Chapter 9: A Human in the Palace

Alice had stuck around after that heartwarming scene for a few more minutes before she decided she had to get going, besides she needed to give David some time to settle in. She was still unsure as to what his problem was earlier, the house was a little shabby and small and there were only 10 servants inside but it seemed fine enough especially since it didn't take any special convincing to get her father to transfer her ownership of the place. Maybe it was because he was used to living in the manor of House Velma, which was a sizable Noble estate, comparable to the Palace in size. She was unsure, but if her new friend was unhappy with his living arrangement, she could always have him moved later, this seemed like a good compromise for rushing her plans. She smiled to herself as she hopped into a carriage back to the Palace, enjoying how well today had gone for her.

David still just stood in the entrance hall dumbstruck, before him all the servants still stood there waiting for him to say something, but all David could do was just be dumbfounded that this was his new home. Even just the curved dual stairs leading from the entrance hall to the second floor screamed "lavish." It was a bit too much for him. Still though, he had to stop looking stupid and say something before all these people think he's an idiot. 

"So um," David begins, still unsure of what to say. "I suppose I'll be living here now, so for all your hard work in the future thank you in advance!" David said with a light head bow. He didn't really think what he said was anything special but the mood in the room seemed to immediately be elevated. Almost everyone seemed to have a relieved or happy expression on their face now. It's possible that, like him, they were constantly mistreated at the homes they used to work in; being a human tended to give vampires an excuse to pick on them. He couldn't be quite sure but it seemed likely. One of the butlers, a distinguished looking gentleman with gray hair walks up to him and bows. 

"Thank you master for your kind words. My name is Sebastian, the head butler at this estate. I will be here to ensure that this house operates smoothly, if you have any questions at all feel free to ask me." He said with a very formal tone. 

David felt immediately uncomfortable with all of this "master" nonsense, after all it hadn't been that long ago that he was a fugitive, before that he was a slave, even back when he was in his world he was just a normal guy so it just didn't feel right. 

"Um, Sebastian. Do you mind not calling me master and just calling me my name instead?" David said as he tried to fix the uncomfortable situation. 

"Of course, Master David." Sebastian replied. 

"No, I mean can't you drop the honorifics and just call me David?" He said trying to fix the misunderstanding. 

"I understand, but I cannot do that sir." Sebastian said, still bowing. "As you are a person of higher rank than me it is only right that I refer to you as such. I apologize if this makes you uncomfortable." He clearly understood David's concern but was not willing to back down on this issue. David sighed, clearly he couldn't win this one.

"Well, if you don't mind, have you been here long enough to give me a tour Sebastian?" David said, now changing the subject. 

"It would be my pleasure sir." Sebastian then leads David to the right for the tour as the rest of the servants all disperse throughout the house, beginning cleaning, repairing, and other such things. 

After a very long tour of both the first and second floors David was sure of one thing, this house was massive. David was once again astounded by the size of this place, even the rich people from his world, if they saw this place would be impressed at its size. Of course, compared to the Velma manor which was the size of an entire industrial factory, his house, which was the size of a small school, looked small in comparison, but that made no difference, this place had so many rooms! Back in the Velma manor he only explored a small portion of it since he wasn't allowed in other wings, but this place was not only massive, but it all belonged to him? It was almost too much. There was a massive ballroom that was clearly built to be modular and entertain and host parties when needed, there was a large study with bookshelves lining the walls, in addition to a sizable library, both of which, unfortunately, was only sparsely populated with books.

The dining room was built for 20 people to sit at once, there were several guest rooms, and even the kitchen, which he needed to ask Sebastian to show him since it wasn't originally part of the tour, could easily handle 10 chefs working at once. The back garden was overgrown and in some disrepair, but had huge open space. A gazebo sat in the center of what once was a flower garden, there also was a large rectangular fountain that gently sloped downwards along the grain of the steps. It reminded him of a pool but was far too shallow. It actually made him wish it was a pool since he always imagined that if he was to live in a giant mansion like this, he would have a pool in his backyard. But David was not feeling even the slightest bit greedy at this moment. So, he had all of this, plus countless rooms which were currently empty and unused. David had asked Sebastian about the third floor. Sebastian then informed him that the third floor was primarily for servant quarters, while the fourth floor, which David didn't even realize this building had, was primarily for storage and such. So, he didn't bother giving David the tour of those two floors to which David was silently grateful for. 

