"Here we are!"
Standing before them was a large, double door in this spacious hallway, which had intricate designs and a gothic style as a whole. Having to use a grand staircase to reach here, they had just finished their tour, staring at this giant door of immense size that is big enough to fit a horse and carriage. Lilim was in awe at the sight and intrigued by it as she looked at it with great interest.
Garnet smirked confidently from seeing Lilim's amazement at the sight: "Welcome to my mistress Alucard's personal chamber!" Garnet said while spreading her arms to the side, "It's the largest room in this entire castle!" Adam just gave her an annoyed look, as he is still not buying what she is saying.
"Let's just get in there and be done with," he bluntly said while shaking his head in disbelief. "I want to get this over with already." The pixie crossed her arms over her chest while making a smug face, saying, "Ugh, fine!" Garnet said in a disappointed tone, not wanting to argue with him anymore from here on out.
With that said, she flew to the double doors and knocked on them several times before opening them up as a response to answering them. Then she flew into the room before turning around to face them and saying, "Well, what are you guys waiting for?! Come on already!" She said this while waving her hand to encourage them to come inside.
Lilim looked at the room in awe, amazed by the sight as she smiled and giggled at its beauty. Adam found himself bored out of his mind but also intrigued by the sight, wanting to see what more secrets lay in this very chamber and hoping that it wasn't going to be some sort of fancy room to make him feel inferior from the view of it.
Slowly, Adam and Lilim approached the entrance after the doors opened, leading into a long hallway. They slowly went inside as he felt a little cautious of what awaited them while his daughter was simply having the best time of her life seeing such amazing, lost, and forgotten architecture from the past. Garnet watched from the entrance with an eager expression on her face.
"Woaa..." Lilim said with an enthusiastic tone, seeing everything before her eyes as she felt like a child in a candy store, unable to contain her excitement as she continued to admire the sight before her. Adam sighed tiredly while watching her with a fond expression on his face, glad that his daughter was enjoying herself.
As they continued moving forward, encountering various fancy furniture and other items decorating the room, Adam found himself confused by seeing them, unsure of what to make of the strange feeling of looking at them. That is when they finally arrived, spotting a young girl who was likely around his daughter's age.
Although, at first glance, the girl before him sitting on her throne looks normal from this distance, he notices some peculiar and odd characteristics that set her apart from any other human being. First, she has long white bun hair and red eyes that are glowing crimson, and long ears sticking out from her head while wearing a Victorian dress, causing Adam to wonder if she is some sort of mutant or otherworldly creature.
Truth be told, what they are looking at isn't humans but something entirely different—more of an undead creature taking the form of a young girl, as something about the way she puts out her vibes is giving him cold vibes, or the way she was looking directly at him with her narrowed and hateful gaze, staring straight through his soul, implies a negative view.
"They are awake," Alucard coldly said with spite underlining her tone before responding again with sarcasm, "oh, dearie me..." Adam looked at her with a puzzled look, confused by her reaction, as he couldn't help but wonder what the deal was. Lilim was too busy looking at the other things around her to notice the change in atmosphere.
Narrowing his eyes, he studied the girl's tone and body language, analyzing quietly from this distance to observe her as the pixie began to cheerfully speak in their behalf, "This is my young mistress!" Garnet said while acting like she was presenting her mistress to them, "And this is the brooding Adam and Lilim, his daughter!" She said it with enthusiasm in her voice.
However, the young mistress was surprised by the notion of seeing father and daughter together in this very throne room—as well as the mention of their names—and responded to that by turning her attention to Garnet and asking, "What?!" Alucard was immediately getting defensive as she frowned and glared at the pixie with a visible look of displeasure on her face, while the pixie was frozen in place and backed up a little at the sight of that.
Garnet just looked away while feeling ashamed for what she had done, realizing that she might have said something wrong as she was getting ready to make an excuse. "Err...y-yes?" The flying pixie asked cautiously. Alucard simply looked at her with irritation on her face, making her visibly wince from the sight.
The young mistress felt shaken from seeing a family of father and child unfold in front of her eyes; usually, she would care less about it when there is a human standing before him, but something about them, including seeing Adam himself, seemed to pique her interest. That is when she had the sudden thought of making them serve her, or at least, he would be willing to do so, as she has great interest in being involved outside of her comfort zone.
It wouldn't hurt to try for her to see what would happen next, especially with them being newcomers in her castle and having yet to be judged by her. Although she isn't stupid and sees the chances of getting into their good graces as slim, she prefers to act friendly to them, having the hope that they have some for her after all.
"You!" The vampire pointed her finger at him and asked, "What is the meaning of coming to my home and having the audacity to come uninvited?" Alucard said with a stern, not amused tone as she glared at him, causing Adam to shift his gaze away from her while looking uneasy and down. Seeing him cower like that, she smirked at the sight, knowing that she had the upper hand.
What she didn't realize was that Adam was thinking something entirely different after his examination of the person in front of him, finally understanding the type of person he was dealing with and the personality or traits he had to deal with. From the moment he saw her, he felt that something was off about her, as his instinct told him that she wasn't outright evil or a bad person but more of a misguided and sheltered individual.
Then he spoke, his influencing words moving like a serpent. "Sorry for that," Adam said with an ingratiating smile on his face, "we are new in this place and got lost." He was not going to tell her that he was having doubts about what she had said, as he wanted to avoid getting himself into the position of having others know everything about him.
