The Vampire Duchess's Secret Marriage Contract

1| A Lady's Need for Men's Attire

“Celestia, bring me the file on Gustav Enterprises. Those commoners have been bringing trouble to us lately,” my father bellowed from inside his cozy office as I winced at the loudness and tidied the mess in mine. He didn’t have to yell. Really he could have just whispered and I would have still heard.

My half vampire lineage endowed me with superior hearing after all, but my dear father treated me human all the same.

“Father, I put it on your table yesterday, and I told you to take a look as soon as possible,” I yelled back.

He paused for a moment and I heard him get up, and the noise of things tumbling down as he rummaged through something, probably files and books that filled his table to the brim. I sighed and got up. Father really couldn’t do anything without me after all.

My father was an excellent businessman and a formidable duke, but terrible at keeping his room tidy. I walked to the adjacent room and rubbed my face with my palm tiredly. The sight that greeted me was not a pleasant one.

The magnificent room was decorated beautifully with marble and gold. Almost enough to ignore the mess that was before me. Books, files and sheets of paper were scattered everywhere. Even the ones that I had arranged just yesterday. Important documents, carelessly stuffed into huge oak cabinets, made me want to cry.

The blonde man with stray gray hairs that made this mess was bent over the chair, trying to look under the table. He stood up as he noticed me, his soulful blue eyes meeting mine, the beautiful color that I wished I had inherited instead of my red irises, I was a splitting image of my mother who abandoned us both.

I entered, gathering the sheets on the floor and piling them up on the table. Father gave me a sheepish grin, the skin below his eyes crinkling with joy, showing off the few aged lines on his face.

He didn’t look a day over thirty despite being forty-three, and his skin was just as pale as mine. That was a pretty impressive feat, considering the fact that I was half vampire and he was only human.

I glared at him, crossing my arms.

“How come you’ve made even more of a mess than yesterday, father?”

Father put his hands up in surrender.

“It just keeps happening somehow, dearie. I try to keep things neat. I really do,” he said, sounding sorry. I sighed.

I looked down, my eyes searching, and finally landed on what I wanted. I retrieved a file from the mess on the floor and handed it to him.

“Here, this is the file on Gustav. Don’t lose it this time,” I said. He nodded and got back to his desk, while I silently but swiftly cleaned up the mess. My father watched me with wide blue eyes as I moved in inhuman speed to tidy the room.

My speed was indeed worth it since it barely took me a minute to return the room to its original neat state. I doubted it would last until the next day, though.

“I can never get used to your speed, Tia. It’s amazing every time I look at you,” he said in childlike wonder. I smiled at him. Of course, even though my speed was nowhere near a pureblood vampire’s. It was still astonishing for humans, and even other halflings like me.

“Then I guess I’m done for the day, father. I’ll leave you to it. I need to go out for a bit today,” I said, walking out of the room. After all, I had something else to clean up today.

“Going to meet friends, Tia?” He sighed.

“Yes, father. And you know I can’t help it. Their parents are too strict.”

“How many days will you be out for this time? I swear I will have to hire a new secretary if you keep this up,” he said jokingly.

I thought about how long it would take me this time.

‘Hmm.’

“Two days at best?” I asked hopefully.

“Okay, be safe. Take some knights with you, will you? Be careful outside, the streets are not as safe as they used to be outside the Duchy. I’d rather you don’t have to go to another estate every time you want to have fun.”

I nodded demurely. I could kill any person before they could blink with my speed and strength, but he still worried about me, even after knowing that. My innocent father. I shook my head. I’ll keep things the way they were forever.

I ran to my room quickly to change into my ‘work’ attire. The neatly ironed three piece suit that consisted of a cream coloured shirt, a hard black vest, a black coat to go with it and the black long trousers rested on my bed, which one of my servants under a blood oath must have kept there.

There was a reason I had my servants under a blood oath for such a simple job as ironing my clothes, an oath made by feeding them my magical blood, which would take their life the moment they broke the oath. It was not because the attire was special in any way, no.

It’s because of the fact that I, Celestia René Kadirah, the daughter of the esteemed Duke of Kadirah and the only princess of the Kainosia Empire, was gallivanting around in men’s clothes! A proper lady wearing a suit would cause a scandal to break out, and I had to keep my servant’s mouths shut tight if I wanted them to not gossip.

I sighed as I tightened my corset and put on the men’s clothes tailored to fit me, then pulled up my shoulder length mint blue hair into a tight top bun, hiding it underneath my black fedora hat. I looked at myself in the mirror, sharp crimson red cat shaped eyes stared right back at me.

My unique mint blue hair was tucked away underneath the fedora hat, but the rest of my face was beautiful as ever. Pale skin as white as moonlight, thin, arched eyebrows that were perfectly groomed, a dainty, well-shaped nose right above my pouty red lips and sharp jawline.

Slightly pointy ears showed that I was not quite human. I sneered at the reflection and my sharp fangs came into view.

I frowned. My appearance was too eye-catching. I cast a spell on myself to make my face look blurry to anyone who looked at me. There, that would suffice. My appearance was altered. Now I was ready to take care of my business.

‘Gustav Enterprises, was it?’

I opened the large window in my room that could easily let an adult male through and jumped out.

W/N

Greetings to you lovely people! It's my first time writing a novel such as this one, so it's going to be a wild ride for sure. I hope you enjoy this work as much as I do. ❤️