“The Vampire Lord? What about him? Why is he looking for me?” Tae-Sung could not understand why the Vampire Lord was looking for him.
“He’s your distant relative,” Cheon Woo-Jin replied.
“My distant relative…? Oh!” Tae-Sung finally remembered that the Vampire Lord was residing within the territory of the Proatine Kingdom.
“Yeah, I remember having a neighbor like that…” Tae-Sung muttered.
“Hey, did you do something to him? Why is the Vampire Lord looking for you?”
“Beats me…” Tae-Sung shrugged and said, “However, I made sure to supply him with constant offerings.”
“Offerings?”
“Yeah…”
“What offerings?”
“I have been sending him ten criminals as offerings since he wanted live humans,” Tae-Sung replied.
Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.
The Proatine Territory used to make the entire populace draw lots and send whoever was picked to the Vampire Lord. Of course, there were certain privileged people that were excluded from the lot drawing.
However, Siegfried changed this policy and made it so that only criminals charged with murder, rape, arson, etc., would be sent as offerings to the Vampire Lord. He would also order Oscar and the knights to hunt criminals if they ran out of offerings in the dungeon.
He wasn’t strong enough to subjugate the Vampire Lord, so he could only come up with a temporary measure.
“But why does he suddenly want to see me?” Tae-Sung tilted his head in confusion.
“Why are you asking me? You should know best what’s going on. It’s your house, after all,” Cheon Woo-Jin retorted.
“Hmm… I guess you’re right.”
“Just hurry up and go.”
“All right, you should come, too,” Tae-Sung told Seung-Gu, who was currently busy stuffing his face with beef.
“Yes, hyung-nim,” Seung-Gu replied. He hurriedly stuffed a few more beef slices into his mouth before standing up.
Cheon Woo-Jin was left all alone at the table.
“Why is he so busy? I know he’s obsessed with the game, but he should take a break from time to time and go on dates. Why does he keep refusing whenever I try to introduce him to someone? Tsk…”
Cheon Woo-Jin suddenly realized something. “Wait a minute… Excuse me!”
“Yes?” a waitress responded.
“Has this table been paid by any chance?” Cheon Woo-Jin asked.
“Please give me a moment…” the waitress checked the counter and said, “No, nobody paid for it.”
“Ah… okay…” Cheon Woo-Jin muttered in response. He knew that those two would most likely dine and dash, but he didn’t expect that they would actually do it.
“Han Tae-Sung, you petty little bastard! You dare run off without paying? Damn it! How much are these? That nasty little prick!” Cheon Woo-Jin grumbled.
Meanwhile, Tae-Sung rushed into his car and exclaimed, “Seung-Gu! Hurry up and get in!”
“What’s wrong, hyung-nim? Is our kingdom really in danger?” Seung-Gu replied while tilting his head in confusion.
“No, I didn’t pay for the meal.”
“W-What?”
“We need to hurry up and leave before Cheon Woo-Jin catches us!”
Seung-Gu immediately hopped into the car, and Tae-Sung floored the Ferrari’s accelerator.
Vrooooom!
The supercar’s engine cried out as it sped away from the parking lot.
“Hehe! That was a perfect dine and dash!” Tae-Sung exclaimed with a proud smirk.
***
Tae-Sung hurriedly jumped into his VR capsule and descended on the Nürburg Continent as Adventurer Siegfried.
He went straight to the Proatine Kingdom. Fortunately, there was a direct Warp Gate from the Mercedes Workshop to the Proatine Kingdom, so it did not take him much time to reach his kingdom.
Flash!
The Warp Gate in the middle of the town flashed, and Siegfried emerged from it.
“Your Majesty!” Michele ran up to him.
“Huh? Why are you here?” Siegfried was surprised to see his Minister of State waiting for him in front of the Warp Gate.
“I have been waiting for Your Majesty’s arrival. I was the one who contacted Your Majesty through that Adventurer affiliated with the Guardians.”
“I heard about that, but what’s going on?”
“It seems that the Vampire Lord is upset about our offerings.”
“Hmm…”
“He wishes to speak to Your Majesty, but what does Your Majesty think about it?”
“Are my thoughts important right now? I have no choice but to hear him out first and try to understand what’s he so upset about,” Siegfried said and immediately started walking.
***
“His Majesty, King Siegfried van Proa, has arrived!” the guard announced the king’s entrance to the throne room.
The atmosphere in the throne room was quite tense, and it felt like a cold breeze was blowing throughout the throne room.
