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“The mayor and the guild leaders. You will maintain your positions,” Eugene said.
“Oh!”
“T-thank you, sir!”
Everyone’s expressions brightened at once at Eugene’s generosity. However, their faces immediately stiffened after hearing Eugene’s following words. “However, I will confiscate half of your property and wealth.”
“…”
“Hmm? Is there a problem?” Eugene asked.
“O-of course not.”
“You are truly merciful, sir!” The mayor and the guild leaders revealed awkward smiles. Although they would lose half of their wealth, they were glad to keep their positions. As if suddenly recalling something, the mayor carefully spoke.
“Umm… Excuse me, Sir Eugene.”
“What is it?”
“With all due respect, I have one question,” the mayor said.
Eugene nodded for him to continue, and the mayor hesitated for a moment before speaking, “Well… Isn’t it impossible for members of the Dark Clan to enter a building or a castle unless they were invited? So how did you manage to enter the castle…?”
The guild leaders carefully turned their gazes toward Eugene after hearing the mayor’s question. They were also extremely curious about the issue but hadn’t dared to ask. Eugene’s lips slowly parted. “Brighton’s members of the Dark Clan. They invited me.”
“Traitors! I knew that they would…” one of the guild leaders suddenly sprang to his feet and shouted in fury. However, Eugene’s cold gaze immediately caused his expression to pale. The man shut up and immediately sat down.
Eugene spoke, “I hope there are no misunderstandings.”
“…”
Eugene looked at the stiff faces of the mayor and the guild leaders before he continued. “The vampires here. They wanted me to solve the problem of the banneret death knight. That’s why they invited me.”
“Uh…”
“Different clan, but we are of the same race. I could not ignore their plea. If they betrayed Brighton, they would have fought with me.” Eugene continued.
“…”
The mayor and the guild leaders remained silent. Obviously, Brighton’s vampires were the traitors who had invited Eugene to climb the city’s walls. However, they had the perfect justification. They had simply requested a high-ranking member of their clan, who had coincidentally been just outside the city, to help them with the issue regarding the death knight. If the vampires had really betrayed Brighton, they would have helped Eugene and Galfredik as the two rampaged on the ramparts. However, the vampires of the Rivoles Clan, including Clay, had done nothing.
“I only entered the city to help them deal with the death knight. However, the guards here attacked me and my knight first. It was self-defense, was it not?” Eugene said.
“…!”
How could he be audacious enough to call it self-defense after slaughtering dozens of guards? How could he lie so shamelessly without batting an eye?
‘A god. The god of craftiness.’
‘His hands, head, tongue, all of it. He must be the devil himself!’
“O-of course…”
“How could we suggest otherwise?” However, the mayor and the guild leaders had been completely bested. They had no choice but to agree with Eugene’s words, although they were fuming with shock and fury inside.
***
Eugene’s army was able to occupy the city with ease before sunrise. It went without a hitch since all of the city’s leaders had been captured and their soldiers and servants had also been overpowered. The remaining nobles and affluent citizens cooperated with Eugene after quickly grasping the situation. They knew well that it would be much better to cooperate with Eugene than to try and gamble their lives by asking for outside help.
Moreover, they weren’t being officially subjugated to an unknown member of the Tribe of the Darkness from the continent. Rather, they would be subjected to the Crawlmarine family, which was relatively influential and well-known in Brantia. Such a fact helped suppress any opposition from the city’s leadership.
Ordinary citizens didn’t seem reluctant to the change either. No, rather, they watched the situation with interest and looked up to Eugene. Eugene allowed his troops to plunder only the mansions of the mayor and guild leaders. He gave his orders that ordinary citizens would be left untouched. However, it was impossible to expect all the mercenaries to be obedient to his words, especially after grasping such an easy victory.
In addition, the battle had been won during the night. Some of the mercenaries foolishly thought that their deeds would go unnoticed. They broke into the houses of random citizens, assaulted, and plundered.
However, Eugene captured all of those who were responsible for such deeds after completely occupying the city. Then, he gathered them at the square and had them beheaded in front of the city’s people.
“I swear it on my honor. I, Jan Eugene, do not intend to rule Brighton with force. Offenders will be punished, even if they are a part of my army,” Eugene declared.
A high-ranking noble of the vampires with an exotic appearance expressed his sentiment in a rather clumsy Brantian after executing his own soldiers without hesitation. The scene was rather favorable for the people of Brighton.
In addition, Eugene immediately opened the gates of the city upon completing the occupation, allowing all residents freedom of movement. The residents cheered, and the remaining hope of the city’s leadership was utterly crushed.
Even if they could call for outside reinforcements and spark another war, the public sentiment would obviously be against them. Naturally, the leaders were also fearful of Eugene’s slyness. It became clear to them that the current situation had been craftily designed by him beforehand.
However, Eugene didn’t make these moves with such a grand purpose. Instead, he had been thinking that it would be best for the gates to be open to prepare for when Mungard, Crawlmarine, and Brighton would be connected once again. The leaders had simply misunderstood his intentions.
After taking control of Brighton with ease, Eugene immediately moved on to the next issue. It was time to take care of the death knight, which should be roaming the catacombs and the undergrounds of Brighton right now.
***
“It will be strong. Rumor has it that one can’t even become a death knight unless they were strong while they were still alive,” Lanslo explained.
Eugene nodded. “Hmm. So someone who was already strong will become even stronger when they become a death knight?”
“Exactly. And since they were a vampire banneret, it would be safe to assume that they would be around the level of a high lord.” Lanslo continued. Even though he was born in Brantia, he didn’t have too much information about death knights.
