Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 53

Creating Retainers to Build a Human Empire Episode 55

Agaton, the youngest of the Blood Clan

###

“That damned brat!”

Duke Majenkin gnashed his teeth, his hand trembling as he clutched the letter.

His face grew redder with each of the remaining five letters he examined.

···Therefore, it is necessary to deal with Majenkin swiftly···

The six letters were identical in content.

The Duke is a hindrance, he must be killed, and support should be provided to kill him.

“This…!”

The Duke stopped himself from tearing up the letter and throwing it away.

He couldn’t easily discard the only piece of evidence.

Suppressing his anger, he lowered his voice.

“Did you fabricate this?”

“I am merely appealing. Whether you believe it or not is up to you, Duke.”

The Duke glared at me for a moment before exhaling a long breath.

I calmly clasped my hands together, meeting the Duke’s gaze.

‘The letters are real. No matter how much you doubt, the truth remains unchanged.’

The ring and letters were stolen from the Blood Clan’s base in Sodomora.

I knew the hideout of those mosquito bastards.

I sent a retainer to retrieve the evidence.

‘Thankfully, and as expected, they left behind something good.’

A ring engraved with the family crest, letters commissioning assassination.

‘How arrogant. He was careless, thinking no one would dare target me.’

I thought of the ring’s owner.

The youngest, most arrogant, and cruelest of the Blood Clan.

If he had been even slightly cautious, he wouldn’t have been so foolish.

But the Blood Clan are treated as Vlad’s children.

Who would dare lay a hand on the Emperor’s offspring?

A life of luxury bred carelessness.

“···For now, let’s keep this between you and me.”

“Understood.”

I noticed the Duke’s gaze sharpening.

He suspected me as much as he was angry at Count Hugo.

Perhaps he thought I had fabricated the letters.

‘Of course. I didn’t expect him to believe it right away.’

Document forgery is a common trick.

Count Dorin did it on my first day in Ollimores.

He presented forged documents claiming that Serdret’s territory was his.

Moreover, there’s even a ring with an insignia here.

If one could manage the handwriting, forgery would be simple.

‘But eventually, you will believe me. Because it’s the truth. And Hugo will definitely try to kill you.’

I said it before.

When the player’s perspective begins, the fourth royal family effectively rises.

And the human who advocates for the fourth royal family is Hugo Chaiken.

At that point, Duke Majenkin becomes a forgotten old man.

As a descendant of the Second Dynasty and a leader of the aristocratic council.

It is the official scenario for him to be defeated by Hugo and fall from power.

‘I need to push him further so he doesn’t hesitate.’

“If you have nothing further to say, may I take my leave?”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“No appointment, but I am interested in the arena.”

“Indeed, it’s a year of plenty.”

A year of plenty.

I fell silent at the slave trader-like tone.

“Those things you brought. Their numbers have increased significantly lately. As soon as things get a little tough, they sell themselves or their families.”

The Duke grumbled, putting a pipe in his mouth.

“Thanks to that, the arena is thriving. Hugo, that brat, is the owner of the arena and is raking in money. I won’t stop you from going, but don’t spend too much money. All the money you spend there goes into that brat’s pockets.”

###

“Edar, your 말투 [manner of speaking] is strange.”

As we left the mansion, Pasimea stuck out her tongue and made a gagging sound.

“You used to talk like a king, but now that you’re using 존댓말 [formal, polite language], you seem incredibly sinister. Well, you are actually sinister, though.”

“Pasimea.”

Calliope frowned slightly.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“······.”

I chuckled and looked up at the building in front of us.

Duke Majenkin was right to be confident.

Usually, the capital of a country is centered around the royal palace.

But Sodomora exceptionally had a building larger than the royal palace.

That building was the arena.

“It’s bigger than the royal palace. How many people can it hold?”

“Well, it can probably accommodate 100,000 people.”

“100,000?”

Pasimea retorted in disbelief.

“They built just a stadium this big?”

“There’s a good reason for that.”

“Because of money? Or for the sake of citizen welfare?”

“No. Neither.”

The outer wall was tens of meters high, and the circumference was hundreds of meters.

The central stage inside the arena was also oval-shaped.

There were a hundred entrances leading to the spectator seats.

The seats were so full that it was hard to find an empty spot.

Waaaaaaah—!

A thunderous roar and applause erupted.

It happened that the next match was about to begin when we entered.

About 100 humans were gathering in the center of the stage.

“Those people… are they slaves?”

“Yes. Humans who sold themselves or were sold.”

