Section 54 Secret Letters

Lord Beller,

With your trust, I was entrusted with investigating the events of the vampire rebellion in Sivania. Half a year has passed. There were some gains, but there were many mistakes – which today seems to be misleading, and it is very scary to be frightening.

As I said in my last report to you, the rebels in Sivania were instigated not so much by vampires by coercion and inducement, but by the local lords themselves. The vampire Essrufat, who calls himself Duke Scarlet, is an extremely cunning and patient fellow in the light of now. He already had the strength to conquer all of Sivania, but he did not hide it, but slowly gathered his subordinates, infiltrated the whole place, and waited for the right moment.

His previous harassment campaigns against various cities, although at first they seemed foolish from a military point of view (as you said, did not achieve results but exposed their own strength and attracted the attention of the enemy), but now it seems to have a meaning behind it. That is, through this series of seemingly useless actions that can only invite greater danger, the Scarlet Duke is very patient and waits for people to get used to his presence. It's easy to understand that when an alien, especially a terrifying creature like a vampire, suddenly appears, it is difficult for humans to accept its existence, and all but a few people must be hostile to it, let alone willing to submit to its rule. But through a series of actions, and patient waiting, the Sivanian region has learned about the existence of the vampire and his way of acting, which has greatly reduced the resistance of ordinary people. In the region of Meno, people are even happy to obey the vampires, as they can help them free themselves from the tyrannical lord's rule. Since they must be ruled by a tyrant, it is better for a vampire to eat at most one person at a time than a kasaic who collects taxes until twenty years later.

In this regard, the high-level leaders of the two countries have really done the vampire a great favor. The three lords of Sivania are a gang of unconscionable hooligans, traffickers, and opportunists. And the inside stories in the church excavation sites that are not known to ordinary people, I believe you have heard a little. It was with their help that the vampires accomplished what would have been impossible - without the help of the dark magicians, or even without their own involvement, they managed to rely on a few powerful subordinates to gather an army of human servants and stabilize the foundation of their rule.

I've confirmed this time and again. I've approached multiple members of the rebels in a variety of ways, most of whom had never seen a vampire before the start of the war. It was on this basis that I questioned the existence of vampires themselves. But now it turns out that it's just the cunning of the vampires beyond my imagination.

Now I will describe here the details of this short war of conquest. This wave of vampire operations began with a great escape from the excavation site. The details of this have already been explained to you in my last letter (and at the time I dismissed this operation as an incomprehensible stupid operation as well as a series of harassment operations that had preceded it), as it had no obvious benefit other than to erect a formidable enemy for itself. The rebels had never touched the excavation site before, and the Church was happy to ignore the outside situation.

As it turned out, the action itself was just a bold temptation. It was the success of this operation that allowed the vampires to determine the defensive strength of the excavation site. Another benefit of this operation is that the digging site underestimated the power of the vampires. They believed that the strength of the rebels was that of sabotage and guerrilla, and that as long as the defenses and sentry posts were strengthened, they could resist the attacks of the rebels.

In short, after this operation, the vampire has completely judged the true strength of the various forces and is ready for a large-scale operation. After further preparations, the vampire immediately began to make a move on Meno. A vampire subordinate pretended to surrender to Kasek, and took Meno's army to the rebel camp. The hoax is difficult to debunk, as the spy provides all the information that is true - except for one thing, which is that he claims that the vampire itself does not exist and that the entire rebel army is a hoax. And the rebels have very few troops at the moment.

The Meno were fooled, and half of the soldiers in the city were sent to eliminate the rebels. When the soldiers arrived at the vampire's camp, they were confronted by rebels who were less than half their own number - and more than twice as many powerful undead as they were (as far as I know, the vampires called them grave guards). Only a handful of soldiers escaped the massacre.

Immediately afterward, the vampire led the undead cavalry on skeletal horses to charge towards the city of Meno. A group of spies who had been in the city for a long time waiting to serve their undead master took advantage of the situation to kill the guards and open the city gates. The battle that followed was no suspense. Soon, the remaining defenders were routed by surprise. The lord of Meno, Count Kasek, was killed by vampires.

After a slight rectification, the vampires immediately launched an attack on the excavation site. It was a well-organized sneak attack, and with the departure of the high-ranking personnel and the slackness of the defenders, the vampire used his powerful dark magic to awaken the corpses in the graveyard inside the excavation site. The emergence of a large army of zombies from within renders all defenses against external attacks useless. It took only one night for the vampires to crush all resistance in the excavation site, turning one of the largest forces in West Vania into history.

