While sipping his wine, Damien heard a distinct humming noise coming from downstairs. 'Oh it's an assassin with low-level spatial magic' he thinks calmly, 'I have been expecting someone to come soon enough, surprised it took this long.'

"Fay go make some tea," 'I have to remove the girl from the room, if the assassin is after her and not me then there's no reason for me to get involved and be killed in the middle of it.'

'On the other hand, if the assassin is after me, Fay will just get in the way and I don't want her to die in a crossfire.'

After some more conversation, Fay leaves to make tea. I snap open my pocket watch to check my status.

[Damien Nightshade]

[Noble Vampire]

Skills:

Psychokinesis [C+]

Automatic Writing [F]

Telepathy [E]

Pyrokinesis [E]

===

Blood Magic [F]

===

Mana Control [D]

"Tsk"

'I still have almost zero offensive options, especially against a trained assassin. From the noise earlier. I can tell they know some spatial magic at the C tier, but I don't know their other abilities.'

Damien spread out his Psychokinesis onto the floorboards and the door, with only a C+ grade, he had to lie back into the chair and try to relax to increase his mana regeneration with his [Lazy] trait.

'If I can inflict a wound onto the assassin I can corrupt their mana flow with blood magic for a few minutes… that should bring down their fighting potential, but how can I get the jump on an assassin?'

'Worst case, I blast them away with Pyrokinesis and pray to the gods that they don't have any protection against fire attacks…'

Damien's eyes snapped open as he felt some weight pressing on the floorboards. The person seemed to crouch down slightly and press their head against the door.

'From their weight, they seem to be rather small or slim… likely to be a woman or maybe a smaller race.'

After the assassin doesn't break down the door, Damien came up with a good idea.

'Since they already know I'm here, why don't I pretend I was expecting them? Not like I can get the jump on an assassin anyway.'

Using his D grade Telepathy, Damien made contact with the assassin.

[Welcome little spy]

A second later, Damien felt the assassin's mana start to attack the floorboards, but his own mana intercepted and seemed to overcome her spell.

'They tried to escape with spatial magic through the floor, maybe they came here for information instead of assassination?'

Seeing that the assassin couldn't escape easily and didn't seem to be hostile, Damien used Psychokinesis to open the door quickly.

Beyond the door was a small elven woman, she was wearing a black cloak that tried to hide her silver hair and pointed ears.

A primal urge surged through Damien to bite the woman's neck. If Fay's blood smelled like a delectable roast dinner, this woman's smelled sweet like vanilla.

Damien fought off the urge with great difficulty and tried to identify the woman.

Silver hair and being an elf meant she was part of the Silvermoon clan. She was too short to be Princess Emilia or Queen Kaylessa.

'Maybe she is one of their secret agents'

Damien thought back to when he did a playthrough as Princess Emilia.

'There was this one mission near the start given by a woman that looks similar called Imryll… but that Imryll looked to be about twenty years old, this girl seems a bit younger… maybe eighteen.'

'Oh wait, the official storyline still hasn't started yet! It's very likely she is a younger Imryll!'

Using telepathy again, Damien hedged his bets on the elven woman.

[Oh Imryll what a pleasant surprise! Does Princess Emilia need something from me?]

The elven woman's face contorts in a weird fashion, and she suddenly moved towards Damien like a phantom.

'W-wha-'

Her hand flashes and a black blade appeared from within the folds of her cloak.

Before Damien could even react, the assassin had closed the gap and her blade was inches away from his neck.

Damien glanced at the blade in amusement but also terror. 'So this is why being a Psychic mage is a terrible idea, despite all my talent towards it, I can't concentrate when my life is in danger. It feels like trying to answer trivia questions while having a gun pointed to your head. Kinda muddles up your concentration, believe it or not…'

The black blade slammed into his neck with surprising force causing Damien's head to rock to the side but instead of a decapitated head and a fountain of blood, the black blade shattered like glass, much to the shock of the elven woman.

'Now if that blade had been coated in silver I would be dead right now, luckily this is just a standard iron dagger, nothing that can threaten a vampire.'

Damien maintained a calm demeanor despite the slight shock that his life had been so close to ending, his nonchalant attitude seemed to disturb the woman, and she just stood there, confused about how to continue.

"So…"

"Please take a seat, Miss Imryll."

Damien said while bringing a chair from the corner of the room with Psychokinesis and placing it under her, surprising her, but she sat anyway.

"How do you know my name?" she demanded in a tone she had no right using.

"Miss Imyrll how about we play a little game? I will answer one of your questions if you answer one of mine. This will continue until we are both satisfied?"

Imyrll didn't even blink and quickly agreed, 'She obviously plans to lie.'

Damien leaned back in his chair and swirled around the cheap wine before taking a sip,

'I already know who she is and I can guess why she is here… why don't I confuse her instead?'

"Considering you have arrived at my doorstep, then I assume Queen Kaylessa has decided to agree to my plans?"

Imyrll made the most confused face Damien had ever seen.

"What plan?" she said cautiously after a moment of thought.

"Is that your question?" Damien asked in a mocking tone, taking another sip of wine.

"No- erm" Imyrll become flustered and confused.

'She works for the Princess, not the Queen, so she will have no way to verify my words.'

"It would be rather inconvenient to pry any further into our plans, they are top secret and above the pay grade of a little spy like you. Even if you asked the Queen, she would feign ignorance."

Imyrll considered my words for a moment and just slowly nodded with a sad look.

"To answer your question I have not come due to the Queen's orders," she replied, "Considering you are in a working relationship with the Queen I won't pry any further."

'Oh no, I need to get into the Princesses good books, even if they think I'm working for the Queen'

"Before you go Imyrll let me give you something."

She seemed very hesitant and a little scared but stood near the door ready to run.

Using Psychokinesis, Damien floated over a piece of parchment and an ink-dipped quill. Activating Automatic Writing, Damien quickly wrote down some runes and diagrams, all in front of Imyrll's face, he didn't even glance at it.

Her looks of resignation slowly changed to one of interest and finally one of shock.

"Are… these… LUNA RUNES?" she carefully held the parchment-like it was some kind of national treasure, and looked at me with wide eyes.

"Indeed, they are my gift to your Princess, send her my regards," Damien said while trying to wave the women away.

"This is a problem…" she said with worry.

"How so?"

"There is no way I can make it back to the Princess safely while carrying this, all of Prince August's agents will kill me on sight and try to steal it."

At that moment, Fay walked in with a tray of tea, almost scaring the poor elven woman to death.

"I brought the tea Master, is this the guest?"

Fay appraised the woman and set the tray of tea on a small table.

Damien let out a long and tired sigh, "Alright Miss Imyrll please stay here, for the time being, I will send Fay to the city tomorrow with a message for the Princess to come and retrieve you."

Imyrll gave a deep bow, "I thank the Lord for his hospitality, this humble servant is named Imyrll Rosethorn."

Damien waved his hand for her to sit down and put his wine glass to his lips.

"Just Sir Damien is fine for me."