The Vampire Empress.

The carriage that carried me was worse than even the cheapest car in the modern world, it was like riding a horse that had spikes all over its feet. Like, it’s so bumpy that I couldn’t help but fume in anger as the carriage jumped up and down.

“Gwar… tomato head, is there any way of reducing the bumpiness of the carriage?” I opened the window and asked one of the guards who was walking beside my carriage. His hair reminded me of a tomato which is why I called him tomato head.

Naturally, he was a bit surprised by my naming sense but professionally hid his emotions though it wasn’t able to escape my eyes as he replied, “Forgive us but there is no such method to reduce the bumpiness of the carriage, my lady.”

“Whatever—how far is the town from here?” I asked while resting my head by the window.

“At our speed, my estimates tell me we will arrive four hours from now, my lady…” he answered as I looked at him with a plain gaze.

“Is this the limit of the carriage or are all of you perhaps dragging the speed down by walking beside the carriage?”

The guards were shocked to hear my words, they didn’t even bother hiding the fact that all of them agreed that they were indeed dragging down the speed of the carriage by walking. I felt a bit annoyed after knowing that and sighed.

“Driver, stop the carriage. I want all the knights or guards—whatever you like to be called—to get in a horse, a carriage, or something. I don’t want to waste time because of some stupid tradition of yours that needs the servants to walk outside,” I shouted which sent another wave of surprise to them.

“My lady—we can’t do tha—”

“And so? Who is your master? Is it your traditions or is it me? What if the tradition said to kill your master, would you obey it?” I stared at the guard who wanted to disobey, flaring a bit of pressure onto him as I added, “I am your master. Your traditions are only some weird practice. If you don’t want to listen to me then feel free to leave.”

He was speechless indeed. My patience was being tested and the last thing I want is for my patience to be tested, if you hire me to do something then don’t drag my speed down with me. I was transferred to this world unwillingly, yet these brats dare to waste my time?!

“I apologize for my member’s rude behavior!” a more handsome man suddenly intervened between us, his uniform was more different and noble than the other guards. He had a single crystal crest on his chest which according to the books I read, symbolizes his rank.

His crest was two arrows pointing upwards which means he is a captain of a brigade on the kingdom, not to mention, the blue sword sheath of his members means the people guarding me are really from the Royal Knights which is strange since Royal Knights are never to be deployed unless the person they are protecting is of royalty.

“Don’t waste my time, go jump on some carriage or go leave…” I said before he bowed down.

“As the lady wishes, everyone enter your assigned group’s carriages. We shall not waste any time then, move to carriage formation. One carriage will be at the front, another will be running from behind and the special unit along with me will accompany her ladyship,” he immediately instructed before all of them saluted as he turned towards me, “I hope you don’t mind us entering your carriage, Princess.”

“I don’t mind, just hop in immediately. And also, don’t call me Princess—I am not your Princess or any of the kingdom’s Princess,” I said which made his eyes widened a bit as he nodded without any questions, bringing along him with two female knights as they sat on a special formation.

There was a female knight in front of me and another one beside me while there was only him beside the female knight in front of me. Almost like it was meant to make me feel more at ease because there were only females at my sides… it was also understandable for me since noblewomen apparently don’t like men who they don’t like, or they aren’t family with sitting beside them.

As soon as all the carriages were ready, we immediately started moving without wasting a single moment. The ride immediately got bumpier as the speed of the carriage rose, but it was better than enduring a four-hour ride in a bumpy carriage.

“You, tell me all about the town. How much do you know about it, who is the noble holding the fief before me?” I looked at the female knight in front of me before adding, “Also, the three of you will have to tell me your names. I will be appointing the three of you as my personal guards.”

“As you wish, milady. I am Felice Valeria, the daughter of a baron. As for your question, the town of Kalorina or otherwise known as Kaloria was once a prosperous town that was infamous for their abundance of mana around them, allowing their harvests to be much more powerful.”

