lia Korando regained consciousness from her weakness 2 days after she was pulled back from the disaster of Eternal Silence.
Her eyes were blinded during the previous torture, an injury that even a vampire’s self-healing ability couldn’t restore, unless she could get her hands on the legendary source blood to possibly see light again.
But for lia who escaped death, wanting to see the world before her was undoubtedly a luxury she shouldn’t have. After waking up, she only felt grateful that she had escaped the catastrophic ending, and that her foolish sister could continue to stay by her side.
After experiencing a series of events including her father’s death in battle, family separation, family collapse, faction extinction, being hunted down and tortured, lia felt her vampire life had “transcended.”
At least after walking through the great terror between life and death, she was no longer as fixated on gains and losses of each mont as before.
She let out a long sigh, reached out to feel and embrace her sister Winnie who was sound asleep beside her.
This poor little thing, although she didn’t suffer the predicant of being blinded, had endured no less torture than her sister during the past period of ti. She must be very tired.
She needs rest.
“Hey, why is this vampire wearing a blindfold?”
Just as lia was about to embrace her sister and quietly experience the small joy of surviving death, a woman’s curious voice sounded before the vampire.
lia’s ears twitched.
They say losing one sense makes other senses more acute to fill in the perceptual gap, and this principle applies to vampires as well.
During this period of losing her sight, lia could feel that her hearing and sll had indeed grown much stronger.
She could hear the “youthful” quality in the voice of the woman before her, so she must not be very old, and her Anju accent couldn’t be disguised. Plus her tone wasn’t hoarse and gloomy, and lia couldn’t sll the unique scent of vampires.
Therefore, it could be determined that this woman speaking to her definitely had a complicated relationship with the Blood Vulture vampires, allowing her to walk among vampires without being hard.
She needed more information to confirm the identity of the person before her.
“My eyes were poisoned blind.”
lia replied with slight mockery:
“What? First ti seeing a blind vampire?”
“Yes indeed, before eting grandfather I didn’t know the vampire race had so many aspects to it. This is my first ti seeing so many vampires gathered together, honestly it’s a bit thrilling.
But weren’t you all supposed to be able to self-heal?
Why are your eyes still blind? Though honestly, you look quite good with that eye patch.”
That woman spoke with a joyful tone that lia couldn’t understand, saying like sharing a story:
“Grandfather said you are thugs from the Wolfsbane Clan, but you two ladies don’t look like thugs at all, so, are you actually outcasts within the Wolfsbane Clan?”
“Your grandfather is a vampire?”
lia asked in return:
“And it sounds like you have quite a good relationship with him. Forgive my directness, young lady, you probably haven’t realized what you’re doing, and based on my personal experience, my advice to you is to run before your grandfather goes berserk and drains all that delicious blood of yours.
Although not every vampire would do such a crazy thing, from what I’ve seen, most of my ‘kindred’ have no psychological barriers against doing such things.”
“My grandfather would never do that! Stop slandering him, my grandfather is a legendary knight who keeps his oaths even after becoming a vampire. And do you know what’s the best thing about having a vampire grandfather?
He barely ages!
Which allows to confirm that my natural beauty cos from the blessing of his handsoness and my grandmother’s standard Silan lady bloodline.”
The lady before her didn’t mind revealing more, but lia had already gathered enough information. After a few seconds of silence, she said:
“So, you’re from the Seville family in the Nantes region?”
“Ehhh!”
Standing before the Korando sisters and holding her delicate notebook while curiously observing these unique vampires, Miss Becky widened her eyes. This blonde knight lady exclaid:
“How did you guess that? I didn’t reveal any information about my background.”
“Not a guess, but deduction.”
lia, with her eyes covered by blood-stained cloth, spoke weakly but thodically:
“You said your grandfather still keeps his oaths after becoming a vampire which ans he’s an oath keeper, plus your Anju accent. As far as I know, there haven’t been more than 3 oath keepers born in the Anju region in the past hundred years, and the most famous among them ca from the Seville family, nicknad the ‘Nantes Ranger’.
These are enough for to deduce your background, miss.
If you want to hear more, I’ll tell you that I heard so of their plans from the people who tortured . They plan to ambush the Carpe family’s rchant convoy, but why would soone from the Seville family appear in the Carpe family’s convoy?
The only explanation.
You must be Miss Becky, the ‘lucky blonde fool’ who’s been causing such a stir in the Anju region recently, chosen as the fiancee of Lord Frayzer, the Carpe family heir.
Am I right?”
“Wow, I can only say I’m impressed.”
Miss Becky wasn’t angry about lia calling her a “blonde fool.”
She had always been tolerant about such things since childhood. How others speak is their business, as long as they can bear her heavy punches, they can say whatever they want.
