Chapter 137: Scheme

Last two chapters  will update, I’m sorry. I’m having a writer’s block

“Keith Ennes! A first-year student became the division leader!” A tall figure said angrily.

“Yes, sir. This first-year student seems to be close with the president. He stayed for one hour inside her office before he was recruited.” Another vampire said, lowering his head.

“This is getting out of hand. We worked so hard to make the council what it is today and she handed the first year an entire division. Was there not a single qualifying candidate other than him?”

Roaring from an elevated stage, a vampire in his mid-twenties looked straight out of the window, his sight focused on the student council office. It was a dream of his, to get the position of student council president before leaving the academy.

Lenser Rown was the Vice president of the student council and held significant power among its members. Still, he was under Valencia, and as long as she stayed here, the position was unchangeable.

He was a middle stage marquis and Valencia was on the verge of breaking through to the Duke stage. Not to mention the artifacts that she hid from everyone, consisting of several Duke and king level artifacts.

To challenge her directly was akin to a death wish, and he knew it was a suicide attempt to try and overthrow the position. There were two ways someone could become the student council president. Firstly, the candidates need to demonstrate their power by having a duel with the current president. If they can defeat the current president, the position will be given to the most powerful candidate.

If he became the new president without the duel, he had to get approval from the faculty and four deans, which was a harder process to accomplish. It was much easier to face the current student council president rather than to get the approval of all the faculty members and Deans of four disciplines.

In the case of a Missing or deceased student council president, the next candidate can directly become the President if not a single member of the Council opposed the decision and asked for a duel. Anyone who defeats the new candidate can become the President.

Usually, the vice president is the second strongest vampire in the student council. As the vampire society respected strength over anything else, weaker vampires getting the President position was unheard of. Sometimes it’s given temporarily to a division commander before the final selection.

Lenser was a hard-working vampire who contributed a lot to the student council. His goal was to join the vampire council after he graduated from the academy. His track record in managing the council was top notch and he had an entire faction under him.

Valencia turned out to be a tough opponent for him to overcome. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find a single mistake in her governance. Her decisions always turned out to be beneficial to the council and the division leaders had an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards her.

If he wanted to secure the seat of the president, he had to either defeat her in combat or get the approval of the deans and faculty. Her decision to make a first-year student the division leader was an opportunity for Lenser. If he could prove that this new student was incompetent to keep the position of the division leader, he will shift some of the favorability towards him.

“Let’s go. We need to make sure he fails miserably. The area assigned to him is fairly peaceful, but not when the Espers are provoked.” A sinister smile appeared on his face.

***

The rest of the day was uneventful and Keith circulated his blood-qi while helping Kenny enhance his blood-qi. In the evening, he left the training facility and came back to his place.  There was a package outside his front door. Opening it up, Keith found his student council uniform and rune card carefully packaged inside a wooden box.

He merged the rune card with his student identity card and new runes appeared on it. It was the function of merging rune cards to make one all-purpose card that can be used everywhere. Students merged all of their auxiliary cards except the treasury card which was held separately because money was exchanged the most and they didn’t want to separate it from the rune card later.

The Treasury card was special because it could be exchanged, unlike other cards. The owner of the card needs to willingly give the rune card to others but once it was gone, they couldn’t claim it unless the other party repeats the same process. Inside the campus, there were many events that used the treasury card exchange method. If someone couldn’t pay for something, they held their treasury card as insurance. As the students couldn’t issue another card if they currently had one, the money could be deducted once they receive money into their accounts. 

Most of the students were rich enough to pay for their things but in desperate circumstances, the treasury cards had to be handed over. That’s why most students didn’t merge their treasury cards with the student rune card.

Kieth opened up the uniform and it was a white dress with black and red stripes. It looked very eye-catching, especially the shining insignia of the student council attached to the left shoulder.

“This is too flashy, I don’t need to wear it unless I want everyone to notice my presence.  how can I extort the morons who try to mess with me if I wander around the campus wearing this.” 

Keith dropped the uniform on an empty couch as he strolled inside. Rena was cooking in the kitchen when she heard the door open. Kenny sprinted to the kitchen with his tongue out.

“Kenny! Stop. I haven’t finished it yet. If you take a bite out of it, I won’t cook for you next time.” Rena shouted while swinging the spatula.

Grrrr!

Staying still for the entire day and not eating anything was making him mad. Blood-qi was enough to sustain him but he wasn’t a vampire who could only consume blood. Even though his body was brimming with blood-qi, the longing for tasty food didn’t vanish.

“Just wait in the hallway. Every time you enter the kitchen something goes missing.” 

Rena was making the food for her and Kenny,  but most of it was for him as she needed only a fraction of it. From observing the summon, Rena found out that he loved cooked meat even though it didn’t affect his blood-qi intake. It was more of a craving than a necessity.

“Don’t disturb her. She’s making this for you. So next time just keeps quiet. The food will come to you.” Keith entered the kitchen following Kenny.

“Young Master! I was about to go to your room. I didn’t think you would come here.” Rena turned back and smiled.

Whenever Keith returned, Rena brought him some fresh blood to drink. Seeing her get carried away by his presence, he ordered her not to hurry and try to finish whatever she was doing at that moment.

Rena, who was more powerful than normal humans, didn’t feel tired doing the housework. She finished everything in one go and busied herself with cooking for the rest of the day. There was nothing interesting to do here so she picked one hobby she was always passionate about.

In just a month, she learned many recipes from the other servants that originated from different countries. She experimented with her own style and the ones she learned here to make the perfect cuisine.

“That looks really good. It’s a shame I can’t taste it.” Keith looked at the finely cooked meat slices spread across the large pot.

The seasoning was sprayed over the meat and different types of herbs were sprinkled on top. No wonder Kenny couldn’t control himself. Looking at the dish, Kieth remembered the time when he could eat whatever he liked, and his mom who made all kinds of dishes for him.

‘I miss her food.’

Being a vampire, he couldn’t eat normal food. Anything except blood didn’t register in his tongue. And if it didn’t have any life essence, it didn’t get absorbed by the body which resulted in a short vomit that took out everything that was inside the body.

Blood-qi reacted negatively to everything except blood essence. He could smell the food but it didn’t mean much because of the blood-qi suppression. He could only imagine the taste from his previous life. Here everything felt bland.

“The vampires are missing out on a lot.” He sighed and approached the table.

“I didn’t think you would like human food. I always liked to cook, but in Ennes castle, we didn’t get too many supplies for experimenting. It was enough for a single meal. So we didn’t alter the recipe much.

“But here the food supply is many times more. The veggies and meat of beasts are abundant here. The vampire lords don’t use the low-level beasts and usually give them away to their servants. We never run out of food here.” Rena said, turning the meat slices over.

“What kind of beasts?” Keith asked.

“Well, it’s not what you think. The meat that is provided to us is a domesticated rabbit. They have a short life span of only a few weeks, but it doesn’t affect their meat quality. We pick the ones that are about to die and divide them among the servants.” Rena explained.

“Not bad. The meat has very low life energy but it’s enough to keep you full throughout the day. Three slices are enough.” Keith analyzed the meat.

“Mhmm… but lately my appetite has been rising. I need six to seven slices every day.” Rena pouted.

“It’s understandable. Your strength has increased many times and you need more cal… More energy to sustain your power.” 

‘Calories? This isn’t earth.’ Keith reminded himself.

“Why can’t I keep going without food just like you?” Rena asked with a curious face.