"So, Princess Lina, what do you want from me?" Vicente asked as he sat down next to Lina on a stone bench in the Royal Academy's garden.

Her guards spread out around, monitoring the area, while the soldiers with the highest military rank stood very close to Vicente and Lina.

She wasn't bothered by Vicente's informal manner of referring to her and got straight to the point. "Well, we're here to deal with the matter of the 3rd stage vampire you defeated."

"What exactly do you want to know?"

She indicated. "Start from the beginning. When he appeared, why he was after you, and how you defeated him."

"You can learn that from anyone. The vampire appeared in the city in the middle of that afternoon along with his group.

Vampires are great trackers. I think he may have come to me because of my above-average talent. Fortunately, I had enough strength on my side to fight him off. Otherwise, I'm afraid a massacre would have taken place in this city that day."

"So you think he came to you because of your talent?" asked one of the Sky Sovereigns from that group standing near the two of them.

"That's my theory."

"There's no chance he followed you here during your recent trip?" Lina asked as she looked into Vicente's eyes.

"That I wouldn't be able to say. If it happened, it was out of my control." Vicente replied with a serious tone and neutral expression.

He could tell the truth, but this lie was much more convenient. It would allow him to show the provincial nobles the dangers of The Purification and make them more inclined to support his plans.

If the province or kingdom's powers knew the truth, they might have thought that the whole battle had happened because of a problem unconnected to the threat developing in the north of the continent.

That was the truth, but the truth was not convenient for alerting the powers of that region!

The soldiers at Lina's side believed him for a moment, for it was indeed possible that the vampire had found Vicente's trail and started following this young man without him knowing.

"How exactly did you kill him?" Lina asked.

"Well, I used everything my family had at its disposal to make him spend his strength. He tried to run away when he was close to having his existence threatened. I had expected this and moved before he did.

He teleported away, only I managed to keep up with him. When he least expected it, I destroyed his heart while using my mana to crush the essence of his soul. Although he was a formidable opponent, killing him was easy. He didn't expect me to act, and he was more tired than I was." Vicente said, sometimes looking at Lina, sometimes at those soldiers.

"And what did you do with his body?" One of the soldiers asked.

Vicente laughed. "We made the best use of him, of course. My group has already consumed his blood, and we've used his organs to produce pills and potions."

Vicente had anticipated that he would be pressed by the parts of the body of the superior vampire. As such, he had given the first batch of potions and pills to his allies.

What did this action say? His family had probably used up everything they had and had, therefore, given the nobles these last resources.

However, the truth was different. Vicente's family still had more than half of the vampire's organs, which would take more than a month to use to produce pills and potions.

But only the members of the Fuller family knew this!

Those soldiers obviously didn't like that, feeling it had taken them too long to come to this place.

Unfortunately, they couldn't complain. If the vampire's body had already been completely consumed, then there was no point in getting into an argument with this young Sovereign.

"Your family is swift to assimilate resources, Vicente Fuller." Lina smiled at him.

"Yes, we must be." He smiled back, aware that these people understood that he didn't want to share his wealth.

"Sigh... Did the fight against the vampire cause the destruction around the city? Are you behind the local reforms?" Lina's advisor asked.

"Yes, the city was badly damaged. But it's not just me behind the reforms. All the influential families in Saltstar City have helped so far with coins and men.

Even though my group was the one to expose its powers the most that day and consequently caused destruction, the nobles and wealthy men of the city understood that blaming us for everything would get us nowhere.

They have businesses that would be damaged if the city continued to be destroyed for too long, so they all agreed to cooperate.

"That was good for you," Lina commented, seeing that as well as being strong, Vicente was also very business savvy.

If the city wasn't already halfway to its best, they could hold him responsible somehow. But since the vampire incident had caused almost no casualties and the city seemed to be doing well, there was no way they could hold this guy responsible for anything.

"What do you intend to do now?" One of the soldiers asked.

"Getting ready for The Purification."

The people around Vicente narrowed their eyes, seeing that this news had already spread. If Vice knew about it, then the nobles and rich men from all over the province must already be aware of the problem.

"Do you intend to join my family and become a noble?" Lina asked him in an offering tone.

"No, I wouldn't fulfill my responsibilities doing that. I'm already in the 4th stage, Princess Lina, but I don't intend to stop here. Soon, I'll have to leave the kingdom to hunt pentagrams, and when the other problem is solved, I'll have no reason to return to these lands. I'll take my family to a more affluent place."

"The consequences of The Purification could take decades or centuries to resolveif they are resolved at all. The vampires' plan is to end the dominance of magicians on the continent. Anyway, becoming a noble of the kingdom wouldn't stop you from leaving if, eventually, our race manages to overcome this problem," Lina commented with a smile.

"That may be true. But it also wouldn't make any difference whether I decide today or in the future." He smiled back at her. "If it turns out that I'm here for that long, I might change my mind. But for now, that's my plan. Prepare my defense and leave the kingdom when the worst is over."

Vicente didn't know where he would be in five or ten years. He might not get very far, and the consequences of The Purification would be too terrible. But he believed that he would be strong enough, even amid the calamity, to leave the Seidel Kingdom and continue his life in the north of the continent.

The best way to escape a commitment today was to make these people hope to turn him into a subordinate in the future. As such, he pretended to be willing to change his mind depending on how things developed.