Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System

Chapter 586: Challenges Daimon & Nethereal sisters version (part 1)

Those three arrived at the dining room of the royal castle and were welcomed with an interesting sight, back when Daimon and Thea arrived at the castle of the Lamia queen, besides Nea there weren't any others servants due to the recent assassination attempt that Naomi had gone through.

However, after that was solved with Daimon's help, all the servants, maids and other staff were allowed to return, which is why it was strange that the only person in the dining room was Nea, well besides the two Lamia princesses who were already sitting at the table.

Before Daimon could ask what was going on as well as where was Mirellia, a merry laugh could be heard coming from the kitchen, before the Lamia queen entered the dining room, easily carrying a giant tray with large sized dishes.

Among which, there was grilled meat from high ranked magic beasts, soup, salad, bread and other simple but delicious looking food, making it obvious that the royal chefs didn't prepare it, a supposition that was confirmed by Mirellia a second later.

"I wanted to prepare a meal as a sign of good will, it's not too fancy but I hope you like it", said the Lamia queen as she placed the food on the table to then serve Daimon a portion of everything.

Daimon felt the gazes of the Lamia princesses as well as Nea, apparently Mirellia wasn't letting anyone else take a bite until he tried so he did, the flavor was actually rather familiar, in what form you ask, the taste was a bit "clumsy" since the Lamia queen was obviously new at cooking.

But there was a certain charm to these dishes made with the best intentions and basic cooking skills, similar to when the Risha sisters learned hot to cook from their mothers, the difference being that this time the one waiting to listen what his opinion on the food was like, was the Lamia queen.

'Hehehe, first fox girls, then the bird girls and now lamias, it seems like the food strategy is a thing regardless of race or culture~', jokingly said Evangeline, it was true though, Elaine had talent as a chef so she prepared some nice meals for Daimon, and as soon as Erin and Liz got wind of that, they involved themselves into it.

"Ahem, it's quite good, thanks", said Daimon as he dug in, making the Lamia queen softly smile, only then the others were allowed to participate on the feast, Nea included.

"Humph, quite good he says, we had to suffer through the trial and error, earlier", mumbled Naomi, which earned her a smile which wasn't a smile from her mother.

While Ferris inwardly laughed at the misfortune of her sister, Naomi hid her startled expression with her cup, besides that the rest of the meal was rather uneventful but when everyone had their fill, Mirellia once again drew everyone's attention as she pulled a small brown box with a dark gray snake emblem on it to then hand it over to Daimon.

Daimon raised an eyebrow but he received the thing, just as he wondered why there was no obvious way to open that little box, the snake emblem shone and then the box evaporated, turning into a crystalized drop of gray liquid which radiated a familiar sensation, while revealing the content of the box, a brown ring.

"This is…", Daimon inspected the two objects with his eyes, the gray crystal was crystalized mana, similar to the snake sapphire refined by the first Lamia queen, but this one belonged to the one whose blood essence he absorbed not too long ago, the first Naga queen, in other words it was an agglomeration of energy refined by a Maximum Stellar ranked throughout all her life!

As for the ring, he was even more confused, the ring was a magic treasure for sure, but he couldn't tell what its effects were as of current, what he could tell was that it was resonating with something in this room.

"You can feel it right, that ring is the complement of this", said the Lamia queen as she pointed at her crown, which is a subject in which Daimon was interested, because despite being one of the three legacy treasures of the Melliun kingdom, it had no effects.

Under the expectation filled eyes of the Lamia queen, Daimon wore the brown ring, which asked for permission to take some of his blood, after accepting the precious lackluster exterior of the ring, gained new life, shinning in a dazzling gray light as if to announce its existence.

Mirellia's crown responded in kind, and so those two learned the effects of their respective treasures, which actually were the same.

"My crown allows me to detect the location of the one who is using the ring, regardless of the distance, once, it also says that it can save my life once and…", the Lamia queen stopped her words as she read the third effect.

"It increases the compatibility between those who wear these two treasures by five times", said Daimon.

While Nea and the Lamia princesses nearly choked with the desserts, they were enjoying a second ago.

"Ahem, since the Lamia race is a matriarchy for obvious reasons, only one crown was made, but the first queen asked for a ring for her friend to be smithed, it was a sign of their friendship and a symbol of the alliance between the two races".

"However, by the time the first Naga queen had grown old, she noticed that her descendants became distant from the her friend's, so she sealed the ring and returned it to the second queen who had already taken over as the first one died before her friend, the conditions to retrieve the ring was that the Lamia queen in turn would be willing to trust her life on the Naga ruler of her choice… unfortunately things got worse and this ring remained sealed, while at the same time the Lamia crown lost its purpose, until now", said Mirellia.

"I see, still you could have given it to the Mein queen, right?", asked Daimon, making Mirellia chuckle, at the fact that he noticed that the sole Naga queen carried the blood of the first queen, but it was understandable since Daimon entered in direct contact with the blood essence of said queen.

