After being rescued by a friendly ship, the so-called surviving crew members and Demetra are bound to be taken back inland. The journey across the Lorikan Seas is expected to last for a few weeks, up to a month.
Upon being identified as the wife of a nobleman and naval captain, Demetra was given special treatment and was granted her private quarters for the rest of the journey.
Luckily, the captain of the rescue ship assumed Demetra was traumatized and had fallen ill due to the experience. And so the captain gave instructions not to disturb the recently widowed lady.
She would not touch food and never set foot outside during the day. But no one considered it suspicious, her behavior was instead associated by the crew as the typical reaction of a grieving and traumatized woman.
Luckily for Demetra, Lord Renfeld's human minions stayed with her- under the vampire's order, of course. As she can no longer eat normal food, Lord Renfeld's minions stay with her and serve as her human blood bags. Not to mention, being a newly turned vampire would mean a certain period of adjustment to the condition.
As they were known to be her late husband's men, they were allowed to serve as Demetra's personal bodyguards. They would guard Demetra's quarter during the day, and they would provide her blood as she required them during the night.
The weeks passed by and eventually, they made port. For her bodyguards, it was going home as they were Lorikan citizens.
For Demetra, it was setting foot in a foreign land where she is now the lady of a huge estate.
By Lorikan law and tradition, as the lawfully wedded wife of the late captain, everything that was once her husband's now belongs to her.
Demetra and her guards traveled to her husband's land: the Undead Regions. Specifically, in the Sanctus Lux Fortress where the family of the late captain and his subjects reside.
Technically speaking, the Fortress belongs to the Lorikan Republic. However, due to the Undead Regions being infested with various monsters- mostly undead, the only liveable section of the region is the fortress itself.
And so, the Lorikan Republic lent the fortress for an indefinite period to the late captain so he could use it as a base of operations to retake the Undead Region. In fact, such is the arrangement with the Republic to the captain's nobility several generations ago.
But now, Lady Demetra who is neither of Lorikan descent nor a noble, has inherited this arrangement.
In the months following the death of her husband, Demetra would mourn his passing for six months- as is Lorikan tradition amongst the elite. She would only be seen setting foot outside during the night but only for very brief periods. During the day, she would stay shut inside her room.
From an outsider's perspective, it would be the expected behavior of a properly grieving woman. But of course, the truth is another matter entirely.
Eager to have a piece of inheritance by trying to manipulate the naive and foreign Demetra, the relatives would visit her even during her period of mourning- oftentimes even during the night. But mysteriously, these greedy relatives would soon return home and would never bother Demetra for any materialistic demands.
In the meantime, during this period of mourning, Demetra took whatever time she could to learn and understand Lorikan law, customs, tradition, and way of life. She did this while adjusting to her new life as a vampire.
As the Lady of the Undead Region, she will be expected to fulfill her obligations after the period of mourning is over.
And then, a fortnight before the end of the mourning period, a rumor started spreading that she took on a young woman as a lover. However, since Demetra has very little interaction with anyone, the rumor never took hold as there's not enough evidence to support the claim.
Many believe it was a rumor spread by the jealous relatives of the late captain in an attempt to discredit her and take the estate away from her. Fortunately for Demetra, the authority agreed with this assessment and the rumor stayed as such- a scandalous rumor with no basis in reality.
Time passed quickly.
Upon taking charge of the land of her late husband, Demetra proved herself a capable leader. She would be seen working hard day and night to ensure that the fortress was functioning at its maximum efficiency.
In the following years, Lady Demetra would officially join the Lorikan Republic Army and eventually be promoted to the high rank of Imperatrix. Thus, solidifying her place both in the Lorikan Republic as a noble, and as a military officer.
Every now and then, the rumors that she's taking on female lovers would regularly be spoken in hushed tones. However, as the female lovers in question would later get married and be proven to be chaste on the night of their wedding days, these rumors were immediately dispelled.
The only reason this type of rumor persists, people assumed, is because Demetra never re-married- or for that matter, been known to be romantically involved with any man.
Of course, this did not stop countless suitors from asking for her hand in marriage.
In the Lorikan Republic, her elven heritage is not a mark of shame, but of pride.
Elves are known for their beauty and longevity. Few individuals are of human and elven descent like Demetra, but all of them live and age a normal human lifespan.
In this regard, Demetra is proving to be an exception as she has never aged a day since she first arrived in the Undead Regions. People assumed she was a blessed individual who inherited the coveted gift of the elves to live long and stay beautiful throughout their lives.
As a result, men across the Republic openly expressed their desire to marry a beautiful woman who never aged. But all of them were rejected.
Obviously, her so-called youthfulness has little to do with her elven heritage. But her elven blood has served a perfect cover for her never aging even as the years went by.
Weirdly enough, the rumor of her taking on female lovers has persisted over the years. Yet, just as it did years prior, these rumors would eventually be disproven.
