Ria played on for a bit longer while Em and I mostly recuperated from the small shock we’d just lived through. After that, we headed back downstairs for some lunch. Em’s mom had rested up pretty well too, so after we’d eaten, we continued the puzzle we started yesterday evening. When the evening grew closer, however, it was time for us to leave. I had Viktor care for Shima while I was away, at least to keep her some company, but she would definitely be happy to see me again. As for Ria, apparently her cousin was coming for dinner today and she didn’t want to miss that.

“Take care, feel free to come over any time.” Ilse gave both of us a hug at the front door before we left.

“Thank you, we’ll definitely be doing that.” I smiled.

“We’ll definitely come back before Christmas!” Ria said with a big smile.

“Oh, now that you say that. Do you have any plans for Christmas yet?” Em’s mom asked.

I looked at Ria. “I don’t really have any plans yet, what about you, Ria?”

“I’m not sure. I’d need to ask my parents.” She replied.

“Well, if you know anything, let us know. We would love to host the both of you for a nice Christmas dinner.” -I’d honestly love nothing more than to accept that offer outright. It’s such a warm family. You’d be an outright fool to deny. But I’ll wait for Ria to know something more before agreeing to it.-

“I will!” I Ria smiled.

At that moment, Helen pulled up the car behind us, stepping out of the vehicle and walking around it so that she could open the door for us. The snow that was still falling started to dot the black roof of the car.

Before I walked over to the car, I gave Em a quick kiss. “I’ll call you later, kay?”

“Mhmm.” Em smiled and gave me a nod.

After which Ria also gave Em a kiss and then also a quick hug. “I’ll do so too.”

“I’ll be waiting.” Em’s smile grew even wider while her mom chuckled to herself behind her hand.

“Young love is so beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Mooooom! You’re making it awkward.”

“That’s what parents are for, honey.”

Em rolled her eyes and then smiled again. “Oh well.”

We didn’t leave Helen waiting for that much longer, getting into the car for our drive home. We first dropped off Ria before making our way back to my house. When I entered the living room, Viktor was sitting on the sofa, reading a book he brought along for himself. He had Shima stretched out on his legs, seemingly asleep.

“Willkommen zurück, Aurora.” He greeted me and slowly closed his book. “How was the stay?”

“Pretty good.” I said as I put my bag on the floor. “Has Shima been nice?”

“Yes, she’s a very good cat.” He then slowly lifted Shima from his lap and put her in exactly the same pose back on the sofa next to him. As for Shima herself, she didn’t move at all, she actually even started purring even louder while being moved.

“Are you sure you want to leave her already? Looks like she’s taken quite the liking to you.”

“No, I should really go now.” Viktor smiled at me and stood up from the sofa. “I actually have another Dame to visit tonight.”

“Oh?” I started grinning. “It’s Alex, isn’t it?”

Viktor didn’t really say anything and walked over to the dinner table where he’d hung his coat.

“Hey now, Vik, if you say A, you got to say B too.”

Viktor softly chuckled. “Ja, Aurora, it’s Alex.”

“You two really have been hitting it off lately, haven’t you?” I leant back against the wall while I looked at Viktor getting dressed. “So you two are going steady now?”

“More or less.” Viktor admitted. “We are taking it slow, however.”

“At least don’t make a century pass, will you?”

“Why not? We are vampires, after all.” Viktor gave me a sly smile back.

“Fair enough.” I waited for Viktor to start moving towards the front door so I could lock it behind him. “Thanks for watching Shima.” I said when he walked outside.

“It’s nothing. Feel free to call on me again if you need me.” He then turned around so he could walk off, but before he had put in two steps he turned around yet again. “And do feel free to call on me when you just want to have company as well. It has been a while since we’ve really talked much with one another.”

“We’ll find some time, maybe next century or so.”

He raised his index finger and smiled. “I see what you did there, Fräulein.”

“Haha, and now fuck off before I get my baseball bat.” I laughed.

“Already on my way.” He winked and then walked towards his car.

We both waved each-other goodbye, and I then closed the door behind me.

“Gosh darn bloody Viktor.” I shook my head while I continued chuckling for a bit more.

-A couple of weeks later.-

The exams had already come and gone. Thanks to a couple more hardcore study sessions, I’d actually managed to perform really well on pretty much all of my tests. Our entire friend group actually performed beyond expectations. Ria even managed to get the second-highest total score from our entire grade. Em, Karin, Claire and Pres were all in the top 10%, and even I managed to get within the top 20% which I was incredibly surprised about. But now it was finally time to unwind a bit from the exams. Well, I say unwind, but I really meant, looking for houses with my girlfriends and Alessia in tow. We’d agreed to meet up at my house around noon, but first I’d have a small meeting with Claire. She had ordered some fencing gear for me and was about to drop it off.

A ring at the door announced her arrival.

“Hey Claire, what’s up?” I asked as I opened the door. Claire was standing there with a dark blue bag swung over her shoulder.

“Here’s your delivery.” She smiled as she swung it in front of her and offered the bag to me.

“Thanks.” I took the bag out of her hands.

“Only been a noblewoman for a couple of weeks and already ordering people around.” She winked.

“Hey, I offered to go and grab it myself but you said you were going to the fencing club anyway.”

“I know I know, I was just joking around.”

“What did you need to do there anyway?”

“Ah, nothing much, just helping Maya with some winter cleanup in the storage locker.”

“Oh. Hope it wasn’t too much work.”

“Eh, between the two of us, it was but a trivial matter.” Claire looked past me into the hallway. “What about you? Got any plans today with Emma or Corelia?”

“I actually do. We are going to look at a couple of houses today.”

“House hunting? Nice.” Claire nodded with a big smile.

“Would you like to come along too?” I offered.

“How dare you assume that my schedule would be so empty, the audacity. I’m so shocked.” Claire raised her hand to her chest for some good old fake indignation.

“Well, you have been cleaning up earlier, and then you decided to come and take your time to just deliver a bag of gear. It mustn't be that filled.”

“Yeah. I’m actually bored as fuck right now.” The outright lack of dramatized sugarcoating was actually pretty funny. “So if you don’t mind me tagging along, I would not decline the offer.”

“Alright then, come inside. Em and Ria will be here in an hour.”

“Thanks.” Claire followed me in and I then closed the door behind her.

“I’m gonna put this stuff in my bedroom first, if you want something to drink, you know where the fridge is.”

“I’ll just take some tap water.” Claire replied as I made my way to the bedroom with the bag.

When I returned to the living room, she’d already filled a glass and was sitting at the dinner table. Shima had decided to come and say hello by sniffing her nose while standing on the table herself.

“I’m going to be disappointed if you don’t get Shima a room for herself.”

“That was kinda the plan.” I laughed as I sat down across the table from her.

“Good.” Claire gave Shima a scratch behind her ear. “By the way, how are you planning to go to the houses? Public transport.”

“Ah, no, sorry, I forgot to mention. Alessia is picking us up with her car, she’s joining as well.”

“So your mom’s joining as well.” Claire smirked.

I rolled my eyes with a smile. “Yeah, she knows more about houses than we do. It’s her contact we are going to as well.”

“Now, I’m really curious as to what houses you’ll get to see today.”

“I suppose some pretty normal ones.”

“Are you sure about that? This is the contact of a vampiress you are talking about. And those are already plenty weird.”

“I suppose… wait… was that a jab at me?”

“Who knows.” Claire kept her poker face until she sipped from her glass of water, when I just slightly saw the corner of her mouth pull into a light smirk.