Lady Dhampir
Chapter 208

"... Was that enough, my Lady?"

Milena nodded, and pulled back, carefully wiping her lips with her handkerchief. The taste of blood was still on her tongue, in her mouth, and certainly feeling more delicious than usual. "Thank you, Jeremiah. I'm sorry, it was so sudden..."

"Of course not, my Lady. You know I will supply you without fail anytime."

"...Thank you."

Without adding anything, she let the soldier step down from her carriage, while Dinah came back in, glancing at Jeremiah. While the Grand Princess was making sure she hadn't stained her dress, Dinah made a bit of a sour expression.

"I know Jeremiah is entirely faithful to you, my Lady, but sometimes he's a bit too transparent about his feelings..."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that, Dinah. Moreover, it was my mistake. That craving was so sudden..."

Indeed, Milena felt a bit ashamed. This was the first time she had wanted blood so badly, to the point she couldn't hold herself back or wait until they had reached a proper destination. She had wanted fresh blood, here and then, to the point her carriage had stopped on the side of the road so she could bite her guard. Until then, she had rarely felt such cravings, even in the earlier months of her pregnancy, except for sweets. Although, those were surely easier to procure.

"Oh, well," shrugged Dinah. "You can suck dry all of our knights, as long as my Lady is healthy and happy, that will surely be fine!"

Milena glared at her maid. Dinah was really too blunt at times. At least, it only happened when the two of them were alone, but she still felt a bit annoyed to hear this. She pushed her long black hair back, [*****g her lips once more before putting on some of her red lipstick again with her pocket mirror. Her eyes felt a bit more red than usual, too. Was it her vampire baby or babies craving blood? Philomenie had indeed warned her such things could happen, from now on. Still, she couldn't start biting her guards every hour on a whim...

"My Lady," suddenly said Matheus voice, knocking on the door. "Someone's asking to see you."

"Who is it?"

They had literally just stopped on the side of the road, half-way to their destination. It was odd someone would run to her now, so it had to be someone who had recognized her carriage.

"A young girl, my Lady. She said her name is Mint."

"...Mint?" Repeated Milena, surprised. "Let her in."

The door opened, and indeed, Mint walked in, looking a bit intimidated. She looked even thinner from the last time Milena had seen her, her hair in a mess over her shoulder. She politely bowed, even as Dinah moved to leave her a seat opposite to Milena. "Let's go," Milena said to Dinah, who knocked to have their carriage on the road again.

Meanwhile, she took out a few cookies from the basket next to her, and handed them to Mint. The young girl, surprised, took them with a silent thank you, but kept them in her hands without daring to eat them. It was obvious there was something wrong. Her eyes were very red, and her hands trembling, not only from the cold.

"I'm sorry for coming like this, my lady," she said with a hoarse voice. "I just spotted your carriage, so I thought... It would be faster to come directly to you."

"What happened?" Asked Milena with a frown.

"I think... Someone is children downtown. I... Bandit said we should wait to be sure but... It... It looks like someone's targeting our Orphanage...."

She suddenly broke down in tears, but Milena was shocked.

"What do you mean, children? How come I haven't heard of this?"

"B-because it's only orphans like us," sobbed Mint. "We d-didn't dare to report them yet... B-but Squirrel, and Flake... And last night, Bluebell d-didn't come home either..." "What did Bandit say?"

"He wasn't sure... B-because sometimes, we replace one of us gets taken in by a family, b-but... I know Squirrel wouldn't leave like that. He wouldn't g-go without telling us first..." "How long has it been?"

"Squirrel disappeared eight nights ago, and Flake the next night... And now, Bluebell too..."

Milena frowned. There was definitely something wrong about that. There was no good reason the orphan children would leave the Church like that, without a good reason. She was still providing more than enough for them to live there without having to worry about shelter, clothes or food. She had bought the terrain the abandoned Church was on, so no one could touch that building either, and if anything happened, she could justify providing for orphans. Mint was right; especially with this weather, no child would willingly stay outside, not even one night. Moreover, even if they had found a family or a different shelter, the other orphans should have seen them. The Capital wasn't that big, and all the street children knew each other, they would have recognized one of the disappeared...

"Have you heard of any other children disappearing?" Milena asked.

"Y-yes... In the Orphanage De Winter, one of the kids said they had two little girls missing..."

Milena quickly opened the door to the carriage.

"Matheus, have someone send word to the Queen immediately, and to Lady Tiphania as well. Ask them if there have been any reports of children missing in the past ten days."

"Yes, my Lady."

As soon as Matheus was gone, Milena closed the door again, turning to Mint.

"I-I'm sorry," cried the young girl. "I just d-didn't know what else to do..."

