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Chapter 162: By Royal Appointment

The fog was already beginning to disperse outside the chapel.

News which was happier for the peasants than for me. Whereas their emaciated and muddy forms were now revealed to me beneath the glaring moonlight, so too was my regal aura made available for the townspeople to gawk at.

As was only appropriate, the entirety of Stermondt had awoken to catch a glimpse of their princess in the flesh.

To many, this would be the closest they would ever come to royalty. A prospect which...

Chapter 161: Heavens’ Judgement

There was an appreciable professionalism to the way Coppelia swung her scythe against the sister’s neck.

Though she could twirl like a ballerina and dance like an acrobat, few things were more elegant than a loyal handmaiden displaying the art of simple competence. That applied when they poured tea, attended to my hair or pretended not to notice my loose socks strewn across my floor.

And it also applied when ruthlessly dispatching enemies too.

Without allowing the sister t...

Chapter 160: Armour Of Faith

I rose from the pew as light gathered in the sister’s hands.

The greatest insult. It was one thing to destabilise my kingdom, but to have me make the effort of rising from a somewhat comfortable resting position was unconscionable. An act which deserved more than my frown.

And so she received Starlight Grace as well.

Compared to my raised sword, the golden light drawn towards her was but a pale imitation. Yet while even a pale imitation of Starlight Grace’s splendour was...

Chapter 159: Church Service

My, wasn’t this the quaintest of chapels?

If my careful studies of adventure romance titles had taught me anything, then here was where commoners up and down the kingdom met to forget their misery. Within these hallowed halls of spiritness and community, childhood memories and nostalgia came to be formed and pined upon.

It was simple to see why.

Chapels met a certain standard, their picturesque gardens and little steeple towers a natural landmark for any farmer as they dar...

Chapter 158: Windfall Gains

Stermondt’s chapel was old, even by the standards of the Holy Church.

Were a surveyor to enter the premises, they would walk back out. Crumbling with equal parts time and despair, a cold draft filled each and every corner, seeping through cracks chiselled by the elements and finished off by the rats.

The cozy warmth that all quaint chapels should elicit could not be felt here.

A sad state of affairs. For all the Holy Church’s wealth, little of it was seen outside the gra...

Chapter 157: A Princess’s Standards

As a princess, mine was a life of duty and hardship.

Scarcely a day went by where I wasn’t forced to scold a maid for setting the bath at 0.02°C below the optimal temperature (40.72°C) or fire a freshly hired servant for making accidental eye contact with me. Even now, my memories of childhood were scarred by the time I had to endure a chef providing me with a 78 hour baked streusel cake he had to watch for every minute of its creation, yet somehow forget to place the cherry on top ...

Chapter 156: Terror In The Deep

There was very little about a Holy Church conspiracy which made sense.

But then again, I didn’t require things to make sense. I only required the Royal Treasury to be filled. And as long as anyone sought to prevent that from happening, my course was as clear as my heart.

It was time to demonstrate my famed mastery of overwhelming diplomacy!

“Very well! It’s clear a pleasant conversation is in order. And by pleasant conversation, I mean the establishment of compensation...

Chapter 155: Evil Turns A Page

Vampires.

There was no corner of any kingdom which did not know of their terror.

Their insidious presence, unholy charisma and foul spirits made them masterminds of plots stretching back since the first pages of history.

They were destruction incarnate. Intelligent schemers gifted with both patience and the lifespans to see their dark deeds to fruition.

Natural adversaries to law and order, some worked to satisfy their inherent craving for control, while others delight...

Chapter 154: Celestial Knight

Hmmmm.

A being of pure holy energy.

A weapon of pure holy energy.

Armour of pure holy energy.

Eyes ablaze with glowing purpose, it radiated a holy aura, the presence so powerful that I could feel myself being swept away by the pulses of light emanating from its towering frame.

I looked up at the celestial knight, resplendent as it was in shimmering golden energy, boasting ornate runes scribbled like holy scripture into its armoured raiment.

And then I nodde...

Chapter 153: Holy Magic Immunity

As a princess famed for my cold logic and unparalleled reasoning as much as my modesty, I’d envisaged a thousand and one scenarios regarding what horrors to expect at a destination labelled a hole into the abyss.

No matter what hideous creatures gathered from the darkness below or felled from black clouds, my kingdom could rest in the knowledge that I had a contingency for each and every scenario.

