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Nim glanced at the dagger at her waist. She was feeling lots of complex emotions in her heart.

-Nim had been picked up by Doris Croft, the vice-captain of the elven royal guards who still remained in this city. This happened on the day that Princess Mirabelle was taken away, a day with a tremendous downpour of rain.

Nim was lying on the icy ground when she faintly heard some voices coming from right in front of her.

“I heard that Princess Mirabelle was captured, is this for real!?”
“According to the report from the one in charge of surveilling the auction house, that is indeed correct, Vice-Captain.”
“Honestly, just what is Joanna doing!? She actually let Princess Mirabelle go out by herself.”¹

‘-Who could they be?’

Nim slightly raised her head which felt rather heavy. She couldn’t help but overhear the conversation between these female elves.

Nim then heard several sets of footsteps running in her direction. It was obvious from the sound of footsteps that there was more than one person. Nim judged this based on her sense of hearing as she remained on the ground. With her hazy vision, Nim saw some long-eared female elves arriving.

“Vice-captain…”
“Stay on guard. She might be a vampire blood slave. She might be pretending to act pitiful to attract our attention and then notify the vampires after we take her to our base. One of our bases was destroyed by the vampires using this exact same method.”

The female elf who was referred to as vice-captain kneeled down next to Nim and began to check all over her neck for a blood slave marking.

‘They’re… elves? Why would there be elves acting together in a squadron in a city like this that’s filled with vampires? There are only two types of elves that are together in teams in this city, elves who are working as slave laborers, or slave elves who are being led out of production facilities on a large scale to be sold off. However, both of those types of elves should have collars around their necks. Yet, they’re not wearing anything like collars.’

“Hah, rest assured, she’s not a blood slave. However… this red marking, is she an elf that escaped from the auction house?”

The vice-captain kept checking Nim’s neck and found the impression of a collar. This was probably a marking left behind from constantly having to wear a collar. This was the only time that Nim had been able to take off that symbol of humiliation.

The vice-captain heaved a sigh of relief. It was unknown if she was exclaiming over Nim’s tragic fate, or her own helplessness.

However, Nim still remained on the icy ground. She raised her body with some difficulty.

‘-It doesn’t matter who it is,’ Nim thought in her hazy consciousness. She reached out to grab the corner of the vice-captain’s clothes.

“Princess… Please save the princess!”

Nim seemed almost like she was sleeptalking as she grabbed the vice-captain’s clothes and then gradually lost consciousness. Nim didn’t really know what happened afterwards. She could only sense her body becoming light as someone picked her up. After that, she completely lost consciousness.

When Nim woke up again, she was lying on top of a large and soft bed.

“This is…?”

Nim was somewhat confused as she stared at an unfamiliar ceiling. She then looked at herself and found that her clothes had long since been changed out for a one-piece dress that was of much higher quality than her previous clothing.

Luckily, she didn’t have any abuse markings on her body, so this one-piece dress looked quite good on her. Nim instantly felt as if she was like a noble vampire girl.

However – she felt rather ill at ease in this unfamiliar place.

“Um – is anyone here?”

Nim got off the bed and started shouting loudly. She walked towards the door, and just when she was about to open the door, a woman wearing an apron entered from outside.

“Ahh!?”

Nim was really scared by the unexpected sudden appearance of this woman.

The two of them stared at each other for about two minutes until that woman excitedly exclaimed towards Nim, “Have you already awakened? This is wonderful, I didn’t think that you already woke up…”

The female elf had entered the room while holding a bowl of hot soup. She was staring at Nim with an expression of incredible surprise, as if she had seen something strange.

When Nim saw her, Nim hurriedly lowered her head to apologize.

“S… sorry, actually letting someone like me rest in such a nice bed…”

Nim really worried about all the dirt on her body that had stained the pure white bedsheets. That was why she was apologizing to this elf who seemed like a housemaid.

“It’s fine, beds are for sleeping in, and bed sheets can be washed if they’re dirty. Besides, this is my job…”

The maid then placed the bowl of soup on the bedside stand and then directly carried the bedsheets towards the door.

Until the maid left, Nim felt really embarrassed and kept her bright red face lowered for the entire duration. Only after the maid reached the door did Nim dare to raise her head again. However, it seemed like the maid recalled something as she turned back around.

1. TL note: Joanna is the name of the elven royal guard captain and Mirabelle’s adoptive mother.