[LitF] 14. Unexpected Celebration (Patreon)

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"Please forgive us for the subterfuge," Tamara continued. "Sophie was just helping me set the table, not doing any exercise."

Arthur barely heard her over his heart. It was thumping furiously on his rib cage. Sophie was...

...breathtaking.

She looked nineteen or twenty. Her black hair was held in a maid's bun that somehow looked fancy on her. Only a few strands fell sideways, almost as if framing her perfectly symmetrical and delicate face. Her shining red eyes had become slightly elongated like a cat's, though not as much as the people from the Eastern Plains. A few more golden details were visible on her white maid's uniform, evidencing she had completed most of her training. Her form was even more eye-catching for him now that she had matured, her pinkish lips were mesmerizing, and all he could think about was—

Suddenly, Tamara touched Arthur's shoulder.

Warm mana flowed into his head, and his mind cleared. He got a light headache and felt like the world had lost a little color.

"What happened?" he tried to say but noticed he had no air to speak.

He had stopped breathing when he looked at Sophie. She was literally breathtaking.

He took a deep breath and tried again, "What happened?" he asked, turning to Tamara.

"Sophie is still incapable of controlling her vampire's innate abilities, Your Highness," the head maid explained. "Your mind stats would usually have made you immune to her charms, but your vitality holds too much sway over you. I used a spell to stop some chemicals from affecting your brain."

He felt embarrassed by having his vitality issues pointed out like that but was more surprised by something else, "You can do that?"

"Barely, Your Highness. It's a spell meant to force kids to behave in critical situations. Your mind stats will eventually protect you from me"

Arthur nodded. "Thanks."

Then, he gulped and turned to the table again.

Sophie was still stunning, and her lovely smile didn't make things any better. But Arthur could think this time around. He could also breathe and move, so he started walking towards the table.

"Am I safe now?" he asked no one in particular. "How does this... innate ability even work?

Sophie opened her mouth to say something, but the knight beat her to it.

"Your junior maid's vampire biology spreads mana traps in a wave around her, sire," Graham explained from the table. "It's like trying to dominate the mind of everyone in a large area, but it doesn't consume mana. However, vampires can use mana to make the effect stronger. Fortunately, using mana turns it into an actual magic prehension, bound by all rules of magic, especially reach. Like anyone, vampires are more dangerous the closest they are to you."

The junior maid snapped her jaw shut when the man spoke over her. Her smile disappeared, and she pouted.

It was so Fatedamn adorable!

"I think Sophie wanted to be the bearer of this information, Grand Knight," Tamara said disapprovingly.

"I know, Head Maid," the knight replied. "She'll thank me later, and so will you. You evidently don't fully understand what will happen when His Highness hears the voice of someone with a 25% vampire bloodline. I was married to a half-vampire, so I do. It'll be better if you're close to her when it happens."

Arthur raised an eyebrow at that while Sophie's pout turned into a confused frown.

"Charlotte was half-vampire?" the prince asked. "I thought she was one-eight or something? Her great-grandfather was a vampire?"

"You're correct, my prince. But anyone with 12.5% or more monster blood is called a half-monster."

Arthur didn't like thinking of Charlotte as a half-monster. "That sounds... offensive."

Sophie's eyes had widened a little at Arthur's declaration, then her smile returned. She looked positively surprised.

"It's the best choice, Prince Boria. One alternative is precise categorization, forcing every half-monster to reveal how much monster blood they have. Another is to treat them like any other Fated, as if they can't rekindle their monster bloodline and trigger a disaster at any moment. Half-monster is a perfect fit."

After that, Sophie's smile died once more. She hugged herself protectively and fidgeted in her seat. Her eyes left the prince as if ashamed. She just looked down at her plate.

Tamara came to the rescue. "You can also call them monster descendants, Your Highness."

Arthur nodded. "I'll do that. Thank you, Tamara."

And then, Sophie looked up again at him and smiled once more.

He smiled back. Her emotions were so easy to read and flowed so freely on her face and posture! It was a breeze of fresh air, considering Graham was always wearing armor, and Tamara rarely showed strong emotions.

