This chapter ended up being a bit late. It took a lot longer to write, since I fell ill, and apparently RagNarok fell asleep yesterday, which is why it's only released today, but at least it's pretty long...

Well, anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 21: Demise of the King and Prince

PR’s note (Rag): It’s my fault you guys are getting this chapter today instead of yesterday which was when the Author sent it to me, sorry for the delay it wasn’t the Author’s fault. Yesterday after coming home tired i took a small nap which led into some deep sleep and i didn’t wake up until the next day which is why this is late T_T.

Our small army, numbering at just above a thousand men, was slowly traveling to the Royal Prefecture. After one whole year, we had finally arrived relatively close to the Capital, but we didn’t go any further, after all, we had to be secretive. Valen and his band of assassins had also arrived at our appointed meeting place. With him, he had about sixty A ranked elite assassins. These were the best of the best, at the very top of the organization.

“Isaac, you have arrived. We arrived here about a week ago, of course we were traveling at much quicker speeds, since we don’t have an entire army to drag with us.” Valen said, happy that we were finally here.

“Valen my friend, it is good to see you again. It’s been about twenty years already. Alas, if I hadn’t been stuck in that tomb for so long, I would have seen you long ago.” I said, also quite happy to see him again.

“Indeed it is! Now tell me Isaac, how is your strength these days?” Valen asked. The deal between us had been that I would work under him until I became stronger than him. It wouldn’t make much sense for me to work for someone weaker than me after all, so we decided that we would switch roles when the time came, that I would be his heir of the Shadowblades, so to say.

“I’m afraid I’ve already reached the A rank, both in magic and strength. This means that I’m your equal now, and even in skill I shouldn’t be behind you, after all I learn very quickly, and also spent about a year of constant fighting in that dungeon.” I bragged about myself, causing Valen to start laughing.

“Indeed, it is so. Later we should have a good spar, after this coup d’état business is done. Anyways, what is the first order of business?” Valen asked. I looked around to see our forces. There was a small horde of people here, all willing to fight with their lives on the line for us. There were about seventy A rankers, counting my own people and Valens people, then around two hundred B rankers, and a thousand soldiers of lower ranks. But this was only part of our forces. Amongst the Royal Knights we controlled around two fifths of them, since we had gotten a few captains with us, and Erwin had even been directly promoted to captain because of his potential and status. Therefore we had about eighty A rankers from the Royal Knights, making it a total of 150 A rankers, so we already outnumbered them by fifty. After that we had ten mercenary A rankers, further bolstering our numbers to 160 A rankers. We also had two S rankers, who were Valen and I. Rommel’s old battalion numbered at 10,000 soldiers, and of the nobles that were left in the kingdom, almost half of them were with us, and a few of these nobles had their own battalions. Our total number of battalions was eighty, which numbered around a total of about one million troops. The royal clan’s army numbered at around two million. Of course this was just the army stationed in the city, but the armies in other places wouldn’t be able to get here in time.

But the difference in sizes didn’t matter too much in this circumstance, since we had the strongest force, the 160 A rankers, while the Royal Clan had about 130 A rankers, and we even had two S rankers. Therefore the larger force would serve as a distraction by laying siege upon the city, while our 160 A rankers infiltrate the city, which would be very easy, after there wasn’t an ongoing war going on between us, so we could waltz right in. Thus it was about time for us to begin, since our army was currently arriving. There was a huge mass of people marching in our direction, numbering at a baffling one million men. On the head of this group, various nobles were ridging, most notably, the Barca family.

“Lord Isaac, our army is here and ready, you just need to give the order.” Rommel reported.

“Good. Here, have this voice transmitter. When I message you, you start marching to the capital. I will lead a punitive force of 160 A rankers to the city first, then when we are inside, I’ll message you. Tell the Royal Knights to come here, they’ll come with me.” I said to Rommel, as he listened intensely.

“Yes Lord Isaac, immediately!” He said, then immediately ordered someone to gather the Royal Knights. Moments later our group of 160 left camp. We quickly travelled to the capital, which was a week’s journey. When we entered the city we managed to blend in very well, since we were disguised as a caravan and weren’t wearing much armour or weapons. When I got into the city, I immediately messaged Rommel, to have them start marching, while we found a place to stay. We were staying in a fairly expensive place, close to the Palace. In the meanwhile we didn’t have much to do, so we just waited for the army to come. We waited for three months. In this time most of the pureblood vampires all made it to the peak stage, so now our force was even stronger, as a pureblooded vampire at the peak stage of B rank they could fight equal to a late A ranker. Three months time later, a horn sounded. The siege of the Royal Capital had begun.

