Chapter 264: Finding Shelter

Neither of them spoke.

For a while, there was complete silence inside Lucian’s mind, and Lucian simply kept staring at the quest window before him, quietly scanning through the panel that had appeared.

[Quest: Save or Enslave the Damsels.]

Main Objective:

– Save the kidnapped women from the kidnappers.

– Ensure to keep their affection above zero.

Reward: +100 AP

Bonus Objective:

– Turn the women into vampires and make them your slaves.

Bonus Reward: +200 AP, Everyone’s affection +20%(Progenitor Bond)

Difficulty: D

Failure Penalty: Hatred from them. (You can even kill them if you want to avoid that.)

— — —

But after a few more seconds of silence, Akasha couldn’t take it anymore.

[What? Aren’t you going to say anything to me?

’What kind of bonus objective is that?’

’Why are the rewards much better than the main objective?’

...nothing?]

Lucian didn’t reply to her.

Instead, his gaze once again moved towards the bonus objective.

– Turn the women into vampires and make them your slaves.

Yes, it was cruel.

Perhaps even more so than most of the quests he had received until now, but strangely enough, Lucian didn’t feel particularly bothered by it.

Because after hearing Chloe’s words, he had already thought about doing something similar for a moment, but he had ultimately decided against it.

Why?

Because it would be a hassle.

And mainly... he didn’t want to babysit eleven traumatised women for the rest of his life, nor did he particularly want to deal with whatever problems would arise after turning them into vampires.

But it seemed... that was the wrong decision.

’Or was it...?’

Lucian frowned.

He honestly didn’t know, but there was no way he could change the past now, and even if the reward for the bonus objective was far greater than the reward for the main objective, he didn’t completely regret his own decisions.

’Show me my status window.’

[So you aren’t going to complain or anything to me?]

’Nope, nothing like that.’

Akasha seemed strangely happy at his answer, and Lucian could almost imagine her smiling.

’Though I’ll say that was shrewd of you, and petty too.’

[Mrrmph...]

He could practically hear her grumble at his last words.

But despite that, a translucent gold-blue screen immediately appeared before him.

[STATUS WINDOW]

Name – Lucian Foster/Scarlett

Race – Vampire(Progenitor)

Rank – C

Titles – Loved by ######, Killed by his sister, Progenitor of Vampires, Beloved by the Unstable

Main Bloodlines – Devourer’s Bloodline + Sanguis Noctis Bloodline

Sub Bloodline – Scarlett Bloodline

Affinity – Blood, Fire, Soul

Talent – Transcendental

[Attributes]

Strength – 165 ➝ 172

Agility – 190 ➝ 211

Constitution – 200 ➝ 237

Intelligence – 145 ➝ 159

Will – 215

Perception – 220 ➝ 230

Charm – 291 ➝ 501

Stamina – 460

Mana – 299 ➝ 320

Attribute Points (AP) – 1 ➝ 338

— — —

’Should I use the Attribute Points?’

Lucian wondered as he stared at the number.

He currently held a considerable amount of points, and he was also a bit annoyed by how slowly he was getting stronger—even though that was his fault for only fighting small fries until now.

[Perhaps you should, especially since many people are getting annoyed because of you hoarding them.]

’What?’

Lucian’s brow twitched.

Who was she talking about?

[Nothing.]

’...’

Shaking his head, Lucian decided to keep them stored for now, mainly because there was no reason for him to suddenly become stronger at this exact moment.

He wasn’t facing an opponent or anything like that for a while, and if he did need more strength urgently, he could use the points later as well.

After a long time...

Lucian finally opened his eyes, only to see Kanna’s porcelain, pale face once again.

Her expression remained stoic as ever, but there was something slightly awkward about the way she was sitting, and she was twitching every time she felt his head moving beneath her lap every few minutes.

Letting out a small chuckle, he finally rose from her lap, causing her shoulders to relax almost immediately.

A faint sigh escaped her lips—of relief... and a faint hollowness.

Lucian shifted his gaze towards the six men who were supposed to be kneeling a distance away, whom he had almost forgotten until now.

"What happened to them?" he asked as he saw them unconscious on the floor.

He turned towards Kanna, only to learn that she had knocked them unconscious while he was devouring the Kobolds and experiencing a few of their memories.

Lucian then glanced towards the remaining corpses scattered around the abandoned apartment—the bodies of the men he had killed recently.

For a brief moment, he thought about devouring them too.

But he immediately shook that thought away.

He didn’t have the willpower to do that right now, especially with his head still throbbing badly, to the point that even getting up from Kanna’s lap had been a struggle.

So he simply told Kanna to store those bodies inside her shadow before waking—or rather, knocking some consciousness into the six men.

And after giving them some simple commands, he also made sure they didn’t try to escape from him or even let that thought enter their minds.

"Know that just as I found your partner earlier, I can do the same with all of you."

The Boss and the five men immediately bobbed their heads in a frantic nod, their faces completely filled with fear as they knelt before him.

"So... let’s meet again tomorrow."

Lucian muttered with a smile, a smile that sent shivers down their spines.

The moment they heard that they would have to meet him again tomorrow, their faces turned ugly.

If they could, they didn’t want to see him ever in their lives... but their luck had already gone downhill from today... and they couldn’t even do anything about it.

Lucian briefly turned towards his maid, and within a second, Kanna entered his shadow, and Lucian’s body exploded into hundreds of bats before flying away.

