King?"
"Spot on," Lucian nodded, though he narrowed his eyes slightly as he studied her calm face. "What, got a problem with babysitting the castle while I'm out?"
"Perish the thought, my King," Semiramis replied softly.
Stepping smoothly right up to the edge of the desk, she reached out, gently lifted Lucian's right hand from where it rested atop his closed novel, and bowed her head to press a lingering, reverent kiss against his knuckles.
"To manage the royal palace and safeguard the throne during my beloved's campaign is the most natural duty in the world for your Queen," she whispered against his skin, her entire body humming with a quiet, trembling euphoria at the trust he was placing in her.
Sure, enduring the hours without his physical presence in the castle would feel cold and unbearable, yet if it was to serve as his regent, she would gladly bear the solitude.
"Appreciate it, my Queen," Lucian smiled, playing right along with her dynamic. Turning his hand over in hers, he lifted her fingers to his mouth and returned the gesture, pressing a soft kiss to the back of her hand.
Instantly, a deep, scarlet flush bloomed across the proud Empress's cheeks, her breath catching in her throat.
"Besides, don't look so solemn, it's not like I'm moving to the human capital permanently," Lucian laughed, seeing right through her stoic act. "With my Guild Ring, I'll still be popping back home every single evening to sleep in my own bed and hear your daily reports in person."
Semiramis's golden-brown eyes lit up like stars in the night sky. Lifting her chin, she offered him a dazzling, fiercely devoted smile. "Understood, my King. I shall ensure that my evening reports, and your bedchamber, are prepared to absolute perfection."
"Looking forward to it," Lucian winked, before gesturing vaguely toward the door for the rest of the room. "Alright, everyone else is dismissed for now. Clear out, I want to have a quick private chat with Adele before we leave."
"At once, my King," Semiramis bowed her head gracefully. Turning on her heel, she cast a brief, knowing glance toward Adele before sweeping out of the office, herding the reluctant, pouting group of rejected Grand Servants out into the corridor behind her and clicking the heavy doors shut.
Silence settled over the vast office.
In the sudden quiet, Lucian's heightened senses could easily pick up the frantic, rabbit-fast thump-thump-thump of his daughter's heartbeat echoing across the space between them.
"Hey, relax, Adele. Why the stiff shoulders? You look like a prisoner being led to the gallows," Lucian chuckled warmly, offering her a bright, disarming smile. "Are you truly worried that the pitiful natives of this land—or some unknown player in the dark—could actually bring harm to you? Dismiss the thought."
In the next heartbeat, the jovial light in his crimson eyes vanished and turned into a deed crimson red. And a chilling pressure bled from his frame, carrying the absolute, unquestionable authority of an apex predator. A low, fiercely possessive rumble echoed in his chest.
"When you're walking beside me out there, I wouldn't let a mere mortal, a Dragon Lord, or a literal god lay a single scratch on you. To harm a hair on your head would be to invite their own extinction." He stopped himself for a second, his voice dropping to a velvety, inescapable tone. "You are my treasure, my daughter, after all. All mine. Only mine."
The sheer, unapologetic possessiveness dripping from those words hit Adele straight in the solar plexus, making her heart flutter so wildly she thought her ribs might crack. Yet, despite the heady rush of pleasure, her lingering insecurities forced her gaze down toward the pattern of the carpet.
"…Will I truly not be a burden to you out there, Father?" she whispered, her voice sounding terribly small, meek, and fragile in the large room.
Hearing how genuinely insecure she sounded made a pang of real regret tug at Lucian's chest.
Back when Mei Mei had written her character settings in YGGDRASIL, she had focused heavily on her administrative loyalty as a daughter, without writing in enough casual, everyday warmth between them. 'Well, we aren't bound by flavor text anymore,' he thought. Time to fix that.
Without making a sound, Lucian stood up and blurred across the room, materializing directly in front of Adele in the span of a single blink.
He didn't issue a grand command or use a skill; instead, he simply raised both hands and gently cupped her soft, pale cheeks, his thumbs stroking her skin with the delicate reverence one would show a priceless, irreplaceable treasure.
"Listen to me, Adele: you could never, ever be a burden to me, sweetheart," Lucian said softly, looking straight into her upturned eyes. Seeing a tiny, glistening tear of overwhelming relief welling up in the corner of her eye, he gently brushed it away with his thumb.
He really couldn't stand seeing the girls he cared about cry, even if they were tears of joy. "You're my precious daughter. Just having you walk beside me makes me happy."
Letting his hands rest warmly against her jaw, his smile turned gentle and earnest. "Honestly, I want the two of us to get a lot closer from here on out, the way a real father and daughter ought to be."
Back on Earth, his life had hardly been suited for raising children, especially given his fragile physical condition and the bleak, dying state of the world itself. His time there had ended long before he ever got the chance to start a normal family or raise a child. Maybe now, in this bizarre second life, he could finally experience that bond properly with Adele.
