Volume 8, Chapter 43 – On the Matter of Improving the Lives of the Blood Clan’s People

Although the sun was obscured by dark clouds, one could still feel the sky gradually darkening. When the cold wind, mixed with water vapor, blew against the skin and the sky once again poured down a torrential rain, the day ended, and it was time for the family to sit around the dining table and discuss the day’s events.

In a small but lavishly decorated room with a crystal chandelier and fine white nanmu wood ¹ Nanmu wood is a precious, naturally durable, and fragrant wood from China and South Asia, characterized by its long, straight trunks and resistance to decay. , Yisi and her group were gathered around a long table, enjoying a dinner that was a little noisy thanks to Mary and Tiffany.

Although a noisy environment could be annoying most of the time, the warmth of this family-like atmosphere made Yisi unable to help but reveal a knowing smile. When she had lived on Earth, because her parents had passed away early, there was only an anonymous person who had been helped by her parents who had been depositing money into her account. Therefore, since she was a child, she had always been alone in everything she did and had never experienced such a warm dinner.

At this moment, the raindrops outside the window became the perfect background.

“My lord, have you thought of something happy?”

Laxy, standing beside Yisi, asked curiously. As usual, she was wearing the long maid’s dress that she considered practical.

Snapping back from her reminiscence, Yisi touched the corner of her mouth—she had indeed been smiling just now. But this was not some unspeakable secret. Yisi smiled and looked up to answer Laxy.

“Mm, I was just thinking about some things from the past.”

“Things from the past?”

“Yes… how should I put it to you, Laxy…”

Apart from Camilla, she had not told anyone else that she came from another world. It wasn’t that she was deliberately hiding it, afraid that her companions would distance themselves from her after finding out. On the contrary, it was precisely because she knew that even if she did tell them, they would only reply with “Oh, is that all?” or “Quick, tell me what that world is like.” It was because she knew that nothing would change that it didn’t matter whether she said it or not. In the end, where she came from was not the point at all. The reason she could be with her companions was not because of her birth or status, but because of the existence of Yisi herself. Where she came from was not important at all.

Mm, no. To think that way is perhaps too selfish.

At this thought, Yisi intentionally or unintentionally threw out a question.

“Laxy.”

“Hm?”

“If I were a demon, would you still see me as your master?”

“If my lord were a demon… hehe, if my lord were a demon, then there would be few good people left in the world.”

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“No, no, that’s not what I mean. I mean, if I were of the demon race, would you still see me as your master?”

Laxy lowered her head and looked at Yisi—there was no hint of a joke in her blue eyes. Laxy fell into a moment of thought.

“Although I don’t know why my lord is asking me this question, I think I can give an answer with a clear conscience. If my predecessors knew what kind of person my lord is, they would surely smile and nod in agreement with my thoughts,” very solemnly, Laxy clenched her right fist and paused at her mouth, then said in a tone as if she were taking an oath, “Even if my lord were a demon, I would still follow you.”

“Even if demons are the ones you are meant to destroy?”

“There are good and bad demons. And my lord is a good demon. Otherwise, it would be impossible to bring everyone together like this. Lady Trino taught that angels should not distinguish between good and evil based on race, because humans can also be demons.”

“That Lady Trino is quite a wise angel.”

“Of course. Lady Trino was the first angel created by the Goddess. Why does my lord suddenly ask this? Are you planning to join the demons? Our purpose is to destroy the demons in the future. No matter what, I will stop you from joining their ranks.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Laxy’s words drew the gazes of the others at the table. The warm atmosphere was broken by her, and Yisi couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed. “Ahem, didn’t you ask me why I was smiling just now? It’s because I’ve never experienced a time like this, where everyone is happily sitting together, enjoying dinner.”

“I’m sorry… for asking something that touched upon a painful memory.”

“No, no, it’s not like that. I’m not that fragile.”

It wasn’t that she was forcing a smile, but that she really didn’t feel that any bad memories had been touched upon. Although some people, when asked about their past, would feel as if their old wounds had been reopened, she was not that kind of sensitive person. From the beginning, she had not felt any pain in it, so naturally, she did not feel offended.

Putting the last piece of steak into her mouth with her fork, Edith picked up a napkin and wiped the corner of her mouth.

