A bell rang over a large temple spire. It was the last sound of farewell to people who passed away. The people of Ospurin said that every soul who heard the sound of that bell would leave all regrets, anger, and lingering feelings behind in the mortal realm to enter the land of the gods where they would be judged.
“Father and elder brother probably won’t go to heaven.” Joachim said out loud as he watched the bell and its sound fading away.
The vassals next to him could not reply. Under ordinary circumstances, it would have been basic manners for them to deny Joachim’s words since they were addressed towards the former head of the estate and his son.
However, since they found out about the Count’s heinous actions, they could no longer support or speak favorably of him. Moreover, Biyom Dracul’s personality had always been complete shit, so there was nothing to speak favorably about him anyways.
But Brod couldn’t stand the silence so he spoke a few words. “…I’m sure they will repent their actions. They are probably ready for it.”
“Repent…it’s a must. No matter how much suffering and pain follow them, they have to repent. But first, I wish they’ll apologize to all their victims in the afterlife.”
“They will. Definitely.”
Count Dracul and Biyom Dracul were unable to overcome their diseases and eventually passed away. Today was their funeral. Even though it was a joint funeral for the Count and his heir, the size of the funeral was small, to the point that it was shabby. However, considering the situation of the estate and the Count’s past actions, they had no choice but to hold the funeral in this manner.
“Thank you for attending, Mr. Zich.” Joachim, who was greeting each of the attendees at the funeral, made a small bow towards Zich.
Since the size of the funeral was very small, Joachim only invited the minimum number of people; Zich’s presence at the funeral indicated how much Joachim trusted and respected him.
“Of course. It’s not even a difficult task.”
“I also want to send the two of you my regards.” Joachim also slightly bowed towards Snoc and Hans who were standing next to Zich.
“Ah, ah, no! It’s f-fine!”
“Ah, I s-send my c-condolences!”
As a previous servant of a noble and a common miner, Hans and Snoc felt that attending an aristocrat’s funeral and receiving the heir’s bow was strange to the point of being frightening. They were both startled and frantically tried to return Joachim’s bow. In an aristocrat’s eye, their behavior would have looked very awkward, even impudent. However, no one, including Joachim, criticized their behavior. Only Zich looked at them as if they were pathetic.
“I heard that the three of you will be leaving soon.”
Zich answered, “We were only stopping by the Dracul estate for a bit while traveling. We stayed longer than we planned, so we have to start moving again.”
“Do you really have no plans to join us here? I assure you that you will be given the best treatment here.”
Even while reorganizing the estate, Joachim continuously tried to scout Zich and his companions. During the time they were together, Zich showed his ability to quickly assess the situation, his extensive knowledge, and great fighting prowess; moreover, all the times he saved and helped the estate was more than enough to make him the number one person Joachim wanted to scout. Zich was also young, so he had even more potential in the future.
However, Zich was firm in his reply. “I don’t like being stuck in one place.”
As always, Zich refused with the same answer. At this point, even Joachim had already given up halfway, so his disappointment was minimal.
“Even without me, the Dracul estate won’t have many problems. There are many people such as Sir Brod who are supporting you. Ah, I can’t address you as a young master anymore since you are going to be the new Count Dracul soon.”
“I’m still not comfortable with that title. Moreover, it will take an extremely long time and effort to get the King’s approval.”
“Will you reveal that about the Count?”
That. It was an ambiguous phrase, but everyone knew what Zich meant. All of Joachim’s vassals and supporters looked downcast. However, there was no trace of hesitation on Joachim’s face.
“Of course. Even though it was done in the name of saving our estate, my father’s actions can never be forgiven. I have to start remedying those wrongs. I have to repent and give due compensation and trial to the vassals who planned and participated in my father’s crimes.”
“It’ll be a very difficult task.”
“But I still have to do it. My father justified his awful crimes by saying that he did it for the estate, but in the end, his actions led to an existence like Fest and eventually brought more chaos and destruction into the estate. It’s ironic if you think about it.”
“From the first place, Fest was a mad person with a rotten nature.”
“But before my father spread infectious diseases to the Bargot Trading House, she was a normal lady of the house. You never know. If diseases had never struck her family, she might have reached the end of her life without ever realizing this part about herself and be known as a good wife and mother.”
“You are planning to also take on Fest’s sins upon your shoulders.”
“That is the biggest reason why I want to inherit the Dracul estate.”
The path was bound to be full of thorns and suffering, but Joachim willingly volunteered to walk this thorny path filled with suffering and pain.
“Just a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to leave my family and travel around like you, Sir Zich, but now I’m about to inherit the Dracul estate…You really never know what will happen in life.”
Moreover, he was now receiving the full support of all his vassals. It was unimaginable that he used to be treated like a burden to the family a couple of days ago.
“Then your hemophobia will hamper you a lot.”
“…I will work hard to overcome it.”
However, Joachim’s complexion was already starting to look pale.
“Fortunately, I had a lot of practice this time around, and even though I saw a lot of blood this time, it was endurable.”
“But I heard that you fainted as soon as the battle ended.”
Joachim hesitated. His hemophobia was a significant issue. Despite his abilities and talents, the only reasons why Biyom could steadfastly hold his position as heir were because of tradition and Joachim’s frail constitution and hemophobia.
“Why don’t you try using this?” Zich took out something from his pocket.
“That…!”
Joachim’s eyes became wide. He had seen that object before; it was the red marble that the leader of the assassins had tempted him with.
“Blood Vessel.”
