Madame Yselle walks over and sits down across from me.
She lays down a couple of books on the table and a notepad with a pen.
"It is nice to meet you, Miss Lucinda. You may refer to me as Madame Yselle. As the Grand Duke mentioned, I am a tutor for the vampire children of the royals and nobles of this world. I will take teaching you though on an easier note," she says to me as she slides one of the books over to me.
"This is a standard textbook used by the vampire loyalists to teach their young to despise humans and feel superior. It is what I have to use or else I get into trouble. You may read it, but take every word with a grain of salt. I will be teaching you the truth because I want you to see the reality for what it is, and the Grand Duke agrees," she says as she slides the second book over to me.
"This book contains all the real recorded events that happened without any bias. You may read this on your own and keep that book tightly guarded. I will now tell you about the history of the world in the general sense in case you didn't know this."
Madame Yselle continues to teach me as she writes down on her notepad.
She explains to me how the world, hundreds of years ago, had multiple continents.
However, due to the shifting plates of the planet, the continents combined to form one supercontinent named Quoriad.
Originally, humans and vampires didn't know each other existed until the formation of Quoriad. They were originally wary of each other but eventually co-existed, leaving each other alone. Then a vampire was born more powerful than the rest.
He gathered supporters and decided that humans were worthless and invaded all of them. This became known as the Great Vampire-Human War.
The vampire who led the war became known as the current Blood King of today who rules all of Quoriad.
A knock at the door.
Madame Yselle pauses her lecture and hands me her notes as she gets up from the table. She walks over to the front doors and opens them.
Minerva is there and hands over an extra silver tray full of little treats and more tea. She waves as she spots me, and I wave back to her.
Madame Yselle walks back over to me and sets the tray gently down on the table.
"Make sure to take notes on what I am about to tell you," she says as she sits back down on the couch across from me and grabs the teapot.
"The Blood King split up the Quoriad Kingdom into three Grand Duchies: the Grand Duchy of Bloodstone, Fango, and Nightshade. The Grand Duchy of Bloodstone is obviously the one our Grand Duke manages," she says as I watch her pour tea into her cup.
"Each Grand Duchy has a Duke that helps the Grand Duke manage running such a large domain. Our Duke is currently busy out on business, so you won't see him for a while most likely. Each Duke has a council of Counts under him that manage groups of provinces," she says as she places the teapot back on the tray.
I take a moment to take a sip of my own tea as she pauses her lecture. She continues talking.
"Each province is ran by a Blood Baron who swears loyalty to their Grand Duke. Every Baron has their own personality and may or may not like their Grand Duke. Most do though," Madame Yselle says as she crosses her legs.
"I see. Thank you for all this information. I will make sure to study my notes later then. I had no idea the Grand Duke had this much to deal with on the daily. Do the vampire loyalists still exist, and what are the people called who opposed them but lost the war?" I ask as I pick my pen back up to prepare to write.
Madame Yselle looks at me with dangerous curiosity. She looks side to side and lowers her voice.
"They very much still do exist, and they are led by the Blood King. The people who want equality for humans and vampires are called Liberators. Our own Grand Duke agrees with the Liberator philosophy but is lowkey about it because of his position," she says to me with a serious undertone.
I nod nervously as I take down my notes and fold them to hide them for later.
Madame Yselle changes the subject smoothly, and she continues to teach me a variety of things such as vampire introduction etiquette, clothing, their abilities, etc.
She leaves a lot unsaid though, which burns my curiosity.
Soon the day turns into night, and a knock at the door startles us both.
The Grand Duke walks back inside the private lounge. "Please come with me to dinner, Princess."
I get up from the couch, slightly stiff from sitting for so long. I wave goodbye to Madame Yselle as the door shuts softly behind me. The Grand Duke and I have dinner in the dining hall. He asks me how my lesson went.
I tell him that I learned a lot and that I am thankful for everything Madame Yselle taught me. I leave out the part of the Liberators and vampire loyalists for now.
I do hint at a thought about how I wish the enslavement system didn't exist to test the waters.
He studies my expression as he seems a bit shocked at my words.
"The world isn't ready for change... but perhaps it needs to be," he says with a hint of coldness.
I try pressing for more, but he smoothly changes the subject. Perhaps I will ask more later.
Dinner finishes, and the Grand Duke wishes me a good night as he pulls out my chair for me and leaves. He seems a bit off about something. I ignore the thought and head to my bedroom to sleep.
There is a lot going on in the world. I wonder what the nobles who visit the estate will be like.