Chapter 158: 158

**

The ‘Second Imperial Prince’, Ruppel Olfolse, flinched nastily and raised his gaze up at the giant tree at least eight metres tall .

1

It didn’t look like any old regular tree, judging from the strange feeling it gave off . And he found it truly displeasing to behold, too .

Just as he began thinking that to himself, two Paladins suddenly blocked his path . One was a girl yet to mature into a woman, while the other was an older man with a hardened face .

Ruppel stared at the two as the expression of ‘Oops!’ floated up on his face .

‘Did I act too conspicuously?’

He scanned his surroundings . Servants and maids were running around in fear and panic, or were hiding themselves away in their private chambers . A young servant boy like him waltzing around without a care in the world would obviously stand out like a sore thumb .

‘In that case, there was no point in dressing up like a servant in the first place, was there?’

The other Vampires should be able to attract most of the attention elsewhere . In the case of Oscal the sword king, he’d personally step up in order to stabilise the situation in the palace as soon as possible, and as for White, he’d practically lose all of his rationale at the mere mention of Vampires .

Since Ruppel made sure to bring in enough ‘manpower’ to bait those two out, they should be able to buy some time for him, even if it’s only by a little .

However, these Paladins weren’t willing to look past a simple boy servant? They should know about how hard it was for children to become Vampires due to their natural characteristics, but even then, they still didn’t lower their guard at all .

Who’d have thought that the noble Paladins were this suspicious of the other people?

Ruppel put on a scared face and addressed the people before him, “W-why are you looking at me like that, sir Paladins?”

His expression was absolutely spot-on, a convincingly tearful face that perfectly matched the kids of his age group . He had already become an expert at pulling this kind of act meant to fool the regular humans .

Harman stared at the red-haired boy and furrowed his brows . But that lasted only for a brief moment . As if he wanted to calm a frightened child, he lowered his back and matched his eye line with the boy’s .

Then, he smiled and spoke up, “Let me ask you something . ”

“Yes?”

“Earlier in the morning, servants and maids were issued with a certain message . Do you know what that was?”

While saying that, Harman rested his hand on the sword’s hilt .

Ruppel’s expression hardened at the question .

What the hell was this…? Could the humans have established a code word just in case Vampires decided to infiltrate?

Ruppel’s eyes urgently rolled around . “Uh, t-that is… I heard it but, uh, I forgot it . I’m sorry . I’m not very smart, you see… T-that’s why my brothers and sisters make fun of me all the time . ”

“Ah, I see . ” Harman smiled bitterly before politely asking Charlotte, “Ma’am, should we confirm again, just in case?”

Charlotte quietly glared at Ruppel, her sharp eyes unwaveringly locked on the boy .

Ruppel felt the sharpness of her glare and cold sweat drops began trickling down his face . He wasn’t sure why, but this ominous feeling began creeping into his mind .

Suddenly, Charlotte snorted derisively .

At the same time, a flash of light flew in towards Ruppel .

A sword containing divinity swung towards the boy’s throat, and as if to match that, a spike of blood shot out from the ground to block the incoming blade .

“…!”

As Charlotte’s unsheathed sword was digging into the spike of blood, an expression of shock and astonishment filled up Ruppel’s face .

He gasped out in confusion . “Eh? Huh?!”

She coldly growled out, “There never was anything like a code word, Vampire . ”

What was that?!

Ruppel was flustered . Not because he was deceived, no, but he was simply dismayed by the fact that this girl unhesitantly swung her sword at him just because of one innocent-sounding mistake .

“You crazy b*tch! A young kid like me might not have known anything, you know?!”

“I wasn’t planning to cut off your neck . I’d have stopped the blade in time . ”

‘Holy cow, did I really get fooled by her?!’

Ruppel had indeed been deceived by the girl’s intense level of murderous intent .

Charlotte grasped the hilt with both hands and injected more divinity . Beautiful whitish aura enveloped the blade and sliced deeper into the spike of blood .

“What…?!”

Ruppel panicked and hurriedly leapt back to create some distance . The spike got sliced apart at that very same moment .

Although faint, a cut wound opened up on his cheek . The stinging divinity began burning his skin .

‘What is the meaning of this? I never heard about the presence of such a girl before!”

Ruppel hurriedly distanced himself even further away . While doing so, he didn’t forget to shoot several more spikes of blood from the ground .

