I became a vampire princess and then a dragon girl?

"Oh, I totally forgot."

After Eve's reminder, Istina finally showed a look of realization, and it seemed that she had really forgotten it completely.

After all, ever since she severed ties with her family, Istina never thought that anyone would come to give her blessings at her coming-of-age ceremony. She even sometimes worried that her family would use her as a political bargaining chip after she came of age.

I never expected that my coming-of-age ceremony would be so grand.

"Let's go, the official event is still to come~"

Seeing Istina's surprised expression, Eve smiled again, then took Istina's hand and led her along the petal-covered stairs towards the hall.

Along the way, Istina was even more surprised at the surrounding arrangements. Today, the inner castle was completely different from the gloomy one in the past. It turned into a dream castle overnight. The carpet made of countless petals and the maids dressed in gorgeous clothes and smiling and blessing along the way were all things that Istina could not have imagined in her dreams.

What's even more outrageous is that she didn't see any sign of such a grand arrangement yesterday. Until she went to bed, the entire inner castle was no different from the past. It was as if all of this was arranged overnight.

"Ah, here we are."

Suddenly, Eve, who was walking in front, stopped at the corner and looked at Istina behind her with a smile.

"Okay, let's let today's protagonist walk in front~"

"Eh? Yeah."

After a moment of hesitation, Istina reacted and walked in front of Eve.

"call…"

After taking a final deep breath, Istina smiled and walked into the brightly lit hall.

bang, bang, bang

Also accompanied by the sound of several colorful salutes exploding, Elizabeth, dressed in a gorgeous dress, holding a wreath woven from flowers in her hand, looked at Istina with a smile.

"Happy coming-of-age ceremony, little Tina. I'll ask you to take good care of little Eve from now on."

Elizabeth walked over slowly and put the wreath in her hand on Istina's head.

"Hmm...it suits little Tina quite well. I have good taste."

After examining it with satisfaction, Elizabeth said with a smile.

At this time, Eve's whispered explanation also reached Istina's ears.

"A coming-of-age ceremony needs to be conducted by an elder, right? I figured Tina had fallen out with the family, so I asked Mother to do it. I guess Tina wouldn't mind?"

"Ah! No, I'm very happy. Thank you Eve for preparing these for me."

Hearing Eve's words, Istina quickly smiled and said, but a few tears still couldn't help but overflow from the corners of her eyes and flowed down her cheeks.

Istina never imagined that her first experience of family love would be with Elizabeth, who was of a completely different race.

It is hard to say whether the Land of Wealth or the Land of Lawlessness represents the lower limit of human morality, but both are contenders for second place and first place. Born here, Istina has never experienced any love from her parents since she was a child. After all, she is just a new bargaining chip born out of a political marriage.

She was taught from a young age to absolutely obey the family and work for the family's interests. She had hardly ever seen her parents, let alone her relatives. Although her life could be described as worry-free, she could only watch those children who were accompanied by their parents alone.

The future that awaits her is probably no different from that of her mother. Both will be married into a chaebol family as a bargaining chip for political marriage after adulthood. Or will it be even worse?

For example, they may be sent to be child brides in advance, or to people with special fetishes.

After hearing the story of the Demon God subjugation war, Istina has been fantasizing about meeting a brave man who belongs to her and takes her away from it all. Then a miracle really happened.

Although their meeting was a little sudden, and she found that her hero was still a little slow when getting along with her, he still took her out of this cage.

But now thinking about it, her encounter with her brave sir was really disastrous. 'From now on, you will be her personal attendant, responsible for taking care of all her daily life,' those people told her so bluntly at the time. Fortunately, the brave sir was a very good person.

There is no need to go into details about what happened next. After a period of training, Eve, the brave holy swordsman, was sent to various places to carry out missions. As a close attendant, she naturally had to go along with him, and their long-term companionship began.

During this period, they experienced a lot together, gained a lot, but also lost a lot, met and parted with countless people, and her brave man gradually grew up, although he was still so slow.

Since her hero didn't like to show up in public, Istina had a headache at the time about how to turn down as many banquets as possible.

She also got rid of the shackles that were originally placed on her, and avoided the fate of becoming an ordinary political bargaining chip. At least no one would dare to act rashly against her because of her close relationship with Eve.

Originally, Istina thought that the days would pass little by little, and everything would get better until that day came.

§ 113 Past Events

To this day, Istina still clearly remembers everything that happened that day.

It was a rainy day, and the thick dark clouds seemed to turn the day into night. That day, her brave master went to accept the mission assigned by the family as usual, and she was packing her bags before departure as usual.

"I am back."

"Ah, welcome back. How about it, brave hero? Where is our next destination?"

"..."

But in response to her question, her hero fell silent for the first time.

"Master Brave?"

Not hearing any response, Istina put down what she was doing and looked at her strangely.

"I'm going to defeat the Blood Demon King."

Her voice was as calm as ever, but it seemed to drop a bombshell on Istina's heart.

"...Eh? What are you talking about, Brave Master? How could it be so early?!"

Although it has been a tradition for the Holy Swordsman to be sent to the vampire clan to attack the vampire queen, that is usually their last stand before they enter a period of weakness. Her brave lord is clearly still in his prime, with a long heyday, and is known as the strongest of all generations. How could he be sent to die like this!

That’s right, it’s either a challenge or a death!

In Istina's opinion, this behavior was no different from committing suicide. Over the past thousand years, none of the ten holy sword masters sent by the human race had succeeded. They disappeared without even causing any waves.

"They said that the Imprum Empire believed I was the most likely to succeed, and they couldn't wait any longer. They also offered sufficient sincerity."

