Years of war, coupled with a low reproductive capacity, kept the vampire population at a very low level. Even at its most prosperous, the number of vampires in Sylvania had never exceeded ten thousand.

　　This was certainly distressing. But from another perspective, such a scarce number and weak power. At some point in time, it also became a condition that guaranteed the kingdom's continued existence. Barren, backward, and not posing much of a threat. Under such circumstances, the other forces were naturally unwilling to waste too much time for Sylvania. Instead, they targeted opponents that had larger lands, more people, and were more threatening - and of course, most importantly, richer.

　　In this way, wars between Sylvania and the regular army of the Sigmar Empire were infrequent. Most of the time, the vampires have to deal with adventurers, freelance mercenaries, bandits, brain-dead ranger knights, equally brain-dead demon hunters, and still brain-dead battle priests. Green skins who are not burnt out in the head, but are no different than burnt out in the head.

　　This is why, for nearly a hundred years, the Kingdom has made the green-skinned orcs its greatest rival. The other enemies were either greedy or crazy. Yet, they were not the mainstream among humans. Instead, having a bad brain was the nature of the entire green-skinned race.

　　"Thinking carefully, am I afraid, our current situation is like this, self-preservation is more than enough, but offense is not enough. It's not too much to call it a lingering struggle. We are disgraced by it. But at the same time, we must also face this reality. And use it as motivation to fight harder!" This was the impromptu speech of a vampire just now. What was said was quite real. And his listeners applauded for it.

　　The banquet began. Dozens of large crystal lamps flickering with light golden magical light sources illuminated the entire ancient castle as bright as day. A variety of delicacies cooked just right and fine wines smuggled in from all over the world were supplied in a nearly unlimited supply. The vampires gathered with each other, either to savor the food or to talk. There were also those who played pool in the rec room, and on the makeshift pool tables, or played bridge, or Orodean chess.

　　There were also some fighting vampires, who took the opportunity to go to the basement fighting arena and crackle. There were also some who delved into the alchemy lab in the basement and conducted magical experiments - there were quite a few research-crazed vampires who took advantage of the month of June to make quite a few new researches. And then at the end of June suffocated because they couldn't proceed with their research. It was just the right opportunity to take advantage of this to have a good time. Originally, Isabella also wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to learn a few tricks, and sneakily followed over, but the result was immediately discovered, and then was blown out.

　　It wasn't that those vampires were shabby. Rather, it was because the alchemy experiment was too dangerous. As if Isabella was as small as she was, the experiment would still have to explode a bit if it failed. And if their large-scale experiments failed, they were afraid that it wouldn't be as simple as just exploding. They were afraid that Isabella would be hurt.

　　Isabella had no choice but to go back inside the hall and go chat with her playmates - the girls who were close to her age.

　　And Valeed wanted to mingle inside the crowd. Listen to the conversations of these fellow vampires. Hoping to gain some enlightenment, as well as the latest news and information. But soon, he also suffered the same fate as his sister Isabella. Because of his identity, there were hardly any vampires present who didn't recognize him. While the gentle smiles as well as the greetings were not bad, the next thing almost everyone said was, “Varede, why don't you go play with your friends?”

　　Such words, on the other hand, made Varede feel embarrassed. Same with his older sister Isabella. At this age, his “friends” were all boys close to his age.

　　After being asked this question several times, Valeed couldn't stay any longer. Looking over there, a group of kids around his age were waving at him. Varede could only sigh darkly as well. Then he forced a smile on his face and walked towards his friends.

　　Although it was said that there was no age limit for this kind of party, the vast majority of vampires naturally did not want to attend. However, the majority of vampires were naturally not interested in playing with children. And children, likewise, preferred to stay with their peers. With the exception of special cases like Varede, it was generally adults playing with adults and children playing with children. And among the children, there would be a rough division between those who were attending school, and those who were not yet in school.

　　“Saying that ...... but I'd love to go play pool, bridge, and Orod's too.” Valeed grumbled this in his mind. What he mentioned were forms of entertainment that were popular in vampire society-or rather among civilized races across the continent. It was quite similar to billiards, poker and chess respectively.

