#177 The New Talia Kingdom
Though Talia was a kingdom that had begun coexistence with humans as vampires stepped into the sunlight, the process of establishing a new system unprecedented until now meant that large and small disturbances never ceased from everywhere.
Since all citizens of the kingdom had come under Hines II, unlike before, not only were the targets available for bloodsucking limited, but unless they were death-row inmates, they could not feed to the extent that it threatened their lives.
But that itself acted as severe stress on the vampires, who until now had ‘hunted’ whatever targets suited their tastes as they pleased.
“Inspection Bureau. Would you come with us for a moment for investigation?”
“No, really? I confirmed they were criminals and carried out the punishment—what’s the problem!”
“It seems you haven’t properly read the
“Kuk!”
Though they had evolved in many aspects through Hines’s 「Refined Blood Decree」, bloodsucking was a matter directly connected to their instincts.
Therefore, it was a natural course of events for individuals trying to bypass the restrictions in some way to satisfy their private desires to appear.
“How long are we going to let monsters steal our country and live like livestock? We must band together and overcome this, even now!”
“But it seems even the church has stepped back; what means do we have now···.”
“You need not worry about that. Actually, the Shaloti Kingdom has secretly···.”
Kwaaaang—!
Rrrumble!
“Impurists here. Arrest them all!”
“Kuk! How did they know about this place!”
“···Ahem, sorry. Still, those who must live should live, no? Honestly, life right now isn’t particularly bad either···.”
“Betrayal···! How dare you deceive us!”
Meanwhile, secret factions that were stirring up internal humans began to raise their heads one by one.
Of course, they were quickly discovered by the Hybrids, who had completely seized the kingdom’s underbelly, but their activities, presumed to be instigated by neighboring countries, continued steadily.
Whether they were attempting to cut off the tail, each country consistently played ignorant.
However, surprisingly, the evaluations from the common citizens who made up the majority of the population were not particularly bad.
To the lower classes barely getting by each day, it was even evaluated as having become more livable than before.
“Oh, Healer-nim. Thank you so much.”
“It’s all right. It’s the country’s work. Next patient, please!”
Hiring a large number of healers across the kingdom and providing healing services at nearly no cost was a potent medicine.
They even invited priests from the Church of the Supreme God from temples and prayer houses in various regions to hold regular healing events.
All sorts of narcotics that harmed the body were instantly expelled from all of Talia, and the diseases and sanitation problems rampant in the slums also quickly disappeared through kingdom-level welfare projects.
Furthermore, since they could receive high-quality nutritional food in exchange for blood donation, it was no different from paradise for the lower classes who had nothing.
\-Earn a large sum comfortably? Done in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea! Guaranteed side-effect-free procedures and perfect aftercare!
\-Accumulate blood donation points and receive various benefits! A generous bounty of giveaways, from daily necessities to high-end residential facilities!
\-Preference for healthy unmarried men and women in their early twenties. Additional payment depending on various conditions.
Promotional leaflets for it could be easily found not only at blood donation stations set up everywhere but also at government offices.
Truly, a world where one could eat and live without any problem just by regularly selling one’s blood.
‘Furthermore, if we employ blood magic in parallel, we can accelerate the donors’ recovery even faster. We can probably draw blood more frequently than normal.’
Moreover, promised rewards at the national level for model citizens who donated blood consistently, and even supported one-on-one matching services with vampires seeking specific tastes of blood···.
Literally, ‘blood donation stations’ were becoming the center of the New Talia Kingdom’s system.
‘Instead, those with high-demand blood, like young and healthy beauties, will be treated better in the future··· but that can’t be helped. It’s not exactly a big problem.’
Naturally, it would normally be the case that a country’s economy would collapse if it indiscriminately implemented such welfare-oriented policies at the national level, but the Talia Kingdom ruled by Hines Hybrid II was different.
