Not bothering to stay the way he came into the world, the vampire said, "Kid, while your parents were still unborn, I've been wandering this world for hundreds of years."

"Okay, you're old, so what?" the young man sneered.

Without another word, blood began to flow from the vampire's fingers. As if it had a life of its own, the blood contorted and took the form of a crimson sword.

Briefly flexing his legs, the vampire moved faster than Joan's eyes could keep up with.

When she managed to locate him, she noticed the crimson sword being intercepted by the black spear. But in the next instant, like a snake, the tip of the sword snaked toward the young man's chest.

Reacting with a speed that Joan could not keep up with, the young man dodged as he jumped backwards, having only a small tear in his battered cloak.

Without losing momentum, the vampire advanced again, but intercepting his trajectory, a stone stalactite grew out of the ground. Although he tried to dodge it, his reaction was delayed, which caused his stomach to be perforated.

As if he didn't care about the pain, he just lunged forward and his sword snaked toward the young man. Using his spear to block again, the young man realized it was useless, as the blood snake did not seem to be easily stopped. Seeming to have no other alternatives, he just kept dodging. 

Although every time it seemed that the young man was about to be hit by the vampire's blood, he always narrowly avoided it. Apart from a few scratches, he seemed completely fine.

"You guys better run again. Master is preparing another magic."

The cowkin girl, who now had a red bird on her shoulder, said in an alarmed tone as she moved away at a faster pace than last time.

As the blue-haired demon girl was also moving away quickly, Joan, Vincent and the soldiers followed their example.

The distance the two girls took was well over a hundred meters. Even though Joan thought it was already too much, as the girls seemed to know the young man very well, she followed suit and continued walking away.

As the fight raged on, the young man seemed to be increasingly cornered by the vampire, but then an overwhelming burst of fire engulfed the two. As collateral damage, half the garden was engulfed in fire.

Questioning the sanity of the young man who conjured a magic of such caliber with himself within range, Joan was concerned. Considering that the vampire was casually walking on molten iron, this fire probably wouldn't be enough to kill him, but as a human, the young man was different.

As the only one who can stand up to the vampire at this moment, him dying now is something to worry about.

Allaying Joan's concerns, movements were taking place within the sea of fire. When the flames subsided, the two were exchanging blows within a crater a few dozen meters deep.

Probably due to the heat, the blood that the vampire was using as a weapon was gone with the arm that held it, and all his skin was charred. However, even in such a state, he was dealing with the voracious stabs of the young man's spear. And at the same time, his lost arm was slowly recovering.

Strangely, while Joan thought the young man would also be in tatters, his clothes were intact, even his skin seemed unaffected by the fire.

This confused her, since if the caster is not careful, they can get hurt by they own magic.

"Arrogant child, you may even have a little strength, but you'll need a lot more if you want to kill me," the vampire said in an irritated voice.

"Interesting," the young man had a smug smile on his face. "Let's see how much you can regenerate."

From then on, an intense struggle took the place of words and the castle garden was entirely destroyed in it.

With everything happening before her eyes, Joan discovered that the vitality of vampires went far beyond what she had imagined. From the information she had acquired from the cowkin girl, vampires on his level would not die even if their heads or hearts were destroyed.

Even with their heads separated from their bodies, as long as their brains are intact, they can control their movements. With their brains destroyed, they lose control of their bodies, but they are not dead yet, and with their regeneration, it is only a matter of time before they return to normal. As long as they have mana, they continue to regenerate, and to eliminate them, special means are needed.

Precisely because of the vampire's resilience, Joan thought it would only be a matter of time before the young man fell, but that didn't happen. Apart from a few scratches he received, he was completely fine. By the way, all the destruction of the garden can be attributed entirely to him and his large-scale spells cast on the vampire.

After who knows how long the fight dragged on, Joan noticed that the sun seemed about to rise, and at that moment, the vampire who was still completely naked took some distance from the young man.

"Boy, I must admit, you are tougher than I thought, but I don't have time to play with you anymore." With a look of hatred, he continued, "It may not be today, but I will make sure you die a painful death."

As he finished his words, he threw a black sphere into the sky. Without making a single noise, it exploded into countless black particles that scattered in the air.

"That's an interesting form of tracking," the young man looked impressed.

Without another glance at the young man, the vampire looked at Joan who was watching everything from a distance.

"Even with the hassles, I still need to complete my goals," he said. "If you hadn't done unnecessary things for the peace of the world, you might have survived."

