Everyone said she was insane but moving to Istanbul was the best choice she had done, after turning not only the Turks wanted her dead but now her own people too. She gave up her state in exchange for a hefty amount of money she and her sister could expend if they left the town. It fixed both her issues.
Every night she came down to the tea shop, it opened all night long, she often sat there trying to think what to do next. It had been months since they moved there, though she didn’t know what would happen later. Maybe she would sell tea, yes that would be good for her, though she didn’t know who to sell it to, the market was already full.
She saw a worried man in front of her, he was richly dressed, usually at these times she was alone in the shop save for a few travelers who had just arrived, this man was there earlier than Remilia, this was her life now, reading books in a tea shop while her sister looked for something to eat in the streets, later she would go and retrieve her sister before the sun came out.
She approached the man, her eyes peering not into him but into his mind, he was desperate, a shipment of opium, he lost half of it at the border to Romania, he managed to escape with the other half but now he had lost everything, he could try to escape if someone bought the shipment from him. Remilia sat at his table and ordered a cup of tea, she then ordered sweetmeats to be brought.
The man quickly realized there was someone else with him, a little girl, maybe she would try to talk to him, though he had nothing to say to this child. He just wanted to be left alone.
“What is troubling you sir? That look is not of a well man” Remilia served him tea
“I won’t pay for that” he said, perhaps the child was trying to get a free meal
“Of course, you won’t, it’s on my tab”
“Go away kid”
“This is how you treat Lady Remilia Scarlet? Well I guess I no longer have a land to rule… But people still call me Lady” she laughed
The man turned to see her again, she was dressed in fine clothes, gold embroidery covered her neck, she had a pearl necklace. It was not unusual to see children her age doing their own business though usually they were begging in the streets.
“Want an explanation? My parents died, I moved here to seek a new life” She laughed
The man smiled, maybe he could get off his situation, he could for sure sell his shipment at full price to this girl, she had no one to help her understand the overprice, or so he thought. Soon they began to negotiate, he was surprised to see that the girl was very good at the negotiation, she knew the exact price for opium, for how much it would sell, and how someone selling this amount in a tea shop this late at night must be desperate.
In the end Remilia walked away, he was adamant about the price, though once he saw her at the door he sprang to meet her and agreed to the price she was putting, less than half of his lowest price, yet the amount was enough for him to get as far away as possible.
They arrived at his place, where Remilia paid a little extra for the boxes to be sent to her own home.
The man thought about running away with the money and the cargo, though when this dark thought crossed his mind, he felt a chill down his spine, Remilia’s eyes usually blue had turned red. She was glaring at him; he could hear her in his mind “Do not even dare” she said.
He decided to go with his instinct and simply dropped the boxes at Remilia’s home. He proceeded to flee as soon as he had fulfilled his contract. That was the last time Ahmed Al’Bashir stepped on Istanbul, it was already hard enough to walk freely given his species.
Cynocephali had been around for quite a long time, hiding their form as humans, not to be confused with the werewolves. Ahmed had smelled something odd in Remilia, a smell of blood and dead meat, not rotten but the way meat smells when no longer part of a living animal. He suspected what she was the moment she glared at him, he decided to just take her money and flee as soon as she had her goods.
Ahmed would flee to Japan, where a tengu city that admitted cynocephali was built. He bought a house and begun to live as a farmer, a far less fruitful life though a safer one. His name in Japan was changed to Inubashiri, it was the closest the tengu could have gotten to his former name.
Remilia now had a full shipment of opium, five boxes filled with paper packages full of opium gum. She decided to break her routine and go the next night to the port, there they did not want to do business with a muslim dog, maybe they would do them with a Catholic girl.
She managed to find an Italian ship soon enough and her religion allowed her to negotiate with them, she could have used hypnosis, but she couldn’t keep them hypnotized for an entire trip, and they would turn on her. With the Italians she could deal with with a lesser illusion. She made it think she sold candy, and that the crates were full of pumpkin seed paste she wanted to sell in Italy.
The next night she was in the boat with the Italians, this time she had to make them think she was sick, this she didn’t need acting. The first days she could withstand the sun, after all it does not kill a vampire on instant, it weakens them leaving them with a nasty sunburn. She attributed this to her weak condition, faking to have anemia. Flandre though was an entirely different issue, she could go with the same lie but nobody would believe her.
So she just allowed Flandre to roam free on the ship. It was madness, a vampire in open water in a smuggling ship no less. Pirates may as well throw them down the sea and they were done for, though Remilia was certain they would make it, it was in their fate. She didn’t know how but they would make it, that is how she and Flandre survived for so long when everyone else in their family was dead, even the maid who turned her to a vampire was dead. Remilia sold the opium to the first person who came to buy it, it didn’t matter if they were giving her a bad price, she wasn’t going to go further to sell more. She would much rather return to Turkey and buy it off from someone who had not yet found a ship, though she wouldn’t wait for it in the tea shop, this was time to move, maybe next time she would let Flandre stay at home, maybe hire a maid to keep her company, maybe even feed her, though word was getting out that no employee of Remilia lasted more than a week.
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