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  “But why do you want to do it and not leave it to your mother?” woeressa.

  Although she had to admit her son was brave and rather intelligent, she didn’t want him to do everything on his own and would only feel like an even worse mother if she let her crippled son have all these responsibilities.

  “It’s because if you do things on your own, you could be, for example, ambushed by the criminals,” said Vd. “Also, perhaps the criminals are cooperating with oo, which would make things even worse if they find you there. I know you’re a strong mother, but what if you find yourself fighting some of the other noble vampires? If you die, theire city will bee their territory. And nobody would have ever learned you were dead, as they would probably hide your body.”

  “That’s… But what makes you think you’ll fare better thahen, my son? I know you’re strong, but-”

  “I’m strohan you.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “With the ability I gained as a pyer, I bee strohan you; that’s why I am fident.”

  “That’s…!”

  Teressa quickly remembered her soerday and the incredible feats he had done. His abilities, without a doubt, far surpassed her own in raw power alone.

  He also possessed the ability to trol Ki, an incredibly strong essehat only a few Martial Artist could ever dominate, and he didn’t have small quantities but tremendous, almost boundless amounts.

  His teique, his strength, his prowess...

  Albeit, she knew his weakoo; it was only a temporary power; he could only wield it for a couple of minutes.

  However, he wasn’t wrong.

  In those couple of minutes, he was strohan her.

  And then there was Alitheus by his side, someoh an equally overpowered ability that only sted a few minutes.

  But as long as they could calcute things correctly, there was no foe that could stand a ce against them.

  To properly start healing her own city, the criminals had to be exterminated before anything else.

  The wealth they had accumuted through crimes must be returo the nobles, and the hen must i it iizens.

  Then, ohings have slightly stabilized, she will finally ask for proper taxes, and the bance could be restored.

  “I uand…” Teressa sighed, swallowing her pride once more. “However, I dislike how you’re trying to take responsibility for my own mistakes, my son. I want to do something too, not just sit around and wait for you to solve my problems.”

  “…I know,” Vd nodded. “You got your own challenges as well, mother, like doing a lot of paperwork. You should try tag as many mert unions as you and them our products. We o recover some of our treasury, which is almost empty right now. You also o get in tact with as many talented people in our city—craftsmen, alchemists, chefs—and create guilds for them as well. Right now, there are only Hunter Guilds, and they’re not near enough. They’re also not unified and seem rather hostile to most people. You o take hold of these anizations too. You have plenty of work, mother. I would rather let you do all of that annoying work.”

  “Oh! I see what you’re trying to tell me, but Vd, roducts are you talking about? Our farms are small, and they barely produough yields; our cattle are small and weak,” she said. “We mostly sustain ourselves through the dungeons. But the dungeons themselves offer monster materials, and their processing—wait, I get it now.”

  “Ihe reason why you must tact these talented people is so they produce quality items with the monster materials,” Vd said. “I iigated a bit about this small city’s produ of items, and I was surprised to find there was close to zero despite having three dungeons here stantly yielding materials for us to use.”

  “As a prideful warrior myself, I had never sidered the possibility, but seeing how dire things are, iing the little we have in a unified anization of crafters, alchemists, and even chefs could work. Make them work with the monster materials instead of just selling them to small merts,” said Teressa. “However, our city is not the rgest; it makes me wonder if we even have talented people.”

  “There should be some,” said Vd. “It's your job to find them, mother.”

  “Hmph, an annoying one, but ohat might end up being quite worth my time,” she sighed. “Very well, do you have any particur clues about where these criminals might be hiding?”

  “I have.” Vd smiled.

  Well, he mostly knew because of the game forums. There were hundreds of pyers pining stantly about the criminals in Elderbridge and how they were being robbed every day by them.

  They were always saying it was the worst city to ever start as a new pyer in Obscuritas; despite the easy access to three newbie-friendly dungeons, it had been cataloged as a dangerous zone.

  Many of these forum posts also specified where they had seehugs, and even pictures or videos of some pyers being assaulted by them.

  They showed their faces very clearly, and even the pces where they often walked around, mostly so other Pyers would just evade them.

  “Pyers have a special unicatiowork, and many of them have been victims of these criminals,” expined Vd. “So what I’ve been doing is colleg information from them; I am quite sure where they live and what they’re doing. Once I get there and start beating them and asking, we’ll eventually learheir bosses hide and what exactly their es are.”

  “Iing! I had no idea pyers had such a thiher. What a blessing that our son has bee one! Don’t you think your brother is incredible, my daughter?” Teressa wondered.

  “Yeah! Big Brother is awesome! Nom, nom, nom…” Camil was stuffing herself with blood sausages and potatoes.

  She was without a care in the world, but that was for the best.

  “At the very least, let me help you with preparations,” said Teressa. “Or maybe I could…”

  “Nah, we’re good for now,” said Chris. “We’ll be mostly preparing, right? We got plenty of things we o assess; defeating those boss monsters dropped a lot of items, and we also o get stronger by abs what they left behind, right?”

  “Yeah, as he said,” Vd nodded. “Mother, there’s also something regarding my powers we must discuss, especially this curse I have... I have been cursed by the Evil God of Gluttony.”

  “T-The what…?!”

  Vd and Chris went on a long expnation about their curses and how Chris was cursed by Luxuria while Vd was cursed by Gu. In vampire society, these curses were often seen as more like blessings.

  Why? Because Evil Gods never blessed, they only cursed. And their curses, despite having gring fws, also carried tremendous power within them.