Third person.

In the castle, various nobles were gathered in the counsel room, together with the king and his princes. They were in a state of chaos, because they were laid siege upon. This army was half the size of theirs though, so they weren’t too worried, but what worried them the most was the absence of various nobles, and even Royal Knights. They had found that around eighty Royal Knights had deserted, and that this army did indeed belong to the Kalderon faction. This was a rebellion, but they had no idea who had started it. They did have ideas though, the Barca family. The king had executed the son of the Barca’s Lord, so they might hold grudges against them, but this was certainly not what worried the king the most. All transport of food and other supplies into the city had stopped. The Royal Capital had been completely boycotted from the economy, and there was certainly only one power capable of this. The Coldbloods. If the Coldblood had joined the rebellion, then it was bad news, since the Coldbloods were the most mysterious clan in the kingdom, and the Lord of the Coldblood Clan was in fact here in this very city. He had talked to him a while ago, and when he saw him, he was dumbfounded. The aura the man emitted was unfathomable, and he couldn’t sense even a hint of his strength, even though his Light Arts would allow him to sense how strong someone at the same level as he was. The King was a peak stage expert, the supposed strongest in the kingdom, but he couldn’t sense Isaac at all. He was afraid that he might even have entered that impossible realm that someone from this continent could never enter. But the king knew that that wasn’t entirely true. It was possible to find some divine treasure that could increase his talent, but they were just too rare, so rare that one hadn’t appeared in millennia.

The king knew that this could be bad, but he didn’t panic. He commanded his men to gather their troops, and prepare for a prolonged siege. And the siege was indeed prolonged, since there didn’t happen much in two months, there were only minor skirmishes, but the king had of course expected this, since the opposing army had the advantage of supplies, and the Royal Clan didn’t have any sources of food at all. Almost every single food provider had safely left the city, and been retrieved by the other army, so he didn’t doubt that the Coldbloods were involved at all. Thus the city went hungry and many people died. The first to die were the children and old people, since they were the weakest, but after another four months many other people died. They even had to burn huge amounts of corpses, after all, there was over a hundred million people in the city. After these four months the hunger also started to severely affect the soldiers and they grew weak, some even died. Then it started, the enemy attacked.

Apparently there had been even more traitors in the city, because the city gates had been directly opened by powerful experts, then the enemy army all stormed into the city, while the soldiers of the city all rushed to the various entrances to meet the enemy for a large scale fight. The Royal Clan still possessed superiority in numbers, but they were weak from hunger, so the fighting was very equal.

Meanwhile in a certain hotel, a group of 160 started to move. Isaac and co. all walked directly to the entrance of the royal castle, as the eclipse of the battle was about to arrive. They were quickly making their way to the Palace, all hell was letting loose at the city gates. Over two million soldiers were fighting all over the city, blood was being splattered and limbs being decapitated. The city was a blood fest. Luckily there weren’t many vampires there, or they might have been a bit tempted, but the vampires of the Coldblood Clan were naturally strong willed. When Isaac and his fighters made it to the Palace Entrance, they were naturally stopped in their tracks.

“Halt! Entrance to the Royal Palace is forbidden during these times of war!” The guards announced to my group of people, who they assumed were refugees from the city, trying to get to safety. But before they even managed to blink, their heads decorated the Palace grounds. The Palace Guards were naturally no match for my group of A rankers, so they didn’t stand a chance. We continued through the Palace grounds until we directly entered the Palace. When we entered, we had the former Royal Guards guide us to the throne room. We decided to go there first, to see if the king was there. On our way, we killed several guards, decorating the halls of the Palace with blood.

Eventually we arrived at the throne room, and indeed, in the throne room there was a large group of armed men. They were the remaining Royal Guards. Many of the Royal Guards exclaimed as they recognised the men that they used to call their comrades, their friends. The battle didn’t start immediately, as we stood there, eyeing each other.

Meanwhile out in the city, Erwin was riding his horse valiantly, charging through large groups of enemies, slaughtering many, while Rommel was on the ground, slaughtering equally as much. There was a clear difference between the two, as Erwin wasn’t as calm, since he wasn’t used to slaughter, but Rommel, he had served in the army for decades before retiring, and he had seen many wars, seen many massacres. As the two A rankers were sweeping through the enemy army, the morale of the rebellion skyrocketed, while the morale of the Royal Clan was low, both from losing so many men, and from the hunger.