At his tender words, the last clouds of doubt vanished from Adele's mind. Her face lit up with a blinding, joyous smile, so pure and radiant it practically outshone the magical chandeliers overhead.
"Yes! Yes, Father!!" she beamed.
"Now that is the prettiest smile you've ever shown me," Lucian chuckled warmly, continuing to caress her flushed cheeks. "And while we're at it, you don't need to act like such a stiff subordinate when it's just the two of us, okay? Drop the heavy formalities and talk to me casually."
Adele reached up with both hands, placing her small palms over the backs of Lucian's hands to hold them firmly against her cheeks, leaning into his warmth. "I… I will try my very best for you, Father."
Outwardly, she looked like the picture of a dutiful, overjoyed daughter.
Inside her head, however, a delicious, feverish storm of forbidden desire was raging out of control!
She wanted him. Her Father! Her beloved Creator! The sole man to whom she had dedicated every last drop of her blood, her body, and her immortal soul!
'Ahh, Father… Why… why did I have to be born as your daughter?!' Adele cried out silently inside her own mind, her fingers tightening slightly over his hands. 'I adore the special privilege of being your flesh and blood above all else, and yet… does this title mean I can never, ever become anything more than a child in your eyes?!'
To Adele, the taboos of modern human morality meant less than nothing.
By race, she was a Dhampir, born of vampire lineage. In the lore of YGGDRASIL and the biology of the night-kin, incest was common; fathers claiming daughters and siblings joining together was as natural as breathing among pureblood royalty of vampires.
In her heart, desiring her creator wasn't a sin, it was the highest form of devotion. The only reason she kept the volcano in her chest locked down was out of fear that Lucian's human sensibilities might find her feelings repulsive.
'Still… maybe. Just maybe, someday in the future…'
Replaying the dark, possessive look he had given her a minute ago, that"You're mine. All mine. Only mine", sent a violent, electric thrill shooting straight down her spine, causing her untouched, virgin womb to clench with a sharp, aching heat.
'Someday, if I stay right beside him, maybe he will stop looking at me merely as a daughter and claim me as a woman! Ahh, Father… Father, I love you! I love you so, so, so, so much! Father, Father, Father!!'
For two whole minutes, as Lucian stood there fondly stroking her cheek in what he thought was a wholesome father-daughter bonding moment, Adele kept chanting his name like a fevered love-spell inside her head, completely lost in her own rosy delusions.
_________________________
The heavy mahogany double doors of the master office clicked shut with a resonant thud, sealing Lucian and Adele inside.
Out in the grand, marble-pillared corridor of the Castle of Valhalla, an immediate, suffocating silence fell over the rejected Great Servants.
The two armored Valkyrie guards flanking the doorway stared straight ahead, wisely pretending to be inanimate statues as the air pressure in the hallway dropped by several levels.
The moment she was out of her beloved King's line of sight, the soft, flushed warmth on Semiramis's face vanished as if it had never existed.
Her posture straightened, her chin lifted to an imperious angle, and her golden-brown eyes cooled into the sharp, haughty gaze of the Wise Queen.
Slowly, she raised her left hand, staring down at the back of her fingers where the phantom warmth of Lucian's lips still lingered on her skin. A tiny, triumphant smirk curved the corner of her painted lips.
"Well, well," Semiramis purred, her voice echoing down the vaulted hallway like velvet wrapped around a stiletto blade. "What a pitiful sight. Look at all of you, loitering outside the office room like a pack of abandoned stray dogs waiting for table scraps."
The reaction that came was instantaneous.
"Watch your tongue, poison-witch," Scáthach growled, her crimson eyes narrowing into lethal slits as a faint crimson miasma of bloodlust flared around her shoulders. "Just because Master handed you a glorified housekeeper's key while he steps out does not mean you outrank us."
"Kufufu… Scáthach-san is quite right," Kurumi chimed in, stepping forward with a sweet, venomous smile as the golden clock hand in her left eye ticked backward by a second. "You were excluded from the expedition just like the rest of us, Semiramis-san. Putting on airs when you are stuck babysitting an empty castle is rather comical, don't you think?"
"Hmph. Think whatever helps you soothe your bruised pride," Semiramis replied airily, not giving an inch as she flicked a lock of her floor-length dark hair over her shoulder.
"There is a fundamental difference between being rejected as an unnecessary nuisance and being entrusted with the throne itself. My King explicitly named me his Queen Regent. While you lot were busy embarrassing yourselves with juvenile essays, he placed the authority straight into my hands."
She let her gaze sweep condescendingly over the group, pausing briefly on a sulking Yaya and a teary-eyed Elaina.
"Do try not to sully the carpets with your tears while I am governing in his stead."