And with that, 20 years passed since the fateful night when Demetra accepted the offer of a vampire.
Now, the time has come for her to fulfill her end of the bargain.
***
The deal that Demetra made with Lord Renfeld is simple.
She will receive the Vampire Lord's blood and turn into a powerful vampire. On top of that, she will receive political, financial, and military support from the vampires who have been living alongside Lorikan elites for the past two decades.
This is why she was able to rise to the rank of an Imperatrix despite having no backing or Lorikan roots. And this is the reason why her late husband's family was not able to hinder her in any way at all.
Vampires, particularly the powerful ones, can dominate the minds of mortals and command them. This is how Lord Renfeld was able to set the board in favor of Demetra's rise to power.
Additionally, Lord Renfeld gave Demetra 20 years to both get accustomed to the life of an undead and to hone her leadership skills. Or, at least, that was what he told her during the night they made their deal.
The life of a vampire is hard, and 20 years is a generous amount of time to give someone to adapt to it. But there is another reason why Lord Renfeld has to wait that long to claim his end of the bargain.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
In the last 20 years, Demetra has done well for herself.
She has long since adapted to the complex life of living as a vampire, a noble, and an Imperatrix. Additionally, she has also continued her pursuit of martial arts and swordsmanship and has become a powerful warrior in her own right.
But whether or not she achieved this due to hard work or vampirism, even she cannot say for sure.
In exchange for all of this, Lord Renfeld wanted Demetra to one day take over the Undead Regions so that the vampiric nobility could move in and rule the land- with Demetra serving as the public figurehead.
Despite the amazing power that a vampire possesses, it comes with a lot of drawbacks.
The first, and most obvious is their weakness to sunlight. And this is why a military force of mortals is still essential to their day-to-day affairs.
While the vampires slumber during the day, their mortal minions can run the mundane tasks.
But the sunlight is not the only weakness of vampires. As undead with the ability to mingle with mortals, their addiction to blood and giving in to its temptation is their other key weakness. And as the vampires themselves would admit, their kind has very weak willpower.
This crucial factor is the reason Lord Renfeld had to wait for a long time before they could take over the Undead Regions.
It is no secret that the Undead Region is home to several powerful Lich that lie in slumber. As powerful as the vampires are, the Lich pose a great threat to them.
This is because all Lich has an ability called Mass Undead Enthrallment that allows them to enslave other undead and turn them into their mindless slave. A vampire with weak willpower, no matter how powerful in other aspects, will succumb to this enthrallment.
The mortal armies are not ideal for use as pawns in this task either. The Lich are known to command legions of undead and a mortal army is just prey waiting to be turned into undead; vampires cannot afford to lose their livestock.
And this is where waiting for 20 years comes into play. It is all for the sake of waiting for the arrival of the Otherworlders.
It was long foretold that beings from another realm, Otherworlders, would make their arrival in Pangea. These beings are predicted to be greedy, adventurous, and eager to secure accolades and material rewards. At least, this is according to the prophets and scholars who studied the Word of the Future.
A plan to utilize these Otherworlders was made. Thanks to Lord Renfeld's vast resources and connections, he was able to secure the assistance of scholars who specialized in the subject to determine the exact date when these Otherworlders would arrive. The consensus of the research gave the timeframe of 20 years.
When the fated day arrives, the Imperatrix would cattle the Otherworlders and have them dispose of all the threats in the Undead Regions.
Demetra is to use the players for both mundane and crucial tasks and wait until they have become strong enough to challenge a Lich. Then, she would assign the task of hunting the Ancient Undead in the name of liberating the Undead Regions.
And this plan has so far worked magnificently.
In Adam's first life, Imperatrix Demetra, who is supported by Lord Renfeld in the shadows would successfully occupy over the Undead Regions after the players disposed of all the Lich in the land.
The hierarchy would then be established.
The nobility and high-ranking officials in the Undead Regions will be offered vampirism so that the ones in power all share a common interest. Those who refuse this offer will be eliminated.
Once again, Demetra will accomplish this by using the Otherworlders under the guise of assassination missions while hiding its true purpose.
Meanwhile, the mortals will be left to populate the lands- both to develop the region and make a profit. But also, to serve as cattle for their vampire masters.
And surprisingly, despite the sinister nature of the plan, the system worked well.
The Undead Regions has lived up to its namesake. It is a place ruled by the undead.
In exchange for low taxes and protection provided by the vampires, the mortal subjects would willingly provide their blood as sustenance for their blood-sucking overlords.
There is little to no risk of being murdered by hungry vampires. All they needed to do was to give a few pints of blood every few weeks. And in return, they can live a life of relative comfort.
Just as the mortal population is happy with the arrangement, the vampires too are keen to protect the utopian society they have built for themselves.
