I squeezed my eyes as the light hit my face when someone jerked open the curtains. I turned around to see what time it was and groaned, burying my face in my pillow. Someone pulled the blanket from me and other footsteps could be heard throughout my room. I looked up, certain my hair looked like a mess, to see multiple maids hurrying through the room and closet, picking out a dress and placing bags of make up on the dresser.

"Rise and shine." Haimon's head peaked around the door, making every maid curtsy.

Rubbing my temples, I sighed. "Why the fuzz at six in the morning?"

"Like I said you're my muse this week, accompanying me to my work and every formal occasion."

A maid pulled me from my bed, sat me down in a chair, and started to do my hair while another worked on my make-up. I pursed my lips. "Is there any way I can work out before I go with you to those occasions? Helps control the temper you know."

"Don't be silly, we don't work out here. Except for the warriors of course." He chuckled.

I was going to explode this week.

I raised my eyebrow. "How come you guys are all extremely fit then?"

"Genetics, beautiful." He winked.

"I don't have those genetics though, I need those workouts." I said blankly, not being able to look at him as the maids were holding my head.

"It's out of the question." He frowned, crossing his arms.

"Your funeral." I shrugged and the maids gasped in response.

I was off to an incredibly great start today, people loved me already.

He turned around as the maids hoisted me into a dark red sparkling gown, long enough to make it flow far behind me. They made me step into a matching pair of high heels, as another maid placed diamond jewelry around my arms and necks. When I looked into the mirror, they had done an incredible job and the dress looked stunning on me, but I barely recognized myself. I had a full face of make-up and my long hair was curled to perfection and extremely voluminous. I felt annoyed and uncomfortable, barely being able to move, or breath for that matter.

"What's the occasion?" I asked, hoping this wouldn't be a daily ritual.

"Breakfast, dear." A maid whispered.

"Of course." I rolled my eyes, sighing. 

If I had to wear this for breakfast, then what kind of over the top shit show was dinner going to be like?

I followed him out of my room, through the castle where many portraits of him were displayed on the walls. Eventually we arrived in the dining hall for breakfast, my eyes fell upon the table which was very long and had different kinds of food on it. The vampires didn't need anything other than blood, so they ate regular food for fun. There were five chairs in total positioned at the table, two at either head, the rest at the sides. 

Haimon motioned me to sit at one of the heads of the table, while he sat down at the other. A maid grabbed my plate and began to place different kinds of gross food on it, food I didn't feel like eating right now. My father, who was wearing an expensive suit, was escorted into the room and snorted immediately upon seeing me, secretly taking a picture to never let me forget I looked like a doll.

He sat down as well, shaking his head while he suppressed a laugh. My eyes fell upon a waiter, who held a tray with a large glass on it. The glass was filled to the brim with a thick red substance. 

It was blood.

He put it down in front of Haimon and bowed before he turned around and left. Tilting my head slightly, I couldn't take my eyes of it and I didn't understand why. For some reason, I knew it wasn't animal blood, but human blood instead, and I narrowed my eyes, wondering where it came from. I hadn't felt the presence of any other human besides my father and I yet, which gave me an eerie feeling.

"Please, don't be shy! Eat!" Haimon exclaimed, placing a napkin on his lap, snapping me out of my trance.

Within seconds he gulped down the whole glass of blood, making the little appetite I had early in the morning completely disappear. 

Staring at the filled plate in front of me, I sighed loudly, drawing everyone's attention to me. I would even choose Valerio's forced morning pancake over this.

"What's wrong? Is it not to your liking?" Haimon frowned, cutting into his food.

I scratched my arm, trying to find a way to say I wasn't hungry in the neatest way possible. "I don't have an appetite in the morning."

"Then create one, I told you to eat." He said casually, not looking up while eating some of his own breakfast. 

I knew it was actually a command and I had a strange sense of déjà vu, even though with him I wasn't really keen on listening. I was fed up with being pushed around by men in charge for their own benefit and this was only the first day here.

"No." Irritation was strongly laced through my voice.

My father continued eating, set on ignoring us, the corner of his mouth moving slightly upward as he did so.

"Feisty." Haimon grinned, sitting back in his chair. "Have I not made myself clear?"

"Oh crystal, Dracula." I raised my eyebrows, leaning forward, spreading out my arms and placing my hands at the corners of the table. "And that might work for your subjects, but I'm not one of them."

