This was Reed’s first time meeting Rackel.
Evie had told him all about Rackel prior to leaving Dawnbreak before dawn.
Reed was also curious about why a Level 7 intermediate fighter would live in a border town and even attack the ruling noble while they fled.
Evie seemed to admire this Rackel very much, and that intrigued him even further.
There were not many vampires now, and while it was difficult to manage several hundred humans now, in the future, he would continue to expand the number of humans. It was not realistic for the vampires to manage all of them.
Therefore, he needed to promote a group of capable humans to help with managing, like a pioneering team.
As for whether the humans would turn from subjects to masters, Reed was not worried at all.
This was a world of magic. A level 5 intermediate mage could easily kill fifty or sixty civilians, and the strength the vampires had was not something this common folk who had lost their homes could fight against.
Moreover, it was not just a martial force. Later on, the interests of man would be aligned with the vampires. When the land and property of these people are protected by the vampires, if someone were to resist? The people around them would be the first enemy of the rebels.
Furthermore, the number of vampires would continue to expand later on. Outstanding human figures would also be made vampires.
Reed had a way to make these people willingly become a vampire. A chance to become a vampire would even be a matter of competition among humans.
Rackel was the first target of Reed’s consideration. In addition to him, there were five people that were literate, and he was highly regarded among the people.
Rackel sat across Reed cautiously and Ollie was even more flustered, neither sitting nor standing.
“You do not have to be so nervous.” Reed wore a kind smile. “I have told you, within Dawnbreak, your life is protected by the Vampires of the Divine Light. We are not the same as those evil vampires you know.”
Reed would utilize his nature for repetition at every chance he had.
“Patriarch Kaschar, what business do you have with us?”
Even for a seasoned mercenary, Rackel felt tremendous pressure when facing a vampire patriarch who ruled the city.
This was a brutal and bloodied vampire in the legends. Even if the other party repeatedly said he was different, but the fear was already taken root in his mind, and even the Gods could not uproot it.
“Rackel, I have heard from my people that you are held with high regard amongst humans, and I want to ask you of something…”
Reed was very courteous, but when Rackel heard the words, he was instantly drenched in cold sweat.
Something to ask of him? Thinking of the various evil legends of the vampires, the fear in his heart continued to spread.
“Milord, I, I…”
Reed knew that Rackel was overthinking when he looked at the latter’s face and coughed lightly. “Rackel, I’ve said, you are protected by the Vampires of the Divine Light. As long as you do not violate the laws of Dawnbreak, no harm will come upon you.”
“Milord, please say, as long as it’s not something that would betray the townsfolk, I will do it.”
Rackel gritted his teeth as if he was fighting against the devil, his expression was determined.
Reed raised his eyebrows and said impassively, “Dawnbreak will provide free food for all of you until the beginning of spring next year. While the vampires are powerful, cooking is not our strong point, so I need you to organize about twenty people to form a logistics team, and cook food for every human in Dawnbreak.”
After hearing that, Rackel’s expression immediately froze.
Originally, he thought the vampire patriarch was going to ask him to do something that would betray the townsfolk, like choosing a few humans to give to them every day… but he never thought that it would be something like this.
Free food?
The huge psychological gap had Rackel dumbstruck for a while.
Could it be that the promises made by the patriarch of the Divine Light Vampires on the plaza earlier were true?
The townsfolk had fled too hurriedly, and many escaped without any food nor bronze Pykes on them.
If that was not the case, they would not have taken such a big risk to attack the convoy of Baron Marcus. Attacking the nobility was a serious crime, and should the news go out, they would be hunted down by the troops of Norland and hanged.
After being captured by the vampires, Rackel was even mentally prepared that most of the people would not survive the winter.
Yet now, this vampire patriarch said that he would provide them food for free, which raised his expectations from the gutters to the sky.
“Is-Is what you say true?”
Harrison and Augustine, standing behind Reed, were immediately infuriated when they heard Rackel’s impudent question.
“Human, do not use your shallow insights to question the patriarch of the Vampires of the Divine Light, and the Lord of Dawnbreak. If this were the past, you would have been hanged.”
Hearing those chilling words immediately made Rackel recover his calm, and he quickly apologized. “I’m sorry, Milord, I…”
Reed waved his hand and did not say anything. His identity was the greatest amongst the vampires, and his word was inviolable.
For a human to not be killed after so impudently questioning him was a good reflection of Reed’s good upbringing.
In the kingdoms of man, common folks who dared speak against the nobility would be killed without any justification. This was a world that was cruel and ignorant.
Life was the cheapest of objects and was not even worth a noble’s toy.
“Don’t worry, as long as you do not make any mistakes, you will not be harmed. If there is no problem then I will leave the matter to you. Rackel, I’m sure you still have a lot of questions, but time will always make a devil show his true colors. Whether the Vampires of the Divine Light are good or not, time will give you an answer.”
Seeing Reed’s smile, Rackel felt inexplicably moved. For such a distinguished person to say something to comfort him, he had somewhat believed Reed.
Perhaps, this was really an opportunity for the townsfolk.
“My Lord, I will work hard to see the task you gave me to completion.” Reed nodded with satisfaction. “This is a good start. Everyone in this job will be paid 10 silver Pykes a month. As the team leader, you will be getting 15 silver Pykes.”
10 silver Pykes? Ollie almost bit his tongue when he heard this. Not only were they getting a job, but they were also going to be paid like those guards back in town?
In Ayric, Marcus’ guards were only paid 8 silver Pykes a month.
Rackel took a deep breath and suppressed the excitement in his heart.
He did not expect he would be getting such a generous salary for a job that was supposed to be unpaid.
Ten silver Pykes… If one was a bit thrifty, it could feed a family of three for over a month and a half.
The city’s lord was really different from the vampires from the legends.
Reed took the cloth bag that Harrison had handed over and tossed it onto the table.
A loud sound of metal colliding rang out.
“There are 100 silver Pykes here. You can pay half of the salary to those who are willing to accept the job, and pay the other half after a full month has passed.”
Using gold to buy horse bones, this was the first cooperation between man and vampires.
Reed believed that as long as someone participated in the matters of Dawnbreak, the humans would quickly let go of their inner fears and caution and truly integrate into Dawnbreak.
That was only the first plan. There were plans to allocate land, allocate work, and even reallocating houses.
Every plan had certain preconditions, and only after the humans met these preconditions would they really get land and houses.
It was impossible for these simple townsfolk to escape his schemes.
Reed—the King of Schemes—Kaschar had already dug plenty of holes for them.