The moment they stepped into the private villa, Flandre immediately grabbed Clever and Meiling by their hands, dragging them through the spacious rooms to play a loud, chaotic game of hide-and-seek.
Remilia offered no objection to the noise. The mansion grounds were sprawling, and letting Flandre wander through the hallways served a practical purpose: it allowed the child to thoroughly familiarize herself with the layout while instinctively checking the corners for any hidden structural traps or security mechanisms. They were a group of women traveling alone in unfamiliar territory, so maintaining a baseline level of caution was only natural.
Sure enough, it didn't take long for them to discover several hidden recording devices planted in the walls.
Remilia wasn't particularly angry about the espionage; she simply gestured for Sakuya to sweep the house, dismantle every last bug, and dump the electronic scraps into an empty storage room. By the time the sweep was finished and the villa was secure, twilight had already settled over the capital.
"Flandre, stop running around for a moment," Remilia called out, her voice echoing through the grand stone hall. "Come over to the table, look at the city map, and help us plan where we are going to explore tomorrow."
A second later, Flandre's head popped out from a nearby doorway. She bounded across the rug, looking up with wide, expectant eyes. "Sister, sister! Are we all going out together tomorrow?"
Remilia paused, calculating their schedule. "Tomorrow morning, Patchy is heading straight over to the National Grand Library to begin her research..."
Flandre's blonde ears drooped instantly, her face falling.
Amused by the dramatic display of disappointment, Remilia smiled and reached out, gently pinching her sister's cheek. "So I am having Sakuya accompany her to handle the books. That means the rest of us can go shopping together!"
Flandre's bright mood returned in a flash. "Yay!" She cheered, hopping in place.
The infectious joy brought a smile to everyone in the room. Sitting on a cushioned stool nearby, Clever looked down at the bouncing child with a wave of gentle envy, softly mumbling to herself, "She really is just a child; every single thought is written right on her face."
While she envied how deeply the older vampire doted on the younger, Clever quickly reminded herself that her own life wasn't terrible either. In the eyes of the older sisters resting back by the Riverside, wasn't she treated with the exact same warmth? Her only real regret was that her physical combat skills were lacking, leaving her unable to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them on the dangerous front lines.
Once the excitement died down, they gathered around the living room television, tuning in to catch the evening broadcast.
In a way, the state media across every nation operated on the exact same playbook. The anchor spent the hour loudly celebrating domestic prosperity while burying local crises, immediately shifting tone to report on the catastrophic downfalls and misery plaguing foreign countries. Everything inside the borders was peaceful and harmonious; everything outside was fraught with imminent ruin.
It was standard political theater. No government was ever going to broadcast how magnificent the outside world was compared to their own messy backyards, as doing so would only encourage their own taxpayers to pack up and leave.
The group from the Scarlet Devil Mansion didn't find the propaganda strange at all; instead, they simply peered past the media spin to analyze the real global trends. For instance, the military councils of Ursus were clearly mobilizing forces toward a fresh border dispute, Columbia's pioneering expansion teams had just suffered massive casualties against the wilderness, the rival political factions inside Bolivar were tearing each other apart again, and a prominent mafia family in Siracusa had been entirely wiped out overnight.
Studying the grand map of Terra, they noted that while warfare and structural collapse were constant occurrences throughout Columbia, Bolivar, and the western expanses of Sargon, the eastern nations of Yan, Higashi, and Rim Billiton remained remarkably quiet. What ever problem they has going on, they remained tight-lipped.
By the time they finished analyzing the news, the sky outside had turned pitch black. Flandre originally wanted to slip out to see what the capital looked like under the cover of darkness, but Clever immediately stepped in to shatter that dream, explaining that Londinium operated under entirely different rules compared to other nomadic cities. Ever since Theresis and his Sarkaz garrison took control of the government, a strict curfew had been enforced.
Within the high stone walls of the elite military academies or major universities, students could still wander across their private campuses after dark. But out on the public avenues, the streets emptied completely the moment the sun went down.
