Supreme Monarch

After the surprise discussion with one of the actual Demon Lord of a Great Five family came to an end, the vampire Lord of the Morningstar family left behind a proxy for his family and left under the guidance of one of the Six Great Demon General, Albert.

The topics of their conversation had not been kept secret from the ears of everyone present in the hall so they had all bore witness to entire event as it unfolded before their eyes.

Causing the entire hall to grow silent for a while before busting in chaos as excitements arose within the crowd. They had clearly just witnessed the amount of respect, one of the Great Five Demon Lord had shown their master, something, none of them had considered possible this early into their family's development.

Although many of them had been pissed by the intruders lack of common courtesy, they had all begrudgingly accepted his explanation that their master was yet to officially proclaim the Darknar region as his own which was an important step in creating a kingdom.

They were also pleased with the fact that he had offered to make things easier for them by attaching his name to the Darknar family's official decree.

Basically, most of them were relieved that one of the Great Five families would potentially become an ally to them, or at the very least, sign a non-aggression pact.

However, most of them still could not understand why this had all happened so suddenly, and why their master had not taken offense in their blatant rudeness. In fact, everything seems to have gone as he had expected.

So the fact that not even a Great Demon Lord could act completely arrogantly in front of their master was one of the highlights of their evening and they only wished Tyler had put him in his place at least ones. Of course, these thoughts were simply just wishful thinking.

Tyler watched the hall break into a fit of murmuring and couldn't help but sigh. This time, his actions had not gone unnoticed as Rain sensed it and her presence exploded out like a torrent, suppressing the entire hall in a moment.

"Please be silent in the presence of your Lord."

While Rain tried her best to remain polite as there was still a foreign emissary amid them, her eyes clearly betrayed her as those murderous gaze swept across the room, forcing the mouths of everyone shut.

However, in Tyler's eyes, Rain has been in her best behavior for a while. He had expected her to act up several times furring that meeting that he had already prepared cool phrases for him to use during those situations.

So to him, it had seemed as though she could sense his stress and was trying hard to alleviate his worries. she had even volunteered to go on a diplomatic mission for him which had been a shock to say the least.

Tyler thought about how to thank her for a moment but couldn't think of anything so he had to put that in the back of his mind for now.

While everyone here held mix feelings about the intrusion of the Morningstars, Tyler couldn't be more trilled as he had been granted a timely Grace from the heavens that saved him from entering the dance floor.

With such a troublesome situation gone thanks to that fellow, Tyler decided to offer them the benefit of a doubt as he proceeded with his plans. He then simply altered his original speech this time and reassured everyone that there was nothing to worry about.

The party resumed soon after and went on without a hitch. Naturally, the topic of discussion had changed completely but by all appearances, everyone seemed to have had some fun.

Having elegantly completed his assigned duty, Albert promptly returned to the hall and attended to the lady Serene, who had been left behind by the Morningstar family. He later escorted her into one of the offices in the mansion as ironed out the details of the so called Summit of the Greats. As well as draft out an official claim to the Darknar region with the support of the Great Vampire Lord, Ferlis Drax Morningstar.

This would be the next thing to shake the entire continent once more. As soon, the world would learn of the revival of the Darknar family.

Of course, this had also caused a massive uproar amongst the noble families of the demon continent, as the Great Five could not help be wonder, if the Morningstars were the traitors all along.

However, the decree did not make mention of any alliance between the two party as they had simply enforced their claim to the Darknar region with the backing of a Great, and the Morningstars would not gain anything from that alone. It was entirely possible that they had simply made a deal that benefited both parties.

After all, there wasn't a sing noble family out there, that did not understand the nature of the Morningstars. And that, was why thus announcement was more scarier that a makeshift alliance.

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After the party finally came to an end, Tyler gathered all the Generals that remained relatively close to the city and their return would not affect the progress of their assigned task, namely ― Albert, Liz, Rain, Erin, and Moloc ― in his room, along with Cora.

He signaled to his kneeling subordinates to rise. This was had become a lot more bothersome lately as everyone around him seems to be getting more and more formal.

Tyler placed both elbows on his table and meshed his hands, covering the lower half of his face.

He was completely immune to illness or any physical discomfort but for some reason, his belly ached. Given how he had barely managed to handle that situation even though he had been told about it, made him feel as though his subordinates would suddenly start denouncing him.

Truth be told, he hadn't made much of a reaction to Ferlis's offers and negotiation tactics simply because he was trying desperately to minimize his window for mistakes.

