I am not a daughter of the vampire queen!

"I am sorry, your highness."

The maid bowed deeply in front of a grave. On which two incense sticks burned slowly.

"I am afraid your mother won’t visit you for some time."

The maid sounded apologetic as she spoke, not lifting her head once. As if to answer her words, a cold wind blows into her face.

"She isn’t in a state to be able to visit you as of yet."

The maid lowered her head even more. Apologizing to the grave.

"B-but I am preparing a rite that could allow you to meet face-to-face again. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?"

The maid closed her eyes as if she were waiting to be slapped. Of course, nothing happened, and the maid continued to kneel in an empty, silent cemetery.

"I am sure her majesty will be delighted by it. So, please, your highness, be patient."

The maid slammed her head against the ground and, after a few seconds, got up. bowed again and slowly backed away. Making sure no one saw her as she went.

She went through the garden and the palace, occasionally greeting other maids as they passed by. Once she reached her room, she closed the door behind her and sighed. Walking towards her bed, she crouched down and carefully removed a floorboard. revealing a yellowed book and a parchment, as well as a small sack.

She then spread the parchment on the floor, covering almost half of it. Taking ink and papers from the desk, she started to flip through the pages of the old book.

"This would be far easier if Oprichnina didn’t destroy all books and texts on magic."

She sighed again. Carefully studying the circles and variety of symbols written in the book. The book was, in fact, a diary written by her ancestor, and it was also maybe the last written record of magic from the ancient past. All others were systematically destroyed.

Technically speaking, what she and her family had done by keeping this diary amounted to treason. From what she heard, all sorts of advancements made by her majesty were not to survive the fall of the empire. And to accomplish this, Oprichnina burned academies and libraries and killed professors and mages. And send the continent’s magical knowledge back to the Stone Age.

She didn’t really care what level the word's magic was at, though. The only thing she cared, about, for now, was finishing this project of hers.

"I wonder how heartwarming their meeting will be."

She smiled to herself as she mixed a pinch of shiny powder from the sack. Afterward, she dipped a quill in the ink and drew a symbol from the book onto the parchment. Cold sweat dripped from her forehead as she did.

She had no guarantee that her spell would work. Before her, no one had attempted to communicate with the death. Once the soul gets reincarnated, there is no way to find out where to. So, spells that would allow communication with the spirits of the dead were simply pure fantasy.

But something told her that this is different. That she will succeed where everyone failed.

Ever since she first saw the grave of Princess Mia. She felt as if the princess had never been reincarnated. As if she was waiting patiently to see her mother when she would visit her.

"Back then, I could swear that I had seen the spirit of her highness."

She reminisced about the time she ventured to that part of the graveyard for the first time. She was tired, but even so, She was sure that there was a see-through figure of a young vampire girl hanging around that one grave.

Since that day, she has decided that it is her duty to reunite mother and daughter once more. Even if only for a single day. That way, at least they would be able to say goodbye properly.

She dipped the quill once more and finished another set of symbols on the parchment. After finishing the last stroke, she made sure the symbols were correct.

"Looks about right, I guess?"

She checked the circle she had surrounded with seven symbols from her ancestor’s diary. If she did everything correctly, this circle should have allowed the princess to gain a physical body for the time being. Should have, being the keywords.

In reality, she had no clue if the symbols really meant what she thought they meant. For all she knew, she could have made a fire spell by accident.

"There is still so much work left."

She spotted and cleaned all the items and hid them back under the floor. Then she unceremoniously dropped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.

She knew that it wouldn’t be an easy task. but she was perhaps a bit too optimistic about it.

No, once her majesty and her highness embrace one another. It will be worth it; all my hard work will pay off. She smiled to herself.

After resting for a few minutes, she got off the bed, corrected her appearance, and left the room to do her job as a maid.

…

"Hm, I see. I don’t understand a single thing."

Julia said unhappily and tossed the book she was holding aside.

It had been five days since she had been locked in this room, and luckily, except for that initial meeting with Julia’s self-proclaimed sister, Nika, no one had tried to kill her.

Ever since then, this Nika girl has been coming to visit Julia on a daily basis. On one such occasion, she gave Julia this old book and apologized for looking into it.

