The First Vampire

With the departure of Duke St. Hilde, the remaining lords of the North Territory also left one after another.

Consequently, Ice Rock City grew quiet.

Of course, this calmness was relative.

Compared to the Angler family’s former territory—Grey Castle Town, Ice Rock City was clearly much livelier.

The residents of the city seemed to return to their usual routine. Although the city had a new lord, it did not seem to have much impact on them.

Whether there was enough food at home or sufficient clothes to wear were of more concern to these commoners than who the lord of Ice Rock City was.

However, for some people, this was a drastic change.

These people were, of course, the city’s former lords—the Sudor Family.

Stripped of their nobility and fiefdom, the Sudor Family had no choice but to leave in disgrace.

Colin had no intention of utterly annihilating the Sudor Family. After all, the unspoken rule of this world was to be lenient towards the losers.

Of course, these losers had to be nobles.

No one cared about the life or death of the commoners.

These defeated nobles would become wandering knights, who exchanged their martial strength and loyalty for shelter from the lords.

Hoping that one day, by virtue of their military prowess, they would regain their fiefdom and nobility, and restore the glory of their family.

This was the world’s leniency towards fallen nobles.

Because in the eyes of the people of this world, failure is temporary, but bloodline is passed down from generation to generation.

Only a noble bloodline could give birth to great heroes.

And these heroes who could turn the tide were the foundation of humanity in this world.

Exterminating a family today and cutting off the continuation of a noble bloodline could potentially extinguish a future hero who might save humanity.

Such an act was absolutely forbidden.

Therefore, even Duke St. Hilde, after carrying out the execution of the rebellious lords, could only strip their families of their nobility and fiefdom, but he did not annihilate them completely.

Of course, Colin did not dare to violate this unspoken rule, unless he did not want to stay in the Empire any longer.

However, while he would not annihilate the Sudor Family, there was one person that Colin did not intend to let off easily.

This person was the madwoman who has caused him numerous troubles— Cynthia Sudor. “Still haven’t found her?”

“Yes, my lord.”

Apparently, Cynthia seemed to have anticipated that Colin would not let her go, so she disappeared without a trace right after the Ennoblement Ceremony.

Colin frowned, finding this somewhat troublesome.

If a third-rank knight was determined to escape, it would indeed be difficult tor him to capture her.

“What about that Sudor Family’s servant who’d been called ‘Sael’?” “Sorry, my lord, we have not been able to locate him either.”

Colin snorted coldly, somewhat helpless.

However, he did not blame Knight Raymon too much.

After all, the Angler family had just taken over Ice Rock City recently and was seen as a new force. Plus, Raymon did not bring many soldiers from Grey Castle, so it was simply not feasible to try to seal off the entire city.

“Forget it, let’s stop searching for now. Send someone to Fallen Eagle City to investigate; maybe Cynthia and Sael will show up there. Once you find them, don’t do anything rash, just keep them under surveillance.”

“Yes, my lord!”

Colin believed that the lord the Sudor Family was most likely to turn to for support now was Count Uman, due to their close family ties.

As for how to retrieve the people from Count Uman, Colin hadn’t figured out a feasible solution yet.

Speaking of Count Uman, Colin remembered that the identity of the person who had tried to assassinate him was still unknown, and Count Uman was still the prime suspect.

As for his sister, Kaitlin.

After spending days together, Colin increasingly felt that she was unlikely to be the culprit.

After all, no one could play the part this convincingly.

And her husband, Knight Walra, had been missing without a trace.

In Colin’s view, that man was likely really dead, lying in some unmarked corner of the battlefield.

However, Kaitlin was not willing to accept this reality, and she continued to inquire about any news of Walra from every caravan returning from the Ice Plain. She even personally made several trips there, hoping to find her husband.

This was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Colin couldn’t persuade her otherwise, so he had to let her fret about it.

He himself was also busy, overwhelmed with a multitude of affairs to deal with concerning his new territory.

At this moment, the person Colin most longed for was the old butler of the Angler family—Emon.

If he were in Ice Rock City, he would definitely help Colin handle these matters effectively and methodically.

“Where is Emon now, and when can he arrive in Ice Rock City?”

Colin asked this question almost every day.

“Soon, he should arrive tomorrow, the day after tomorrow at the latest,” replied Knight Raymon, somewhat helplessly.

Given the communication methods of this world, it was impossible for him to ascertain Emon’s exact location in real-time.

“Understood, you may go,” Colin sighed, not wanting to trouble Raymon further.

“Yes, sir.”

After Raymon left, Colin buried himself in the work of dealing with the pile of public documents on his desk.

He didn’t know how much time had passed. The candles on the table were almost burned out. Colin rubbed his sore eyes and shouted, “Bring me a new row of candles!”

However, there was no response from the servants outside.

Colin waited for a moment and shouted again, but still received no reply.

He frowned, thinking that the fellow standing guard outside had dozed off again, so he got up and walked towards the door.

“Click.”

The moment he pushed open the door, Colin immediately sensed something was amiss.

But just as he was about to retreat quickly, a long sword fiercely pierced through the door, aimed straight at his heart!

“Bang!”

In a blink of an eye, Colin swiftly threw himself backward and fell to the ground, narrowly escaping the sword.

A dazzling tide of holy light came flooding in, and the wooden door exploded with a loud bang, sending splinters flying in all directions.

Colin hastily rolled, sprung up from the ground, and, without looking back, rushed towards the Blade of Judgment hanging on the wall.

However, the assassin was faster.

Before Colin could reach his weapon, he felt a sharp pain in his back.

“Thud!”

Injured, Colin crumbled to the ground.

Nevertheless, there wasn’t much panic on his face. He struggled to turn around and glanced at the intruder against the wall— As expected, it was that madwoman, Cynthia!

“Cough, Cough, did you come to kill me on your own, or did someone send you?” Colin asked hoarsely.

“Ha, do I need someone to direct me to kill you?” Cynthia closed in on Colin slowly, gritting her teeth.

Colin was somewhat disappointed, as if he had been hoping that someone else was behind it.

Unexpectedly, this woman turned out to be an insane person who didn’t consider the consequences.

“Once you kill me, you won’t live either.”

Cynthia chuckled coldly, disregarding Colin’s threat.

“Hiss!”

The long sword pierced through Colin’s chest.

“Cough, Cough…” Colin’s face twisted in pain, but he still insisted on questioning her, “Are you sure no one sent you to kill me? Not even Count

Uman?”

Cynthia laughed coldly again, seemingly surprised that Colin was still worried about this even on his deathbed, “No!”

“Madwoman,” Colin scoffed, and muttered.

Colin’s mockery simply led Cynthia to burst into triumphant laughter.

Immersed in the ecstasy of her revenge, Cynthia failed to notice the fierce and bloodthirsty look gradually taking over Colin’s eyes.

Ignoring the sword impaled through his chest, he lunged forward suddenly and grabbed Cynthia’s neck.

Then, he bit down hard!