The prince finally reached the table, stopping on the seat opposite to Sophie. It was the closest one, but he would've picked it anyway. Although she was his maid and there could never be anything between them, looking at her also took from the monotony of Graham and Tamara.

He silently thanked his father for the foresight.

Sophie and Graham stood up and bowed to him. Sophie did it as a maid, holding her robe, lowering her head, and bending her knees a little. Graham nodded and barely moved his torso forward.

"Happy Birthday, Your Highness," Tamara repeated, stopping behind the last vacant chair and bowing, too.

He smiled at her. "Thank you."

"Happy Birthday, sire," the knight echoed.

"Thank you too, Graham."

And then, Sophie spoke.

Arthur wasn't even sure what she said. All he could focus on was how perfect her voice sounded.

He could almost feel the sound waves going from his brain to the rest of his body, leaving goosebumps all over his skin. He could almost identify his brain fighting Tamara's spell and winning. Hormones overflowed him, and he felt a strange, warm pleasure spreading throughout his whole body.

He lost his strength, his eyes rolled to the top of his head—

The prince returned to himself with his limp body being kept on the chair by Graham, who stood beside him. Tamara was on the other side, her hand on his head, using magic. He felt the warm mana envelop his brain. It was probably what awoke him and let his mind function.

He sat upright, and the first thing he noticed was that Sophie was gone.

"Wha—" he started saying, but his mouth was so full of saliva he drooled. Embarrassed, he swallowed and tried again, "What was that?"

"A demonstration, milord," Graham said as he moved back to his chair. "As Head Maid Lauquenbur said, Junior Maid Brimstone can't control her innate abilities. Your mind stats are precisely as high as they need to be to resist a 25% vampire's voice when they are not adding mana to it. Nevertheless, another part of yourself, your vitality, sabotaged you."

The prince was initially surprised but quickly understood what this was supposed to teach him. That the knight had even repeated what Tamara had said made this even more apparent.

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles," Arthur quoted the achievement. "The opposite is also true. I didn't know Sophie and myself enough."

"A wise conclusion, my prince. Moreover, you must always fully control yourself on the battlefield. And if my wife didn't teach you this: be ready for any place or situation to become a fight to the death. Sometimes, one must join a battle without forewarning or not being in peak condition, be it physically, emotionally, or psychologically. Always be ready for any situation."

Arthur frowned slightly. The knight didn't explicitly state it, but he had told Arthur that in passing before. Arthur was getting to know the knight's methods after learning magic from him and took the previous mention to mean this episode had been a test as much as a demonstration. Yet, no matter how much he searched his memories—and he could do that fast—he found no teaching that would've helped in this situation.

"What could I have done?" he asked.

The man nodded, approving that the prince had understood the implications. "Compartmentalized your thoughts and emotions, Prince Boria."

"Oh. That would've worked?"

Mind compartmentalization was the next step from multitasking.

The human mind could do two things at the same time, but only one could be focused on. For instance, one could simultaneously read and write, but either they wouldn't be paying full attention to either, or they would pay attention to one thing at a time in very short spans.

High mind stats let an awakener take that to the next level. They couldn't split their minds in two or anything like that, but they could use their high willpower to push some thoughts and emotions to one part of themselves and ignore it. It was like creating a smaller, weaker personality and keeping it under wraps while only revealing the "main personality."

Graham had taught it to Arthur as a way to not let his thoughts get in the way when using magic. He had said it would be crucial on the battlefield, too, and logically, if anywhere could be a battlefield...

Yet, Arthur hadn't fully believed anywhere could. Certainly not his birthday celebration. Much less get attacked by his maid, whom he already knew.

He would do well to not disregard his knight's teachings in the future.

"No, sire," the man replied, to Arthur's surprise. "Not with your vitality having such a strong hold over you. But you should've tried anyway."

The prince nodded, but he still had a question. "Why now? Why didn't I suffer all this the first time I met Sophie? I liked her voice, but this..."

"Half-monsters are also half-Fated, milord. Fate protects them from themselves until they are considered psychologically mature enough. For unawakened humans, that happens at around twenty-one. Your junior maid reached Fate maturity a few weeks ago. But even should she have been mature when you saw her last, a half-monster's innate ability power is also based on their stats. It would've been stronger now than in the past regardless."

