Chapter 27: Pragmatism

　　After committing the nobles to the guild's dungeon, Baldwin gathers Edward and a few of the most talented hunters.

　　At this point the crucifixes and other holy relics in the Guildmaster's room had been taken away, this was to prevent them from harming Baldwin and to make the original master vampire hunter, who had once looked up to them, even more depressed.

　　And Lilith's relics have been properly sealed in the Guild's secret room; this vampire artifact is just too destructive.

　　The main topic of discussion now was what to do with the group of newborn vampires.

　　"First we have to quench their thirst." Baldwin said.

　　"Wouldn't animal blood work?"

　　"It is said that it can only be temporarily relieved, but the hunger and thirst will still require sucking human blood to a certain extent."

　　"Then recruit volunteers to set up a blood bank in Constantine and let the nobles pay for it." Edward said.

　　"Blood bank?"

　　"Collecting blood in large quantities and preserving it with ice magic will probably preserve it for about 30 days."

　　As a doctor, he knew that cryopreserved plasma could be kept for about 20-30 days, and that was still the standard for medical use. If it's just for drinking, it's expected to last even longer.

　　But everyone else was a little confused when they heard it... can blood still be preserved for so long?

　　"There is another method." Baldwin said, "I've heard that the Vermilion Nights Empire has a recipe for making blood into blood medicine tablets, such that just a small tablet can brew up a large vial of blood. We can find a way to get the recipe for this."

　　Apparently, Baldwin doesn't quite trust Edward's methods.

　　"How do we get it, it's not like we have any trade with the Zhuyue Empire."

　　"Go through the black market, maybe you can get it."

　　"If you can't, let them store up blood slaves." A hunter said.

　　"Or let them go to the enemy's country and sneak up on the enemy's soldiers to suck their blood." Another hunter came up with an evil solution.

　　All in all, regarding the problem of hunger and thirst, for the time being, it is not necessary to consider it too laboriously; as long as the mind does not slip, there are always more ways than difficulties.

　　The most important thing is how to control these newborn vampires.

　　"There has to be a way to restrain these guys and let them know that their lives are in the hands of the guild at all times." Edward said.

　　These nobles would eventually have to be put back to keep Constantine stable.

　　If they collude together or flee to other areas, it creates a big problem.

　　"Is there any magic or sorcery or something that can control their range of motion, preferably with some deterrent, ready to wipe them out if they disobey or lose control." Edward said.

　　"You feel more demonic than a vampire with that idea." Master Baldwin said in disgust.

　　"Or maybe there's a poison or curse with a delayed effect that they have to seek our help in a certain cycle to lift." What the noble gentleman from the Blue Planet was thinking was that it would be best to have something like a life and death talisman or a triple corpse brain god elixir.

　　"A vampire's constitution is so resistant to poison and curses that such things wouldn't do much good even if they did."

　　Edward furrowed his brow in thought for a moment:

　　"If we can't find a means of controlling them like that, there is another way."

　　"What way?"

　　"Deceive, lie to them that there is a way to control them like this and then make them panic, after all, no one would really dare to test it on their own life."

　　"But that will only control them for a short time, and they will be exposed over time." Chief Hector said.

　　Baldwin mused for a moment and said, "A short time will suffice, let them find a suitable successor as soon as possible, and then they can either exterminate them or leave them to their own devices."

　　"There's no point in rescuing them now if we exterminate them, and leaving them to fend for themselves would threaten Constantine's safety. I suggest finding a place to concentrate and imprison them, after all, vampires have far more physical strength than humans, and as long as they are supplied with blood, they can labor without sleep, which is a very high-quality human resource."

　　"Human Resources .... Thank goodness you can come up with a word like that." Master Baldwin laughed somewhat derisively.

　　"What about the vampire coven we captured earlier? It's near the old vampire capital, we can block the only entrance and exit, and if they try to escape, the magical beasts in the ruins of the old capital will dispose of them." An elite hunter said.

　　"Not very secure, what if they join forces with the Wraith and attack us?"

　　"Those magical beasts were left behind by the Prince of Darkness a hundred years ago, the Prince of Darkness has been out of control since his death, they attack humans and vampires indiscriminately."

　　"Who is the Prince of Darkness?"

　　"The second True Vampire Ancestor of Vampires, has the same name as you don't even know."

　　"Huh?"

　　Edward realizes at this moment that Evelyn spoofed him when she was picking the name.

　　He is also to blame for burning the first few pages of Vampire Origins, which never mentions the name "Kayne" and always refers to the Second True Vampire Ancestor.

　　"Then, concentrating the vampires in the Coven is something to consider."

　　"How do you effectively control them?"

　　"By this stage, they're far enough away from Constantine that we can control them in less humane ways, like putting them in silver shackles or something."

　　"This is also too much of an investment, the guild is already running out of money casting silver swords, and wasting funds on casting silver shackles is better than just killing them."

　　"It doesn't need to be a pure silver shackle, just install a mechanism inside the shackle and a silver needle. The mechanism has to be triggered in two ways - actively by the outside world or passively when damaged, and if it resists us or tries to destroy the shackle, the silver needle shoots out and kills the resister."

　　"Can such a complicated mechanism be made?"

　　"It should be possible to do that with the Twin Life Rune Stone."

　　Edward has largely conceptualized the structure of such a yoke.

　　In fact, the mechanism just needs to do the point that destroying the shackle will shoot out silver needles is enough, and then by adding the dual-life rune stone and the detonation device, you can use the properties of the rune stone to remotely destroying the shackle and then shoot out the silver needles.

　　"You might as well kill them right off the bat if you control them like that before you kill them."

　　"It's not the same, save them because they're innocent now, but we're also taking a big risk in order to save them, so they're obligated to follow the rules we've laid out, and we have the right to hedge our bets by executing those who don't."

　　The rest of the group had a "you win" look on their faces at this impeccable logic.

　　"Then wouldn't we just make a batch of these shackles to control them?" Chief Hector asked.

　　"Time is running out, we still need to use deception first to get them to obey us for a short time, and in the meantime, build the shackles and construct the concentration camps where they will be held." Edward said.

　　"Kayne, I suddenly think that you're much more evil than a vampire."

　　"It's not evil, it's called pragmatism."