Not to mention that the ‘Brocoslak Clan’ had been controlling the kingdom’s wealth for a long time, weren’t the thieves embezzling state funds—the biggest problem—virtually extinct?
Moreover, what appeared to be a welfare budget on the surface was in fact no different from defense spending to effectively deploy vampires, so in truth it couldn’t be seen as wasteful expenditure either.
‘If you add nobles who don’t indulge in useless luxuries and devote themselves solely to state affairs, this could truly be called an ideal nation out of a fantasy.’
To be precise, they were closer to having neither the opportunity nor the leisure to indulge in luxuries, but···.
Anyway, it amounted to the same thing!
“Lord? Hines? ···Daydreaming with someone sitting right in front of you. I’ve thought this for a while, but you’re far too self-centered···.”
“Briki.”
“Oh my, you were listening? Hahaha
—of course I’m kidding?”
“Enough pointless talk. How did the task go?”
He cut off Briki, who was laughing frivolously, and immediately got to the main point.
She was virtually the only person who could speak comfortably in front of Hines, because he tolerated her informal speech to some extent when they were alone.
‘No matter how bound by a master-servant relationship, the age gap is considerable, after all.’
She was a being who had existed for thousands of years—truly the history of the vampire race itself, a living fossil.
Moreover, her own realm was hardly inferior to that, so allowing informal speech was hardly impossible as a courtesy to a senior.
“···Something makes me feel unpleasant. You weren’t thinking anything rude, were you?”
As expected of a Sacred Blood with transcendent intuition, Briki seemed to sense something.
The black-haired beauty glared at him with crimson eyes half-lidded in suspicion, but his skill in concealing his thoughts was not so low that he would reveal his inner feelings over something so minor.
“Don’t change the subject. Report first.”
“···Hmm. Well, fine. First, the places I visited were Shaloti, Tulk, Lesk, and up to the mid-western region of the Azerion Empire. Thanks to Eupersh’s children opening Blood Gates, the movement itself wasn’t difficult, but···.”
While the vampire clans of Auterica were a tripartite power structure of Eupersh, Brocoslak, and Obaipo, they were not the entirety of the vampire race.
If counting by numbers, the three clans alone would make up about half the race, but conversely, that meant the remaining half were members of minor clans.
‘And at that scale, it’s absolutely a level that cannot be ignored.’
Minor clans that had lost their Sacred Blood through the process of blood inheritance and were weeded out, or that broke away from the mainstream.
They had in common the fact that they increased their secrecy in order to survive, making their exact locations difficult to find.
However, thanks to the Eupersh Clan, whose area of activity spanned the entire continent, quite a few of them had had their approximate locations revealed—
and Briki’s mission this time was precisely to visit them directly and persuade them.
If they wished to live, they should obediently join this side··· the Auterica Vampire Clan Union, ‘Hybrid’.
‘Threats are also excellent means of negotiation. Diplomacy is originally like that, after all.’
In fact, if you thought about it, it wasn’t a bad proposal for them either.
Wasn’t this the perfect opportunity to escape a life of hiding like now and join the largest vampire force on the current continent!
If they joined now, they would even be given the opportunity to strengthen through the 「Refined Blood Decree」, so refusing would be the strange thing.
And as if Briki shared those thoughts, she continued with a confident attitude.
“But there were some fools who couldn’t understand even when I made such a good offer from our side, so I knocked some sense into them and captured—no, brought them back? Fufufu.”
The subjugation had concluded smoothly, and now her subordinates were in the process of sequentially transporting them through Blood Gates.
And quite substantial spoils at that, including a couple of True Bloods and numerous Pure Bloods.
‘As expected, having Sacred Blood-class talent under me makes everything convenient. If Briki hadn’t been here, things would have been several times more troublesome.’
Of course, no matter how minor the clan, if they were Lords, they would be at least True Blood class.
To completely suppress a force of that level, they had no choice but to dispatch even greater military strength.
