But Flandre was completely, undeniably certain that the other person was definitely staring right at her specific coordinate in the sky.
So, is this some kind of specialized Originium Arts of the super-perception type?
At this exact moment, the thin girl continued to look over toward the empty air with a face full of complete, trembling certainty.
"Who... who exactly are you? Why have you come all the way out here to find me?"
Seeing that her magical camouflage had been thoroughly bypassed by whatever unique sensory trick the native girl was using, Flandre casually canceled her Invisibility Spell, her small physical form instantly materializing out of thin air right before the other person.
Witnessing Flandre's figure abruptly coalesce from the empty atmosphere, the girl let out a sharp, ragged gasp of pure shock. Her eyes widened, focusing intently on the bizarre, skeletal bat wings extending from the little girl's back—they were far too eye-catching and anomalous to ignore.
"A... Blood Demon..." the girl whispered, her entire face draining of color as she was instantly overcome with a suffocating wave of shock and raw fear.
She knew all too well what a Blood Demon was, primarily because she was a struggling, low-tier Sarkaz blood demon girl herself. She didn't know exactly how many high-ranking Blood Demons currently existed across the continent of Terra, but she was entirely certain that the dangerous entity standing in front of her was absolutely not one of the gentle, reclusive sisters who lived quietly by the distant Rose Riverside.
Since this child wasn't a known pacifist from the Rose Riverside, her true political identity in the girl's eyes became utterly, horrifyingly obvious—she had to be a high-ranking member of the legendary Blood Court. After all, she was well aware of the circulating rumors stating that a massive contingent of military Sarkaz had recently infiltrated the outskirts of Londinium. And leading that terrifying shadow army was none other than the ancient, bloodthirsty lord of the Blood Court himself, the Grand Sanguinarch Duq'arael.
Naturally, she immediately assumed that the terrifying little girl floating in front of her was an elite vanguard assassin or an executioner serving under the Blood Court's banner.
While the local girl was completely lost in her spiral of paralyzing, fearful thoughts, Flandre gracefully descended from the air until her boots touched the cobblestones. After casually approaching the trembling Vampire, Flandre dipped her hand into her pocket, pulled out a colorful piece of premium candy, and cheerfully handed it over.
"Don't be afraid! Flandre won't hurt you at all."
The girl took the wrapped candy with a completely dazed, uncomprehending expression. Before she could even process the sweet gift, she looked down and realized that the bizarre little girl calling herself Flandre had already wandered around behind her, gently touching her small, leathery wings with immense curiosity.
"What... what exactly are you doing?" she couldn't help but ask, her voice shaking violently.
"You have wings just like my big sister's! Sister will definitely like you a whole lot." Flandre cheered, happily circling around the girl's thin frame like a joyful puppy.
"Sister?" The girl blinked, her mind frantically trying to process the term. In her historical memory and the legends passed down through the Sarkaz mercenaries, the supreme Sanguinarch of Vampires who ruled over their bloodline was supposed to be a terrifying, ancient man, right? Since when did he have a little sister?
"Mm-hmm! My name is Flandre Scarlet. What's your name?" Flandre asked brightly, reaching out a small, friendly hand while offering a face full of genuine warmth.
"Me?" The girl paused, looking down at the extended hand. "I... I don't actually have a real name. Everyone out in the slums just calls me Clever."
The girl spoke quietly, a melancholic tone in her voice that perfectly reflected the bleak cultural style of the vast majority of the fragmented Sarkaz people. They rarely possessed luxury items like proper family names, choosing instead to live and die by simple, practical codenames. After all, to a race like the Sarkaz, who were continuously hunted and engulfed in warfare, a proper name was not only an expensive cultural luxury but also entirely unnecessary. Shouting a beautiful name or a short combat codename across a chaotic, bloody battlefield yielded the exact same result.
For instance, a certain legendary Explosive Demon Princess had actively utilized the simple codename 'W' for several consecutive decades, only finally discarding the single letter after the late Babel Princess, Theresa, had formally bestowed a real, legitimate name upon her.
