The Extra Wants Control

"Congratulations, Thadeus!" boomed a hearty voice. A portly vampire, his face flushed red with wine, raised his glass towards a tall figure. "I hear you\'re close to securing a Viscount seat! You\'ve done well, old friend."

Thadeus smiled and chuckled. "Indeed, Reginald. It\'s all thanks to this tournament. That I had a chance to elevate my House\'s status, a blessing wouldn\'t you say?"

Reginald let out a laugh. "That is one way to put it. This whole competition. Makes you wonder what the Queen was thinking. You know?"

A scowl formed on the face of another vampire who overheard those two speaking, he snorted"Absurd, I say. Absolutely absurd! Commoners vying for noble seats? And they are fighting hard for it. They became rebellious to us, their original masters. Especially with the end drawing near.

Even some of my own knights abandoned their duty just for a shot at nobility! The audacity!" He slammed his fist on the table, rattling the glasses and plates. "Wait until I get my hands on those ungrateful bastards…"

A slender woman her voice rich with worry said. "But what if we lose, Edgar? For centuries our families have held noble positions. I can\'t even fathom the thought of being reduced to a commoner." She said being disgusted. story-source-MvLeMpYr

Hushed murmuring of agreement was heard from the group that was now forming around the man, after hearing his thoughts. "Indeed," another vampire added to the conversation. "If the Queen seeks strength, why not just empower us further?

To even consider replacing lineages that were existing even before she was born, even the previous Vampire King himself met his wife… and now his daughter, the now Queen, wants to dismantle all that? Madness, I say!" Said emboldened.

Panic flickered across the face of his wife as she said in worry"Watch your words," she voice warned. "The walls have ears. You don\'t know who might be listening."

The vampire gulped, but seeing the people who nodded agreeing with him he was further emboldened and just said "L-let them hear then,"he stammered before getting confidence. "I for one I\'m not thrilled by the thought of greeting to some upstart commoner as an equal or worse, my superior."

"Speaking of upstarts," then another vampire said looking around at the group of gossipers, "did you hear about Countess Chatham? I heard, the Queen herself boosted her power. That\'s why she became eleven star even before that old bat, Count LeNoir, despite him being nine hundred years older!"

"Foul play, I knew it!" the first vampire exclaimed in disapproval. "Tsk... the Queen\'s playing favorites."

"And then she made her a Duke!?" then another added, his voice dripping with discontent, and these were the same people who congratulated Chatham on her promotion. "Chatham\'s clearly in her pocket now. This is a power move, that\'s what it is. I heard a rumor of a revolt."

"But the Queen\'s is strong, though," the first vampire said. "How powerful is she again, exactly?"

"Mid-eleven stars, I think. That\'s how strong the other bug shot race leaders are so she\'s somewhere there..." the other replied with a shrug.

A scoff erupted from a nearby figure, a beautiful woman. "A revolt against an eleven-star vampire, with an eleven-star Duke on her side? Sounds like a suicide mission to me. What could even a bunch of ten-star Counts achieve?"

The gossiping vampires exchanged a look.

"That\'s… not a problem." A man said to the beautiful woman who he pulled a side,"A friend of mine in the revolutionary army\'s corner... Said when he was drunk that they have a way to deal with those two... And it seems legit.... I heard they have a 12 star artifact!" He boasted whispering to the woman and the woman gasped.

Then the man\'s eyes darted towards the brown-haired vampire who seemed clumsy.

The young chubby brown-haired vampire was near them and had gasped from hearing the information, he tripped over his own two feet in his haste to ran away cause he was caught. His drink and plate of food went flying, splattering a crimson stain across the floor and his clothes.

"What are you looking at, you bastard?" roared the male vampire his face red in rage. "Scram before you die!"

The chubby vampire tried to get up only to slip and fall in the wine again.

"I\'m ssssss-sorry" stammering apologies as he hurried away crawling in the wet floor before he got somewhere dryer and stood to ran away.

"Tsk, what an idiot," the man clicked his tongue with disdain.

"Who even is he?"the woman asked, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Oh, just someone I knew a couple of decades back," the man replied nonchalantly and dismissively. "The useless son of Viscount Morris, that\'s all."

"The Viscount\'s son? Really? How in the world…" the woman gasped disbelief. "They don\'t even look alike!"

"Beats me," the man shrugged, dismissing the topic. "Let\'s forget about that idiot. Why don\'t you show me some gratitude for that juicy bit of information, hm?" He leaned in closer, his voice dropping low. A lecherous smile flashed on his face as he squeezed the woman\'s waist possessively.

The woman, all smiles and playful , gasped covering her mouth with her hand. "Oh my! What do you plan to do to me," she said in slight resistance, "Shall we find a room for the night, then?"

The man threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh. "Of course, my dear," his earlier anger forgotten as he followed the woman towards a secluded area.