I served Ria her delicious smelling bolognese pizza and sat down next to her.

“Thank you for the meal!”

“No itadakimasu?” I rested my head in the palm of my hand and smiled at her.

“I wanted to change it up for once!”

“Is that so?”

“Mhmm.” She bit from one of the eight slices. “Here Rora, you eat a slice too.”

“Don’t mind if I do.” I took a slice myself, even though I wasn’t hungry, and started chomping it down. I used just the right amount of oregano which really did make it quite appetizing.

-I should really train myself to eat a bit more when I’m not hungry so I can enjoy food like I used too…-

“Hey, Rora, is it okay if I tell the driver where you live?” Ria had almost finished her first slice already.

“Driver?”

“Yeah, you can’t take my home, remember? If my parents see you they are going to ground me...”

“Oh, right, you are technically at Karin’s house now.”

Ria nodded. “Karin asked if she should get her driver to pick me up and then drop me off at my house but I didn’t mention your address yet.”

“I’m pretty sure she knows where I live, Emma has been here like twice before, too. But is it really okay to ask their driver to come and pick you up?”

“Mhmm. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s their job isn’t it?”

“...I guess that’s true…”

-I will never understand rich people…- I thought before I remembered the huge suitcase of money stashed in the closet.

I shook my head. -Their mindset is still weird though…-

“Something wrong?”

“Ah, no, I was just thinking about something.” I took another bite from my first slice, while Ria-chan started her third one. “Hey there, miss Pacman, slow down or you are going to get a tummy ache.”

“But it tastes so gooood.” She bounced a little on her chair.

“Still though, the pizza is not going to run away.” I laughed.

“But what if it does Rora, what if it does?!” Ria-chan couldn’t hold back her own laughter and started giggling uncontrollably, which made me start laughing too.

-Too gosh darn precious…-

“Ahh, that was so delicious.” Ria leant back into the chair after we ate the last slice of pizza together.

“So, anything you want to do for the hour we have left?” I took the plate and put it in the dishwasher.

“Anime and cuddle?”

“Alrighty, I paused the last episode we were watching when you fell asleep, so want to continue watching that?”

“Yesh!” Ria-chan followed me back to the sofa and immediately cuddled up to me while I set up the anime.

“Try not to fall asleep this time, ok?”

“I’ll try!”

We continued watching where we left off and Ria managed to keep her word, not even nodding off for a second after we started.

“Do you think we can finish season one next time I come over?” She looked up at me, her arms slung around my waist. Her eyes reminded me of those cute kitten videos on the internet.

I had to look away from her cuteness to hinder myself to start blushing “I-I think so. We are at episode eight of twelve now. So it should be definitely doable… of course... if you don’t fall asleep again.”

“I couldn’t help it! Rora was just too comfy. And you almost fell asleep when we were reading manga! Rora can talk the talk but not walk the walk.” She pouted.

I thought back to that very moment. -If her comfiness can even make a vampiress fall asleep...- “Mhmm… I guess I can’t really blame you for that then, can I?”

“Yeah! Exactly!”

“So you want to continue reading that manga too then?”

“If you don’t fall asleep again.” She stuck out her tongue.

“Okay, okay, I get your point.” I patted her head until the doorbell interrupted us for the second time that day. “Mhmm, that might be the driver.”

“Awh, already? But I want to stay longer…”

“C’mon, hurry up and get yourself ready. I don’t want you to keep them waiting in the cold.”

“Rora wants me gone too! I am so sad” Ria started fakely complaining while I got loose from her and walked over to the door.

I sighed. “Geez, you should join Karin in the theatre you little drama queen.”

When I opened the door it was the same driver who had come to school to pick up Emma. She was dressed in a long, very warm looking, dark blue overcoat. She was also wearing a fancy black peak hat over her long blonde hair and black leather gloves. Both the overcoat as the peak hat had the Meier family crest embroidered in them.