Staring at Joan, the vampire's crimson eyes glowed brightly. At the same instant, Joan felt her blood rush and a sharp pain seized her chest.

Gritting her teeth as she held back the pain, Joan saw the young man, who had previously been a few feet away, appear out of nowhere behind the vampire. Before she knew it, the vampire's head was falling to the ground.

"Despite being decrepit old, you still made a rookie mistake," the young man sneered.

Although the head was on the ground, the vampire's body remained casually upright and its head on the ground was smiling.

With a spray of blood coming out of the severed neck, so did the head, and both sides were meeting each other.

But before that could happen, the young man crushed the vampire's head with his foot. Then a white flame appeared in his hand and he threw it at the crushed head and body.

The instant it came into contact with the white fire, the body began to struggle as it fell to the ground. The body's reaction was strange, since at none of the other times it was thrown into the fire did it struggle or seem to feel pain.

However, as it turned out, this white flame was dangerous and this time the vampire seemed to be in serious trouble.

Although Joan wanted to see the end of the vampire, her arms and legs were losing their strength. The pain in her chest intensified to a point that she could no longer ignore and as she looked down, there was a small blood-red thorn sticking out of it.

With her vision becoming blurred, Joan no longer had the strength to stand, but thanks to Vincent, she didn't fall to the ground.

Just as her consciousness was about to fade, she felt a liquid pour into her mouth, and soon, a pleasant sensation ran through her body and her vision returned. But this didn't last long, as the thorn of blood in her chest was not gone, in fact, it seemed larger.

It wasn't long before the pain took over her chest again and she began to lose consciousness again.

Even after drinking three bottles of the miraculous potion, her situation did not improve. In fact, each time the potion recovered her body, the thorn in her chest increased.

The only thing that put Joan's mind at ease was the fact that by now, the vampire had turned to ashes before her eyes.

"Did you see that, Becca?" the young man spoke as he looked at his own shadow. "Despite his superiority in strength, he relied on his healing and gave me his back, which allowed me to smash his head. Because he didn't know I had light magic, he died without being able to use a countermeasure. You shouldn't be overconfident in your natural healing."

"Got it," a female voice came out of the young man's shadow.

Approaching Joan, cowkin girl saw Vincent taking out another bottle of potion.

"It's no use," she said. "No matter how many you give her, that vampire cursed her with dark magic."

Pointing to the blood thorn the Joan's chest, she continued, "That thorn has gone through her heart and will keep growing as it sucks her blood until her death."

"If you know that, that means you know how to cure her, right?" Vincent asked hurriedly as he made Joan drink another potion. "If you help her, I'll do anything you want!"

"Unfortunately, I can't do anything," the girl said. "It takes someone proficient in light magic."

She then looked at the young man and continued, "Our master is exactly what you need, but he is very stingy and does nothing for free."

Turning his gaze to the young man, Vincent bowed his head as he pleaded, "Please save my wife! I'll do anything! Even her weight in gold is not a problem!"

"I don't need gold and I don't think there's anything you can do for me," the young man said coldly.

"Name your price, I will do even the impossible to fulfill your demands!" Vincent pleaded desperately.

"I only came here for the miraculous circuits I heard from the rumors," the young man said apathetically.

"But... You've already... Got everything," Joan spoke with difficulty.

"That's right, and it's mine now, so it doesn't come in as trading material."

"How can you be so heartless, master?" the cowkin girl shook the young man's arm. "You don't feel bad for trying to extort someone who is on the verge of death."

"I don't see why I should," the young man shrugged. "I don't even know them."

Biting his lips hard enough to make them bleed, Vincent poured another potion on Joan's lips.

As for Joan, she raised her trembling hand and on top of it appeared three pieces of black ore not much bigger than a marble.

"Besides gold, that's all I have of value," she muttered weakly.

"Black alloy!" the young man exclaimed.

Black alloy is an extremely rare and precious metal. It cost Joan a long time to get these pieces. She had been saving them to make a weapon for Vincent, but now that the situation had reached this point, she had no choice but to offer them and hope that the young man would help her.

"That is an acceptable price."

With a flick of the young man's hand, the ores disappeared from Joan's hand, and then he raised both hands open at chest height. Between them a tiny white light appeared and slowly grew.

When the sphere of light became the size of a fist, he threw it into the sky and when it reached a few meters in height, it shone brightly.

