In the middle of the night, on the wide central plaza of the castle, magic lamps and torches lit the square as bright as day.
On the bluestone ground, the shadow of the base of the magic lamps and torches swayed quietly with the breeze.
After receiving the message from Evie, Reed immediately arranged for the remaining two second-generation vampires in the castle to get ready.
Augustine Kaschar.
Harrison Kaschar.
Augustine’s class was an extremely rare archer among the vampires, and his level was the same as the other second-generation vampires, level 9, and his sub-class was a level 4 warrior.
His thin face, high hooked nose, and dark eyes had a sharp eagle-like gleam in it. He wore a black leather trench coat with a longbow on his back and two quivers filled with specially made arrows hanging from his waist.
Harrison, the other second-generation vampire, his main class was a level 9 Mage, and his sub-class was a warrior.
These two second-generation vampires were a little unusual. Needless to say, for Augustine, the use of bow and arrows among the vampires was as rare as a dwarf abandoning his war hammer in favor of a human long sword.
While Harrison was more of a scholarly mage that mainly learned support magic. His only offensive spell was the First Circle spell, Fireball.
The rest of his magical repertoire was support spells such as Strengthening, Stone Skin, Swiftness, and the like. His role was more like a priest of a temple and was responsible for providing supporting magic to frontline personnel during battle.
Eudes, Evie, Lucie, and Dylan were responsible for the raid for the population, while Harrison and Augustine were in charge of settling these humans down.
“They are here.”
The sharp-eyed Augustine said faintly as he pointed to the dark sky above the castle.
Reed looked up and found nothing but darkness, and no sight of any Hexbats. Just as he was about to speak.
The sound of a bat flapping its wings came from afar, and the first Hexbat to reach the castle slowly landed.
Reed gave Augustine an odd look. He was indeed an archer. With such eyesight, nothing was safe from him.
The Hexbats were driven by a vampire, and sitting on the back was a family of three. The two adults were wearing shabby linen clothes, and they were looking at the brightly lit plaza with fear.
Under the glow of the slightly dim magic lamps in the square, the silhouette of the vampires looked especially fuzzy, which intensified their inner fears.
Flap, flap, flap…
The bat wing’s stirred and the powerful air current kicking up dust.
It then landed safely.
After the man carried the child in his hand off the bat, his eyes felt a little weak, but he still tried to suppress his inner anxiety.
Reed was not surprised when he saw this. The vampires’ reputation was just too dreadful, and it would take a lot of time to change the perception of humans toward them.
He then took the initiative to step forward.
“Welcome. Dawnbreak has everything ready for all of you.”
Dawnbreak—that was Reed’s new name for the castle.
The original castle was not officially named, and the vampires liked to use the surname Kaschar to call it the Kaschar Castle. Reed did not feel much about it, so he officially named the castle himself.
Dawnbreak, represented hope and light, but the time before the break of dawn was always the darkest and was the moment the vampires were the most powerful… only the strong could bask in the light.
The meaning was profound.
Upon seeing the family of three, Reed showed a sincere smile, and his agriculture program could finally begin.
When the man saw Reed’s smiling face, his nervous heart slowly relaxed. These vampires were really different from the ones in the legends. Perhaps they really mean when they said they would not harm them.
Barely suppressing the fear in his heart, he then asked with some caution.
“M… Master Mage, what will you have us do?”
Reed stretched his hand out and motioned to ten tables on the plaza, with a vampire manning each table. This was for registration.
“No, you don’t have to do anything. You will register here first, and then you will be assigned your residence. Those who are literate, or have special skillsets will get a separate house as a bonus.”
When the man heard this, he relaxed a little and brought his wife, as well as child, to the registration table in accordance with the Master Mage before him.
“Greetings, Patriarch.”
“Let me handle the first one. Come and observe how I ask questions…”
Reed asked the vampire behind the table to make way and asked the questions himself.
This was the first human to join Dawnbreak, which was a memorable moment.
“What is your name?”
“Porcy.”