Flandre didn't find this lack of a proper name strange at all; instead, she offered another bright smile and stood high on her tiptoes to peek into the worn cloth bag of dry bread crusts tightly clutched in the girl's arms.
"Is that yucky stuff what you usually eat for dinner?"
Hearing Flandre's sudden question, the blood demon girl calling herself Clever felt a wave of profound embarrassment wash over her. She instinctively tried to pull the cloth bag back, hiding the meager rations behind her slender waist. From the exact microsecond Flandre had manifested out of thin air until now, Little Clever had sharply realized that this strange child didn't harbor the slightest shred of killing intent, bloodlust, or malice toward her—there was only a pure, innocent sense of curiosity.
"Actually... there are also some wild vegetables and a little bit of processed Beast meat hidden in the bottom," the girl replied softly, her cheeks flushing.
"That won't do at all!" Flandre pouted crossly, waving her hands. "Sister always says that one must eat delicious, healthy food every single day, or else they'll never grow big and tall! Wait right here, I'll have Sakuya cook up an extra giant portion of dinner right now and take you back to our room to eat!"
Without waiting for a single word of protest or taking no for an answer, Flandre firmly grabbed Clever by her wrist and began dragging her out of the factory yard with absolute, unyielding physical strength.
To expedite the logistics, Flandre casually split her physical form right down the middle, manifesting an identical, autonomous clone of herself that instantly zipped through the sky to report the guest's arrival to Remilia ahead of time.
Witnessing Flandre effortlessly fracture her very existence into two completely functional, independent bodies without a single incantation or strain, Clever felt as if her entire fundamental understanding of the laws of nature had been violently shattered into pieces.
Unable to win any physical or verbal argument against the cheerful vampire, Clever could only helplessly allow herself to be hauled out of the abandoned industrial compound. However, as they navigated the dark pathways, she quickly noticed that something was profoundly wrong with their trajectory.
Why on earth were they walking directly toward the brightly lit municipal district where the wealthy, ordinary Victorian citizens lived?
Based on her practical understanding of local laws, she estimated that their two pairs of highly conspicuous, demonic bat wings would take less than three minutes to attract a fully armed detachment of the Victorian Imperial Army to launch a lethal suppression operation against them.
"Miss Flandre, wait, please wait a second!" Clever panicked, planting her boots as she pointed a trembling finger toward her own back, and then toward the vibrant, glowing crystal structures hanging from Flandre's wings. "That way leads directly into the ordinary citizens' district. We can't legally cross the checkpoint like this, and it would be exceptionally dangerous for us to even be seen over there!"
Flandre suddenly stopped, slapping her own forehead in a comical realization.
"Oh right! We have to hide them!"
Without a moment's hesitation, Flandre began to rapidly chant a whimsical, rhythmic magical incantation directly at Clever. The moment the brief spell concluded, Flandre gave her shoulder a playful tap, pointing toward her spine. "Look at yourself now!"
Clever frantically spun around, reaching her hand back only to find a wave of profound surprise washing over her features—where on earth were her wings? She could still physically feel them attached to her shoulder blades, yet they had completely vanished from visual reality! How could someone make physical limbs perfectly invisible?
Flandre clapped her small hands together in absolute satisfaction, deeply pleased by Clever's stunned, awe-struck reaction. She then turned her own body around, and with a casual thought, the elegant skeletal wings decorated with colorful crystal lamps hanging from her back vanished completely from sight.
Having seamlessly resolved the security crisis, Flandre once again took Clever's trembling hand, confidently guiding her right past the city guard posts and walking straight into the bustling, wealthy center of the commercial city. Not long after, she successfully hauled her prize through the grand front doors of a luxury inn.
Stepping onto the premium carpets, Flandre rapidly navigated the hallways until she located the specific luxury suite where Remilia and the others were currently residing. Just as her hand reached out to turn the knob, the heavy mahogany door gracefully swung inward on its hinges.
Sakuya Izayoi, dressed immaculately in a sharp white suit, stood in the frame, offering a slight, respectful nod to the returning child before her eyes calmly shifted to evaluate the profoundly anxious, ragged girl being pulled along by the wrist.
