The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

Side Chapter 3 The conspiracies of three parties

"You've gone and done it now, Dhampir!" An outraged Ternecia smashed her fist onto a table that was sturdier than it looked, destroying it. "How dare you, how dare you, how dare you!"

"Calm down," Birkyne told her. "Although you do seem calmer than when I am having a fit."

"Indeed," Gubamon agreed. "Even if you howl from here, it cannot be heard in Talosheim."

Ternecia clicked her tongue in response to the carefree words of Birkyne and Gubamon, but she didn't swing her fist a second time, lowering it gently instead.

"So, what are we discussing today? Are we going to have a review meeting about the lost war?" asked Ternecia.

It had been around a month since the Undead expedition army had closed in on Balcheburg and was destroyed. The Pure-breed Vampires who worshipped Hihiryushukaka, the Evil God of Joyful Life, were surrounded by identical tables.

"Of course, we are going to do that, but... We also need to discuss how we will kill the Dhampir at this point," Birkyne replied.

"Hihi, we have to share information, after all," said Gubamon.

Indeed, the Vampires had been defeated. They had manipulated the Amid Empire from the shadows, made the Mirg shield-nation send out an army and attempted to kill Vandalieu with overwhelming numbers. However, this plan had ended in a spectacular failure.

Despite that, Birkyne and Gubamon remained quite composed, in contrast to Ternecia's angry mood. The reason for this was simple – the one who had come up with this plan and suffered the greatest losses was Ternecia.

The Mirg shield-nation's elite soldiers, Balcheburg's guards, the assets of the villagers in the cultivated lands and their future – these were all trivial matters to the Vampires.

But the loss of a cooperative individual, who had allowed them to sink their claws deep into the Empire, wasn't a happy event for them.

Ternecia had numerous allies apart from Earl Mauvid who had returned as an Undead, but this incident had apparently allowed the Empire to catch their tails. Not all of them had been caught, but quite a lot of them had been disposed of.

It seemed that Earl Mauvid had investigated other Vampire allies and leaked information about them to protect himself.

He had leaked information not only of individuals linked to Ternecia's faction but also those linked to Birkyne and Gubamon's factions. These individuals had all been eliminated by the Emperor's subordinates and the Thunderclap Schneider. However, Ternecia was still the one who had lost the most.

And then there were the Noble-born Vampires that had been dispatched as part of the expedition army. Birkyne and Gubamon had provided ten each, while Ternecia had used ten of her own with Isla as their commander.

Their deaths were a painful loss indeed.

Isla had been a Noble-born Vampire with the court rank of countess. As her Title of 'Ternecia's Hound' suggested, she had been a loyal retainer who supported Ternecia's faction for tens of thousands of years.

She hadn't been insignificant among Ternecia's close aides – she had been performing important duties within Ternecia's faction. In terms of strength in battle, she had been among the three most powerful of Ternecia's subordinates.

One might think that Ternecia's subordinates were relatively weak, considering that she had ruled from the darkness for over a hundred thousand years, but this wasn't the case.

Though those in lower positions obeyed the ones in higher positions, they were always looking for opportunities to take down those above them.

Those in higher positions trampled those in lower positions underfoot so that those below them wouldn't surpass them.