"The Mein queen does descend from the direct lineage of the first Naga queen, since her ancestor was originally the one that should have reigned over all the Naga race, but it mysteriously "disappeared" and her older sister who was the ancestor of the Nascenti family, took over, since then the Nagas divided themselves in four, three governed by the three princesses that were still alive and the leftover "mixes" who were tossed aside".

"Luckily the original heir, had already had a daughter who was raised by her surviving maid and that that baby who grew to become the ancestor of the Mein family, who took in all the mixed Nagas", said Mirellia to then add.

"Unfortunately, her linage had thinned down too much, she wouldn't be able to wear that ring, also I wanted to give it to you, I didn't think it would have such an effect though", the second part of her sentence was said in much lower voice.

Daimon gazed at the ring and was lost in his thoughts, the compatibility to which the ring and crown referred, wasn't specifically defined, it might refer to team work in battle, meditation or even… night activities.

"Perhaps the first queens were "closer" than what they appeared to be", said Daimon, making Mirellia, Nea and Ferris, blush a bit, while Naomi seemed to not get the meaning behind Daimon's words.

"Well, they both remained single until their death and had their daughters by using their own blood, we kept that tradition but the Naga royal family was split and they changed their customs", mumbled Mirellia.

"Mmm, we snake-related races tend to have the problem of being female exclusive, luckily my ancestor developed the knight contract, allowing my race to produce offspring without thinning our blood and also inheriting the benefits from the father side", added Thalia, making the Thea's face redden on the spot.

"C-Can't you stop mentioning that at every chance", exclaimed the empress, to which Thalia smirked.

"You can always cancel your contract, you know?", she said.

"Dream on!", immediately retorted the empress.

"Humph", both snake princesses ended up snorting at each other and then getting up from the table and flashing towards the training room, to compete on who will evolve/recover their lineage innate talents faster, leaving behind a Daimon who couldn't help but inwardly sigh and a Lamia queen who was giggling at those two falling on her trap, leaving Daimon alone with her daughters and herself.

"Are you leaving today?", asked the Lamia queen, which made both Ferris and Naomi to gaze at him.

"Yes, I don't know the time, but I'll be leaving Draim today, my other friends have also found similar situations to Thea" said Daimon, while he didn't explain everything about the challenges and all that to the Lamia queen and princesses, but he did explain about Neptune and also about him not being a prince, though he is indeed the young master of two of the major forces at the four galaxies, he even told them about the basics of the four galaxies, for a good reason.

Daimon knew he could trust the Lamia queen and her daughters, also from the very beginning he was ready for the question that Mirellia was about to make.

"I see… would it be possible for you to help us leave Draim, even if it's only my daughters that is still fine", she said, while clenching her hands below the table.

"Mom…", the two princesses gazed at their mother with a complex expression on their pretty faces, the Lamia princesses had always wanted to explore the outside world, but they weren't the only ones, unlike the other Lamia nobles, Mirellia and Nea had never been too attached to their status, instead what they longed for was freedom.

Probably because both their mothers died due to the conflicts of Melliun as well as Gwen and the overall situation of Draim, they grew to be quite independent of their subjects, unlike previous queens and their respective aides, those two enjoyed the thrill of the battlefield and adventure, in that sense they were quite similar to the first queens, so the fact that they put the two princesses over themselves showed how much they cared for them.

"Ahem", not knowing how to interrupt this touching moment, Daimon cleared his throat to then say.

"I'm sorry, but right now I can't take anyone with me", the mood of the Lamia queen, princesses and Nea, went down a few notches on the spot, only for their eyes to sparkle the next second.

"Even Thea and Thalia will stay behind for now, but they'll later follow me back to Neptune or back to my place of origin, take this chance to organize everything here, so that you four can tag along when the time comes", he said.

The Lamia princesses and Nea immediately got up and left to do their preparations, while Mirellia smiled at Daimon.

"Thanks", she limited to say before leaving.

'I can't wait to see how will that fox and wolf women will react, when they see all the new "friends" you are bringing home, others came to look for resources, treasures, magic technology and new knowledge, but you came wife hunting~', jokingly said Evangeline, making Daimon sigh.

He had gotten a lot of all the previous, but is also true that he met a lot of girls who had become close with him.

'Was it me or… was it that the opportunities stole from those two were casually related to meeting, tricking or killing them', he wondered.

…

The rest of the day went quite smoothly, Daimon tried to help Thea and Thalia with meditating, but those two were too focused on competing with each other, besides Thalia said that the first meditation session for a princess of the Neris family, will take whole day, so it was postponed and so the night came and Daimon who was sitting on the bed, with Thea resting next to him, drinking from her cup, felt a sudden movement in his pocket.

His black sea emblem came flying out of his pocket and the rune shark was manifested the next second, biting the space to create the portal to the next challenge, something that drew Thalia's attention, since it looked slightly similar to how those in beast form from her family would open portals with their special fangs.

"I guess it's time to leave, see you later dear ancestor", jokingly said Thea to Thalia as she got up, making Daimon cough a couple of times, he didn't tell her that she had to stay behind, because he knew how the empress was going to react, but now he had to.

