Trash still has its use

"You've work hard"

Noelle greeted his Mistress after she was done with the trash young masters.

"This much is nothing" Selene shook her head "Is Castel already here?"

"Yes. It seems that he came up with a plan to re-stock the blood bags"

Selene nodded in acknowledgment and walked to the study. She was looking forward for what kinda of solution would Castel give to the thousand-year-old problem of the clan.

"Milady you're here" Castel bowed to Selene for the first time in this life with sincerity. Abolishing a long-lasted tradition and confronting the high levels of the clan without backing was by no means an easy feat. Although he still wasn't sure if she could manage to take the Tremere Clan to a new height he still acknowledged and respected her efforts to do so.

"Please, sit. I heard from Noelle you've had an idea on how to get blood"

"Yes. Is Milady familiar with how the other clans get their rations?"

Selene raised her eyebrow and nodded as flash of disappointment appeared in her face. She thought he came up with something more exciting but it was just that.

Castel didn't notice his boss emotions and continued.

"The other clans buy, in average, one normal blood bag for 10 silver coins and a superb one for 50 silver coins. Most of the blood is provided by some human village close to the clan's premises. Although this method can supply the clan needs somewhat, it's completely dependent on the humans willingness and availability to sell their blood. Plus, the quality of the blood isn't consistent"

Castel paused to look at Selene and seeing she was not displeased by the mention of trading with humans he continued.

"These days I went to the closest human territory to investigate their situation and do it happens that this year there was a drought. Without grains to trade and high government taxes, the humans in multiple places are barely alive. What I want to propose to the Clan Leader is that we build a town for these people in the clan's territory and offer them our protection in exchange for a quantity of blood every month. By controlling the environment that they live we can more or less guarantee the quality of the blood provided"

"Livestock?" Selene asked with faint amusement in her tone.

"Yes and no. I also plan for them to enrich our pockets and sell the clan's unique products in many places"

Selene tapped her fingers in silence making Castel nervous.

Although he was already happy for her not beating the crap out of him for his pro-human proposal, he was still not sure if Selene, who was known for her conservative position and hate for humans would agree.

"Okay"

"Sorry, it's my faul- wait, did you agree?!" Castel opened his eyes astonished.

"Yeah, why not? I don't see any way we could lose in this deal. But first we need to define some details first. For example, how much blood should one provide? Based on the clan's farm experience logs, we know that the amount one could provide varies depending on age, weight, sex and health condition. You should refer to them to establish exact conditions to our future villagers. All villagers who enter shall sign a magic contract agreeing with our conditions, so as to not cause future confusion. Also, it should be clear in the contract what we will provide for them. For now I think, lodging, fertile land, cattle and health check ups should suffice, do you have anything more to add?"

"Milady what if we-"

Selene, Noelle and Castel spent the next few hours going over details and situation simulations, slowly perfecting the plan to their future subjects. Fortunately, the idea of financing a human city was not new and some people had tried before making it easier to avoid mistakes.

"Good work you two. You can go to rest now and we can discuss about the resources required later"

Sending the two out, Selene gave a tired sigh as she massaged her temples.

'We need people and material resources. Although the amount of material resource to build a town is big, I can still manage this much without alarming the elders. As for the manpower, I have the perfect people for this job'

At the same time, Kate in prison felt a subtle chill in her back making her shrink. Looking around she saw some of her prison mates doing the same as her.

'Is this the after-effect of the Matriarch bloodlust?'

The same thought passed on the minds of all convicted youths. Since bloodlust was a type of forgotten force in their peaceful clan, the benighted youths could only scold themselves in their heart for not studying more and being helpless in such a situation.

"Urgh, It's all Bryn's fault! Why the f*ck he would spend so lavishly?" Nils asked frustrated.

"Wouldn't you do it too if you could?" Anton rolled his eyes at Nils. Please everyone knows everyone here, such hypocrisy is not even funny.

"Right? Honestly, Bryn was living a life that most of us wants. Unfortunately, the difference between people is too big" someone sighed.

"Yeah" his cell mate agreed. "Even now when we are all locked up, Bryn was still released earlier than us even though he committed something more serious than us"

"Who made others the Matriarch's brother and the ex-Patriarch only son" another person snorted.

"My, my, my… it seems that you guys have quite a number of complains" a kind female voice echoed in the dungeon. Unfortunately, no one present felt the kindness only a extreme cold build up inside them.

What is this terrifying woman doing back here?! Did she listen to everything they said?!

The poor locked nosferatus could only wailed in their hearts and hope that the Matriarch could look passed their stupid words.

"H-How could we? We are just admiring Bryn" Yuri said trying to sound as calm as possible but the little tremor in his voice completely betrayed him.

"Oh? Is that it? Hmmm, since you guys admire him so much and would like to live like him, I could release you right now" Selene said with a thoughtful face a kind smile, just like the big-sister image she had before.

"Really?!!" Kate excitedly grabbed the rail bars.

"Really" Selene smiled. "But, just like him, your freedom has a condition. Instead of being imprisoned here, you guys will need to do a manual task for the clan"

"… did Bryn really accepted this condition?" Anton asked with high suspicion. His Lord always abominated to do t he clan's tasks, especially the manual ones.

"What you should ask is: did he had any other choice?" Selene didn't care about his suspicion. Is true that her brother wouldn't agree to this condition in a million years, much less if she was the one who proposed. But if it was her father's orders and the one who supervise him was their father's, there was nothing that Bryn could do but followed what she asks.

"So, do you want?" Asked in a low voice, like an enticing demon pulling the young kin to the abyss.

The nosferatus here, were by no means strong in spirit nor smart, otherwise they wouldn't be so easily used as knives by others and passively be arrested by Selene. Being lured this much, was unsurprising that they chose to compromise and exchange their labor of their freedom.

Looking at the urgency that these people made a magic contract vowing to perform labour in the following year of their punishment, Selene felt frustrated even though this was a expected outcome.

Looking at the faces that were filled with joy for the upcoming freedom and zero worries about a job that they didn't even knew what it was, Selene suppressed the sigh that was about to escape her mouth and turned around to leave this place.

Like they say out of sight, out of mind.

Letting Noelle settle the rest, she went back to her office and started to process some other minor issues that surged around the clan.

It was only when the sun was two hours already in the sky that Noelle went back to report.

"Mistress, everything was dealt with"

"Did anyone saw you moving them to the location?"

"No, we knocked out all of the prisoners and transferred them with the teleportation spell given by the Mistress" as he spoke of the last part, Noelle's eyes shown with admiration and awe. Who would have thought that his Mistress, as young as she is, could significantly improve a spell that has been used like the original for more than thousands of years because it was deemed impossible to modify it.

If this was not a genius, what is a genius?

Plus, his Mistress is always so busy with her official schedule, but she still made what millions of researchers on the Coven couldn't.

Right now, the world genius was not even fit to describe Selene anymore in Noelle's heart.

Selene, who knew nothing of the brain supplement of her Secretary, was relieved to know the news of the secret transportation but just in case, she would let the shades pay attention to the elders and the family moves in the next months. Even if they discover something, it should be at least when the project is almost done.

Selene looked out of the window of her office and saw the whole clan displayed in her view. Because it was daytime already, the streets were empty and you could only see one person here and there.

Looking at the peaceful clan that was a striking contrast to the one in her memory, Selene vowed that this time around she would do everything to keep it this way, even if she has to burn the whole world.