The atmosphere was so tense because there was an ongoing standoff between one guest and the numerous officials of the kingdom.
It went without saying that the guest was none other than a handsome pale-skinned blond vampire.
The Vampire Lord was clothed in extremely luxurious clothing that only the great nobles of the empire would wear, and his red cape mixed with a hint of white in it looked far more extravagant than anything else in the throne room.
However, the most eye-catching thing about the Vampire Lord was none other than his cold expression, which seemed to exude evil itself. In fact, the Vampire Lord looked so sinister and evil that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call him the Demon Lord.
The officials of the Proatine Kingdom led by Hamchi stood against him. The other loyal subjects of Siegfried seemed like they were prepared to draw their weapons at any time, and even the recently enlightened Great Wizard, Decimato, seemed to have already channeled his new powerful spells.
It was a tense situation that made it difficult for the officials of the kingdom to breathe, but the problem was the Vampire Lord’s demeanor.
One versus many.
There was a saying that quality was at the mercy of quantity, but the Vampire Lord looked extremely nonchalant despite facing the numerous officials of the kingdom. No, it was more accurate to say that he didn’t seem to be bothered by them at all.
The Vampire Lord completely ignored the officials and was casually reading a book while waiting for Siegfried.
The thing was… the Vampire Lord was casually reading a book while sitting on the dragon throne, which was a seat only Siegfried could sit on. To make matters worse, the Vampire Lord was sitting on the throne right in front of Great Wizard Decimato.
He was treating Decimato as if he were air.
‘This guy is no joke…’ Siegfried thought as soon as he saw the Vampire Lord.
Then, he flashed his Rune of Insight on him.
[Magnus von Nosferatu]
[A Vampire Lord residing in the Bloody Castle located at the Proatine Kingdom.]
[He has been sleeping for the past three years and has finally awakened from his slumber.]
[Type: Named NPC]
[Race: Vampire (Pure Blood)]
[Level: 400]
[Affiliation: Bloody Castle]
[Position: Vampire Lord]
[Class: Lord of the Blood]
[Titles: Master of Blood Magic, Demon Lord of Blood, Ruthless Slayer, Immortal, Night Predator, One Who Creates A Sea of Blood.]
The Vampire Lord or Magnus’ details proved why he was so carefree in front of the entire Proatine Kingdom’s forces.
‘This is crazy… What’s up with his level?’ Siegfried couldn’t believe his eyes.
Magnus was a whopping Level 400, and he was the highest-level NPC that Siegfried had met so far if he excluded certain people like Deus or Daode Tianzun.
Magnus wasn’t just a powerful being. He could be extremely powerful when taking into consideration that the self-proclaimed leader of the Five Star Heavens—Betelgeuse—was only Level 361.
“You should come and greet me, king of these lowly humans,” Magnus said as he glared at Siegfried.
Shiver!
The sinister killing intent and madness in Magnus’ eyes made Siegfried tremble without realizing it. In addition, the unknown energy that Magnus was exuding immobilized Siegfried, so he couldn’t move even if he could resist the Vampire Lord’s glare.
“Are you going to keep standing there? How dare you ignore,” Magnus said.
“The King of Proatine—Siegfried van Proa—greets the Vampire Lord,” Siegfried hurriedly knelt on one knee and greeted the Vampire Lord as if he were the latter’s subject.
“…!”
The officials were stunned.
Why?
It was all because the Siegfried that they knew would have immediately picked a fight rather than kneel. Siegfried had never been the type to care about pride or authority, but he certainly drew the line when it came to his enemies.
Therefore, they couldn’t believe that Siegfried was kneeling to someone else.
However, Siegfried's thoughts were different.
‘It’s going to be a pyrrhic victory even if we won somehow. We’re not prepared, and at least half of us are going to die in battle. The NPCs will sacrifice the most, and the entire kingdom will be destroyed. It’s a result that’s going to directly affect me in both the short and long term. Let’s kneel for now and bide my time…’
Siegfried suddenly found himself caring more about the well-being of his subjects and his kingdom rather than his own pride and anger. Besides, they were at the core of the kingdom.
A fight here would destroy his entire castle.
Magnus smirked after seeing Siegfried’s response.
“I see you’re quite quick on your feet. I was about to slaughter everyone in this room if you had remained stubborn,” he said nonchalantly.
“I thank your lordship’s grace.”
“You have quite the glib tongue.”
“I just wish for your lordship to spare my life.”