Charlotte swiftly weaved past them all, while Harman used his sword to defend against the spikes as he stepped back .

Ruppel stared at the two Paladins displaying levels of skill far exceeding his initial estimation and could only form a shocked expression .

The man was one thing, but this girl, she was seriously high-calibre . Especially her divinity – that thing was incredibly dangerous!

“You two, just what the hell are you…?!”

While saying some things in disbelief, Ruppel’s gaze shifted to the side .

The world tree was busy unleashing waves of Mana, and he could see the energy seeping into both Charlotte and Harman .

The energy of life was protecting them, acting as if it was a blessing granted by mother nature itself .

That very same energy was precisely what Ruppel had found so disgusting earlier .

He muttered out in disbelief some more, “…Just what the hell is going on here?”

All the spies installed within the Theocratic Empire, the blood-creations, had been purged alongside Count Fomor, and that had cut off the flow of information coming from the imperial palace .

The Vampires had managed to coax several humans into collaborating with them recently, but even then, Ruppel had not heard anything about the existence of these individuals before .

“Sir Harman . ”

“Yes, ma’am . ”

“Please protect her majesty Lady Tina . ”

Harman frowned slightly at Charlotte’s new order . “But, ma’am . ”

“I will leave the matter in your hands . ” She glanced at Harman . “This is an order . ”

“…”

“Do not worry . I won’t die today . ” Charlotte controlled her breathing and strengthened her body with divinity . “As long as his highness is here, I will not die . ”

Harman nodded at her confident declaration, and then turned around to dash towards where Tina was . Before he could start explaining the situation to her, Tina was already staring at Ruppel with fierce intensity .

She spoke with a tense voice, “This is my palace . ”

Her staff powerfully slammed into the ground the next moment .

“And I’m the current queen of Aslan . ”

The ground swelled up, and tree roots broke the surface to gather into one . They bunched up to create several humanoid shapes .

Eventually, five metre-high humanoids made out of wood stood up – these were woodmen, classified as lower-ranked tree spirits .

They all stood tall around Charlotte .

The hashashins also pulled out their individual weapons and got ready . Their demonic energy roused up and they prepared themselves to attack Ruppel at a moment’s notice .

“What the hell . These punks…”

Ruppel’s fluster was getting steadily worse . Somehow, this whole situation had spiralled way out of his initial plans .

The regular Paladins weren’t the problems . But what’s happening right now was that, instead of the expected small fries, actual monster-like individuals had popped out of nowhere .

But… since when?

Just as Ruppel’s jaw began to drop, Charlotte strode forward confidently .

Divinity gushed out from her body and the purest-white aura imaginable completely blanketed her sword .

She addressed Ruppel as her glare as sharp as her blade locked on him, “Are you ready to die, Vampire?”

Ruppel stumbled back while more cold sweat trickled down his face .

Just from where did all these monsters he’d never even heard or seen before come flooding out from…? What exactly happened in the empire after the Imperial Family purged the Vampires out of the imperial court?!

It hadn’t even been a year, yet how could these many monsters suddenly show up without any warning?

Should he escape? If it’s the warp magic developed by Count Timong, then…

Ruppel clamped his mouth shut .

No, wait . These individuals before his eyes were still measly humans . Yet he was thinking of running away from them?

What a laughable notion that was .

‘No need to get frightened . They are still measly little humans, after all . ’

Ruppel clenched his teeth tightly .

He was a Progenitor Vampire who had been granted demonic energy and peerage by none other than the Vampire King himself .

Indeed, he was a grand existence that reached this noble bloodline from a zombie in only around ten years . As a Vampire with the peerage of marquis, he should never entertain the idea of backing off because some measly livestock threatened him .

“Alright, fine . I’ll have some fun with you all . I’ll finish this well before Oscal Baldur and White show up . ”

The ground around him began cracking apart and split open . Rune letters materialised simultaneously and pillars of blood began gushing out .

These pillars of crimson liquid gave off a sinister aura as it rose up high in the air .

“You’re still livestocks at the end of the day . Take it as an honour . Because I, Ruppel Olfolse, will…”

The pillars of blood swirled viciously all around him .

He spread open his arms wide and smiled insidiously with his eyes .

“…gladly consume your blood as delicious food . ”

Fin .