Half an hour later, both the mother and her daughter walked downstairs and approached Arad, kneeling before him.

"Our Blood Lord, welcome to our humble house." The mother spoke, and her daughter finished right after her. "We are your service, our Great Lord."

Arad smiled and waved a hand. "Let’s forget the formal stuff for now. I came to you with a request, a tricky one to fulfill." He opened his palm. "But first, I got you some gifts, or you can see it as a down payment."

In his hand, he had two vials, a small and a big one, and both were filled with glowing golden ichor. "Eris’s blood, one for you and one for your daughter. I would’ve given you my blood, but it is too powerful for your bodies to endure."

The two vials were really small; even the big one was no larger than a pinkie, and the small one a quarter of that size. The mother and her daughter started at the two vials, and soon, the mother started shaking. What she was looking at wasn’t just any powerful vampire blood, but the fresh blood of a full-blown, currently still alive, vampire goddess blessed by the sun that burned their flesh.

Getting a god’s blood wasn’t an easy thing, because it still carried the god’s will. If Eris wanted, this blood that Arad brought would disappear from existence in the blink of an eye. That’s why it was impossible for a vampire to get a god’s blood without their permission.

"Are you sure... You can give us that?" The mother looked at Arad with a worried face. "Just this amount is enough to extend our lifespan by a few decades and even empower us by a lot. If we were vampire spawns, this would be more than enough to free us."

Arad smiled. "It’s fine. The big one is for you, the small one for the little girl. Her body can’t endure more than this." He put the vials on the table. "And if you had any complication after drinking this, come to Eris’s church and ask for the head priestess. She’ll get you taken care of."

Consuming the blood of a stronger vampire was a quick but dangerous way for vampires to grow stronger. The surge of power could very well kill them, which made it a really dangerous gamble. But no sane vampire would refuse the blood of a divine being like Eris; such a power was worth the risk.

The mother gulped, "What is... the price of such a gift?" Hearing the mother’s words, Arad smiled, leaned back on the couch, and looked at the open window.

"It’s quite an unreasonable request. A little has infiltrated the city, and I think she might be near these parts." He looked at the mother. "I want you to investigate and find her, a little ginger girl with blue eyes. Don’t fight her, just report back to me."

As Arad finished speaking, Jack explained who Poppy is, what she is currently doing in the capital, and why she must be stopped.

The mother looked at Arad, then asked with a worried face. "Isn’t this mission too risky for vampires? If she is the same class of creature as you, then... she could very well enslave me? Even go after my daughter."

"That is the problem. She is a very bad match to my vampires as a whole, that’s why I want you to use you as bait. She’ll be too cautious around the vampires that directly serve me, so my only option is to rely on someone like you." Hearing Arad’s words, the mother silently pondered the idea.

"After Vlad’s defeat, you consumed his entire army and population, turning them into your own servants." She looked at Arad. "But instead of arming and enslaving us to your will, you set us free." She smiled. "Many of us wanted to stay by your side and serve you, as the nuns did. Some wanted to work as assassins, and some are like me, those who wanted to start a new life of peace and quiet by my daughter’s side."

"So, about this request?" Arad looked at her, and she put the vials of ichor back on the table. "Sadly, I do not wish to accept it. It is too dangerous for us." She prostrated herself. "Please, don’t be mad at us, and if someone needs to be punished, it is me; spare my daughter’s life."

"I understand." Arad stood. "Sorry for bothering you. I’ll look somewhere else." But before he could move a single step, the daughter stopped him. "My Lord, please wait!"

The mother paled as her daughter blocked Arad’s path, but he just smiled. "What do you want?"

"This request! I’ll do it!" She said with a confident face, puffing her little fists. "I want to serve our Lord, not sit here."

Arad patted her head and smiled. "You’re still too young for that. Sit tight and grow, we’ll handle this."

She shook her head. "But... that girl you’re talking about, if she is like my Lord, then she can force us to serve her. My Lord set us free, and I want to fight to maintain this freedom."

The little girl was right. If Poppy wins, then all the vampires will end up enslaved by her, the same way they were under Vlad, and may end up in an even worse situation. It was unlikely that they would ever find another Blood Lord as forgiving as Arad.

The mother looked at her daughter for a second and then stood. "She is right. We already got peace and freedom, so we can’t keep taking it for granted." She approached Arad and knelt down once more. "Please, My Lord, allow me to take that request."

"Mommy! I’m the one taking the request! If Poppy is a girl, then I can approach her without alerting her." As the little protested, Jack looked at her with a smile. "And you can’t hide your presence as well as your mother, so she’ll sniff you out from a mile."

Arad nodded. "Poppy should be hunting around these parts, so keep an eye out. And if anything happens, summon me. You know how to do it, right?"

The mother paled, and the little girl looked a bit confused. Summoning Arad, their Blood Lord, was a known but forbidden technique. Since Arad was linked to all of his vampires and could control them, those vampires were also linked back to him. They could send him a call, a request, but that was considered rude, like shouting at a prison warden to bring you a beer, a good way to end up on the chopping block instead of a cell.

With how crazy Vlad was, a vampire summoning him was a sure way to get everyone killed, even themselves. The reason was simple; no Vampire Blood Lord is willing to take orders or requests from a weaker and worthless spawn.

But Arad was different; if it was serious enough, he would respond. Just as he had responded when that barmaid summoned him in the past, when Poppy finally tries to prey on a vampire, she’ll have Arad treat her to a feast.

"We can summon our Blood Lord?" The Little girl asked, and Arad replied with a grin. "Of course, but I won’t respond unless it is serious. So... if you meet that Poppy girl, summon me immediately."

The little girl nodded with a happy smile. "I will!" But she then looked at Arad with a worried face. "But, why are you a woman?"

Arad froze, "This is a temporary body that I use."

The little girl looked at him once more, then back at her mother. "Mother told me that our Blood Lord is a man, a giant, ten-foot-tall draconic demigod-like emperor that managed to overpower Vlad as a weaker vampire and usurp his throne."

Jack chuckled, "Well, she wasn’t wrong. You’ll meet that form one day. For now, we should leave, don’t we?"

Arad looked around, "Yeah, her husband is coming home." He turned toward the woman, "You got the ichor, and don’t hesitate to contact me directly or through Eris’s church." With those words, Arad teleported away with Jack using [Void Step].