After the tour David was mentally drained. A place as huge as this was clearly not designed for one person to live in. Even with 10 servants living here with him it still seemed too few people to fill out all the space. He had no idea how many people originally lived here but it must have been a large family with many more servants. After he was done with the tour, David felt like he needed a nap, but rather than doing that, he decided to do something. While he was being given the tour, he noticed all of the maids and butlers doing light maintenance to the house, dusting corners of the house, painting over some chipped areas, wiping down the floors and furniture. David couldn't just sit back and do nothing, if this was "his" house now then he wouldn't feel right if he wasn't helping in some way. So, before he sent Sebastian away, he asked if there was anything he could do to help. Sebastian thanked him for the offer but said it was the servant's job to maintain the house. However, this time David was not backing down. So, he changed his question.

"Are there any tools for maintaining the outside? Like hedge clippers, lawn mowers, and such?" David asked. Sebastian was unsure of what tools his new master had specifically requested but he was experienced enough to understand what was being asked of him. 

"I believe there are gardening tools in the shed in the back garden," Sebastian said after thinking it over for a moment. 

"But you shouldn't worry yourself about that master!" Sebastian yelled after David who had already begun walking away towards the back. Worried, Sebastian quickly follows him. David arrived in the back and eventually found an old musty looking shed hidden behind some hedges, after some effort he managed to pry the door open and look inside. Out of everything in the estate, this tool shed was definitely in the worst shape, but not bad enough to be a worry. As David stepped in and looked around he saw a variety of tools hanging on the walls and scattered on the floors. Hammers, saws, buckets, nails, a large wooden mallet, a tool that looked a lot like an old butter churner, as well as scythes, shovels, and trowels. David was not surprised to not see anything resembling a lawn mower, but to not see anything resembling hedge clippers was a bit disconcerting to him. 

"I guess hedge clippers haven't been invented yet." David said as he pulled a scythe off the wall and looked it over. 

"This will be a lot harder than I thought. It's going to be hard to fix this area without a lawn mower or weed wacker or something." David said as he sighed at the enormity of the task he had undertaken. Still though he was not about to give up so early, so instead he rolled up his sleeves and grabbed a shovel, a smaller looking scythe, as well as a few other tools, and threw them all into a large cloth bag he found. 

By now Sebastian had managed to track down David and was approaching the shed when David emerged, already dirty and covered in dust, a bag of tools over his shoulder. 

"I'm going to start over there, alright?" David said to Sebastian as he pointed to the left most area of the garden. Sebastian sighed to himself, clearly there was no stopping his master so the least he could do was help. 

"Understood, I shall help you as well." Sebastian said as he removes his white gloves and enters the shed to grab himself a tool. 

David spent the next several hours working in the back with Sebastian trying his best to clean it up. It was especially difficult on David as the scythe proved to be far harder to use than he initially assumed, he could occasionally get a large tuft of grass cut all at once, but in certain areas, especially where the grass was not yet high enough, he was unable to get any clean cuts. Even still, after working for a long time David had managed to clear out a sizable chunk of the overgrowth. Of course, it was mostly Sebastian's doing as David really struggled for a while not having any clue what to do. But after a few explanations by Sebastian he began to get the hang of it. After a while of working a few of the other servants, who had noticed their new master working in the garden, came out to help. By sundown, David was rather proud of the effort he had put in and went inside to clean himself up. Sebastian, already prepared for this, and had a bath already set up for David to use. David decided to not waste Sebastian's effort and obliged but made him promise that the other servants would all get a chance to clean themselves properly. 

"To think, when I was at the Velma manor I never once got a bath, I had to use a wet cloth to clean myself. Then when I was in the forest, I could only use the river to wash away the grime." David said as he sinks deeper into the bath enjoying the feel of the hot water. 

"I missed this." David said as he fully submerges himself below the water.

After his bath David was treated to a rather large meal, far too much food for him to eat. He felt bad about the waste of food, but the chefs told him it was normal for food to be wasted. Still, not feeling right about it, he made the chef's promise that they would lower the portion size next time. He also learned that the chefs were brothers separated by 2 years. The older of the two acting as the head chef and the younger as his sous chef. Sebastian explained that they were taken in by a Count as charity after their parents passed away, but when the count died, and the Countess became in charge of the estate she kicked these two out. It was by pure chance that the princess had scouted them before they went hungry on the streets. But the brothers seemed happy that they were once again entrusted to the kitchen, so it seemed that it all worked out in the end for them. David assumed that many of the people in the house probably have similar stories, as he too once was forced to live like them. After he finished the meal, he thanked the chefs and headed off to bed. He had considered going to the study or the library to read a little before sleeping but by now the sun had long since set and he was not in the mood to read by candlelight since electric lighting was obviously not an option. 

The next morning David woke with the sunrise as it came in through the windows. 

"I guess some habits die hard huh?" David said as he got out of bed and stretched. 

"It will take some time before I get used to not being on the run in the forest." David slowly walked over to the full-length mirror in his room and stared at himself. 