Flap! Flap! Flap!

The swarm filled the abandoned room for an instant before rushing towards the broken windows.

The six men could only stare in stunned silence as the bats flew away into the night.

***

The next day, at approximately eight in the morning.

Within the Cathedral of Valtaris, Leonardo walked down one of the long corridors while looking around, trying to find someone who might be of help.

A few steps behind him, five weak-looking women followed him, along with two female medical staff walking alongside them, keeping a close eye on the women and making sure none of them collapsed from exhaustion.

Their conditions had improved somewhat after receiving food, water, and proper medical attention, but they were still far from healthy.

"You all should’ve rested along with the others. I could’ve talked alone about your shelter."

Leonardo muttered as he glanced behind him.

The five women, however, remained adamant about following him, partly because they still didn’t trust him, and the only reason they had even followed him was because of that crimson-eyed man—who had said they could trust him.

Leonardo let out a faint sigh as he noticed their lack of trust.

He still didn’t understand how they listened to Lucian despite his lack of tact when speaking, while he had been giving them his utmost respect ever since they had been rescued.

That bastard had even threatened them for fuck’s sake...!

Leonardo sighed internally.

’I must find Richard. He might be able to do something about this.’

The guards outside had said he was somewhere inside the Cathedral, so now Leonardo was trying to search for him, but couldn’t even see a single person yet—at least, not someone he knew.

The reason he had come here in the first place was because he wanted these victims to have somewhere to stay.

A safe shelter—somewhere they could recover without constantly keeping their guards up.

And the best place he could think of right now was the Church, which took in numerous survivors and kept them safe, and thanks to his connections, arranging a place for them here would be much easier.

He had first wanted to keep them in their Association’s own shelter house, but unfortunately, that place was already overflowing due to the sudden increase in homeless survivors, and because of that, he couldn’t find many places for them.

And he didn’t want to place these women somewhere that would make them feel even more uncomfortable.

Chloe, Fiona, and three other women were currently following him.

The others were far too weak to even walk properly, so they had remained inside the vehicle to rest.

And despite Leonardo repeatedly telling them to rest along with the others, these five had followed him.

So here they were, walking through the Cathedral at eight in the morning.

It took several more minutes before Leonardo finally spotted someone coming from the other side of the corridor.

A brown-haired man walked lazily in their direction, his steps loose and carefree as he twisted his body from side to side, stretching his arms while walking.

"Aaaaa~ can’t believe I slept while training. This must be a first for me."

The man muttered to himself before letting out a satisfied smirk, feeling proud of himself.

After all, he had managed to accomplish something that he hadn’t been able to do before... at least not with his previous body.

’I knew I had it in me.’

His smirk widened.

’Just needed a power boost.’

Still, despite his confidence, his body was sore.

He had spent almost all his mana during his training, and although it had already begun regenerating at an unusually fast pace, the exhaustion hadn’t completely disappeared.

All he wanted was to get into a bed and sleep for at least until the next day.

A small frown appeared on his face when he noticed the unfamiliar group approaching him.

The brown-haired man slowed down.

"Excuse me?"

Leonardo, who had been looking around, immediately turned his attention towards him, causing him to stop in his steps.

"Can you tell—"

Leonardo suddenly stopped talking—his eyes widened, and his entire expression changed.

"Arthur Brown?"

Leonardo hadn’t expected to encounter the Chosen One on his way here, not that it was extremely surprising, since the Chosen One stayed within the Church most of the time after all.

Still...

He had only seen him once before, and despite not having a particularly good picture of him at that time, Leonardo had witnessed how this man had broken almost every artifact they had presented...

Just because his talents, mana, and bloodlines were simply too powerful for the artefacts to withstand.

That incident had left a rather deep impression on Leonardo.

Meanwhile, Arthur frowned slightly, as he didn’t really remember him, not even remotely.

"Sir Chosen One."

Leonardo’s tone suddenly changed as he gave him a faint bow.

Seeing that, Arthur stood still for a moment.

Then, his lips twitched into a smile as he nodded, his expression becoming a little smug.

"Yes, I’m the Chosen One. The only Chosen. What is it?"

But the moment he looked at the women standing behind Leonardo, Arthur immediately frowned.

The women wearing professional medical clothes were also lowering their heads slightly—because despite not knowing Arthur personally, they knew exactly what a Chosen One was.

The other women, however, didn’t react in the same way.

They were still wearing simple clothes given to them after the rescue, and they didn’t know why they had suddenly become so respectful.

Chloe in particular looked confused, not knowing why they were reacting like that.

"Who are they?"

Arthur took an unconscious step back, his expression hardening faintly as he saw the state of their bodies, multiple of them carrying dark, ugly bruises across their faces.

Leonardo immediately noticed the change, but instead of saying anything, he decided to get straight to the matter.

"Sir Arthur, do you know where I can find Bishop Richard?"

Arthur looked at him.

"Why do you want to meet him?"

Leonardo hesitated for a moment, but having no reason to hide it, he briefly explained the situation before telling him the reason they had come here.

"You want these people to stay in here...?"

"Is that a problem?"

Leonardo felt like there was something unusual in Arthur’s tone, but didn’t think much of it.

"Huh, of course there is! These people just go—!"

"Ah...! I’m sorry!"

A soft, serene voice immediately cut him off before he could even finish.