Lady Dhampir
Chapter 251

The Morning Council was in an uproar long before the Grand Princess made her appearance. Rumors traveled faster than news, and most people in the room had already heard about Lady De Crescent returning to the Royal Grounds and venturing into the Emerald Forest. Presently, the most up-to-date nobles were busy updating their peers, everyone keeping an ear out for any piece of information they might have missed.

The only ones silent were the Dukes and the King. The five most powerful men of the Kingdom were all scarily silent, if not furious. The Dukes De Nova and De Crescent were sending daggers at each other, while the younger Dukes De Boreal and De Winter were still as stones in their seats. "Silence!" Roared the King upon arriving. "What is this? Since when is this Council such a barnyard!"

Most nobles went quiet. The King's terrible mood that morning was almost the confirmation they needed; only the Grand Princess acting rogue again could have made his Majesty this mad first thing in the day. Even if they didn't fear or hate him, most of his subjects were starting to understand how their monarch's temper worked, and for now, they were all happy to go quiet and pay attention to the room. The air was tense, but heated. It was clear none of the Dukes would stay silent this time. Everyone had in mind the terrible unleashing of wrath from the Duke De Crescent last time, and the others looked quite on edge as well. As always, the Grand Princess was turning the whole Kingdom's politics upside down... "We have many matters to discuss today," groaned Ellias. "So let's just get to it before-"

The doors were slammed open wide, and he closed his eyes, trying to contain his anger. Of course, it was her. It had to be her. Milena De Crescent who loved her dramatic entrances...

This time, she really provoked a wave of loud, surprised gasps in the audience. The Counsellors were in utter shock at her disgusting appearance. Lady De Crescent looked like she had just come back from the War herself. Everything above her neck was perfect as usual, although she looked a bit tired, but everything underneath was just mortifying to look at. Blood. Her once black leather ensemble was completely drenched in an unsightly amount of blood, and quite fresh too. Her piercing purple eyes circled the audience, as if to defy anyone to speak right then.

Milena was well aware of the produced effect, and it was completely intended. Whether they be on her side or not, she wanted to grab these men's attention. She glared fearlessly at her audience, a spooky smile appearing on her father's lips only. Of course, he had already been informed of the situation beforehand, and would be playing along with his beloved daughter.

"Council," said Milena with a loud voice. "I should probably say good morning, but as you can all witness for yourselves, mine wasn't so pleasant."

She took off her gloves, slapping them on the Duke De Winter's desk, splattering his once white shirt with the fresh blood. Arseus' eyes opened wide, riveted on the two b****y pieces of clothing in front of him. He raised his eyes to glare at the Grand Princess, but she didn't even spare him a glance, simply walking past to stand in the middle of the Council.

"Princess Milena," hissed Ellias. "If you have matters to bring up to the Council, you should-"

"I do have a matter to bring up, Your Majesty," she retorted without looking at him. "And such an urgent one that I ask the Council to hear me out first thing." Milena turned around once, seeing who was listening. She had everyone's attention, defiant or not.

"I just came back from the Emerald Forest, as you have probably already heard."

"...The entrance to the Forest was f*******n," said Arseus de Winter, a bit hesitant.

"No wonder why," she retorted. "As my brother and I barely came out alive! It didn't take one hour, and yet we crossed paths with no less than three Wendigos!"

A new wave of panicked whispers rose around her. Milena didn't wait and continued, using the current confusion of the Council.

"Three of those nightmarish creatures that have been terrorizing the Capital were lurking around, waiting for us in the Emerald Forest, and almost got rid of a full party of ten people! We lost three just trying to survive, and my older brother is presently in a critical state."

This last part was slightly exaggerated, as she had the strong belief that Raphael would be fine, but it still served her purpose to pressure the politicians a bit with his life; Since Valentin had died, Raphael was a more than prominent face of the De Crescent Family, and his position among the vampires made him even more important to those people.

"Three Wendigos, all within one hour of the Royal Castle grounds borders. Does no one see the imminent danger that's coming towards us?"

Her tone like a school teacher got a lot of the senators genuinely worried. Among them, Henry De Boreal was smart enough of a politician to know how to react.

"Your Majesty?"

All eyes went to Ellias De Solar in the blink of an eye, leaving him pinned with anger on his chair. He glared even more intensely at his sister-in-law.

"|

I put up this order so no one would risk their lives in the Emerald Forest, Princess De Crescent! Do not blame me for sending you to your death when you flew running in her arms!"

"Despite all the blood on myself, Your Majesty, I survived," Milena retorted. "My concern is more about when your new pets will be tired of their playground and move on to our lands for real!"

Her words threw the council into another uproar. She had chosen her words carefully, and now, many senators were shouting at the King about his responsibility towards the Wendigo threats. This time, Milena wasn't going to leave him any slack. She didn't care if he was mistaken as responsible for the Wendigos' presence in the Emerald Forest. In her eyes, he was at least as responsible as those who had put them there by doing nothing about this.

