Chapter 103 – Nowhere to run
After a few hours of traveling at a great speed, Noah felt the carriage tilt back, while they started to gradually ascend the hill road.
Theresa Threadweaver, the Duchess of the Twin Creek Valley as the name implies, lived in the valley at the foot of a few hills in the territory surrounded by a few creeks. Her friend and the new ruler of this territory, Cassandra Vespertine lived above the evil seed that was found at the peak of one of the hills nearby.
Cassandra's gorgeous hilltop mansion overlooked the whole valley and if not for the barrier that hid Theresa's mansion from sight would have direct view at her territory. The barrier over Tessa's garden however made it look like the forest in the valley where they lived looked lush and untouched, with no openings and clearings as if there were no mansion somewhere out there in the middle of it.
Unlike Threadweaver dilapidated wooden mansion, Vespertine strikingly majestic well maintained mansion was made of black stone, that had a shiny luster to it from all the polish that it was regularly subjected to. It was a lot bigger and lorded over the hilltop taking almost the entire peak of this hill. With only a bit of space left for the gardens.
In the middle of ascension Noah was startled by a sudden darkness that fell around them. Noticing his surprise Tessa smiled.
"The barrier around Cassandra's mansion has a slightly different function from mine. Unlike me, she is fully participating in noble society and Kingdoms matters on a daily basis and has no reason to hide from view. Instead of that, the barrier around her mansion helps her make the living space more comfortable for her kin. In other words it holds a perpetual night within the barrier's premise." Explained Theresa
"From outside I could not tell at all." Said Noah. "It looked like your normal noble mansion."
"Yeah, the barrier was specifically designed this way. No one wants the commoners looking at the mountain top to see perpetual darkness as if an evil being lives on top. Things like that tend to bring bad rumors and scary stories. People get nervous and uncomfortable living in such an environment. We monsters strive to live unnoticed among human society. The guests that would come to our territory are her direct subordinates and vassals who more or less understand who we are, lower nobility and commoners however would not be able to come close to the barrier or cross them, so they would never know what it really looks like inside, this helps avoid the rumors." Said Tessa.
"By the way. Everytime Cassandra visited us it was in the middle of the day. I always thought vampires had a problem with traveling under the direct sun." Said Noah thoughtfully.
"For her kin it is indeed so, thus the need of the barrier. Cass though is not just some vampire. She is a high order monster of the vampire race - Nosferatu. Nobility of the vampires so to say. Nosferatu are strong enough to block the sun rays' influence, making living under the sun just tid bit uncomfortable for them. They can freely walk under the sun for hours before they run out of mana. At Cass's level this is even more effortless though. She can freely walk under the sun for days without running out of mana. She would have to be stranded in the middle of the desert to find herself pressured by the sun." Said Tessa sharing her knowledge.
"I see. Vampires are more dangerous than I thought. In all the books I read, it was always pointed out how the sun is the greatest weakness that humans may use to defeat them and all it is needed is to destroy their hiding place to smoke them out." Said Noah.
"Well, it is not wrong. Nosferatu are rare cases. It is not as simple as being born in nable family as it is for humans to be a nobility of the Vampire race. Being turned by a noble is just a prerequisite to be eligible to become a noble yourself. It takes hard work, long life and a few insights to finally become one. In Cassandra's immediate family right now there is only one other kin who made it to that level and became a nosferatu. And still a lot weaker than her. He can barely walk outside the barrier for about an hour in the sun. For comparison it is something equal to a baronet among vampires so to say. A lowest of nobles. All others inside her household are normal vampires that are too weak to get outside the barrier in the day for even a minute." Said Tessa.
As they talked they felt their carriage starting to slow down. Looking outside Noah Noticed that they were almost at the main door. From this close the mansion of Duchess Vespertine looked even more lordly than before. If not for all the windows and decorations around it, Noah would rather call this a citadel than a mansion.
When the carriage finlay stopped a small knock came from the door and a moment later one of the valets that stood outside welcoming the guest opened the door for them.
Noah and Tessa descended the steps of the carriage first and then he turned around to offer his hands for Brianna and Priscilla who smiled at him taking his hands and gracefully coming down from the carriage and placing small pecks on his cheeks. Just as he was turning to the mansion he saw an orange bulky cat jump off the roof of their carriage and leisurely stroll into the garden.
Noah raised an eyebrow but did not comment on it. Turning away from it. When he finally looked around though he frowned a bit looking thoughtfully as he saw uncomfortable faces of the servants that welcomed them. As much as the valet that opened the door for them and offered to guide them inside struggled to maintain the blank face, Noah still could see a bit of fidgeting in his demeanor. At first he did not understand where their uncomfortable behavior came from as the servants of the Nosferatu Monster household should have been quite used to seeing other monsters and girls were usual guests of this house as well. However after he saw Tessa come over to the huge spiders that pulled their carriage and one of them turned it's head to look in their direction, Noah saw that one of the servants almost jumped from fear, with a clear shudder in his hands. Living for a month with three arachnas somewhat dulled his reaction toward the spiders. But after he saw the reaction of the normal people he finally remembered that these were not mere horses, but a bunch of scariest monsters that may roam this earth.