Naturally, the nature of this means that I cannot divulge exactly what that respon...

Chapter 152: The Colour Of Evil

Dismay did not come easily to my heart.

Well, no. It did. Battling Coppelia for the last éclair only to find more air than whipped cream? Galling. A despair which shook so hard I could hear my ancestors crying in grief with me.

But as a princess, I was the star of my people. The only joy in their lightless lives of poverty. And that meant misery was a feeling they monopolised.

Usually.

Because once again, it fell to me to be doing what no other princess had to do. And...

Chapter 151: Light In The Darkness

Miriam hated life. Or at least, she did. It’s been a long time since she could claim to have lived, despite the fact she’s most certainly not quite dead.

Technically, she’s undead. A halfway house between the realms of both.

Even more technically, she was unliving. Because unlike many who had gone on to become vampires, she didn’t actually die first.

Rising from a coffin, arms crossed and hissing with steam?

Nope.

Breaking out of a grave, fist first as sh...

Chapter 150: House Of Horrors

Banshees.

Few didn’t know of their legend. Their plight. They were maidens of rot and pestilence left to linger, the strength of their unfulfilled wishes anchoring what remained of their mortal coil.

Young, sweet or beautiful.

Whatever they were, they were now something else.

They were vengeance. They were grief. And they were malice.

A personification of hatred, the sorrow of a broken promise leaving them twisted and torn. A vindictive shadow which nonetheless...

Chapter 149: Murder Fog

The streets of Stermondt were less welcoming than I envisaged.

Naturally, I was a princess of logic and reason. And this meant I was under no allusions as to the size of the crowds that would greet me.

Being masterfully incognito and with no prior announcements regarding my presence or who I was, I expected the amount of admirers to stretch no more than five rows back.

A shame, then.

Because the unremitting fog appeared to be hiding my adoring well-wishers.

Walki...

Chapter 148: Closed For Business

Of all the joyless responsibilities I was expected to perform, treating with the various mercantile guilds was a task I was thankfully exempt from.

This was a burden Roland and Florella shared between themselves, and one which they excelled at.

Indeed, barely a ridiculous complaint about licensing costs, permit costs, leasing costs and steadily increasing taxation levels could be levelled before one of my older siblings rushed in to placate the rabble.

A flagrant misuse of t...

Chapter 147: Haunted Town

Of my kingdom’s centre of industry, only the pointed rooftops and the steeple of a distant chapel could be easily gleaned, their dark silhouettes like spikes amidst the dense fog which clawed at them. Framed against the last of the dimming evening, they appeared like scars amidst a bloody sky.

An ominous sight. Yet the fog was not without its benefits.

After all, I’d witnessed enough of our holdings that my curiosity was the same as the parched trees behind us. Yet it was clea...

Chapter 146: The Risen Dawn

Rieze was a steadfast proponent of taking opportunities when they came.

Sometimes, this meant traversing roads she never intended to travel. Which was fine, even if she was rarely remunerated for her commuting expenses. Because in the end, she knew that even the most unlikely road still led towards her destination.

Case in point, she’d never intended on setting a vampire on the path of redemption. But in her experience, even the longest detour could still result in an unexpected...

Chapter 145: A Matter Of Faith

Within the darkened tunnels of an endless crypt, the only source of light came from a sister wrapped in a [Holy Barrier]. And yet it was enough to illuminate the stone corridors as though the sun itself was rolling through it.

Sister Rieze was both pursuing and being chased by the same swarm of vampiric bats. As she strode swiftly through these narrow halls, she held her crossbow aloft with one hand, while the other glistened with enough light to reach the horizon.

“[Holy Arrows...

Book 1 Release Announcement

Hey there!

If you haven't seen it already, I've posted a chapter today! There will be even more before the day is over.

Thank you for supporting me in my writing career. As my patrons, I cannot express my gratitude enough. You are to me what the rock is to Excalibur.

That’s right! No matter who tries to pry me from my writing chair, I resolutely remain where I am! I have a huge amount of content planned for you, and as my Patrons, you will receive them before anyone else.<...

Chapter 144: Last Words

Rieze followed the trail of blood, crossbow in hand.

Or more specifically, a trail of blood.

It was everywhere, painting grass, tree bark, the road and a bee hive which would either be evacuated or give spawn to some deadly honey bee monster which decided it could never go back to pollen.

Rieze sniffed the air.

