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She was in the middle of an important spirit interference experiment, but after hearing Maxim’s report, though grumbling about being interrupted, she quickly gathered her things and headed towards the collapsed Blood Vulture Corridor under Bonnie’s guard.

The weak Tris couldn’t even summon her Blood Wings, so naturally she had to go on foot, which would take time.

And this was all part of Murphy’s plan.

Watching Lady Tris depart, Maxim didn’t dare delay and immediately went to the tent of Knight Lord Palanno and the three Blood Pact Knight scouts.

But to the loyal servant’s surprise, when he reached their tent, they had already changed into the midnight formal attire required for official occasions, as if they had anticipated what would happen tonight.

“Why such a surprised expression? The beautiful and wise are not limited to just your master in this world.”

Carefully pinning a midnight rose dewed with dewdrops to the front of his formal attire, the handsome Palanno brushed back his golden curled hair, his face full of eager smiles.

He glanced again at Maxim, the loyal servant whose appearance stood out from other humans, his arm in a sling.

After a few seconds of judgement, the sentimental knight lord stepped forward and placed his hand on Maxim’s injured arm.

He said softly:

“To have such unwavering loyalty without a blood bond is rare beauty in this world, but blind loyalty without wisdom severely diminishes your beauty.”

Palanno’s fingertips flickered with crimson spirit energy.

That power seeped into Maxim’s wound, and through a vampire’s manipulation of blood, rapidly healed his injury.

He said:

“You have not yet fully shed your ugliness, so I cannot gift you a rose, but I hope the next time we meet, you will have transformed.”

“Thank you for your guidance, my lord.”

Maxim knew this was Lord Palanno’s advice, so he bowed in gratitude.

But the Pride Descendant did not return the courtesy.

He elegantly ignored Maxim, then with his three attendants, spread their blood wings and flew into the night sky.

The Cappadocia midnight bat wings were no different from other clans’, just small decorative wings that could only provide brief hovering and gliding, far from the affinity for the skies enjoyed by the Lessenbra midnight descendants.

The loyal servant looked up from where he stood, flexing his newly healed wound while watching the nobles disappear into the distance.

Seeing those small bat wings, he couldn’t help feeling disdainful, it seemed even a perfect man like Lord Palanno wasn’t always graceful, at least his awkward flight was far from Lord Murphy’s elegance.

But his guidance came at an opportune time.

Though delivered with an unpleasant arrogance, he did call himself the “Pride Descendant” after all, so a few words of disapproval was respect enough.

Clearly, Lord Palanno’s image in others’ eyes was completely different from how Murphy saw him.

“Wisdom.”

As Maxim mounted his horse and rode towards the corridor in the night, he pondered:

“That has always been my shortcoming. To better follow Lord Murphy’s glory and be worthy of that heavy trust, perhaps I should also strive to make up for this deficiency.

Learn!

I must learn from my most respected master Murphy.”

On the other side, Tris soon reached the Blood Vulture Corridor in the midnight hour.

Since the spiral staircase leading underground had been destroyed, Bonnie had to fly her down, following the guidance of the Kadman Civilian Self-Defense Force soldiers stationed in the tunnels, allowing Tris to quickly arrive outside the treasure chamber that had been excavated.

She had Bonnie wait outside while she entered to inspect the situation alone.

As soon as she went in, she saw Murphy placing a lady’s crown on the table he had cleared, with a luxurious cape and a completely crimson scepter made of moonlight crystal next to it on a chair.

The top of that thing was carved into the mysterious form of a bat and blood vulture fused together, like a stone gargoyle perched on a church’s edge, understated yet exuding a subtle opulence.

Tris had seen this before!

This was the accessory Salrokdar used to display his status, the master-level【Unique】spirit weapon scepter Murphy had just fished out from the “sea” of glittering gold coins in front of her.

It wasn’t just a pretty trinket!

It was one of the highest-level spirit crystals on the continent, second only to miracle artifacts.

This scepter named “Nocturne” was said to have been crafted by an elder of the Blood Clan specifically for Salrokdar, and was also the activation core for the “Nocturne” city barrier of Kadman City.

Unfortunately, Salrokdar himself was a powerful midnight sword saint and crimson hunter, but his spirit manipulation skills were lacking, so this good thing became merely a symbol of status in his hands.

How clever Tris was!

Upon seeing Murphy unharmed, and collecting these “terrifying” items, she immediately sensed something was off. Her face changed, and she turned to run, but in the next moment, Murphy grabbed her by the wrist from behind.

“You’re already here, why run?”

