She Belongs To The Devil

And after looking around, he guessed why.

"The humans and vampires are living together without any kind of segregation or barrier between them." He deduced that much by looking at the types of houses.

Some of the houses were small and made out of normal bricks and woods with open windows. And the other houses were normally made out of bulky rocks with very small windows. And the latter kind of houses looked big and spacious as well.

Edwin guessed that small and airy houses belonged to humans while the big and sturdy houses belonged to vampires. Kira had confirmed his theory by spying inside some of the houses on the go.

Similar kinds of houses were clustered together. However, as Edwin had noticed, there weren\'t any barriers between those clusters.

"And humans are afraid to carry out activities through which they can earn adequate money like opening shops or trading. They are just doing the bare minimum to survive.

My guess is that the only ones who fearlessly make money are the vampires. But the population of vampires seems to be low compared to the humans."

Edwin narrowed his eyes and thought, "Meaning they were after the prosperity of Wyverndale. If they were to control Wyverndale, then the other Kingdoms would also be practically theirs. And Tarrin… they would also be able to get their hands on the diamonds, gold, and silver of Tarrin."

When the carriage approached closer and closer to the Palace, Kira whispered to Edwin, "Prince Edwin, I can sense a lot of vampires in the vicinity. So I am going to make myself invisible. I will be right beside you all the time so you don\'t have to get scared when you are inside the Palace."

Edwin smiled at the man with a chameleon\'s tail and gave his approval. "Sure. Thank you in advance for taking care of me."

Kira disappeared from Edwin\'s view in the very next second.

After showing the jade token that Lillian had entrusted him with, Edwin\'s carriage was let inside the grim-looking Palace.

He got out of the carriage and looked up at the tower that stood tall in the middle of the castle. He felt chills in his bones when he saw a pair of glowing red eyes glaring back at him. Edwin swiftly averted his gaze from the tower and inhaled deeply.

"Your Highness, let me show you the way," Edwin heard a soft voice coming from his side.

He turned his head and saw a young woman. To his relief, she didn\'t have red eyes. Edwin gave a nod and began to follow that maid.

She took him inside the main entrance of the castle and up the stairs cut out of stones. The smell of this place alone was making Edwin feel nauseous. The air felt moist and carried the metallic as well.

Edwin was directly led towards the meeting room by the maid. She gave a knock on the door and announced Edwin\'s presence, "Your Majesty, His Highness Prince Edwin has arrived."

"Let him in," came a cold reply from inside the room.

When the maid opened the door for him, Edwin took a few seconds to enter the room. He hoped that Kira got inside the room before him and then went inside.

The last time this Vampire King was in Wyverndale, Edwin didn\'t get to see him. Now that Edwin looked at the King who was sitting on a golden chair with his legs crossed, his chin resting on his palm, and his judging eyes looking down at everyone, he got a vibe that this King had a god complex.

Nonetheless, Edwin bowed to the King and boosted his god complex even more, "Greetings, Your Majesty. I had been wanting to see you in person ever since I heard about you. I am blessed to finally be in your presence."

A side of Reginald\'s lips curled up to form a crooked smile. "I see that Queen Lillian raised a sweet talker." He then gave a complacent smile to Reginald and gestured at the empty chair in front of him, "I am not complaining though. Please take a seat."

Edwin gave a polite smile to the King and took his seat. He took a glance at the others in the room. There were three other people in the room, two humans and one vampire.

Reginald then pointed at his trusted people and introduced everyone to Edwin. "He is my Chief Advisor Lord Horace, he is my Head General Lord Carlos, and he is my Vampire General Lord Evans."

He turned towards Edwin and introduced him, "And everyone, this is Prince Edwin of Wyverndale. He will play a crucial role in our war instead of his mother from now on."

Reginald clapped his hands and began with a serious tone, "Alright! What I want is simple. I want to rule this continent. And to do that…" he glanced at Edwin and continued, "Prince Edwin will help us march our soldiers to Wyverndale via the roads of Frostford."

Reginald then had Carlos and Evans lay out all the plans in detail for Edwin. Edwin kept on listening to them but found nothing new. He already knew everything from his mother and the plan was pretty much the same.

However, at the end of the discussion, he still wanted to confirm one thing. Edwin glanced at Evans and asked, "When you mentioned that you would be sending the highly trained assassins to Jhomla Pass as a decoy, did you mean you would be sending a team of vampires?"

Evans\' lips slightly parted to reveal his sharp canines. He smiled and agreed, "Yes. Even a small number, say around a hundred or two hundred of them can kill a lot of humans if they run wild. So, that\'s our best bet."

Edwin found this as an opportunity to pry about the total number of vampire soldiers so he asked, "Just a hundred or two hundred of them can go against a hundred thousand soldiers of Wyverndale army? Even if they can, don\'t you think Wyverndale would only send a battalion of their army and not the whole division when they know that their enemy is less in number?"

"Hmm… that\'s also a good point," Evans tapped his temple with his finger as if he was thinking of a solution.

And Edwin asked his actual question, "How many vampire soldiers do we have in total? Maybe we can increase their number so that they can lure the whole division to the north."

Evans took a deep breath in and glanced at Reginald as if to get his permission. Reginald gave a slight nod and Evans replied, "We have around four thousand vampire soldiers." He clicked his tongue and added, "But we want to use most of them in the actual battle in the west and in the capital of Wyverndale."

Reginald then cut in between and asked Edwin, "Can\'t you convince that old geezer to deploy a whole division of capital to the north?"

Edwin wrinkled his eyes and replied with a little hesitation, "You know how stubborn King Dragomir is. He won\'t listen to anyone, not even his favorite daughter Adeline."

Edwin pretended to be angry when he took Adeline\'s name and continued to make an excuse, "So even if we..."

Edwin\'s voice died down in the background when Reginald heard Adeline\'s name.

"Adeline…" Reginald chanted her name in a longing whisper and smiled.

He slowly ran his finger along his lower lip and mumbled, "Can\'t wait for that day… when I will finally end your life by draining you of your blood."

Edwin batted his eyes at Reginald to see if he was serious about killing Adeline or if he was just bluffing. When his eyes met Reginald\'s bloodthirsty eyes, all he could see was the intent of a killer.

Reginald closed his eyes and inhaled a deep breath. He was imagining the sweet smell of Adeline and the sweet taste of her blood.

A soft moan escaped his lips and he kept on mumbling, "If I can\'t have the most beautiful flower all to myself, then I will pluck it and end its reign over its beauty. No one is allowed to enjoy her…" his face hardened with anger when he further whispered, "....especially that Devil."