There is not much to describe in the ensuing battle. I believe the Shogun had heard about it before he received this letter. The vampire's method is simple and effective. Before he started the war, he used poisoning and assassination to kill the remaining two lords, causing the defenders to lose their command. In the Istrian garrison, a few officers belonging to the royal family finally came forward to organize resistance and were given a chance to retreat with dignity. The defenders of Via were completely out of control and had no choice but to surrender in the end.

General, I have to say, if there is anything to be thankful about in this war of conquest, it is only two. The first is that civilians are less affected by war. This war cannot be understood as a brutal revenge by the vampires against humanity, and judging by all the obvious signs, the Scarlet Duke Essrufat did intend to rule here. The second is that the prisoners of war were not executed. The Scarlet Duke still seems to have a bit of aristocratic self-consciousness, and I believe that he will, as is customary in war, turn captives into slaves for his own drive.

I tried to contact the remaining soldiers. According to past experience, the bravest of them may be able to organize resistance guerrilla forces. Unfortunately, however, most of the locals are afraid of the severe punishment of the vampires, and it is said everywhere that the Scarlet Duke has the power to peer directly into the hearts of humans. This makes the inhabitants afraid to shelter and help these resisters. Now, Sivania has no power to resist vampires.

As for the vampire army, it's pretty bad. According to my own judgment and the information I have gathered everywhere, the total number of vampires' undead legions is about 100,000, and he has a large number of necromancers to serve him.

I don't know much about black magic, but it is said that when a vampire unleashes his full power into the night sky, it's like lighting a light with black magic. All the black magic practitioners in the West Vania region felt it. The scattered dark mages flocked to the vampire like flies chasing the stinking of flies. They quickly made a deal with the vampires. Use your power to serve vampires in exchange for more dark knowledge.

Although these dark mages may not be as good as Callean in terms of sheer numbers and strength, they have greatly improved in terms of creativity. In addition to the skeletons and zombies that are common to Calalian, there are also some terrifying monsters that are unheard of.

I've seen the undead monster called the Ghoul up close (the vampires refer to the Ghouls' infantry as the Grave Guards, and the cavalry as the Black Knights). These undead are said to be agile and indestructible, beyond the reach of ordinary skeletons. They were supposed to be the nobles of the ancient kingdoms of the West Vania region, whose sleep was disturbed by vampires, and who awakened and enslaved these ancient warriors. Tombs from such ancient kingdoms can be found all over Sivania, so I expect the number of these powerful undead to increase further over time.

I could also see some disgusting cars in the slow-moving undead legion from afar. This is another creation that the Dark Mages have brought to their vampire masters. The carts looked like they were made of rotting wood, rusty metal, and dead bodies, and I didn't dare approach them, but it was said that the claws sticking out of the cracks in the carts would grab anyone who dared to approach them. Some say that these corpse carriers are like magnets for dark magic, absorbing the energy of dark magic from the ground and air and giving it to their controllers. Some of the corpse trucks have a large bell hanging from it, and it is rumored that when the bell is struck, the dark magic will unleash a cloud around the corpse truck, and the dead will gather and stagger after the corpse truck.

In addition, I have seen some giant wolves known as "dire wolves". Originally a beast of the land, they now serve vampires as undead, their eyes constantly flowing with unclean energy. Parts of the resurrected wolves' bodies had rotted, their bloodstained and stained fur mottled and rancid, their charred fur hanging upside down, bones peeking out of their wounds, and wriggling maggots could be seen from time to time. Everyone says that these wolves are vampire hounds, using their keen sense of smell to hunt down enemies for vampires. I have not seen them in battle, but they are fast, and I believe they are more than enough to compete with the light cavalry, if not as heavy as the heavy knights, and even the bravest warriors will be terrified by their long howls.

I've heard from passers-by that ghouls have also been used by the Scarlet Duke. The region of Via was originally a place for ghouls, and when Duke Scarlet marched on Vea, he summoned the ghouls. So these monsters swarmed out of their hideouts and joined the vampire army. I believe this rumor is credible, but I have not seen the filthy and evil monsters in droves.

In addition to these corporeal undead, I also saw some disembodied monsters. It was a soul, a soulless in the air. The first time I've seen this type of monster, they look like a cloud of mist, with grumpy faces, clenched toes, and a constant wailing and tumbling mist. Since they don't have a physical form, I'm sure blades don't work against these monsters. However, their exact origin is unknown, and I don't even know if there are one or many of these disembodied creatures. All I know for sure at the moment is that the vampires and their minions can summon these special spirits through some kind of evil magic and force them to serve their own armies.

The above is the latest information I have received so far. I must warn you: the Scarlet Duke is far more powerful than anyone expected.

(The last line is a signature so blurry that you can't even make out of sight, and a unique stamp.) ）