While a two sided slaughter was happening in the city, the events of the Royal Palace were at a standstill.

“Isaac Coldblood, it really was you. Were you the one who planned all this? Who else could it be…? Just tell me one thing. Why? Didn’t we treat you well? Didn’t I give you control of half my kingdom?” The depressed king asked, as he sat on his throne, yet not looking so high and mighty.

“Why, you ask? Let me ask you, do you remember about forty years ago, when that crown prince of yours travelled to the Fenlai Prefecture, to kill the Lord Commander?” I asked him back. The king, as well as the prince, both looked surprised at the question. Did this fall so far back? The king didn’t know how old Isaac was, but he thought that he was at most forty years old, due to his youthful appearance. After all, even though an A ranker would live for four hundred to five hundred years, and a B ranker could live for up to two hundred years, they still aged, albeit slowly. Even though it was absurd for an A ranker to be forty years old, they couldn’t help but think that it was so, since he looked to be only twenty. That would mean that he had to have reached B rank at a very young age.

“Forty years ago? I do remember, but were you even alive back then?” The king asked.

“Of course I was, sixty three years old. But do you know who that Lord Commander was? He was my brother-in-law. You know what that means right? The identity of his wife?” I barked at him, my anger clearly apparent.

“She was your sister? But-but-but… but the Lord Commander killed the wife of my son, so it is only fair for his entire family to fall to the same fate!” He shouted at me.

“Fool! I was the one that killed her, and her petty knights! Your investigators were so incompetent that they couldn’t even figure that out, so you blame it on my sister’s husband?!” I shouted back at the king, but as I said my words, both the king and the crown prince, as well as the other princes, were all shocked. The crown prince was slightly shaking.

“You killed her? DIE!!!” The crown prince screamed, then charged right at me at the top speed he could muster, but he was only at the middle stage of rank A, so he couldn’t be considered a threat to me, and everyone on my side knew this. Thus as the prince appeared before me, I simply grabbed his face, then threw him to the side, into a wall. As he was hanging in the wall, moaning from the pain, I channelled my mana, and formed nail formed spikes out of pure mana, then sent several dozens of them into his arms and legs, nailing him to the wall. Then I formed thick chains, also made of pure mana, and bound him with them. No matter how hard he tried, he wouldn’t be able to get away, after all there were absurd amounts of mana in those chains and nails.

“You fool. You think that you on your own could even come close to match me? Even if all of your Royal Knights in here joined you, it still might not be enough to defeat me. Now, you just sit tight there, while I slaughter your entire clan. After all, you killed my sister, so you need to have the most painful death, a death that will last so long that you will forget what time even is.” I calmly said to the fool, as he was bound to the wall, not able to move a single muscle on his body. Everyone present was looking in shock at how easily I dealt with him. I turned back to the enemy knights.

“Let’s begin.” I said, then my body flashed, and everyone charged into battle. Almost three hundred A rankers charged at each other. There were more A rankers here, than there should be in the entire country. This was truly a battle forever unknown to this kingdom. The battle was relatively even, but it was still visibly that the Royal Clan was at the disadvantage. We had both more men than they, we also had more late stagers, while the other side barely had any, and there was only one peak stager, the king himself. The battle went on, people were dying on both sides. Valen and I didn’t participate much, we only helped when someone important was at a disadvantage, like one of the purebloods, or one of the Valen’s favourite assassins. After the battle had gone on for a while, there were about 30 Royal Knight left on their side, while about a hundred people left on our side. The reason that there was such a big difference was first, because we had superior numbers, and second, we had superior quality. After seeing the situation, I decided it was time to act.

“Everyone, stop for a while.” I said calmly, not raising my voice, but my voice still boomed through the room, making sure that everyone heard me. Naturally everyone stopped because of the commotion.

“Royal Knights, as you can see, you are losing. We have more than three times the amount of troops than you have left, and I reckon that in five minutes there won’t be anyone of you left. Therefore, I shall give you a chance. Lay down your weapons, and swear loyalty to me, and the person who I shall make king. Do this and I will allow you to live. Refuse, and I will kill you.” I said, turning into a menacing tone at the last words. About half of the Royal Knights put down their weapons.

“Only this many? Last chance…” I said, trying to get a few more on my side. The more A rankers, the better, right? After my word, another five put down their weapons, and went to the side.