In his mind, the less action he takes to lower the likelihood of a slip-up. However, thinking back on it now, he had probably already made a mistake by choosing not to capitalize on the opportunities he might've had during the talks.

As he held that feeling in his heart, he peeked at Liz and Albert.

They did not seem angry. Nor did they seem speechless.

However, who could tell if that was or was not a poker face? His poker face was exceptionally good due to his high levels of body control so who is to say there wouldn't be anyone else who could do that.

After thinking of that, he looked closely at them again, to see if their faces were frozen in anger.

I want to get out of here. In the first place, why did I sit here… no, it's too late. No use crying over spilled milk. Why do I keep falling into self-deprecation these days? Perhaps the pressure of this ruler of a thing is simply too much for a mere human to handle. What the hell did they expect from me anyway, even Uriel continues to be vague as if I'm smart enough to just magically understand their thoughts.

The phantom pain in his gut seemed to have subsided a little after lampooning a bit, but he still felt like throwing up.

When he had sensed the Vampire Lord approaching the Lord's mansion as predicted by many, Tyler had practically asked Uriel "What shall we do next", but instead of explaining shit to him, the answer he got was along the lines of, "Since all is going as predicted, we shall stick to the plan."

But what the fuck was the plan!

In the end, he had ended up just stuck reacting to whatever the Vampire lord was saying and trying desperately not to fall behind. He had even tried contacting Z who was busy with his missions and indirectly asking him for help. But that guy was even worse than Uriel as all he could do was compliment Tyler on his supposed achievements.

Before the war with the undead king, Z had laid out a series of plans and contingencies for them to follow to achieve Tyler's goal of building a peaceful city without the interference of the other nobles' families. However, Tyler simply couldn't keep all his ideas straight and had been coasting along so far.

However, the thing had gone off the rails with this current event. Although their arrival had been predicted and their intrusion into the city had been sensed, Tyler had still not been prepared to face ab actual Great Demon Lord face to face and had struggled mightily to maintain his composure.

The actual talks with the Vampire Lord, Ferlis Drax Morningstar had been played entirely off the cuff, trusting that there would be a way through no matter what. As for how confident he was of having said the right thing during the negotiations… well, simply put, he was not.

He had consorted with Uriel on most of his answers but generally, she tends to say there was no such thing as a wrong choice for her master. Frankly, Tyler was beginning to think she was a troll.

This was why he was currently nervous as he stared at his Generals in anticipation that one of them would tell him how much he had fucked up but they all remained silent as they patiently waited for him to address them.

"Now then, the Morningstar family were the ones to make the first move as predicted."

Tyler took a deep breath. Just as he was about to speak, a voice interrupted from beside him.

"Lord Ty, pardon the interruption but I have the opportunity to contact Z to make him extend our information network to the Demnirantre Region. Unfortunately, there isn't much information known about the Morningstar family as the main branch of the family seems to be operating from a small island off the coast of their region."

With someone suddenly gifting him a lifeline to hold on to, Tyler firmly grasp that lifeline, as he calmly thought about the details in her words as he spoke.

"An island?"

"Yes, master. I've already had Erin use divination and clairvoyance to make quick surveillance of the Demnirantre Region. However, we didn't find a trace of any vampires living in the cities there. It seems they may all be stationed on that island. Their numbers are quite a few, only about 1,500 of them but they are all individually strong on average. And as they don't age and rarely reproduce, there is no rapid decline of their strength."

"Is that so."

"Yes. Unfortunately, that island is protected against any remote surveillance and thus, we didn't get any information about it. This was why it was hard to predict what moves they would be taking. I deeply apologize."

"There's no need for you to apologize for a lack of information. If anything, this is my fault as I have failed to provide my subordinates with the appropriate tools for success."

"That's not true. This is all our fault for our failure to meet your expectations."

'I should be the one telling you that. I'm so sorry.'

Tyler once again couldn't bring himself to say that so he had no choice but to return everyone's focus to the matter at hand.

"Now then, let's get back on topic."

"Right!"

"With our lack of information, we could only narrow our predictions on the Great Five's reactions to our display of power. We had thought the most likely candidates to seek Lord Ty out would be the Mereotti family as the lord of the Morningstars was rumored to be rather unpredictable."

Yet it seems Lord Ty had expected this outcome from the beginning. As expected of Lord Ty.

'Albert my man. What the hell do you have against me?'

Still, the question remained, why did the Vampire Lord decide to visit Tyler first?