Murphy said helplessly:

“I don’t believe with your wisdom, you cannot judge that this is the best choice currently.”

“Let me go! Don’t you understand you’re harming me?”

Tris was truly frantic, shaking her wrist as she shrieked:

“How can a powerless waste like me inherit the Grand Duchess position? Moreover, although I am Salrokdar’s blood descendant, I am not his designated heir! Kudel is more qualified than me. This goes against protocol and will earn Lord Payne’s rebuke.

Besides, what kind of state is the Blood Vulture Clan in now? That is no Grand Ducal throne, it’s clearly just a bonfire coveted by many eyes.

Murphy!

I’ve been so good to you, I’ve done nothing wrong to you, you can’t treat me like this! Ah! This is the Grand Duke’s cloak, don’t! Don’t drape it over me, Murphy!

I order you, stop!”

However, how could a powerless waste of a vampire lady possibly be faster than her mischievous descendant who was already far surpassing his former self?

Like a crimson whirlwind swirling around Tris, in just a few seconds, the cloak was fastened, the crown askew, and the Nocturne staff placed in her hand.

Murphy stood before her, cocking his head to examine Tris’s new look with a satisfied nod. Then, as Tris prepared to protest again, he took two things from his spirit pouch and held them out to her.

In his left hand was a mechanical box containing Salrokdar’s heart, in his right a crystal bottle filled with a translucent crimson liquid.

He looked at Tris and said:

“Power and freedom! Just reach out and you can take them, no need to feel guilty or doubt the future, this is what you deserve, and the best gift I as a descendant can give an elder.

The former is Salrokdar’s necessary apology to you.

The latter is fate’s blessing bestowed upon you by my hand.”

Looking at these two things before her, Tris was speechless for a moment.

The Grand Duke’s heart could restore her power, and the purified source blood could break her blood covenant with Salrokdar. Though he was dead, that binding covenant still plagued her with weakness.

But these two things weren’t the point!

The point was that Murphy so casually took them out, meaning this little rascal must have been planning all this long beforehand.

Even long before Salrokdar’s death.

Her being lured here now wasn’t the start of his plan, but the symbol of its perfect conclusion. This little thing had said he wanted to vent over a hundred years of her suffering, and he actually meant it.

He was serious!

“You’re harming me.”

Faced with Murphy’s intentions, Tris couldn’t find a reason to refuse. She stepped back and sat on the jewel-encrusted chair, saying to Murphy somewhat helplessly:

“You know I don’t really want any of this. Perhaps I was once insane and vicious in pursuing these desires, but now I have settled with time. Having enough fine wine each day to get blissfully drunk is more than enough satisfaction.

I shouldn’t pursue things that no longer belong to me.

Murphy, as far as the outside world is concerned, I’ve been dead for over a hundred years. You can’t pull a dead person lying in their coffin back to life, the dead should obediently remain dead, not willfully wander among the living.”

“Good point!”

Murphy shrugged, smiling as he said:

“However, this was not my decision alone, nor was it simply out of a descendant’s care for an elder.”

The treasure chamber’s door opened again, and with Lady Adele’s support, the still somewhat frail Young Lady entered this place she had visited a few times before. She saw the two things Murphy levitated with his spirit power before Tris’s eyes.

After a brief exchange of glances with Murphy, Femis also nodded.

Under Tris’s stunned and even more helpless gaze, the Young Lady took out the final proof of the Grand Duke’s status.

One-seventh of the vampire stone tablet representing the Blood Vulture Clan’s origins, the ancient “Fragment of Desire”, which she also levitated before herself and extended towards Tris.

The Young Lady said softly, without any mental pressure:

“The traces my father and I left on it have dissipated with his death. The Fragment of Desire awaits its true master, just as the Blood Vulture Clan fallen into the mud longs for a true leader to guide us in rising again from the darkness.

I do not deny that I previously thought Murphy needed to bear this responsibility.

But now I understand.

You, the former Crimson Witch, a rare genius and sage among the vampire race, who has experienced the ravages of time, standing at the pinnacle and falling into the abyss yet never submitting to fate, may be more suited to lead us in these turbulent times.

Your knowledge, vision, and connections are what we desperately need.

On this dark land, there can be found no more suitable leader than you, Lady Tris. Please do not refuse this praise and allegiance.”

“Tell the truth!”

Tris pursed her lips in the chair, fixing Femis with an ambiguous gaze as she asked displeased:

“Isn’t it Murphy who forced you to say this? I know he always has ways to achieve his goals, and this isn’t even from my teachings, I clearly intended to raise him to be a good child.”