"So I take it Sophie isn't returning? And that I can only ever talk to her again when I either improve my mind stats or learn how to compartmentalize my thoughts at my every waking moment?"

Arthur didn't blame the girl. Tamara had said she couldn't control her innate abilities yet, which was exactly like how he couldn't control his vitality. Well, maybe a bit different because his stat didn't affect anyone but him, but it was similar enough.

Both of them were beholden to things beyond their control.

And while Sophie might have known what would happen—Graham had, even though Tamara hadn't—the knight had seen fit to make this happen. It hadn't been an ill-intentioned attack. Instead, a previous lesson had been firmly etched into the prince's mind thanks to this demonstration.

"She left, yes, my prince, but you'll get to see her after getting the proper skills."

Arthur's eyes lit up at that. "Which will happen...?"

"After this little celebration, Your Highness," Tamara replied. "This is an important moment. Grand Knight Graham and I talked a little, and things will change a lot once you get your skills. Take this as your final goodbye to this phase of your life. In fact, you should even cherish how Sophie's voice was enough to make you pass out from pleasure. It wasn't quite as good as sex can be, but it'll be the only thing you'll have for a long while."

The prince immediately blushed. "Wha— What?!?

"We're all adults here, Your Highness," the maid replied shamelessly. "You'll have been alive for eighteen years when we leave this dungeon if we stay here for all the ten years we can. During my talk with the grand knight, we discussed when you should be introduced to more mature topics. He felt he should be the one to do it, but I insisted that we both should. Talking about such matters with a lady will also remove your embarrassment. We can't have the crown prince becoming flustered any time a lady talks about having a good fuck."

The prince's slight blush turned furious crimson when Tamara used that word.

So– So improper! How even could she? Where did she even learn to talk like that?!

"Not yet, Head Maid," Graham interjected. "Your Highness, although too crass for my tastes, your maid is right: you should enjoy this moment. After getting skills, you'll start killing monsters. That changes a person. High mind stats prevent us from going crazy or feral, but any innocence and some cultural beliefs you have will be slowly stripped from you.

"After seeing the guts of a monster spill out from a cut you made enough times, you realize some things aren't as substantial as you thought. It would be enough for you not to care about your maid's base slang, but more than not care, you must know how to properly react to it both in and out of polite society. It is, therefore, crucial for us to breach the subject while you're undergoing your upcoming changes of perspective.

"But that is for later. For now, please, focus on the present. I ask the same of you, Head Maid."

Tamara nodded. "You have a point, I suppose, Grand Knight." She smiled at Arthur. "Shall we eat, Your Highness?"

= - = - =

Eventually, Arthur calmed down enough from Tamara's manner of speaking to think and speak.

The bit about killing changing someone made sense. Even the knight stories he had heard as a child contained villains that got too caught up in killing, to the point they didn't mind attacking allies anymore. They became the very monsters they sought to destroy. The prince had always known he would kill countless monsters to reach level 100, but having them approach the subject like this made him uncomfortable.

Could he become a monster?

No, he wouldn't. Of course, not. Graham wasn't a monster, nor were his father's other knights. They had a method to prevent that, and even Tamara would help. Things would be okay.

So, he did as suggested and focused on the celebration. He wasn't sure how important it was to remember a time when he felt so weak and unworthy as now, but he had learned to trust Graham's wisdom.

The prince completely ignored the food on the table, though. He didn't think he would eat anything ever again, not after the vitality achievements. Even the smell of the fried chicken made him a little ill.

"Did you bring all this in your spatial storage?" he asked Tamara.

She was the only one eating anything because Graham still had his helmet on. She nodded and, after swallowing, replied, "Yes, Your Highness. I don't have a lot of food, but what I have is properly preserved."

Silence ensued.

The prince wasn't sure of what to talk about. His every conversation since entering the dungeon was related to reaching level 100. Yet, he was supposed not to think about said goal now. Focus on the present, they had said.