“Come to think of it, I’ve never heard you talk about your childhood. It seems it wasn’t very good.”

“Well, it was something like that. There’s nothing worth mentioning. If I had to say something, it would be that I learned not to cause trouble. At least my past wasn’t as full of fighting and killing as Pepe’s.”

“Hmph, if you were born a noble, you would have become like me.”

“No, no, definitely not. Although the environment is indeed a big factor, there are also two people with completely different personalities in the same environment. If it were me, instead of external conquests, I would be more concerned with internal adjustments, such as improving the lives of the lower-class vampires. If the internal strength is built up, the attitude towards the outside can also be stronger.”

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“Lower-class Blood Clan are born to serve us purebloods. To consider their thoughts is unnecessary,” Edith picked up her black tea from the table and paused. “But I am willing to listen to how you would improve their lives.”

“For example, by providing more blood? When I was in the Pescia territory, I found that those lower-class vampires, due to a lack of blood, not only looked haggard but would also attack pedestrians at night. If more blood could be provided to them, not only would the public order improve, but they could also put more effort into making their lives better, instead of worrying about where their next meal would come from. As long as the public order and the general mood of the people improve, more and more people will come to the Pescia territory to make a living. Not to mention the merchants who would be attracted, the increase in population alone would increase tax revenue. And if the territory becomes wealthy, everything will be easier.”

It was just like attracting foreign investment to drive employment, thereby giving the local people jobs. Only people who worked could create wealth. And relative to the era she lived in, the cost of attracting foreign investment—that is, human merchants—to the Pescia territory was very small. Due to the Blood Clan’s belief that all non-Blood Clan races were inferior, it was almost impossible for foreign races to do business there. Therefore, for merchants who would do anything for a profit, not much of a tax break was needed. Just the fact that vampires would not attack foreign races was already a huge temptation. And in the Pescia territory, which had a large army, as long as Count Pescia wanted to improve public order, it would not be too difficult.

The Pescia territory was very rich in mineral and forest resources, while humans could bring cloth, cotton clothes, and food. Plus, the territory bordered the Hels Kingdom directly. Once the two sides opened up trade, it would surely be very prosperous. Yisi had long envisioned building a stone road between the human kingdoms and the Pescia territory, with few monsters and easy for carriages to travel on.

Edith nodded.

“Mm, a very unique insight. To increase the population is indeed the wish of every lord. Father has also made many efforts, but with little success. If the problem of food can be solved, then we can indeed do as you say, Yisi. But the premise is ‘to be able to solve the problem of food.’ Blood is not like wheat, which can grow just by planting it in the ground. How to meet the demand for blood is a problem that every Blood Clan lord faces.”

Edith’s words made Yisi fall into thought.

She had also discussed the blood problem with Camilla. What limited the development of the Blood Clan was blood. Therefore, as long as the demand for blood was solved, it would be equivalent to bringing the productivity of the Blood Clan and humans to the same level. At that time, she and Camilla had each proposed a solution.

Camilla had thought of introducing a decree to limit the amount of blood a vampire could drink each time. The vampires in the Blood Clan were currently in a state of not understanding sustainable development. As long as there was blood, they would definitely consume it all at once. But in fact, vampires didn’t need that much blood. On the premise of not entering a blood frenzy, a vampire only needed to ingest a finger’s length of blood to meet their needs for two days. Considering that one must eat to work, they only needed a finger’s length of blood per day, and the rest of their stomach could be filled with other food, to be energetic for the whole day.

And if a vampire were to fill their entire stomach with blood, they could at most go a week without drinking blood, but they would still need to supplement with ordinary food every day. And the difference between a full stomach of blood and a finger’s length of blood was terrifyingly large.

But there was a premise to this method. Only by raising people of other races in captivity could it be ensured that they would provide blood every day. But raising foreign races in captivity fundamentally contradicted the idea of ‘attracting foreign races to the territory.’ Of course, to reassure the foreign races, the Blood Clan could choose to buy human slaves to provide blood. But putting aside the feasibility, Yisi found it chilling to the bone. To lock people in cages like livestock, feeding them fodder every day to make them produce blood, such a scene could be made into a horror movie. If she hadn’t known Camilla so well, Yisi would have suspected that she was a demon in human skin.

Very naturally, Yisi rejected Camilla’s proposal.

