Reborn As A Princess Mated To The Vampire Prince

Chapter 2: Her Present

Your wife?” The head soldier riding the horse in front expressed his confusion as a hint of fear washed over his being. He hadn’t heard that Prince Yvan was married, and at that moment, he feared that his impudence brought on by his ignorance would cost him his life.

Upon hearing that statement, Caleana’s mind and emotions were grounded. She noticed her surroundings and the situation she put herself in by walking out of the tent. She wanted to confront the soldiers and confirm if her father was amongst one of the dead in the vanguard regiment, but her emotions had been too strong for even her to control.

Yvan stepped back and took Caleana by the hand. She didn’t react in any way besides to look down at his hand as he firmly held on to hers. To think that he would go so far as to lie to his allies to keep her, a witch, alive. It must have been true. They must have been very close when they were younger.

She remembered that she had someone like that in her childhood, though she hadn’t been sure if it really was Prince Yvan.

“Yes, my wife!” Yvan called out to the soldiers, “Now, I don’t mean to sound so impatient, but I demand that you hand me the list of casualties. I assume you have one, as it is your duty to take a record of any injuries and deaths?”

Yvan’s demand was met with the soldiers nervously glancing at each other.

The head soldier dismounted his horse and reached into a satchel attached to the saddle, pulling out a scroll before cautiously approaching the prince. He handed him the scroll with his head lowered to show respect.

Yvan quickly took the scroll from his hand and released Caleana’s to open it. He immediately skimmed through the hundreds of names, and the one he searched for didn’t appear.

“What are the whereabouts of the general of the vanguard regiment, General Rhith?” He asked as he looked up from the scroll. Caleana’s muscles tensed up.

“There was no sign of the General, and there were no survivors either. If he is the leader of that regiment, it’s possible to think that he might have been captured,” the soldier explained and Caleana was filled with so much hope that her eyes glistened and the rain ceased to only a drizzle. Unfortunately, that only made the soldiers more alerted, as they recognized the acts of a witch.

The soldier standing before Yvan drew his sword from its sheath, and Yvan did the same with his dagger. The dagger’s sharp blade soon extended to become the length of a normal sized sword, which he pointed at the soldier.

“You are married to a witch! Prince or not, that is blasphemous!” the soldier called out as his companions dismounted from their horses and also drew their swords.

“You do not understand my circumstance,” Yvan said to the soldier, ensuring that Caleana was a safe distance behind him, “Now, I urge you to desist or-”

Before he knew it, a small object flew by his face so fast that he barely noticed it until the cut on his cheek began to burn painfully. He brought his hand up to touch his skin and felt the wetness of his blood as it flowed down to his neck.

Behind the head soldier, he saw one of his companions holding up a bow, with another arrow ready to be launched towards him. He had been careless. His main focus was on the soldier behind him, and he forgot that the others were also a threat.

The head soldier slowly smiled, and it was at that moment that the soldiers serving under Yvan came around or out of their tents, noticing that their Prince was under attack and instantly coming to his aid.

Naturally, the soldiers from the Highlands were outnumbered and were all killed one at a time as Yvan watched on, until he had a realization that made his blood turn cold. He looked behind and saw that the arrow that passed him seconds ago hadn’t been intended for him but rather for the one standing behind him.

“Caleana!” he called out, his voice filled with pain as he reached out to grab her hand. She was about to fall to the ground, the arrow lodged into the right base of her neck, right above her collar bone. Her blood flowed as a rushing river and covered her body, spilling down to the ground and staining the grass.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry…” he had tears in his eyes as he gently helped her to lay down. At the same time, the cut on his cheek had begun to heal, and he frantically thought of a method he could use to stop the bleeding. Witches didn’t have any healing abilities besides their spells, but Caleana was not in the right state to do any of that.

“I’m going to pull the arrow out,” he said to her and did as he wanted because she could barely speak. Blood rushed down the corners of her mouth. He firmly pressed on to the wound on her neck to stop the bleeding.