"Uuuu… Semiramis-san is being mean!" Yaya stomped her foot, puffing her cheeks out furiously. "Master only left Yaya behind because Yaya is too cute and would distract him! And besides, Master promised he's coming back every single night! Yaya will just ambush him outside his bedroom door!"
"Ambush him, you say?" Semiramis raised a single, sharply arched eyebrow. "Need I remind you to whom my King will be delivering his evening reports upon his return? His first destination every night will be my side. By the time we conclude our… administrative reviews, I doubt he will have any energy to spare for a noisy doll."
"Why, you—!" Elaina gasped, her earlier gloom instantly replaced by competitive outrage. "You're planning to seduce Master during the nightly briefings, aren't you?! That's an abuse of administrative authority!"
"In love and governance, only results matter, little witch," Semiramis chuckled darkly, gently pressing the back of her kissed hand against her own cheek, her eyes half-lidded as a wave of genuine euphoria washed through her again. "After all, he called me 'my Queen' twice today. To fail to warm his bed after receiving such grace would be treason."
Beside them, Sophia watched the verbal sparring match with her arms crossed, before letting out a quiet sigh. "Honestly… if any of us have a reason to be annoyed right now, shouldn't it be directed at lady Lilith?"
At the mention of the vampire's name, every single woman in the hallway froze.
The competitive bickering evaporated, replaced by a unified, collective aura of sheer annoyance as they all looked down the empty corridor where Lilith had bolted off toward her room minutes ago.
"That insufferable little bat," Scáthach muttered, crossing her arms tighter. "Sitting on the sofa pretending to be a quiet, obedient wallflower… I thought she had finally lost her mind."
"Kufufu… Truly, I must applaud her acting skills—or rather, her sheer luck," Kurumi sighed, pressing a finger to her cheek in genuine exasperation. "She clearly tried to play hard-to-get with that ridiculous letter of hers, failed miserably because Master saw right through her within three seconds, and somehow still got rewarded with a hug and a ticket to the capital."
"It makes zero sense!" Elaina threw her hands up in the air. "I tried to explain my magical utility and got glared at before I could finish a sentence! Lilith basically committed insubordination by writing that she didn't want to go, and Master hugged her! Where is the justice in this world?!"
Even Semiramis's smug expression soured by a fraction of a millimeter. Though she hadn't actually seen Lucian embrace Lilith earlier, she had heard every word from outside the door and clearly sensed what transpired inside the room. The memory alone sent a sharp, toxic spike of envy twisting in her chest, though she would die before ever admitting it aloud to this crowd.
"My King possesses boundless mercy for those who share his bloodline, no matter how foolish their schemes," Semiramis remarked coolly, regaining her poise. "Both Lilith and Adele enjoy the unique privilege of their familial titles. It would be wise for the rest of you to remember that."
"Familial titles, huh…" Kurumi's heterochromatic eyes gleamed with dark amusement as she glanced back toward the closed office doors. "Speaking of which, Master is still inside having a 'private chat' with dear little Adele right now. Given how that girl looks at him whenever she thinks nobody is watching… I wonder if she will still be merely a 'daughter' by the time they return from Re-Estize?"
A heavy, loaded silence descended upon the hallway once more.
None of them were blind. Every servant in Great Luxuria was intimately familiar with the exact shade of obsessive, feverish devotion that burned in Adele's eyes, because they saw the exact same madness every time they looked in a mirror.
Floating quietly near the ceiling, Sylphy giggled softly, breaking the tension as she twirled in the air. "Well, whatever Master decides to do, there's no point in standing out here glaring at the door! If Master comes out and sees everyone fighting in the hallway, he really will get annoyed!"
As if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over their heads, the suffocating bloodlust and competitive aura in the corridor vanished in a split second. Every woman immediately smoothed down her clothes and fixed her posture.
"The wind spirit speaks the truth," Semiramis declared, turning on her heel with a dramatic sweep of her midnight-black dress. "I must proceed to the central command room and calibrate the Ariadne System before my King departs. As for the rest of you, since you have so much free time on your hands, make yourselves useful and ensure your assigned tasks are done."
"You don't need to order me around, Regent," Scáthach huffed, already turning to stride down the opposite wing toward the training grounds. "I will go sharpen my spears. When Master inevitably grows bored of playing tourist and decides to raze that human kingdom to the ground, I intend to be ready."
"And I believe I shall go check on our intelligence networks," Kurumi hummed, melting backward into her own shadow with a parting curtsy. "Do enjoy your paperwork, Semiramis-san."
One by one, the lethal beauties of Great Luxuria dispersed down the grand corridors, leaving Semiramis walking alone toward the central command spire, a proud, razor-sharp smile resting on her lips as she counted down the hours until next sunset, when her King would return to her side.
_________________________________
You can Read 5 Chapters Ahead on my Patreon/AzazelGrim
Please join the patreon if you really want to support the story! It starts form 4$only.