On the third floor of Allen Castle,
in the clan leader's master bedroom.
Her Majesty the Queen had just swallowed the seed and was lying naked on the bed. Beside her, a gramophone was playing "Vien, Please Don't Cry for Me."
The old maid knelt reverently beside the bed, praying in silence.
"I feel a little thirsty."
"I'll fetch you some water, Your Majesty." The old maid stood up, but just as she was about to fetch water, she saw a dense mass of Black Roots appear on the Queen's skin.
The Queen opened her eyes as well. She raised both hands. The roots on her hands grew fastest, especially in her palms, where they had already broken through her flesh, revealing things resembling little vines.
"Oh, so they're the thirsty ones." The Queen smiled as she clenched and unclenched her hands. The Black Vines wound endlessly between her fingers, as though they already possessed some sort of awareness. "They tell me they crave the blood of the Allen Family."
The old maid said, "It seems the research was correct. An ancestor of the Allen Family did indeed once possess it, but that brave ancestor of the Gloria Family seized it back."
"Yes, we must thank that ancestor for risking their life to seize this seed;
that only makes me more curious. This seed is so miraculous and magnificent that the Allen Family's ancestor must have had something even better back then.
Yet why has the Allen Family continued to decline all these years?"
"There are many reasons a family might decline, Your Majesty."
"Mm."
The Black Roots on the Queen's body gradually thickened, lifting her off the bed like a mass of spider legs.
"I really want to eat Judiya first." The Queen licked her lips. "I can already