Tessa whispered a few words and spiders moved away with the carriage to the carriage parking area, after which the servants made deep sights as if they just remembered how to breathe.
Valet quickly led the four of them inside the mansion where Noah for the first time saw a vampire standing at the door. A middle aged man with pale skin and black as night eyes in a stylish suit welcomed them from inside the mansion with a bow.
"Your Highness, Duchess Threadweaver, Lady Priscilla, Lady Brianna, Count McDaniel I welcome you all to the Vespertine household and assure you that within our territory you all are guests of our family. Please enter." Said the man and after that he turned to valet and whispered something to his ear. Valet looked back at the four guests and bowed to the vampire before proceeding further.
"Thank you." Said Tessa carefully listening to the man and stepping over the threshold only after he invited everyone inside. After that the valet kept guiding them inside while the vampire was left standing at the doors waiting to welcome other guests.
"The one to offer the protection under the guest code should be one of the kins of the household, no matter vampire or any other household. Don't ever believe that the monsters will hold to the guest code if someone other than a kin offered the protection. Only kin has the right to do that. It is a low move, but has been used before, so you better be in the known." Whispered Theresa.
"Also only the trusted people of the household can let others inside the mansion's barriers." She explained quietly, holding Noah by the forearm as they walked behind the valet, with Priscilla and Brianna walking a short distance behind them. "Important decisions and tasks in vampire households are always carried out by the kins. Servants, no matter how long they serve the family, would never be placed with the same trust until they are turned. Only after being turned they would not be able to betray the household."
"I heard that vampires are never lacking people ready to serve them, but always marveled at that." Whispered back to her Noah.
"There is nothing surprising. Countless people are born with useless systems, doomed to forever live a life of weakness. Not all want to resign themselves to such fate. No respect, no power, no money, short life. There are countless reasons why people would come willingly to serve the vampires to earn a chance to gain their desired things. Is it better to serve some shitty nobles living as a servant just to be able to barely feed a family but serving humans or living as a servant to a monster with a chance to gain what you desire? Many chose the later. Especially people born with trash systems that have no hope for anything grand in this life."
"I see. People like me." Muttered Noah.
Tessa stopped abruptly, opening her eyes wide after hearing his words.
"No!" She hissed. "You are…"
"Was living my whole life as trash. Who knows? Maybe if I kept living in my family as before and nothing of the sorts that helped me awaken my system had happened, at some point I may have sought the same thing and came to serve here as well."
"I am sorry." Muttered Tessa with sadness before her eyes shined with determination. "But you are not that person anymore. You are a magnificent and strong man, Noah. You don't need any of what they can offer."
"I know. And I have you all now. Of course they can't offer anything." Said Noah, smiling at her and Tessa sighed with relief as they continued to walk deeper into the mansion where they heard the music becoming louder with every step.
They proceeded through the halls and when they turned the corner coming to the hall right in front of the ballroom Tessa's hand suddenly tensed on his forearm and Noah looked over at her seeing a firm look with squinted eyes on her face.
"What's wrong?" Asked Noah.
"These are not Cassandra's people." Whispered Tessa with a strange tone.
Noah looked forward and saw that in front of the huge double door of the ball room where they were led to stood a few vampires in battle gears of guards of the household, however at the sides of them lining the wall in the hall, stood a team of knights in the shining armors that clearly had a different style.
Tessa looked at the intricate golden emblems on their shoulders and her eyes went round.
"No way!" She hissed.
"What is it? Muttered Noah.
"This may be troublesome." Answered Tessa with a whisper.
Noah carefully looked at the knights once more and soon realization of what he saw downed him.
"Is that…?" He started to say. But at that time the huge double door in front of him opened, letting a loud sound of music and festivity into the hall and silencing what he said.
"We welcome the prime guests of today's ball, Her Highness Duchess Theresa Threadweaver and her daughters Lady Priscilla Threadweaver and Brianna Threadweaver whose coming of age became a reason for this occasion. They are accompanied by their true mate Count Noah McDaniels." Announced the valet as soon as the ballroom was opened.
As soon as the announcement was made the loud chatter and laughter in the room stopped with only the music going a lot quieter instead of outright stopping.
The four newly arrived entered the room with a valet walking aside to let them through without entering the room. Once they were in the ballroom, a huge double door closed behind them, with hundreds of monsters peering at them with blank faces in total silence in which Noah's nervous gulping sound sounded as loud as shout to his ears.
Baaad, baaad feeling about this. Sounded the voice in Noah's head. He could swear he felt the bloodthirst but he had nowhere to run if they were all to pounce at him. And will this guest protection code be even useful if they decide to try a piece of him all together?