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The night was very quiet. Beaulac felt that his soul was drifting in the air and then slowly became part of the darkness. In the darkness, he felt very sleepy.

"You have signed the compact. When you wake up, you will find yourself a real knight," Greed’s voice made Beaulac feel even more drowsy.

Beaulac was very excited and finally felt very relaxed. Then, he fell into the boundless darkness.

...

The secret guard outside of the study shivered because of the cold breeze in November, and then he heard a vague voice in the study, "You have signed the compact. You will give me ten years of your life as the payment, and you will become a knight, still with the potential to become a grand knight."

Frederick, the secret guard, who was a level-five grand knight, slightly nodded when hearing that Beaulac did not choose to sell his soul or betray the family. However, he had no idea why, for a short while, he felt very dizzy and lost his mind.

As there was no clock in the corridor, and Frederick also forgot to check his own pocket watch. He thought that his dizziness only lasted for around ten seconds, thus in his mind, everything was fine.

When Frederick extended his willpower into the room, he felt the strong heartbeat from Beaulac. He could tell that the heartbeat belonged to a knight.

It seemed that Beaulac, who had just become a knight, was not yet able to control the state of his body, thus Frederick was able to detect the difference.

Frederick could not believe that the ridiculous magic rite indeed worked, but it was true. Driven by greed, he felt like trying the magic rite as well, since he had been trying to become a radiant knight for almost thirty years!

...

In the study, Lucien looked at himself in the mirror in the dim candlelight. In the mirror, he had turned himself into a good-looking, blond young man with blue eyes.

It was known that the members from the Gorse family were all very good-looking. The blond Lucien smiled and combed his shoulder-length hair with his hand casually.

The gloomy and depressed Beaulac was gone, and he was now looking energetic and confident just the way he was five years before.

Among the many widely-told stories and poems about the Gorse family, although there were countless made-up or exaggerated ones, there was one thing true: the family was indeed the descendant of Thanos, the Sun King. Underneath one of their old villas in Antiffler lay the palace of Thanos, guarded by a gold knight all the time.

Lucien had to go to the palace, but there was no way that he could force his way into it.

The good news to Lucien was that there was an old and important tradition in this family: when time was proper, more than ten candidate successors would be sent to the secret underground palace, and they would fight against or cooperate with each other to explore the palace. The one who first completed the mission would be the first successor.

In the palace, the powerful knights in the family would not interrupt the competition. Only those who were dying would be sent out by magic circles. Therefore, the game was rather cruel: some chose to fight face to face; some chose to use the dirty methods; some lied; and others betrayed, and since the palace itself was rather mysterious and dangerous, the winner of each generation was either very powerful or resourceful. In other words, it was blood which made the family stay strong for hundreds of years.

However, in the recent several decades, the relatively remote nobles from the Gorse family also started to send their children to the palace to challenge the young nobles. In the game, they could also become closer to the possible future successor. Some young nobles from other big families might also join the game, as they simply wanted some excitement in their boring life.

In this game, social skills were very important.

Since only the Gorse family’s blood could open the inner chamber where Thanos’ Quadrant was kept. Based on Lucien’s observation, he picked Beaulac, a young successor with many strong desires in his mind, which made his mind very vulnerable.

Because the spell for opening the chamber was very complicated, Lucien could not charm Beaulac to do the job for him. Lucien had to go himself.

In front of the mirror, Lucien made sure that the way he behaved was typical of Beaulac. Then, he looked at Beaulac, who was sleeping in the secret chamber which Lucien just spent two days building. He put on a smile and said to Beaulac, "When I have some spare time, I’ll change your blood power."

If one still wished to grow into a grand knight after becoming a knight with external help, there was one way: a senior-rank vampire could change a person’s blood power using another form of Embrace. And right now, Lucien was a senior vampire who was able to do so.

At the very beginning, it was vampires’ Embrace that inspired the sorcerers when they were studying how to change blood powers.

At that time, they discovered that a vampire’s Embrace could give the target the power of a knight, and the target was still able to increase the power further. Although the process would be much slower, this was definitely an easy way to obtain power.

