Chapter 18: Barca

It has been ten years since the death of Alice Fenlai, sister of Isaac Coldblood. These years had been quiet, yet eventful. The vampires of the Coldblood Clan had spent them training hard, trying their best to increase their powers. Isaac himself had grown and trained and reached the peak stage of B rank, and entered the realm of a warlock. For mages the ranks were Beginner Mage, Acolyte Mage, Elementary Mage, Half Circle Magus, Full Circle Magus, Warlock etc…,but it was also divided into stages like the power ranks. They were Low, Middle and High. Isaac was a High Warlock after ten years of hard training and was only a step away from the next realm, known as the Arcanist. He had spent most of his time training magic, since magic power didn’t grow on its own. Kato, his best friend, had also become a High Warlock, and he had also entered the middle stage of rank B.

Amelia and Serana were both late B rankers, but Amelia was also a Middle Warlock, while Serana was only a Low Warlock. As for Alicia, she was at the early stage of rank B and only a High Full Circle Magus, so she was still quite a bit away from the other wives power levels. Bogat had become a late stage B ranker, and a Low Warlock. He didn’t have as much time to train as everyone else, since he had to manage the clan’s day to day operations. As for Lilia and Aylard, the twins, they were both late B rankers and High Full Circle Magus’. They were very equal in power these days. Eric had arrived at the late stage B rank as well, and was a Middle Warlock.

1st person, Isaac.

It wasn’t only our personal strength that had increased these years, the Coldblood Clan’s trade empire had increased in power as well. As for the Fenlai Prefecture, we were in absolute control of it, even with a new Lord in power. We had also expanded our branches in all our different trades all over the kingdom. It could be said that our influence was the strongest in the Royal Capital now. Ten years ago we had begun to rapidly expand our organization. We started buying out other organizations and eliminated rival businesses. We used our assassins very well to kill the rivals who didn’t submit to us. We took all the providers of raw goods under our control all over the kingdom. We also bought out all the mercenary guilds and even the rogue guilds and adventuring guilds as well. There was not a single person who didn’t know the Coldblood Name. We also had our own crest now that was known by all, and is worn by our merchants and mercenaries. It was a sanguine drop of blood, embedded into a cold blue moon. We had also incorporated our orphanages into every single major city of the kingdom, and with the help of the mercenaries and rogues guild we had an all-encompassing information network. There was not much that could escape our detection, as we had eyes and ears all over the kingdom.

As the years passed by, the economy of the Kalderon Kingdom came completely under our Clan’s control. Thus the first stage of our plan had come into fruition. Influentially we were now on par with the Royal Clan. The only organization that could stand up to us was the Royal Clan. While we owned a lot of businesses in the kingdom, we didn’t own all of them. The Royal Clan personally managed around fifteen percent of them, while we had eighty percent. The rest was controlled by third parties. Even though we possessed far more businesses than the Royal Family, they were still far above us in strength. Because they had the Royal Knights. There were around two hundred of them, and they were all A rankers and they trained in a special method, only known as the Light Arts and Shadow Arts, which allowed them to beat people one stage above them. Just the training you had to go through was hellish. As for us, we only had a handful of A rank equivalents. If we were to fight now, we would be decimated.

But that matters not. We would take our time, like a spider awaiting its prey to fall into its web, and strike when the moment was right. Now there was only one assassin organization in the entire Kingdom of Kalderon, and that was the Coldblood branch of the ShadowBlades. With the help of Valen we had subjugated all the other branches, and I was now one of the major leaders in the organization, only second to Valen himself, and equal to few others. The last time I met the other leaders, which was very recently, we had a spar to test our strength. While I still couldn’t win against Valen, I could fight him now without being beaten in a flash. This was not only because of me being equivalent to a normal peak A ranker, but because of my mastery with weapons was very high. As vampires we mastered weapons quickly. Ten years of me practising could be equal to over a hundred years of someone else, or even several hundreds of years.

