Chapter 230: Anette’s Proposal

Victor and Rakshasa lay in bed with no hurry to get up.

She remained partially resting against his chest while Victor absentmindedly played with her dark-brown hair, letting a few strands slide between his fingers.

After the mess involving dresses, maids, and the gift he had prepared, the room was finally quiet.

Rakshasa looked relaxed, but it did not take long for her to return to the subject that had occupied much of her thoughts ever since receiving the invitation.

"I really don’t like these galas," she commented. "I’ve been to so many that they all started feeling the same. Families trying to impress one another, old men arguing about bloodlines, young people pretending they aren’t looking for marriage, and far too many people trying to figure out who is allied with whom."

She raised her face slightly to look at him.

"But I imagine you invited me because you want to avoid problems, right?"

Victor continued stroking her hair.

"Not exactly."

Rakshasa raised an eyebrow.

"I wanted to go with you," he answered simply, before adding, "But it’ll also be useful to make it clear that I’m not someone to play with."

She stared at him for a few seconds.

Then she started laughing.

Victor narrowed his eyes.

"What?"

"You really are bold."

Rakshasa rested her chin on his chest.

"You just admitted to my face that you intend to use my influence to gain political power."

"When you say it like that, it sounds worse."

"Because that is exactly what it is."

Victor tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"It’s not quite like that. If I only wanted your influence, I could show up at the gala saying you’re my master. That alone would already create half the effect."

"But you decided to bring me as your woman."

"Exactly."

Rakshasa smiled.

"So you want power and a beautiful woman at the same time."

"Sounds efficient."

She laughed again and rested her head against him once more.

"I really don’t care. I never knew what to do with this whole political influence thing anyway."

Victor looked at her.

"You own castles, territory, subordinates, techniques practically no one knows, and your name alone changes decisions inside the Realm."

"Yes."

"That is influence."

"I use it to kill important people."

Victor went silent.

Rakshasa raised her eyes.

"What?"

He started laughing.

"You really reduce every political structure to ’who can I kill without causing problems?’"

"It’s a very efficient way to organize priorities."

"I’m not going to argue."

Rakshasa settled more comfortably and spent a few seconds playing with his fingers.

Then she seemed to remember something else.

"Did you hear that the Princess is going to appear?"

Victor became more attentive.

"I did."

"Interested?"

"Very. I’ve never seen her."

Rakshasa did not seem particularly surprised.

"Almost no one from your generation has. She was sealed inside a coffin about two thousand years ago."

Victor turned his head toward her.

"Why?"

"Power problems, mostly. Anette was already one of the strongest vampires in the world back then. Being the direct daughter of a Progenitor put her bloodline on another level from birth, but her growth was too fast even for her body to keep up."

"So they sealed her to stabilize it."

"Basically. There are details that were never fully made public, but that was the official version."

Victor went silent.

Two thousand years.

The information itself was not especially important.

The problem was when Anette had awakened.

A memory from his previous life immediately surfaced.

Serafall had never told him about a princess returning before the destruction of the Valentine Family.

Back then, Victor had been too sick to follow much of the Realm’s politics, and his mother had far greater concerns than explaining every shift within vampire nobility.

But he remembered what happened afterward.

Ten years after the incident at the Valentine headquarters, Serafall had mentioned a major change in the Realm.

The vampires were beginning to reorganize after several extremely bad years.

Many families had lost territory and power, while others had simply disappeared.

During that period, a new Queen had taken on a central role in rebuilding vampire forces.

Victor vaguely remembered the conversation.

In that life, Anette had probably awakened only around then.

Ten years later.

But now she was awake.

Victor kept his expression calm, even as his mind began reorganizing several pieces of information.

This could not be dismissed as a simple coincidence.

Small changes in the future were expected because he had already altered many things, but awakening an existence that had been sealed ten years before the correct time was far too large a consequence.

Something had changed the seal itself.

Or something that was supposed to happen later was already beginning now.

"Victor?"