“Fine. Kill them.” I command, and my one hundred troops immediately stormed the ten Royal Knights. Naturally, they didn’t last long. Now the only ones left were the Royal Knights that joined us, the king and the crown prince. Everyone else was dead. I walked over to the king and dragged him to the prince. The king didn’t try to fight back, he knew that his death had arrived. But alas, his time had not arrived just yet. Using the chains and nails of pure mana, I bound him.

“Your time is not yet, but it shall come soon enough.” I said. I used another spell and bound their mouths so that they couldn’t speak. Then I turned to my troops to dispatch another order.

“Attention troops! Half of you go down into the city and help, the other go and find all the members of the Royal Clan and gather them here.” I ordered the troops. Everyone immediately left to tend to their orders, even the purebloods. I turned to the throne and sat down on it, Valen following from my back.

“Isaac that was some interesting magic you used. I couldn’t even tell what element it was.” Valen curiously stated. I looked at him with a smirk.

“This magic might just be what gives me the upper hand over you. It’s called Energy Manipulation Magic. It allows me to directly control the natural energies and mana. The spell I used on that insect was made from pure mana.” I explained to him. Valen looked at me in shock.

“Manipulate natural energies and pure mana?! Is that even possible?” He exclaimed.

“Of course it is. Let me show you.” I said, then extended my hand out and started gathering the natural energies around me. The natural energy concentration in my palm increased, only to scatter away again. Then I made a few balls of pure mana and made them float around.

“See? Although it takes a lot of effort to tamper with the natural energies, since I’m still only at the beginner level, it’s possible. If I spend a few months I could even make a teleportation array here in Kalderon.” I told him. When he heard this he was even more surprised.

“Seriously? You could make a teleportation array here, in Kalderon? That’s insane!” He shouted to my face. It seemed like he had a hard time believing it.

“Yeah, I could, if I spend a few months to gather natural energies in one spot, then lay the formation there, then go to the other place and do the same there. But doing that would take at least one year, plus the time it takes to travel there.” I said.

“Isaac, you have to teach me this!” Valen said, excitement on his face.

“I’m not sure if that’s possible right now. You see, I spent thirteen years learning it, while I was trapped in the dungeon. I neither slept nor ate for those years, so with your talent, I reckon you could do the same in seventy five to a hundred years. That is to spend twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, learning it. And that’s only the basics.” I told him.

“Seriously? That long? And you only spent thirteen years? Just how much of a genius are you?” Valen asked curiously.

“Well, I’m only sixty three years old, yet at same strength as you, so you imagine.” I said. Then Valen put his hand on his chin, as if he was pondering something.

“Say, Isaac, you said that you didn’t sleep or eat for thirteen years? How is that possible?” He asked, slightly suspicious.

“Oh, did I let that slip? Well, you’re not ready to know the answer to that yet, but don’t worry, you’ll know soon. Just don’t think about it for now.” I said, not willing to tell him my secret yet.

“Well, if you say so.” Valen said, resigned. He was very curious about that little detail, but he wouldn’t push the matter. After all, Isaac was his equal these days. The two men sat and chatted for a while, waiting for the other royal members to be gathered. After a while, a few groups started coming back, with a few others in tow. Soon all the surviving members of the Royal Clan had been gathered. They were all looking up to me, a look of begging for mercy in their eyes. When they saw the state of the crown prince and the king, some of the royalty cried in sorrow. I stood up from my throne, and had all the people be put in lines, in front of the crown prince. I walked up next to the prince.

“Watch carefully now, prince.” I said to the prince, as I turned to my soldiers.

“When I give the signal, you are to all decapitate these insects instantaneously.” I ordered the troops. I turned to the king.

“This is the consequences of the actions of you and your son. The destruction of your clan, and the decapitation of all your family members.” I said. Then I turned back to the prisoners one last time.

“Do it.” I said. Hundreds of swords fell, and hundreds of heads decorated the floor. Blood sprayed all over, and the throne room became a pool of blood, as it flew ever more out of the necks of the hundreds of corpses. The king and prince tried to scream and shout, tried to get loose from their bounds, but it was to no avail. They couldn’t let a single sound out of their mouths, they couldn’t move a single muscle. After the mass execution was over, I led all the remaining troops down into the city, only leaving a few to keep a watch on the king and prince duo, although there was no way that they could escape either way.

