The Vampire Empress.

After we finished eating, the team who will head to the destination which consisted of me, Ayaka, and Felice hopped inside the carriage that was waiting on the outside; Felice rode the driver side while Ayaka and I sat at the inside of the carriage while Felice drove the carriage out of the town.

She was the one who knew the directions towards her family’s fief where her father is currently staying which is why she is driving. The ride towards the direction was anti-climactic, Ayaka fell asleep within ten minutes on the way as I leaned my head out the window, bombarded by the soft, cold wind as several carriages passed by us.

“Time to do some checks on the recipes,” I muttered to myself while bored, closing the window before taking out the papers from a tiny leather waist bag that contains the recipes along with instructions on how to proceed. They were simple and easy to understand instructions by this world’s standards according to Iona and Felice.

My handwriting did look a bit bad but overall, the ingredients were listed properly, and the procedures were all properly ordered with all the temperatures correct; I do however plan on showing them a live demonstration since it is only fair to do so.

There was a total of five papers that I wrote with the recipes on them, to make it easier for them—not to mention, I also had another negotiation plan in mind which is to have them build a branch on the town which would indefinitely help us a lot, especially in these times.

“Yosh! Everything is ready,” I heaved a sigh of relief while placing the recipes back on my little leather waist bag before opening the window as the beautiful sight of a crystal-clear blue lake came to view. The lake looked incredibly clean compared to the lakes I had seen in the other world.

There was not a single sight of plastic or pollution of any kind. It was simply clean; the air felt fresher in this area and far colder which could be attributed to the lake and the many trees around us. The entire area looked like a good picnic spot, to be honest.

“I wonder if the wind will affect the spell,” I mumbled before taking a glance at the baking sheet on my lap which was still warm to the touch. The spell was still active from the tiny magic circle that was resting on top of the cloth which meant the wind didn’t affect the spell at all.

That was a relief since there are times where nature would be able to annoyingly disrupt a spell, like for example, a fire spell can be dispersed by wind or ice that were made with magic could be melted by the heat of the sun depending on the conditions. Take, for example, using ice magic in a desert would cancel the spell out and could cause an explosion because of mana’s nature.

You can think of mana as atoms except they can be created but they cannot be destructed; spells are more like black holes that attract these ‘atoms’ called mana and stick them together to form a phenomenon but for that phenomena to disperse, it has to peel off from the other particles of mana which is why an explosion would happen.

Though, mana can be easily peeled off if you can control the spell. You can control the spell to ease out the vacuuming in a ‘slow’ manner and by slow, I mean a few milliseconds until the vacuum power is at zero which would then be ‘state zero’ of a spell, allowing mana to be dispersed back to the atmosphere which is what happens when a spell is complete as well, but it is done automatically.

“Mama…” Ayaka’s voice suddenly entered my ears as I looked at her on the other side, shivering from the cold which made me realize the fact that I had the window open while she wore thin clothes, immediately, I closed off the window before her shivering gradually stopped.

It has only been a few days since I arrived here and immediately on day two of meeting each other, this girl somehow trusts me a lot—it could be that brat of a god’s work, but I didn’t mind her sticking around with me since it feels calmer around me whenever she is nearby for some reason.

That doesn’t change my original motto though which is to live happily in this life. After reading a lot of books, I could already tell that the chances of me going back to my original world were impossible which means I must make the best out of here.

I wonder how the clan is doing without me, after all, I was the only remaining heir with the royal vampire family’s blood apart from my father who was pretty much weak and incapable. There could be a large inside uprising happening or the clan would start trying to produce another heir which would be a pain as vampires aren’t that fertile.

Why am I even caring much about the clan nowadays—it was my long-time wish to escape from the clan and live off on a rich island, sleeping on a comfortable bed with food prepared every day and not searching for ways to survive every second… I just wanted to be lazy and not lead a lot of brats around.

“My lady, we have arrived,” Felice’s voice echoed from the outside, snapping me back to reality as the door opened, revealing a beautiful land filled with greenery. The entire place was brimming with vitality, the people had joyful smiles on them as they looked at us with curiosity.

Taking the baking sheet, I handed it over to Felice who took it gladly before heading off to Ayaka and waking her up which took a little over thirty seconds, she looked around before realizing the situation as she reached her arms towards me, “Mama, carry…”

“You really want to be spoiled,” I giggled while taking her in my embrace before walking out of the carriage where a decently handsome uncle in military clothes stood together with five chefs and the madam of the family—I suppose.

