Chapter 7 Fear Mongering <TOC> Chapter 9 The Vampire Clan's Path of Sustainable Development (Bottom)
Translator: SumTLMan
Are these statements all true?
No, there isn’t a single true statement.
But the vampire clan, who’ve been staying in the castle this whole time doesn’t know this or even suspect anything being awry, even if what he said was quite doubtful.
Because this claim came from the mouth of their most revered ancestor.
As a matter of fact, since Otto Braun became an aristocrat of Green City and a member of the Mage Guild, he often brought back bits and pieces of news about Green City.
So, when Otto Braun said that Green City had discovered the vampire clan, there was no doubt about his claim at all.
Upon hearing the news of Green City’s transcendent mage Locke Harte finding traces of the vampire clan, the vampires below were immediately scared out of their wits.
One might wonder what kind of an existence was a transcendent mage? Within the entire area ruled by Green City and the surrounding distant mountains, there is a population in the tens of millions, and amongst all of those humans, there is but one transcendent mage.
Moreover, Locke Harte was also personally involved in the encirclement and eventual siege of the vampire clan a hundred years ago. His power gave the vampire clan a taste of true terror.
Otto Braun’s eyes didn’t fluctuate much. As he watched the terrified faces of the vampires below, his mind became slightly at ease.
Finally, he frightened his clan of homebodies who were a bit too out of touch with the world.
He now wants to carry out drastic reforms to the vampire clan, and the best way forward is to unite all of his people.
The vampire clan is his foundation, so Otto Braun cannot give up on them.
Even if his orders were imposed by virtue of his identity, the vampire clan would still faithfully execute it, but no one could say for certain how efficient this would be in the long run.
If even a small group of clan members slacked off on the implementation, it would completely undermine his plan.
Such a simple creation of an external crisis can immediately mobilize and unite all of his clan members.
This is similar to when a certain country engaged in foreign wars in order to cope with domestic and economic crises during World War II.
Turning internal contradictions into external ones and uniting the people.
In an existential crisis, even the most irrational reforms can be justified.
A crucial point, moreover, is that the vampire clan has suffered a great loss at the hands of the transcendent mage. The vampire clan’s fear of the transcendent mage is still deeply ingrained within his bloodline.
After waiting a bit longer for the vampire clan members below to finish their discussions of the topic, Otto Braun slowly began to speak.
“Before I hadn’t managed the clan, I had wanted to test everyone’s’ wisdom and see if someone could find the right path without my guidance.
But I am left extremely disappointed in all of you.”
After he had finished speaking, the seven second-generation bloodline descendants all bowed their heads with a bit of chagrin in their eyes.
It’s an unforgivable fault that they hadn’t noticed such a dire crisis as Green City preparing to encircle and hunt them all down.
“To cope with this great oncoming crisis and for the future of the clan, we must immediately carry out radical reforms.”
Reforms?
The vampires below looked at one another.
Lucy curiously asked: “Father, how can we reform?”
Otto Braun scanned the crowd and further raised his voice.
“Our holy clan should embark on a path of sustainable development.”
After so much foreshadowing, Otto Braun finally spoke the words he had in mind.
“Your Highness Ancestor, what is sustainable development?”
“What does this mean?”
“Father…”
Hearing this weird statement, the group of vampires were a little confused, by the Goddess of the Night, this was the first time they had heard such a phrase.
“What did we do with the humans we had caught before?”
Odis’s steady voice sounded.
“Patriarch, the plundered humans would be imprisoned in the caves and kept in captivity. The clansmen who needed to feed once a month would go and drain them while the dead would be thrown off the cliffs.”
Odis’s message was loud and clear. These humans were the vampire clan’s food, and every time they fed, they would kill them off.
Otto Braun shook his head. This was too barbaric. No wonder the vampire clan was so hated by humans in the world.
At the same time, this was also a reminder. Even if the crisis he was talking about didn’t exist, the vampire clan cannot continue on this path of development.
Especially after the arrival of the players, this fault brained group of people who love to make trouble will definitely see his vampire clan as a treasured experience source and begin wiping each and every one of them out.
“Wrong, this is the wrong way, we’ve been pursuing the wrong path this whole time.”
Wrong?
How can we be wrong?
“Wrong, how are we wrong? Humans are just our food.”
Lucy’s delicate face was filled with doubt.
‘Did father gain access to information that we weren’t privy to? Fortunately,’ she thought, ‘With father’s presence, the vampire clan has averted another crisis.’
Otto Braun looked her straight in the eye.
With magic power coursing through his veins, a powerful momentum rose as he solemnly spoke in a deep voice.
“Humans are indeed our food, but you should all know that if we keep a sufficient number of them in captivity, not just killing them off, or even providing them with shelter and protection, they can continuously feed us.
Just as humans raise hens to lay eggs until death, so too can we raise the humans.
And human ingenuity is something that many races do not possess.
They can be ruled by us, create more wealth for us, instead of being kept in caves and just ending up as food.”
This statement seems a little out of place and detached from the mainstream ideas of this world.
Humans have always been regarded as food by the vampires, and their status in the eyes of vampires is the same as how humans view chickens, ducks and geese.
And now it was apparently up to them to provide shelter and protection for this food source, and even rule over them.
This shift in thinking has obviously caused Lucy and the rest of the vampire clan members to suffer no small impact.
As Otto Braun looked at this group of vampires, he was slightly relieved to see that no one had sent out a direct rebuttal to his bold statement. The world isn’t one which purports that all men are created equal.
In this world, the aristocrats can easily control the life and death of the commoners. The people in this world are classed and group into an extremely unfair caste system.
What’s more, vampires, as a superior race with excellent talent and combat ability, won’t be swayed by one or two statements made to accept humans as equals.
But there was no doubt that humans are the dominant force in this world.
No matter how strong the vampire clan was, they can’t possibly face any of the human countries. Even a military force from a single city can wipe out most of the vampires in the world.
In Otto Braun’s vision, for the vampire clan to develop and grow, they must build a thriving city with a large number of humans.
The vampire clan will play a pivotal role of guardian in this city.
The vampire clan cannot survive without humans. So, the humans can feed the vampire clan by drawing blood every once in a while, without sacrificing their physical well-being.
Thus, humans are safe from external threats while the vampire clan can enjoy a steady source of food, and the added benefit of the human labour force can produce a constant flow of wealth.
This idea is somewhat idealistic, but it has to be said that the possibility of implementation is quite high.
First of all, Otto Braun is the vampire ancestor, and the vampire clan’s loyalty to him is eternal, so he doesn’t have to worry about any resistance to his declarations. Even if some vampire clan members can’t understand his reasoning, at most, they would just laze about or idle around.
This is the vampire clan’s strong point.
Secondly, there’s the background of this world. This is a world filled with magic. The gods are watching over their followers from their kingdom of god, while the evil gods are looking up from the abyss.
This world is filled with conflicts and contradictions between different races and countries.
In this chaotic world, the ordinary commoner is just like a tiny chick ready to be slaughtered at any moment.
Wars are constantly happening all over the world.
And the vampire clan can provide shelter for these displaced commoners, protect their lives and precious possessions. All they need to offer in return is only enough blood without bringing any harm to their bodies.
Refugees on the southern border who have been ravaged by wars and magic beasts will certainly have no qualms about agreeing to such a deal.
And finally…
Chapter 7 Fear Mongering <TOC> Chapter 9 The Vampire Clan's Path of Sustainable Development (Bottom)