Chapter 12: Ademonlisa
I woke up the next day feeling well-rested. Even though my limbs were sore from the workout that the de-Adelisa gave me, I was eager to learn magic from my mother. Still, she said there were things she needed to teach me before I could begin using spells. I stretched and got off my bed after hearing a knock on my door.
“Coming!” As soon as I opened the door, I was greeted by Yumi’s smile.
“Good morning, little princess.”
I beamed back at Yumi. I really did love this fluffy maid. “Good morning, Yumi!” I said, hugging her.
“Aren’t you really excited this morning? Did you have a good dream?” She hugged me back, patting me with one hand.
I shook my head. “I am just excited for the day! I will be able to learn more magic!”
“Yes, I am sure you are, but we must get you bathed first and fix your hair.”
She was right. When I looked at the tall stand-up mirror, I saw my silver hair in a mess. The best trait of my father was reflected as well—those beautiful purple eyes.
Still in my sleeping gown, Yumi led me to the bathroom. “I will wait outside, Little Princess.” At my insistence, she finally let me start bathing myself. I had been for about six months.
Once the magical tub filled up about halfway, I sank in. Yumi always waited just outside the door for me for this temporary private retreat. After washing myself, I just closed my eyes, enjoying it like some old lady. Remnants from my past life? But I never even made it to old age. How long do vampires live anyway?
“Little Princess, are you about done?”
“Yes!” I said, finally managing to climb out of the bath and dry off.
When we returned to my room, Yumi stuffed me into a frilly silver-white dress. She straightened my hair, humming to me.
“What is that tune you hum every morning?”
“It was a song passed down through my family. Though I don’t know the lyrics.” Yumi said. She giggled, “You have always been very curious. I remember when you were just a baby in that crib~. Oh, you tried-”
“I know! You already told me!”
“I did? I don’t rem-”
“You did!”
Yumi led me to the large dining table, where we ate breakfast. The other servants had already set the thing, a cloth draped over it.
Mother and Father were seated already, and I sat beside Elise.
“Fufufu, I told you she would, dear.”
My father grunted. “It isn’t my fault you get to spend much more time with her!”
Yumi entered the dining room with other maids I had seen before but couldn’t name. She pushed a cart with trays of food that smelled heavenly.
Our chef always did a fantastic job with the cooking. Following behind her and the maids was Roland, the head butler. He was behind my father as Yumi and the other maids passed around the food. Once finished, Yumi stood behind me, and only a few maids stayed behind at the edge of the room. Most of them returned to their duties.
We all started to dig into the delectable breakfast presented before us. We never said a prayer or anything before eating, although there were supposed to be gods in this world. I didn’t know much about this world’s religion. I idly remembered a religious study from a life past, grimacing.
We were finishing the delicious full English breakfast, rather the full Arris breakfast, as Roland whispered something to my father. Father nodded along before wiping his face. “Unfortunately, I must be excused. Enala, you be good to your mother.”
“Fufufu, Enala is the sweetest child a mother could ask for!” She wrapped me in a hug, my cheeks reddening.
Night smiled as he stood up. “She is our daughter, after all.” He grabbed onto Roland’s shoulder before vanishing.
“I am sorry he has been so busy lately,” Mom said.
"It is okay, Mother.” She pinched my cheek, the unexpected action causing me to jump. “Ow! What was that for!?” It didn’t hurt, but I was surprised.
“Fufu, you should be more selfish, En. It is too early for you to try and act like an adult.”
I wanted to pinch her back and say I was an adult. Instead, I just opted to stick out my tongue. “Bleh!”
“Fufufu, that is much better!” She suddenly became a tickle monster as she attacked my belly. I flailed around wildly as she continued her attack.
“P-haha-plea-hahaha!” The attack didn’t relent.
“Fufufu~”
After the eventful breakfast, we were led to the knight’s training grounds. Otherwise known as the courtyard where I trained with Ademonlisa. Of course, I went there wholly reluctantly, only urged on by Mother and Yumi. I was sure that Adelisa got her training manual straight out of hell.
The muscle knight greeted me with a hard ruffling of my head. “Today, we will forgo sword training,” she said in her raspy voice.
“Huh?” I smiled up at her, not believing my ears. Her blue eyes hinted at something demonic, though. There was a hellish sheen to them.
“That’s right! A warrior must also train her body! HAHAHAHAHA!”
By the time lunch rolled around, my legs were wobbly, and I could barely hoist up the glass of blood that sat before me. Only Yumi and I were in my room by then, but my mother assured me she would be back soon to start the magic lesson.
As I finished the blood, Yumi stored away the glass and wiped away some blood at the corner of my mouth. “Would you like to paint until The Queen comes back?”
I didn’t feel like I had the strength to even wield a paintbrush at this juncture, but it was also a goal of mine to become better at painting in this life.
I nodded, causing her to pull the canvas out of nowhere with her special storage magic. She also pulled out the special paint Roland gave me and the brushes.
I started painting a scene of a demon lord black company manager chasing a poor innocent child around a courtyard. This demon lord had wolf ears and a fluffy tail. It was hard to get the muscular structure exactly how I wanted it. Everything was complicated, given that I only had blue paint and I wasn’t exactly a master painter yet.
Yumi started laughing as I finished the painting. “Is that supposed to be you and Adelisa?”
I turned and nodded my head, to which she started clapping.
“Well done, it looks adorable, Little Princess!” She started to pat my head again.
I looked back at the painting to realize I had messed up. The child’s expression in the painting looked silly and cheerful. I shrugged; I didn’t feel like correcting Yumi. It was then that my mother burst through the door.
“Look what the little princess drew up, my lady.”
Mother smiled and nodded as she looked over the painting. She embraced me in a tight hug after inspecting it. “Fufu, there is no way I would miss any of your paintings!”
It made me think she had been waiting outside the door for just this moment. The timing was too perfect.
“Whatever you are thinking is wrong.” She tapped my forehead with her finger.
“Can you really read my mind!?” My mother and Yumi burst out laughing, to which I followed suit.
“Well, my cute little En, it is about time we began your magic lesson...”