In the same instant, the large thorn that had pierced Joan's chest crumbled into a pool of blood. With Vincent still pouring potion into her mouth, the wound in her chest closed quickly.

Under the glow of the ball of light, even the prison of shadows crumbled.

"Eh?! Why is there black smoke coming out of me?" the cowkin girl was surprised.

Smoke was coming out not only from her, but from everyone in the place.

"It's the tracking spell he cast on us," the young man said. "It's quite interesting, the weak ones would die in a few more minutes and whoever survived could be found later."

"What are we going to do now, master?" the blue-haired demon girl asked.

"I already got more than I wanted, let's go," the young man turned and started walking.

"Wait!" Joan shouted. "Why don't you stay for the banquet?"

To Joan's proposal, the young man, whose name she found out was Sian, refused at first. But after she mentioned that her chef would be preparing various delicacies, he was tempted, and with a little push from the cowkin girl named Milka, he agreed to stay.

Clearing up some of Joan's concerns, even though the entire upper part of the research center was melted down, in the underground, everyone was fine. During the vampire invasion, besides the soldiers who fought bravely against them, no one else lost their lives.

After the banquet that evening, as Sian seemed interested in the circuits she produced, she called him to discuss them. Trying to make Sian's stay in her palace as long as possible, Joan used all possible artifices.

The reason she did this was because of his strength. This was a precaution just in case those vampires belonged to some group and that group wanted to retaliate for the death of their companions.

After the event that almost brought her death, Joan had some ideas as to why she was attacked. From that day on, of all the tools she had created, there were no longer any that were completely equal to those on earth, now they all operated purely with magic.

During Sian's month-long stay in her palace, no one else came after her neck. As a bonus, she also learned a lot about creating magic circuits from him.

***

***Present time***

"Right, I remember he had asked us to look for people with the same last name as him, what's the progress?" Joan asked Vincent.

"We didn't find anything," he replied.

"When is his hotel opening?"

"In five days."

"Hmm, it's been a while since he's visited me, it seems that if I want to kill the longing, I'll have to visit him myself."

"Geh!" With a groan of dissatisfaction, Vincent asked, "Are you really going to visit that guy?"

"That's right, do you want to come with me?"

"No fucking way! I don't like him," Vincent had an angry look on his face. "If he was already going to conjure an area of effect spell for his companions, why not include you from the beginning? He simply extorted us with no regard for your life."

Ignoring Vincent's grumbling, she asked, "Are you sure you don't want to go? I've heard from some that his hotel has splendid facilities."

"You're certainly going to bed with him, aren't you?" Crossing his arms, Vincent turned his face and said, "In that case, you can go alone."

Covering her lips, Joan was amused to see a man of Vincent's large stature acting like a jealous, tantruming child.

"When you accepted her, you already knew that things like this would happen." Having listened to the conversation over the cell phone, Jack expressed his support for Joan. "Being completely honest, even if I feel a little uncomfortable saying it out loud, she has slept with other men. In addition, you also have some women besides Joan, don't you?"

Joan's relationship with her three husbands, was a kind of open relationship. Although all three of them were married to Joan and she intended to have children only with them, she was not their only partner. All three were allowed to have lovers and of course Joan was the same.

"I can accept it, but not with that guy," Vincent complained.

"Even with some setbacks, he saved Joan's life and even though you don't like him, I think you should at least show a little respect," Jack said.

Without answering, Vincent just mumbled inaudible words.

"Personally, I think King Franklin doing Sian's whims is a great thing," Joan said.

"What do you mean?" Vincent asked.

"I will present the cell phone to Sian and ask him to get King Franklin to implement it in his kingdom."

"You know he doesn't do anything for free," Vincent looked unsatisfied. "I'm sure he'll try to extort even your soul if possible."

"I'll work something out," Joan said. "We have to do it fast, otherwise when King Frederick finds out, we'll have to do the installations in his kingdom for free."

As a small kingdom, Gauss depends on the protection of Poutis to keep the peace, but King Frederick is not someone reasonable to negotiate with. Whenever Joan produces something new, be it weapons or everyday tools, the king of Poutis demands some for his kingdom. Although they had no choice at the moment, Joan intended to change this in the future.

"Anyway, I'm hanging up," Jack said. "I'll keep calling the other points until the stone mana runs out."

"Got it, see you later," Joan said goodbye.

By pressing the lower button on the side of the phone, the call was ended.

"Tell them to get my caravan ready," Joan told Vincent, "It's time to get ready to pay Sian a visit."