She blinked at the blind vampire before her, couldn’t help but admire:
“I’ve heard that the Wolfsbane Clan controls many underground intelligence networks, making them the second best information gatherers on the continent after the Halfling Thieves’ Guild. Today’s encounter truly proves they’re extraordinary.
But the fact that you can know so much information suggests you’re not without status in the Wolfsbane Clan. How did you end up in such a miserable state?”
“Well, that’s quite a long story.”
lia didn’t seem very interested in sharing her life’s recent turns with Becky, but when she fell silent, another voice sounded from the side:
“Lady Becky, please stop troubling a poor girl who just lost her father and brothers. If you want to know the rise and fall of the Korando family, I will have soone explain it all to you after you reach the Blood Vulture Halls.”
Murphy walked out from the side, making Becky, who was crouching before the Korando sisters, nervously stand up and perform a standard lady’s courtesy.
But the vampire governor shook his head and said:
“I don’t know what Kudel told you that makes you so afraid of , but I prefer our previous relaxed and pleasant way of conversing.
Given your style, I think knight’s courtesy suits you better than lady’s courtesy.
The mountain folk are about to begin their grand celebration. They want to congratulate the first Holy Grail Knight born in the Ancestral Woods. For outsiders, being able to participate in the mountain folk’s celebration is quite an adventure worth writing about. Knight Liwen has already started feasting there.
Aren’t you going?”
“Eating? Of course I’m interested. Then see you at the Crimson Citadel, handso Lord Murphy.”
Miss Becky saw that Murphy wanted to discuss so “private matters” with the Korando sisters, so she made an excuse to leave.
This ability to read the situation proved that Miss Becky was definitely not the “lucky blonde fool” as rumored. She had extraordinary sensitivity in observation.
Perhaps it’s not that she doesn’t understand, but that she doesn’t care?
Watching Becky bounce away, Murphy turned his gaze to the vampire sisters before him. As he crouched down, lia’s body muscles visibly tensed up, holding her soundly sleeping sister tighter.
“Your father didn’t die by my hand.”
Murphy looked at the blind vampire girl before him and said:
“But that death cannot be separated from . The collapse of the Greyclaw faction was also caused by . Your father and brothers died from ambitions they shouldn’t have had, their strength couldn’t match their overly inflated aspirations.
And you and your sister are Moriarty Korando’s last bloodline. To prevent you two from causing trouble in the future, perhaps I should grant you eternal silence here…”
“We won’t be trouble, Lord Murphy.”
lia said softly:
“I’ve already been branded with the Blood Vulture’s mark. I am your people now.”
“You think I would believe that old notion about bloodline determining destiny?”
Murphy laughed mockingly.
He was silent for a few seconds, then asked:
“In your dream just now… what did you dream about? Tell honestly, and I can allow you to live on with another identity, and no longer interfere with you and your sister’s future lives. But if you dare to lie, you’ll bear the consequences.”
Murphy’s strange question made lia’s body shiver.
This vampire lady who inherited Moriarty Korando’s wisdom had already guessed that Murphy might know the answer; he just wanted to hear lia say it herself.
Under his gaze, lia hesitated for a mont, then said:
“I… I dread of another world… another life, from the perspective of a strange man, I saw all sorts of bizarre things…”
“Very good, you’re honest and didn’t lie. It seems that inappropriate blood bond has indeed tied you and Onboard Joy Stick together in a way I cannot imagine.
Being able to have such information interference across two worlds is truly remarkable.”
Murphy stood up, took out a small jar of fresh blood and placed it in lia’s hand, saying softly:
“I don’t know yet whether this connection is good or bad, but I hope you don’t turn it into sothing bad. From now on, you have a little secret in your heart that cannot be told to any third person besides you and .
I hope you keep this secret and play your role afterward. You must serve your overly strange ‘elder’ who doesn’t fit with our world wholeheartedly.
Not just because you owe him your life!
Do you understand my aning?”
——
“Going to Bataxin City now? So urgent?”
The mountain folk’s woods were about to hold an ancient ritual followed by a celebration feast. Lady Dorothy had already prepared to have a big al, but suddenly received instructions from Lord Murphy.
She looked at her governor who had already spread his wings with surprise, saying:
“Did sothing happen over there? At least finish this al first.”
“You can stay here and continue enjoying the celebration. I’m just telling you I’m leaving here, there’s an ergency situation over there that I must rush to imdiately.”
Murphy waved his hand saying:
“I called you over to ask you to take care of my warriors I’m leaving here. Also, they are currently searching through the entire Transia region for displaced war refugees.
Perhaps there will be results soon, so the Blood Rat Gang needs to prepare for this.”
“That’s not our job.”
Dorothy pouted saying:
“Don’t the civil servants from the administrative departnt handle receiving those poor people? I see they’ve already cleaned up the previous camps to prepare accommodation for those refugees.”