"It's alright," sighed Milena. "You were right, the soldiers are already not enough to watch the whole Capital, chances they would look into missing orphans is slim. I can ask my family to send guards to protect your church, but it's risky to gather more attention." "Should we have them disguise as common folks, my Lady?" Suggested Dinah.

"Everyone knows everyone in the Capital, sighed Milena; "They will just attract even more attention, or worse, be suspicious. No, let's just go all out instead. Let it be known that abandoned church belongs to me now, and I'm planning to have it reconverted into a proper orphanage. ...Mint, how many children are with you now?"

"We have seventeen boys and nine girls, other than Bandit and myself, madam."

"Fine, then. You will come with me to the De Crescent Manor, and register all their names and age."

"What are you planning to do, my Lady...?" Asked Dinah, intrigued.

"I will act as a proper benefactor. From now on, I will take all of you under my wing, supervise your education and apprenticeship for those who wish to pursue it. You will all officially belong to the De Crescent House as apprentices until you can get official functions."

"R-really?" Said Mint, her eyes opened wide. "But... That's..."

"Are you sure?" Muttered Dinah. "I don't think anyone would do that for... orphans..."

Indeed, most children's educations were financed by their families, if they had the means, or they would simply learn a craft from their parent. There had been a few rare cases where a noble had taken under their wing and sponsored a particularly brilliant young knight or a younger family member with less resources, but doing it for not one but several strangers completely unrelated, and so young too, was completely unheard of.

"Why not?" Said Milena. "I am rich enough to sponsor anyone I want. Moreover, all of you will be in my debt until you're old enough. If one of you turns out to be talented for something, it's my win. Even if you're half-decent at what you do, you can keep working for my family until you have paid back that debt. There is just no way any of you is too useless to do anything, right? We're short on staff, too, so this can be considered as me investing in the future."

Both Mint and Dinah were speechless. They had never heard of such a system. Most orphans were given a roof, cheap clothes and a bit of food until they were old enough to be kicked out of their orphanages and back into the streets uneducated, left to beg on people's doorstep or with little hope to replace work somewhere. However, Milena was basically offering them an education, all their needs taken care of for several years, plus a job at the end. Many people would have dreamt of working for the House De Crescent at all! Mint began crying even more and nodding.

"Thank you... Thank you my Lady..."

"We still need to sort out what happened to the others," said Milena. "Do you have any idea?"

"N-no, my Lady. Squirrel had mentioned he had seen a man hanging close to the Church, but... No one else mentioned it, so I d-don't think it's relev ant at all..."

"A man?"

"Yes, my Lady. Squirrel said he had a broken nose and was limping, but that was it. We assumed he was just a drunkard..."

Milena wasn't so convinced about that. The church wasn't located in such a bad place that a drunkard could hang around like this, there were no bars nearby, only some shops and houses...

"How old are the oldest children with you?" Asked Milena, frowning.

"There's only Plum who is as old as Bandit and I... my Lady. The older boys enrolled in the army, some even lied about their age for it, and the girls found work elsewhere a long time ago. We only have young children left, from two years old to eleven..." Milena sighed. Indeed, the war had been a bit auspicious for the most unfortunate, one way or another. The poorer families could enroll their youngest sons without much hopes of a future in the army for free, and received some money in exchange. It could seem cruel, but most were taking that bet in hopes they would come back alive, with the paycheck of a soldier, and their families would have one less mouth to feed. The orphan boys probably lied about their age and upbringing to get such chances, too. For the girls however, it was harder to replace work, unless they worked for someone like Madam Red...

"Alright. We shall put the youngest children into a safe place for now. I will arrange for the De Crescent guards to have them move elsewhere, but you, Bandit and Plum need to stay back for a little while."

"Of course, my Lady," said Mint, vehemently nodding. "Anything you need. Do you still need us to report what we hear in the streets?"

"No," sighed Milena. "It's not so useful anymore nowadays, and I don't want to risk your lives unnecessarily. No, I need you to stay back and see if that man, or anyone else, comes back around. I'm suspecting this many children being kidnapped is no coincidence.... They were all human?"

"Yes, my Lady."

"Then it's worse..."

Milena had a bad feeling about all of this. Who would kidnap human children, and why? At times like this, she didn't want to think about what could happen, and instead, she wanted to be sure, and get them all to safety first. Perhaps because she was expecting herself, she was more reluctant than ever to have any child exposed to danger.

"... We need to inform the Guild of Merchants," she said after a while. "If every shop owner is aware of the issue, people will be more careful about kidnappings. There are less adults to watch over the young ones right now, but if we raise awareness before things worsen, who knows, we could save a few lives."

"Are you sure it's that bad, my Lady?" Asked Dinah, frowning.

"It irritates me we haven't been able to catch those human traffickers before. I need to replace that damn priest, or whoever is involved."

Dinah let out a long sigh.

