Most days followed the same pattern; Kain would wake up and finish his morning routine, proceed to do paperwork for a good few hours, manage the territory he now had dominion over from the comfort of his throne, and then after dinner, he would retire to bed and spend several hours in a passionate embrace with Alexis. Most of the territory management was spent organizing his undead hordes to build public works and construct fortifications. He knew it was only a matter of time before the ‘Forces of Light’ would try and take back Francus from him, which very well might be the tipping point that would make them try and take him out before he regained his power.

Therefore, building a good set of defensible positions was paramount for the survival of his nation. Ma-Ginotte had already been restored and enhanced beyond what it used to be, as the undead didn’t need to take breaks or rest which made them much more suited to acting as guards. Still, even with what Kain currently had at his disposal, he felt that he could do better. It struck him as odd that even with all of the buildings built the city of Necrograd was still far from fully restored. Sure, on the surface everything looked fully repaired, but Kain had a sinking feeling that the city still had a long way to go before it was one hundred percent complete.

That was why he had let Alexis handle the paperwork today and he instead spent that time on the throne, trying to find out if something was locked and/ or hidden. A little fine-tuned manipulation of mana into and out of the Castle Core seemed to make something ‘click’, but whatever had been altered would have to wait for tomorrow for him to find out as night was setting in and Alexis had demanded that he spend even more time with her tonight as compensation.

Kain had no real choice but to comply, as even if he tried to refuse, she would just take him while he was asleep, and waking up from his slumber to the feeling of having his throat ripped out as she climaxed was NOT pleasant at all. At least this way she would only take a relatively miniscule amount of the flesh on the side of his neck and not rip open his jugular…

If anyone thinks that real vampires are amazing lovers, they are right. At least vampires are good lovers up until the point they use their razor-like teeth to rip your throat open and guzzle your blood as they are overwhelmed with bestial ecstasy. If you can withstand all of that without dying or losing your erection, then it is something Kain would highly recommend. Just be prepared for lots of scratching, biting and eventually getting your throat ripped open by jaws with the equivalent bite-force of a Nile Crocodile.

…

Today was the day where Kain would find out exactly what had changed due to the alterations that he had made to the Castle Core. Alexis and Kain had powered through the paperwork and now they sat side by side within the throne room. Kain accessed the ‘Nation Management’ capabilities of the throne and lo and behold there was a new building that he could make. Unlike every building that had come thus far, this one did not just take mana to make but also took time to finish. The Black Library was a building which allowed Kain to 'research' new buildings, improve existing ones, and even improve his military forces, among other things. Kain had no idea what exactly the Black Library would provide as initial research options, but it was bound to be something useful… Hopefully…

It would really have sucked if the only building he could make now was the last good one that he could get, but at least the idea of improving his nation was worthwhile. Kain spent the mana needed to begin construction and a timer appeared in the HUD that was omnipresent whenever he sat down on the throne. The timer was set to roughly two months till completion, and Kain was more than willing to be patient. He had already spent a good amount of time not building new buildings, so waiting two more moths for a new one was not going to bother him. With that out of the way, Alexis and Kain began to spend the allotted time in their schedule doing territory management before retiring to the dining hall.

Once they finally sat down and began to eat, with Alexis chowing down on near-rare meat and red wine, Kain realized that he had a question that only she could answer. It was a question that had bugged him for a while, and with Alexis knowing the identity of anyone who ever became a vampire he could finally get the knowledge he had desired.

“Say, Lexi? Can I ask a question?”

Alexis sipped from her wineglass and smiled at her mate.

“Of course. Whatever do you wish to know?”

“When I returned to the city for the first time, I had to depose a certain vampire who had tried to claim this place as his own. I neglected to get his name before I killed him. So, could you, who knows the identity and history of every vampire in existence, both past and present, let me know who exactly it was I wiped from this world?”

Alexis closed her eyes and searched her vast well of knowledge. As the first ever vampire she had more power than any other, which included a subliminal connection to every one of her kind throughout the world. Their experiences were hers, and she knew every one of them better than they knew themselves. If ANYONE knew who the guy that Kain had offed was, it would be her, but unfortunately, she seemed to be having trouble finding his data in her metal databanks.

“Strange… I have his face, his form and even most of his history, yet his name eludes me… This should not be possible, yet it is the case not only for him but several others as well. The common connection between all of them is that they sat upon either of our thrones at some point or another.”

Kain almost took a drink but began to chuckle uncontrollably due to a realization he had about what Alexis had said.

“My word! Whatever has given you such a fit of laughter?”

Through his giggling, Kain told her what he had realized about everyone who had laid their asses on their thrones.

“It’s just that they don’t have names. All of them. They are just nameless mobs! It’s classic! There were so many of them that they all just blended together and ended up being nameless! This… This is priceless!”

Alexis seemed to think about it for a moment before a smile broke on her face and she carefully put her wineglass down before she too began to laugh. It was quite funny, at least to the two monarchs, that everyone who came before them and tried to make their name by claiming their thrones ended up being forgotten by history. The poetic irony was obvious, as the usurpers had spent so much effort in the act of making themselves powerful enough to claim such a lofty perch, only to have that very perch that they coveted become the place where they disappeared from the world. Their names had all been lost to history; the worst possible punishment for those who sought fame by taking the King and Queen's rightful places.