“For example, a plant like Cabbiale (Cabbage) would have more nutrients on them and be beneficial to the growth of young people or an ore like Yurion (Iron) would become far stronger than normal Yurion,” she replied.

Hmm, then that means the town earned a lot from selling higher quality goods than the other towns. Naturally, they would encounter enemies from that which probably caused their demise. In the first place, how would a place like that town have a more abundant supply of mana around them over other places… there must be something down there that caused the phenomenon.

“That’s enough of an answer for me, how about the two of you? Introduce yourselves,” I looked at the other two who were a bit nervous, especially the one beside me, she didn’t look like someone that would be suited to be a knight. Her face was incredibly cute, and she looked a bit thin.

“I am Leo von Estrada, the heir of the Estrada Marquis family. I was assigned as the captain of the Royal Knights Brigade C who used to be protecting Her Majesty, the Queen but was reassigned under you,” he replied.

“Theoretically, you are only one rank below me if I were to receive the Duchess title, that wouldn’t be nice if I forced you to swear loyalty onto me, wouldn’t it?” I smiled which surprised him a bit but nodded quickly.

The heir of a Marquis family, a rank below Duke; it would be bad if I forced him to swear his loyalty onto me who would become a Duchess if I ever succeeded. Felice isn’t much of an issue since she isn’t an heiress and also this cute lady beside me should also not be an heiress but for Leo, he is the heir of a Marquis family which is complicated… I can’t trust him if I want to live a long life here to compensate.

“How about you, Ms. Shy Knight?” I looked at the silent yet nervous knight beside me who shook a bit from my words and looked down as if she was afraid.

“I—I am… Iona Velia!” she shouted in a loud voice before biting her tongue as she immediately held her mouth, indicating she was in deep pain which made me chuckle unconsciously. She reminded me of a rat back in the modern world who would always be afraid of me, “Err—sorry!”

“Excuse me, my lady… I apologize for her behavior; she may be a bit of an introvert, but her skills are guaranteed. She is Iona Velia from Count Velia; she is one of the four daughters of the Count which means she isn’t inheriting her household. She is exceptionally talented in magical swordsmanship,” Leo intervened which indeed annoyed me a bit since I wanted to hear all of those from her, but I shrugged it off since I received the information I needed anyway.

If she is talented in magical swordsmanship then she is someone I would be happy to ally with as long as she doesn’t inherit any household title from her family. It wouldn’t be wise for me to push away all opportunities to earn allies, after all.

“I understand. After we reach the town, I want one of you to teach me more about magic and swordsmanship. I have already tested my attributes in magic, and I can use all elements whether it’d be the Defo side or Lato side,” I said which made all of their mouths open wide.

Defo-side elements, or defying order elements are elements such as darkness, lightning, ice, and other elements that are not part of the four basic elements. They usually aren’t achievable unless you were born with two elements or were born with a defo-side element.

As for Lato, they are the four basic elements that create the world: fire, water, earth, and wind which is common knowledge for anyone who has read a novel of some sort. Most people only have a single element but possibly because I took all the benefits and skills from that brain-celling killing God, I think I achieved all of them.

For sure, I know swordsmanship and other kinds of weapons are part of those skills which means I should have talent in using weapons as well. The full extent of the benefits and skills I received is still unknown to me but hearing that brat change his mind immediately and asked me to live there must mean I have talent in many aspects—hehehe… just remembering that idiot’s face being surprised places me in a good mood.

“Are you sure about that, milady? Having all elements is something that should only happen once every five million years according to the magic tower’s estimates…” Felice asked before I flung a tiny thunderbolt straight towards her arm, shocking her a bit as she looked at me surprised.

After Felice, I threw a fluffy ball of darkness straight towards the shy Iona which made her scream as for Leo, I cooled his bracelet a bit—and by a bit, I mean negative one hundred Celsius which turned the silver bracelet into ice.

“Is that enough to convince all of you?” I smiled before all of them nodded simultaneously. They were simple spells that I made myself from reading about books. Magic is composed of your imaginations which is paired with the mana that comes from your body, it’s common knowledge to everyone in the modern world who has read a novel or two.

