Chapter 167

Chapter 167
## Chapter 167

Meanwhile, in the West (3)

Because Diana, who stood right at the epicenter of the commotion, recognized the newcomer, the attention of the entire crowd naturally shifted toward his figure.

They all looked toward a tall, cloaked man who was stepping out with measured strides from the surrounding ring of whispering onlookers.

The collection agents who had been throwing the shop into chaos reacted to his presence as well.

The burly leader, being the first to register the approach, marched forward while letting out a rough snort.

“Who do you think you are? You seem to know the old fellow, but we are just carrying out our lawful business…”

The burly leader snarled with intimidation, his already aggressive features distorting into an even uglier scowl.

Heinz, however, offered no reply and merely reached up to smoothly pull back the fabric of his hood.

His glossy, pitch-black locks and remarkably fair skin were bared to the open air…

And his crimson eyes, gleaming with the brilliance of rubies, fixed a detached stare directly onto the man in front of him.

“…So… uh, well now…”

The burly leader swallowed hard against his own will, stuttering over his words as an unidentifiable weight pressed down upon his chest.

Heinz was continuing to mask his true presence using “Existence Denial”, yet the sheer disparity in their actual power levels subtly leaked out, easily paralyzing everyone standing in the immediate vicinity.

Without exaggerating, he possessed the capability to snuff out the life of every person present using nothing but his sheer intent.

Sensing that the mood had shifted in a bizarre direction, the rest of the thugs began to close ranks behind their leader.

“What is it? What’s going on here… Wait, could he be a nobleman?”

“Uh— Huh? D-do you think so?”

The burly leader nodded stiffly, finally finding a rational explanation for the terror that had gripped him.

The aristocratic air radiating from Heinz belonged unmistakably to someone of elevated rank, and a closer inspection revealed that his seemingly understated cloak was actually a piece of extreme luxury, spun from the rarest textiles.

It was entirely expected for a low-life hoodlum like himself to recoil out of pure self-preservation.

“Ahem, well… honored sir? Please do not misinterpret the situation, we are operating under an official permit granted by the local authorities.”

“We provided a loan to these people, and they failed to settle the balance by the agreed date. Quite so, quite so.”

“You can verify this with the sentries posted over at… Huh? Wait a minute? Where did they all run off to?”

Their raw instincts for survival prompted them to take a defensive, groveling posture on the spot, despite not even knowing his name or title.

Murmurs and whispers spread—

It wasn’t just the collectors; even the spectators gathered in the street began to quietly slip away.

Nobody wanted to risk getting caught in the collateral damage of an elite figure’s passing whim.

“Hmm.”

Heinz, maintaining his icy gaze upon the rowdy debt collectors, unhurriedly slid his hand beneath the folds of his garment.

And from his grasp…

Clang—!

A substantial, weighted pouch plummeted to the cobblestones, producing a resonant metallic ring.

Every eye locked onto the container that now rested on the dirt right before the men’s boots.

“Return every item to its proper place and vanish.”

The fellow standing nearest to the pouch reached down tentatively to lift it, peering past the strings, and instantly…

His eyelids stretched wide in sheer shock, and his throat cleared with a hard swallow.

The interior of the bag was packed to the brim with glittering gold pieces.

The sum far exceeded the initial debt they had provided… indeed, it even covered the heavily inflated interest rates they had tacked on.

Observing that he could carelessly discard a sum so massive without a second thought, a flash of pure avarice sparked in the eyes of the remaining men standing behind.

They traded swift signals, peeked cautiously at Heinz, and then…

“Oh my, look at this~ Much obliged, sir. To be frank, we much prefer handling actual coin anyway, it saves so much labor! Isn’t that right, boys?”

“Y-yes! Don’t just stand there! Put all those goods back inside!”

…They immediately abandoned their hostile stance, throwing themselves back into frantic activity.

The suffocating pressure he exerted, his flawless features, his costly attire, and the absolute disregard with which he tossed away a fortune in gold.

If they allowed their greed to push them into crossing someone of this caliber, they would likely end up dumped in an alley with broken limbs.

Crash—! Bang!

While Diana’s relatives watched the spectacle with entirely stunned expressions, the crew of men, having rapidly restored the shop to order, began shuffling backward while offering strained, placating grins.

