Chapter 17: Associations

　　Lynn used a teleportation technique that consumed a lot of bloodline power to return to Fort Transylvania, the imperial capital of the Vermilion Night Empire.

　　After returning home and taking a few blood pill tablets to replenish her bloodline power, she took the family crest with her and barged straight into the Long Night Imperial City to seek an audience with Her Majesty the Queen.

　　The guards, on the other hand, stopped her unceremoniously:

　　"You don't even have a formal title, and a false title is barely enough for the rank of Viscount, so what makes you want to meet His Majesty?!"

　　In the Vermilion Night Empire, those who had reached a certain rank in strength but didn't have a real rank because of their status and other reasons were called virtual knighthoods, which was the case with Lynn.

　　Although she had the strength of a Viscount, as a servant of a Countess, she was unable to hold a title.

　　"I am a dependant of Countess Margaret, and have brought top secret information about Lord Kayne!" Lynn said, taking out her family's crest, "Also, my father was once a Knight Colonel of the Bloodrose, and this is my family's crest."

　　These surviving sons and daughters from a hundred years ago were privileged to a certain degree. The guards had to cast a net over them as well.

　　"Well, I can take you to the Minister of the Interior, and it's up to him to decide if you can see His Majesty."

　　So the guards brought Lynn to the Duke, who was in charge of the inner court, and after hearing Lynn's report, the Duke, knowing that it was a serious matter, brought Lynn to the Queen.

　　"Your dependent, Lindslette Alphonse Nero, to Your Majesty."

　　"Good, you bring news of your brother?"

　　"Yes."

　　Lynn pushed down her nerves and reported what her brother had gone through in a calm voice.

　　Queen Abel listened to her report with an expressionless face and then asked:

　　"So, you think Brother is going to take back the Empire from me?"

　　"I dare not speculate."

　　The empress suddenly smiled, "Well then, the throne and the empire, I'll just return it to my elder brother so what."

　　The Duke, who was listening nearby, immediately fell to his knees, "Never, Your Majesty!"

　　"What's not to like, the elder brother's line of succession would have been above me."

　　"But, after all, Lord Kayne is the one who wears the guilt and has abandoned the Children of the Blood in a time of peril for the Empire ...."

　　"So?"

　　"And it is you, Your Majesty, who guides us like the light of the moon and takes us to rebuild our empire ...."

　　"Oh, if I tell you that everything I have done was handed over to me by my elder brother before he sealed himself, how would you feel?"

　　"Huh? This ...."

　　"Alright, alright, you're all overthinking it, according to my elder brother's character, if he wanted to get the empire, he would have come directly to discuss with me."

　　"But..."

　　"No buts, stand down."

　　The Duke wanted to say something else, but when he saw that the Queen was already showing impatience, he shrunk his neck and retreated.

　　Lynn was about to follow along and leave when the Queen suddenly pointed at her, "Wait a minute."

　　When the Minister of the Interior had withdrawn from the Visitation Hall, Abel asked, "How has Margaret been?"

　　Lynn said, "The Countess is fine except for the fact that she has been seriously injured three times."

　　"Seriously hurt? Why?"

　　"I'm not sure of the exact reason, but it seems that it was because of disobeying Kayne-sama and being disciplined by Kayne-sama with a low-rank spell."

　　"Pfft... Brother went too far... Pfft... The Countess is loyal, even if she made a small mistake, she shouldn't... Pfft... Discipline like this!"

　　From the tone of her voice, Lynn could hear the Queen trying to hold in her laughter.

　　But she could only pretend not to hear it, and said in a serious voice, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for being considerate of your master."

　　"Pfft... Ahem, before you leave, go to the castle's alchemy lab and get Margaret some top quality healing potions, in addition, I'll reward Margaret with another enchanted saree, and I'll have the maid send it to you in a while."

　　"Thank you, Your Majesty, for the reward."

　　Then Her Majesty flung her hand, and a small trinket engraved with the royal emblem slowly flew towards Lynn.

　　Linlin couldn't help but be surprised and happy when she saw it, this was a token that proved the identity of the Queen's secret envoy, and could gain a very high level of authority, being able to freely enter and exit the Long Night Castle.

　　"Don't get me wrong, your status is still that of a countess's dependent, and you may not overstep your bounds. But in the future, if there is any information about your elder brother, you can come and report to me directly, without having to go to the minister of the inner court."

　　"Yes!"

　　"Well, if there's nothing else, stand down."

　　Waiting for the little girl, who was less than a hundred years old, to leave the visitation hall, the Queen giggled again as she recalled the news that Margaret had just been disciplined.

　　"This Margaret, all day long she thinks about how to please her brother, but in the end, she will still be disciplined by her brother! Unlike Abel, Abel only cares for her brother."

　　The ruler of the empire was quite confident in his "sister power".

　　A few hours later, in a large house on the edge of the city of Fort Transylvania, a dozen guys in cloaks gathered.

　　They were all high-powered Bloods, and they usually gathered together to have a ball and race hounds or whatever. But if they were sneaking around like this, it was obvious that they had ulterior motives.

　　The one who summoned them here was the Minister of the Interior and Duke of Cyrano, Mathias Hubert Farrand.