And with knowledge of novels, I naturally felt compatibility with how magic here works since it also kind of works similar with the vampire’s innate ‘magic’ but instead of mana, we use blood and condense them to turn into weapons, they can’t make fireballs and etc. but they can be a sturdy weapon.

“Your talent in magic indeed convinced us, my lady. Though, we still have to test your ability in weapons and check what weapon you are most compatible with before we can start with your combat training…” Leo responded as I looked out the window with a smirk.

“I guarantee you that I am compatible with all kinds of weapons.”

This place was indeed interesting. Teil didn’t exist here which means there was no one to bother me every single hour, knocking on my house or calling me on my phone every single night but then again, it is also a bit depressing knowing there was a lack of technology here.

“Ha… it’s boring, where are the monsters—I want to see them,” I showed a bitter smile.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to wish for monsters, milad—” Felice was about to finish her words when all of a sudden, the carriage stopped, and as if the work of jinxes, a loud roar echoed from the front as the sound of metal clashing echoed.

My body couldn’t help but become excited as I looked at Iona’s weapon before taking it with me as I kicked the door open while unsheathing the sword which surprised them. Having been trained in combat myself by those oldies back in the clan, I knew how to fight myself.

“My lady!” Leo immediately tried catching me as I dashed my way towards the front where the knights at the front could be seen fighting twenty wolves and ten armored goblins. They were creatures that I wouldn’t be able to see back in the modern world.

The sound of metals clashing was nostalgic to my ears, the sight of blood spilling all around the fields excited me as I pushed myself even more before reaching the battle of one knight who was being overwhelmed by three wolves and two armored goblins.

“Let me enjoy a bit,” I smiled before swinging the sword horizontally, slicing the two armored goblins in halves as blood spilled from their bodies, raining a fountain of blood as one wolf immediately tried running towards me.

Without wasting a single move, I kicked the wolf with as much strength as I could muster, creating a shockwave as the floor under my other foot cracked before the wolf’s body exploded. The scent of blood all around brought me even more excitement as I appeared in front of the other two wolves, kicking one of them as their bodies collided like domino cards, exploding soon after.

“Wha…” the knight who was overwhelmed a little while ago looked at me with utter fear, his eyes reflected my beautiful white hair which was tainted in a bit of blood, my soft cheeks that were painted with blood, and my bright red eyes that was synonymous to evil.

After seeing me completely annihilate the monsters, all the other ones began to fear me as they immediately ran away like wild animals. I felt a bit of disappointment seeing them run away but there was nothing I could do about it.

“Milady… are you perhaps some sort of legendary hero on your world?” Felice asked as Leo and Iona both stood beside her. Their eyes were filled with disbelief as I sheathed the sword before throwing it to Iona with a smile.

“If that strength was recognized as a legendary hero in this world then this world’s power is indeed pitiful…” I smiled confidently, “That was below the average level for me…”

Of course, that was a lie! How else could I keep my ego if I said that the world I lived on was more peaceful than here?! Not to mention, how the F#@# did my strength become this demonically strong? I could probably smash a boulder of adamantine if that even existed with only my foot.

Though that lie was perfect as the three of them looked at me with awe, my inner self was proud of what I had done as I returned back to the carriage with a smirk, “All of you should start cleaning up fast, I don’t want to waste time!”

“As you order!” all of them saluted with respect this time, helping one another as they bandaged the ones who were wounded while cleaning up the dead monster corpses at the front while I sat in my carriage together with the other three who were still curious about me.

After nearly ten minutes of cleaning up and bandaging one another, the carriages soon started to move as the three kept staring at me as if they wanted to peek through my inner secrets—I wonder how they would react if I told them I was a vampire, would they fear me or would they try to kill me?

It was the fault of that stupid God to transfer me into this world after all even though I am not a human but a vampire—I wonder how vampires are treated in this world; do they even exist here? I have a lot of questions inside my head that could only be answered once I reach the town.