From naked people to those wearing protective gear on one part of their body.

The weapons they held were also different, as were their races, physiques, and genders.

The only thing they had in common was that they were all frightened.

They scurried around, looking around nervously amidst the cheers of the audience.

“Sir.”

A tout approached and held out his palm.

“Which side will you bet on?”

Instead of answering, I turned my head towards the stage.

The tout shrugged and asked the man in the back seat.

The man said “left,” and handed over a handful of coins.

Boo———

The slaves cowered in fear at the sound of the trumpet.

“Don’t run away, you cowardly bastards!”

The slaves split into two groups and headed towards the walls where the spectators were.

The spectators on the walls threw food, lashed whips, and pelted stones, sending the slaves back to the center of the stage.

“Fight!”

“Kill them!”

Realizing they had no choice but to fight, they soon began killing each other.

Stabbing, cutting, biting, the hesitation disappeared when they saw blood.

Each time a life disappeared, the audience cheered.

“You came to see this kind of thing?”

Pasimea frowned.

“No.”

“Then? Why did you come?”

“To throw out the second bait.”

“Bait?”

I didn’t answer and closed my eyes for a moment before opening them.

“······.”

How the different races treat humans.

And how the audience before my eyes treats the same humans.

I watched the slaves killing each other and the cheering audience.

The stench of blood flowing on the stage stung my nose.

‘A world where humans treat each other like livestock.’

Living in the capital of a country was a special privilege.

They were accustomed to enjoying their rights and oppressing their fellow humans.

There were hundreds of thousands of them, more than the number of humans I ruled.

How many in this city can truly be called human?

Finishing my thoughts, I opened my mouth.

“The Duke said that Count Hugo is the owner of the arena. That’s half the truth.”

“Then?”

“To be precise, the arena is owned by the Blood Clan. Hugo is closer to being a butler who manages his master’s property.”

“The Blood Clan owns the arena? Why?”

“What is the most delicious thing for a vampire?”

“Blood,” Pasimea replied.

“Blood. Among them, they find the blood of their own kind the most delicious. The arena is a place that supplies blood for the Blood Clan and their servants in Sodomora.”

“Why the arena of all places?”

“Because they won’t be suspected even if they slaughter humans.”

The blood droplets that soaked the stage became puddles.

The puddles flowed into the drains installed throughout the stage.

“They collect and filter the blood through those drains and serve it at banquets.”

“······.”

Pasimea covered her mouth with her hand and spat out curses.

When only four out of dozens of slaves remained,

The audience shouted “Next, next.”

“This is really ridiculous.”

“What is?”

“Look. The fact that the arena’s matches continue means that the Blood Clan exists, because they need to be supplied with food. Then the fact that it has grown in scale also means that the Blood Clan has increased, right?”

I nodded.

“Yes, that’s why just one arena is so big.”

A human slaughter factory that supplies blood to the Blood Clan and its servants.

Pasimea pointed to the audience.

“Look at those humans. What are they doing with the privilege of freedom? They just enjoy their own kind dying and killing. Happiness for those humans is just the matches continuing and the matches getting bigger.”

Feeling happy that the parasites that eat their own kind are increasing.

Pasimea thought that was ridiculous.

“In my opinion, even if you kill the Blood Clan, the arena won’t change. Maybe it will be held even more grandly? At least mosquitoes suck as much as they can eat. But I don’t think these guys will?”

Calliope sent a telepathic message to Pasimea to be quiet.

But Pasimea scoffed and continued her words.

“Edar, did you really just come to catch the Blood Clan?”

I didn’t answer with my mouth.

She didn’t expect an answer either.

Because retainers can read my thoughts.

After reading my thoughts, she had already found the answer.

“Great citizens of Sodomora!”

The host stood on the protruding spectator seat and said in a booming voice.

“Do you want slaughter? Do you want to see the greatest and most splendid slaughter in history, where not these pathetic slaves but true warriors face off?”

The citizens shouted “Yes!” in response.

The host clapped loudly and pointed to the entrance on one side of the stage.

“Here are 300 warriors! The warriors of Sakun! You will remember them! How bravely they defended their homeland from Germania, how they sacrificed themselves for this Sodomora!”

Male and female slaves came out of the entrance.

They were more armed and had better physiques than the previous slaves.

They didn’t seem surprised to see the audience.

“Now they will face Sodomora’s best warrior! Who will win, who will survive?”

The audience called out one person’s name.

The host put his hand to his ear and pretended to tell them to shout louder.