He kept thinking.

Rakshasa raised herself slightly.

"Victor."

He finally looked back at her.

"What?"

"You went completely quiet."

"I was thinking."

"I noticed that."

Rakshasa narrowed her eyes.

"Thinking about what?"

Victor remained silent for a few seconds before smiling.

"I was just wondering what she’s like."

Rakshasa’s expression changed immediately.

She made a small pout and pressed her fingers against his chest.

"Don’t think about other women while you’re lying with me."

Victor laughed.

"I don’t even know her."

"Even better. Keep it that way."

"Jealous."

"Of course I am."

Rakshasa raised her face.

"Wasn’t it enough that you were playing with my maids’ pussies behind my back?"

Victor tried to control his smile.

"You’re still thinking about that?"

"I’m going to be thinking about it for a long time."

"You said you weren’t that angry."

"I never said that."

"Your smile did."

Rakshasa pinched his cheek.

"Don’t try to interpret my smiles to justify your perversion."

Victor caught her hand.

"Then I’ll interpret something else."

"Don’t even think about it."

He laughed and pulled Rakshasa against him again.

Outwardly, the conversation had ended.

Internally, however, Victor continued thinking about the Princess’s early awakening.

Ten years.

That was far too large a difference.

And there was less than a year left until the event he still had not managed to fully understand.

...

At the Royal Palace, Vlad had been sitting across from his daughter for several minutes without fully understanding why he had been summoned.

Anette occupied the armchair on the other side of a small table, wearing clothes far more suitable for her position than the ones she had awakened in.

Her silver hair fell neatly down her back, and a cup of tea mixed with blood rested between her fingers.

Since returning, she had spent much of her time receiving reports about the last two thousand years, reuniting with a few people, and complaining about practically every decision made during her absence.

Vlad had been expecting another complaint.

He had not expected this.

"What did you say?"

Anette took another small sip before placing the cup on its saucer.

"I’m interested in marriage."

Vlad did not answer.

For an entire second, it seemed as though the King of Vampires had simply stopped processing information.

Anette continued as though she had announced that she wanted to replace the curtains in her room.

"Marry me to Serafall’s son."

The silence grew longer.

Vlad slowly placed both hands on the table.

"Which son?"

Anette looked at him.

"How many sons does Serafall have?"

"One."

"Then why did you ask?"

"Because I wanted to make sure I heard you wrong."

"You didn’t."

Vlad stared at his daughter.

"No," Vlad finally answered.

Anette lowered her cup.

"No?"

"No."

"That is a very limited answer for a King."

"It is the necessary answer for a limited idea."

Vlad rested his elbows on the arms of the chair.

"You just woke up after nearly two thousand years and decided you want to marry the Imperial General’s son without even speaking to him. That is going to cause an absurd number of problems."

Anette tilted her head.

"What kind of problems?"

"All of them."

"Be specific."

Vlad took a deep breath, already realizing that this conversation would not end quickly.

"Victor is Serafall’s son, Chysis’s grandson, one of the Valentine Family’s main prodigies, and currently Rakshasa’s disciple. That combination alone would already be enough to turn any marriage negotiation into a political crisis."

He paused briefly.

"Besides, there is a much more important problem."

"What?"

"You hate everyone."

Anette went silent.

Vlad pointed at her.

"Don’t make that face. You hate people. You always have. When you were younger, you threw three suitors out of the palace because one breathed too loudly, another wore perfume you didn’t like, and the third had the nerve to ask whether you wanted children."

"The first one really did breathe in an irritating way."

"You ripped out one of his lungs."

"It solved the problem."

"The second one lost his nose."

"The perfume disappeared too."

"And the third one can’t have children anymore."

Anette thought for a moment.

"Consistency."

Vlad ran a hand over his face.

"That is exactly what I’m talking about. You saying you want a husband is practically the same as announcing that you found someone new to torment to death."

Anette shrugged.

"I just felt like it."

The answer sounded casual.

It was not.