　　Vampire gentlemen liked to go play two-shot pool. While the ladies and madams like to get together and play cards. Both men and women were fond of chess - of course, the fact was that the children were quite fond of these games as well. It's just that they're generally, at a child's level. It was true that beating up kids was fun, but you could get bored of it after playing too much. Varede still wanted to play against some better opponents.

　　But it was clear that such a thing was mostly impossible.

　　Valeed didn't really care about having the title of Orod's Chess Prodigy on him anymore, but more was better than less. Besides that, it was important to have a good relationship with one's siblings of the same age. If you have grown up together, you are naturally closer and more trustworthy than ordinary people.

　　With such slightly utilitarian thoughts, Varede wore a smile on his face and also waved at the group of children before running over with quick steps. Afterwards, he greeted each of them and had a short conversation. The atmosphere seemed very cordial.

　　These children were about the same age as Varede, and most of them were his relatives. A direct or collateral branch of the Karstein family. Some were also members of other smaller families. Of course there were only so many vampires in Sylvania. If you seriously counted, almost every vampire was related to each other, either distantly or closely. It wouldn't be wrong to say that the entire vampire society was a large clan linked by blood.

　　Among this group of children, Varede was the center of attention because of his insight and status. Naturally, he was the well-deserved center of attention. In a family gathering like this. These ten or so boys all looked up to him. And the adults were satisfied with the result. After all, Varede would become the new count of the Karstein family. Some of the friendships in the early years would most likely continue and even last for the rest of their lives.

　　On this side, the boys gathered together with Varede at the center. While on the other side, the other small children around this age group were gathered around Varede's older sister, Isabella. The reasoning was similar to the one stated before.

　　“So, Varede, what shall we play some?” After greeting each other, someone asked this impatiently. But Varede, looking at the way he leapt to his feet, didn't seem to be waiting for his answer. Rather, he had already thought about it.

　　"It's all fine. What would you like to play?" So Varede asked rhetorically.

　　“That's the-” the child, who was two years older than Varede, pointed to a few table tops off to the side and said, "The machine that simulates sparring training. I just asked the adults, and they said we could occupy one."

　　“That's ...... so,” hearing him say that, Varede, who originally had little interest in the matter, also became slightly happier. If anything, in this age of scarce means of entertainment. If there was anything that could make Varede slightly interested, it would be that thing. It could almost completely simulate a battle, i.e. it could be considered a form of entertainment. An advanced machine that could also be considered a military training device. In a sense, it was a masterpiece of alchemy that transcended the times.

　　“Then what are we waiting for, let's go quickly.” Seeing Varede also show an expectant expression came. The other child next to him immediately continued to agitate. Varede then nodded and led the children towards that corner.

　　It was different from the several recreation rooms, as well as the room that was temporarily converted into a recreation room. There weren't a lot of people in here. And the atmosphere also seemed slightly heavier. The adult vampires who were in the middle of a fierce battle didn't show gentle smiles to the children passing by like they usually did. Instead, they put all their energy into the battle.

　　It appeared that these vampires were choosing the Real Battle Mode. In this mode, the magic power required was exactly the same as in reality. So one had to concentrate completely on controlling the mechanically virtualized Necromantic Soldiers as if they were in reality. This high level of simulation was one of the reasons why the battle platform was so popular.

　　However, as children, there was naturally no way to play like this. After all, their spiritual power was limited. The magic power stored in their bodies was similarly limited, and their ability to harness the winds of magic was also disastrous. Perhaps, after they grew up, they would all become very capable talents. But right now, they were just a bunch of kids.

　　It was a good thing that the developers of the simulated sparring training machine had thought of this problem. Those who couldn't use magic could utilize magic crystals instead of consuming themselves. Taking a step back even further, instead of applying a real sparring mode, a virtual mode was used. Then the amount of magic power needed would be quite small.

　　It's just that even less magic power is still magic power. Even less magic crystals consumed are still magic crystals. Therefore there were still not many times when vampire children could play with such things. Apart from studying military disciplines at the academy and using it for practice, it was parties like this one. It was a rare time when adult vampires were generous.