Lady Dhampir
Bonus Epilogue 4

The loud crash of the statue against the marble floor echoed on the whole floor. The white pieces shattered all around, splattering a large radius around the point of impact, causing a faint wave of white dust to rise. "Oops," she snickered. "Your Highness!" The middle-aged woman begged. "This statue was worth hundreds of credits!"

"It was incredibly ugly and in the way. It almost got me cut. What would you have done if it had cut my skin? How can you keep such garbage in the middle of the hall? Don't you have housekeeping around here? Or any taste, for that matter?"

She pushed some of the debris with her shoe, a black leather boot with a bit of heel. Then, she walked a bit further. There was an absolute war path behind her, the remains of all the other sculptures, furniture, and objects the Princess had "accidentally" destroyed. The servants who would have normally tried to swiftly clean all that up were lined up against the walls or hiding, watching the scene in complete disbelief. Instead, the noblewoman was the only one following the young lady, half in tears, both panicked and furious about the havoc. "Princess, please stop!"

"Stop what?" The Princess smirked. "You'll have to be more explicit than that, Baroness. I'm just getting started..."

She walked up to the fireplace, and with one sweep of her arm, sent everything on the mantelpiece flying. A vase crashed, along with two little decorative objects, a candelabra, and a picture frame. Everything ended up completely smashed at the Princess' feet. The baroness screamed.

"Enough! Your Highness, stop this!"

"Why should I stop, Baroness? You've been... Ah."

The red-eyed young woman glanced at her finger. A little cut had appeared, probably the result of her smashing from earlier. She frowned.

"What is it?" A male voice asked.

"Liz, I got a cut," she pouted, turning towards the voice.

A sigh was heard. From the shadows, a young man stepped out. The noblewoman, looking absolutely terrified, hastily moved from his path as he walked by her, but he didn't even spare her a glance. Instead, he walked right up to the young lady who was showing him her cut, with a pout on. It wasn't so obvious when they were apart, but once the two of them stood side by side, it was clear they were twins. They were the exact same height, and had the same nose, chin, face shape and cheeks- although one was masculine and the other feminine. Her sibling took her hand gently, looking at the injury. She had a cut indeed, not too large, but deep enough that some blood had appeared. He took out an elegant black handkerchief and helped wipe it.

"You should be more careful," he said, still inspecting the wound.

"What can I say? The Baroness really should keep her house more orderly."

"Your Highness!" The said Baroness protested. "You came uninvited into our home, and started wrecking things-!"

"Uninvited?"

The Princess suddenly turned her angry red eyes at the woman, who went absolutely white.

"Uninvited, you say? I took your daughter's attitude and words towards me as an invitation!"

"Y-your Highness, my daughter d-didn't mean to-"

"Didn't mean to what?" The Princess scoffed. "To have her words spread to where they could reach my ears? To piss me off? To insult me?"

"She wouldn't dare-!"

"That pampered little b***h would dare to do anything if she didn't think I would come for retaliation!" The Princess shouted. "I think my visit was long overdue!"

She suddenly freed her hand from her brother's grasp, leaving him with his hands and handkerchief mid-air. He sighed and lowered his hands, while his furious sister stepped towards the Baroness, her heels crushing everything that dared to come under her feet. "I'm more patient than one would think, Baroness. I can overlook that little swine stealing my favorite dress' design, hosting her tea parties on the same days as mine, or arguing about being prettier than I am. I can even ignore how she f*****g had my favorite dessert sold out on purpose, or she gloated about her stupid new necklace that copied mine. But even if your daughter's personality only amounts to trying to outdo me, she should keep the name of my suitor out of her f*****g mouth!"

Just as she ended her sentence, Maria suddenly took out her whip, and violently slashed another piece of furniture, a sofa for that matter. Her weapon lacerated the fabric and sent little clouds of its filling flying around the room. The Baroness watched this, as terrified of the whip as she was worried about her salon being absolutely ruined.

"Stop it!" She begged. "Your Highness, stop it!"

"If you want me to stop," hissed Maria, "bring her to me! Now!"

The Baroness kept crying, but she didn't dare move. She was still a mother, and absolutely terrified about what that beast could potentially do to her child. Hence, she was willing to abandon a few thousand credits' worth of furniture to protect her daughter. The math was already done in her head. This was nothing compared to the dowry their child could potentially receive upon marriage, given her pretty face. It was true she could rival the Princess in terms of beauty, but if Princess Maria had decided to ruin her, all their hopes would go down the drain. Hence, she didn't move, and only kept wailing in the ravaged salon. Meanwhile, the Prince was much more cool-headed than his sister. He had already understood that the Baroness wouldn't move. Thus, he took a couple of steps back, leaving his sister to her fury, and grabbed one of the servants with his piercing blue gaze.