After we had subjugated all the other assassin organizations we tasked them with investigating the nobles of the kingdom, and then to slowly kill the nobles who were loyal supporters to the king, weakening his sphere of influence. Anyone that was potentially against the king was to be reported to me. If we found someone good, then I could use them. But it could be troublesome if our assassins and spies were discovered, or if they harboured any suspicions. So we decided to try and distract them a bit, and have them focus their attention elsewhere. So we gathered all the leaders of the mercenary guilds and rogue guilds. The fact that the Coldbloods controlled all the guilds was a bit of a secret so we could use them for this. We ordered them to have the mercenary disguise themselves as bandits and go raid the villages around the kingdom,and have them pillage, raid, raze villages to the ground, and rape the women inside. Since such large number of bandits would appear out of nowhere the kingdom would think that it might be an organized coalition of bandit clans, so they started sending out troops to try and stop them, which resulted in lots of unrest around the kingdom.

With our information net we also discovered many bandit groups. With the allure of money and gold we put them under our employment and had them raid relentlessly. Of course there would be no proof that they were working for us. They didn’t even know who they worked for, just that they were rich, and they couldn’t spill the beans even if they were tortured and killed. As for the fake mercenary bandits, they weren’t allowed to carry their identification cards when doing their duties, and they were sworn to secrecy as well. Whenever the army managed to capture any of them, they would commit suicide. They wouldn’t be allowed to live anyway, so they would rather not become a liability to their guild. Doing as such was also common for bandits, as they were very free willed, and didn’t want to live a life of slavery or be in captivity.

Thus the attention of the Royal Family was fully dedicated to the sudden horde of bandits around the kingdom, and even caused a bit of panic in them. So the situation the kingdom was in was a very uneasy one. Few dared to travel alone on the roads, fearing for bandits.

The vampire population had also increased a bit. There were more normal vampires now, and they were even spread around the kingdom. The total number of vampires numbered a few tens. As for our human soldier numbers, they were much higher. We had around two hundred elite guards now, though they were only at the C level, only a few were at the B level. But it was still quite strong for a low rank country. The total number of A rankers in the kingdom only numbered around two hundred. Considering how many people there were in the kingdom, that was a very small amount. The total population of the Kingdom of Kalderon numbered around two billion people. Only one in ten million would be able to become an A ranker. Compared to some of the biggest empires in the human continent, that was nothing. In the biggest empire, known as the Eternal Empire, there were several million A rankers. Just the population there was unimaginable, although the A rankers to population rate was lower there. It was way more common to be able to become an A ranker, though not completely common still. One reason for it was the sheer size of the Empire. It was thousands of times bigger than Kalderon, and Kalderon was about a hundred thousand kilometres in diameter. But then again, this world was just too big. Luckily there existed teleportation arrays in most countries, albeit not here in Kalderon. In fact it was rare for even such a “small” country not to have them. The reason for this was because the space had to be compatible.

It was very rare for the space not to be compatible, but Kalderon was one of those places. This was also the reason it was so low ranked. Since there wasn’t enough natural energy in the air, the beings born here didn’t have enough talent. This natural energy didn’t affect how quick you trained, but only how talented you were born. If you were born in Kalderon, but travelled all the way to the Eternal Empire, you wouldn’t strain any quicker and vice versa. This was because natural energy was unrelated to mana. The amount of mana in the air was equal everywhere, except some extremely rare places. Mana is what affects how quickly you train your body, or how quickly you learn. Natural energy is what you’re made of, you could say. But talent wasn’t completely decided by natural energy. It also had to do with yourself. Talent was decided by inherent talent and natural energy. Natural energy only increased the average talent, so there could still be geniuses born in a region of low natural energy that are equal to a person from a place with high natural energy. But the geniuses from the regions of high natural energy would be monsters compared to the other geniuses, since the natural energy was much higher.

If the teleportation arrays didn’t exist, then communication between countries would be almost impossible, since it would take centuries to walk such distances. This was also the reason why Kalderon was a bit secluded and peaceful. It didn’t enter many wars, in fact it only had one enemy, which was the neighbouring kingdom, the Kingdom of Tabarut. Tabarut was also a region of low natural energy. In fact the region of Kalderon and the region of Tabarut were the very same region that was split between two kingdoms. These two kingdoms would often enter war with each other, and one had ended only a short time ago.

As for how the human world was built up, it was put into several continents. All the continents, including all the humans’ ones, and the other ones with more mythical races and even a mix between humans and other races, all form a huge supercontinent. In the middle of this continent there is a massive wilderness, full of magical beasts and monsters. The continents and the known kingdoms and empires all encompass the edge of the supercontinent. The stronger the kingdom or empire the closer it is to the center of the supercontinent.