Perhaps Eugene could obtain more information with Pythamoras, but he couldn’t waste several days making the trip.
Eugene came to an immediate decision. “Only Galfredik and I will go in.”
“Hehe! Good, good!” Galfredik’s expression brightened.
Wolfgan and the beowulfs immediately protested. “Dark Lord! Let us have some fun as well!”
“The two of you hogged all the fun during the siege. Let us join in this time.” The beowulfs expressed their belligerence. Eugene turned his gaze toward them.
“Time. It may take a while. And the Fransil family. We don’t know if they will send an army or only a messenger. In the former case, it will be better for beowulfs to be here rather than Lanslo to command the troops by himself,” Eugene explained.
“Hmmm. That’s true as well.”
“While I take care of the death knight, Lanslo’s words are my words. Don’t cause any trouble,” Eugene said.
“Got it,” Wolfgan answered.
Eugene turned toward Clay, who stood stiff. “You are coming with me.”
“Yes.” Clay was acting much more polite compared to his initial meeting with Eugene. It was only natural since the vampires of the Rivoles Clan had directly witnessed Eugene and Galfredik fighting on Brighton’s walls. At first, they planned on fighting alongside the two vampires since they already knew that the city’s leaders would eventually call them traitors. However, Eugene gave strict orders for them to not intervene. Although they had been rather curious, they had obeyed his words and simply watched the battle unfold from a distance.
They were shocked in many different ways. Aside from the overwhelming power displayed by the two vampires, they were also surprised that Eugene used their absence from the battle to forcibly nullify their act of betrayal. Moreover, he vowed to deal with the death knight as soon as he had taken over the city, so the mayor and the guild leaders were helpless to speak against him.
‘And since the city technically came under the rule of the Crawlmarine county rather than Sir Eugene himself, even the noble members of the clan won’t be able to protest against it. He is indeed a master of craftiness.’
Clay was wholly captivated by Eugene in just a few days. She placed her fist on her left chest and spoke in an excited voice, “I will do my best to guide you, sir!”
***
Brighton was once an incredibly prosperous city. And like most other cities in Brantia, Brighton’s past glory wasn’t actually achieved by native Brantians. Long before the unification of the nation by the knight king in the distant past, the Roman Empire and the Holy Empire used their advanced culture and technologies to develop Brantia.
In particular, Brighton was designed on a flat piece of land bordering a river. As such, the city’s waterways and sewage system were connected like spider webs. However, a problem emerged resulting from the lack of maintenance personnel to properly manage the complicated system underneath. When the city flourished back then, there were enough people to manage the system, but after its decline of many years, the waterways and sewers were left untouched. To make matters worse, the map of the city’s underground was lost.
As a result, only a small portion of the city’s wide catacombs and waterways had been properly identified, which was one of the key contributors to why the first search party had gone missing.
“How far can vampire knights see?” Eugene asked.
“Personally, I can see up to a distance of 30 meters in the dark without moonlight. Of course, it’s pathetic compared to Sir Eugene, but I am hoping to be of some help in…” Clay answered.
Eugene interrupted her. “What about your fear?”
“Huh? My… fear?” Clay asked with confusion. For her, fear was simply used to intimidate the enemy. It was quite useful in combat, but not very helpful in a search.
“Hmm, well, since you’re a low-rank vampire, it makes sense. Galfredik, what about you? Can you utilize your fear?” Eugene asked.
“Well, I think I could use it to sense things in a radius of about 30 meters,” Galfredik answered with a shrug.
Clay’s eyes grew large with shock. “Are you saying that you can use your fear as a method of detection?” She asked.
“It’s not that hard,” Galfredik answered nonchalantly.
“…” Clay was so surprised that she couldn’t close her jaws. Of course, a high lord or a banneret could radiate fear to shake the opponent’s spirit or predict their enemy’s behavior. However, was it really possible to spread it out tens of meters to sense things as if it was their eyes and ears?
‘Is that really possible?’
Clay was shocked, but she couldn’t help but believe it. Eugene and Galfredik’s tone implied that they had been using their fear in such a way long before.
“You stand behind me,”  Eugene said.
“Y-yes.” Clay answered.
“Galfredik, take the rear.” Eugene continued.
“Leave it to me,” the burly knight answered.
Eugene passed Clay and stepped down the stairs leading to the catacombs. The large underground space was quite bleak. It was dark, damp, and only the sounds of strange wind and dripping water filled its empty presence. Any living being would surely be afraid just by being inside its chambers.
But the three were vampires. Clay felt a little uneasy, but only because her colleagues had failed to return. Eugene and Galfredik calmly walked through the catacombs as if they were on a picnic.
Squeak.
The rusty bars leading to the city’s waterways opened with an unpleasant sound.
Gulp.
Clay was anxious.
At that moment…
“…?!” She witnessed a clear, crimson haze rising over Eugene’s shoulder.
‘How could that be?!’
It was common for high-ranking vampires to emit their fear during combat. However, it was the first time in her life to witness someone’s fear materialize and move like a living creature.
Shhhhh…
Hundreds of crimson threads started creeping and dominating the dark space. Once the group walked for about another minute, Eugene whispered, “The road diverges into four paths that are about one hundred meters in length. There are no living creatures. However, I detect some who are dead.”
Clay couldn’t hide her astonishment as her hair stood on end. However, Eugene’s following words drove her to even greater shock. “And I feel lifeless beings moving…”
“…!”
Things moving in a lifeless place meant only one thing…
Those who had been killed by the cursed death knight—ghouls or skeletons were waiting for them up ahead in the darkness.