"Silence!" He roared, trying to bring back some peace in the room. "Princess De Crescent, your accusations towards your King cannot be excused!"

"And they do not need to be," she retorted. "Your Majesty owes us an explanation!"

"The Emerald Forest is the Royal Family's property!"

"Your Majesty," exclaimed one of the Marquesses. "You can't possibly be serious!"

"Your Majesty, how could you let such a thing happen!"

"Those things are really so close to us?"

"The War is coming here!"

"ENOUGH!" Ellias shouted. "There shall be order in the Morning Council! Order! Anyone who dares to interrupt me again will be sent to prison for insubordination!"

The Council gradually quieted down, but the eyes were speaking volumes. Everyone was staring at the King as if he had two heads or was insane. Most of them did not have the slightest idea. One of the Counts slowly stood up, with his fists clenched and a serious expression on.

"Your Majesty. Is that the truth? Are those creatures in the Emerald Forest, preventing our sons and daughters from coming home? Will they destroy our army?"

"Our army will not be destroyed," retorted Ellias, pissed. "Those creatures are to be taken care of, and..."

"The Princess De Crescent risked her life to save Lady De Carseus," hissed Anton De Crescent. "My daughter went to look for the Divisions that should have been home long ago. All she found was the young Marquess, half dead. And I would have lost two more children this morning if it wasn't for their own survival skills."

Anton's deep, heavy voice filled the room with an air of menace without him even needing to speak loudly. The Duke De Crescent's imposing presence was enough to gather all the attention, and have some people shrink on their seats.

Now, all the eyes were on Ellias. Almost all the people in this room had siblings or children at the front. The King wouldn't get away with this without answering to the Emerald Forest problem. To the Wendigos' presence he knew about.

"...It should be assumed that the seventh, eighth and ninth Divisions were caught in a new battle in the Emerald Forest", declared Milena.

"How are they?" Asked one of the Barons, standing up. "My son is in the seventh!"

"And my daughter in the eighth!"

"We only found the Eighth Division's Commander," Milena answered. "She survived on her own after seeing all of her division taken away, killed or turned."

"....Turned?" Repeated one of the Barons, shocked.

"We know the Wendigos have the ability to transform vampires into their own," bluntly said Milena. "Lady De Carseus had little to no knowledge of this risk when she led her men back. The process isn't fully understood yet, and most vampires could have died or been surviving until now, hiding like the Marquess did." "You're saying the vampire soldiers could also have been turned into... those things?" Gasped a vampire Count.

"We don't know anything for sure. Lady De Carseus herself survived for a surprisingly long time, given the circumstances."

Another uproar rose, again. Milena sighed. The senators could blame anyone they wanted, she didn't care. She walked up to her father's desk, and while everyone was busy shouting and protesting, she brutally slammed her fist on it, immediately getting their attention again.

"Senators," she said. "Every second we waste here pointing fingers and arguing, another one of our soldiers could be losing their life, or turned into one of those disgusting things; We need to agree on a solution, soon." "There isn't one."

Ellias' ice-cold tone took her by surprise. She turned around, to realize he was standing up, fiercely and calmly glaring her way.

"Those Divisions might be lost, but there isn't anything we can do," he said. "My brother Prince Rayan is the one with the Army's control. It is his duty to insure the peace back, on each side of the Kingdom. This is another fight he'll take care of, and it is his problem for sending his Divisions home without a proper check of the safety of the road to..."

"My husband couldn't possibly have known," Milena hissed. "Who could have known there would be anyone mad enough to plant one of those creatures in the Emerald Forest!"

"Who said anyone deliberately put them there, Princess Milena?" Retorted Arseus De Winter. "As far as we know, they could have gotten there on their own."

Milena was shocked. They were going to pretend they knew nothing of this?

Arseus pushed her gloves off his desk, and shrugged, a smug smile on his face, looking unbearably arrogant.

"From what you kindly shared with the public, those creatures, the Wendigos, are created from Vampires drinking fellow vampires' blood. Why do you assume a third party put them where they are deliberately? Why shouldn't we assume vampires got into the Emerald Forest by themselves, and turned on one another to create this issue?"

"...Do you have any idea how insane, and absolutely disgusting that is?" Groaned the Duke De Nova. "Do not talk about what you do not know, young Duke!"

"Who knows?" Said Arseus, unphased. "The soldiers were coming back from the battlefield. They must have been exhausted by the war, their supplies running low. We know it takes days and days to come back. Why should we pretend this is an impossible scenario? It is, instead, the most plausible one. Hungry soldiers, turning on each other."

"You forget there were always human soldiers," hissed Bella from her seat. "No vampire would starve enough to bite one of their own!"

"... What if they ran out of humans, too?"

"Duke De Winter!" Shouted the Duke De Nova. "How dare you insult us vampires like this!"

