Kristina gets up from her chair and gestures at her lady's maid, Rose, to accompany her, before proceeding to follow Baroness Theresia von Weiz into the manor.

  In one of the corridors they pass on their way, Kristina sees a big painting on a wall. It portrays an elegant muscular man, a beautiful woman and a young boy. The boy, sat on the woman's lap, looks up at the man with an admiring expression.

  There's some physical traits that allowed me to connect the dots that this man and the count are the same person, but it still wasn't easy to tell. He changed a lot from whenever this painting was made to today.

  That woman then, must be his wife... She resembles me a bit... Me as in Kristina, not Emilia. Was that why he said I was beautiful when we first met? "Your beauty is second only to my wife's," is what he had said back then... Though, based on this panting, I do think I'm not second, but first! I am prettier than her, although being able to choose your looks with a character creator is a bit of an unfair advantage...

  The kid, that must be the count's son, he looks like a nice kid, nothing like the prick I faced on the guild yesternight. Their physical features do match though, so they are definitely the same person. Still, he seems fond of his father in this painting, I wonder what happened between then...

  They arrive at their destination, some sort of office room. Count Fran von Weiz was waiting for them, sat at a large wooden desk on which two paper maps are displayed. Candles light the room, magical lighting is expensive and electricity isn't a thing in this world.

  They all stop in front of the count's desk. At that moment, Kristina decides to look at the maps. One shows the kingdom of Stark in detail, while the other shows the whole continent Stark is in and a portion of a continent to the south.

  It's... The same as Vera Phantasia... I mean the countries, the borders, the position of the cities, those are all different, but the shape of the continents perfectly match continents in Vera Phantasia... Wait, that's why I felt the coast was familiar on the way to Seestadt, it's because I actually been to that coast back in Vera Phantasia...

  "Is something wrong?" Asks the count, seeing the shocked look in my face.

  "The terrain... It is more similar to my old world's than I expected, I almost thought I was back for a second..." Technically, I didn't lie, but "similar" is truly an understatement.

  "I hadn't seen any demi-humans since coming to this world, excluding the ones that came with me, so I'm curious regarding the elf maid I saw earlier."

  "We would be happy to explain her presence, but I'm curious how many people came with you?" Franz asks.

  "The entirety of my manor's staff, since they were transported with my manor. So, 8 guards; 4 cooks, including the head chef; 3 butlers, including Ernst, my head butler; 12 maids, including my head maid and Rose, my lady's maid; and 1, uh... necromancer..."

  "A necromancer?!" Theresia and Franz scream simultaneously.

  "Yes, I quite dislike losing people, so having a way to bring them back if they ever perish is quite important for me." Although, I do know all the necromancy spells myself, I made Frederick, my necromancer NPC, just for roleplay reasons. It felt cooler to have someone dedicated for the task. Although, I guess you could also see him as backup, since if I ever go down, he could bring me back.

  "I have heard that necromancy can't really bring people back, only shadows of their former self," mutters Franz. As he finishes speaking, memories come flooding to Kristina, memories of reading books on necromancy and testing spells on bandits she had just slain. "There must be a way for me to bring him back," these words would ring out repeatedly through her head back then.

  "That depends, if the one that cast the spell was a low level necromancer or if the body was too old, then the result would be the one you suggest. However, if the body is fresh enough that the soul still lingers within it, then it may be possible with a high enough level necromancer."

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  "How... How long after death would a body be considered old?" Franz asks, with a sliver of hope in his voice.

  "I'm so sorry... A month at the absolute most, there's no way I would ever be able to bring your wife back... I lost someone too and I tried so hard, but there simply wasn't any way to bring him back, it had simply been too long. I'm truly sorry for your loss, from the bottom of my heart."

  "And I'm sorry for yours..." He replies in kind.

  Kristina takes a deep breath, before continuing. "Moving on, what about the elf?"