"You. Go and get your young mistress."

The poor maid he had chosen went whiter than her apron. She glanced at her older mistress, uncertain. "B-b-b-but..."

"Go."

This time, there wasn't a single second left to hesitate; clearly, it would be the young mistress' head or hers. And this young maiden definitely wasn't paid enough to risk her life for her masters'. Thus, she ran off upstairs to fetch the Princess' next victim. It didn't even take a minute. Maria was wrapping up her whip when the young lady appeared at the top of the stairs to discover the current state of the mansion in absolute awe. Prince Elizio smirked. She had probably heard it all, but stayed hidden until now... "Princess Maria!" The young woman shouted, trying to sound more confident than she was. "How dare you?! You call yourself a lady, but you come and barge into my house, threatening my poor mother, and assaulting us!"

"The assault part hasn't happened yet," Maria smiled. "Let's not hurry things... So you finally showed up after all!"

"Of course I had to! This is absolutely scandalous! To think the Princess would treat us poor subjects like this!"

"Poor?" Scoffed Maria. "You're not as poor as you claim to be if you have money to waste on such distasteful decor."

The young lady came down the stairs, trying to act dignified, but one could read the fear in her eyes. She wasn't feeling as proud or righteous as she was trying to sound. She probably hoped that the staff here would act as witnesses, but they were all like terrified mice watching the scene from every corner, frozen in the shadows. One glance from the Prince was already enough to keep them trembling; they'd all scatter like rats with one word. However, Elizio didn't care about the extra audience. On the contrary, his sister loved a stage...

"You're abusing your privileges as Royal Princess!" The young Baroness insisted. "Once my father hears of this, he'll go and complain in front of the court! Do you even know how much damage you caused? We'll have your family pay it all back, just you wait!" "Listen to this, Liz; the Barony think they can empty the Royal Family vault now! What do you say, can we afford it?"

"I think your weekly manicure is worth more than that."

Maria chuckled, amused by her twin's ice-cold humor. That was so like him. She lifted her hand and showed off her perfectly polished nails to her rival, each nail adorned with a couple of tiny, precious gems. A trend she had launched a few months ago, and now all the ladies in the Kingdom were begging their parents to let them spend money on outrageously expensive nail jobs. A trend the young Baroness had, ironically, tried to follow too.

"You hear that, Lady Celandine? I'm afraid I could happily wreck your whole house and still not make my Daddy frown at the bill. That is, if you ever manage to send us one, you see. I highly doubt it."

"Your arrogance knows no bounds!" Lady Celandine retorted. "You think you can walk into someone's home and wreak havoc unpunished? This is outrageous! Your jealousy is unfathomable that you would dare to come and attack me within my house, Princess Maria! Not everyone will side with you this time?"

"My... jealousy?" The Princess raised an eyebrow, looking disgusted. "Did I hear that right, Baroness?"

"Of course!" The young woman crossed her arms, faking her confidence once again. "Isn't it obvious? You've already been watching me for a while, everyone knows you don't like being compared to me! The rumor's already everywhere about how you hate me for being your competition!"

"That's what you think?" Maria scoffed. "Really, Lady Celandine, you overestimate yourself!"

"Will you deny we are rivals?!"

"We're rivals like a cow compares itself to the leather of my least favorite boots," Maria retorted.

It took a couple of seconds for that sentence to hit the young Baroness, and the moment she got it was made very obvious by her jaw drop.

"How dare you compare me to a cow!"

"I know, I feel sorry for the cow. At least they stick to their grassfield and the spots that suit them. You're just like a f*****g rat: eating scraps behind me, trying to lick whatever you can off my path, and pretending you're some rival of mine. You'll buy my favorite tea, my favorite dessert, you'll wear the dresses of my favorite designers and buy jewelry similar to mine just to invent some rivalry between us! It must be exhausting, young Baroness, trying to pretend you've got more talent, taste, and class than a b****y tapestry!" "How dare you!" Lady Celandine protested, red with anger.

"You know," said Maria, stepping towards her, "I could have perhaps ignored all of the previous, if it wasn't for you setting your disgusting eyes on my man. I thought you were going to try and steal him from me, which, in all fairness, would have for once been worth two seconds of my attention as a healthy rivalry. But now, once again, you had to act like the rodent you are, and spread rumors about my dear friend, thinking that was one easy way to drag me down!"

"I-I didn't say anything that wasn't true," the young Baroness said.

She was feeling a lot less confident now that the Princess was coming her way, visibly furious and still holding her whip.