  Learning that her son had a curse and also his future fiancée was an incredible set of news!

  Yet, after learning the reason why Vd had been crippled since birth, she began to question why vampires saw evil god curses as a good thing.

  “S-So the reason you ’t move is that your body is so ruined... Is it because of this curse?” she muttered. “H-How have I been so foolish to never realize the truth?”

  “It’s fine, mother; you did what you could,” said Vd. “These things were bound to happen anyway; there was no way for you to know, and they are a thing of the past. My body is crippled, but I have found other ways to bee strong. I craft magic equipment, and I use the powers and resoury new abilities as a pyer to my advantage.”

  “You’ve ged so much.” Teressa sighed. “Although I would usually not go by your whims, I feel like your words are sincere and your pns are quite smart. Very well then, my son. I will trust you and do as you ask me. Pride alone won’t get us anywhere after all.”

  “Then we’ll go prepare upstairs,” Vd started moving, using his Float Spell imbued into his staff, which was now fully charged with Ara again. “By the way, we’ve takehe rge room where the butlers used to live; we need space for what we’re doing.”

  “Oh, is that so? Well, if you want that room, it’s yours,” giggled Teressa. “Will it be the little love you’ll have with your incubus, my son?”

  “W-Wha…?!” Vd became all flustered. “I-It’s nothing like that!”

  “Hahaha!” ughed Alitheus. “Your vampire mom’s hirious sometimes. And other times she’s a bit creepy, though.”

  “Don’t say that out loud; she’ll hear you!” Vd reprimanded Alitheus as the two destined souls moved upstairs.

  As Teressa saw those two disappear to do their own things, she sighed.

  “Hah, now I only have you, Camil, dear,” she sighed. “You won’t leave mommy alone like y brother?”

  “Um… Not like I have anything else to do!” Camil said. “ I have a third pte, mama?”

  “Well, there’s a bit more stew left… Okay, but no more, alright? I wouldn’t want you to bee ht noires o remain pristine in appearahin aiful,” Teressa said, giving her daughter a third serving. “While your brother and his fiancée deal with their own things, we should do some work ourselves, shall we? Would you apany Mommy to the city to deal with a few things?”

  “Hmmm! What do I get iurn?” Camil smirked.

  “E-Eh? You’re asking for something iurn for apanying your mother?! Hah! Yes! That’s the spirit of a true vampire! Be ing, my daughter!” ughed Teressa. “Never do anything without a reward being offered beforehand. And of course, mommy shall reward you with... perhaps some blood dy we find.”

  “Blood dy?! I’ve never had that! What’s that?!” Camil wondered, finishihird pte of stew and feeling rather satisfied.

  “It is caramelized blood made into little dies for vampire children; they have sugar and sometimes fruit juice; they’re delicious!” Teressa giggled.

  Just two days ago, Teressa had fotten about her family and had goo sleep for ay, wanting nothing to do with anybody, too tired and humiliated to even wake up.

  She couldn’t believe how much her mi had ged in so little time, perhaps because deep down, she still loved her children, and deep dowe her vampiric pride tellio recluse herself as a humiliated e, she wao be with them.

  And right now, she uood that despite what the vampire society would say about her, about being close to her family, about loving her children much more than any vampire mother would, and about the humility she was slowly cultivating within her heart, she was much happier this way.

  …

  Paul and Chris walked into their new “studio room” after having taken away most of the butler's belongings and their beds and having sold them in the near market for some credit s. The entire room had been cleared, and it was enormous.

  “It is a big pow that we cleared it!” Chris said, flying around with his little demonigs. “So what do we do now, by the way?”

  "First, we must assess ains; we o get as much strength as possible.” Paul said, finally sitting over his woode, sighing in relief. His weak body was still tired from yesterday’s battle.

  “Huh~ You sometimes look like an old man, haha,” Chris ughed at Paul’s misfortune.

  “Hey! It’s not like I help it; this avatar is just like an old man sometimes.” Paul pined. “Anyways… Remember the Treasure Chests? We got one for each Boss, the Wolf and the Bat, and there’s also a third reward for the giant vessel that you defeated; Vd’s mother retrieved it a it for me, so I have it inside my iht now.”

  “And also… what about the boss corpses? Those guys were super strong! I gathered the giant vessel corpse too, but it's mostly just crystals and other monster corpses merged together,” said Chris.

  “Hm, they are so big and strong that, thanks to the iory, they still retain their former Life Ford fresh, warm Blood,” said Paul. “We should quickly feed off them to get stronger. So you enhance your Lust Stigma and I enhance my Blood Core.”

  “Right~ You’re n! Let’s do that first, then!” Chris said, his sexy womb tattoo was glowing bright pink iement.

  “I wohough, why do you even have this womb tattoo if you’re a male?” wondered Paul, squinting his eyes as he touched Chris’ cute belly.

  “I-I dunno! That’s just how Alitheus is…” said Chris, looking embarrassed. “Why are you toug it so much?”

  “Hm, nothing…” Paul quickly decided to leave that ohought he had for another day. “Anyway, even if this room is big, those monsters are even bigger. So I’ll just take a piece of them, and we’ll absorb them. That piece will be ected to the rest of the body, so it’ll be the same. After that, I’ll use the iory fun to dismaheir bodies into pieces, so rocess them into proper equipment.”

  “I like your idea; let’s do that then, my crippled prince~” Chris nodded with a cheeky smile.

  “Then... you first.” Paul opened a portal to his iory as the giant cws of the wolf boss emerged.

  -----

  Pach