388 Tessa has Secrets
“This is your room,” Tessa said, showing Arthur where he would sleep under her command.
It was a part of the castle Tessa owned — one of the perks for being the daughter of a duke — and there not only was the place where she lived, but the servants under her command also had a room there.
Of course, her room was way better than her servants, but it was still decent enough; at least Arthur liked it. There was a bed, a bathroom, and a fireplace, as vampires often needed fire to warm their bodies.
There was no kitchen — for obvious reasons — and there was also a tiny room with a coffin in it in case Arthur preferred to sleep inside it instead of his bed.
“You can rest and get used to the castle. But your training in the army will start in about two days. The castle is huge, and the courtyard around it is even bigger. The vampire army trains its soldiers in a field far from here. Anyway, in case you need to feed, then come and let me know.”
Tessa tossed him another flask with blood to keep his hunger at bay for the next week, and then she left.
“When my training starts, I can finally meditate and work harder to get stronger!”
Arthur could have reached at least the eighth circle with his avatar, maybe more, but was still in the second circle. The reason was to enter the family, as no one would hire someone powerful without good reasons, and they would surely ask him many questions before doing so.
But a weak vampire? No one inside the castle was concerned about him, not even the duke who met him for a few seconds. For them, he was only another cannon fodder for when they tried to dominate the continent, and there was no way Arthur would turn into something more than that.
It was the perfect spot for him, someone who wanted to get information and end with the family from the inside. Sure, they would soon know about him when he gets stronger, but Arthur hoped to have gathered some good information up to that point, and the most crucial part, make them trust him!
Arthur wanted to get stronger fast and turn into a loyal soldier for the Von Stein family, granting him more access to the needed information and no suspicion about him. It would be too late for the Von Stein family to realize he was a spy.
“When they finally realize, I will destroy this entire family, and I, my wives, and the dragons will take control of this continent. But for now, let’s rest.”
The first thing Arthur did was jump on the bed and sleep for 9 hours straight. That carriage was comfy but way worse than a proper bed, and Arthur was not a fan of sleeping inside something that was moving, so for that reason, he was still tired.
After waking up feeling refreshed, Arthur decided to wander around the castle and see what he could find. It was night, but the place was vivid, with noises everywhere from vampires training, feeding, talking to each other, and doing all kinds of things.
Arthur first looked around the part of the castle where he lived. There were other rooms — presumably for the other servants Tessa had — and an open area with some flowers and trees, like a small garden.
On a bench sat Tessa, looking at the stars and writing in what looked like a journal. She quickly noticed Arthur was approaching her, so she said, “slept well?”
He pointed at the bench and said, “can I sit here?”
“Of course.”
Arthur also looked at the starry sky, “It was good to sleep in a bed after such a long time. Also, this castle looks gorgeous.”
“Right? I love it here, especially when the sky is like this. You know, most people never have the chance to appreciate how beautiful the night is,” Tessa said.
Arthur knew what she was talking about. On his main body, he also noticed how gorgeous the night and the moon were when he did not need to sleep anymore. Now that he was a vampire and was awake during the night, he also had the chance to appreciate the beauty of the night.
Most races slept during night-time, and the night was viewed as a dangerous time when people needed to stay indoors for protection. That was a pity.
“Are you busy, Tessa? I was hoping you could tour me around some castle areas,” Arthur said.
He could go around and look on his own if he wished to, but with Tessa, Arthur had better chances of going inside places he had no authority to go yet.
“I can tour you, sure. Where do you want to go first?”
~~~~
Tessa first showed him where her servants lived and introduced some of them to Arthur, saying he could trust them, and all of them helped each other.
Arthur met at least ten people, all of whom seemed friendly and willing to help him if needed. Sure, appearances could fool, and Arthur was not a young and stupid person to believe in everything, so he was still careful when around others.
After that, Tessa showed him the general locations of the castle, where vampires often went: the library to increase their knowledge, the training rooms where one could meditate without disturbance and train with all kinds of weapons, and train their spells on dummies.
And last but not least, the place where they could find the flasks with blood. Any vampire could go there and get those, like free food. Arthur knew these flasks came from the humans they had trapped in the castle’s dungeons, like cattle.
Those flasks weren’t things Arthur liked to have in his hands, and if he could, he would set free all of those humans, but that was impossible, and he still needed to eat, so it was better for him to get the flasks then going out and killing somebody.
That was one of the bad parts of being a vampire, but Arthur knew all of that before turning his avatar into one, and he had to endure it, as there was something bigger going on — save Sybille and not allow the vampires to start a civil war.
“Or perhaps I should let them start a civil war and then strike in their vulnerable time to get the most of it,” thought Arthur, but tossed it at the back of his mind, as that was a thing for the future.
Then, while he and Tessa were walking around the castle, Arthur saw a trapdoor near the dungeon entrance.
“Where does that trapdoor lead?” he asked.
pAn,Da n<0,>v,e1 “Nothing important, but no one is allowed in there. And anyone beneath the rank three will die down there, so don’t think about it.”
Judging by what she said, it was a place no one should go and thus had the potential to be where Sybille was.
That, or something else, was down there, something only the higher-ups had access to. The only way for Arthur to know was to get stronger.
Then, someone came out of nowhere and approached Tessa.
“Tessa, one of your servants, came back from his mission with some news for you.”
“Really?”
Tessa then left, and when Arthur asked if he could go with her, she said, “this is not something for you. We can continue the tour later.”
She was acting all weird, which meant she was hiding something.
“If someone does not want me to go, I will go!”
Arthur already knew some basic stealth spells from the Blood Monarch’s inheritance, so it was the following time!