The fighting was still ongoing, but now that a hundred and twenty A rankers joined the battle, the advantage was largely tipped in our favour. Such a large groups of A rankers could easily sweep through thousands upon thousands of soldiers, but there was a huge number of participating soldiers, so the fighting was ongoing for a long time.

The fighting went on for several days, as the numbers kept decreasing. Eventually the numbers on the cities side had shrunk to about a hundred thousand remaining soldiers, while our side still had almost seven hundred thousand left. The reason for it being like this was because our troops were in much better condition, and because we had a lot of A rankers to lead our troops. When I and Valen had felt bored, we had even joined the fighting as well, slaughtering a few thousands of soldiers. The troops of the city could only watch their friends get slaughtered. Eventually the enemy surrendered. The soldiers of the Royal Clan were bound and imprisoned, and the fighting ended. It had been a massive victory for our side.

More days passed after the fighting had stopped. We were staying in the Royal Castle, debating on who should be the next king. Originally I had intended for the Barca family to be the next royal family, but they didn’t want that. Instead they had wanted something else entirely.

“Lord Isaac, our family does not wish to be kings and princes. No, instead we have another request for your lordship. A request from my grandson to be precise.” Rommel had said.

“Is that so? Alright, say it then.” I responded back to him.

“Lord, our family have been in the military for generations, always leading the life of a warrior. Instead of becoming the new Royal Clan, we, the Barca family, would like to become your lordship’s personal guard, in charge of protecting your well being. This is a wish that I hold very dear to my heart. I could be in charge of the ones protecting you, while my wife, Joan, could protect your wives.” Erwin said, earnestly. There was a spark in his eyes as he spoke his words. It really seemed to be a wish straight from his heart.

“Hmmm, I see. This is a wish that I comply with. Alright, from today on I would like to create a new order. This order shall become the very elite of our Coldblood Clan, the strongest of the strongest, our own Royal Knights if you will. They shall be the Crimson Order, personally led by Erwin Barca. Barca, you will be in charge of everything related to this order. You can take some of the Royal Guards that you trust from here, then build its strength up.” I announced. Thus the Crimson Order had been established, an order that would become known and feared throughout the world. The sparkle in Erwin’s eyes grew even brighter.

“Thank you Lord Isaac, you won’t regret it!” Erwin said enthusiastically. He already started making a list of what Royal Knights to take with him, in his mind.

Thus a few days passed, and flyers were spread all over the city, informing the civilians that the conqueror of the city would make an appearance, and inform everyone of the changes that would come.

3rd person.

Thus, the day had come. Outside the Royal Palace all of the civilians were gathered, nearing a hundred million. Everyone was looking up to the grand balcony, waiting for their new king to make his appearance. Suddenly, a young man appeared, no older than twenty.

“Everyone, maybe some of you recognise my appearance, maybe you don’t, but nevertheless, I am Isaac Coldblood, lord of the Coldblood Clan.” His voice boomed throughout the city, so loud that you could hear it for hundreds of kilometres, yet his voice didn’t hurt a single being.

“As you probably know, we are just a business family, or at least that’s what we would have you know, but in truth we are all very powerful. Now, the reason why I have captured this city, and conquered the kingdom is not because I want power, but another reason entirely. Maybe some of you remember around forty years ago, when the prince ventured out with fifty Royal Knights, just to kill the Lord Commander of the Fenlai Prefecture. That action was what led to the demise of the Royal Family. You see, the Lord Commander was married to a girl called Alice, and they had one child together. What the king didn’t know is that Alice was my sister, yet she was murdered by that despicable prince. Now, let me show you what happens when you anger me.” I said. Suddenly a man flew out unto the balcony and appeared in the hands of Isaac. It was exactly the king. Suddenly flames started appearing all over the king, melting his flesh. Then thousands of small blue needles, made out of some sort of energy appeared, and directly pierced into the body of the king. The king was letting out his heartfelt screams as he felt every ounce of the pain. After the small blue needles had penetrated his body, a small blue glow came from him, and all his veins were glowing bright blue. Suddenly his body started swelling. He grew bigger and bigger, fatter and fatter, until his clothes couldn’t hold him anymore and his melted flesh started tearing. After a while, the body gave under, and he simply exploded, spraying his splattered meat and blood for dozens of meters. He was nothing more than meat paste.

“Perhaps this might serve as a warning for anyone who intends to wrong me in the future.” Isaac said, in cold blood. Some of the weaker stomached people had fainted from the horrifying sight, while some screamed in fear, while others just paled in fright. Yet there were still people who didn’t seem to care.