As for the solution Yisi had thought of, it was to replace human blood with the blood of monsters and livestock. But this also had its problems. Although in the current poverty of the Blood Clan, some lower-class vampires had been reduced to catching rats for blood, and as long as they were provided with blood, no matter where it came from, they would be satisfied, where to find so many livestock and how to raise them was also a challenge. One had to know that feeding livestock required fodder, and the Blood Clan had no sun and were not good at farming.

“Tiffany, that’s the steak for Master. You can’t touch it.”

“One bite.”

“Not even one bite!”

Protecting the last piece of steak on her plate, Mary refused Tiffany.

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Tiffany pouted unhappily.

“So hungry.”

“Then…” frowning slightly, Mary fell into thought. “I’ll make another one for you tonight.”

Tiffany quickly brightened up.

“It’s a promise.”

Yisi, who had glimpsed this scene, blinked.

“Can’t you use slime blood? The body fluid that makes up a slime’s body is blood. And the taste is much better than the blood of an unhealthy slave. The important thing is that slimes are widely available and easy to raise. As long as it’s something edible, they can digest it.”

As Yisi said this, Tiffany, who was making a pinky promise with Mary, shivered all over. Yisi, noticing this, coughed lightly twice and moved her chair closer to Edith, lowering her voice.

“How about it? Pepe has tasted Tiffany’s flavor before, right? That blood isn’t bad.”

Putting down her teacup, Edith’s fine white eyebrows furrowed.

“Although I can accept it, it doesn’t mean that other Blood Clan can. Not all of them can accept new things. In the eyes of the traditional Blood Clan, drinking monster blood will bring them bad luck. Monster blood is a slow poison. Even if slime blood can satisfy their stomachs, they won’t touch it.”

“But as long as most of the Blood Clan can be fed, it should be fine, right? On the one hand, provide slime blood, use your brain a little, and gradually change the traditional concepts in their heads, making them understand that slime blood is not a slow poison. On the other hand, make all the Blood Clan who dare to attack pedestrians pay the price. This way, you solve the problem of the starving lower-class Blood Clan and also ensure public order.”

Yisi didn’t say what to do if those dissatisfied lower-class Blood Clan were to unite and rebel, because she knew that Pepe would solve such a problem in the ‘Loiswell’ way. In a situation where everyone was starving, and knowing full well that slime blood had no drawbacks, yet still opposing it for the foolish reason of tradition, even to the point of violent resistance, only the cold dungeons could calm this group of Blood Clan down.

After a moment of contemplation, a complex expression flashed across Edith’s face.

“…It’s not impossible to try. But Father is the traditional Blood Clan I was talking about. He never takes blood from anyone below the rank of a mid-tier Blood Clan. To implement the plan you mentioned in the territory, we must get past him.”

“Can’t you just persuade him, Pepe? First, secretly replace the blood Count Pescia drinks every day with slime blood. After he gets used to it, then tell him the truth. That way, he’ll know that slime blood is not actually a slow poison, right?”

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On the contrary, it’s a gift from the gods.

To promote the fact that slime blood was not a poison, setting an example was undoubtedly the best choice. Now, with Count Pescia as a representative of the traditional Blood Clan, as long as they could get him, the pillar of the community, to their side, the people of the Pescia territory would have no room to complain.

Of course, the premise was to be able to persuade Count Pescia.

Edith looked at her as if she were an idiot.

“Father doesn’t spoil me in everything. When he gets angry, even I have to retreat.”

“Doesn’t Count Pescia never get angry at you?”

“Even so, I will not do anything to anger my father.”

These two, one is obsessed with his daughter, the other with her father. They’re hopeless.

Yisi couldn’t help but roll her eyes inwardly.

Perhaps feeling that refusing Yisi’s good intentions would make her feel down, Edith sighed dotingly and shook her head.

“Never mind. I’ll write a letter later and tell Father about this plan. As for whether he will implement it, I can’t guarantee. I can understand your good intentions, but those stubborn Blood Clan are not so easily persuaded.”

“Mm, that’s enough.”

Feeling that the plan was unfolding, Yisi moved her chair back to its original position.

…

After dinner, Camilla, in a white formal dress, pushed a beautifully laid out parchment in front of Yisi.

“Onee-sama, I have something to report to you.”