The First Vampire

The night was deep.

The grand banquet in Ice Rock City had finally come to a close.

However, the expressions of the nobles who left the banquet one after another varied greatly.

Some were excited, some were terrified, some were hopeful, some were full of fear…

This night was destined to be a sleepless one.

One by one, carrier pigeons took to the sky from Ice Rock City, scattering to all parts of the North Territory.

They would deliver a shocking piece of news—under the questioning of Marquis Garcia, Charles, the eldest son of Duke St. Hilde, had announced his abandonment of his own nobility!

Charles’ nobility was in name only and came with no corresponding territories.

What it truly represented was the right to succeed the Duke of St. Hilde!

Giving up this title meant that Charles had given up his right to succession.

Of course, strictly speaking, only after Duke St. Hilde approves Charles’ request, he would be officially stripped of the title of Marquis, and completely lose the duke’s succession rights.

However, what was indeed intriguing or even terrifying was that Charles willingly gave up his nobility under the pressure of his own uncle.

Since Charles wouldn’t inherit the dukedom of the St. Hilde family, who would succeed it now?

Would it be Duke’s second son?

Or would it be the duke’s brother?

Normally, as the brother of the Duke, Marquis Garcia’s right to succession would come after the duke’s three sons’, even behind the duke’s adopted daughter, Vera.

But now, no one dared to be certain about who would hold the nobility of the St. Hilde family.

Would their Golden Lion banner turn into a Black Lion?

A terrifying storm was quietly approaching the North Territory of the empire.

Some people were jubilant, hoping to take this opportunity to rise.

Others were extremely worried, frightened by the hidden crisis.

Colin walked silently through the streets of Ice Rock City, contemplating how the Angler family should handle the impending storm.

Truthfully, he didn’t want chaos to break out in North Territory at this time.

It wasn’t because he was loyal to Duke St. Hilde, or because he had compassion for Marquis Charles, or even because he was worried about the storm affecting Vera. It was because he understood very clearly that if North Territory plunged into civil unrest now, the ones who would benefit the most would undoubtedly be the Trolls.

After all, the troll army of three hundred thousand on Sky Ice Plain isn’t that far away, perhaps they’re eying North at the borderline right now!

Once Marquis Garcia and Duke St. Hilde began their clash, the Trolls would certainly take the chance to move southward again.

The North Territory would be doomed to a living hell!

Colin had no interest in the power struggle among the nobles, but as a human being, he would definitely not want to see North become a place of disaster inflicted by the Trolls.

Unfortunately, he was a minor figure and couldn’t change the current situation.

He could only hope that the Northern Duke who was far away in Winterfell city would retain some sanity and make appropriate compromises. Colin returned to his inn, took off his armor, and went to sleep.

When he woke up, the sun was shining brightly.

Although Ice Rock City was a bit tense, it was not in chaos. It was as if everything that happened last night was just an illusion.

After breakfast, Colin went for a walk, taking his cat for a walk with him.

Of course, Little White wasn’t too willing to be walked, but Colin forcibly took it out.

After the protest failed, an angry Little White crawled into Colin’s clothes to continue its nap.

Actually, Colin wasn’t venturing aimlessly on the streets. He had a destination—the Glorious Church.

The Glorious Church in Ice Rock City was not far from the castle of the Sudor family. It was a towering structure built of pure white rocks. Standing nearly a hundred meters high, its sharp peak stood upright, as if it was going to pierce the sky.

Colin’s fear of the Glorious Church had waned since his arrival in this world.

After all, he had drunk the holy water and even progressed as a result.

In fact, after he successfully advanced to a formal Knight and could activate Holy Light energy, Colin began to suspect that the vampires of this world probably wouldn’t be restrained by the church.

With that, he boldly walked into the church’s front door.

The guard at the entrance saw Colin’s luxurious attire and did not stop him.

In the deserted prayer hall, there was no one, only rows of tables and chairs, and a sculpture erected in the front row.

Of course, the sculpture was the image of the Lord of Glory.

It was a middle-aged man dressed in a simple robe, with long hair draped over his shoulders. His right hand held a scepter, his left hand pointed at the front, the only strange thing was his face —

It had no facial features!

According to the church, the reason why the Lord of Glory had no facial features was that he could be the image of any person – elegant nobles, poor commoners, and even lowly slaves.

Colin looked up at this deity who, according to legend, protected humans, and suddenly, a strange sense of familiarity arose in his heart.

He pondered over it for a while, but couldn’t figure out where this familiarity came from.

“Honorable knight, is there anything I can help you with?”

As Colin gazed at the statue of the Lord of Glory, immersed in his thoughts, an old voice suddenly awoke him.

“Hello, Reverend Priest, please call me Colin.”

The old priest’s cloudy eyes flickered slightly as he smiled and said, “So it is

Knight Colin, I have heard of your fame.”

Colin was somewhat surprised, indicating that he clearly did not expect to be famous.

The old priest seemed to perceive Colin’s confusion and laughed while explaining: “Previously, Archbishop Raven had been here and mentioned you to me.”

Colin finally understood. It seemed that he had left a deep impression on Archbishop Raven.

Probably because he remembered him drinking an entire bottle of his pure holy water.

Hmph, stingy Archbishop!

Colin secretly mocked him, but outwardly he appeared deeply honored: “I did not expect Archbishop Raven to remember me, such an honor.”

“So why has Knight Colin come here?”

“Here’s the thing, I actually want to buy some holy water, so that I can save myself if I’m seriously injured again.”

Since his last advancement, Colin had set his sights on the holy water of the church. Now that he finally had some downtime, he naturally wanted to get some holy water to drink.

“I see. Then please follow me.” The old priest nodded and led Colin through the prayer hall towards the back temple.

In fact, it has become common for the church to sell holy water.

And the price is extremely high.

The church not only did not feel ashamed of this, but also righteously justified it — “The blessing of the gods comes at a price.”

Soon, the two arrived in a small room in the back temple.

The room was simply furnished with just a pool of holy water in the center, about the size of a bathtub.

The surface of the water in the pool was as smooth as a mirror, emitting a milky white sacred light.

Of course, this was holy water, but it was diluted.

Colin managed to suppress the impulse to rob the church, and handed his water bag to the old priest: “Please fill it up.”

“Very well. ”

“Glug…glug…”

The old priest quickly filled the water bag and then returned it to Colin: “Knight Colin, that will be thirty gold coins.”

So dark!

You should know that this holy water was diluted, not the pure holy water that Archbishop Raven gave Colin to drink without any water mixed in.

As for how many times it was diluted.

According to Colin’s understanding, the church generally dilutes it by a thousand times.

So, the actual amount of all the holy water in the church’s pool in front of him, was probably not even as much as that small concentrated bottle in the hands of Archbishop Raven.

And now, Colin had spent a lot of money to buy a whole water bag of holy water, and it was probably made by diluting one or two drops of pure holy water.

Colin winced, but had to hand over thirty gold coins to the old priest.

Let’s see if it’s useful first.

Upon bidding the old priest farewell, Colin left this “rip-off” place..