“Now that the matter is over, it is time to announce the new king. Naturally I don’t intend to take over the throne. Instead this gentleman will take that role.” I said, as a middle aged man walked out to the balcony. This man was one of the higher ranked nobles that had helped us in our conquest. He was a capable man, both efficient in matters of war, as the affairs of politics. He should at the very least be better than the previous king, who had let his power go to his head, and made him arrogant and conceited.

1st person, Isaac.

Of course, the new king wouldn’t be allowed to reign free. He had to swear loyalty to the Coldblood Clan, and if he were to ever betray us, then he would be swiftly killed. We had station a few assassins in the castle, to always keep watch on him. The nobles of kingdom were also made to swear loyalty to us, so even though we weren’t in the throne, we still controlled the kingdom. We were the highest power in the kingdom, something that would become unbeknownst to the civilians of Kalderon.

Thus the time for us to return home, had finally arrived. The journey home was an equally as long one, as it took us another year, but when we finally got back, we were all relieved and happy. Of course, the crown prince wasn’t happy at all, since halfway through the journey he was crippled, and was forced to walk on his own like that. He wasn’t fed much, several times he was about to die from hunger, dehydration, fatigue or just his injuries, but every time he was close to death he would be healed just enough so he could keep going. When we got back, he was stripped naked and thrown into the dungeons, in the cell next to Lilia and Aylard's traitorous old friends. When we got back, he was stripped naked and thrown into the dungeons, in the cell next to the traitorous friends of Lilia and Aylard. Thus we had finally returned to the large halls of Sanguine Regis, and held a large celebration, that encompassed all of Bloodmoon Village as well. But this time it wouldn’t be only us that returned. Rommel’s old battalion would also come join us at a later time, after they made all their preparations and gathered all their belongings and families. Thus, two years after our own return, a huge caravan of around fifty thousand people arrived outside our forest. We had sent a group out to meet them and guide them back to the village, thus the population of Bloodmoon had risen up to over fifty thousand people. Naturally, it couldn’t be called a village anymore. Therefore the town of Bloodmoon had been established. I decided to make Rommel the mayor of the town, as he would like to try a governing position again. Back before his son had been killed, the Barca family had been the lords of a small city in the Royal Prefecture, so it wasn’t anything new to Rommel, therefore I decided that he would be befitting to the role. But there was something I needed to tell the Barcas first, so I had them all come to my study. Of course, this was just after we arrived back at the castle, two years before Bloodmoon became a town.

“What is it that you have us gather here for, Lord Isaac?” Rommel asked curiously. When they had been asked to go meet me, the mood had been very serious and no one would tell them what it was about, so they were slightly worried.

“There is something that I have held secret from you, all these years. Something about us Coldbloods. You see, we aren’t human, neither are we elves or dwarfs.” I said with a mysterious tone. The Barca family had a slightly surprised look on them, but they were mostly confused.

“Then, if you aren’t human, then what are you?” Erwin, the leader of the new Crimson Order, asked.

“We’re vampires, the immortal beings of the legends, the rulers of the night.” I said. Now they were even more surprised and slightly sceptic.

“Vampires? Don’t joke with us now, vampires don’t exist.” Rommel said, slightly annoyed.

“You doubt me? Then ask yourself, how is it that I and your grandson were born in the same country, are almost the same age, only a year or two apart, but he’s in the early A rank, while I rival an S ranker. How is it even possible for someone from here to become an S ranker? Sure, there are those special training methods that the Royal Knights use that allow you to transcend a rank, but what if I told you if I’m only an early stage A ranker, just like Erwin. I believe that Royal Knights are able to sense the strength of others, as long as their opponent isn’t stronger than they are. I’ll put down my defences and allow Erwin to say how strong I am.” I said, then looked at Erwin. Erwin did as told, and used his powers to try and sense my strength level. His face flashed with surprise, then shock.

“Grandfather, it’s true, he’s only an early stage A ranker!” He yelled, as he made his revelation.

“You’re really a vampire? But how is that possible? Didn’t they go extinct ages ago?” Rommel asked again.

“Yes, they did, but the God of Death, Gebados, revived us by making a new progenitor, that would be me by the way, so now we are rebuilding the vampire race, but there aren’t many of us yet. There are only fourteen pureblooded vampires, fifteen including me, and a few dozen normal vampires. After I turn you though, there will be eighteen pureblooded vampires, so we are growing, slowly but steadily.” I said. The four Barcas looked a bit taken back.