For the people of Kalderon it is common knowledge that a human cannot go above A rank, but that isn’t necessarily true. It’s only like that on our continent and some of the other ones on the complete outskirts of the continent. If you go deeper, where the natural energies are more abundant it will become possible for a human to surpass the A rank. But naturally you had to have been born there. Other than that there were still other ways, like getting some miraculous medicine or some treasure, but the chance of that happening was abysmal. It might not happen in a billion years. Then again, it might also happen multiple time in only a few centuries. It all depended on an individual's luck.

This was all information that I had learned in these ten years. While commoners wouldn’t know much of this, some nobles knew it, and the Royal Clan of course knew about it. We had naturally also discovered these facts with our information network that even had infiltrated Tabarut. It’s worthy to note that the Eternal Empire was from a continent deeper in, and had experts surpassing A rank.

After some time our spies had discovered something bad. It was the reason for my sister’s death. It seemed that the cause of her death might have been my fault. A few years prior to her death, back when I had finally reunited with my sister, we had been beset upon by a group of knights. At the time those knights had demanded that we give them our food supplies, and they had been very rude to me. In anger I slaughtered all of them. It seemed like the leader of that group was a princess. The princess of the crown prince, his wife. In his rage, he had spent several years trying to figure out who killed her, then in the end personally led fifty Royal Knight to the capital of Fenlai to exterminate the Lord Commander and his family. Since my sister was the wife of the Lord Commander, she naturally suffered that fate as well. When I heard that report I had been enraged, and almost went on a slaughtering spree. In the end I just charged into the forest and killed a few hundred beasts in it. In the end it made the forest safer.

One other thing that had happened in these years, is that Bogat had stepped down as the head of the Coldblood Clan, and I had officially become the leader of the Coldblood Organization, although Bogat still did all the managing, but I would make all the important decisions.

One day I was sitting in my study, having a rare break from all the training. From time to time I would take a day or two to rest, or spend with my family and friends. As I was reading a book, a knock resounded from the door.

“Come in.” I said.

Eric opened the door and walked in, then sat opposite to me.

“Isaac, I have a report for you that might interest you.” He said. A while ago he had finally dropped the ‘Lord’ suffix that he used to use. We were good friends so I thought it was unnecessary to call me ‘Lord Isaac’ when we were casually talking. It would be fine when we were having official meetings, but other than that it was unnecessary.

I gestured for him to continue.

“It’s a report from our spies in the Royal Capital about potential allies. It seems that there is a certain family that might harbour ill intent towards the king. They are the Barca family, a small noble family. The head of the family, Rommel, used to lead a battalion in the army, before he retired. He’s an early A ranker now. His son Frederick used to lead a battalion as well, alongside his eldest son that had joined that battalion under his father. In a battle against Tabarut, almost all of that battalion was slaughtered, including his eldest son, because of the bad decisions one of the prince’s made. Since so many lives were lost in the name of the prince, the king decided he had to do something about it, so he blamed Rommel’s son and had him executed. The Barca family still harbours a grudge against the king for this. Of course the king knows nothing of that. One more notable thing is that Frederick's youngest son still lives, the only living grandson Rommel has left, joined the Royal Knight Cadets and is known as quite the prodigy. This has caused their status to be raised back to nobility.” Eric reported. Seemed like we found the people we were looking for.

“Very good. Alright, I’ve decided. I’ll personally go meet these Barcas fellows and have them help my cause. I’m sure that they will be more than pleased to help. Eric you’re coming with me, as well as Aylard and a few guards. Go make the preparations.” I ordered him. Eric immediately went to tell Aylard, then Aylard went and gathered the elite guards. These were some of our most elite guards, all at the B rank, though they only numbered ten or so, but it would be more than enough. The next day we set out, after saying our goodbyes to our loved ones. After all we would probably be gone for a few months at the least.

The journey was a long and arduous one, at least for the guards. We only travelled at night, which was a bit hard for the humans, but they were used to a lot of night shifts in the castle anyways. After a whole six months of travelling we finally arrived in the Royal Prefecture. After another week or two, we arrived at the Royal Capital, the city of Kaldron, capital of the Kalderon kingdom. A very creative name. It was also a hotspot for alchemy, hence its name.

Pr’s Note: Kaldron as in cauldron.

