A Modern Guy in the Lesbian Vampires' Court 4 (Patreon)

A Modern Guy in the Lesbian Vampires' Court 4 - or ‘My business as the treasurer is surely a troublesome one among those ‘supposed’ world-conquerors’ (Castlevania Animated Series, Vampire!SI)

The War on Carinthia had gone well.

Striga and Morana returned as victors and a small parade ensued as they entered Graz. People, humans and vampires, celebrated the event during the night, and the overall celebration continued up until it was time to address the council the ensuing day.

The report I was given by Morana was well-written and established some provisional steps adopted by the woman to handle the early stage of the occupation. She gave some suggestions in regard to the redistribution of land as it would be dangerous to leave Carinthia framed within its current subdivision in areas, and I nodded at most of those ideas.

As much as I can lament about Morana's brain being half-derailed by Striga being Striga, I can’t even consider her to be a fool on administrative manners. Not only that, but she also came back with gifts for all of us. I got welcomed by a fragmented version De Bello Gallico. It was good and it could start a search for the missing bits, but I wasn’t the only one rewarded with souvenirs.

Carmilla was gifted with the crown once held by the Duke of Carinthia, the piece now a symbol of the region’s submission. She smiled smugly at the ‘pleasant reminder’ as she called it, yet she didn’t appear that fine with the gift given to Lenore.

It was a full book of Dante Alighieri’s Vita Nova. The pure delight on her face was not missed, albeit brief in sight as she instantly schooled her features to appear pleased but moderated about it. And it was clear that Carmilla was not planning to let it pass.

It was during the explanation from Morana and Striga in regard to the occupation and the military developments that Carmilla couldn’t help but use this to strike at Lenore.

“Lenore, do you have anything to add in regard to the new diplomatic situation?” Her tone was calm, peaceful but I was instantly aware of the powerplay. Lenore seemed to be familiar with this too, but merely nodded with her own papers.

“My agents were able to gauge ‘reactions’ to the invasion-”

“I meant on the note of an ensuing expansion from there. Venice, Switzerland- Countries that are independent and could further expand our domains?”

Surprise flashed on the diplomat’s face. “I have not but-”

“Lenore, dear, perhaps you should not get distracted with those pieces of literature that are taking from your time.”

Shock flared but Lenore held back from handling a more than warranted comeback. I saw this and… decided to act. Less on trying to help her, and more on the notion of this establishing a precedent in the near future.

“My apologies but… I am quite sure that this matter is not limited to just Lenore.”

Carmilla scoffed. “Of course you would jump to her defense-”

“Or maybe you are forgetting the point of this council,” I sharply interrupted, her eyes narrowing at my tone. “The matter of war as a whole is not one to be entertained just with the one handling Diplomacy. It’s a matter that entertains the one behind the Economics, the one behind the Military affairs and the one that handles the supplies and logistics for such an endeavor.”

“And pray tell, John, why should the following expansion be vetoed?”

“I have a few reasons actually. On the matters of economics, we can hardly sustain such an extension as our bureaucracy is just enough to handle the recent conquest. Switzerland or Venice, ignoring the military and supplying affairs which are not of my competence, would qualify as ‘doubling’ the country’s size and thus create a crisis of the administrative sector.”

“You could just work to fix it-”

“You are asking me to miraculously create twice the amount of governors and bureaucrats. We don’t have that many fitting vampires for that job- unless you want me to employ humans as governors.”

“No.”

“Then that is your first veto.”

Morana hummed and then nodded. “The organization of supplies would also be tedious for both targets. The Swiss live in well-fortified mountains that have structures meant to render those difficult to break. Even with the amount of resources dispensed provided-”

“It would be a lengthy and detrimental war, for too little new resources,” Striga argued in agreement to the opposition. “The Venetians have a fleet that would restrain our means to reach their overseas possessions.”

Carmilla was surprised by the growing opposition, but the one hit she didn’t expect was-

“There’s also the fact that such an action regardless of who is being targeted would not be let go by the Holy Roman Empire.”

A few people grimaced at this, and Carmilla wasn’t excluded by the list.

“I suppose such an action would be dangerous.”

I nodded. “Although I agree that expansion might be achievable if the situation is somewhat shifted in our favor.”

Curiosity spread at the table and I retrieved the reports I had styled for this very moment before giving it to the others. Carmilla, albeit butthurt for losing that powerplay, appeared intrigued and most amused by what this would lead to.

The few additions added by Lenore were also mentioned, and the overall reaction was positive. It wasn’t outright war, but such an action, which we would be able to pull without it being traced back to us, would pretty much destabilize Germany. And that was going to shift the geopolitical affairs a fair bit both in our northern and southern border.

The process itself revolved around approaching frustrated preachers in the Northern areas of the HRE and slowly coaxing them into believing the new bibles. The main point of this was to trigger a massive peasant revolt within those lands as the circumstances rendered this event rather feasible.

Nobles were taxing the peasants a lot, their rights were guarded by divine prerogative and the church had started to demand the payment of indulgences. In such a climate and in a region where Christianity had been enforced by Iron and Blood, the chances of ‘doubt’ and of angry rants becoming the spark to cause a massive rebellion were quite high.

And as I finalized the presentation, the council agreed to pass the process to initiate this operation. Lenore was going to take care of the rest as I gave her supplies and instructions on how to get the game started.

As the council ended on that positive note, I started to leave the chamber with Lenore pacing beside me. We shared a few words before departing for our respective offices but…

Carmilla had noticed this interaction. And if that wasn’t the worst possible development that could have come out of that verbal spar…

Well, Dracula may have sent his son to scout for a potential alliance without us knowing and thus leaving us with a sudden visitor from Transylvania seeking a diplomatic alliance.

—-------d-d-d-d—------

AN

I noticed that the ‘interaction-filled’ chapters are short and I am to blame for about half of this issue- the rest is the electric line connected to my PC having been fucked by a recent storm (yes, it’s Summer and it’s still cold, cloudy and stormy where I live) and so it tends to reboot on its own from time to time due to strange spikes in the electric grid.