frightfiction Chapter 2: Becoming a Vampire Princess, but Without a Throne
Chapter 2: Becoming a Vampire Princess, but Without a Throne
Death is an unknown journey, but when she opened her eyes, she found that the journey was not as long as she had imagined.
Ah, I'm dead.
That was her first thought. She lifted her head from the bed and saw a familiar figure—Alicia.
"Wait, I'm not dead yet. Are you Alicia? Eh? That's my voice."
She noticed her voice sounded different, and her long white hair fell down. She reached out and grabbed her hair.
"Welcome back. Yes, you're not dead."
"Eh?"
“But your injury is a bit dangerous, hmm, so I had to do this—daughter.”
"Who's your daughter? I'm—wait, wait? How did I turn into a girl?!"
She stood up, her white nightgown draped over her shoulders, and only then did she realize that she had transformed into a completely different person.
"The way vampires reproduce is different from other races. The Embrace is our only way of reproducing, which means you are no longer human. Welcome to the world of vampires."
“But your original name is too old-fashioned, so I’ll call you Alice, um, Alice.”
As Alicia, Alice—well, Alice's brain—went into high-speed activity, it eventually crashed.
"Anjie".
"Yes, Master."
"Change Her Highness's clothes, tidy her up, and then take her to the office."
"Yes."
Alice watched as the maid entered and, with an undeniable air, took out dresses, stockings, and underwear from the closet, and then took out leather shoes from the shoe cabinet.
"Your Highness, this is your mother's order, so I'm sorry."
After changing into her underwear, her fair legs were encased in white stockings, and a black Lolita-style dress was put on her body. Alice felt as if she had lost something, or as if she had shattered something.
"Tsk."
"Sit down, Your Highness, let me style your hair."
Hair clips, hair ties, and a pair of nimble hands—Alice watched as a white-haired loli with twin ponytails gradually took shape, just like the anime heroine from before she transmigrated.
Alicia's palace is large, but unlike the vampire palaces in fantasy works, it is decorated with white marble walls and gold threads, and the exquisite decoration looks like the traditional European style.
"Welcome, my daughter, hmm?"
In the room, Alicia sat in an elegant chair, with Alice's notebook and documents on a beautiful wooden table.
"Tsk."
Alice simply sat opposite her, feeling very uncomfortable with the loli-like appearance, especially the emptiness between her legs and the insecure feeling of the light, flowing skirt.
"Alright, alright, beautiful princess, you should thank me. I saved you, and of course, this is the price you have to pay."
"If I were a princess, where would the empire be?"
“The vampire prince Ekevich, he usurped the throne with a rebel army, and he has many mercenaries and knights under his command. My army is no match for him.”
This world is a world with magic, but unlike some high-magic worlds, the magic in this world is not actually strong. A single mage's combat ability is only at the tank level. Even a powerful mage like Alicia can only dominate a war with no more than 100,000 people.
Moreover, mages are rare and expensive, and they need magic crystals to charge their spells.
To a certain extent, numbers are still an important factor in war.
Alicia lowered her head, her face somewhat gloomy. Alice knew what this feeling was like; she had experienced something similar.
How much land do you currently control?
"The Red Collar is the direct territory of the vampires, and the Whiterun in the north are the only two territories."
“I need information, and power. I need to lead any reforms. I don’t want to see any resistance from anyone. I’ve had enough.”
Alice didn't waste any words, and Alicia looked at Alice, this frail vampire loli had returned to the person he used to know.
"And trust. We are the same kind of people. You saved me, and I will not betray you like those bastards."
Alicia looked at Alice, then called Angela over.
"Bring us the statistics for all the areas we control, including those of the troops who are still loyal to us."
Ange responded and left, while Alicia turned to Alice and said, "You are my daughter, of course I would not harm my own daughter, but please, let her live. We cannot afford to lose any more."
"Ah."
The entire controlled area is not small, but the largest part of Whiterun is actually the high-latitude polar region in the north.
The situation in Red Collar is actually not bad. Trian is a fairly large town with some workshops and a school.
There are many fields outside Trian, but under this system, they all belong to the lord, or rather, to Alicia.
After reading the information handed over by Ange, Alice quickly identified the problem and wrote down several solutions. Alicia, on the other hand, looked at the short texts one after another. She could understand some of them, but was completely confused by others.
"We will start with the reform of the productive forces, and then move on to the reform of the relations of production."
Alice looked at Alicia, then lowered her head and continued writing.
“There is a lot of land outside the city, but the current situation is that no one cultivates it and it is left to fall into disrepair. Since we can manufacture ironware, we can simply shut down the farm.”
“We don’t need to control them. We need to start transforming and operate as a national government.”
In the past, farm economy was an important means for lords to control manpower and the economy, but in Alice's blueprint, farm economy is undoubtedly a backward system that hinders the development of productivity.
“Contract the land to the farmers, restore their freedom, and we’ll start collecting agricultural taxes… Damn it, we need to expand the government.”
"what?"
“We are the rulers, but rulers cannot do everything themselves; we need some officials.”
Or, to put it another way, civil servants.
"But that's all in the future. I'll write a policy and implement it immediately."
Alice looked at Alicia and Ange, then scribbled furiously, and a detailed plan quickly emerged.
“Those farmers…”
“Alicia, you know the current situation of us farmers, right? We can give them iron tools and livestock, but we can’t keep them locked up in the fields.”
Alice described to Alicia an economic system that, in her world, transformed the entire world.
Farmers can cultivate more land, buy and sell it, pay taxes, and have freedom and rights. They have a better life, which makes them work harder.
The same principle applies: when livestock are not living well, they will stop reproducing, that is, stop producing. Only when they have food, water, and a good environment will their production improve.