Hadria’s room was small. There was a bed with purple sheets only big enough for one person, a desk, and a shelf hanging on the wall. That was pretty much it. It didn’t scream ‘daughter of a crime lord’. Just a normal girl’s room.

Then I noticed the bras and panties.

They were everywhere. On everything. I walked in like I was dodging tiny lace-covered pools of lava on the ground. If this was her idea of cleaning up, I didn’t want to know what this was like beforehand.

Or maybe… she had put these out on purpose.

“Do you like my underwear?” Hadria sat down on her bed. “I have a pretty big collection, huh? It’s hard to show it off if I don’t lay it all out like this.” Okay, she had definitely put these out on purpose.

“It’s… uh… cool.” I stood awkwardly in the middle of the room just staring at her. She just smiled back at me. After a few seconds, she slowly lifted one of her pale hands off her lap and gently patted the bed with her open palm. “Sit down with me.” Oh god. Was this really happening?

“Alright…” I said, not exactly sure where I was supposed to sit. I swiped some of the underwear to the side to make some space for myself and sat down.

I was nervous. It wasn’t like this was my first time in a woman’s room, and it wasn’t the first time I’d had sex either. I had just never been in a situation like this. And by situation like this, I meant ‘in the room of a girl I had just met a few hours ago, while a group of people stood right outside the door’. Sounded like a plot right out of a porno.

Whoa, I was getting ahead of myself.

There was no way I could do this. Her dad was a guy that had no problem cutting off someone’s hand for stealing a tomato. If I fucked his daughter in his own house, it was pretty clear what he would cut off, and it wasn’t my head. Not the head on my shoulders anyway.

Hadria looked over at me with a playful gleam in her eye, her body leaning slightly in my direction. Her face got a closer to mine. And closer. Was she… trying to kiss me? She opened her mouth and revealed her sharp canines.

Was she trying to bite me!?

“So what did you think?” Hadria yelled in my face.

I narrowed my eyes. “Think… of what?”

Hadria pulled her face away and straightened her back. “Of my Lyili performance!” she said. “I feel like I can’t really imitate the way she talks, but I tried my best to at least learn from the way she argues. Did I do a good job? I thought I did a pretty good job.”

“You… uh… did great.”

“Right? I thought so.” She nodded her head furiously. “Do you think my mom and dad were impressed? Dad was smiling a lot. He never smiles that much. I think he must have been impressed. Do you think he was impressed?”

Oh my god, how many times did she need to say ‘impressed’? She spoke so quickly, my brain couldn’t even keep up.

“Uhh… yeah,” I said. “I think they must have been really… impressed.” Fuck. Now I was saying it.

“Right!?” Hadria beamed ear to ear. “I’m so glad I asked. You know, when I saw you and Lyili at the trial, all I could think about was that I wanted to try doing what you guys did. And now I guess I’m doing it. It almost doesn’t feel real.”

Well, technically it wasn’t real. Not a real trial, anyway. With all the gun pointing, screaming fanboys, and sexual tension, it hardly even resembled one. Not that the two trials before this one were any less ridiculous, of course.

“So…” I shifted my body weight on the bed. “That’s why you called me in here? To ask that?”

“Yeah.” Hadria let herself fall back on her bed. “I didn’t want to ask in front of everyone else. Too embarrassing.”

I let out a deep sigh, simultaneously relieved and disappointed. Deciding between having sex and getting to have sex ever again probably shouldn’t have been such a difficult choice for me. Not my best moment.

I glanced around the room. Apparently, she had really just wanted to show me her collection of underwear. Kind of a weird hobby, but better than collecting skulls or something. Maybe I had the wrong ideas about vampires. In fact, it kind of felt like I was bringing in a lot of baggage from vampire stories in my world.

“Hey Hadria.” I cleared my throat. “Vampires drink blood, right?”

Hadria stayed lying down, staring up at the ceiling. “Sure do.”

“Whose blood do you drink? Do you… attack other demons?” If so, this whole ‘law’ thing was going to hit vampires pretty hard.

“I guess vampires used to do that kind of stuff,” Hadria said. “But that was before I was born. More recently, we drink animal blood. Some demons even donate their blood and stuff too.”

