Chapter 472, Section 471: Dusk Approaches

In the heart of the empire, on the official road leading to the capital city of Mulin, the entire road was tinged with dark red under the blood-red sky.

A large slave caravan consisting of more than twenty caged wagons was stopped in the middle of the road for a rest. The iron cages were crammed with slaves of various races with numb eyes.

Forty or fifty strong and powerful guards, armed with weapons, set up camp in the convoy. Their weapons, covered in blood scabs, and their fierce eyes caused other demons passing by to consciously detour through the forest.

As a magnificent carriage guarded by eight black-armored knights approached, it did not detour like the others, but simply stopped in front of the slave transport team. The four nightmare beasts pulling the carriage impatiently stamped their hooves, and it was not difficult to tell from the scarlet eyes under their helmets that these black knights were vampires or half-vampires.

Just as a burly pig-man guard was about to step forward and reprimand him, his gaze was suddenly fixed on the emblem on the dark carriage!

It was an inlaid silver-edged bat emblem, without any additional decoration, and even somewhat inconspicuous.

But this badge frightened the pigman so much that he retreated repeatedly and almost tripped over his own axe handle.

The slave caravan leader scrambled out of the tent, his greasy face plastered with a fawning smile: "I didn't know Your Excellency was passing through here, so I'll be right back..."

Before he could finish speaking, the lead black-armored knight lashed out with his snake-bone whip. The whip tip tore through the air, leaving a bloody gash on the leader's face.

The burly man with a face full of scars didn't even dare to groan. Instead, he bent his waist even lower, letting the blood droplets fall from his chin into the dust.

He turned to his men and roared, "Are you all blind? Clear the way for the master!"

The guards immediately reacted like ants whose nest had been disturbed, roughly kicking away the debris blocking their way and even overturning several carts full of goods into the ditch.

The slaves in the iron cages huddled together in fear, the chains rattling loudly. In a short while, the previously crowded road was cleared into a wide passage.

The leader wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve, knelt by the roadside, and kowtowed repeatedly: "Please, sir, please."

The knights didn't even glance at him, escorting the carriage as they slowly drove through the chaotic camp.

After the carriage left, the leader of the slave transport team collapsed to the ground, grimacing as he covered the whip marks on his face, but dared not harbor any resentment in his heart.

Just as this slave caravan could dominate the road due to its large numbers, forcing other demons to detour through the forest, the vampire count's knight commander could also freely wield his whip, leaving humiliating marks on the faces of those who offended him.

Here, strength is the only truth.

As long as one doesn't violate any laws explicitly prohibited by the empire, such as openly killing one another, no one will bother with such trivial matters.

However, the slave transport team would never have imagined that the person sitting in that dark carriage was not the count or any member of his family, nor even a demon.

Inside the carriage, which was engraved with multiple layers of defense and isolation from reconnaissance, Tanaka gently lifted the velvet curtain of the rear window and looked at the slave transport team members who were busy reorganizing the camp. He couldn't help but sigh softly, "They're really domineering."

Kiro, nestled lazily in the soft plush cushion beside him, closed his eyes to rest: "It's been very convenient along the way, isn't it? That's why I'm willing to spend the time helping that vampire decipher the secrets on the treasure scroll."

“But…” Tanaka lowered the curtain, somewhat worried, “If that legendary equipment, forged specifically for vampires, really falls into the hands of that count, wouldn’t it be terrible for humanity?”

Although Tanaka has no intention of fighting to save humanity from extinction, he certainly wouldn't want to contribute to humanity's destruction.

“The demons are also a force we must rely on to save this world.” Kiro slowly opened his eyes, his tone tinged with helplessness. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing that they are becoming stronger. On the contrary, it is precisely because they are not strong enough that many things are so troublesome.”

"You support the demon race?" Tanaka asked in astonishment.

“No, I don’t support anyone, I just want to save the world.” Kiro paused, then continued, “And you don’t actually need to worry about that. That set of things is buried in the North, and nowadays… no one can dig up the treasure from there.”

Tanaka nodded upon hearing this. The northern border was indeed frighteningly cold now. Before they left, the border city was so cold that it was almost uninhabitable.

I heard that several city lords on the border have jointly dispatched a group of people to go deep into the northern border to investigate and deal with this abnormal weather, but Tanaka thinks that such a large-scale anomaly is probably not so easy to solve.

Given the current climate in the North, even if the approximate location of the treasure were known, it's unlikely that anyone could mobilize enough manpower to excavate it.

By the time the weather problem is resolved, the war may have already been decided.

Tanaka glanced at the dark red sky, which, in his eyes, had a panel.

[Artifact: Blood Curse (Immortality is a curse with no afterlife)]

This was the first divine artifact he had ever seen. When he first entered the territory of Twilight City, he was so frightened by the sight of the blood-red sky displaying attribute panels that he almost jumped up, thinking that the entire sky was full of living things.

It wasn't until I clicked on the detailed explanation that I realized I had misunderstood.

Even so, the power of the artifact that could cover the entire capital still shocked him.

He asked Kiro about the artifact, and Kiro told him that this was the only artifact that had been preserved intact; the others had either been shattered and scattered in various places, or had been completely lost.

Under the protection of the black-armored knights, the carriage finally arrived at the Demon Clan's capital, Twilight City.

The city gate guards briefly checked the family crest on the carriage before waving it through, without even inspecting the interior.

In fact, although the number of people entering and leaving Mulin City, as the capital of the empire, is very large and complex every day, the procedures for entering the city are surprisingly simple, and the strictness is even less than that of many border towns.

On the one hand, it was to speed up the flow of people, and on the other hand, it was because no one could do anything under this blood-red sky without being detected.

However, shortly after Tanaka and Kiro entered the city, the city guards received a new order: the entire city was placed under martial law, and all people entering and leaving the city would be subject to strict checks.

Of course, this has nothing to do with Tanaka and Kiro anymore.

“Lord Kiro, these properties all belong to my master. Before he left, he instructed that if you need anything, you can use this ring to get their assistance.” The leading knight respectfully handed Kiro a slip of paper with addresses written on it and a ring with a black gemstone inlaid with a badge.

"Please thank the Earl for me." Kiro nodded and casually accepted the gift.

After saying goodbye to the black-armored knight, Kiro threw the note and ring into the roadside ditch without even looking at them.

"Just throw it away like that?" Tanaka felt a little regretful.

“It’s unnecessary.” Kiro didn’t care at all.

In his eyes, the only value of that vampire count was that he saw them off on their journey.

"Now you should tell me what you're here for, right?"

(End of this chapter)