Elizabeth ran for a while to reach the city of Heights.

Even with vampire speed, it took a while for her to get there. She felt a bit hungry but didn't stop to drink animal blood.

The main reason she avoided drinking animal blood was that it felt like torture; she had to rest to clear her mind after each time. She had consumed animal blood just a week ago and felt hungry due to running a long distance.

She planned on drinking it on her way back.

The battle situation had developed into a weird stalemate.

The royal inspector troops were still surrounded on all sides. Fortunately, they had plenty of food and water and could persist for weeks.

The forces surrounding them, the rebels, had been attacking for days. However, due to the royal guards' good defensive formation, all those attacks did was to kill rebel soldiers.

Every time, the rebels retreated after losing tens of fighters.

The rebels were eager to attack but would only die without reaching any royal envoys if they went all out in this situation.

The rebels themselves were in trouble, being pressured by the forces of Count Highlands. He had a well-trained army of 12,000 pressing on them.

Still, somehow, with Hank, the leader of the rebel group, rebels managed to both defend and attack.

In the last few days, the count had sent letters to royal envoys at least ten times.

But James never went out and didn't let the count's troops in. He even released the rebels who were captured to return to their camp.

His actions looked weird, but from his perspective, it was understandable.

He had no idea whether the count was an enemy or not. The count attacking rebels didn't mean he was an ally.

With his defensive formation, James believed he could resist for 10 days. There was a chance that reinforcements would arrive during that time.

That's why James had been doing his best to keep the balance and prevent the destruction of the rebel group. If he even helped the count's forces a bit, the rebels would have long been destroyed.

…

James was sitting on the ground, discussing the situation with the captains.

All chairs and anything that could be used for a defensive formation had already been taken away.

They were like a tank, covered from above and the sides. Perhaps they could have set them on fire if the rebel group had bows and arrows.

Fortunately for James, the rebels only had a few crossbows and no bows. Most were spearmen, with some swordsmen. In general, the quality of rebel fighters was very low, and their equipment was worse.

It was doubtful whether the 10,000 rebels could defeat the 3,000 royal guards in head-to-head combat.

“We should attack the count's forces tonight!” a captain with a clean-shaved face said.

Rebels could barely hold on for five days, and they would most likely fall tomorrow. It was already a great achievement to stand against the count's army, which was many times stronger than theirs. But there was always a limit.

They were already at their limit, and when they were annihilated, James and his crew would presumably be the next in line.

Another captain said, “But the count may not be rebelling! We have to meet them at least.”

James shook his head. As a commoner, he knew how cruel and greedy nobles were.

It was for rebels to be in the count's territory without his knowledge. In James's mind, Count Highlands was already worse than the rebels.

James might have considered surrendering to the count if it had been a few days ago. But it had been five days, and the initial panic had passed. Now, he could see that staying and defending this area had the highest chance of survival.

“No, I just!” the captain, who suggested the count might not be an enemy, wanted to say something, but James cut him off.

“I don't want to hear it!” James was a tough commander who trusted his instincts more than anyone. His instincts were screaming at him that the count was completely aware of the bandits and was now trying to destroy the rebels to erase the evidence.

The count was trying to defect, but he may not have been ready now, so he didn't want to fight the Royals.

“Still, we would not send anyone out to help the rebels! We will strengthen our defenses and wait,” James said.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

There are glaring weaknesses in this plan. Count Highlands can bring catapults, order his bowmen to attack non-stop, try to set the surrounding jungle on fire, etc. There are too many ways to count.

To avoid those, James said, “Send another letter to the count, assure him that we are friendly!”

This is to buy time.

In war, there is no honor. He has to lie to buy time. Even if he thinks the count is lying to them and is an enemy, he cannot say it to their face. He has to be two-faced.

On the one hand, not letting any of the count’s troops in, and on the other, sending letters of praise to the count. As for letters to the rebels, he had already given up. They don’t answer at all.

…

After the meeting, James was left alone in his tent.

Laying down on the ground, he was getting ready to sleep.

“James!” someone called.

“Who?” he stood up and looked around.

Then, he saw Her Majesty Elizabeth I!

“Your Majesty! How did you …” he wanted to continue before realizing Her Majesty was a supernatural being!

“James, tell me in detail!” Elizabeth urged him.

James began to tell the story from his perspective. After hearing it, Elizabeth’s face was cold.

James said that the count had colluded with rebel forces for some unknown reason and was trying to kill them to remove evidence.

Elizabeth was enraged to hear the news. It must be noted that rebels are usually the poorest in society.

Elizabeth hated to see so many throwing their lives away by joining rebels. But this count not only used them but wanted to kill so many poor people just to remove evidence. Is he a human or a demon?