As the atmosphere in the arena reached its peak, he spread his arms wide.

“Your Highness! Bless this match!”

From the highest place in the audience seats.

A fat man came out as the red curtain of the upper seat opened.

Even from afar, he was clearly drunk, and he was the king of this country.

He had already become a puppet and would soon hand over the throne to Hugo.

‘Pabe Kusrorf.’

The drunken king raised his glass and shouted.

“Fight. And die magnificently!”

Boom— Boom—

The sound of drums covered the arena, and a man appeared from the entrance opposite the entrance where the slaves had entered.

【Lv. 61】

Higher than Griff and close to Duke Majenkin’s level.

“That’s not a human.”

I nodded at Pasimea’s words.

For humans, level 60 is an absolute powerhouse.

It’s a strength that most people can’t reach even with a lifetime of bone-grinding effort.

Look at Duke Majenkin, isn’t he only level 63 at that age?

But the man on the stage looked no more than thirty years old.

I knew the reason.

“Agaton. Vlad’s Blood Clan.”

Vlad’s Blood Clan, who will make Hugo the king and rule Wallachia, just as Gerhard made Count Dorin a puppet and manipulated him.

And the youngest of the Blood Clan.

‘He’s still addicted to the arena.’

He played the warrior of the arena in the previous playthrough as well.

Who would have thought he was the ruler of Wallachia?

“The sun is up? He’s acting so openly?”

“That’s why the Blood Clan is dangerous. They’re just a little pale, but they don’t suffer from sunlight or fear. It’s easy to hide in the crowd and parasitize like mosquitoes.”

Servants suffer from various side effects, such as their bodies melting in the sun, losing their reason, or suffering from hallucinations, but the Blood Clan didn’t have any of that.

Vlad may not have been the first vampire, but he was the first to overcome sunlight, so the Blood Clan who received his blood also overcame sunlight.

“So that face is an old man.”

Old man?

It’s more than that.

Even Agaton, the youngest of the Blood Clan, was over hundreds of years old.

“Ha.”

“The Blood Clan are the ones Vlad directly gave his blood to. For a vampire to give his blood also means that he is sharing his power. Would that suspicious mosquito easily give his blood?”

Achieving achievements or being with him for a very long time.

The blood that only a handful of handfuls receive from the overflowing servants.

The man on the stage was a vampire who had received that precious blood.

“The mosquito is quite fond of him.”

A thousand-year-old darling, Pasimea gagged.

“Ew… does he dote on a son who is hundreds of years old?”

“Children are cute to their parents even when they become old.”

Although it’s a pseudo-family.

“Warrior Agaton! Show us your strength!”

At the host’s cry, the slaves rushed in.

“Are you enjoying the show?”

I turned my head away from the stage.

A man in dazzling gold attire was standing there.

The man raised his chin and looked down at me with a mocking smile.

“Ah. You don’t know who I am. I am—“

“Hugo Chaiken.”

Hugo twitched his eyebrows.

His eyes seemed to say, “Huh?”

“A slave of the Blood Clan is wandering around without fear.”

“······.”

For a moment, his eyes wavered.

“What are you talking about?”

“Your neck scar is so clear, did you think you could hide it?”

Hugo immediately raised his hand and touched his neck.

But when he didn’t feel the scar, his face turned red.

There was no way a scar that had disappeared more than ten years ago would remain.

He realized he had been mocked and became enraged.

“You···.”

“Do you think I’m joking? I know. I know that you were bitten by the Blood Clan during a hunt and became a slave. And that you are now aiming for the throne of Wallachia.”

“How did you know that?” The words slipped out unconsciously.

If he hadn’t hurriedly shut his mouth, he would have asked how I knew.

He clenched his teeth tightly to prevent the words from leaking out and glared at me.

I sneered at the sight.

“Even the father of the Blood Clan you serve couldn’t do anything to me. Do you think you’ll be any different, you foolish slave?”

“···You have a long tongue for a human.”

“Don’t you consider yourself human?”

“······.”

Just as Hugo was about to say something, cheers erupted.

The fight was over in the short conversation.

Agaton was standing alone in the arena filled with blood.

Hundreds of corpses were scattered haphazardly on the stage.

Waaaaaaah——!

Agaton! Agaton!

The audience stood up and called out the vampire’s name.

Agaton looked around the stage and picked up the most intact corpse.

The corpse with the lower abdomen cut off, leaving only the upper body, was not a corpse.

