Ada kept her soulless eyes on Alex, causing him to feel uncomfortable due to the faint sense of reverence he could make out from within them.
In a bid to ignore her, Alex shifted his focus to the inner décor of the mansion.
It looked quite big with a sitting room large enough to fit over 50 people at a go.
A chandelier was placed at the center of the sitting room but instead of bulbs, it held candles instead.
Varying degrees of art pieces focused on different subjects were placed on the wall.
One was a canvas painted bloody red with strange black dots placed in an enchanting manner.
The other was of a naked man seated on a floating cloud and reaching down for something while baby angels played around him with instruments.
For a moment, Alex found it hard to take his eyes off the paintings, nearly stumbling as he knocked into a side stool.
"Sorry," Claudia muttered as she sat on a couch and Alex sat on the opposite-placed couch.
Ada walked to the center and bowed slightly.
"Please wait here while I inform Melissa of your presence."
With a steady gait, Ada walked to the staircase before slowly making her way up.
Once he knew she was gone, Alex leaned back on the couch and with his legs crossed, casually inquired. "That maid... what did you call her?"
"Yes." Alex nodded, his curiosity slowly rearing its head. "She seems human but also not, alive but dead as well... Quite a peculiar feeling."
A moment passed as Claudia wondered whether to share the information with Alex.
A minute later, however, she decided it wasn’t special in the first place to keep hidden.
"I understand what you mean. Ada is a tamed ghoul."
"I see," Alex nodded thoughtfully. "...What is a ghoul?"
"Do you not know of this?" Claudia blinked, somewhat shocked that a great being like Alex would be blank about the supernatural world.
Ghouls were common knowledge as far as she was concerned!
Coughing awkwardly, Alex muttered. "My knowledge of the current world is currently still being built up so naturally it would be impossible to know everything."
"... That makes sense," Claudia muttered, albeit still skeptical about the whole thing.
Alex sighed inwardly, making sure to increase the importance of learning as much as he could about the supernatural world.
It wouldn’t look good if he always had to ask someone for answers.
Unfortunately, it was hard to tell where he’d so easily get the information he needed.
In some ways, BoneHaven truly was a good location to start.
It was a shame Basar ruined everything before he had a chance to study properly.
Recalling that Claudia hadn’t still answered his question, Alex prodded her. "Won’t you tell me?"
"Ah." Jolted from whatever she was thinking about, Claudia scratched the back of her head as she began to explain. "Ghouls are undead beings created after spirits with strong lingering attachments to the human plane feed on dead bodies and corpses for a while."
"Yeah, Ada looks human. That I can’t explain considering she’s been around before I knew Arwen."
"I see." Alex put up a brow, that seemed almost judgemental for some reason.
Claudia coughed awkwardly in response.
Silence reigned briefly before Alex asked. "How did she die?"
"No clue." Claudia simply replied.
Just then, Ada returned and announced. "Miss is busy now but you don’t have to wait here... please come with me."
Dimly lit gas lamps illuminated the hallway as three individuals made their way across.
Ada stood at the forefront while Claudia and Alex walked behind her.
The walls were adorned with art just like the sitting room and the floorboard was covered by a worn red rug that had seen better days.
They passed by doors leading to other sections of the house but Ada kept moving ahead like some sort of automated machine.
Alex felt uncomfortable with the sound his shoes made as they touched the rug which was strange considering they were supposed to be silent.
Muffling footsteps wouldn’t normally be a hard thing but it seemed as though the house itself was trying to ensure that he didn’t succeed in his attempts.
With no conversation between them, the walk down the hall was eerily quiet causing Alex to instinctively put his guard up.
Chuckling at his absurd actions, he decided to make small talk with Claudia. "So how did you become a Vampire?"
"... I wouldn’t want to bore you with my story."
"Pray tell," Alex remarked before gently adding. "I insist."
"Well... it was on my 18th birthday," Claudia remarked with a sliver of a smile tugging at the corner of her lips as she reminisced.
".... It was the 25th day of the Month of Darkness, Astra. I... I wanted to celebrate by doing something crazy. My parents warned me to not leave the house but my friends and I planned to have a party in the woods behind the school."
As she recalled her past, her smile slowly but surely turned melancholic.
’Why do I feel like I know the remainder of what she’s about to say already.’ Alex mused inwardly as he gave her a side glance.
Naturally oblivious to his thoughts, Claudia continued uninterrupted. "We were attacked by a group of Vampires studying in the underground college... I watched my friends die before my eyes before I was knocked out and taken away to be trapped in some warehouse outside the city for a month... Long story short, I managed to escape but it was only then I realized that while trapped, I had lost my humanity and was left... as this."
She looked down at her hands, the flawless pale white skin reflecting in her crimson pupils.
"My parents disowned me and tried to kill me." With a sad smile, Claudia glanced over to meet Alex’s gaze. "... I tried to kill myself but... he saved me."
"My father... Nikolas Bathory, the 1st Duke and leader of the 12th Stronghold, otherwise known as Krobridge."