“Excellent,” Magnus' smile grew bigger as he added, “That’s how livestock should act.”
“…”
“That’s an excellent attitude from the king of my livestock.” Magnus praised.
‘What the fuck is this son of a bitch saying?’ Siegfried growled inwardly after hearing the Vampire Lord call humans his livestock. He wanted nothing more than to rip that smug smile off of the vampire’s face, but he knew it wasn’t the right time to do so, so he feigned ignorance and remained kneeling to the Vampire Lord.
“We need to know our place to continue surviving. A vampire is a predator while we are your prey. I fully agree with your lordship’s judgment. Indeed, we are nothing more than livestock grazing the outskirts of your lordship’s lands,” Siegfried said.
“Excellent!”
“If your lordship may allow me, may I ask one question?”
“As you like…”
“I wish to know why your lordship suddenly decided to grace us with your presence. We would have prepared a grand feast to welcome your lordship if you had just informed us of your visit…” Siegfried trailed off. He glanced at his subjects and shouted, “Lower your weapons and pay respects to the Demon Lord of the Night!”
The officials were taken aback, but they obeyed their king.
Siegfried bowed to the Vampire Lord and said, “I hope that your lordship may find it in your gracefulness to forgive the transgressions of my subjects.”
“I’m starting to like you the more I hear you speak, my livestock!”
“Thank you for your grace, my lord.”
“Then, I shall tell you the reason I’m here.”
“Please, speak, my lord.”
“The quality of the offerings has significantly reduced in recent months… Since you have taken over as the king of my livestock. What do you think about that?” Magnus asked while staring deeply at Siegfried.
“Is that so, my lord? I was not aware of it,” Siegfried feigned ignorance.
“You weren’t aware of it…?”
“I was aware that they were selecting the offerings by drawing lots, but I changed that policy to cement my political standing. We decided to send criminals as offerings.”
“You dare admit that you knowingly sent me criminals?”
“Your humble subject was ignorant. I did not know that it would upset my lord. I thought that all blood is the same, and there was no such thing as good or bad quality blood.”
“Hmm… That’s a plausible excuse. It does make sense,” Magnus muttered while rubbing his chin.
“Your humble subject begs for your lordship’s forgiveness.”
“I will overlook it this once since you weren’t aware of it, but under one condition.”
“Please, speak, my lord.”
“Increase the offerings by three times since I have finally awakened.”
“I hear and obey.”
“And I want only the best offerings to be sent to me.”
“What would satisfy my lord’s requirement?”
“I want virgin boys and girls under the age of thirteen. The blood of an innocent soul is always the best.”
It was a ridiculous command.
“I shall do as my lord says. I shall make sure that the next offerings for your lordship will satisfy my lord,” Siegfried easily agreed to the request.
He agreed because there were still twenty-seven days until the next round of offerings.
‘Twenty-seven days is almost a whole month. I just have to raise seven levels and use my +15 Gaia’s Fist. Maybe I’ll gather some party members to raid this bastard by then. It’s possible…’ Siegfried thought.
He had already made his calculations when the Vampire Lord asked for virgin boys and girls, but there was no way things would proceed smoothly just because he wanted it to proceed smoothly.
“No.” Magnus shook his head and said, “I will give you three days.”
“My lord requires the offerings in three days…?” Siegfried asked in disbelief.
“It hasn’t been that long since I awakened from my slumber, so I’m extremely hungry. Besides, I think three days are more than enough to prepare thirty virgin boys and girls, right?”
‘Hey, you fucking son of a bitch!’ Siegfried exclaimed inwardly.
He almost uttered those words out of his mouth, but he was able to suppress them by exerting superhuman self-control. Siegfried decided to accept the demands as courteously as possible. “Indeed, my lord. I shall prepare the offerings and ensure that they will be to your liking.”
“Hmm… Excellent… I already like you, king of my livestock.”
“I thank my lord for your grace.”
“I shall be watching you to see how good of a livestock you are…”
“Please be on your way, my lord,” Siegfried bowed flat on the ground.
With that, Magnus turned into a bloody mist that rushed out of the window.
“…”
Silence enveloped the throne room.
“…” Even Siegfried was speechless, and he didn’t budge even an inch for quite a while.
Ten minutes later, Siegfried growled. “You’re fucking dead. You’re dead, you insolent fucker of a mosquito.”
Siegfried showed his true colors after making sure that the Vampire Lord wouldn’t hear him.
