Chapter 63: Pay Up

Keith stared at Annica with a blank face, then a burst of loud laughter escaped his mouth. 

"What are you laughing at?" Annica looked at him weirdly.

"Cough! Cough! I think you will be in for a surprise." Keith replied.

"What surprise?" 

"It won't be a surprise if I tell you right now. You will know soon enough." 

"So you really intend to fight with them? I don't know if you are delusional or stupid." Annica snorted while shaking her head.

"Neither. I'm confident because I know what I'm doing. Now the bet is set, don't disappear after the fight."  Keith said with a taunt.

"Why would I? When are you giving me that bloodstone?"  She brushed him off.

While talking they reached the end of the corridor, and ahead of them was a large gathering of various staff and students. It was the front courtyard leading to the central hall. When they appeared together, several eyes focused on them.

"Isn't it lady Heartstone?" A young-looking vampire approached the duo.

"And you are?" She asked with a stern face.

"How cold. I am from Argania as well. Stallys, son of count Merrici. I have seen your excellency many times during the royal gala." The vampire said.

"Never heard of you. Maybe you are useless like that idiot." She spat out coldly.

The young vampire's expression turned cold as he guessed who she was talking about. Still, he didn't show any more emotions as it would make him lose face. He was part of the so-called idiot's faction. 

So when he heard her say this, he felt she regarded her as a weed. As he was much lower in status than him. Not finding any reason to continue the current talk, his eyes shifted to the young man standing beside her.

"And who might you be? Her bodyguard?" He asked mockingly.

"What? Do I look like a bodyguard to you? Can't you see the badge on my chest or are you blind from all that rejection?" Keith spoke out loudly.

Many vampires heard the commotion and gathered around the place. Seeing some of them laugh, the young vampire's eyes glowed red with hatred. He looked at Keith with immense resentment as he clenched his fist so hard, cracking sounds could be heard.

"Ouch! My bad. I see how fragile your heart is." Keith said with an apologetic expression.

"You dare talk to me like that. I challenge you to a duel. If you can't show me enough credibility,  I won't back down until I punish you properly." He pointed his hands towards Keith with bloodshot eyes.

"Man, what is wrong with all these noble kids? Keep talking about credibility, respect? She clearly rejected your existence, what more credibility do you want? And I'm not gonna fight you just to prove a point. Do as you will. I just met her yesterday." Keith tried to walk past the vampire but was quickly stopped by his extended hand.

"Did I tell you to leave?" The vampire said with a high voice.

"Don't do something you are going to regret." Keith warned him with a whisper.

"Regret? I will show you who will regret today." The man expanded his blood-qi and covered his whole body with a red aura.

"Do you really want to do this?" Keith asked again.

"Are you trying to avoid fighting me? Are you that afraid of me?" with a loud laughter, the man pointed his hands towards Keith.

"Who the hell is afraid of you? I can't fight you just to satisfy my ego. How about we bet on something?" A grin appeared on Keith's face as he looked at the vampire.

"A bet? What do you want to lose so badly? Alright, I will accept what you have to offer. I might lessen the punishment if the gift is good enough."

'What a prick! This is going nowhere.' Keith was getting tired of all this empty talk.

"1 thousand gold blood coins? Do you agree?" Keith showed one finger as he looked at the opponent.

"1 thousand is too low. How about 5 thousand?" The man laughed.

"Hehe! Sure, if you say so. '' Keith walked forward with an amused smile and stood in front of him.

" Come at me anytime." Keith gestured to him with his hands.

The man smirked and shot forward with his blood-qi flowing throughout his body. When he was about to punch Keith, a sharp pain crept across his abdomen and his vision blurred.

'What is happening?' He thought while looking down at his stomach.

A hand firmly penetrated his lower abdomen. At the point of contact, his dress was ripped and his skin was twisted. 

Bang!

When his vision returned, he was lying on the ground and Keith was standing beside him. 

"What about now? Do you want to fight again?" A playful expression appeared on Keith's face.

"…"

No words were heard as the surrounding crowd was deathly silent. Everything happened so fast that no one could register what had just happened. Everyone looked at Keith in awe and some stronger ones examined him with their sense.

"Time to pay up."  Keith extended his hands towards the vampire.

The young vampire struggled to get up as he staggered back, staring hatefully at Keith. He fumbled his hands and took out a golden card from his pockets.

"Ah! So you have them. I thought I would have to make you my slave for compensation." 

The young vampire gnashed his teeth but no words came out of his mouth. The look on his face showed that he was in great pain. He was covering his stomach with one hand, which was badly swollen.

"What is this? How can I get the gold blood coins from this?" Keith asked, flipping the golden card in his hands.

Annica, who had been watching the whole show, walked towards Keith with an amazed expression.

"This is the academy treasury card. Don't tell me you haven't registered for this." She looked at Keith in disbelief.

"Why? Is that important? I was busy condensing blood-qi yesterday." Keith replied with a carefree attitude.

"The academy treasury is an independent bank for the students attending here and also for the alumni. You can store all your blood coins there and use this type of token for transactions throughout the academy premises. 

Due to the heavy demand for resources and bloodstones, it is often tedious to carry blood coins with you all the time. With this, you can carry around your money anywhere, anytime." Annica explained.

"This is like a credit card? Amazing! Why isn't it implemented all over the continent?" 

With this kind of service, many would flock and business would bloom throughout the continent. Keith was rather surprised, it wasn't implemented all over the continent.

"Because the cost of running the runes is too high. Here all the students bring a tremendous amount of blood coins, so it is easier to alleviate the operating costs. Also, everyone here will become someone important in the continent, so the council bears the rest of the expenses. 

If you were to implement them throughout a country, let alone the whole continent, the costs of operating them would be astronomical. I doubt if it can even be implemented as the runes require a lot of high-rank blood ritualists. And in no way they will travel the entire continent to implement it.

So here's your answer. I don't know anything about the credit card thing you mentioned." She heaved a long sigh after explaining everything to him.

"I see. Well, I have to give the treasury a visit after the orientation finishes." With an elated expression, he walked towards the central hall. 

Everyone who was blocking the path steered away as he passed by them. Annica slowly caught up to him and entered the central hall.

"You didn't use any blood-qi techniques against him?" Annica asked Keith with a doubtful voice.

"There was no need to."

Keith searched for an empty seat near the stage. He found a place near the end of the 2nd row. 

"Then how did you block his attack and defeat him?" A confused expression appeared on her face.

"That is a trade secret. I am yet to collect your ring, so I won't answer your question. Who knows, you might divulge the information to the other party." Keith replied with a frown.

"Forget it. I will know soon enough. Still, I can't believe you defeated him without activating any blood-qi technique. I didn't even sense any blood-qi fluctuation from your body." 

"I somewhat expected you to win, but this quickly… If I hadn't seen this, I wouldn't have believed it. He was also a final stage baron after all" She said with a slow voice.

She picked the seat right next to Keith and sat down, folding her dress. As others slowly filled up the hall, the lights dimmed and the stage was lit up with a bright light. 

A middle-aged man walked up to the center of the stage and stood by the stand that slowly erected from the stage floor.

"Good morning students. I welcome this year's batch of barons who will be attending the academy for the next ten years. I hope you can reach great heights after reaching the pinnacle of blood condensing.

Now, let me introduce myself. I am the dean of the blood summoning department, and I will be overseeing this event. Director is busy due to an important matter and I will be taking his place this afternoon.``

A large cloud of red smoke appeared on the stage and several chairs appeared from the smoke. They moved independently and occupied the side stage which was a little higher than the main stage.