The uncle and I stared at each other in the eye for a few moments before I greeted with a smile, “Greetings, Baron and Baroness Valeria. It seems like you are quite excited today.”

“No need to act formally in front of us, young Duchess,” he replied with a bow, “Indeed, my daughter had notified me about this new recipe of yours which intrigues me as it should be a taste of the dishes of another world from ours.”

“You don’t have to worry about the taste, Father. I can vouch for its taste,” Felice said with a proud and childish look that I never expected to see from her, seeing her daughter act that childish, the baron patted her hair with a smile.

“If my daughter can vouch for it then it must taste well. I assume that is the bread, correct?” he looked at the baking sheet that Felice carried as I nodded, “How about we head inside first? It doesn’t feel right for me to keep a Duchess outside.”

“I will take your offer for that,” I replied before all of us went inside the beautiful white mansion filled with servants from butlers, maids to gardeners. There was a statue of a sword on a fountain at the center of the pathway which looked grandiose.

After some time of walking, we soon entered the living room of the manor where we could sit on the couches with Felice sitting on our side for some reason. Ayaka was still quite sleepy from the trip, considering she did wake up exceedingly early today, so I can’t blame her and not that it matters since I still haven’t legally adopted her which means she can’t be my heir yet if I ever become the Duchess.

“Can you place the baking sheet on the table?” I looked at Felice who nodded as she placed the baking sheet on the table, opening the cloth as the beauty of the garlic bread which was still steaming hot almost like it was cooked a few moments ago came to sight.

The cheese was still melting down the bread which looked super appetizing and even the chefs were already drooling as I looked at them with a smile, “How about taking a bite? Be careful, it may be a little hot considering I did heat it up with magic during the entire trip to keep it fresh.”

Almost immediately, one of the chefs who was standing on the sides took out a knife and sliced a piece on the garlic bread, taking the piece as he took a step back before taking a bite on it as he suddenly froze in place. The knife fell on the floor as tears rolled on his cheeks, “This…! THIS IS MAGNIFICENT!”

“Are you sure?!” another chef beside him asked, unable to hold his curiosity, he sliced a piece before taking it for himself as he opened his mouth wide and took a bite before screaming, “WHAT IS THIS MASTERPIECE?!”

“Mama… wanna eat,” Ayaka suddenly pulled on my dress with drool on her lips which made me chuckle.

“I will make as many as you want once we get home, Ayaka. Be patient,” I replied while kissing her cheeks as she nodded, wiping the drool on her mouth as my eyes turned towards the Baron and the Baroness with a smile, “How about trying it for yourselves? Who knows… maybe the chefs will end up eating everything?”

All the chefs had taken their bites by the time I looked back and all of them had approving looks on their faces which made me feel more confident as one of the chefs said, “Master, I highly approve of this bread! It will make sparks all around the kingdom and even to the outside, it is worth twenty platinum coins for the recipe!”

“If the best of the best among my chefs has vouched for this bread, then how could I not try?” the Baron looked at me with a smile before taking up the knife as he sliced two pieces, handing one to the Baroness who gladly took up before the two of them took a bite, “Oooo! This is… marvelous!”

“Didn’t I tell you it is super great?!” Felice enthusiastically said which made me giggle.

“It is as you say, though, I have to ask. How much would this bread the size of a baking sheet cost to create?” he looked at me with a serious gaze as I took out one of the papers which only had the ingredients listed and handed it over to him.

Immediately his eyes looked like they were about to pop as he looked at me with a profoundly serious gaze, “This is extremely cheap to create, and for it to have such grandiose taste… how much are you willing to sell the entire recipe and procedures?”

“It is up to the Baron to decide,” I smiled.

It was a brute tactic, to not declare a minimum price in front of them allows a higher chance of achieving a higher price than our initial expectations though this is also a risky tactic as the other party could offer a lower price and if that happens then I would try to negotiate for a higher price but if it is inevitable then I will walk out.

After what seemed like two minutes of hard thinking, the Baron soon opened his mouth as he said with a straight gaze, “I will offer twenty-five platinum coins and if that isn’t enough then I will add in a land which should be near your town as long as you give us full rights to the recipe!”

My ears almost exploded from hearing the giant offer that he gave—it was beyond my initial expectations which were around four platinum coins and even beyond the price that the chef gave which was around twenty platinum coins.

“It’s a deal,” I said without hesitating, standing up as the two of us shook our hands before all of a sudden, a voice echoed inside my head.

[You have completed the first quest: Funding Secured!]