"Finally." He snickered. "I was wondering how long it would take for you to stand up to me. This is why I like you."

I stared at him blankly, annoyed everyone wanted to test me nowadays. "I really couldn't care less."

He scowled and I stood up, ready to walk to my room, when a young guard approached me. "Lay one finger on me boy and I'll cut off your head with this butterknife."

He stopped in his tracks and snapped his gaze to Haimon and my father, who both shrugged, making him return to his original position again.

"Where do you think you're going?" Haimon called out from behind me, following me out the door.

"I'm going to get rid of all of this." I said motioning to the facade on my body while continuing to walk. "After that I'm going to go for a goddamn run again."

"I can't let you do that, you'll stand out too much and will practically be a running target." He said firmly.

I shrugged, crossing my arms. "That's pretty much the story of my life and I'm still alive."

He grabbed my arm and dragged me into a room which looked like a small office. The brown walls were stacked with books, maps and other artifacts. The color of the walls combined with the dust on the shelves suggested this room wasn't opened often. I grabbed his arm, twisting it in the process, and slammed his head onto the desk once he released his grip on mine. He tapped out after I pressed his head into it for quite a while, bending the golden metal of the desk a bit as I did so. I released him and he fell on the floor. 

I had to say, I expected more from the big bad vampire king, but then again he was quite old.

He got up, showing his dark form and fangs. "Don't tempt me. Let's keep this civilized."

I sat down on the desk and raised my eyebrow, crossing my legs. "Put them away, you oversized mosquito, I was being civilized. Now what's up with this kingdom full of fakeness? Obviously there's a reason for it."

"There's not. I like how it is." He awkwardly returned to his normal form. His heartbeat sped up and nervosity spread throughout his body.

"Liar." I grinned, tilting my head. "Let's try this again."

"Fine." He groaned. "A couple of clan leaders have been trying to overthrow me for a while. I need everything to be perfect because if I make one more mistake, they'll have my head."

"Why?" I asked confused.

What could he have possibly done to provoke them?

"They think I'm too soft, too weak. As soon as they found out the human king was murdered, they wanted me to claim the throne. That didn't exactly go as planned and now they've gone awfully quiet, probably waiting for me to die during the conquest."

"You think you're going to die during the conquest?" I frowned, knowing very well he was going to die during the conquest unless he was a better fighter than Valerio.

"Of course I am, have you seen Valerio?" He sighed, his previous confidence flushed completely down the drain.

"Yeah, you're not going to win that one." I said dryly. "Back to the topic, why do you need me to be perfect?"

"You're The One from the prophecy, they'll respect you, if you stick to their customs or in other words, the kingdom's customs. If you show respect to me, they will most likely follow. Please help me Iola." He said softly, bowing his head.

Sticking to their customs would be obeying their every command and being as nice as possible, which wasn't going to work for me. I also had a hard time figuring out whether this was another one of his fake personalities or the actual real Haimon, as his emotions were unreadable.

"No offense, but I'm not one for flattering a bunch of old corpses. I don't want nor need their respect. However, I will do you one favor, I will attend those formal events where they'll be, on three conditions. One, I will wear whatever the hell I want, whenever the hell I want. Two, you're going to let me go above ground to actual nature. Three, you're going to let me train with your warriors." I stated blankly, looking him straight in the eyes.

"Done, but other than that I can't let you leave palace grounds for security reasons. And I should warn you, the nature above ground is brutal, just like my warriors. Why would you want to train with them? They're way stronger than you." He was really confused, rightfully so since he hadn't come face to face with my powers yet. 

My mind wondered about the security reasons, sensing there was more behind it than threats from clan leaders. Maybe they had something to do with the weird buildings

I shrugged but my eyes twinkled in amusement. "Because it's fun."

"I'm confused though, how do you plan on handling the clan leaders if you don't plan on charming them?" He asked hesitantly as I walked to the door and opened it.

"I'm going to do what I apparently do best, make them fear me." I said blankly, turning around to meet his gaze with mine. I was about to walk away when I remembered something. "Oh and Haimon, if this is another one of your scams, you don't need to worry about the conquest at all because I'll personally rip of your head before anyone else can."

