Wolf of the Blood Moon: A Blood Magic - Book 3: Chapter 79: Terrifying Demon

Scarlet

“Why did I have to do that?” I ask with a scowl on my face after we finish the portraits and I immediately take off the damned dress they had me wear for the formal portrait as opposed to my armor in the battle-ready portrait. “Why couldn’t I have just worn a suit or something?”

If I had to wear something formal, I’d much rather it be a suit than a damned dress. But she wouldn’t let me. Just forced me into the thing without a care in the world.

“You could have, Your Highness,” Raiden says, making my eyes widen in shock, “but believe with a clear conscious that everyone would prefer you to wear a dress that brings out your beauty rather than a stuffy suit.”

My eye twitches in my irritation.

So basically ‘you could have worn a suit, but I wouldn’t let you’ is what she’s saying.

“Yeah,” Tar agrees, sounding slightly fearful himself as he sits on my shoulder. Something the maids at Leonidas’s palace never allowed but is apparently fine here.

The maid and I walk through the palace, myself feeling rather exhausted from having to put on another dress just like the one at the ball but different this time before taking it off again after finishing the portraits, and her just as much a model of a perfect maid as ever. Which just makes her even more terrifying considering how terrifying she can act while still looking like the model maid.

Especially considering that when I tried to refuse putting the dress on, she simply snapped her fingers, making my body freeze stiff with a light wave of electricity running through it before she started getting to work changing me with my body somehow acting against my will. Which according to her, was because she had a skill to control the bioelectrical signals in other people’s bodies, letting her directly control their movements.

Absolutely terrifying.

And no matter how hard I fought against it, I couldn’t do anything. Which proved to me that this woman really doesn’t care about treating me as I wish to be treated like all of the other maids I’ve seen so far. She only wishes to protect me and have me respected by the other demons.

And to dress me up apparently.

“As there is no tradition for formal wear when taking the magical imprints, you may wear your armor as you wish for all of them, Your Highness,” the demon in a maid outfit – literally – cleanly states as we walk down the hallway of the castle, passing by other maids and servants along the way, many of whom run far away from Raiden in terror. “These magical imprints should only take but ten minutes at most, unlike the paintings. So they will be out of your way soon, and we’ll be able to visit mother after them.”

I let out a sigh of relief at that.

This woman really is terrifying.

She’s honestly making me wonder if I chose the wrong clan to visit after all.

We continue down the hall as she says, “When you meet with mother, make sure to give her the impression of yourself that you wish for her to have.” She glances at me with a serious look on her face, one that actually surprises me since she hasn’t shown that since she was with Gramps. “She has a habit of judging people right away, and she has very little impulse control, just like the majority of my clan.”

I blink at that before asking, “What about you?”

My words seem to catch the demonic maid by surprise for the first time since meeting her before she returns to her regular smiling face and says, “I am different.” Then she faces forwards again, stopping at a door and adding, “We’re here.”

The abruptness of the change of subject catches me off-guard this time, but I walk inside the room after she opens the door for me. And the room I find myself entering is rather large, with various little scenes set up akin to a recording studio on Earth. Except without the Earth technology, and with some magic thrown in.

Overall, a rather bizarre looking setup to have in a medieval castle.

“Right this way, Your Highness,” the maid says as she walks into the room and begins heading to a corner where a man is standing, seemingly waiting for us.

I can’t help but grimace.

The portraits were bad enough, but I really hate pictures…

“And that’s the last one,” Raiden says, still with that picture perfect smile on her face. “Now we can go visit my mother before the rest of the day is yours.”

I sigh at that in relief, only to frown and ask, “Raiden, why are you acting like my personal maid when you’re a Duchess?”

She looks surprised again, and the man who was taking my photos starts sweating as if he were about to die or something. And the head maid doesn’t say anything for a few seconds. Then she bows slightly and says, “My apologies, Your Highness.” She stands straight again. “Forgive my silence as I wasn’t aware you knew our customs for names.”

I blink at that, both at the fact that she deflected my question and what her deflection was in the first place.

Deciding that I’m actually a little more interested in this than why she’s acting as a maid, for the moment at least, I answer, “Earth used to have a nation that had using a person’s given name as a much more intimate affair, instead having people who weren’t closer to you calling you by your family name. And since they also had their family names going before their given name, I guess I just automatically went with that instead.”

Well, that and I’m used to calling people by the first name I hear when they list their names, but I’ll leave that part out.

She looks surprised before a look of remembrance appears on her face and she says, “The nation that used to be Demon Isle. I believe I remember Satan telling me that it used the same naming sense as us in most ways.”

I blink, surprised that she knows about that. But then again, she’s the Demon King’s head maid and a Duchess. So I guess it would make sense that she’d know it, among a lot of other things about Earth.

She looks out the window of the room before bowing slightly and saying, “Let us head to the gardens, Your Highness.” Raiden stands up straight again. “That is where my mother will be right now.”

I frown for a second before nodding my head.

Guess it’s time to see her mother. And I can get the answer to my question later.

Scarlet’s Formal Portrait

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