Inside the city we headed to the local Rogue’s Guild, which was the biggest part of our information network these days. There, we got our hands on the location of the Barca Mansion. It was only a good hour’s ride away from the Guild Headquarters. Outside the mansion I had the guards stand guard, outside the entrance, while Aylard and Eric accompanied me to the doorstep. I knocked on the door, waiting for someone to come let us in. The Barca family didn’t have the brightest idea that I was coming. Someone like me, visiting a small family like theirs, was unthinkable. Soon the door was opened by an old man in a servant's attire.

“What can I help you with Sirs?” The butler asked. I smiled at him.

“Hello there, my name is Isaac Coldblood. I have come to see the man known as Rommel Barca and his family.” I announced. The old butler was visibly shocked at the revelation.

“Yes Lord Coldblood, I’ll go inform him immediately.” He said, then rushed away after letting us in. A moment later a middle aged man came into the entry hall.

“Are you really Lord Isaac Coldblood? My name is Rommel Barca, and I am the head of the Barca family.” He said.

“Mr. Barca, I am indeed Isaac Coldblood, head of the Coldblood Clan.” I told him confidently.

“Oh my, you look so young, you don’t look a day over twenty, but you should be around forty. You must have at least reached the B rank then.” He said.

“What are we doing standing out here. Follow this old man into the living room.” He then continued. We walked through a few hallways and entered a cosy living room.

“Now, May i know why you came and paid a visit to, a lowly noble, Lord Isaac?” Rommel asked.

“It has come to my attention that your oldest grandson died because of the stupidity of the prince orders and your son was executed because of it having to take the blame off the prince. You must harbour quite the grudge against the king then, don’t you?” I asked him. Rommel became slightly worried at my words.

“Rommel, maybe you have heard of an event that happened around decade ago? The crown prince led fifty Royal Knights to the capital of Fenlai Prefecture to kill the Lord Commander and his family. Maybe you have heard the rumours? The rumours that, the wife of the Lord Commander was indeed my biological sister, the sister of Isaac Coldblood?” I asked him with a very suggestive tone. Rommel’s expression became serious.

“I have indeed heard the rumours. Could it be that it’s true?” He asked.

“It is indeed true. Both you and I harbour unforgivable grudges against the Royal Family, but I have something you don’t, while you have something I don’t. For me it is power, while you are an insider. You need me, and I need you.” I said. There was a moment of silence, as Rommel was thinking.

“Lord Isaac, it seems you want me to join you in this vendetta, but let me ask you, are you strong enough to compete against the crown? Just how strong are you?” He asked. I let a smirk creep on my face. I let my aura fall upon him. Even though I’m only a peak B ranker, my aura was that of a peak A ranker. He himself was an early A ranker. I let my aura fade away again as I saw the pressure it was putting on him. My aura was even scarier since it was affected by my unholy vampirism, giving hints at a very scary air.

“This, so strong! You’re already at the peak rank A? You’re so young, but already at this stage. Either you weren’t born here, or you are one of those geniuses only seen once in a thousand years. I spent 140 years, but I have only reached the early A rank. And that aura, it was menacing. Alright, I will help you, just tell me what to do.” He said.

“Good. It’s still much too early for us to act, but with you here, our plans will progress smoothly. Your grandson is one of the Royal Knight Cadets right? Is he at home now?” I asked. Rommel excitedly looked up at the mention of his grandson.

“Erwin? Yes he’s at home. Albert, go bring Erwin down here.” He said, then told the butler to go get his grandson. Moments later Erwin came into the room.

“What do you need me for grandfather?” He politely asked, as he saw that they had company.

“Erwin, come, come, do you know who this is? This Isaac Coldblood, head of the Coldblood Clan! Imagine how surprised I was when he came to my doorstep. Really, he is an amazing man. He’s only a year or so older than you, but he’s already at the peak rank A! And that’s not all. He has something very important in common with us. Remember ten years, when the crown prince marched to the capital of Fenlai prefecture with fifty Royal Knights to kill the Lord Commander. The Lord Commander's wife, was Lord Isaac’s sister, so now he wants revenge. That’s why he came to us. We’re going to help him get revenge for his sister, and he’s going to help us get revenge for your brother and father!” Rommel said. Erwin looked both shocked, surprised and joyful, he looked to me.

“Is it true? You’re really Lord Isaac Coldblood, and you’re really going to help us?” He said. I looked back at him with a smile on my face.