She accepted it despite how skeptical she felt about it. The young mistress wanted to not believe it, but her subconscious was telling her otherwise, causing her to hold back her tongue from what she was going to say next as she wanted to take a deep breath and calm herself down. After a few seconds had passed, she gave a response to him: "Is that so?" Curious tone in her voice, wanting to hear more of his explanation.
Adam just gave her a smile and nodded his head, saying, "We were looking for a new home, and luckily for us, this bug here saved us," gesturing toward the flying pixie, who was in turn looking at him with surprise on her face before flashes of annoyance and anger appeared before their eyes from being called like that.
"Hey!" Garnet protested in an angry tone, not liking what she had just heard as she glared at him, "I'm not a bug!" Alucard, however, giggled from this, finding it humorous that Adam had said that to her friend, even though she should herself be angry at having someone make fun of her only best friend, and yet she still manages to find this funny.
Then she stared at his daughter, who was distracted in observing the things around her; the sight of Lilim makes the young mistress feel curious about her as well; while she knows that Adam's child isn't human or vampire altogether, it seems there is more than meets the eye—an idea that isn't new to her and yet, somehow, it intrigues her and makes her want to know more about it.
"Oh?" Alucard said with a suspicious tone, intrigued by the information he had just provided as she didn't believe a word of it, "So you are saying that this," she said while making a gesture of looking around the room, "is not your home?" Adam raised an eyebrow or two, wondering why she would say that, as he has no idea what she is getting at.
As if noticing his confusion, Alucard began to elaborate herself on her question as she held her own hands together with a smug look on her face: "This castle and the place you both just came from are now your home." She paused as if waiting for him to say otherwise: "Unless you are still thinking that you can go back to your old home?"
Adam just shrugged his shoulders while making a dismissive gesture with his hand. "That can't be possible," he said with slight disdain in his voice before he made another gesture with his hand. "As you can see, we have nowhere else to go and no choice but to stay here." This is followed by silence among them as the vampire begins to think to herself, mulling over what she has just heard from him.
As a vampire, Alucard has a strong thirst for blood and food, as she hungers for them greatly. Having to rely on Garnet to scavenge and bring freshly made corpses is a difficult task to behold, but with more people by her side, it is easier to do so. What she lacks in army, she makes up for in numbers—especially if it involves fighting and feasting on her dead people or animals.
She can't help it, as the more he speaks, the more she is willing to take him as one of her own and make him her servant, despite her hatred of humans. The young mistress is confused by this notion; she should be hesitant about enlisting humans of all places into her ranks, yet here she is, contemplating doing so.
In addition, maybe she doesn't have to make Garnet or herself find food as the human standing before them has a simply limitless amount of supply if she is careful not to drain all his blood, and then there is the matter of Adam's child; seeing her, she seems to be fascinated by it as well, but that can wait for later.
Alucard will see how this turns out first before deciding what to do with them. It didn't take long for her to come up with an answer, seeing as Adam and Lilim can go with Garnet, she has to be careful not to go overboard on his blood supply and make a good impression on him at the same time.
With that said, she gave her own response to him while keeping her composure the whole time: "Hmm," Alucard said in amusement, "very well, both of you can stay and live here as your own home with one condition." The girl paused for a moment to look at him directly in the eyes: "You have to give me a supply of blood whenever I feel hungry." Adam just stared at her before giving his own response to her.
He hesitated for a moment as he didn't like the idea of having to give her blood whenever she wanted it—especially when it involved other people besides himself—but since he was looking for shelter and a place to stay, he willingly took the risk and said, "Alright, fine. But what's the catch? Will we be imprisoned here for eternity?" Alucard then laughed at his question, finding it hilarious that he would ask such a thing before dismissively waving her hand in the air.
"You amuse me, human," she paused for a moment, "you can leave whenever you want; all I ask is your blood during my feeding hours. That is all." Adam just stared at her with a dumbfounded look on his face before responding to her in a tone of disbelief, finding it hard to believe what she had just said.
But as he studied her once more, she was telling the truth and making no suspicious or backstabbing attempts to trick him. Shaking his head, he gave his own response to her: "You won't kill me with that, right?" Said the cautious Adam, staring at her with suspicious look on his face, "because I don't want to imagine myself dying from blood loss and never seeing my daughter again."
Rolling her eyes, she said with a pause, "please, I'm not greedy and selfish to the point I will kill my own source of food." She explained to him as she was giving her word on this, "This isn't like how humans usually do it; all I want is your blood so I can survive, as I'm sure that you have heard before, being a human and all." Alucard paused for a moment to take a deep breath before continuing, "Now go, I prefer to have my peace and quiet as both of your presence begin to annoy me."
Shrugging, "alright princess," Adam humorously told the young girl before grabbing her daughter's arm as they headed to the entrance, leaving Garnet with her mistress alone in this chamber. Once they left the room, Alucard sighed from that before laying back on her throne as she found herself intrigued by the two, deciding to have her eyes on them at all times as she wanted to know more about them as a whole.
"Seems like someone has made a new friend!"
Vein appeared on her forehead. "Silence Garnet!" She is getting annoyed by this point, thinking to herself that she should never have allowed Garnet to talk to them in the first place, but then again, she did allow them to do so. "They are not friends, their—"
"Family?"