“After you turn us? Are you going to make us vampires? Aren’t we going to be shunned by the sunlight? Well, it does make sense now, since we travelled mostly at night when we were on our way here…” Erwin said.

“Yes, I’m going to make you into vampires, but don’t worry too much about the sunlight. Pureblooded vampires can handle it, we just get a bit weakened after too much exposure, but a normal vampire can get burned by it, some might even die, but the weakness to sunlight is supposed to fade away with time, but no one has gotten that old yet, so I’m not sure. But sunlight isn’t all of our problems. We also need to drink blood, as you can probably imagine, and when you first get turned, you have to drain two bodies of blood dry. So you will be killing two people each today, and you won’t be able to stop yourself. Do you have a problem with that? Naturally, there will be a lot of benefits if you become a vampire, like eternal life and you become more beautiful, after all, the vampire race has always been one of unimpaired beauty. But most importantly, you will naturally become stronger as you age, even if you don’t train, and you will be able to surpass S rank.” I said.

“I personally, I don’t have a problem with it. I have killed more men and women than I can count in my long life. After all, I was in the military for over a hundred years, but I can’t speak for the others. All I can say is that this offer of eternal life, and strength beyond the limits of our continent appeals to me.” Rommel said.

“While I may not have killed as many as grandfather, I did kill my fair share of enemy troops in the recent war against the Royal Family, and I am also appealed to this offer of immortality and strength. And most importantly, I am your ever loyal personal guard of the Crimson Order, I naturally want to be of the same race as you, so I can serve you forever.” Erwin said. He truly was a loyal fellow.

“I can agree with that. The Barca family has always been a loyal one, maybe even too loyal.” Rommel said.

“I was also a cadet from the Royal Knights, even though I didn’t participate much in the battle of Kaldron, I still did kill a few enemy soldiers. And my husband is accepting your offer, so I naturally will accept too, so that I can stay with him forever, and serve you and your wives forever, in the Crimson Order.” Joan said. Seems she was mostly persuaded by the power of love.

“Well, I have never killed anyone before, but my son and father-in-law, as well as my daughter-in-law are all accepting, so who am I to decline. I too will become one of your vampires.” Savanna said. They were all a loyal bunch.

“That’s very good, but you seem to have misunderstood, I didn’t actually give you a choice, you were going to become vampires either way, but since you all accepted out of free will, then that makes me very happy. Then let’s start.” I said.

I got up from my seat, then walked to the person nearest to me, which was Joan. I embraced her with a light hug, then bit into her artery and drained her blood, until there was almost not a single drop left. Then I let the vampire venom, which was composed of my blood essence, flow into her body. The progress only lasted a few moments, and she fainted to the floor.

“Don’t worry, this is normal. She’ll wake up in about an hour. By then I will have eight slaves ready for you to feed on.” I said, to reassure them, as I moved to the next person, Erwin. I did the same to him, and a few moments later, everyone was unconscious. I exited the room, to have someone grab a few slaves for me, then walked back in and sat on my seat, reading a book. An hour later, Erwin was the first to wake up, with a thirsty look in his eyes. He looked at me, as if asking me about what he should do. I pointed to the slaves.

“Choose two of them and drain them for their blood.” I said, not even looking up from my book, as the portion I was reading was quite interesting. Erwin proceeded to get up from the floor, and drained two girls of their blood. This time there were four girls and four men. The slave girl I had sent knew who was being turned, so she had also taking offerings according to gender. Soon after Erwin was finished, the others woke up, one by one. Rommel and Joan didn’t hesitate much to feed on the offerings, but Savanna was a bit hesitant, after all she had never killed anyone before, but it was necessary. Killing the offerings helped get the new vampires used to killing, so I made it a rule that you were to kill the first person you fed on. Soon, all the new purebloods had finished their initiation.

“Welcome to the life of a vampire everyone.” I said, then explained the details of vampirism in more detail, like how to birth a child, and such. Erwin and Joan were very happy to hear that they could have a child, since they had always wanted one, but the Royal Knight Cadets weren’t allowed to have children until they graduate.