The soldiers noticed their Prince when they had killed all the messenger soldiers, and before they could rush to his side, they heard a loud rumbling and looked up at the sky to see that it had turned darker than the night sky.

“This is the end for us!” one of the soldiers called out, “A witch’s blood has been spilled. Her kind are coming for us! They’ll kill us all!”

The soldiers panicked, and the rain fell harder and harder. The rain drops fell on Yvans head. They soaked his hair and dropped down, diluted Caleana’s blood. He wished he could heal her. His wounds could heal fine on their own, but it was not the same for a witch.

Caleana firmly grabbed Yvan’s hands, mastering all the strength she could to say,

“You… Leave… They’re… coming… Kill you…”

That was all she was capable of saying. Yvan frantically shook his head. The soldiers scurry about the field, either preparing their weapons to fight or running for the stables to get as far away from the field as they possibly could within the next few minutes.

“I’m not going to leave you here,” he said. Caleana was struggling to breathe, and her vision grew foggier by the second. She didn’t want him to die there with her. As she looked up at his face, his tears falling down to her face along with the drops of water in his hair, she knew right then that her heart couldn’t bear the thought of him dying after all he had done for her.

She averted her eyes to the sky above her. The clouds had swirled right above the field, guiding the witches to where their enemies were. It wouldn’t take long before they arrived, and he didn’t want to leave her alone. She had to protect him.

She used the remainder of her energy and concentrated her power to the clouds above. She would use the cloud against the witches by moving her and the prince to a different location.

Naturally, that meant that she wouldn’t receive any help, and she would succumb to her wounds, but she would rather have that than have him killed.

Still holding on to his hands, she gazed deep into his eyes, though she could barely see.

“I’ll see you on the other side,” she muttered just loud enough for him to hear before a bolt of lightning swiftly struck down at them. The last thing she saw was the area growing brighter, the light concealing his face, and feeling an electric wave rush through her body and washing away the pain.

“Leah!” She brought back to reality when she heard a woman’s voice call out from behind her. She quickly looked behind her at the middle-aged woman who didn’t quite seem to be happy with her. The woman nodded her head at something in front of her and looked down at the counter where there was a cash register, a cup of hot coffee, and a couple of bills.

Looking up, she saw a customer impatiently waiting for her to process her order.

“Right, sorry! I’ll get to it!” She called out, grabbing the bills and inputting the code into the case register to get it to open. She paused for a moment, wondering what she was doing and how she knew to do that. Trusting her mind, she put the pills in the register and pulled out some coins, handing them to the customer along with the coffee. The customer left, disappointed by the service.

The middle-aged woman walked up behind her and carefully grabbed her shoulder.

“You’ve been overworking yourself these last two days. I told you to take it easy,” As she spoke, she pulled out a small object from her apron’s front pocket. The object lit up, and she turned it off some seconds later.

“Your shift ends in an hour, but I’ll let you go home early. There’s no point to you being here if your mind is going to be elsewhere,” With that, the woman walked away and disappeared into a room in the back.

Caleana could only gaze down at her hands. They were warm, as though she had been holding on to something warm a moment ago. And it wasn’t the coffee either, before she had that feeling even when the woman yelled out her name.

And what was it that she called he? It was ‘Leah’. Only her aunt had ever called her that. Everyone else called her by her full name. She gazed around the open room. There was a light chatter in the atmosphere. Some teenagers were sitting at a table by the window, still in their uniforms, as school had gotten out not too long ago.

There were also two men sitting across the room and talking about whatever.

There weren’t any waiting costumers, so she supposed that it was fine for her to leave.

She took off her apron and threw it to the floor. She didn’t bring anything with her to work besides her self-phone and bank card, which she kept inside the phone case.

Her work badge stayed at work, so she unpinned it from her shirt and placed it down on the counter. Without another word or lingering on for too long, she walked around the counter and walked out the front entrance.