It was a man who was still breathing and burning a faint flame of life.

Agaton lifted him up and showed him to the audience.

“Bite him! Bite him!”

“Suck his blood!”

The audience bared their teeth and pretended to bite.

At that reaction, Agaton laughed loudly and bit the man’s neck.

“Cough!”

The dying man’s eyes widened.

A deflated sound came from his wide-open mouth.

His skin rapidly turned pale and became like a mummy.

Agaton, that vampire, was sucking the man’s blood.

“That’s it!”

“Agaton!”

“What a cool guy!”

The audience rejoiced and shouted his name loudly.

They didn’t really believe he was sucking blood.

They just understood it as performance art and cheered.

Agaton was enjoying that sight.

“······.”

Agaton’s gaze, which had been scanning the audience while sucking blood, stopped on me.

“······?”

And for a very brief moment, he frowned.

As if he was squinting from being exposed to dazzling light, he took his mouth off the neck, threw the corpse away, and pointed at me with his index finger.

Hugo put his hand on my shoulder and whispered.

“He’s looking for you.”

I didn’t answer.

“Are you scared?”

“······.”

“You asked me if I wasn’t human. Let me answer you. Why should I be human? Why should I live as an inferior livestock?”

He spread his right hand towards Agaton.

“Look at that mighty figure. Could a human ever show such a figure? Humans are weak. They can never be like that.”

His voice was full of pride.

“I haven’t given up on being human. I have evolved beyond humans. And I will become a Blood Clan and transcend humanity.”

“Transcendence.”

I snorted and gestured to Pasimea.

“You were foolish even when you were young, Hugo.”

“What?”

Pasimea jumped over the railing and landed on the stage.

The cheering audience stopped cheering at the sudden participant.

And soon they burst into laughter at the sight of a short woman.

“Who pushed her?”

“Get up here, you stupid bitch!”

“No! Just die!”

All sorts of curses echoed in the arena.

A louder cry than the cheers that had just erupted.

Amidst the ear-splitting commotion, Agaton approached.

“Bitch. Bring your owner who emits that disgusting light, not you.”

“What did you say?”

Agaton wiped his blood-soaked lips with the back of his hand.

He stretched the corners of his mouth wide and stuck out his tongue.

“Didn’t you hear me? Your··· Ack!”

Pasimea stretched out her right hand.

“Say it again.”

The magic emanating from her fingertips wrapped around Agaton.

Agaton urgently grabbed his neck and unleashed his magic.

“I can’t hear you over the buzzing of a mosquito.”

But he couldn’t shake off the magic that wrapped around his body.

As Pasimea slowly raised her hand, Agaton’s body floated up.

“You know what?”

His feet left the ground, and the force choking his neck grew stronger.

He struggled, grabbing his neck as if he were caught in a noose.

His legs, unable to find anything to stand on, flailed in the air.

“People call me the Golden Maker, you know? It’s both a job and a nickname. But when people hear ‘maker,’ they all think I’m someone who’s holed up in a workshop, fiddling around.”

Pasimea clenched her outstretched hand tightly.

“You’re nothing, though.”

“Geh, eu··· eok···!”

Following that, Agaton’s body crumpled.

Crack, crack, his bones twisted and his body curled up into a ball.

Agaton tried to scream, but he couldn’t even exhale.

He just widened his mouth and eyes and screamed silently.

“Call your dad. You little brat.”

She spread her hand wide.

Shatter—

Agaton’s body exploded.

Blood splattered everywhere.

The floor was already soaked with blood, but when Agaton’s flesh and blood fell, it bubbled.

It foamed as if disinfectant had been poured on a wound.

And the foam made a noise like a scream.

“Ugh… the smell.”

Pasimea waved her left hand once.

Then, the flesh and blood that had stopped boiling and were about to turn into white powder burst into flames and burned fiercely, soon turning into ashes.

So that no one would know that Agaton was a Blood Clan.

“That’s why I don’t like fighting. It’s not my specialty.”

Pasimea grumbled and turned around.

She looked at me and bowed lightly.

‘Pasimea, you asked me what the bait was.’

I replaced the answer by looking at the ashes of Agaton.

Silence fell over the arena filled with 100,000 people.

The audience’s gaze turned to her and me, whom she was looking at.

‘I threw out the second bait. Now, I can only wait and see who bites the bait.’

I stood up from my seat and said so that everyone could hear.

“Is that all? Is something so weak called the best warrior? It’s at a level that even a child wouldn’t watch because it’s boring and pathetic.”