Chapter 5 - My First Student, a Vampire Princess

"Stop looking at me like that." She looked away from me. "I'm not a piece of meat."

Realizing that having my mouth wide open right beside her might create some confusion, I closed it right away, my lips forming a thin line, and laughed nervously to calm things down.

"Look, I'm sorry…I didn't mean to scare you."

To be honest, I had no clue why she was so scared of me. We were on the Royal Academy grounds. There shouldn't be anyone unauthorized around here. Actually, there were a lot of confusing things about her, and I didn't even know where to start.

"A-Are you really a teacher?"

Her voice was laced with fear as she uttered those words, slowly walking backward unconsciously.

It didn't take a genius to know that she was scared. But the real question was: What the hell is she scared of? I stared at her and simply nodded to answer her question.

Maybe that was one of the reasons why I was sent here as an undercover professor, there were probably things that were weird around here. Otherwise, no students would be scared in the Royal Academy Territory.

"Yeah, I just arrived at the Academy a few hours ago." I stayed still, not wanting to scare her any more than she already was. "What about you?"

Her eyes drifted off. "You don't need to know about me."

This time, I was getting really pissed off, her attitude wasn't one that I was used to dealing with. Usually, people were quite open with me about things since they knew I was much stronger than them, but that girl didn't care whatsoever. I tried my best to stay calm and talk to her as if we were friends, but it was getting harder and harder.

I managed to laugh a little. "I can't even know your name?"

She looked at me and started looking for something in her right pocket. Then, when she found it, she showed it to me with a smug smile on her face.

"Yeah. That's who I am, idiot."

In her hand, there was a red and black insignia with the design of two white canines.

Even if I didn't know much about the political side of this world…I would be stupid if I hadn't recognized that insignia. It was from the Vampire Royal Family. The Vampire Royal Family are the ones dictating everything that happens between the Vampires.

I had met a few vampires during the war, I even managed to sleep with a few of them, and I must say… they are great at fighting, both in bed and on the battlefield.

And out of every possible vampire, I was talking to their princess. 

Nonetheless, her showing that insignia left me even more confused! Why was a princess roaming the Royal Academy aimlessly three weeks before the semester started? What kind of princess is she?

I needed to learn more about her.

"Oh, the Vampire Princess in person." I bowed out of respect. "It's a pleasure to have you in my class!"

Knowing the identity of my first student was exciting, her background was even more exciting. If there were one or two other students like her in my class, things would get a lot more fun!

She sighed. "Now that you know about my identity, why don't you leave me alone?"

I clicked my tongue. "Not so fast. You still need to answer some of my questions."

A scoff escaped her mouth as she barely contained her laughter.

"You think being a teacher gives you the right to order me around? You're really an idiot. Wow."

My eyes lost their playfulness when she uttered those words. I walked in her direction as I started gathering my mana in my right palm. At the same exact time, I made sure to exude the deadly aura that I had perfected over the years at war. My presence started to be suffocating as she stared at me with wide eyes.

I made sure not to release too much of my mana since that might blow my cover as a normal professor, but controlling my emotions had never been my strong suit.

"No, to be honest, I only came here because it was the only job offer given to me since the war is over." 

I retracted my aura right after saying that.

Yes, I intimidated her. I know…not the greatest start to my career as a professor, but she wasn't listening to me, and she even disrespected me. I needed to prove to her that I could deal with her.

The look on her face also turned serious when she realized how strong I was. "W-Who are you?" Her voice was trembling. "This energy…it's as if you're stronger than my father!"

'Oh…fuck, did I release too much mana?' I thought in the back of my mind, thinking of a way to play it off.

"Stronger than the Vampire King?" I shook my head. "Are you sure you're okay?."

"No, no, no! Do that again! I want to see that again!"

I smirked. Given this great opportunity, I made sure to release only 5% of my mana.

She felt it, and instantly, a frown found its way on her face. "You changed something, it's not as strong as before."

"I think you just hallucinated about me. I'm really nothing special, just a soldier who finally managed to retire."

"Who are you? From which family are you part of?"

I smiled as brightly as I could when I saw that my trick seemed to have worked. "My name is Caedrel Stuart. I'm just a normal soldier. If you search my name online, you won't find anything about me.

Before she could ask a follow-up question, I asked her another question because of her appearance. Her hair was all ruffled up, her clothes dirty, and there were big dark circles under her eyes.

I wasn't stupid. That girl hadn't slept in days, and it showed.

"Wait before you answer. You'll have to tell me this. Why are you running around the Royal Academy? Is someone chasing you?"

I noticed earlier that she had been trying to escape even before she had seen me, which meant that there was something on the Academy grounds scaring her. No one should react in such a way when they think they are safe.

My senses hadn't picked up on anything, and I hadn't seen anyone else's footsteps on the way to the Storage Room. But I still asked. There might have been something that I missed.

"Don't worry about me. I'm fine." She still didn't seem too keen on talking to me. But there was a progression; she wasn't insulting me anymore! "Enough about that. You said your name was Caedrel Stuart. Why would you be offered to teach in the Royal Academy if you were just a normal soldier? This doesn't make any sense."

I just shrugged. The less I would explain about myself, the better.

"I'm just as much in the dark as you. Don't worry."

She frowned. "You never had a promotion or anything like that?"

"Nope, nothing."