He guessed Annie had been right; he didn't make for a charming conversationalist.

Eventually, he decided to talk about things he had never gotten around to asking. For instance, vampires. He wanted to know more about Charlotte and now Sophie, and considering what had just happened and what they had already talked about, it felt "present" enough to discuss.

"You said Sophie had an innate ability? What are those, exactly?"

"One of the main differences between monsters and the Fated Races is in their biology, Your Highness," Tamara answered. She was a biomancer, so she likely understood it better than Graham. "None of the Fated Races is mana-evolutionary. All monsters are, meaning their bodies naturally take advantage of mana in different ways.

"The goblins we saw in the first rooms use it to grow stronger. They don't age like we do; the more mana they absorb from the environment, the bigger and meaner they become. Vampires age like us, but some parts of their bodies react to ambient mana in specific ways, and they grow stronger with the mana they consume from their victims' blood.

"That reaction is what we call innate abilities.

"One of Sophie's innate abilities makes her breathtakingly beautiful to us. Vampires automatically adapt to the prey in their environment, in her case, humans. It would also work on elves because of our shared beauty standards. I'm not into women, but even I can't help but feel attracted to her.

"She also produces pheromones to affect our minds. She literally exhales sex appeal. The wooden panels I brought are also enchanted to keep her smell contained, or you would have gotten under her influence much earlier.

"These two things are in place only to lower their prey's mental defenses for what truly matters: mind control. Her every word delivers mana in a way to accentuate the other effects and turn her target into a puppet. Once you fall for it, you become completely at her mercy."

Arthur swallowed. "Thank Fate, it didn't work."

Tamara chuckled. "Oh, but it did, Your Highness."

"Huh?"

Graham answered for the maid. "Sire, Junior Maid Brimstone wished you a happy birthday, and that was enough for you to look at her with a mix of absolute adoration, total submission, and unlimited desire. You probably don't even recall that you only fainted minutes after she spoke."

The prince couldn't believe what he was hearing. "I did what?!"

Tamara chuckled again. "The Fated Races call vampires cruel leeches, Your Highness, but they see themselves as sophisticated hunters. Despite their strong body, they enjoy controlling their prey without moving a limb. They take great pleasure in having someone come and give themselves to them 'voluntarily.' So, as much as Sophie's voice was a demonstration to you, it was also a wake-up call to her."

Arthur didn't get the last part. "How so?"

"Fate thinks Sophie is mature enough for her innate abilities, Your Highness, but I don't. Fate has its own considerations, but from everything I see, Sophie should emotionally be only sixteen or seventeen years old. I think the difference comes from Fate not considering how sheltered she was in her childhood. It probably only uses some math to determine if her age and stats compare to an unawakened twenty-one-year-old.

"So, she's a teenager in a woman's body dealing with powers she doesn't fully comprehend. More importantly, she doesn't understand the consequences of using them until she experiences it.

"When she talked to you, she saw her crown prince became little more than a mindless animal. You, the man she venerates, whom she sometimes glimpses dedicating himself to grow stronger for his people. It only took her two words to make you undone before her very eyes. Worse, seventeen is when girls usually start giving voice to some impulses, when curiosity demands an outlet, but it's heavily tainted by expectations, often unrealistic romantic ones. Your primal desire was the first look of passion she ever received, and all I say is that it was not beautiful. She was not expecting that.

"As I said, vampires do that to make their prey easier to control. Sexual impulses are a base instinct that most beings share, and when not properly handled, it makes them vulnerable. As you'll learn in the incoming years, that is sadly also found in politics.

"But Sophie is not a vampire; she is human first. She has to deal with hormones, was separated from her last living family member, her father, is living isolated in a dungeon with the man she'll serve until the day she dies, and must learn a new craft. All that while her body and mind change at a fast pace.

"A lot is going on with her, and she finds it hard to differentiate reality from fantasy. This episode showed her how real this all is and the tangible consequences of her actions."

Arthur took something important from that speech: his desires could be exploited by his enemies.

He had left the subject of his sexual impulses untouched after The Talk with Charlotte. He didn't talk or think about it; the time for that would come after marriage. As crown prince, he couldn't marry for love like Charlotte had done. He had a duty to his kingdom and feared that even talking about the subject might make him curious to seek novelty where he shouldn't.

