Corrupted blood lord

By evening, Teclos was exactly where Luther had told him to be.

On standby.

The words sounded simple, but the reality of it was far more irritating and embarrassing. He sat in a room reserved only for him, surrounded by shelves, ledgers, sealed folders, and stacks of documents. The room smelled of ink, old leather, and dust. A large desk stood near the center, with fresh parchment already waiting for him.

This was where he spent most of his time when Luther did not need him outside.

Every mission had to be written down in detail. Every location. Every target. Every corpse. Every unusual piece of mana, every resistance he faced, every useful thing he found. Once Teclos finished, one of Luther’s servants would come, take the report, check it, summarize it, and deliver the important parts to his master.

There was a reason for that.

Teclos had a habit of brushing things off as unimportant when, to Luther, they were anything but. Once, he had passed through a field of blue lily-like flowers with red blooming buds at their center and described it only as a pretty flower field.

Luther had nearly lost his mind when he read it.

Apparently, the flowers were valuable. Useful enough that the bastard had actually looked happy for once.

Teclos stared at the desk. It was almost funny.

He had a room of his own, filled with important records and guarded materials, but it was not a privilege. It was a kennel. A doghouse filled with his owner’s things, and he was expected to sit inside it and protect it.

He could not even read any of the documents, as it was forbidden by Luther.

Normally, being told to be on standby would have annoyed him.

But tonight, it made him smile. Because tonight, the leash had a tear in it, and he could ignore Luther’s orders.

Teclos leaned back in the chair and looked toward the locked cabinets along the wall. The order to remain on standby still blocked his mind faintly, but it no longer held him back like before.

Black mana seeped from his fingers and slid across the floor like ink. It slipped beneath one of the cabinets, crawled through the lock, and clicked it open from the inside.

Teclos waited for massive pain to appear, something that would tear him apart from the inside.

But nothing happened.

There was no invisible chain tightening around his throat until he could not breathe anymore.

His smile widened.

"Well, well...let’s get to work then."

He stood up and walked to the opened cabinet.

The first few ledgers were boring. Payments, supply routes, names of informants, bribes paid to minor officials, false identities prepared for agents moving between counties. Useful, but not what he needed.

He dug deeper.

The next stack of ledgers was worse because it detailed experiments.

Human experiments.

Not all of them were Luther’s, but a lot of them carried his seal. Villages that had disappeared without explanation. Criminals bought from prisons. Beggars taken from the slums. Children with unusual mana attributes marked as "potential subjects." Hunters reported missing after missions that had never officially existed.

Teclos turned the pages in silence.

Names appeared. Aweq’s servants. Luther’s servants. Doctors. Alchemists. Vampires. Nobles who funded research in exchange for favors. Merchants who transported bodies and materials without asking questions.

Then there were the "to kill" lists.

Some names were already crossed out, and some were still marked as pending.

Some had notes beside them. Political threats. Some knew too much. Others were possible Dawn Church spies. Lastly, those who refused cooperation.

Teclos’s expression did not change. He knew that they were pieces of shit already, so this did not surprise him.

He had known they were monsters.

But still, there was a difference between knowing and seeing how deep this shit went.

He kept reading.

There were research notes on blood control, thrall obedience, forced mana adaptation, failed vampire conversions, and ways to strengthen the hold between master and servant. There were reports from places outside Lupos too, hidden labs in old estates, cellars beneath noble manors, and forest houses protected by arrays.

Aweq’s reach was wide.

But Luther’s... spanned the whole country.

Teclos slowly closed one folder and opened another.

He tried to remember most of it like he was studying for a test, with a single goal in mind.

Destroy it all.

Not just Luther. Not just Aweq. Every name. Every lab. Every obedient little rat who thought they could hide behind their titles.

Then his hand stopped.

One dossier had been placed near the back, wrapped in dark leather and marked with a silver sigil.

Vael’thorr.

Teclos stared at the name for a second.

It was Luther’s house.

Jackpot.

The first page held a formal history of the house. Founding, territories, bloodline notes, known servants, estimated strength, rivals, allies, weaknesses, and recognized abilities. Teclos’s eyes moved quickly across the page.

He frowned. This was almost as big as a kingdom. And it had been founded fifty years ago.

Luther was the founder, and that bastard was over two hundred years old.

Teclos kept reading.

Vael’thorr was a lightning-attributed vampire house. Most of its recognized vampires carried lightning mana alongside the standard blood magic all vampires possessed. Even some of Luther’s more favored servants, the ones treated better than Teclos, had lightning-based techniques or tools through the house’s methods.

Forty vampires under its rule and over one hundred and fifty thralls.

Teclos froze.

One hundred and fifty.

The picture in his mind became clearer. He had thought that Luther was just a lone asshole, and that once he killed him, he would be free. But this was bigger. That bastard was a whole-ass prince commanding his own little kingdom.

The main Vael’thorr estate was hidden somewhere in a forest, protected by magic and runic arrays. Its exact location was not written down, only hinted at through coded routes and old markers.

Teclos turned another page.

Then his eyes narrowed.

Vael’moryn?

The name appeared again and again in the dossiers, and always above Vael’thorr in every chart. Teclos quickly realized that it was the house Luther came from, not the one he founded.

Vael’thorr was subservient to Vael’moryn.