“We shall take our leave now, good sir. We only arrived in the first place because of the unfulfilled payment. Truly!”

“O-of course~ We are honest tradesmen, not bandits! We are merely collecting our due balance.”

“Ahem— Say, old man? We will give you a better rate on the interest next time, so do favor our services again.”

They beat a hasty retreat toward the shadows of the rear corridors, vanishing as though they had never disrupted the peace, clutching the money pouch securely.

Their expressions were bright with satisfaction over the unexpected windfall.

But…

‘Naturally, I have no intention of letting them walk away.’

Heinz, who had remained stationary while tracking their exit, tilted his gaze upward slightly to lock eyes with a figure positioned atop a nearby roof, offering a sharp nudge of his chin toward the path the collectors had taken.

Swoosh—

Simultaneously,

The dark entities that held absolute dominion over the town’s underbelly slipped forward into the darkness.

He lacked the charitable disposition required to let those individuals enjoy their profit, regardless of how deep his own pockets ran.

—

“Th-thank… thank you so much. Sob!”

“Heavens, how can our family ever show enough gratitude for this benevolence…”

“Mister!”

“Waaaah—!”

The events that transpired afterward were entirely predictable.

An outpouring of weeping and emotional gratitude took over the space, and after a considerable interval, Heinz managed to quiet their outbursts and directed them to finish setting the disarrayed storefront to rights before he walked off toward an isolated alleyway.

He meant to catch the briefing regarding the hidden orders he had issued just moments prior.

“Lord, the preliminary findings of our inquiry have been gathered.”

Owing to the local vampires inhabiting the settlement, who were operating at peak alertness due to their master’s unannounced arrival and had deployed every available asset, unraveling the sequence of events had been elementary.

It was a simple matter of retracing the connections starting from those low-level enforcers.

‘Just as I suspected, the scenario felt artificial.’

The incoming intelligence aligned perfectly with his intuitions.

‘I detected no trace of actual disease when looking at Rafi… It had to be a case of poisoning.’

While a young youth might inadvertently ingest a hazardous substance by chance, it defied logic for a party to abruptly surface demanding an exorbitant sum under the pretense of a ‘fatal malady.’

Furthermore, the fact that they were aggressively squeezing the family for immediate payment suggested that someone of apparent authority had validated the legitimacy of the medical crisis.

‘So the entire situation was a setup?… They went so far as to administer poison to a youngster?’

And the architect who had actively harmed Rafi, brought in a corrupted practitioner who had been bought off, and steered the family directly into the hands of loan predators was none other than—.

The tutor who had been instructing Diana in financial recording after crossing paths with her at the educational center.

“Heh— The audacity to orchestrate such a scheme within my own domain.”

As a matter of course, the vampires had already detained the medical practitioner, the tutor, and the compromised bureaucrat involved, and were currently conducting strict questioning.

Yet upon reflection, this was highly unlikely to be an isolated incident.

This variety of exploitation was undoubtedly a widespread affliction occurring across various regions.

‘The pattern mirrors Earth exactly. The mechanics are so intricate that even Hans cannot easily eradicate it by simply hunting down physical aggressors.’

The public offered endless adoration to Hahoe Mask, yet he remained a mortal, not a deity.

He could systematically eliminate perpetrators who relied on physical force, but navigating layered systemic corruption required working through the framework of established legislation and structural governance.

‘However, the reality here within the Talia Kingdom is entirely different.’

In contrast to Earth, where his actions were confined to the role of a rogue operative, here he functioned as the absolute sovereign.

The reigning monarch and the ruling class, having been entirely divested of their administrative authority, existed merely as figureheads, leaving the ultimate power of governance to Heinz the Second, the commander of ‘Hybrid’.

For that reason, he had spent considerable time evaluating his methods of dominion while paving the way for the vampire population to integrate into open society.

The primary requirement remained the acquisition of blood.

Regardless of the quantity of vampires serving beneath his banner, the harvesting of vital fluid remained an absolute physiological necessity due to their inherent racial traits.

‘To sustain their combat readiness and preserve continuous blood arts like the Blood Gates, anchoring a massive, reliable reserve of blood is non-negotiable.’

The most efficient strategy involved converting the criminal element of every municipality into a dedicated harvesting pool.

He had already been executing this policy on an ad-hoc basis, but this particular event underscored the necessity of establishing the practice on a systematic, continental scale.