Now, here he was. Being controlled by something he didn't understand about himself. Tamara and Graham were clearly right; he needed to learn how to deal with it. Graham sometimes talked about biology and how it affected Arthur's element, metal. That might also help.

Compartmentalizing his mind wasn't enough; he had to be in full control of himself, as Graham had said.

As for Sophie, Arthur didn't feel qualified enough to consider her situation. He could trust Tamara to do a good job.

"Did it work?" he asked. "Did Sophie understand what she was supposed to?"

Arthur himself had already understood many things about him from the episode, so it had been worth it on that front. He was curious about whether it was the same for her.

"She did, Your Highness," Tamara said. "Your reaction terrified and confused her. But as regretful as it is, she had to go through it where we could see. All monster descendants do."

"Where you could see? Why?"

Graham replied in Tamara's stead. "If she had reacted with a little less fear or repulse, I would've killed her, milord. Any half-monster who shows they enjoy their power the first time they use it for evil must be put down by the League's command."

Arthur's eyes widened. "What?! Isn't that a little..."

The knight shook his head. "No, milord. During the Great War, while the Fated Races were killing one another, the dwarves found an underground vampire nation by accident while digging to deal a blow to the holins. Take note of what I said: not a lair, dwelling, or city. A nation with dozens of cities.

"The first vampires there had come out from a dungeon that overflew without none the wiser. The nation had been around for so long that it had dozens of millions of people and hundreds of thousands of full vampires. You must understand vampires see prey as food, nothing else. They also need to consume blood to survive, and it must be from progressively stronger prey, or the bloodlust overwhelms them.

"So, they were breeding people as cattle to grow stronger in a society of mental slavery and control. But they are leeches, not farmers. Their methods were brutal and inefficient, and they kept needing to kidnap more prey. Posterior investigations revealed a widespread crime network to take people from up to seventeen countries.

"When those vampires eventually found themselves with a steady source of new prey, cattle became toys. Imagine everything you had your toy soldiers do to each other when you were a child, but they used humans instead. As you'll learn later, some toys have different uses, and creativity without empathy can create terrible horrors."

Arthur felt ill just remembering dismembering some toys. It had been with a child's innocence, a sword strike cutting off a limb without thinking of how terrible that was. If what Graham was saying was true...

"The Great War only ended as soon as it did because even battle-hardened veterans lost the will to kill each other after they invaded the vampire nation and witnessed its atrocities. They refused to weaken the Fated Races when such horrors might await at any random corner of the world.

"The true reason behind the League of Fated Races isn't preventing another Great War. That is only a consequence of its actual goal: ensuring the Fated Races never let another such thing happen again.

"Which is why half-monster is the right word to use. Any half-monster can rekindle their monster part and be the trigger for another such tragedy. It keeps us alert. I don't care if they feel offended. My wife didn't care either. She understood what was at stake."

Arthur disagreed with the half-monster part; "monster descendant" also served as a reminder without being so divisive. But he was too astonished by everything else to argue that point. In fact, he could barely believe it.

"I knew monsters were called monsters for a reason, but this..." he said.

"The Fated Races always grow lax and forget, my prince. We forget the time after the dungeons and before Fate when we almost became extinct. We forget the danger of a monster when they look cute. We let our greed blind and rule over us."

The prince still couldn't understand one thing. "Why the charade, though? Why not tell everyone the truth?"

"The League claims it is to keep this information on a need-to-know basis to avoid prejudice, Prince Boria. But it's about pride and embarrassment. Before the Great War, many kinds of recreation involved monsters. What the vampires did to us is unmentionable, but what we did to them and other monsters was also inhumane.

"Remember how creativity without empathy can birth horrors? There's no sympathy lost for monsters in the world, which is the right way of things when it comes to exterminating them. No quarter, no mercy, no pity. However, in the past, the Fated Races took it in different directions. We didn't fall as low as the vampires, but it was terrible enough.