"Everyone is telling you to slow down and be careful, but my Lady wants to get into action again..."

"I can't sit still," grimaced Milena. "I'm done sitting on the sidelines and letting those fools ruin our Kingdom. They wanted me to step up, they will have to watch and regret, now. Moreover, I need to keep myself busy with something. I can't just sit down and lament all day..." She glared at the window, not willing to say anymore. Mint finally began eating some of her biscuits, as silently as possible, while Dinah gave her a bit to drink.

Milena was indeed tired of doing nothing, and she hated the idea she'd be too late to do anything. The disappearance of those children was in fact a perfect excuse to get herself going. Valentin would have hated the idea of anything happening to those orphans, and so did she. Because she was focusing on other matters, she hadn't been able to investigate the trafficking more, but now was the time to get her hands dirty. Even if she had to be careful ahead of her delivery, she could still act. Milena had more than enough people working for her to pull the strings efficiently. She knew Philomenie wouldn't sit still at the news either, and Tiphania had a good enough hold of the guild to get things in motion as well. Milena sure had a bad feeling, but she was at least able to do something about it now.

She rested her head back, and closed her eyes until the carriage pulled off in front of the manor. For a few seconds, she just took deep breaths. She wasn't ready, but she still had to go regardless. It was going to be hard, a second time.

"Millie."

She heard two gentle knocks on the door, and Raphael opened. He didn't say anything. For a few seconds, he just stared at his sister, with a bitter smile on, trying his best to keep it up. He had large, deep and dark circles under his eyes once again. "... How was it?" She asked in a low voice.

"Eugenie's handling it like a Queen for now. She cried earlier, but now she said she just wants to be with her son. Dad... is locked in his room, but I think he's alright." "...Alright."

"Also... You have a guest."

"A guest?" Milena repeated, a bit annoyed. "Are you kidding?"

"No, but I do think you should see them. It's the Sevira sisters. I sent them word after we talked the other night, and they came right away. I explained the situation, but they said they would stay if you were fine with them staying, or leave if you didn't want to, since I told them you were coming tonight anyway..."

"I see....I'll see them, then. Can you..."

"I already got them waiting into one of the salons," nodded Raphael. "I heard what happened this morning at the military council. Since my sister decided to fight back, I figured it wouldn't be too good for us to sit back and mourn... yet."

Milena sighed, and, with Raphael's help, finally stepped down from the carriage.

"I just... I don't want us to mourn for weeks, Raphael," she said. "I know how bad it sounds, but I want to wait until he's here, so we can properly do this. I can't just sit and cry. I need to do something, to fight back. So..."

"Don't worry."

He put an arm around her, and kissed her temple, very gently. Her brother's cold lips suddenly took a heavy load off Milena's shoulders, and she relaxed a bit without thinking.

"I know my little sister," he sighed. "The women in our family aren't the type to cry and mourn to no end... Even Eugenie is honestly holding on pretty well, so I didn't expect you to just sit back either. Just let me know what you need, and we will do it together. I think I can relate to needing something to do..."

"Raphael, I think I need you to go somewhere," she muttered as they were walking inside the Manor. "You may not like it too much."

"Where?" He frowned.

"It's called the House of Dreams. It's a... brothel of some sort."

"I know. Madam Red's."

"You already know?"

"Well, I don't know what you were going to ask me about, but... I just heard about that place this week. It was taken down all of a sudden."

"What?"

"Yeah. The Society had... some shares, if you will, so they are not too happy about it..."

"What do you mean, it was taken down? How? By whom?"

"The Church," said Raphael. "...You really haven't heard yet? They suddenly went on that odd hunt against places of... debauchery or whatever, and they literally sent guards and all to take it down, close it and chase everyone that was living inside. They have already begun demolishing it!" Milena was in shock. This couldn't be a coincidence. First, children disappearing off the streets, and now, the House of Dreams was demolished? Something was definitely going on behind the scenes. Were those two incidents possibly related?

"You say the Society had shares?" She repeated.

"Well, some vampires have some kinks they'd rather not practice at home, I guess..."

"We need to know what happened," said Milena. "Do you know anyone we could ask?"

"Uh... I do have an idea, but..."

"Who?"

"...Henry," whispered Raphael.

Milena was speechless.

"Henry De Boreal is involved with that place? ...You're kidding?"

Raphael rolled his eyes.

"Well, I only learned of it by chance, but, uh... Just before his wife passed, I may have heard he went there from other people..."

"What about those other people? Can't you ask them too?"

Raphael sighed.

"...Millie, can't you at least have some decency not to ask your older brother about his private matters?"

"Since when do you have things to hide? You know I don't care much about your lovers," Frowned Milena. "Wait, does that mean Henry is...?"

"Millie! You're impossible... I promise I'll investigate and ask, but please, no more questions!"