Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 56

The Bait

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“You’ve kept a fearsome one by your side.”

The Duke muttered, looking at Pasimere, who had returned to my side.

I smiled faintly.

Agaton was a worthy opponent for him.

He must be astonished that she killed such an opponent in one blow.

Moreover, the Duke was one of the strongest among humans.

“What is your relationship? Is she really your vassal?”

His eyes were full of wariness.

“She is my teacher.”

“Teacher?”

The Duke blinked, looking back and forth between Pasimere and me.

“…She looks younger than you.”

The Duke hmm’d, stroking his beard.

‘To defeat someone as strong as himself at the age of twenty? That’s what he’s thinking.’

Could a human with such talent exist?

His concerns were obvious.

“Ugh, hmm…”

The Duke had been called a genius since he took his first steps.

Even he had continued to train throughout his life to get to where he was.

And now, a being that overwhelmed such effort and talent?

His aging pride could not accept it.

“I see. Forgive my rudeness.”

The Duke bowed lightly to Pasimere.

He assumed she was stronger and older than him.

Instantly, Pasimere’s face twisted grotesquely, and her thoughts spewed out all sorts of emotions.

‘I’m sorry.’

That was all I could say.

Calliope slyly raised one corner of her mouth with her right index finger.

Pasimere’s thoughts were tangled so fiercely that they were hard to read.

“Duke, what are you going to do now?”

“Are you talking about that brat, or Hugo?”

I nodded.

“I don’t think the Count will back down like this.”

“Hmm.”

The Duke glared at the exit where Hugo had left.

‘If he had swallowed his pride and yielded, I would have accepted it,’ the Duke thought.

He wasn’t stubborn, nor was he of a rigid character, and he didn’t even know how deeply involved the Blood Clan [a powerful vampire family] was in Wallachia.

He would have been satisfied with punishing a rebellious young man.

But Hugo ran away, without yielding.

‘He chose to run because he thought either I or the Duke had started an offensive, but the Duke doesn’t know that.’

Hugo’s most powerful card, Agaton, was dead.

Duke Mazenkin had shown the letter with Hugo’s solicitation for assassination.

At the same time, the hidden base of the Blood Clan was attacked.

Would it be easy for Hugo to make a cool-headed judgment?

‘It wouldn’t have mattered if he had judged coolly and yielded. There were many ways to replace him.’

A clever rabbit digs many burrows, right?

I tapped the back of my hand with the cigarette, then put it in my pocket.

‘Even if I swallowed the entire North and had hundreds of familiars [magically bound spirits or creatures], it would still be lacking to conquer and maintain the entire Wallachia.’

Unless I caused an incident equivalent to annihilating the nobles of Northern Wallachia using the Steel Mist Tribe, most of the nobles of Wallachia would survive.

Would the surviving nobles willingly surrender?

‘If I maintain the existing system and keep the lords as vassals, they will obey. But I said I would dismantle the feudal system.’

I don’t need nobles in my country.

I will not put humans above humans.

Even if I reign as lord and king for now.

After all the achievements are done, I will step down from the throne.

‘To protect what they have, the nobles will inevitably resist desperately. If that happens, how is it different from the entire Wallachia being covered in rebellion?’

Pasimere sighed.

She seemed a little less angry.

‘Well, then we’ll have to play whack-a-mole all day long.’

A few hundred familiars have to catch the nobles who are resisting from all directions.

The resistance is not ordinary; they will receive support from human countries including Germania, and the Council [a governing body of supernatural races] will surely be working behind the scenes.

A precarious situation, the peril of stacked eggs.

It was truly a situation where the weight increased and reached its limit.

‘It’s foolish to hope for luck like Ugdashi [reference to a past event or person known for luck].’

Therefore, we must gradually or significantly erode their power.

The conflict between the Duke and the Count was a very good means.

‘Originally, it was a fight that Hugo should have won. I overturned the fight where Hugo, supported by mosquitoes [a metaphor for minor allies], should have won against the Duke, who was receiving awkward support from dwarves.’

To this end, I attacked and burned the Blood Clan’s base.

Killing only Agaton wouldn’t balance things out.

I tried to balance things out by dealing with the Blood Clan and their servants at the base as well.

‘How many did you bring? What about the territory? It’s enough to leave it to me or Kali.’

‘I told you. Agaton is the mosquito’s most cherished cub.’

Pasimere opened her mouth slightly.

‘Are you saying the mosquito is coming?’

‘Maybe.’

‘What about the Council’s agreement?’

Blood Clan is Blood Clan for a reason.

The race that Vlad [likely referring to Vlad the Impaler or a similar figure] cherishes so much.

It wouldn’t be strange if they rushed in, swayed by emotions.

And seeing this, isn’t the agreement already meaningless?

‘Vlad’s foundation is humans. Even if he says he has abandoned humans and transcended humanity, his roots are human. The emotions are different between a goblin or a dwarf living for a thousand years and a human living for a thousand years.’

Long-lived races are insensitive to the passage of time, but humans feel deep bonds even after only a few years or months, and sometimes decide on a lifelong partner.

Then what about the Blood Clan who have been with Vlad for hundreds or thousands of years?

‘The reason why the Blood Clan is more deeply rooted in the human world than other races is because Vlad is lenient with his children.’

‘His child-rearing has failed.’