"This is disgusting!"

"Vampires shouldn't feed on their human peers in the first place! We are not your supplies!"

Milena was completely aghast. The Council was going out of control. Now, vampires and humans were shouting at each other, not even afraid to insult each other and swear out loud. Some humans were defending their vampire peers, and some vampires were fighting between themselves, but no one in the room was silent. She glanced back at Ellias, who sat back on his throne, a smirk on his face. "...Happy now?" He mimicked with his lips.

No. This wasn't what she had intended. She couldn't have the nobles fighting over this, not without doing anything. She turned to her father as a last resort.

Anton De Crescent was silent, but glaring at the whole audience, as if he stood one step back from everyone else, watching an unsightly scene with the composure of a farmer staring at his pigs. His eyes went down on his daughter, looking tired and annoyed. "See?" He muttered. "This is how those people are. Cowards."

Milena felt disheartened. She understood where he came from, and what he meant, but right now, she needed those cowards. She nodded faintly, and Anton redirected his eyes to the noisy and unruly crowd. However, Milena couldn't wait. She grabbed her father's g*n from inside his pocket, and fired two warning shots at the roof. The marble made a scary creaking sound, and a large rock fell right in the middle of the room, causing everyone to jump in surprise, and finally shut up.

"I have four more bullets," she warned them. "And I might not shoot them up next."

Most people would have doubted the Grand Princess would seriously shoot a Senator; However, right now, her amethyst eyes were glowing scarily. The threat felt a bit too real, especially with her father behind her, like a dangerous wolf behind its already grown pup. Despite their best reasoning, none of them had the backbone to risk provoking her. Slowly, everyone sat back, Milena's supporters first.

"Princess De Crescent," hissed Ellias. "If you ever shoot again inside the Castle..."

"I hope it won't be to save someone from a Wendigo's attack," she retorted. "Despite our Council's dangerous appetite for fruitless and pesky debates, we have an emergency on our hands, and need an emergency solution."

"... Will the Wendigos come here?" Asked one of the Counts.

"Haven't you gone out or read the newspapers recently? They already are!" Protested his neighbour.

"...That's right," muttered Milena. "If we don't take care of this problem now, we might wake up tomorrow to replace them at our doors instead of inside the Forest. Pushing this issue back will be of no help to us. I strongly suggest the Council starts coming up with decent solutions now."

Everyone exchanged glances, a bit panicked by the perspective of a Wendigo really surfacing on their properties; They all vividly remembered the whole ordeal with the Queen, and absolutely no one wanted to face such a thing ever again. The news of one Wendigo was bad enough, but to consider all the vampire soldiers from the former three Divisions had potentially been turned into those nightmarish creatures was terrifying. The Senators were slowly starting to realize how bad the situation was for the Kingdom. No army home, only a few dozen soldiers per family, including the Royal one, and Wendigos that were growing in numbers at the border of the Kingdom, if not already inside.

"We need to inform Prince Rayan! Not to bring more of our Divisions to the Emerald Forest!"

"That's already done. But we need our men to come home anyhow."

"Send experienced hunters!"

"Are you deaf? We had three divisions wiped out! What will hunters do any better than experienced soldiers!"

"The Grand Princess herself barely made it out, and she's one of our Kingdom's very best hunters!"

"We need to burn that cursed Forest!"

"Are you insane? There are potential survivors in there!"

"If there are survivors, we should try to rescue them! The more men we bring home, the more we can use against those creatures!"

"They are probably all dead already!"

"Just bring back the humans!"

"The Wendigos will not make a difference! Did you forget? Most of the downtown victims were humans!"

"We shall prepare a trap!"

Milena crossed her arms, listening to the suggestions coming from all sides of the room.

"Enough!" Shouted Ellias. "We will not lose more men to this insanity!"

"Your Majesty!"

"It's more insane to stand still in the face of danger," Milena retorted. "Are you going to just do nothing and let the Wendigos wipe out half this Kingdom, Your Majesty? Or all of it? They may as well start with this Castle!" "Shut up!" Ellias shouted.

He had jumped on his feet, absolutely furious and glaring at her.

"You're not the one in charge here, Princess Milena! I am! I decide what this Council does, and I decide what solution we take against the Wendigos!"

"Your Majesty, you can't ask us to stand still and do nothing!" Shouted one of the Senators.

"...Those Divisions are lost," Ellias hissed. "There's no one left to save. The Commander of the Eighth Division survived merely out of luck. Nobody else did." "But the Wendigos..."

"We will get rid of them. All of them."

He smirked, looking around.

"Thank you, Council, for offering such a solution."

Milena had an uneasy feeling. Whatever he was going to say next, it couldn't be good.

Indeed, after an unbearably long silence, the King's green eyes went back to her, assorted with a smug expression.

"We shall get rid of the problem all at once. ...We will burn the Emerald Forest."