The Vampire Empress: Blood Queen & Her Kings

Jiang Ying Yue stood in the line of maids as they all listened to the instructions that an old lady was giving them about what they needed to keep in mind while cleaning the courtyard of the Third Prince.

Thanks to Silver, she was already aware that the youngest prince of the Empire was finally returning to the Capital City after half a decade, and to welcome him, the Empress Dowager was throwing a grand banquet.

That's why the energy level of the royal palace was skyrocketing because everyone was either happy after hearing the news or they were panicking to perfectly complete their works without causing any issue.

Preparing for such a grand banquet on such short notice was not an easy job. Normally, such banquets needed weeks or sometimes, almost an entire month of planning. However, this time they barely had a few hours on their hands which was creating panic.

After succeeding in making her way to the back hall of the servants' quarters where Eunuch Zhao and the Head servant were assigning tasks to different groups of servants, Jiang Ying Yue stood silently with her head lowered as she pretended to be carefully listening to the instructions.

Thankfully, no one paid her any attention and she was more than thankful for that.

Within the next ten minutes, she found herself following a group of maids towards the courtyard of the third Prince. She purposely stayed in the end to find a perfect chance to slip away. After all, she had not taken such a huge risk only to end up cleaning the sleeping quarters of the so-called prince.

However, her luck wasn't as good as she thought. The moment she was about to turn left and slip into a dark hallway, she ended up bumping against a guard.

"Watch your steps! Where are you going?"

Damn! He sounded so rough and looked scarier. His eyes bored into her like he was looking at a criminal. Not only that but his high-pitched voice successfully grasped the attention of the other maids of her group.

Jiang Ying Yue cursed inside her head as she felt dozens of stares focused on her. Somehow, she put on a meek smile on her lips as she bowed her head before answering in a small voice, "Sorry. I was not paying attention." 

Not trying too hard to defend herself and looking neither perfectly calm nor too anxious at the moment felt like the perfect escape plan to her. 

If it had been a normal situation, she would have used her compulsion power to easily control the minds of all these people and would have solved the problem just in seconds. But again, if it was really a normal situation, she would not have ended up in such a circumstance in the first place. Currently, nothing was going normal in this new life of hers.

"Let's not waste any more time here. We are getting late." The head servant who was leading their group of maids to the Third Prince's courtyard decided to speak and he sounded a little unhappy. Thankfully, the guard didn't argue and let her walk away.

Keeping her head lowered, Jiang Ying Yue silently followed the maids. She was getting a feeling that ending up in the wrong book of the Head servant would be much worse than she could ever imagine and she wanted a life of peace.

It took almost twenty minutes to reach the northern part of the royal palace where the courtyards of all the three princes were located.

She noticed the sun that was speedily moving towards the horizon. It was around five-thirty in the evening and within a few more hours, darkness was about to engulf the world.

Even though she was now able to venture around in bright sunlight, the darkness of the night still seemed to be her closest friend. She still felt more alive during nighttime and her soul felt more relaxed and calm. It was probably gonna take her some time to get used to living a life with the sunlight.

"Wow...!"

She heard the maid in front of her whispering under her breath and when Jiang Ying Yue looked up at the structure standing in front of her eyes, she knew why.

Though it was called a courtyard, in reality, it appeared like a little castle. The large gardens built in front of the building were filled with colorful flowers and big trees. She even spotted a lotus pond next to a huge pavilion. Near the pavilion, a huge Purple Robe Locust tree was standing with the beautiful flowers covering its canopy. 

"I used to hear that the courtyards of the royal princes are the most beautiful places in the entire Inner Palace but this is my first time witnessing it in reality." 

Jiang Ying Yue heard one of the maids whispering as everyone stood transfixed by the outer beauty of the courtyard.

"Presumptuous!" The Head servant suddenly shouted, making all the maids scurry together as they all bowed their heads with fear clearly visible in their expressions. 

Jiang Ying Yue followed the others and also lowered her head as she listened to the old man. "You all here to work and not sightseeing. If I found any one of you slacking in your work later, skipping tonight's meal won't be the only punishment waiting for you!"

She would have to say that the old man was even more fierce than she previously assumed. He sure knew how to handle the servants.

Soon enough, tasks were handed over to everyone. She was assigned to tidy up the bed-chamber and as she entered the lavish room, she failed to keep the awe and jealousy from erupting in her heart.

The place of the Third Prince was really magnificent in every way possible and just thinking about her cold and lifeless courtyard, she could not help but sulk a little. 

Besides, her luck was really bad. In the end, she still got to clean the sleeping quarter of that so-called Prince.

That man would better stay away from her!