"Consequently, there were too many half-monsters when the League came to be. They couldn't be killed because they are also half-Fated. Yet, the powers-that-be don't want people to wonder why there are so many of them around. They don't want people to look at our past and see us for what we truly are."

Arthur had never explored his sexuality, but he wasn't dumb. He could start to guess what Graham was saying. It only made him feel worse.

"Nevertheless, half-monsters are still a danger, Your Highness. Almost all half-monsters who show pleasure when abusing their powers for the first time, even if by accident, do it whenever they have the chance. Less than a tenth of a percent changes their ways. So, they are all equally quelled. The League considers those innocents an unfortunate but needed sacrifice for everyone else's safety."

The prince didn't know what to say after that. He also had no idea how Tamara could keep eating as they talked about those things.

The only sound for a while was of her cutlery hitting the plates.

Eventually, he asked somberly, "Besides innate abilities, how else do half-monsters differ from the Fated Races?"

He would also have to rule for half-monsters when he left the dungeon, and he even had a  vampire descendant maid. He had to know, and now seemed like a good time to mention it, despite the heaviness in the air.

"Anyone who's 12.5% monster or more will have restrictions on their stat distribution, element choice, and skill acquisition, milord.

"First, stat distribution. These people will see half their stats being forcibly allocated into one stat. The only thing that changes is how that stat is decided. It has a lot to do with the monster's nature.

"My wife was 12.5% vampire. She was forced into a random stat category upon awakening, body, mind, or mana. Your junior maid is 25% vampire, so she was given a choice to pick one of two random categories upon awakening. 50% vampires can pick any category.

"In either case, they must then choose one of the stats in that category, and every other point they gain will be forced into that stat. However, it can't be strength or vitality. Vampires, the monsters, are well-rounded but never strong, and they need to steal other creatures' vitality to survive, so both stats are blocked from getting picked.

"However, they aren't fully barred from willingly placing points in strength or vitality. The lower the vampire bloodline's percentage, the more points they can add to those stats. A half-vampire can place one out of every 10 points on either stat. Your junior maid can place one out of every 8. My wife was limited to one out of every 5.

"Then comes element restriction. Different monsters also have different restrictions. Vampires will always be forced to pick the blood element, and it's rare for any Fated Race to be given a choice to pick it. Even healers are almost always pushed towards life instead. As you know, life awakeners are called biomancers in the League's dialect. Blood awakeners are bloodsingers.

"And the last restriction, skill acquisition. Every other skill a vampire learns must be related to agility, blood, vitality, or mental manipulation in one way or another. Agility because actual vampires, the monsters, are always incredibly fast. Blood and vitality because they need it to survive. And mental manipulation because their biology naturally manipulates other beings' minds.

"Then comes what we call balanced characteristics. Those with 25% monster blood or more can also have innate strengths and weaknesses depending on the bloodline. Unlike innate abilities, they can't control those, but they are usually balanced, at least in numbers.

"Your maid's skin is more prone to blistering from the sun, she is slightly weaker during the day than her stats should make her, and she can only eat meat. However, she heals faster and is slightly stronger at night, and will always look much more beautiful than anyone with similar body stats.

"Lastly, they have a clear advantage. Half-monsters have such a deep connection with their element, such an innate understanding, that they can often affect the elements in a way no Fated Race can. My wife did that to help you find your will-mana center."

Arthur considered all that.

All in all, being fully Fated sounded much better. It let them grow much more freely. It was also more convenient; being weaker during the day sounded annoying. A monster descendant's deeper connection to their element wasn't good enough of a tradeoff.

Or was it?

Maybe that was why knights were stronger than mages in direct clashes. The Fated Races weren't "mana-evolutionary," as Tamara had called it. They hadn't been created with any mana ability. So, they only truly shone when wielding swords.

This led him to ask, "Does my connection to metal means I'll be able to learn magic that only monsters or half-monsters can? Am I a half-monster?"

"My wife believed the answer to the first question was yes, my prince, but I don't know the answer to the second question. Her Majesty has glowing green eyes, but I was never told which race it comes from. However, I also don't know of any half-monster race that would let you distribute all your stats as you see fit, like you can do. The only thing that would explain that would be if His Royal Majesty found a way to circumvent that."