Her voice was still so calm, as if she was not talking about her own fate, but at this moment Istina was heartbroken.

Sincerity! Sincerity! Sincerity! Isn't it just that the price paid is enough to satisfy the family? So that they can accept the fact that she is going to die!

At this moment, Istina, who thought she had escaped from the cage, suddenly realized that she had never really escaped.

Originally, according to her plan, she had plenty of time to prepare in the future. When her hero was about to be sent to defeat the vampire king, she would disappear with him and hide in a place where no one could find them, spending the rest of their lives together. But now, this sudden news made everything come to nothing.

Wait!

At this moment, a gleam of light appeared in Istina's eyes.

Since continuing to wait is tantamount to waiting for death, it is better to just give it a try.

Although it was much earlier and she had almost no preparation, she still wanted to give it a try, otherwise she would regret it for the rest of her life.

"Let's run away together!"

As she spoke, Istina hugged her hero tightly, with such strength that it seemed as if he wanted to merge himself into her body.

"Brave man, let's escape together!"

"……it is good."

Looking at Istina in her arms, her brave master responded softly after a long time.

Then she failed without a doubt. The family had already planted countless spies and secret agents around her. Her plan ended just as it began.

It was also a rainy day that day, and it was really an ominous weather.

Bang! ! !

The door of her and the Brave Lord's room was roughly kicked open, and many private soldiers filed in. Before she could even utter a word, the patriarch of the family who had entered with them slapped a detailed report in his hand in her face.

"Want to escape with the hero? Very good, I never thought you could be so brave."

As he said this, he waved his hand, and several private soldiers placed their weapons on her vital points.

"It's a good idea, but unfortunately it's still a bit naive. Go down and reflect on it."

As he finished speaking, the private soldiers raised their weapons, and Istina silently closed her eyes and prepared to face death, but at this moment an accident happened.

After closing her eyes and waiting for a long time, the pain in her neck still did not appear. Istina opened her eyes with some confusion, and in front of her, her brave man appeared behind the family patriarch at some point, with the holy sword in his hand firmly placed on his neck.

“…If you kill me, she won’t be able to survive either.”

Even though his life and death were completely in the hands of others, there was no trembling in his voice.

"I know."

As he spoke, the holy sword moved closer to his neck, and at the same time, the blades in the hands of the private soldiers pressed down on Istina.

"I'll let her go after that, and you go and defeat the Blood Demon King, how about that?"

"…it is good."

"I'll have her release me after she takes the medicine in my arms. It's not an instant-killing poison, but a latent one. I have the antidote here, though. If you show up as agreed, I'll give it to her. You don't mind, do you? After all, without some leverage, you'd probably kill us in an instant."

"…it is good."

After hearing the response, the patriarch signaled with his eyes to a private soldier beside him to take out a packet of medicine powder from his arms.

"Dirty it with water and give it to her to drink."

"Uh...uh..."

Although she was extremely reluctant, Istina was still forced to drink the potions.

"Okay, let her go."

Upon hearing the order, the private soldiers put down their weapons and slowly retreated to the side.

However, Eve, who comes from a family background, is naturally not so naive as to believe their promises.

Putting away the holy sword, Eve walked up to Istina, looked at her with a somewhat bitter smile, and then touched her forehead.

"This is the connection I've formed with her through the Holy Sword. I can sense her situation at any time. If you don't keep your promise, I will come back and finish you off."

With this intuition, Eve no longer worries that the family will not keep their promise before her death. Once she declares her death, Istina's identity as a former hero's attendant will become sensitive. At that time, she believes that the family will not throw away this chip in vain. Therefore, regardless of success or failure, Istina's life is guaranteed.

"Don't worry, I won't break this promise, but I hope that the brave man can also keep his promise. Why don't we set the departure time for tomorrow? Then, the rest of the time will be left to you."

After saying that, the patriarch left the house first, and the private soldiers followed one after another, leaving behind only a messy room and a broken dream.

"Lord Brave..."

Istina cried helplessly and curled up in Eve's arms, trembling constantly, while Eve silently carried her to the bed, gently covered her with a quilt, and used her thigh as a pillow for her.

"Don't worry, I will definitely come back, and when I come back we will get married..."

In this way, with Eve's soft voice and as time passed, despite her best efforts to resist, Istina finally fell asleep. When she woke up again, the figure beside the bed had disappeared, and no matter how hard she looked, she could not find it.

In the following time, she was placed under house arrest by her family until the news of the hero's defeat came out. The family then detoxified her and exiled her to a small town on the border, responsible for managing a monastery, where an unexpected reunion was waiting for her.

§ 114 Mother

"Tina, are you okay?"

At the coming-of-age ceremony, looking at Istina Eve who suddenly burst into tears with a smile beside her, she asked with some concern.

"Eh? No, I just..."

After Eve reminded her, Istina realized that she was crying and hurriedly tried to wipe away the tears from the corners of her eyes, but she couldn't stop it no matter what.

"I just have some, some..."

Just as Istina was about to say something else, Elizabeth in front of her suddenly floated up slightly and hugged her in her arms.

"Okay, it's okay, it's all over."

Hearing Elizabeth's gentle comfort, Istina could no longer suppress her emotions and burst into tears.

"M…Mom…Mom…"

Eve also sighed softly, adding some influence of the dragon blood to make her body grow a little, and then silently hugged Istina from behind.

Eve could fully understand Istina's feelings at this moment. The care given by Elizabeth was exactly the same as the maternal love she had experienced in her previous life, and she also enjoyed this maternal love that she had been away from for a long time, not to mention Istina who had never experienced family love.

It was a long time before Istina finally recovered. She wiped the tears from her face and looked a little embarrassed.