“It’s true. But it’s more like you’re going to help me. You’re a Cadet right Erwin? Your job will be to look for talented people in the Cadets at turn them to our cause. Rommel, do you have any other ideas?” I asked.

“I do, but first let me ask you about your numbers. How many strong people do you have?” He asked back.

“We have eleven people that can rival A rankers. They’re anywhere between early to late stage. We also have someone who is one the verge of becoming an Arcanist. He might have already become one, as I haven’t seen him in half a year, ever since I left our castle. Valen Shadowblade, the leader of the Shadowblade Organization might also help us, in fact I’m the leader of the Kalderon Branch of his organization, and the next in line to become the leader.” I said. When Rommel heard my last words, he was shocked.

“Valen Shadowblade?! He’s a peak A ranker legend! He’s comparable with a S ranker! And he’s your friend? And you’re even the next in line to take over the organization after him. Amazing. His Shadowblades are the strongest assassins on this human continent. Only in the other more powerful continents will you find more powerful people, like the ones in the Eternal Empire.” Rommel said.

“Well, you’re quite informed. You even know of the other continents and their power. Well, other than our assassins, we have around twenty to thirty B rankers, and around two hundred C rankers, but these numbers will all grow. We won’t try and eradicate the Royal Clan yet, we’ll still wait a while, maybe a few tens of years more. By then I will have surpassed the A rank, and our numbers will have bolstered. But you said that you have some ideas. Let me hear them?” I said.

“You can surpass the A rank? Amazing. But yes I had a bit of an idea. My daughter-in-law, the Erwin’s mother, works at the mercenary guild here, so she could talk with some of the mercenaries and find some that can help our cause.” He said.

“Yes that would be good. ‘Technically I already own all the mercenary guilds in the kingdom, but I can’t tell them about this matter, it’s enough that I already have them acting as bandits.’ Alright, you have your daughter-in-law do that.” I said.

“Alright. But are all those bandits really from the mercenary groups? I didn’t expect that. You really have put a lot of measures in this.” He said.

“Yes, I even almost bought out this kingdom for the sole purpose of getting control of the economy and all the food supplies. When the times comes, I will cut the Royal family off. Even now we are still trying to buy their assets from them, so sooner or later they won’t be able to sustain themselves. Then when the time comes for us to stage the coup d’état they will be royally fucked. Oh, and one more thing before I forget. I came here under the pretense of doing a business trip, so I will make a deal with your family. This will also allow you to grow. Soon you might become one of the most powerful noble families in the kingdom. That will help our cause exponentially.” I said.

“A business deal? That’s great! You’re really too kind Lord Isaac! Then with this, I would like to swear the loyalty of our family to you, our liege.” He said. With that our deals were over. I spent a few days with the Barca family to get to know them. I met Erwin’s wife, Joan. She was also a Royal Knight Cadet, and she knew all about the grudge against the crown. She was also very talented, like Erwin. She recently entered the middle stage of rank B, while Erwin is at the late stage, only an inch away from peak of rank B. She’s 37 years old, while Erwin is 39, only a year my junior.

Like that the Barca family had become our business partner and they thus skyrocketed in status. This also made them even more valuable to the Royal Clan. In the eyes of the Royal Clan, we the Coldblood were very valuable. Through the years we had done our best to deceive them and have friendly relations, which is what helped us in buying their assets. They had trust in us. They thought we were loyal. We had even done many things for them that would make us seem loyal, but little did they know that we were scheming to destroy them. So naturally the Barca family became important in their eyes. This was perfect for my plans.

This allowed Rommel to become more intimate with the other nobles, and allowed him to find the nobles who weren’t too loyal to the crown. Thus he could slowly turn them to our side, bolstering our forces. The more nobles we had on our side, the more soldiers we had for the coup d’état. Meanwhile Erwin and Joan would be searching for potential allies amidst the Cadets, and Savanna, Erwin’s mother, would pull the stronger mercenaries to our cause as she had a friendly relationship with most of them. Naturally we would hire many mercenaries, especially since we owned all the mercenary guilds, but getting the stronger ones at the A rank, would be harder. They wouldn’t necessarily listen to money, but they could listen to their favorite receptionist and cook Savanna.

After my matters were finished here I left, to go back home. Once more we travelled for six months. After we came back we had been gone for a full year.

End of chapter 18