But in the Talia Kingdom, which was at the center of transformation, all high-level personnel were too busy to even blink, and Briki, who happened to be free, had no interest in practical work and had merely been idling about.
Naturally, Hines, who couldn’t stand seeing a subordinate loafing around, had almost forcibly assigned this task to her···.
and the result, as you can see now, was very satisfactory.
“Hmm, good. Good work, Briki.”
“You appreciate it? I think I worked quite hard this time···.”
“Then rest a bit before taking care of the remaining regions as well. There are still many places left. It should take about a day?”
“···As expected, you’re too self-centered···.”
Thus, Hybrid externally solidified its national foundation to match the changed system, while internally absorbing vampires spread across the entire continent to expand its scale.
But even amid all this, there was a place where Hines II kept his senses sharp and watched for an opportunity.
Naturally, the remaining one of the three great vampire clans.
The eastern part of the continent where the Obaipo Clan was entrenched, the Zepia Republic.
***
Chirp chirp chirp.
— Zzzrt.
—A peaceful morning with birds of all kinds singing beautifully.
“Good morning, Harris-nim. It is a good morning.”
“Harris-nim, these are freshly picked fruits today. Please try one.”
“I hope you are well? The weather is truly nice today as well.”
Harris Granwood, who had become the new High Elf of the Elven Kingdom, was strolling through the inside of the royal palace—the only structure connected to the World Tree—receiving hospitality from everyone.
“Hahaha, thank you. May the World Tree’s blessing be with you all.”
As expected of a High Elf, one might say.
It hadn’t been long since his awakening, and he hadn’t really shown anything yet, but the elves here showed him boundless goodwill.
‘Well, it can’t be helped. The proof of a god with physical form stands tall right beside us, and a High Elf is an existence that could be called its high priest.’
Still, being treated this way didn’t feel bad at all.
To be more honest··· these days, he had become so accustomed to being flattered by those around him that he now naturally accepted it without even realizing.
‘By the way, I’d only heard of it; this is my first time coming here. Let’s see··· the place where the Gardeners reside···.’
There was a reason he had moved his steps in this direction.
Today, while learning the basic attainments of a High Elf with Cecily, he had come across a piece of information that piqued his interest.
Thus, Harris had made his way here directly after the lesson ended, to the place where the ‘Gardeners’ who managed the World Tree resided, in order to verify it himself.
‘I had exchanged greetings with the elf who is their leader shortly after my awakening. But this is my first time visiting their place directly.’
The Gardeners of the World Tree were in positions no different from priests or monks, individuals who did not interfere in other secular affairs at all and devoted themselves solely to serving the World Tree.
No matter how much the World Tree was the incarnation of a god, since it had manifested on this land in the form of a tree, wouldn’t it be better to have managing hands than none?
‘Still, since it is the World Tree by name, there probably aren’t that many parts requiring hands-on work. If not, just how much manpower would be needed to manage a tree of this size···.’
Therefore, their usual main task could be said to be regularly flying around the vicinity to check for abnormalities, and collecting the dead branches that the World Tree pruned and withered away itself.
“Oh, if it isn’t Harris-nim? To what do we owe the honor of a High Elf coming all the way here···.”
“It is a pleasure. As I have become a High Elf through the World Tree’s blessing, I thought I should pay my respects in person to those who serve Him most closely, and so I came here.”
“Ooh···! To think you would think of us to this extent···!”
And that was precisely Harris’s purpose for coming here.
Though they were withered and their spirit veins severed, it meant that the precious branches of the World Tree were piled up here in abundance!
“···So, would you permit me to look around your workplace?”
“Of course. I shall guide you. We are in the middle of shift work, so not many remain, but the others will all be delighted as well.”
“Hahaha, I do hope I’m not being a nuisance.”
Beneath those gently curved eyes smiling so softly.
Unlike his usual self, always steeped in indolence, Harris’s two eyes blazing with desire began busily scanning the surroundings.