‘And as my background on Earth has demonstrated, lawbreakers represent an inexhaustible supply.’

It stood as a perfectly balanced symbiosis, the optimal path for their long-term survival.

Granted, the experience would be an absolute nightmare for the perpetrators, but he maintained his usual complete disregard for their fundamental human rights.

Sorting through his mental notes, he turned his steps back toward the small retail shop.

Having concluded that he would bring Diana along to monitor her development firsthand, a more deliberate conversation was required.

“Ah, you have returned. Mister!”

“Diana. May I speak with you apart from the others?”

He guided her away from the bustle of her preoccupied relatives and calmly disclosed the details of the conspiracy he had uncovered along with the measures he had taken against the perpetrators.

He intended to evaluate her mindset and gauge her underlying character, given that she was already fully aware of his vampire nature.

Yet Diana paid little heed to the fate of the conspirators, choosing instead to heap immense fault upon her own shoulders.

“…The blame rests entirely with me. I ought to have been suspicious when he began inserting himself into our lives. I let my guard down simply because he treated the younger ones to various delicacies… And I detected a peculiar odor when Rafi fell ill, but I was too blind to see… Ugh…”

In truth, regardless of the sharpness of her olfactory senses, a fourteen-year-old assistant in a neighborhood shop could not possibly identify the scent of an esoteric toxin.

Nevertheless, she carried a crushing weight of remorse, believing she was the catalyst for disaster because she brought the tutor into their circle, failed to intervene when he targeted Rafi, and misread the unfolding crisis entirely.

Diana had been carrying the mindset of a wrongdoer, her spirit weighed down by the conviction that her kin were suffering solely because of her own desperate ambition to acquire literacy and knowledge.

Heinz reached down to give her head a reassuring pat as her tears began to flow again, tilting his chin slightly in thought.

‘Hmm, I anticipated she might display fury or revulsion toward them. Is she simply unconcerned?’

The moment she learned that Heinz had handled the guilty parties, they seemed to completely evaporate from her thoughts.

Such a response stemmed from an absolute confidence that his intervention would resolve the matter flawlessly.

“…Sniff. I will find a way to return the funds to you. It is an immense fortune. I apologize for my incompetence and for creating another burden…”

“You are currently mastering financial accounting and mercantile statutes, correct?”

Heinz bypassed her apologies entirely, shifting the angle of the conversation as she struggled to contain her weeping.

“What? Yes… That pursuit was the origin of this entire disaster.”

“In that case, how would you feel about entering my employ to liquidate the balance of your obligation?”

He intended to place her within his immediate circle regardless, meaning her transformation into a loyal and competent asset would be highly advantageous.

An efficient administrator was always a welcome acquisition.

“Uh…”

Diana could only stare blankly at the proposition.

Naturally, the conclusion was foregone.

Was this exact path of advancement not the driving force behind her intense studies from the beginning?

“However, there is an initial condition. Taking a position under my command requires you to depart from this settlement.”

“That is expected! I am entirely willing.”

“Should you desire it, I can arrange for your relatives to be relocated to the same destination.”

“…I will consult with them. They have endured so much terror due to this financial trap that they might welcome the chance to start fresh elsewhere…”

The negotiation proceeded without friction since their individual objectives locked together perfectly.

Then, driven by emerging wonder, Diana inquired,

“Where exactly will we be journeying? Is our destination Talaria, the royal capital?”

Her gaze shimmered with a youthful curiosity.

It was entirely standard for a girl of Diana’s tender years to harbor a romanticized vision of the seat of royalty, which stood as the pinnacle of national wealth—a grand metropolis she had never witnessed with her own eyes.

However, the reply Heinz offered deviated entirely from her imagination…

“We shall pass through the seat of power briefly, but that location does not mark our ultimate settlement.”

“What? Then where are we going…”

A subtle grin touched his lips as he observed Diana’s completely mystified expression.

“Tarak City, located within the Tulk Kingdom.”

“What?!”

This was no mere relocation to a neighboring province; it was a complete departure to a foreign realm.

To be sure, crossing international borders presented massive logistical hurdles, yet there was no cause for anxiety.

His administrative forces would smoothly manage every intricate bureaucratic detail.

That was the true utility of absolute authority.