“That is not the case,” Femis explained quite seriously.

“It’s just that as a forbidden creature, I lack the courage and qualification to inherit all this, and Murphy’s choice is correct and appropriate. What I mean is, although there is no specific power requirement to be the Blood Clan’s Grand Duchess, having a black-iron rank Grand Duchess would admittedly be quite unbecoming.

Power does not mean authority.

But authority must carry the shadow of power.

Even from the most rational perspective, I quite agree with Murphy’s decision.”

“This is your father’s heart! Though he fell into monstrosity, he still gave you life. As his daughter, shouldn’t you treat it as a final memento?”

Tris was still making a “struggle”.

She pushed the Grand Duke’s heart in front of her, but this time Femis stepped back, regarding the seemingly still-beating heart with a complex gaze.

She shook her head and said:

“I have decided to forget the past and start my own life anew, so these past mementos are only a heavy burden to me.”

“Lady Tris, you should just accept it,” Lady Adele said softly behind Murphy and Femis. “With the Blood Vulture Clan reduced to just us few, who else is more qualified to take that throne than you?”

“Says who!” Tris objected difficultly and pale. “There are still many outlying clan members alive, scattered in the small towns on the fringes of Transia, some of them even White Silver ranks. They’re just lying low.”

“Hmm, I assure you, my lady, they will soon no longer be your trouble,” Murphy said in an ambiguous tone.

His demeanor was gentle and light, but the bloody implication was clear.

He was clearly reaffirming his stance, this Blood Vulture Grand Duke position recognized no one but Tris! Anyone who dared challenge had better be prepared for decapitation and bloodshed.

“Yes, those wastrel traitors who enjoyed the clan’s protection yet watched it fall into disgrace, only wanting to preserve their own lives, they will soon be no threat to anyone. I also give you my assurance, my lady,” Femis added coldly.

There it was!

The tragic fate of those clan outcasts was sealed by the two of them singing in tune.

Such cold-blooded harmony made Tris’s lips move, but she could say no more reasons against the two determined to elevate her. Her fingers gripping the scepter also slackened as if drained of strength.

After a few seconds of silence, Tris said softly:

“You two go out first. I need to say a few words to my descendant. Don’t worry, you’ve convinced me. I will fulfill my duty.”

Femis and Adele left satisfied, closing the door behind them.

The treasure chamber fell quiet again.

“Come here, Murphy.”

Tris called out.

Murphy stepped forward and bowed his head before her, seeming prepared for a scolding.

But the imagined rebuke never came. A cold hand was placed on his cheek, lifting his downcast face so his eyes met Tris’s alluring gaze.

The former Crimson Witch stared at him.

In that eye contact, she said:

“I can become the Blood Vulture Grand Duchess as you wish, but you must promise me one thing.”

“Of course, anything you desire,” Murphy said softly.

Then, he heard Tris tell him:

“You have drunk the source blood. Whenever you wish, you can break the blood pact between us.”

“Yes, I can, but that doesn’t mean I need to,” Murphy answered casually.

“I think things are good as they are now, letting us be intimately close, letting us trust each other, letting us unite and cooperate, letting our minds and souls…”

“Break it!” Tris said deeply.

“That is my demand.”

“Huh?” Murphy’s eyes widened.

He looked at Tris, disbelief in her eyes, then heard her say:

“I do not want the tragedy between Salrokdar and I to replay between us, Murphy. Nor do I want the blood pact to influence your future judgments and decisions. You think all your current thoughts arise from your own rationality, but you overlook that this very judgment is made under the pact’s influence.

You must regain rationality!

You must also reevaluate our relationship without any influences.

Trust me.

This is important for both of us.

If you want me to become the Blood Vulture Grand Duchess, then break the blood pact between us.”

“But I feel…” Murphy tried to object.

But then a slender finger gently pressed against his lips, silencing anything more he would say.

Tris had grasped the Grand Duke’s heart. She looked at Murphy and said:

“A true leader cannot be bound to anyone, little Murphy. I have fallen into darkness before and cannot be certain I will not fall again if tempted by power. But at the very least, I must ensure that no matter what happens to me, it will not affect you!

You see, I still care for you, still cherish you.

This will not change even if the pact is broken. You should believe that our year of interdependence is already enough to transcend any blood bond.

So, be good, okay?

Consider this your Grand Duchess’s first order to you.”

Murphy fell silent for a few seconds.

He stepped back, looked at the smiling Tris before him, then nodded, placing a hand on his chest in the standard Blood Vulture salute as he said softly:

“Then, as you wish, my lady.”