"You can't follow me to the next challenge, Thea…", Daimon hadn't even ended his sentence when the empress turned to intensely gaze at him, while Thalia was doing her best not lo wildly laugh at her.

"Why?", she asked with serious voice.

"It's for the sake of the challenges, the portal opened by my emblem can only be used by me, but yours will receive a mark to follow later", he said.

Thea pouted, she approached the portal and then tried to punch it, her spear was still in the snake tattoo at the reverse of her hand, but she could still manipulate space without it, to a certain extent.

"Booom!", before her fist could reach the portal, Thea was repelled backwards, the empress then fiercely gazed at the rune shark and was about to fight it, to demand her to be taken along with Daimon, when the latter interrupted her.

"It's for a good reason, you can't temporarily use your spear, the time flow in Draim is different than the outside world, so you can finish your initial integration with the blood legacy here, when the time comes, you'll be able to fight alongside me with all your strength" he said.

The empress's eyes glowed, she was convinced by Daimon's reasoning, however she still didn't want to be left behind.

"Humph, I bet Marlene is already there", she mumbled, making Daimon bitterly smile, the scene of that kiss mark shinning on his cheek was still fresh in her mind.

"She stayed behind without making trouble though", said Daimon and as he expected, the empress cutely bit her lip and then accepted to stay in Draim until her emblem summoned her to Daimon's side.

"You aren't going to leave without saying goodbye to us, right?", a mellow, voice interrupted the empress's antics, as Mirellia, Ferris, Naomi and even Nea entered the room.

"Well normally this little thing doesn't wait for me, but I guess it was different this time", said Daimon, the rune shark didn't urge him to enter the portal unlike normal, since it was being threatened by Thea not too long ago.

The Lamia princesses exchanged gazes before they both approached Daimon, Ferris took the initiative to offer her hand to Daimon so he would hold it like when they met the first time.

"The next time we meet, my lineage manifestation will be stronger, I hope we can train them together then", said Ferris, as Daimon accepted her hand to say goodbye.

"Sure", it was short interaction but Ferris was happy with the result, next was the younger Lamia princess who had an awkward expression on her face, but ultimately looked downwards as she exclaimed.

"Don't you dare die before I can pay you back for bullying me!", without letting Daimon say anything she rushed back to Ferris's side and Nea took over.

"Thanks for helping us, it might not mean much, but if you need some help, just say the word", said the light green haired lamia girl, before opening way for Mirellia.

"Nea stole my words, so I'll do this instead~", the under the surprised eyes of all the girls in the room, the Lamia queen leaned down and softly kissed Daimon's forehead.

Let alone Thea and Thalia who nearly screamed at the previous scene, even Daimon was temporarily in shock, at least until he saw the Lamia queen wink at him, before she pushed him into the portal, the rune shark jumped into it, closing the entrance to the dimensional tunnel a second later.

Not without allowing Daimon to hear the exclamations of the Lamia princesses as well as Thea and Thalia.

"Mom!".

"H-Hey what was that".

Nea didn't say anything but she stole a gaze at her childhood friend while thinking to herself.

'Don't tell me she is actually… interested on him'.

…

Leaving the chaos caused by Mirellia, Daimon found himself in that complex dimensional tunnel once again, he could still feel the soft touch of the Lamia queen's lips on his skin and he could also listen to Evangeline's laugh from within his mind.

Luckily the travel didn't take long, apparently his sea emblem took advantage of the abundance of space mana in the vicinity of Draim to shorten the travel, around half an hour and he travelled enough to reach his destination.

Something that caught his attention is that since a while ago he hadn't seen any exits in the dimensional tunnel, also the amount of nether in the tunnel increased a lot.

'I guess this will be the last stop of the challenges, I still don't know anything about mine in specific though', thought Daimon as he jumped into the sole portal at that opened for him.

The scenery changed from the dark dimensional tunnel to an open vast plane, there were small mounds here and there and there was a smell akin to iron floating on the air, Daimon looked upwards and reminded something mentioned by Walford earlier at Agrak's casino.

"Blood sky battlefield… or so I would like to say, but this is different than what I expected", said Daimon as he observed at the sky which was conformed by red, black and dark pink tones.

Just as the undead head maid was about to tell Daimon what she found by doing her scan of routine, Daimon felt a chill running down his spine, making him raise his guard but it was a bit too late, as a figure which appeared out of nowhere and restrained his movements by holding onto his body from behind.

Daimon's pupils shrank, his body exploded in white flames by instinct, but just then a strange sound prevented him from using Disaster to slash the "enemy" down.

"Hmmm~", Daimon listened to that strange sound and the strange sensation from earlier now made sense, everything clicked when he saw a few strands of purple hair from the corner of his eyes.

"I swear, one day I am going to slash you either on purpose or by mistake", said Daimon, just to hear a shameless laugh accompanied by a tempting voice.

"I'll look up to it~", in case you still hadn't guessed it, the one who was hugging Daimon right now, was the crazy girl, Sarah.