No Warmth

Chapter 9- The Mad Blooming Princess

Aoi opened the door and gasped. "Akari, I am so glad you're okay! We heard you got shot, but we couldn't visit your room since Lord Kaname told everyone not to disturb you."

Akari smiled. "Don't worry. I am feeling a lot better now."

"Don't just stand there." Aoi ushered her inside and closed the door. "You can sit on my bed."

Mei was lying on her bed with a magazine in her hands. "We were worried when we didn't see you downstairs earlier tonight."

"The dorm president said I didn't have to greet Lord Ichijo and should just focus on recovering." Akari sat down on the opposite bed.

"Lord Kaname can be so generous sometimes," Aoi gushed. "You didn't miss anything important anyway; Lord Ichijo just wanted to visit his grandson."

"I wonder if Lord Kaname is being nice because he recognises you from somewhere," Mei mused.

Akari turned to Mei "What do you mean?"

Mei turned the page of her magazine. "I don't mean to offend you Akari, but you don't look like any aristocratic family I've seen. It would be helpful if you had any memories of your past...are you sure you don't remember anything about your family?"

Akari shook her head.

Mei closed her magazine and sat up on her bed. "This brings me to a theory; you are probably the love child of a noblewoman and a common man. If your mother had been the one from common birth then she would have raised you herself, but you ended up being raised by humans... "

Aoi threw a pillow across the room.

The pillow collided with Mei's face. "What was that for?"

"That's enough Mei! It doesn't matter if Akari doesn't have a traditional family. She still has noble blood in her and we should be teaching her of high society instead of nitpicking how she was raised." Aoi huffed.

Mei blinked a couple of times. "I guess even you can get serious when you want to, Aoi."

Aoi then grinned at Akari. "You had something you wanted to ask us right?

Akari nodded. "I wanted to learn more about Purebloods and about the Senate."

"There are currently only seven Pureblood families: Kuran, Hio, Hanadagi, Toma, Shirabuki, Ori, and Shoto." Aoi looked thoughtful for a moment. "The Kuran family used to rule over vampire society until two generations ago; the king at the time passed his power over to the Senate. Nowadays, some pureblood families work together with the Senate and they manage common vampires and deal with rampant Level Es. "

"Does that mean the Senate is the one who makes the rules?"

"Although the Senate members are the ones in power now, pureblood families still have their influence over the general public." Aoi explained. "In fact, there's been a divide in the political views of noble and common families. Some families are Pro-Council and some are Pro-Monarchy."

Akari stared at the floor. "You said that purebloods and nobles manage other vampires...do they ever have to eliminate other purebloods or nobles?"

"Not that we're aware of. However, hunters do target nobles that get carried away." Mei frowned. "Lady Shizuka, the pureblood princess of the Hio Clan, was placed on the execution list after she went berserk and killed a couple of hunters four years ago."

Akari's eyes widened. "What happened to her?"

"No one knows. She went missing and is still being hunted to this day." Aoi added.