"Second Miss, your duplicate clone reported that you were bringing a new friend back to join us this evening. The Eldest Miss is exceedingly pleased by the news."
At this time, Clever was frantically sizing up the elegant woman who had manifested before her. Although Sakuya was wearing a perfectly tailored modern suit, she didn't possess the rigid aura of a corporate executive or an elite military officer at all; rather, her every movement exuded the flawless, terrifyingly refined demeanor of a supreme head steward serving an ancient, untouchable noble dynasty.
Recalling the sheer, overwhelming aura of absolute authority she had sensed from Flandre's clone just a moment ago...
And you people still have the absolute audacity to look me in the eye and claim you aren't elite members of the Royal Court?!
Clever felt precisely like a completely defenseless, innocent lamb that had willingly marched itself straight into a massive tiger's den. For a fleeting moment, she felt an intense, overwhelming urge to burst into tears, yet her throat was so constricted with fear that she couldn't even manage a sound.
"She really is super nice!" Flandre cheered, pulling Clever straight past the threshold and into the room before the girl could even finish her terrified evaluation of Sakuya.
The moment her boots crossed into the main lounge, Clever felt several distinct, terrifying gazes instantly lock onto her physical body, causing a violent, freezing chill to shoot straight down her spine. Relying on her high-perception Sarkaz instincts, every single hidden presence resting in this room possessed an aura so astronomically dense that it made her entire scalp tingle with primal danger.
Faced with a room full of literal gods, the poor girl could only awkwardly force the corners of her mouth upward into a trembling, terrified smile.
"Hel... Hello... Hello to all of you noble lords too..."
Remilia Scarlet leaned back against her velvet armchair, her crimson eyes narrowing as she thoroughly sized up the thin, malnourished girl being dragged into her presence.
"Flandre, who exactly is this guest?"
Flandre proudly stepped forward, using her hands to gently push Clever to the absolute center stage of the lounge.
"Sister, this is an awesome new friend Flandre just made outside! Her name is Clever, and she has a pair of cute wings that are super similar to yours, so I brought her back to have a big dinner with us!"
Hearing Flandre's innocent explanation, Patchouli waved her sleeve, momentarily deactivating the invisibility spell coating the girl's back. Sure enough, the small pair of leathery bat wings attached to her spine was structurally identical to Remilia's noble wings.
But to think that just because of a minor anatomical similarity, Flandre had literally kidnapped a random local citizen from an alleyway and treated her as a lifelong friend... This bizarre logic left the surrounding adults feeling entirely unsure of how to even begin formulating a complaint.
Clever took a deep, ragged breath. Looking at the opulent surroundings and the overwhelming power radiating from the figures on the couches, she decided that if she was ultimately doomed to be executed or consumed by the nobility tonight, she might as well face her fate with dignity. If she could just get them to kill her quickly, it wouldn't be such a terrible way to go.
"Are... are all of you truly elite members of the Grand Blood Court?" she asked out loud, her voice laced with final resignation.
Hearing her sudden, specific question, Remilia and Patchouli glanced at each other, a flicker of immense amusement passing between them.
"Oh?" Remilia murmured, a tiny, elegant smile gracing her lips. "Whatever would make you think that we are people belonging to this 'Blood Court' you speak of?"
"Because... besides the ancient royalty of the Blood Court themselves, ordinary Blood Demons across Terra could never possibly imitate or possess such an untouchable, majestic noble temperament," Little Clever stated with absolute, unvarnished honesty.
Remilia's smile widened significantly, her vanity thoroughly and deeply satisfied by the slum girl's accurate appraisal of her regal aura. She leaned forward, sizing up the trembling Vampire who had clearly resigned herself to immediate death, her crimson eyes flashing with dark amusement.
"The legendary Blood Court?" Remilia chuckled softly, swirling her glass. "Regrettably, child, we are not numbered among their ranks. However, I suppose it is worth mentioning that their supreme leader, that ancient Sanguinarch of Vampires, did indeed once personally send a formal envoy across the national boundaries to beg my sister to join his court."