Wolf of the Blood Moon: A Blood Magic - Book 3: Chapter 60: Royal Court Part I

Scarlet

I try very hard not to scream as Gramps pulls me through the air with some skill, the two of us flying straight towards the center of the world alongside the Blood Lord. At speeds that I have never gone in my entire life before. Not even on a supersonic magi-tech train. Speeds so fast that the view below us is just a mere blur to my eyes despite me being Class III now.

And to make matters worse, I don’t think I’d be able to scream even if I wanted to. I don’t think I can even talk, since whatever Gramps is doing that is letting me breathe isn’t exactly letting me talk.

Why the heck Gramps said all he did about me not staying the night in the Castle of Ruin when he wasn’t even going to be having the business of his that he wants me to watch in that castle is beyond me.

“He just wanted an excuse to show you his work, and another side of himself,” Tar comments, and judging by the slight pursing of Gramps’ lips at those words, I’m guessing he’s right.

At the very least, the trip only takes a few minutes. Even though we all just flew for several tens of thousands of kilometers during these few minutes.

And when we actually stop, I find myself staring at a massive castle in front of us on the ground in awe. The castle itself is over twice as large as the Castle of Ruin, and it has four even larger towers on each corner of the rhombus shaped castle, each spanning nearly three times the castle’s size in height. And the castle’s design is very dark, clearly made entirely out of blood metal with the whole thing being a very dark black with hints of red in color and a sleek metallic sheen to it.

What makes the castle look even more sinister though is the barren wastelands surrounding it. Since the ground is completely red with no fertile soil in sight, no life at all except for the millions of spawn I see all fighting each other around the castle.

Although in hindsight, there isn’t really much fertile soil on Tartarus in the first place. And the demons don’t exactly eat vegetables or fruit or anything like that.

If I remember correctly from Gramps’ lessons, the Bloody Duchy is the only ‘continent’ in the world that has fertile soil. And they don’t really farm much, seeing as most demons don’t bother eating vegetables or fruit and sustain themselves almost entirely on meat. Often the meat of other demons of other species. Although a lot of spawn are cannibals too.

Nobles are often the only demons with a much larger variety in their palate.

“This is my castle,” Gramps says with a proud look on his face.

I numbly stare at it as he begins lowering up into the center of the castle where a large tower stands, albeit not as large as the four surrounding it. Then he drops us all in through a skylight at the center of the tower into a throne room.

“Welcome, Your Majesty,” a demon I can only assume is a kitsune says with a bow. So I identify her out of curiosity.

|Raiden Akuma – Kitsune – Level 1792|

Holy shit this is one strong kitsune. She’s almost as high a level as most of the Knights of Humanity. And with her being a kitsune on top of it, she’s probably stronger than them. Just like Satan.

The kitsune has a pair of red and black fox ears along with nine fox tails spread out around her, each of them being a sleek black. And her eyes themselves are like that of a cat, and they’re amber in color. Although while they are slit, they aren’t anywhere near as narrow as a reptile’s eyes are.

Her gaze turns to me and Leonidas as she says with another bow, albeit one that doesn’t go as deep as the one she gave towards Gramps, “And welcome to Your Highnesses as well.” Then she focuses solely on me with a polite smile, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Princess Scarlet. I hope we can get along.”

I feel a shiver run down my spine at the way she’s looking at me. Like I’m a toy for her to play with despite her clear loyalty.

A similar look that I’ve seen both Belle and her mother get from time to time. Particularly when they’re looking to dress me up.

Albeit with this woman being far more frightening than them.

Gramps begins walking past her towards his throne as he says, “Akuma, please bring in the requesters.”

The kitsune takes a second to turn her gaze away from me before she bows again towards the King and says, “Yes, Your Majesty. Right away.”

Then she vanishes in a flurry of fire and lightning, both of a color mixture of yellow, red, and orange.

Foxfire.

Leonidas walks up to me and makes a blood domain around us while whispering, “I would watch out for that one. She may absolutely respect the royal family like other demons, but also like other demon clan demons, she is a lot more willing to do things to them that won’t actually harm them or cross their respect. Particularly the kitsune, who can be rather playful.”

I purse my lips as I look back, only for the blood domain to vanish at a wave of Gramps’ hand, making me realize he has more control over blood domains than his son. Then he waves at the two thrones next to the large one he’s now sitting in. And I can’t help but feel a little awkward as I walk over and sit down on one of the rather grand looking thrones.

All three of the thrones are clearly made out of very expensive and luxurious material, likely all made from demon parts. Not to mention that the metal in them is blood metal, making this one throne probably more expensive than my entire suite back at the university.

And that’s not considering how the King’s throne is larger and grander looking than ours.

“You can watch or participate yourself,” Grandpa says without looking at me, focusing his attention on the vast doors at the end of the long throne room. “It’s entirely your choice. I won’t force you to participate in demon affairs. Only show you a little bit of it.”

I nod my head at that, feeling appreciative at his consideration there.

Although I do admit that I’d rather not be here right now.

The kitsune appears again in a flash of lightning and fire before bowing slightly and moving to the side of the thrones. Then she raises her voice, declaring, “Enter!”