Whether it's the Pope or Aryan III, the thoughts of those in high positions never linger on the poor.

How many people die seems irrelevant to them, and His Holiness Adam even specifically wants more people to die.

Compared to them, Norton is practically overflowing with humanity!

After three months of construction, not many towering city walls had been built, but the escape tunnels were almost complete.

To ensure the workers wouldn't be worked to death, Lord Norton not only provided conscripted labor rations to non-vampire workers, but even gave them three days off each month to maintain their health.

Even the many beautiful girls who became his blood slaves were removed from production work, kept well-fed and cared for, reserved only for Norton's blood needs.

Even the church vampires' blood feeding was conducted through an exchange system.

The Church specifically established a vampire window where citizens of Rino City could donate blood, receiving measured grain compensation after donation.

How could such humane systems possibly exist in this era?

Therefore, even though it was openly known that the church housed a nest of blood-drinking vampires, the people of Rino City not only didn't fear or resist them, but instead became fervent supporters.

They even erected a statue of Abraham in Rino City, affectionately naming him: 'The Bloodthirsty Duke.'

When everyone lives in dire circumstances, even replacing the fire beneath them with a mud pit would attract countless supporters.

This was exactly the situation with Rino City's church now.

"If this continues to develop, I, Norton, should become the public servant of the world!" Norton's pale figure stood atop the church dome, gazing over the entire territory of Rino City.

Standing high and looking far, nearly three years of noble life had filled him with a sense of grand ambition.

But this was still too distant. The great crisis of the Church hadn't been eradicated, and he, Norton, still faced the possibility of falling.

But given more time to develop, he, Norton, would surely be able to overthrow the Church!

As soon as this thought crossed Norton's mind, his gaze sweeping over Rino City noticed some movement in the dense forest outside the city.

Black, dot-like flocks of birds flew out from the trees, apparently startled by some commotion within the forest.

Norton's eyes focused, carefully observing the distant activity.

Then, in Norton's zoomed vision, at the boundary between Rino City's farmland and the distant dense forest, golden figures emerged one after another from the thick woods, continuously streaming out and rapidly charging toward Rino City.

Norton's face changed dramatically!

"Holy shit! Holy Knights?"

The terror was clearly visible even on Norton's withered, wrinkled skin. This was the first time since becoming this ugly appearance that he could produce such an exaggerated expression on his face.

In Norton's view, there were indeed batch after batch of knights wearing the standard golden armor of Holy Knights, quickly emerging from the forest and heading toward Rino City.

Judging by their numbers and scale, it was practically identical to what Norton had seen of the Holy Inquisition Tribunal in Rino City before!

"H-h-how... how is this possible... The Holy Inquisition Tribunal was completely wiped out, this is common knowledge! How could they appear here again?" Norton's eyes widened in shock, his voice even becoming shrill.

He was terrified.

What frightened him even more was that his constantly active magnetic field ability, which covered all of Rino City and beyond, hadn't detected the arrival of these Holy Inquisition Tribunal members.

It was as if these Holy Knights were completely invisible to his magnetic field, which was even more incomprehensible. Norton's magnetic field could effectively perceive humans of the same status hierarchy as him, bats of lower status hierarchy, or even the more inferior vampires.

Unless these Holy Knights had higher status hierarchy than him, he shouldn't be unable to perceive them! But how could that be possible?

Yet this undoubtedly confirmed that these golden-armored knights were truly Holy Knights!

"Abraham, Abraham!!! Gather all the vampires in the city, the Holy Inquisition Tribunal is here, damn it, the Church still has a Holy Inquisition Tribunal!!!"

"Abraham, raise the drawbridge, lure all these Holy Knights into the moat!"

Norton shouted hoarsely, calling Abraham's name.

But he himself remained motionless on the dome, staring intently at the Holy Inquisition Tribunal approaching Rino City.

Norton had already made up his mind - if Rino City's vampires couldn't withstand the Holy Inquisition Tribunal, if the moat couldn't drown these Holy Knights, then he, Norton, would turn and leave immediately, heading straight down the escape tunnel to flee!

The Church was too cunning!

"Claiming they only have five hundred Holy Knights, but actually keeping another card up their sleeve, damn it, the Church really doesn't act human at all!

If the Boar Empire knew about this, why would they even bother fighting this war!"

Norton's face was extremely grim. He had just said that with a bit more development time he could stand up to the Church, but he never imagined the Church could be this sneaky?

They had actually hidden five hundred Church Knights all these years without deploying them!

No, possibly more than five hundred - who knows if it's the same batch of Holy Knights every time they appear?

The more Norton thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

And this new Pope Adam really had guts too - his first action upon learning about Rino City was to directly dispatch the Holy Inquisition Tribunal. This was like using a cannon to kill a mosquito!

He really wasn't giving Norton any chance to survive at all!

They say when you beat the young, the old come seeking revenge, but you're not following the novel's script!

With rumbling sounds, the drawbridge outside Rino City slowly rose.

Fortunately, Norton had dug a moat over the past two years, otherwise with these five hundred Holy Knights surrounding them, they'd truly be like turtles in a jar.

But now it was perfect - his Hakino would definitely drink his fill later!

Thinking of his infallible method for dealing with Holy Knights, the tension in Norton's heart completely dissipated.

Imagining these five hundred Holy Knights falling into the moat like dumplings and drowning, Norton felt his heart bloom with joy and his face broke into a smile.

Just at his happiest moment, Priest Abraham's panicked voice came from below.

"It's no use, Your Holiness Norton. These are all high-ranking Holy Knights! They've almost completely lost their vitality, they can't drown!"

The smile on Norton's face suddenly froze.

The next moment.

Norton's tall figure leaped down from the twenty-meter-high dome.

Even from such height, his landing posture remained light and elegant.

Then, the freshly landed Norton scooped up Coal Ball, who was lying like a dog at the main hall entrance, and without looking back, ran straight toward the escape tunnel that had only recently been completed.

A large swarm of bats swooped down from the hall roof, following closely behind Norton like a black cloud.

"Excellent, Abraham, now you're the true Vampire Clan Progenitor!"