"Really?" Maria glared. "Calling him a low-born, untalented knight? Do you have the b****y guts to insult the House De Nova too? Shall I ask the Duchess if she wants the honor of pulling out your guts first?!"

"Maria, you already got brand-new, clean gloves two days ago," her twin sighed. "Try to keep them clean a little bit longer."

No one in the room could tell if the Prince was serious or making one of the most horrid jokes. It seemed his words barely hit his sister though.

"I-I was only pointing out how he's u-unbefitting of the Princess..."

Elizio rolled his eyes. While it was admirable how brave that young woman was trying to be, it would have been much better for her to simply shut up.

"Oh, because you believe we're close enough?!" Maria hissed. "Close enough that I would need your b****y advice on my suitor? You're just a money cow getting ready to be sold, you stupid swine! You think your pretty face is everything? It is for you! You're like a fly on a pile of s**t thinking it's a feast; you're just going to keep breathing on my soles and convince yourself with the delusion that you're any better!"

"Your Highness!" The Baroness suddenly screamed, probably worried about the damages that whip could cause. "Enough, I beg you! W-when my husband comes home, he'll c-compensate you for our daughter's wrongdoing!"

Maria stopped, and glanced over her shoulder.

"Compensate me?" She scoffed. "You think your pathetic house has the means to compensate me for my wounded ego? Your daughter has been pissing me off for years, acting like an eyesore in plain sight, and you actually never bothered to stop her once? I think you were just happy to think she could even compare to me!"

"We're sorry! We're sorry, Your Highness! W-we will teach her better!"

"That compensation..." Maria tilted her head. "How much are we talking about, exactly?"

The Baroness' expression fell. How come the Princess was so calm all of a sudden? A faint smile appeared on the Prince's lips too. Now they were actually going to see the only way to save their pathetic lives...

"I-I don't have the power to..." The Baroness mumbled. "My husband... My husband is..."

"Oh, please, you know where your husband's seal is, don't you? You'd better go and fetch it, before my hand gets bored..."

The Baroness didn't need to be asked twice. The poor woman ran upstairs, in front of her daughter's shocked eyes.

"How dare you!" The young woman shouted. "This is blackmail!"

"This is the fair price to pay for pissing on my lawn for years," Maria retorted. "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll replace some stupid man to marry you. Money is your dear parents' problem, isn't it? After all, they financed all those dresses, parties, and jewelry you've been using to piss me off for years. They're the first ones that should be compensating me! This is just me coming to collect the debt."

She had the malicious expression of a cat that just ate a delicious bird, while her rival was completely stunned, realizing this had been her intent from the start. The Princess didn't care about the damages done, she was going to make them spill their credits either way! The Baroness came back, and Maria happily listed all of the compensation she thought she was due- all being every single party, piece of clothing, or jewelry Lady Celandine had used for their "rivalry"- and totaled thousands of credits. The more she listed, the whiter both mother and daughter got, realizing this was a real hold-up. When she was done, having given them the accurate math with an impressive six-figure number, the Baroness looked about to pass out, or spit blood.

"Your Highness, you can't be serious! This is worth at least two years of our House's income!"

"Then, you should have used all that money better," Maria smiled. "Plus, let's be honest, will you? You shouldn't have had access to all that money, the amount is far above your tax declarations... Oh my, could it be you lied on your yearly tax report? You wouldn't dare lie about how much money this House receives, right?"

That was all she needed. The younger lady might not know, but the Baroness wasn't blind about her husband's fraud. The Princess' anger could be dealt with, but if the King started to investigate their affairs, this would be the end of them!

Less than half an hour later, Maria and her twin walked out of the House, the Princess happily waving a piece of paper like a fan, smiling from ear to ear. They both got back on their horses, the Royal Knights that had followed them lining up behind the Royal Duo. "Are you proud of me, Liz?" The Princess smiled, ecstatic. "Look at this! All this money! I'm going to get myself the most fabulous dress for the next ball, and make that b***h cry about it!"

"Doesn't Father always insist on paying for your dresses, anyway?" Chuckled her brother. "Plus, at this rate, the young Baroness won't even attend the next Ball. You just emptied their funds dry... Besides, you know as well as I that Father already ordered a tax audit. He had been suspicious of their funds thanks to you diligently noting their daughter's crazy expenses."

"Oh, please," his sister rolled her eyes, "I just came to collect my share before their money was confiscated for good. Plus, she deserved a good lesson for insulting my man. With that tongue of hers, every lady in the Kingdom will know he's mine, and spread the word about it!"

Elizio chuckled. Nothing could beat his sister's possessiveness. All this was to get rid of a rival, get more money, and most importantly, let her dear Yerrick know she'd stop at nothing for him... The poor Young Duke De Nova was warned.