Julia, not knowing what she was even talking about, simply accepted the apology and examined the book. which, according to Kana, was a "master’s diary". Julia saw it as a prime chance to find something about this mysterious pervert she was being mistaken for.

Unfortunately, she had no clue what language it was written in. Page after page, each filled with notes written in characters that Julia had only seen on Kana’s blade.

"But she really had to be a pervert."

Julia sighed, and opened the diary again, flipping through the pages.

Other than the text, there was some sort of battle plans, magic circle diagrams, and drawings. A lot of drawings of primarily fox-eared girls. On most of them, they were kissing. On some others, they were drawn on suggesting poses and blushing.

"Hm? What are these?"

As Julia was flipping through the diary, she found folded papers between the pages. When she unfolded them, she saw a drawing of a sleeping little girl with clear vampiric characteristics. Unlike the previous drawing, this one looked more realistic, like a portrait sketch.

On the other paper was a sketch of the same girl sitting in the grass and weaving a flower crown with an adorable rosy cheek and a lovely smile. Her hair fell down her back like a silvery waterfall.

The longer Julia looked at the picture, the sadder she got. And she could feel tears running down her cheeks.

"Why am I crying?"

Julia wiped the tears off her face. She didn’t understand why she felt sad all of a sudden. Somehow, it was painful for her to look at the picture.

"Master…?"

Lily noticed her master’s sudden mood drop almost instantly and hugged her from behind, placing her head on Julia’s shoulder.

Julia smiled slightly and rubbed Lily’s ears, improving her mood a bit. Surprisingly, Kana had also tried to cheer Julia up. though, in her case, she was merely pressing herself against Julia.

Julia smiled at both girls. She appreciated their attempt to cheer her up, though she still did not know why she was sad in the first place.

"Sis, are you sleeping? There is an- What happened?"

The door opened, and Nika entered the room. Once she saw Julia’s mood not being the greatest, she froze in place. A look of worry formed on her face. After removing her shoes, she slowly walked to Julia’s side.

"I forgot to put those away…"

She murmured as she saw the pictures Julia was holding. She wanted to say something to her, but she didn’t seem to be able to find the words to say to her.

"What do you want?"

Julia looked up at Nika’s face, not really pleased to see her. She still doesn’t remember me… but she at least remembered something. Nika sighted and smiled at Julia.

"There is someone who claims, rather loudly, that she knows you. Would you go with me?"

Julia blinks briefly, and after patting Lily’s head, she gets up from the bed. Nika attempted to grab Julia’s hand, but Julia didn’t let her. Disgruntled, Nika put her hand away and put on her shoes again. Julia put on hers, and they walked out of the room. Lily wanted to follow, but Julia told her to wait for her.

Julia observed her surroundings. This was the first time she had the opportunity to see succubi architecture. Along the walls, paintings were discarded and covered with cloth, as they were being replaced by what appeared to be paintings of village life.

Briefly, Julia thought it was a waste that she wasn’t able to see how they looked. That is until she got a glimpse of one of them. It was only a small, uncovered part of one of them. It seemed like it was depicting an orgy. Julia, at that moment, wondered what else she had expected from the Succubi mansion.

"I swear to heavens, I will kill you! I will cut you to pieces! You will pay for harming her!"

From the room ahead of them, an angry voice roared. The voice sounded almost hysterical and familiar to Julia.

"Don’t tell me."

Julia increased her pace and almost ran to the double door. As she pushed them open, she saw a spacious room that looked like a makeshift throne room. In the room were multiple armed soldiers dressed in dark uniforms.

"Shut up! Or I swear to Leranpe’s name, I will kill you on the spot."

A succubus and a dark elf man were holding a girl with shoulder-length red hair. She was thrashing around, trying to free herself, as the two soldiers struggled to keep her pinned.

"Calm down, Nemi."

As she heard Julia’s voice, the girl calmed down and looked in Julia’s direction. At the same moment, Nika gestured for the soldiers to step back. The soldiers saluted and stepped back.

"Julia, you’re safe."

Nemi began crying while still lying on the floor.