“I saw this rolling around on the ground by chance.”
Zich’s smile was completely shameless. His servants, Hans and Snoc (especially Snoc), seemed like they had a lot to say, but even till the end, they didn’t say anything.
“Do you know what this is?”
“If you are asking me about what or where it came from, or who made it, I don’t know anything about it.”
“Then…”
“But I know its abilities and side effects.” Since he heard it directly from Joachim before he regressed, Zich was sure of his information about the Blood Vessel.
“…You really have a lot of strange and mysterious knowledge.”
“I’m happy to help people using my knowledge.”
By his reply, it seemed as if Zich was not going to tell him where he got his information from. But Joachim did not deeply pry into the matter.
“What is its ability?”
“It makes your body healthy and helps you overcome your hemophobia. But most of all, you get a power called ‘Blood Domination.’”
“Blood Domination. It doesn’t sound too good.”
“As the name implies, it lets you control people’s blood according to your will. It’s an extremely powerful skill.”
With that ability alone, Joachim had become one of the four subordinates of ‘The Demon Lord of Strength, Zich Moore.’ But Joachim scrunched his face after hearing that he would gain the ability to control blood.
“…Other than Blood Domination, everything else sounds extremely attractive to me. Then what is the side effect?”
“You will become crazy for blood.”
“…”
Joachim pursed his lips. The people around him also looked at Zich with surprise.
“…That wasn’t a clear explanation, although it sounded rather negative. Could you explain it to me in more detail please?”
“To say it simply, it’s like becoming a vampire. You are going to become a monster who will do anything to see blood.”
Before his regression, Zich thought that Joachim’s love for blood was innate. However, the present Joachim was an ordinary human who hated blood much more than most people.
When the past Joachim explained to Zich that his love for blood came from the Blood Vessel, Zich had brushed it off as nonsense—but now, Zich realized that Joachim had been telling him the truth.
“…But Mr. Zich, there must be a solution to that issue, right?” Joachim still trusted Zich, so he asked calmly; but if Zich had offered him the ‘Blood Vessel’ thoughtlessly, he was going to get angry.
“Don’t worry. When you absorb it, you won’t feel a great thirst for blood at first. Maybe not at all. But as you use your powers more and more, things will change.”
“You’re saying that my desire for blood will increase as I use more power.”
“It won’t matter if you use your own blood. But of course, if you use too much of your blood, you will die. Thus, you will only be able to utilize your power to the maximum if you use other people’s blood. However, the more you handle other people’s blood, the desire for blood will increase until it eventually consumes you.”
“To what extent?”
Zich recalled how Joachim was before his regression. “I think you may reach a point where you would want to kill a bunch of people to just bathe in their blood.”
An eerie silence filled the whole area. People looked at the Blood Vessel that Zich was holding with fear, and some gulped their dried-up saliva back down.
Joachim fell into contemplation; in his mind, he balanced the scale between risk and return and thought about what decision he should make.
“…If I start to crave blood, it will cause great chaos.”
“Are you worried that you would be consumed by your desire for blood and cause chaos in the world?”
“I can’t help but worry.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’m not someone who will turn a blind eye to something I suggested.”
Joachim asked hopefully, “Is there some kind of way?”
However, Hans knew that Zich probably wouldn’t give Joachim a normal answer.
“If you become corrupt, I will personally come to kill you.”
His response was extreme. Hans and Snoc stared at Zich in shock, but Joachim laughed.
“Haha! I see. I’m glad to have a foolproof, preventive measure like you.”
Surprisingly, Joachim looked pleased, and his eyes landed on the Blood Vessel.
“Alright. Let me accept your favor.”
Joachim ended up absorbing the Blood Vessel as he had done so before Zich’s regression, yet there was a low probability that he would abuse his power and cause havoc all around the world like before. Zich had changed Joachim’s past which led him into becoming a vampire.
* * *
Not long afterward, Joachim officially announced his position to inherit the Dracul estate. No one protested Joachim’s succession, but what he did after that stirred up not only the estate but the whole kingdom—he revealed all the immoral misdeeds his father, the previous Count, had committed.
As expected, they received all kinds of criticism and insults, and public sentiment turned sour. Still, the new Count Dracul completed the tasks he had to do calmly and efficiently.
“Haa!” Joachim sat in Count Dracul’s office and sighed.
He placed down the document he was holding and looked up at the ceiling. There was a mountain of documents in front of him, and there were a lot more unattended documents piled on the opposite side of him.
Knock! Knock!
“Come in.” Joachim muttered quietly because he was still not used to talking informally. When he saw Brod come in with an armful of documents, Joachim sighed.
Brod commented, “You seem tired, sir.”
“I’m confident that if I lay down on a bed right now, I will wake up the next afternoon in one blink.”
“Still, isn’t this what you wanted to do, sir?”
“You don’t have to remind me. I’m doing all this work without complaining because I know that.”
“Fufu! But it’s fortunate that the Blood Vessel seems to be having an effect.”
Joachim placed his hand on his head. He felt exhausted, but it was understandable, considering all the work he was doing right now.
“If it were like before, I would have collapsed onto the bed by now.”
“I am happy to see how healthy you’ve become, sir.”
“Really? Isn’t it because you are happy that you can continue to make me work?”
“Forgive your unfaithful servant, as I am unable to deny that claim.”
Then, Brod took the documents he brought and placed them on top of the document pile. Joachim groaned as the mountain pile of documents grew even higher.
“I didn’t think I would miss the time when I used to be sickly.”