Damp, despite the lack of recent rainfall. There was no moisture on any of the plants or leaves. But the air was thick and heavy with a weight as heavy...

Chapter 143: Virtues Of Faith

Sister Rieze banged the side of her head against a rock.

An odd thing for any grown woman to do. But there was no way around it. The wind sweeping across the sheer cliff was so bad she was being practically assaulted with each and every inch she climbed. Especially as she was also carrying a large suitcase.

But it wasn’t so bad. Not at all.

And if she told herself that enough, then she’d even begin to believe it.

“Huff … Huff … uff … ughh … arrghhhhhhh!!â...

Chapter 142: Black Is The New Black

Just as I was the jewel of my kingdom, my kingdom was the jewel of the world.

From our coasts to our forests, my homeland was as bountiful in riches as it was in pride, and few places encapsulated this spirit as our eastern mountains, home to as many miners as the bars had louts.

Likely because they were the same people.

Regardless, it was the centre of industry in my kingdom, where hammer and tong fought against pickaxes for the right to fill the sky with the sounds of ende...

Chapter 141: Ghosts Of The Past

Bodkins Tangleleaf watched his customers leave with a satisfied smile.

They were happy, their taste buds ruined for another day. And that made him happy. It also allowed him to be paid. And that meant even more happiness.

He hadn’t expected anything else, though.

Locally sourced ingredients, freshly procured, and reasonably priced. No matter where he and his cart went, Bodkins went as the finest food vendor to be found anywhere on this side of the continent. He even had th...

Chapter 140: Of Grease And Shadows

My opinion of the barony was the same as a pebble.

They had their uses. They could be thrown, grinded down or left to erode. Rarely did they cause trouble on their own. Not through lack of effort, of course. But through lack of means.

There was only so much a pebble could do. And there was also only so much the barony could do, so often shorn of imagination.

However, even with my non-existent expectations of those at the lowest rung of nobility, I still had faith in their ab...

Chapter 139: Magic Tricks

The Kingdom Under The Mountain was as much of an enigma today as it was the day it was first discovered. Or rather, the day the dwarves discovered us.

Even though the written word was as sparse as a farmer with clean overalls, that first meeting remains one of the most documented events in the annals of history.

All the more so since it was so one-sided.

The dwarves had known about us for as long as they’d known the stones. They’d simply chosen to avoid interaction.

Chapter 138: A Mammoth Task

Witnessing Coppelia’s Clockwork Repository in effect never failed to confound me.

Though I admittedly knew little about the inner workings of spellcraft, it didn’t take an accomplished mage to know that a window to the abyss was a truly impressive feat of magic–if, indeed, magic is what this was.

A cold stretch of darkness blacker than the depths of any mines.

And it was currently being stuffed with plushies, hair accessories, balloons, bags of sweets and unredeemed ti...

Chapter 137: Kingdom of Roses

Grim.

I had no other verdict. It was hideous. A ceaseless, garish assault against the senses. And the first to be struck were my ears.

I was no stranger to fanfare, of course. Every step I took in the Royal Villa was preceded by lutes, harps, pipes and a veritable angel’s choir. But I was used to hearing it as a seamless chorus.

This?

Why, this was a brutal competition to see who could murder the sanctity of music first! And in this battleground of horrors, the only ...

Publishing Announcement

Hey everybody!

Juliette is now joining my existing series in being released to the wide world of eBooks! This means more readers as I take a big step in my pursuit of Narnia (writing full-time).

Book 1 of The Villainess Is An SS+ Rank Adventurer (covering the Rolstein arc) will be joining the Audiobook in releasing on 29/08/23. The book will be available on Amazon via Kindle eBook and Kindle Unlimited!

I cannot believe I'm even in a position to consider writing as more than ...

Chapter 136: To Be A Dancer

Apple nibbled on a dipping fern, its bristled edges doing little than to tickle at my horse’s taste buds as he consumed them as readily as he carried me.

He was spoiled for choice.

Within the eastern forests of my kingdom, leaves brushed against one another to a gentle chorus. The light danced between the canopy, teasing shy dormice and curious squirrels from nests hidden within the noble oaks. And should his throat become parched from the endless feast, a meandering stream sang...

Table of Contents

Hi there! Welcome to my table of contents. Here's a pin to help organise my books and allow you to have quick access to my various works.

A Part-Time Heroine's Guide To Dragonslaying 

Bonus Book: Patreon 

2023-08-10 18:39:04 +0000 UTC View Post