After becoming vampires, Savanna had gone from the early stage of rank B, into the middle stage. She had been at the early stage of rank B before, but she would never be able to become an A ranker, as she was already in her eighties. Now it was a whole other story though. As for Joan, she was at the late stage of B rank, but she was very close to breaking through to the peak stage, so the boost that vampirism gave her, allowed her to reach the peak stage in a blink of an eye. After the maturing stage, she might even reach A rank, or at least get very close to it. Of the vampires, other than me, Erwin, Rommel, and technically Kato, she would probably be the first to reach A rank, but that was only fitting, as she would be the second in command of the Crimson Order, directly in charge of protecting my wives, so she had to be very strong.

As for Erwin and Rommel, they didn’t get much stronger, not counting the stage transcending. They probably wouldn’t even make it to the middle stage of rank A, since the differences in power were just too large, compared to the B rank. Well, Rommel might be able to do it, since he had been in the early stage much longer than Erwin, but he hadn’t been training much after he reached A rank, and his talent was nowhere the level of Erwin.

Two years later, after Rommel’s old battalion arrived, as well as their families, mass expansion of the village began. After all, there was nowhere near enough housing available in the village. While the expansion was ongoing, the newcomers stayed in a large camp, locating in a clearing not too long away from the village. Trees were being chopped down, houses erected. After a few months of hard work, the village had grown in over ten times as large as before. After the housing had been built, various enterprises appeared in the city. Taverns were made, more smiths opened business, and other various businesses were made. After that, we decided to make a wall around the city, preventing any monsters from getting inside the city. In the past, a few stragglers had ventured into the village. Back then a few people died, before the monster was dealt with. A wall would naturally prevent something like that from happening again. We also held a mass registration for the newcomers. By that I mean that we had everyone written on a piece of paper, and then bound by blood. Since there were so many people, every single vampire partook in blood binding, since it would be way too much for eighteen purebloods. Even though, the procedure still took a week or so. After that they were informed of the true nature of us, and ordered to never spread this piece of information. We also reassured them that they wouldn’t come to harm, and that we wouldn’t force them to give us blood, after all, that’s what we have our blood slaves for. A lot of people were a bit scared, but the about two thousand people who lived here before helped calm down. The fact that this village had been here for several decades already also helped them realize that there weren’t any danger here, and that with such powerful overlords, they would be very safe. We might also have used the blood bond to make them accept it. Of course, they would never know that.

Thus, the Bloodmoon village had become the Bloodmoon town, with a population of over fifty thousand people. It functioned just like a normal town did, except it was isolated. There were taverns for the people to meet and drink, there were schools for the children to learn, universities for the slightly older ones to learn, libraries to read books, doctors to treat the sick, and many others. It was even better than most cities, since we had made quite a few people with important roles come here, and the prospect of immortality was quite alluring. After all, any one of the town’s people could become a vampire as well, as long as some vampire took a liking to them, or they excelled at their role. We also spent quite a bit of wealth on the town, to ensure its prosperity.

Erwin and Joan started recruiting for their Order immediately as well. For the moment, since we weren’t that many people yet, the requirement was to be at the B rank to join. Five ex-Royal Knights had come with us, and joined the Crimson Order, as well as a few B rank Cadets and other B rankers, so there were a few in it already. Then when we came back, they recruited around a hundred B rankers. Most of them were human, while some were vampires. Both humans and vampires were allowed to join the order. After they had finished recruiting B rankers, they started to look for people of lower strength, to be directly recruited as Crimson Cadets. They would be trained and groomed until they reached B rank, and later A rank. These Cadets were taken both from the castle, as well as the from Bloodmoon Town. At the moment there were three hundred of them.

For the purpose of training them, we built the Crimson Academy, solely dedicated to training the Crimson Cadets. Every year, people would be allowed to go there and take an exam, and if they pass, then they would become a Crimson Cadet. Naturally there were a lot of people who signed up, since joining the Crimson Order would basically guarantee that they would become vampires, as we had said that anyone that joins the Order will be allowed to become a vampire if they wish, after a hundred years of service. Therefore, on the opening day of the Academy, around twenty thousand came to try their might, which was basically the entire young population, but in the end, only another two hundred Cadets were accepted. And it wasn’t guaranteed that everyone would graduate either, so even fewer than that would become Knights of the Crimson Order.

There was a hierarchy in the Crimson Order as well. Upon being accepted into the Crimson Order, you would be a Crimson Guard, therefore, the B rankers made up the Crimson Guard. After you reached A rank, you would be promoted to the Crimson Knights, becoming a Knight of the Crimson Order. Erwin would be the Lord of the Crimson Order, commanding all the forces beneath him. Above him, would be me, the only person allowed to command him, and the Crimson Order freely.

End of Chapter 21