"Well I guess it really hasn't sunk into me yet either." He said to himself in the mirror. He quickly got changed and then headed out. The maids, upon seeing him up and about apologize profusely for not having a meal ready for him yet as they did not expect him to awaken so early. He waved them off telling them that it didn't bother him, and instead he went to the study to look through the books he currently had in the house. After some time of perusing both the study and the library, since he finished looking through the study quickly, he was informed breakfast was prepared. He eats his meal and then sets out to the palace early, giving himself more than enough time to arrive on time. 

"Today is the start of my new life, no longer as a slave but as a new man!" David said aloud to himself in high spirits. It didn't take long for his mood to sour though.

He was stuck outside the palace for almost half an hour by guards who clearly didn't trust a human who said he was working inside the west-wing of the palace. It took that long for David to get them to send a message inside, then have a message sent back outside that David was to be allowed in. Once inside he didn't have much of a better time, many of the servants and knights that were walking around gave him cold stares and were obviously talking behind his back. The talking behind his back was something he was already used to though so that didn't bother him much, what really soured his mood was 2 vampire knights purposely bumping into him, knocking him over and then accosting him about it for a while. Luckily, they didn't get any more physical than grabbing his shirt collar but still it was not a fun experience. By the time he had finally gotten to the place Alice had told him to come to he was late. 

"Sorry I'm late." David said, his enthusiasm fully drained by now. Alice was already standing in the room, expecting him. She was wearing a simple green dress and her hair was tied into pig-tails, or as this world called it twin-tails. He still was not used to seeing her wearing dresses, it certainly helped to destroy the tomboy image he had of her until now, but this was the last thing on his mind after what he just went through.

"Yes," Alice said dismissively. "I heard you had some trouble at the gate."

"Among other things." David said with a slight bit of anger as he looked out the door behind him. "Next time I'll make sure to set my watch for earlier." David said jokingly only to realize a second later that Alice has no idea what a watch is. 

"What is a watch?" Alice said predictably. David opens his mouth to change the topic when suddenly Alice continues. "Is that a device from your world?" This caught David completely off guard, he had never once told Alice that he wasn't from this world, in fact the only people that should be aware of this were the people in the Velma manor who were present the day he arrived, assuming that they knew at all.

"How do you know about that?" David asked, with a serious expression on his face. "Ah well," Alice said as she scratched her head sheepishly. "Maria told me." 

"Maria told you?" David said, shocked to hear this. But wait, is this a surprise? The more he thought about it the more he realized that he already knew this. Back when he was the assistant to Maria, he would often look over her letters, personal or professional. She would frequently get and send letters to a person she referred to as her friend, the crown princess. Of course, she must have mentioned her name in the letters, but back then David was still planning his escape so information such as the name of Maria's friend was not something he was concerned with, so he had just forgotten until now. 

"Yeah," Alice said while looking at David embarrassed. "She's my only other friend." David had already figured this out by the time she said this, but some other questions began to form in his mind. 

"So, wait, if you were corresponding with her then you must have known that I was in the forest when you met me." David said a conspiracy-like scenario unfolding in his head. "So, you already knew that I was the rumored "Ghost of the Forest" so then why did you come to find me when you knew that I was killing all those Vampires? Weren't you scared I'd kill you?" 

"Well," Alice begins with a breath like she has a lot to say.

"I knew who you were before I entered the forest, and I had heard you had killed many people before, but I was already shirking my... taking a vacation." Alice said fixing her verbiage to fit her situation better. 

"So, I wasn't looking for you but if I found you I thought it would be a fun diversion." She said with an innocent smile which caused David to sigh. 

"But how did you know I wasn't going to hurt you? I could have just been waiting for an opportunity to strike." 

"Well um..." Alice said as she looked around like she was afraid to answer. "Do you remember the first thing I asked you?" She said with a pause now looking him in his eyes. 

"Are you going to hurt me?" 

"No, of course not." David said almost immediately. Then after a moment's pause he suddenly gets very confused, why did he answer her right now? It was a rhetorical question, right? Or not even that, it wasn't a question at all, she was just explaining what she said. David was very confused at the moment when he looked at Alice again and noticed a light glow in her eyes. 

"Did you figure it out?" Alice said as she blinked once and sighs. 

"It's not like it's a secret or anything, but it isn't widely known either." Alice said as she stood from behind her desk, putting one hand over her heart. 

"Those of the royal Cantora family line have access to a special bloodline magic." Her eyes glow a brilliant red as she speaks. 

"We have the ability to influence others around us with the magic that resides in our eyes." 

Oh, so that was what it was. She hypnotized him... This didn't feel right with him. Her hypnotizing him is only a short offshoot to the brainwashing that was done to him at the Velma mansion. The idea of his head being manipulated like that was not something he was comfortable with. He looks over to Alice again who is now looking sad. 