Any invaders or parties that meant harm to the Undead Region population will not be spared by the powerful Vampire Knights led by Imperatrix Demetra. Not long after, many players also asked to become vampires themselves.
For a time, the Undead Region thrived. A symbiotic relationship between the undead and the mortals exists out in the open.
Soon, other nations began to trade with them due to the vast richness that the region holds.
But such a good thing was never meant to last.
After a few years of harmonious existence between the vampires and the mortals, something placed a wedge in this otherwise mutually beneficial relationship.
Blood Delirium. It is the name of a degenerative condition that started to plague the vampires- particularly the old ones. All of a sudden, they would randomly go on a frenzy and start blood-draining dozens of innocent civilians causing hundreds of casualties.
It started as isolated incidents. But these isolated incidents soon became more frequent as the weeks and months went by.
The vampires at this point are more or less in control of their urges, but the Blood Delirium dispelled that notion almost immediately.
The vampires, worried for their sanity have begun to search for the cause of this ailment. And more importantly, how to cure it.
Meanwhile, the mortals who have increasingly become fearful for their safety have started to leave the region.
In response, Demetra declared martial law.
No one is allowed to either leave or enter the Undead Region until the cause for the blood frenzy has been identified and resolved.
To her credit, the enforcement of martial law applied to both vampires and mortals.
She requested reinforcement from the Republic to increase the number of human soldiers to maintain order. To minimize the Blood Delirium Incidents, she made a very public announcement to hire Paladins and Clerics to help reinforce order among the vampire populace.
Behind the scenes, Lord Renfeld provided the necessary funds to hire those capable of using Divine magic to serve as a deterrent against vampires seeking to wreak havoc. He approved of Demetra's move as it would help keep the situation from escalating from either side.
Despite the backlash, it cannot be denied that martial law has been effective at controlling the situation.
Thanks to the order being restored- albeit temporarily, they were able to buy some time in identifying the cause of Blood Delirium.
The Otherworlders were once again utilized to help resolve the crisis.
Eventually, one of the Otherworlders found something- an old vampiric historical record.
According to the record, a society similar to what the Undead Region became has occurred several times during the Previous Ages. And yet, inadvertently, vampires would succumb to a blood frenzy and would end up slaughtering their mortal subjects by the dozens and hundreds. The hypothesis written by the vampiric scholars is that since vampires are natural predators of the living, going for so long without blood-draining a victim would have a lasting degenerative impact on their minds.
In other words, they must kill regularly to retain their sanity.
This discovery caused a divide in the vampiric community.
Half of them believe that there is a solution waiting to be discovered. Since many of the nobles had only recently been turned into vampires, they believed that time was on their side to find a lasting fix to the problem. After all, Blood Delirium seems to infect the older vampires first.
The opposition- the older vampires, however, wants to enforce a fair and random reaping of the mortal populace. Instead of letting vampires slaughter mortals by the dozen, an organized and fair selection would instead be held so a minority of the mortals would be selected as sacrifices to spare the majority from needless bloodshed.
To make the proposal more palatable, the vampires suggested gathering all criminals in the Lorikan Republic who are sentenced to death to be the vampire's sacrificial meal instead.
After all, the vampires put in a lot of effort and resources in building the Undead Regions and don't want their work to be destroyed.
Needless to say, it was a very sensitive topic and Demetra tried to stay neutral for as long as possible. But her unclear stance led to her assassination.
With her death, the situation eventually led to a full-scale civil war.
The Undead Region became engulfed in a three-way conflict.
One side is that of vampires who believe they can salvage the situation and restore the harmonious society they established. After Demetra's death, Lord Renfeld made himself known publicly and took on the role of leading the group to openly advocate mending the vampire-mortal relationship.
Another side wants to enforce their will upon the mortal populace to subjugate and control them with force. This is composed of the majority of older vampires who do not want to devolve into mindless blood-frenzied creatures.
And finally, a third side, that of humans who no longer want to live alongside the vampires.
Meanwhile, the Otherworlders have also begun to take their respective sides, further adding fuel to the already volatile situation.
The event has come to be known as the Blood Delirium Crisis, and it is gearing to engulf the entire Lorikan Republic.
But just as the Blood Delirium Crisis is about to reach its climax, the apocalypse in the real world has begun to bear its fangs on humanity.
The players who were once invested in the conflict have now become focused on the recently discovered Awakening process. As a result, the players abandoned the Undead Region unilaterally- and this mass exodus of players was reflected in the other continents.
As a result, no one knows how the Blood Delirium Crisis concluded.
In his previous life, Hao Jun and his renowned group of alchemists took the side of Lord Renfeld and tried to come up with a solution. Of course, Adam was part of this group.
But even their attempts have proven fruitless and they never found a solution to the affliction.
Such is the situation in the Undead Region by the time Adam became Awakened during his previous life.
And now, in Adam's second life, it is a conflict that he would be deeply involved in. But that is a story for a later time.