Huh. That was a lot more reasonable than I expected. “Why did they stop attacking other demons?”

“Demons don’t really like having their blood sucked, so I guess vampires had it pretty tough.” Uhh… it sounded more like everyone else had it tough, but alright. “My dad said the queen helped us a lot. She tried to get the vampires to be a part of society, I guess.”

“The queen…” I mumbled. I thought back to the name plaque in front of the house. If she had helped the vampires, it made sense why it was in English. After all, it was obvious as fuck that she was human. She had to be.

“She used to visit us back when she was alive.” Hadria sat back up and pointed at the shelf on the wall. “See that picture over there? She’s in it.”

I stood up and walked over to the shelf. Sure enough, there was a framed photo. I didn’t think vampires showed up in pictures. Or was that just reflections? I guess it didn’t really matter.

I took it in my hands. It was taken out in front of the mansion, and I immediately recognized the Count and his wife. In the front, there was a little girl in a purple dress. That must have been Hadria. Standing at the sides of the family were a man with a mustache I didn’t recognize and a tall woman with long black hair.

“The queen was really kind, like a second mom.” Hadria said from behind me.

“Isn’t she pretty?” She was. She had a calming smile. The kind that made you feel like everything was going to be okay. And of course, no horns. Yeah. She was human for sure.

“How long ago was this taken?” I asked.

“Hmm…” Hadria jumped up from the bed and walked up next to me. “I think I was about ten so… around nine years ago?” Thank god. She really was legal.

“I heard that she passed away,” I said. “When was that?”

“Five years ago.” Hadria didn’t even have to think for a second to answer. Judging by her tone, this wasn’t the happiest memory for her either.

“Well… she sounds like she was a very good queen.” Enough of that. I would learn more from the Count after the trial. I went to put the picture back on the shelf, but stopped at the last second. “Oh, by the way. Who’s this other guy? I didn’t see him at the trial.”

“Hmm? Other guy?” Hadria got on her toes to look.

“The one here with the mustache.” I pointed. “Is this your uncle or something?”

“Oh. That’s Mort. My old bodyguard.”

“Old bodyguard?”

“Yeah. He’s dead now,” Hadria said like it was the most mundane thing in the world. “He took a knife to the throat. That was the same fight I lost my eye.”

“I… see.” I finally placed the picture back on the shelf. “Huh. So that’s when Nair became your new bodyguard then. I thought the two of you had known each other a lot longer. Just based on how you talk to each other, I mean.”

Hadria put her finger on her lips. “Hmm… I guess it’s already been around six years. That’s long enough to get to know someone.” Wait… that meant that the street fight she lost her eye in happened when she was 13. What the fuck?

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in!” Hadria yelled.

The door slid open and Violetta’s horned head poked in. “Sorry to interrupt…” Her face suddenly turned bright red. Oh shit. Panties and bras everywhere.

“It’s not what it looks like,” I sighed. I wasn’t going to be punished for sex I didn’t have. “What’s up?”

“Uhh… the, um, t-trial is starting again,” Violetta stammered, her eyes darting around. “I tried to stop them, but… it seems like they really want to get it over with.”

“Great.” I sighed. “So much for getting decisive evidence.”

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Hadria smiled up at me. “Are you going to do that thing?” Best question.

“Could you… be a little more specific?”

“You know...” Hadria pushed me playfully. “The thing where you make everyone think about the murder differently. Like when you played bocce ball! I would love to play some bocce ball!”

The thing… where I made everyone think about the murder differently?

A lightbulb suddenly went off in my head. Why hadn’t I thought of it before? This whole time, I had been trying to get information about the ceremony last night. Why didn’t I just ask to see it firsthand?

“Violetta.”

She jumped. “Y-Yes?”

“Tell everyone that we’re changing locations.” I smiled. “Tell them… to assemble in the tearoom.”

“Ooo, is this the thing?” Hadria asked excitedly. “Please tell me this is the thing!”

“Yes.” I nodded. “This is the thing.”

Or at least I needed it to be the thing. I really, really needed it to be the thing.