After the vampire guards killed the Church knights, they opened the carriage, only to find it empty. Angrily, they kicked the carriage aside.
The scene shifted, and Vlad opened his eyes, looking around at everyone.
By now, all eyes had already scanned the area. Except for Adrianna's husband and two children, who were ordinary people, everyone else understood that the earlier appearance of the bat and Vlad's strange behavior afterward was a deliberate message.
"It seems we'll have to wait here for a while," Vlad said, then fell silent.
The others simply nodded. It was clear Vlad was expecting something.
Sure enough, less than fifteen minutes later, a whistling and flapping noise came from the forest. In the blink of an eye, a ghostly figure formed from bats appeared before Vlad, suddenly taking human form and kneeling on the ground.
"Your Highness!"
"Anderson, why did you clash with the Church? Explain yourself."
Though Vlad's tone was calm, it carried a coldness that made Anderson, kneeling before him, tremble.
It brought back memories of the thousands of flesh-and-blood soldiers on the battlefield years ago—a grim and terrifying scene. The land was soaked in blood, like hell on earth, still vivid in Anderson's mind.
A bead of sweat slid down his face under Vlad's piercing gaze.
His body trembled unnaturally. Even as a vampire, he lived in the shadow of Vlad's fearsome presence.
"Your Highness, this was not our doing."
"Oh? Then explain."
Vlad frowned, surprised. If it wasn't their fault, how had a conflict with the Church arisen?
Everyone around listened closely, curious about this unexpected development.
"The conflict started in the Principality of Vilvia, where a large number of werewolves suddenly appeared and attacked villages."
"Our investigation showed these werewolves appeared to be defective creations, though their origin remains unknown. By the time we realized this, the werewolf attacks had already spread rapidly."
"The Vatican forces stationed there went to the nearby Earldom of Victor to request aid, but all perished in the Earldom."
"That Earldom borders Transylvania, separated only by a forest. If the Vatican focuses on it, we're at great risk."
"So Princess Verona ordered interception of the church personnel to prevent news from spreading."
"She also commanded the monasteries in major nearby towns to be converted into our blood clan's territory to reduce discovery risk and to confuse the Vatican, buying us time."
Vlad nodded slowly, impressed by Verona's decisiveness and careful planning. In her position, he would likely have done the same.
"Stand and speak," Vlad said, his face easing, to Anderson still kneeling.
As Anderson slowly rose, Vlad pressed on:
"What exactly does 'defective' mean? Who was in the carriage? And what do you know about the situation in the Earl of Victor's lands?"
Anderson considered for a moment, then answered:
"The werewolves are not very intelligent and cannot shift back into human form."
"For some reason, Earl Victor has led forces to fight these werewolves and currently holds the advantage."
Mentioning Earl Victor made Anderson hesitate, his expression uneasy.
Vlad grew curious—could there be hidden truths here?
Anderson continued:
"We found that Victor's group is similar to our blood clan. They also crave blood and fear sunlight."
"But they are much weaker than us and cannot transform into bats or fly."
"Princess Verona suspects these are humans accidentally turned into low-level blood clans with diluted blood purity."
Anderson then looked up at Vlad and said:
"The carriage held a priest named Solomon and his two daughters. Upon sensing danger, he gathered church knights and fled toward Wallachia."
"You did not find them, correct?" Vlad asked, locking eyes with Anderson.
"Yes, Your Highness," Anderson swallowed nervously.
Vlad said no more. After a moment's thought, he said:
"Notify Verona immediately and order her to cleanse all monasteries in Wallachia."
"...Also, has the witch Muriel arrived?" Vlad asked his guard.
"She arrived three days ago," came the reply.
"Then notify Muriel to track Father Solomon and prevent him from leaving this area."
Watching Anderson depart swiftly, Vlad pondered briefly, then without hesitation informed his group and set off for Dracula Castle.
He suspected that Father Solomon was the same priest from the Little Red Riding Hood tale—the one whose wife was bitten by a werewolf and later killed.
In that story, the priest was also named Solomon and came from a nearby town. The primeval forest near Daggerhorn Village lay adjacent to Victor's Earldom—the werewolves' origin.
Confident in this connection, Vlad dared not delay further.
The situation had grown chaotic with the sudden appearance of two groups of dark creatures.
The priority now was to return quickly, secure the throne, control the situation, and suppress the incident before it spiraled out of control—buying time for further development.
With this in mind, Vlad and his party arrived at Dracula Castle at noon.
The castle was built of neatly arranged granite, sandstone, and other stones, its exterior walls off-white.
On the nearly 20-meter-high walls stood corner towers spaced every 40 to 50 meters, with a small number of firearms mounted.
As Wallachia's core city, Dracula Castle covered a large area, capable of housing over 40,000 people.
Outside the castle gates, Wallachian nobles and knights, led by the chief minister and finance minister, awaited the arrival of their new king, His Highness Vlad, having received the news.