Internally, her thoughts were far more organized than Vlad imagined.

Victor Valentine.

A possible Progenitor of a bloodline superior to Vlad’s and Cain’s.

His blood adapted other vampires, altered bodies, created dependency, and strengthened abilities.

Even without knowing all of its properties, Anette understood perfectly what that meant.

If Victor truly was an independent Progenitor, then his bloodline was still in its infancy.

It could grow.

It could become something even Vlad himself would be unable to control.

And Anette needed exactly that.

A Progenitor.

She kept her face perfectly calm as she drank.

Finally, something useful appeared while I was asleep.

If she got close to Victor, studied his blood, and allowed that bloodline to mature under her supervision, perhaps she would find a tool capable of surpassing even the limitations imposed by her own birth.

More importantly, perhaps she would find a weapon capable of killing her father.

I’m going to use that man to kill this old idiot.

Anette almost smiled at the thought.

Not because she completely hated Vlad.

In truth, her relationship with him was far more complicated than simple hatred.

But she still had not forgiven the sealing, much less the thousands of years she had lost while her father decided what was best for her.

It would be quite satisfying to see him worried about someone stronger.

Maybe it would even be fun to put Victor against him.

Anette placed the cup back on the table and gave him a delicate smile.

"Besides, I’ve changed."

Vlad immediately became suspicious.

"You?"

"Yes."

"In a few days?"

"Two thousand years of reflection can do a lot for a woman."

"One thousand nine hundred and ninety."

Her eyes narrowed.

"Keep correcting me and I’ll start considering patricide before the marriage."

Vlad closed his mouth.

Anette recovered her smile.

"I’m happy to be alive again. I want to try new things. I want to be more sociable, talk to people, and maybe even develop healthy relationships."

Vlad stared at her as though listening to an unknown creature imitating his daughter’s voice.

Anette placed one hand over her chest.

"I intend to be an extremely benevolent woman toward my beloved."

"You drained six guards to death on the way here."

"They tried to stop me."

"Because they didn’t recognize you."

"Then they died learning."

Vlad pointed at her.

"That is not benevolence."

"Victor will be treated better."

"You don’t even know Victor Valentine."

Anette made a small dismissive motion with one hand.

"I know enough."

"You know nothing. You read a few reports, sensed his blood from a distance, and decided you want to marry him."

"Sounds sufficient."

"You also don’t know that he is already in Rakshasa’s hands."

Anette smiled.

"I know."

Vlad became more serious.

"Then you should understand that this makes your idea even worse."

"Why?"

"Because Rakshasa does not easily share what she considers hers."

"Then I’ll kill Rakshasa."

Vlad went still.

Anette picked up her cup again.

"Problem solved."

For several seconds, no sound filled the room.

Then Vlad started laughing.

It was not a short laugh.

The King of Vampires threw his head back and laughed so loudly that the windows trembled in their frames.

His energy escaped with his amusement, making the floor shake and several glasses inside a cabinet clink together.

Anette continued staring at him, first confused, then clearly irritated when she realized her father was genuinely losing control from laughing so hard.

"What’s so funny?"

Vlad tried to answer.

He failed.

He brought one hand to his face, took several breaths, and started laughing again.

Anette tightened her grip on the cup.

"Father."

"Wait."

"Stop laughing."

"I’m trying."

"It doesn’t look like it."

Vlad finally managed to recover some composure, though an enormous smile still remained on his face.

"You just woke up."

"We’ve already established that."

"You lost half your power."

"We established that too."

"You are no longer a Genesis-Class Vampire."

Anette narrowed her eyes.

"You don’t need to repeat it."

Vlad leaned back in his chair.

"And now you’re telling me you’re going to kill Rakshasa."

"When I recover my power."

His smile widened again.

Anette placed the cup down hard on the table.

"What do you know that I don’t?"

Vlad remained silent for a few seconds, clearly enjoying the situation.

Then he answered:

"Rakshasa has already surpassed the Genesis Rank."