"You're not a half-monster, Your Highness," Tamara said. "I was told by His Royal Majesty before coming here. He ordered me to reveal the race to you after we leave."

The prince nodded. Being half-monster wouldn't have bothered him.

Unless...

There was one thing he had wanted to know for some time but was always worried Sophie would appear at the last second, hear it, and feel bad. Now seemed like the best opportunity he would have.

"Can you level up by killing half-monsters?" he asked with a low voice.

"Yes, Prince Boria," the knight replied gravely. "A half-monster's bloodline percentage is applied to their level to determine their 'monster level' for Fate's purposes. A level 50 person with a 25% monster bloodline would make one's level advance as much as a level 12 monster. It's not worth it, but some organizations take it as proof that Fate wants us to kill half-monsters and seek to eradicate them from the world. League forbids it, but many places and people ignore the rule.

"My wife was constantly harassed even after she became strong enough to protect herself, and she was the daughter of the Golden Kingdom's Knight Commander. I can only imagine how difficult life can be for anyone else, especially commoners."

The history of the vampire nation had been terrible, but it had also been about a distant past. This, however, touched on Charlotte and his subjects. It felt too personal, too close.

As king, what could he do to stop that?

Should he stop that?

As much as he loved Charlotte, what if the League was wrong? What if half-monsters were too dangerous to be left alone? What if Fate did want people to kill them?

The very thought caused revulsion. He hated even considering it. But he needed to know more. Not for him, for his subjects.

Fate, for the very world.

"How many half-monsters ever become as... behaved as Charlotte?"

Tamara sighed and answered instead of Graham. "Your Highness, Grand Knight Graham has a militaristic view on such matters, and he's presenting the worst of it to impart upon you how critical this is. However, be assured that monster descendants are dangerous if they can't control their innate abilities or impulses, which they can accomplish with practice. After they do, they are no more dangerous than any other person.

"That is the word, practice. They don't even need to improve their mind stats for extra willpower. There are very good methods to teach them what to do, and the League takes care to ensure every monster descendant can learn. You don't even need mind resistance skills; Sophie won't be any danger to you in another couple of weeks. Be alert, but don't push her away. It would do more harm than good to you both."

"She's right, sire," Graham agreed, to Arthur's surprise. "Lawbreakers exist everywhere, and actually, among the unawakened, it's easier to find half-monsters abusing their innate abilities than other offenders. Among the awakened, those abilities are treated as just additional skills or magic.

"It's the ones who enjoy using their power for evil the first time that caused big tragedies in the past. Junior Maid Brimstone is a complicated but good girl, tested for many things, including loyalty. She's valuable, and now that she passed the first test, you should treat her as you would anyone."

The prince felt himself relax. Indeed, that sounded much better than the picture the knight had been painting.

So, monster descendants were just people like him. If Sophie ever did anything he disapproved of after she learned to control her abilities, it wasn't because of her race but her own judgment. It wouldn't be different from how Stinson was an asshole despite being human.

As for sacrificing a few innocents for the good of all, he hated it. Fortunately, he could do something about it.

"I'll reach level 100," he declared. "A level 100 mage and king. I'll study the subject, and one day, I'll figure out a way of dealing with this that doesn't require us to kill good people. Every single of my subjects' lives is valuable. I will never accept 'necessary sacrifices' paid in blood."

Tamara smiled appreciatively. Graham said or did nothing.

After that, he could think of no other subject that didn't include his life in the dungeon. A long silence preceded the end of the get-together.

Soon enough, Tamara pulled the entire table—remaining food and all—into her spatial storage, then the chairs, and returned to the house.

"Thank you for this," Arthur said before she left.

"You're welcome, Your Highness."

His tenth birthday celebration hadn't gone like he had expected when he saw the table, but he was glad about their conversation. Getting to know more about Charlotte felt great. He even considered asking Graham about the day in the painting but didn't think he was close enough to the man yet.

"Now, Prince Boria," the knight said. "It's time for skills."

He pushed his hand into his spatial storage and pulled out the storage safe the king had given him.

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