And as Teclos read on, he found out that Vael’moryn was the true powerhouse of their bloodline. Its duke, presumably Luther’s father, had lived for more than a thousand years. Several elders were even older.

Undead calamities. Walking disasters. Luther described them as such in this ledger himself. Teclos did not even know how strong Luther truly was. He only knew that he was monstrous, even to him.

Beings capable of erasing whole cities by themselves.

Teclos felt his face go pale.

For a while, he simply stared at the page. It looked like killing Luther would only be the tip of the iceberg.

Luther was just a spoiled little prince in this whole scheme.

Not the king of the mountain, not the final monster in the dark. Just a cruel little prince from a much larger den of monsters.

Teclos slowly closed the dossier in shock, and his fingers lingered on the cover for a moment.

He would need to gain a lot more strength than he initially thought.

A distinct knock came from the door, and Teclos quickly moved.

Darkness flashed across the room, lifting documents, closing folders, sliding ledgers back into place, and shutting the cabinet without a sound. By the time the door opened, Teclos was already seated behind the desk with a blank expression, one harmless mission report lying in front of him.

Axel stepped inside, and his eyes swept across the room once.

Teclos stayed perfectly still.

"Come," Axel said. "It’s time."

Teclos quickly stood up and appeared before Axel.

"Let’s go."

He was already in full gear, with his armor, sword, and everything.

They left the room together.

The castle halls were quiet, lit by lamps and watched by guards spaced apart every few meters. Axel walked ahead at an easy pace, with his hands tucked into his sleeves like an old man taking an evening stroll rather than an assassin heading out to kill a noble.

Teclos followed closely behind him.

Once they were outside and the horses had been brought over, Axel finally spoke.

"The target is Countess Meralyn Skallion," he said. "She has become inconvenient to Count Aweq. She opposes him in political matters, refuses to support several trade movements, and has been gathering allies among smaller houses west of Lupos."

Teclos mounted his horse and looked at him. "So she is an eyesore."

"That is one way to put it."

"Is she dangerous?"

"Politically, yes. Personally, not so much... she should be easy to kill."

They rode out through the western gate, leaving the lights of Lupos behind them. The road stretched far ahead, cutting through fields, low hills, and woodlands. The moon hung in the sky, pale and beautiful, and the night air carried the fresh smell of damp grass.

It felt nice to escape that shitty room.

Axel continued explaining as they traveled.

Skallion County lay west of Lupos, and it was a tad bit smaller than Denos County. The countess controlled several roads, two grain-producing villages, and a fortified city near a river. Her death needed to look clean if possible. A thief should be blamed for her death.

Teclos listened to him without interrupting. He remembered her name from the kill list.

She had been near the top.

Possible political obstruction. Refused cooperation. Remove before the Royal Winter Hunt.

That was all it had taken to decide her death.

Teclos glanced at Axel.

The old man rode calmly beside him, face relaxed, eyes forward. He was unguarded and an easy target right now.

Teclos imagined stabbing him in the back. Multiple times, again and again, always missing his vital points and crippling him.

He imagined pulling him from the horse, opening his throat, tearing out his hair and nails, and feeding him to the wolves.

A smile slowly crept onto his face.

Axel suddenly stiffened and got goosebumps all over him.

The old man turned his head and looked directly at him. But Teclos erased the smile instantly and met his gaze with a deadpan expression.

"What?"

Axel stared at him for a few seconds.

"Nothing..."

He faced forward again.

Teclos waited.

Then he went right back to imagining it.

This time, he added Aweq and made a human centipede out of them.

The whole castle burned, and their servants were butchered in front of their estates, listing all of their crimes.

His smile returned, and Axel’s shoulders tensed again.

"Stop that," he said.

Teclos looked at him innocently. "Stop what?"

"You know what."

"I have no idea what you mean."

Axel glanced at him, eyes narrowed, but Teclos kept his face perfectly blank.

For a long moment, only the sound of hooves could be heard on the road.

Then Axel grumbled under his breath and looked away. Teclos could not harm him. He had to obey him. So whatever that feeling was, it could not have been coming from Teclos.

And yet, Axel could not shake the nagging sense that he was being messed with.

Teclos turned his face toward the dark road ahead, hiding the amusement in his eyes.

This was fun.

Not obeying that old fart. Not feeling that invisible hand crush his thoughts the moment he imagined harming Axel or Aweq.

He was not completely free from that feeling.

But for the first time since he was enslaved, he could finally see the end of his suffering.

Soon, he would brutally murder them.

—

They rode until midnight before Axel finally guided them off the road and into the woods. The camp was small, with just a low fire, two bedrolls, and enough distance from the road to avoid unwanted attention from any bandits that might pass through.

Axel sat down and removed his gloves.

"Keep watch," he said. "I am going to sleep."

"All right."

Teclos sat by the fire as Axel lay down on his bedroll.

The flames crackled softly, throwing orange light across the trees. Somewhere in the forest, an owl called, and the horses shifted nearby, tied to a branch and already half-asleep.

Teclos rested his elbows on his knees and stared into the fire.

Then his smile returned.

In his mind, the same picture repeated again and again. In every way Teclos could imagine, they all died.

His expression slowly turned delighted. It was fun to not be bound by that horrendous, oppressing will from Luther.