  Franz points to a country in one of the maps, it's labeled "Ellyll" and it borders Stark to the Southwest. "The elves come from there, not many decide to leave their country, but those that do usually end in the duchy of Westhafen, which our County of Südfluss is part of. At the duchy's capital, which shares a name with the duchy itself, elfs aren't an uncommon sight. Our county doesn't border Ellyll directly and we are also far away from the the duchy's capital, so they end up being rarer around here."

  "About the elf maid you saw specifically, I honestly don't know much about her, only that she has been serving my family since at least the time of my great-grandfather," Franz explained.

  "I see..." I guess that's to be expected, considering elves live ridiculously long lives.

  "Anyways, there's a matter both me and Theresia think you should be made aware of. The kingdom's nobles are currently divided between two factions, one that wishes for the first prince to inherit the throne after the king passes away while the other wishes for the second to do so instead."

  "Interesting," there wasn't much fighting over inheritance back in Vera Phantasia. I mean, there was talks of creating a system for aging and for players to become their character's child after passing away from old age, but that hadn't been added into the game yet by the time I ended up here. Besides, only about 25 in-game years had passed, not enough for any player character to die even if there was an aging mechanic, specially those of the long-lived races, like the elves and demons, and those that are immortal, such as vampires like me. "So in which one are you two?"

  "Neither, as a low-ranking noble far from the capital there's little to gain from picking a side and still too much to lose from choosing the wrong one," Theresia gives her answer.

  "I'm of a slightly higher rank than her, but still, I have no desire to getting myself into the mess that is faction politics," Franz gives his. "Besides, no one would want me in their faction."

  "Why? To me, you have been nothing but a wonderful person," Kristina asks in confusion.

  In response, Franz just looks down at his very large belly.

  "Are you saying that people dislike you because you are fat?"

  "Well, in actuality-" Theresia starts to explain, but Franz interrupts her: "There's no need, I can tell the story myself." In response, she lets out a simple: "Very well."

  "I used to be one of the South's most famous knights, back then I was way more fit than today, as you can imagine. Then, it happened, I lost the love of my life, my wife, Luisa," tears start forming in his eyes. "Soon after, I abandoned the life of a knight and began binge eating as a way to deal with the pain, which resulted in the body I have today."

  "You sound very self-aware about your over-eating issues, I'm kinda surprised you haven't stopped..."

  "Sometimes, self-awareness is not enough to get out of a pit..." That's true... Like, back on Earth, I got way too little sunlight and thus very little vitamin D, I was aware, but I didn't want to go outside more. "Continuing, many nobles, specially my rivals in knighthood, started to talk about how I had 'fallen from grace' and soon it became taboo to be seem with me. Both myself and those who were associated with me, started being treated with ruthless mockery."

  "That sort of behavior wouldn't have ever been acceptable back in my old country, those nobles that attack you should be ashamed of themselves." In Vera Phantasia, harassment of other players was obviously against the terms of service, so a situation like this wouldn't have ever happened there. Even if someone attempted to harass another player, they would have been soon banned, so it wouldn't ever have reached this scale.

  "Your old country sounds like a nice place, I must admit..."

  "Oh, I met you son yesternight by the way, Laurin was his name if I remember correctly, he said that you were a disappointment, I couldn't believe how he was talking about his own father..." So he was expressing what's the popular sentiment among the nobility...

  "Yeah, me and my son have drifted away these past years..."

  "Franz, you had never told me this, next time I see Laurin I must give him a fine scolding," Theresia states, indignation clear in her voice.

  "Aunt, that's going a bit too far..."

  "Going too far is betraying one's own family like he did, but this is a talk for other time, we shouldn't bother our guest with our family matters," Theresia turns to face Kristina before continuing. "Your power is undeniable. If the factions manage to overlook the fact you are a vampire, you are likely to have both of them trying to coax you into joining their side."

  "I see, that could get annoying... I wonder, you mentioned one for the first prince and another for the second, but is there any faction for the princess?"

  "No...? She's both the youngest and a woman, so no one has really considered her as a contender for the throne."

  "Then I know what I shall do to stop the factions from bothering me, I'll make my own faction! I'll put the princess on the throne!" Time to try out some faction mechanics!