It was the first time she witnessed such cruelty up close.

“How sure are you?” Elizabeth asked James.

“I'm 95% sure!” He said.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and disappeared the next second. After all, her speed was around 100 meters per second.

…

Hank was in a room, alone.

He was already badly injured on his left arm and also had a deep cut on his chest.

In the last few days, he has always been on the frontlines; his presence alone was one of the reasons the rebels didn’t fall. With their leader on the front and their strong hatred of nobles, they didn’t run away.

Generally, one of the biggest issues of any army is low morale; many soldiers run away.

This problem is less pronounced for nobles' standing armies. However, this issue is especially serious for rebels, as rebel soldiers have nearly no chance of winning and very low morale.

True, they all joined voluntarily, but after seeing reality, many had second thoughts and wanted to run away. Nobles usually spare the lives of rebels who ran away.

But among Hank's troops, morale remained sky-high.

Hearing something, Hank looked up and saw a beautiful woman.

She had golden hair, white but not pale skin, and red lips.

This was, of course, Elizabeth.

After becoming a vampire, her skin became too pale, and her lips lost color, so she began putting on makeup. She won't go anywhere without her makeup.

Even though she doesn't want to admit it, she cares about her appearance to an unusual degree. She doesn't want anybody to see her with her natural, vampire looks.

“You are the rebel leader?” she asked.

“Who are you?” Hank asked, quietly touching his massive sword.

“I'm here to hear you talk!” she said. Hank waited for her to continue.

“Tell me your story!” Elizabeth released her killing intent.

Even though she is much weaker than John, her killing intent is not something normal humans can tolerate.

A battle-hardened warrior, Hank could keep his mind clear despite that massive killing intent. But any thought of fighting this weird woman was removed. She was simply incomprehensibly strong. Hank could feel the power emanating from her.

“I was born in a well-off ‘family’! My mother was a slave, and my father was a knight.”

“They say my body is like my father, while my brain is like my mother.”

“As the son of a slave, my father never taught me anything; he even chased me away to keep my existence a secret from his wife.”

“With nobody to care for her, with a son in her hand, my mother, even though released from slavery by my father, never managed to remarry and died from a disease.”

“I spent my childhood stealing and, in the end, joined a local bandit group.”

“Climbing ranks, I became the leader of the Dragons bandit group three years ago.”

“I stole from the wealthy and helped the poor.”

“A year ago, I saw the people in the city were outraged about new taxes, so I used my influence in the city to convince many to join my cause.”

“We ruled ourselves for a year and managed to eat until we were full for the first time.”

“A year ago, Count Firewoods attacked us and forced us to leave behind those unable to fight and run away.”

“Count Highlands took us in to later use us against Count Firewoods, who he hates.”

“A while ago, royal envoys came, and we attacked them.”

He told his entire life's story in a few lines.

Elizabeth listened carefully. After he finished, she said, “Enough fighting! Order your men to stand down! You attacked royal envoys, so you cannot be forgiven; still, you won't receive the death sentence.”

“Can you do it?” asked Hank.

He wanted to fight to the death, but that didn't mean he wanted to die for nothing. The royal envoys are all fine, so even if all rebels fight to death, it won't impact Count Highlands.

Hank believes only if royal envoys die it can cause trouble for the count.

“Yes!” she said this and disappeared.

…

Count Highlands has been having a headache for a few days.

He has been trying to crush the rebels as soon as possible but failed.

If he leaves all caution, he can crush them quickly. But, he would suffer thousands of casualties. The standing army is his most elite force; their losses would be very painful.

“Those dirty slaves!” he cursed.

In the Blue Bloods Kingdom, slavery is banned in the royal territory and the Dukes' lands, but aside from royal forces, nobles usually still allow slavery.

Slaves are usually the poor who went into debt and couldn't pay it back. The logic behind it is 'if you don’t have property to pay back your debt, you become the property'.

According to resolutions passed by the House of Blue Bloods, slavery cannot be permanent. It has to expire before the death of the person.

In practice, especially in poor regions, slaves are not that different from ordinary commoners. Both are always hungry and have to obey their masters.

Slaves had to obey their owners, and commoners had to obey their noble masters.

The only thing slave owners cannot do is to kill their slaves. Killing humans is prohibited. Only noble masters of those approved by the king have the right to kill humans.

If the slave owner is a noble title holder, they can kill their slaves, as they can kill all their subjects on their territory. Any other slave owner must get permission to kill their slaves.

Even though most commoners are poor, many are rich merchants and well-off. Only direct descendants of noble title holders are considered nobles, so the number of nobles is extremely small in comparison to commoners.

Also, nobles didn’t have a reason to keep slaves; their subjects were slaves anyway.

Still, the word "slave" usually gets used as an insult.