Chapter 15

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

It was a long while before the vampires slowly regained their wits. The Progenitor Vampire’s vision was truly incomparable.

The seven second-generation vampires looked at each other, and Frey was the first to stand up.

The proud and aloof figure bowed, and there was a fervor in his eyes that was never there before.

“Father, I, Frey, am willing to fight for you.”

The vampires below all seemed to be inspired, and everyone got up at the same time.

“We are willing to fight for you.”

Under the influence of the Charm spell, the group was finally mobilized.

Reed was very satisfied. No matter what came next, at least he was off to a good start.

“Very good. All of you have not disappointed me.

“Follow the orders I gave you yesterday. Frey, you will protect the sacred grounds, while everyone else is forbidden from harming humans. I will sort out the rules and post them outside the hall. Every one of you must memorize them.

“Eudes will start to clear the southern district today. All vampires shall move out of there because the southern district will be the gathering place for human beings.

“My children, the future of our kind will undergo tremendous changes from now on. Humans are our important helpers, so I hope no one in my brood is stupid enough to do things that will harm them.

“All of you may leave.”

After the crowd dispersed, Reed fell into deep thought.

The most important step in the agricultural program had been initiated although changing the long-held mindset of a race was something very difficult to achieve.

Fortunately for him, the goddess of fate was standing with him this time around, and once again, he had a brush with fate.

At present, the castle lacked humans. The main labor force for the agricultural program was humans, not vampires. All of his preparations so far was to welcome the imminent humans.

Despite the total absence of a human in the castle right now, the matter was the least of Reed’s concerns.

From the large influx of refugees in Grimm during that period of time, he could see that at the southern end of the Farmountains, the impact of the war between the Norland Empire and the Orc Empire would be considerable.

The orcs from the barren wastelands would invade the borders of the Norland Empire every year due to the dearth of food.

Such invasions had been ongoing for hundreds of years, and the orcs had never once been absent from the conflict.

Unexpectedly, this year’s war came much earlier than before for some reason.

It was just the beginning of autumn, right after October, and there were two full months before the onset of winter.

Based on precedents, the orcs would only commence their invasion after the winter.

Therefore, due to the earlier-than-usual invasion by the orcs, the soldiers in the Norland Empire were far from ready, and millions of civilians along the border regions lost their homes to the conflict.

No one in that world cared about the life and death of a bunch of civilians.

In such situations, the castle only needed to avoid Grimm’s army. It was good enough for them to make off with a small portion of the border refugees… and protect five thousand, or at most, ten thousand people.

No warrior could kill a dragon with a single strike, and the development of any force would need to go through a growth process.

It was impossible for the castle to take in too many humans at once for now. There were only two hundred vampires, and having too many humans around would affect their dominance.

So, the raiding and capturing of the populace was destined to be a long process.

Plus, they had to get all of the groundwork done before they started to snatch people.

Reed had to prepare everything in advance—Food, winter clothes, farming tools, and etc. 

The survival of the vampires was meant to be inseparable from the humans’.

The vampires regarded humans as chow, but that was just a nice way of saying things. In Reed’s opinion, the vampires were more like a bunch of parasites that could not survive without humans.

Even when the parasite was a powerful highborn race and everyone was naturally talented in spellcasting, there was no changing that fact.

Thankfully, Reed was also one of them. But as a modern person, he would naturally not let his subordinates develop in such a barbaric manner.

As long as there was a sufficient number of humans, the vampires could be well-sustained.

Could one million humans not support ten thousand vampires? It took an average of one hundred humans to raise a vampire, and they merely needed to provide a small blood donation every month, which would be more than enough for the vampires to survive.

It would be done in a harmless way.

As to how they would make the humans donate their blood willingly, Reed had thought of countless methods.

Besides, the existence of the Divine Spirit allowed for blood to be preserved for a long time, so the plan to have mankind support the vampires was highly implementable.

For his agricultural plan, he had already considered most situations with the limited time in his hands.

After a while, he stood up from his throne and took a deep breath as he looked at the empty great hall.

Let’s start from here.

…

Once the vampires left the hall, they immediately began to execute Reed’s orders.

The vampires who were in charge of cleaning up the southern district had already begun to move out of the designated area.

The original castle had twenty thousand human inhabitants during its prime, so the area was wide enough.

Since the castle was built on the mouth of a gourd-shaped basin, the east and west sides of the basin were lined with huge, towering mountains.

The peaks, at 3,000 rhents high, were difficult even for a dragon to fly through, and they perfectly served as city walls.

In addition, the castle itself was divided into three zones. The northern zone was where the castle walls were located. Built in between two peaks, it was the main area of activity for the vampires.

The central zone was where the vampires lived. The Chamber of Blood and Reed’s manor were located in the central zone.

Next, the southern area had originally been built for humans when the vampires were at their prime, and it had the largest landmass.

Meanwhile, the area behind the southern area was a large swathe of undeveloped fertile land, and that was the basis for Reed’s confidence in his plan to feed humanity for the future.

The southern area, which Reed ordered Eudes to clear, could accommodate up to twenty thousand people, making it the largest residential area in the entire castle.

There were two-story houses all over the place with wide streets and complete drainage systems.

The presence of a septic tank for feces surprised Reed.

Even Grimm would only build such a structure that could greatly improve the quality of life in an area where the most powerful of nobility lived.

In the slums of Grimm, feces on the street was a common sight.

He had assumed that the castle would not be any better than Grimm and did not expect the living facilities to be so comprehensive.

The discovery made him feel very confident about the next part of his plan.

No one would resist a high-quality living environment.

Once someone was used to clean streets and a safe environment, who would want to go back to the filthy and smelly streets where they could die at any time?