“I’m telling you to fulfill your duty!”
Murphy scolded:
“The Blood Rat Gang is an organization under the Shadow Intelligence Bureau. Though you may not be capable of great tasks now, at least you can send people to mix in among the refugees. Rely on your experience of surviving in the grey areas to help Adele identify and eliminate destabilizing factors in advance.
Transia has been in chaos for so many years, those refugees are definitely not pure lotuses.
Disguised bandits, criminals, and even hidden cultists and dangerous individuals must be discovered and controlled imdiately.
I need population, but I don’t need a bunch of unruly ti bombs.”
“Understood! Please rest assured.”
Seeing the governor getting a bit angry, Dorothy imdiately straightened her attitude and said seriously:
“After returning to the Crimson Citadel I will imdiately appoint dedicated people to handle this matter. We will definitely do it well.”
“Good, I hope you can produce a suitable answer. Adele is not soone who will let you bargain with her on work matters.”
Murphy nodded with satisfaction.
He gave Kudel a look, deciding to fly with the Civilian Protection Officer to Bataxin City in the night to participate in receiving the ard Blood Servants.
However, before leaving, Murphy hadn’t forgotten another important matter.
He called over Sharon, a “local,” and instructed her:
“I’m leaving those two Korando sisters who have joined the Blood Vulture here. When you return to the Crimson Citadel take them back with you, but while I’m away you need to help watch them.
Record any abnormalities, and if life-threatening problems occur contact imdiately through the Computation Bead.”
“Mm, okay, leave it to .”
Sharon, who was eating a mountain folk style roasted chicken leg with oil glistening around her mouth, responded very seriously. Murphy then took off with Kudel into the night, speeding towards Bataxin.
In the high altitude under the night sky, the Civilian Protection Officer said softly to Murphy:
“You’re rushing over there in ti because you’re worried those captives might cause trouble?”
“Yes, the Blood Vulture Clan they once served has collapsed into history’s garbage heap. No one can know what those forr Blood Servants think about the new Blood Vulture Clan.”
Murphy let the night wind blow his long hair, and glanced at Revnor the blood vulture spirit flying with him nearby. At this altitude he no longer concealed his concerns.
He said to Kudel:
“Moreover, I received so unsettling news from Grand Duchess Shani, the Kingdom of Nordtov added so of their dostic ‘unstable elents’ to this batch of captives, planning to take the opportunity to make use of waste.
If those fellows couldn’t be law-abiding citizens in the northerners’ place, why should I believe they would turn into good people after coming to Transia?
This batch of captives ca at a very tily mont.
But if we don’t handle them well, they could very likely beco poison buried within Transia.
I could indeed send them to the frontlines as cannon fodder to be consud, but I have higher expectations for them. We are very short of people now, and I promised to give anyone entering Transia a second chance.
So, I must teach them the rules of this land before they make mistakes!”
“Actually there’s a simpler way.”
Kudel pondered for a mont and said to Murphy:
“Current Transia is like a dangerous jungle. In a situation where order hasn’t fully recovered, suppression by force is also a quick way to cut through the chaos.
If those criminals and unruly soldiers think they can live like masters in Transia through violence, then I believe those battle-hungry and crazy warriors under your command will definitely teach them a good lesson.
When the other party won’t listen to kind persuasion, communicating with fists becos more convenient.”
“Mm, this is indeed a good thod.”
Murphy nodded and praised:
“You are indeed a well-experienced senior, Lord Kudel. Bringing you into the Crimson Citadel’s system is definitely the most correct choice I’ve made during this period.
If I didn’t already have Maxim, I would definitely use every ans to make you my blood descendant.”
“I can only say, fortunately you didn’t do that.”
Kudel let out a deep laugh in the darkness and replied:
“Otherwise you would have gained an enemy that would give you endless headaches. Please believe , Lord Murphy, Maxim suits you better. If that loyal one can persevere and continue forward on this path of loyalty, all the way to the end of this road of loyalty, then he will definitely beco a follower hundreds of tis more excellent than .
Maxim has sothing that I lack, that is his nature as a Transian.
Or rather, I have already been bound by oaths in life but his future is free, allowing you to shape him into an unparalleled fierce weapon.”
“Yes, he’s so free that he has to secretly handle sothing like having a relationship without letting others know.”
Murphy complained strongly:
“Dear Maxim still thinks I don’t know about that peculiar interaction between him and Lady Lainnia. But I think Maxim is asking for trouble.
Blood Knights cannot have lovers.
This is a rule set from the mont the Blood Pact Clan was born. To win the beauty’s hand, my poor Maxim is destined to experience countless hardships and tribulations.
But how should I put it?
Given his personality of dying if he doesn’t fight, he’ll probably enjoy it.”
User Comments
0 comments from readers