The sorcerers thought that they had found the best way of acquiring power, and they used the method on some human beings. However, it turned out later that without a very strong willpower, one could never become a grand knight merely with external help. Even if magic could push a human being’s body to the limit of a radiant knight or even a gold knight, the person would still die from the power collapsing, and his body would explode.

As for what would happen to Beaulac after he got the blood power from a vampire, Lucien did not care. Sometimes, Lucien could be as cunning as a demon.

And if Beaulac could be very careful, it was very unlikely that the family would notice, unless someone caught Beaulac sucking blood right on the spot and carefully checked. The power of the family came from Thanos, the Sun King, and thus any blood powers, or Blessings as the Church called it, that were related to the stars in the sky could be awakened, including the top ones such as Sun, Silver Moon, and Stars, and the relatively inferior ones including Thanos and the ones named after the other constellations. Therefore, the blood power of Silver Moon was very similar to the power of vampires.

Blowing out the candle, Lucien walked to the bedroom in the darkness, with his eyes dimly shining with a light akin to moonlight.

In the darkness, Fredrick slightly nodded. He had recognized the power—Silver Moon.

After the transformation, Lucien was still able to use his blood power, and his, Moonlight, worked especially great with the power of the Gorse family.

Lucien’s plan worked very well. At the very beginning, Lucien had planned everything. Beaulac’s choice would not affect the plan at all.

...

In Fredrick’s eyes, the young master only spent a few days getting used to the power before becoming active again.

A fancy coach drawn with delicate pattern of gorses under the sunlight was speeding along a wide street.

The profound citizens living in this capital along both sides of the street were guessing who was in the coach. Was it Arthen who was getting all the attention? Or was it the poor Beaulac?

They knew from the shape and design of the coach that the person sitting in it was not a duke, marquis, or count. In Holy Heilz Empire, where the traditions were highly respected, any arrogation of the ranks was strictly forbidden.

"Obviously, it’s Beaulac, the poor guy," said a citizen with great confidence, as if he was a member of the Gorse family. "Baron Arthen is a grand knight. He has his own seal. Beaulac never managed to awaken his blood power. He’s not even close to my neighbor, Liddell."

Another man shook his head, "Baron Arthen is very confident with winning the dukedom, thus he never uses his own seal. He’s been waiting for the day after the competition next month when he can use the gold-eye seal of the family."

Like the title, the Violet Countess, for the Violet family, the Gorse family’s leader’s title was the Tillis Count, and the core of the seal was a gold eye.

The residents in the capital were indeed quite knowledgeable. They even knew that the family competition would be carried out a month later.

Sitting in the fancy coach, Lucien, wearing the brand-new white shirt, was heading for a party held by the son of a count.

"Look, look... Aren’t you Beaulac? I thought you went missing."

Lucien heard the sarcastic tone from the left side of the coach. He lifted the curtain and saw a dark-red coach moving parallel with his. From the window, the eyes on a pale face were looking at Beaulac with excitement and provocation.

"I’m terribly sorry, Duda. I never went missing, to your great disappointment," answered Lucien calmly. Recalling Beaulac’s narrative, Lucien recognized the pale face. He was the son of Count Porti and used to hang out with Beaulac a lot, but now he was a loyal supporter of Arthen.

Seeing the confident smile on Beaulac’s face, Duda recalled the time when Beaulac was gaining the greatest momentum several years ago. What happened to Beaulac? Duda could not help wondering.

"No kidding... You’re coming over to Deniz’s party?! Don’t you know that Arthen will show up with Jocelyn tonight?" Duda hated seeing today’s Beaulac, and he kept trying to embarrass his friend from the past.

"So? Arthen is not yet the Gold-eye Count," responded Lucien in a plain tone.

Beaulac loved Jocelyn before, who was the daughter of a marquis. He had spent a lot of time on pursuing her, but when they were about to engage, Arthen took Jocelyn away from him.

Seeing that Beaulac remained so indifferent, Duda tightened his right fist. He had no idea what had happened to Beaulac, but what Duda did know for sure was that Beaulac was even more confident and calm than he was before, as if everything was under his control!

Putting down the curtain, Lucien closed his eyes. His coach continued moving forward toward the garden villa where Deniz was holding the party.

Duda sat in the coach with a gloomy face. He knew that he must tell Arthen about this.