"I'm sorry for not telling you sooner, but at the time I needed to make sure you weren't a danger." 

"And what would you have done if I said yes?" David said as he still processes the new information. 

"I would have run away and told people where you were. As it turned out my fears were completely unfounded though." Alice finished, still looking a bit depressed. 

Every time he learned something new about Alice, he always thought that would be the end of it, yet every time he still ended up surprised again when she pulled out yet another astounding secret she had. But he couldn't stay mad at her about it, after all with a power like that she probably could have ordered him to kill himself or to turn himself in or something, the worst offense she did was force him to answer some questions honestly. 

"Do you forgive me for keeping this from you?" Alice said with big puppy dog eyes, clearly trying to worm her way out of this situation. David sighs loudly. 

"Alright, I forgive you, just don't do it again." He said, realizing that he was never going to stay mad at her about this anyway. 

"I promise." She said back quickly. 

But now that he knows this there were some things he had to get out of the way. 

"I have 2 questions." David said to Alice who nodded. 

"First, how were you able to actually bite me back then, assuming that's what you did, how did you get past the Blood Sigil? I thought it prevented others from drinking my blood?" David said to an Alice who looked shocked. 

"You have a Blood Sigil?!" She said genuinely surprised and enthused. Alice then cleared her throat, calmed herself down and responded. 

"Honestly, I don't really know, Blood Sigils themselves are considered to be little more than fairy tales by most. But if I had to venture a guess, it would have to do with the bloodline magic, there's an old hierarchy among Vampires that's directly related to bloodlines, without it my family probably wouldn't have become the royal family in the past." Alice said with a shrug. 

"But seriously, a Blood Sigil huh? Who would have guessed."

David then decides to ask his second question; however, his face is slightly more amused. 

"So then the second question, are you able to fly or transform yourself into a bat or a wolf?" David said completely seriously. 

"Hah? What nonsense are you talking about?" Alice said indignantly. 

"How the hell would I be able to turn into an animal?" She said slightly annoyed at David's apparent flight of fantasy. She calms down quickly and continues. 

"As far as flying goes, I can't, but that doesn't mean that there isn't magic that will allow you to float in the air for a while." She said as she remembered seeing a mage in her youth that did just that. 

"Okay, okay," David said, now understanding the situation. "So, you aren't related to Dracula." He said with a small sigh of relief. As cool as it would be if she was able to transform, the last thing he needed was a bat-Alice flying around his house in the middle of the night messing with him. 

"Who's Dracula?" Alice asked predictably. "Does he have something to do with that watch thing you mentioned earlier? Speaking of which, you still haven't told me what that is!" She said realizing her question from earlier was derailed completely. 

"If you must know, and to keep it brief." David said as he took a seat on the couch in the office after finally walking away from the door. "Dracula is a vampire legend from my world, and the watch is a timepiece you keep on your wrist, like a sundial that doesn't need the sun." David said, trying to explain both things as quickly as possible. 

"I'm sure you'd much rather be friends with that Dracula guy if he can do cool magic like transform and fly." She said stubbornly with a hint of sarcasm. 

"Well actually Dracula is evil so..." David said not bothering to finish his sentence as he realizes he has something else to say. 

"Hey Alice," he pauses and waits for Alice to look at him. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to but..." He trails off for a moment with a bit of uncharacteristic hesitation. 

"Why did you want to be friends with me? I'm sure that, as the crown princess, you could have any number of friends you want." 

Alice sighed and shook her head with a smile, like one would if a small child said something incorrect. 

"No, that's just it, it's because I'm the crown princess that I don't have many friends." She said as she sat back down in her chair. "There are very few people in the Empire with the status to talk with me as equals, my father, my mother, and those in the Ducal Houses. Out of the three Dukes only one of them is currently on good terms with the royal family so of course Maria would be the only one I could really talk to." She said with a light smile as she thought of the good times they have had together.

 "Even if I asked for girls from the lower families to come to the palace, they would be formal with me the entire time, our statuses are too different, even if I asked them to treat me normally, they probably wouldn't. "She said now looking back at David. 

"Besides, most of them are just attention-seeking whores! Pretending to be friends with someone is just not my style you know?" She said surprisingly aggressively. 

"But I'm just a commoner, what does that make me?" 

"An exception!" Alice said emphatically, with a smile. "So long as my father doesn't walk in that door while we are talking it's not like it really matters." David sighs and looks at Alice. 

"Well as long as you are happy with it then I don't mind." 

"Good!" Alice said, smiling wide. "Now, we've wasted too much time already, are you ready to work?" 

"Yeah, let's do it."