In addition, the fact that Pasimere is level 90 but not a familiar specialized in combat was also why I mobilized other familiars.

It was too dangerous for her alone to face the numerous Blood Clan at the base.

‘Hmph.’

Pasimere frowned.

She couldn’t argue, so she just pouted.

‘Yes, so Griff and Gerhard were needed to hunt the Blood Clan and servants who were stronger than humans, though not as strong as Agaton.’

The situation had shifted drastically in favor of the Duke.

Hugo had few cards left.

‘Now that the situation has tilted in favor of the Duke, the Duke won’t miss the opportunity.’

Even if he didn’t know that the Blood Clan’s base had been destroyed.

He knows that Agaton, who was equal to him, is dead.

He must have known that Hugo’s most important force had disappeared.

He wouldn’t leave alone a brat who dared to bare his fangs at him.

The Duke pondered for a moment and then answered.

“I must kill him.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Dare he bare his fangs at me? I must kill him.”

He fiddled with the scabbard he wore on his waist.

He looked ready to rush to Hugo’s mansion and cut off his head.

I raised my hand to stop the Duke.

“The Count is a great noble like you. Wouldn’t it be dangerous?”

Hmph, the Duke scoffed.

“Do you think that kind of guy can be my opponent?”

“You mustn’t forget that the Blood Clan is behind him.”

“Blood Clan? Hmm…”

The Duke frowned and stroked his beard.

Although they wore human masks, the Blood Clan were not human.

Vampires, one of the eight races of the Council.

A being that the Emperor of those vampires regarded as his own child.

Even the Duke had to bow his head to them.

‘Even if he is a great noble, he has a strong aversion to confronting other races. Servants are regarded as minions of other races like Pinto, so there is no aversion, but the Blood Clan is very different.’

The current situation can only be resolved by killing Hugo.

But Hugo was receiving support from the Blood Clan.

The Duke had to kill Hugo while preventing the Blood Clan from intervening.

“…I must hold a conference.”

“A conference with the great nobles?”

He nodded and took his hand off the scabbard.

“If more than half of us agree, we can convene an emergency meeting of the Noble Council. The emergency meeting can pass agendas even without unanimous consent.”

“What agenda are you considering?”

“I will use this to publicly declare that brat an enemy. Then the entire Wallachia will be the brat’s enemy, so the Blood Clan won’t be able to intervene easily.”

“Indeed.”

I responded with a seemingly convinced tone.

‘What do you mean, indeed? Isn’t it just like Hugo, using his connections in the background?’

I shook my head.

‘No. It won’t be of much help. At best, it will be just a verbal warning to the mosquito.’

‘Why?’

‘Would you fight with the parents of a child next door who is stepping on an ant hill?’

It’s a slightly larger force to consider as ants.

But the perspective of the Council and other races would not be different.

The Road is dying, and the goblins and dwarves are fighting.

There was no one with the will or power to stop the Blood Clan from running wild.

‘Pasimere, the Duke would have considered the method you mentioned.’

He thought about it but didn’t choose it.

Because he came to the same conclusion as me.

‘The Duke had exchanges with Gotava. He would have easily noticed that the external situation is flowing strangely.’

That’s why he chose a solution through self-help.

‘But Hugo can’t possibly not know the Duke’s intentions.’

Hugo is also a great noble.

He was more resourceful than the Duke.

There was no way he wouldn’t know the choices the Duke would make.

‘Hugo has only one day left.’

What if the great nobles except for Hugo gather right now?

There is a very high probability that the Noble Council will be held tomorrow morning.

Even if the emergency convocation is rejected with a very low probability, it will be a few days at most.

Because the Noble Council is being convened because of me and will be held in a few days.

Then what will Hugo do in the remaining time?

‘He won’t just watch the Noble Council being held.’

If the Noble Council is held, Hugo will inevitably lose.

‘Why?’

‘There were many witnesses in the arena.’

‘Ah.’

‘In addition, even if the Duke and the Count are great nobles with nominally the same authority, their influence on the nobles in the Council is completely different.’

Who would have gained more favor from the Council, the Duke, whose personal power is the greatest in Wallachia and who leads the Noble Council as an experienced noble, or the Count, who is young, arrogant, and assertive?

And it’s obvious that the great nobles except for Hugo will respond.

‘Running away to the territory… won’t work.’

If he abandons the Council and gathers troops in the territory, he will have to face the entire Wallachia.

Even if the Blood Clan ignores the Council and runs wild, they won’t be so oblivious as to wage a full-scale war with a great power.

If that happens, it will be Hugo’s own revolution without the support of the Blood Clan, which is the best result the Duke wants.

‘Therefore, the best choice Hugo can make is to kill the Duke. Killing the Duke and putting Sodomora under control before the Council is held is a chance for a comeback.’

I looked at the knights standing around the Duke.

【Lv. 41】

【Lv. 46】

【Lv. 43】

【Lv. 39】

The Duke had made thorough preparations.

It wouldn’t be easy for Hugo to kill the Duke.

‘Likewise, it won’t be easy for the Duke to kill Hugo.’

I smiled inwardly.

All I have to do now is watch.

Just like how I annihilated the Steel Mist Tribe and the Northern Allied Forces.

[Time remaining until next use: 2 hours 57 minutes.]