Heavy patrol squads marched through every district. If the watchmen caught a civilian wandering around late at night without a valid, ironclad bureaucratic permit, it resulted in a massive bail fee paired with a mandatory twenty-four-hour stay in the local detention center.
Of course, a person could choose to refuse the bail payment and simply sit in a cell for seven days instead. But that didn't mean the state was providing a week of free room and board. During the stay, the watchmen would thoroughly pull the prisoner's file. If it was confirmed they possessed a stable job and a registered home, the guards would feed them—and upon their release, a detailed invoice for every single meal consumed behind bars would be mailed straight to their employer or family residence.
If the offender turned out to be a vagrant without a job, a registered address, or a family to back them, the legal system took a much darker turn. The guards wouldn't bother wasting cell space on them for long; instead, they would permanently revoke the person's city residency permits and throw them out of the gates into the slums the very next morning.
Consequently, despite its status as the grand capital of a superpower, Londinium possessed the quietest, most barren nightlife on the continent.
Hearing the explanation, Flandre let out a heavy sigh of disappointment. Exploring the local nightlife was supposed to be a mandatory part of any proper journey, but Londinium clearly had nothing to offer. And traveling down to a dingy detention cell just to experience the local prison culture was completely out of the question.
Flandre proudly declared that she was a law-abiding, well-behaved child who had zero desire to see the inside of a Victorian jail. With nothing to do after dark, the group turned in early to get some rest.
The following morning, Clever was jarred awake by the sound of ringing laughter echoing through the villa gardens.
Rubbing her eyes and stepping out of her room, she looked up to see Flandre hovering in mid-air, her colorful wings fluttering as she zipped through the rafters like a bright scarlet bird. It was blatantly obvious the child was deeply invested in today's shopping trip; she had crawled out of bed at the crack of dawn.
Over the last few days of traveling together, Clever had never once seen Flandre wake up early on her own. Usually, it took multiple morning calls, a string of warnings, and Remilia physically dragging the blankets off her mattress before the younger sister would reluctantly slide out of bed.
"Alright, alright, stop fluttering around the ceiling," Remilia said with a wry smile, reaching up to gently catch Flandre as she drifted past. "According to our itinerary, our primary destination for today is the Highbury District. It happens to be the commercial zone closest to our villa."
Flandre dropped to her feet, instantly wrapping her arms around Remilia's waist. "As long as my big sister is walking with me, Flandre is happy to play anywhere in the world!"
Faced with the blatant wave of sisterly flattery, Remilia's elegant expression didn't waver. "If you hadn't spent the last three days sleeping through half the morning, that statement might possess a shred of credibility."
"Hehehe!" Flandre let out an embarrassed chuckle, scratching her cheek. Over the last few nights, she had been staying up far too late playing cards, completely losing track of time. Because she went to sleep in the early hours of the morning, waking up at sunrise had been a bit of a struggle—not a massive issue, but having her sister call her out so precisely made her feel a little silly.
After a hearty breakfast prepared by Sakuya, the group set out through the front gates. The National Grand Library was located just a short distance from their resort, which was one of the primary reasons Sakuya had selected this specific villa complex.
After dropping Patchouli and Sakuya off at the grand archival steps, the remaining trio turned their footsteps toward the commercial avenue.
It was now the end of June on the Terran calendar. Even though the morning sun was still low in the sky, the ambient temperature within the stone streets of Londinium was already climbing. Combined with the heavy, sweltering heat radiating from the countless brass steam pipes crisscrossing the industrial buildings, Clever—who possessed the weakest physical constitution of the group—was already panting heavily after walking just a few blocks, her breath coming in short gasps.
"Wow, your body is incredibly weak! You really need to work out more," Flandre commented cheerfully, skipping over to lightly pat Clever's slumped shoulder.
"I can't help it," Clever wheezed, wiping her brow as she leaned against a stone railing. "My physical constitution has been terrible since the day I was born."
"The localized industrial heat isn't helping either," Remilia noted, looking at the thick beads of sweat pooling on Clever's forehead. She glanced down at her sister. "Flandre, cast a cooling charm over her before she faints on the cobblestones."