　　Once all the Bloods were seated around a huge square table, the Duke lowered his voice:

　　"Gentlemen, I have summoned you all today because a national tragedy is upon us."

　　The Bloods all looked shocked, and the Duke went on to talk about the shocking declaration made by "the Lord whose name cannot be spoken".

　　That day, a secret society aimed at rebelling against the Second True Vampire Ancestor was quietly established.

　　Because of their unanimous goal of "sealing the tyrannical True Vampire Ancestor once again", this society has been tentatively named the "Emperor Sealing Society". That's why this society was tentatively named "The Emperor Sealing Society".

　　--------

　　Early in the morning, the whole city of Constantine was still silent, but in the "Stigmata Skin" guild, there were already many diligent hunters training in the martial arts field.

　　Edward is warming up with pushups.

　　That incident with the chance encounter with Ray-Ray a few days ago didn't affect him much.

　　He did not want to leave the "Skin of the Stigmata" guild for the time being, and go to that small country in the Western Continent to find "his" noble identity.

　　Giving up on trying to be an aristocrat who spends his days enjoying himself or whatever is kind of a dangerous idea! In such a barbaric world, it could even be said to be a way to seek death.

　　He had also read a lot of this world's history lately, and knew how powerless a small country's nobles were when faced with natural disasters, plagues, and wars.

　　The status of a title means nothing, only when one is strong can one survive.

　　So a good day starts with trying to be strong!

　　Evelie was also nearby, she had just practiced a few sword poses and was currently resting while watching Kayne do push-ups.

　　At first she was quite interested in this exercise that works the whole body and followed it a few times.

　　But the huntress gave up the exercise once she realized that the moment she followed it, she drew immodest stares from the rest of the hunters.

　　Edward stuck with it, though, and no amount of pomposity in his pecs would have bothered him anyway.

　　After doing two hundred push-ups, he stood up, feeling a little more prudent yet.

　　That's enough of the physical exercise for now, the main topic of the day: new magic!

　　Last night he had memorized the spell and runes of the second-rank flame magic [Explosive Inflammation Bomb] by heart, and was just about to actually cast it.

　　In fact, there were other branches of elemental magic such as ice, thunder, earth, wind, etc., but Edward felt that instead of being greedy and chewing on more than he could chew, he should first practice flame magic to a certain degree before saying anything.

　　Set a small goal to study other things after learning high level fire magic like Flame Storm Inferno Fire Rain.

　　He stretched out his palm and prepared for a [Explosive Inflammatory Bomb].

　　The spell is very long, but the runes only need to prepare five of [Inflammation] [Gathering] [Bomb] [Penetration] [Explosion].

　　Well, let's try one without aria first.

　　Gathering five runes in his head in turn, a small flame flew out from in front of his palm.

　　"Ah this... The power doesn't look good."

　　The small flames hit the distant target, but penetrated right through and into the fence behind them.

　　"The penetration is fine... But the power ...."

　　Edward was disappointed when suddenly there was a loud bang and flames erupted from the fence, blowing a large hole four or five meters in diameter through it.

　　"The power... It's okay."

　　Looking at the results, Edward has mixed feelings.

　　The power of the [Explosive Inflammatory Bomb] was certainly welcome, but the cost of repairing the guild's wall would mostly have to be paid out of your own pocket.

　　The hunters had stopped their training and came up together, joining the hapless Edward, savoring the power of the spell while looking through the large hole at the panicked innocent citizens outside the wall.

　　A short while later, Chief Hector came over.

　　"Don't worry, it won't cost much if you repair the hole. It won't pose much of a burden to you." The Chief Steward comforted.

　　"Can you work out a specific number out, so I can have some idea."

　　"Okay, you wait."

　　The Chief Steward, on his toes, scratched a number in the sand next to him and added the numbers together.

　　"Hiring craftsmen, purchasing stone, and additional defense expenditures during the mending period, almost two large gold coins will suffice."

　　"Ha .... Ha .... Okay."

　　That means close to a month's worth of commissions gone.

　　Edward, in tears, ran east and west with Chief Steward Haight to the Stonemasons' Guild to find someone to mend the fence.

　　Because the stonemasons had to live in the guild during the mending, the hunters secretly tested the stonemasons with holy water to prevent vampires from mixing in.

　　However, this method only checks for vampires in the stonemasons, so unbeknownst to the hunters, an assassin has blended in and entered the guild.

　　Ajina, the ace assassin of the Assassin's Guild, whose duty is to "take care of the aftermath".

　　Typically, his job is to help inexperienced assassins erase evidence, put renegade assassins in their proper place, impose penalties on defaulting clients, and the like.

　　In short, it's just that assassination commissions are rarely performed anymore.

　　But this time he had to go back to his old ways himself in order to make good.

　　Simply because the previous group of assassins who were commissioned failed.

　　Originally, if the assassination failed, the Assassin's Guild would usually return the commission money to abandon the commission, but this commission was different, the commissioner had paid an exorbitant commission fee, and if the mission was abandoned, the Assassin's Guild would need to pay a huge amount of liquidated damages.

　　So, the Guild sent Ajina to come and make things right.