Wolf of the Blood Moon: A Blood Magic - Book 3: Chapter 69: The Baroness

Scarlet

The moment we step inside of the building, we’re greeted by the Baroness who is kneeling down to greet me, shocking the hell out of the guard with us as she declares, “I welcome you to my home, Your Highness.”

That shocks the guard even more.

Poor guy.

I ignore the hastily kneeling guard as I frown and state, “I would’ve preferred to have gone incognito.”

The Baroness looks surprised at that, only for the surprise to shift to worry before she hastily issues a bunch of orders out loud seemingly to no one. Then she bows her head again to me, but all the way to the ground this time as she declares, “Please forgive me, Your Highness! I wasn’t aware!”

Well, duh. And shouldn’t my attire have already hinted to my desire to stay out of sight?

Then again, she’s a Sloth demon. They’re not exactly the most observant of demons.

The demons are smart, sure. Just that they don’t often bother using their intelligence. Generally only the highest level Sloth demons like the Lady of Devouring actually think things all the way through.

I sigh at that thought and pull my hood back. Then I free my hair that is tucked down the collar of my cloak rather uncomfortably, letting it flow down my back again.

Much better.

“Do you happen to have a better way out of the city than the front gate?” I ask while glancing to the side when I see one of my bodyguards suddenly appear. But I subsequently ignore them to refocus on the Baroness again.

She quickly nods, answering, “I have a private tunnel leading out of the city that’s meant for emergencies, but you can use it whenever you wish to enter the city, Your Highness!”

I nod at that myself, “Then I think I will.”

And this way I won’t have to deal with the annoying line at the gate every time I come back.

Maybe meeting with her wasn’t all that bad.

I glance at the bodyguard, only to find Vincent not doing anything other than keeping a close eye on the shadows of the building. Which lead me to believe that the Baroness has guards of her own or something.

Kind of surprising that they didn’t come out to kneel as well considering how obsessed the demons seem to be with ranking, but who cares. They may also just be clones or something.

And considering how I don’t sense someone looking at me, they’re probably either kneeling in the shadows or are keeping their focus on the Baroness.

Anyways, it’s time to leave this city and return to my hunt again.

After Scarlet Leaves the Manor

Selene lets out a sigh of relief after the Princess leaves through her emergency escape route. She never would’ve expected that the Princess would immediately arrive at her city just weeks after His Majesty made the announcement.

Even if the blood lycans have a non-interference pact with their kin when they’re out hunting, if Her Highness were to die here or even get hurt or suffer in any way in my city…

The Baroness shivers at the thought before immediately turning around and climbing the stairs to the main room where she pulls on the shadow tether she has on the shadow weaver that notified her of the Princess’s presence in the first place. And not even a minute later, that very shadow weaver appears in the room bowing in front of her.

Before the shadow weaver can say anything, Selene states, “If you are to see Her Highness again, you will treat her with all the respect you can possibly give her. Is that understood?”

The shadow weaver’s head jerks up with an expression of shock on her face before she clears it and responds, “Of course, mistress.”

“Now tell me what you sold to her and how much you sold it for,” Selene continues, narrowing her pitch black eyes on her child.

“Of course, mistress,” the shadow weaver says before answering, “I sold her a month’s worth of food and supplies for an amount just a single copper over market value after Her Highness negotiated it down.” And when the Baroness’s eyes narrow, the shadow weaver asks, “Would you like me to go find her and give the Princess her coin back?”

Selene shakes her head, “No, that would likely just insult Her Highness. And from what I could tell by how she was acting, quite possibly irritate her as well.” Her brows furrow slightly. “She seemed to be in a rush to hunt.”

The shadow weaver’s eyes widen, and she quickly bows her head and states, “As you wish it, then, mistress. I will treat Her Highness as well as our store can manage the next time she arrives at the shop.”

“No,” Selene says, her voice hardening as she glares at her child. “She appeared to want to go incognito during her trip, so treat her as a regular VIP when in public, and only as the Princess in private.”

Her child doesn’t appear surprised by that, instead looking up with a look of determination in her eyes as she says, “Your will be done.”

Selene begins to step towards the stairs, only to pause before looking at a seemingly empty location in the center of the room. Then a vortex of blood appears there, following which a blood lycan – one of the Princess’s guards no doubt – steps out into the room.

The Baroness immediately kneels down as she says, “Greetings, Your Grace. How may I serve you?”

The man Selene immediately recognizes as Duke Nickolai Valtar de Argus glances at her with his eyes narrowed before ordering, “Send word to all the nearby cities that should the Princess arrive at their city, she is not to be bothered.”

“Right away, Your Grace,” Selene declares. She then glances at her child, finding her already nodding her head and vanishing in a mist of shadows to fulfill his order. Selene then turns back to him again and asks, “Is there anything else, Your Grace?”

Nickolai seems to think for a moment before he answers, “Please have intel on the closest nests brought to me at once.”

“Of course,” Selene says with a bow of her head as she orders some of her clones to go do just that. And when the clone makes it into the room with the intel, she immediately hands it to the Duke and returns to her kneeling position.

“That will be all then,” the Duke declares before vanishing in another vortex of blood, leaving Selene to let out a sigh of relief.

Too many important people arriving today… maybe I can get back to my nap now…