Hearing him gulp, I shook my head and smiled as I walked to my room. I had come a long way, from being an outcast in high school to threatening kings and generals in their own kingdoms. Not going to lie, that also said something about the quality of kings and generals nowadays.

The minute I got into my room, I sent the maids away and kicked off my heels. I got rid of all the make-up and ripped off the jewelry. The biggest challenge was yet to come, I had to wiggle my way out of this dress. By some miracle I could actually reach the top of the zipper, being able to fully zip it down and step out of the dress. I put on some high waist jeans, a sweater and my silver rings, put in my airpods and ignored everything for the rest of the day.

On my way to dinner, I found my father, who laughed as soon as he saw me. He was wearing another fancy suit and I rolled my eyes, making him frown.

"I haven't seen Orpheus the rest of the day. Is he alive?" 

"Yes." 

"Did you hurt him?"

"Yes."

Mostly his ego.

"Of course." He rolled his eyes.

"Are you allowed to leave the palace?" I blurted out.

"Only when I provide a good enough reason to need it for my investigation." He stated. He was a bit worried about it, but not too much. He probably thought it was normal around here.

"Don't you think that's strange?" I frowned. 

"Yes I do, but I'm not going to fight it." He said, a grin appearing on his face as he placed his hand on my shoulder. "I'll leave that up to you."

After having dinner together I went back to my room and watched some movies. Eventually, I turned off the lights, pretending to be asleep while I actually sat by the window. My room was located at the front side of the palace, enabling me to see those strange buildings. I was determined to sneak out tonight, the sooner I did, the sooner I knew what the hell was going on there.

I reached over to grab my phone and check the time, it was the middle of the night. I grabbed a silver dagger from my luggage in case I couldn't reveal my Seregsword, and quietly stepped foot into the hallway. I had to cross multiple corridors to get to the front door, which fortunately was on the same floor. I checked to see if there were any security cameras around, which was the case, but they were shut off, apparently only hanging there to provide a false sense of security.

Idiots.

Only the necessary lights were on and after a walk through the first hallway, my eyes fell upon the first guard, standing right next to the first corridor with his back towards me. I snuck up to him, not making a single sound, and came to a stop. There weren't other guards in close proximity, meaning I didn't have to worry about alarming them. My eyes roamed over the guard, figuring out what to do with him. He had to be knocked out for quite a while, but since he wasn't human I couldn't just hit him in the head. Killing him, although he was already dead, seemed a little dramatic, so I did the only thing I knew would knock him out for quite some time.

I snapped his neck.

Bones were breaking left and right everywhere I went, leaving a large trail of guards with broken necks behind. At the front door, the big guard saw me, but I dodged his attack and grabbed his head from behind me with one arm, breaking his neck on my shoulder with a loud crack. I wiped my hands together, satisfied with what I had accomplished as I looked back at the sight.

I snuck through the door, not alerting the pacing guards outside, and made my way through 'the gardens'. The gardens were the biggest joke of all, there were a couple of real trees, but besides that everything was either fake or made of stone. After walking past the tenth statue of Haimon in some weird dramatic position, I finally reached the gates and climbed over them, letting out a deep breath when my feet touched the ground.

Freedom. Finally.

Or well, kind of. I stared at the golden houses as I walked past them, wondering why the hell everything had to be gold around here. It either was to show off the kingdom's wealth, or they made sure nobody could steal their fortune by molding it into everything they had.

I snuck through more fake gardens, past houses and golden public places like a creepy spy, seeing banners with Haimon's face on it hanging throughout the city. I rolled my eyes, suddenly understanding why those clan leaders wanted him death. He was handsome, but my god this was laying it on way too thick.

One of the square buildings came into view and I climbed over the fence. The electricity didn't have any effect on me, which was quite weird. Crouching down, I made my way through the shadows until my eyes fell upon something I didn't expect. I had to move closer to make sure it was actually real, because I really hoped it wasn't.

Unfortunately, it was. Guards were moving objects draped in cloth to a metal hinged door in the wall. They piled them up until the last one was moved and then opened the door, revealing a huge fire behind it. Throwing in one of the things caused a smell I would never forget, the agonizing scent of burning flesh and bone. It got stronger when bodies after bodies were thrown into the fire. Eventually I lost count, and I suppressed the urge to gag as it dawned on me.

I was witnessing a mass cremation.