“Good evening Miss, is Mistress Du Bellay ready?” She greeted me with a slight bow.

“Good evening, she should be getting ready now.”

“Almost there!” I heard Ria-chan shout from the kitchen.

“Well, you heard her.”

The driver smiled gently. “Fantastic.”

“I’m sorry you had to come over all that way to come and pick her up, I would’ve dropped her off myself, but…”

“Mistress Meier told me about it, driving is why they hired me so you don’t need to apologize at all. Otherwise I just sit around being bored around this time of day, and honestly, between you and me, I like driving at night more anyway. It always reminds me of my previous job.”

“Oh? Which job was that if I might ask?”

“One with a classified nature.” The way she said that with a wink and a big smirk on her face made me feel quite nervous. -Just what job exactly did this person have? Something tells me she isn’t the kind of person you should mess with.-

“I’m sorry to make you wait.” Ria-chan came up to the door.

“Don’t worry about it Mistress Du Bellay.”

“Do you have everything Ria?”

“Mhmm. I think so. I also brushed off Shima’s hair.”

“Alright, good job.” I smiled, prompting Ria to give me a big hug.

“See you tomorrow, Rora.”

“Goodnight, Ria.” I hugged her back and with that I gave her into the care of Miss Driver. The driver gave me a friendly nod after which she took Ria to the car. Me and Ria waved each other goodbye until she disappeared behind the completely dark tinted glass of the car and it slowly took off into the darkness of the night.

A content smile crept on my face as I closed the door behind me. “That was that... now I should probably read that letter so I can I mentally prepare myself for tomorrow.” Shima had taken her spot on the sofa’s backrest, pretty much obliging me to give her some scratches while I walked back to the living room to do the last of the clean up work.

“Who’s a nice kitty?” I scratched behind her ear.

Shima meowed and started purring.

“Yes, you are. Did you like Ria’s visit?”

She meowed again.

“Mhmm. Me too.”

Cleaning up the last things didn’t take long at all so I could quickly get to the business at hand. I sat down at the living room table with a freshly poured glass of human juice and carefully opened the envelope by the seal with a Swiss army knife Ria once gifted me for my birthday. The letter was written in a very fancy form of handwriting that could have passed for calligraphy, staining the page with bordeaux red ink -Well, at least I hope it’s ink…-

I started reading the letter out loud.

“With this invitation we would like to invite you, Miss Aurora Beaumont, first of her name, turned on Monday the 31st of October 2020 AD, day of the Hunter’s moon, under the mentorship of Viktor von Sachsen, to the convening of the 13th Conclave of the Calix Sanguinis Aeterni on Sunday the Sixth of November 2020 AD.

This convening will take place at 20:00 CET in the town of Chambon-sur-Lignon in the stately Château du Trois-Rivières.

Transportation will be provided for you and your mentor at your home around 14:00 CET.

As for the dress code we will make sure to have a selection of outfits and personal tailors ready for you when you arrive.

We look forward to meeting you and welcoming you into our midst.

Kind regards,

Alessia Di Roma.

Maestra of the 13th Conclave of the Calix Sanguinis Aeterni.”

The bottom of the letter had the same heraldic crest that was also on the seal stamped on it in ink.

“So, Sunday huh? …Let’s hope the meeting won’t be as stiff as the letter makes it out to be, and hopefully that car ride won’t take the full six hours either, because I might pull my hair out if I have to be in a car with Viktor for that long… probably not because of the tailors and stuff… although I’m not really looking forward to that either.... At least they didn’t call me his vassal so there’s that.”

I put the letter down and took another sip from my glass. “In any case I will probably get a better understanding of the entire world of vampires, and maybe I may even meet some people who’ve seen some real historic things happen first hand!” This thought suddenly made the entire ordeal sound a lot more interesting and hyped me up quite considerably. “Take that history books! Nothing beats talking to actual eyewitnesses themselves!!”