Reed’s fingers stiffened when he heard that, and he looked up at the blushing man as he shook his head without saying anything.
Among the humans, many civilians living at the lowest rung of society do not even have a name throughout their entire lives. These illiterate civilians would often use a familiar label to refer to themselves for a lifetime.
It was already an extravagant thing for common folk to have a good name.
They were foolish and ignorant.
“Do you have any special skills? What are you good at?”
This was the first time Porcy felt ashamed of his name and quickly answered upon hearing the Master Mage’s question.
“My Lord, I can grow wheat. I have always been in charge of managing the lord mayor’s farmlands.”
Porcy finished his sentence with a trembling tone, but afterward, he felt a tinge of despair in his heart.
In the past, he would be proud of his farming skills, because he was one of the few who know how to farm in Ayric.
Yet, before such a lord in mage’s robes, saying that he could farm would probably make him a laughing stock.
Before his wife and child, Porcy had no way to evade, and could only lower his head as if he was waiting for fate to proclaim its sentence of him.
But the ridicule in his imagination did not come. Instead, a sentence he did not expect at all did.
“Hmm, yes, being able to farm is a special skill, if there are no incidents, you will be getting ten acres of land.”
Hmm? Farming was also considered a special skill? Plus, he could get ten acres of land? This sudden surprise put Porcy in disbelief because he had deep suspicion and irrepressible hope in his eyes.
“Real-Really? Thank you, Master Mage. Thank you…”
“Do not be so hasty. There are other questions still.”
In order to get a view of the situation of these people in detail, Reed had deliberately designed a series of questions.
It consisted of “Where are you from?”, “What did you originally do?”, “What special skills do you have?”, “How many people in your family and the like?”.
The identity information of everyone would be archived, and after detailed questioning, each person would receive a small piece of paper as their identification certificate.
On it were detailed personal information and serial numbers. Reed also arranged for a vampire who could use a Second Circle spell, Visage Capture to imprint the person’s appearance on the certificate.
While it was not as clear as a camera, it was completely sufficient for identity verification.
The Visage Capture was a permanent spell, and as long as the identification certificate was not damaged, it would always persist.
Therefore, of all of the members of the highborn vampires with magical talents, he could only find five of them who knew how to cast an obscure spell such as Visage Capture.
If it was back in the human kingdom, even Grimm, a city of millions, Reed was sure that there would be no more than five who would know Visage Capture.
Their long lives had allowed the vampires enough time to study some obscure spells.
“What is in your backpack?”
Just before he was about to ask the last question, Reed noticed that Porcy was trying to hide a backpack behind him, but these small movements were extremely obvious because of his size.
“No, nothing, I, I…”
Porcy was so nervous that he could not speak properly, his eyes were evasive.
“Bring it over for me to have a look.”
Reed suddenly raised his vigilance.
He had only just accepted the humans, and the vampires and humans had yet to establish trust, if this guy was hiding some alchemy bomb or something, that shit would hit the fan.
Porcy’s face turned pale, and looking at the vampires who had quietly drawn their weapons, he no longer dared to resist.
He could only put his cloth bag onto the table with much reluctance.
Augustine next to him stepped forward, and slowly opened the cloth bag.
Reed had already activated the magic model for Mana Shield, and as long as anything happens, he would immediately cast this powerful defensive magic.
As the cloth bag was opened, a sack of wheat appeared before him.
Reed quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it was not an alchemy bomb.
But Porcy was not relaxed, and he stared at the wheat nervously.
Augustine turned his head and glanced at Porcy, the latter’s nervous expression had already told him a lot, as a mocking curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.
“There is still something here.”
Reed who had lowered his guard immediately went on guard again.
Despair descended upon Porcy.
Augustine turned his head, and reaching into the wheat and ruffled about.
Needless to say, he pulled out a small bag made out of worn cotton cloth.
Reed’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Porcy, what is this?”
“My… My Lord… this, this….”
Augustine did not give Porcy the time to explain as he ripped open the cotton cloth.
Cling clang!
Everyone was stunned by what appeared on the desk.