"Blood supply..."
Sherlock murmured the words again, immediately understanding what Iver meant. "I see... Put that way, it really does make sense."
"Only twenty-four dependents are registered under the Earl of Orleans's Estate, making it the third lowest among the eight earls. But their blood consumption is the highest..."
He looked at the "Blood Supply" entry on the information card, puzzled. "But why would it be... so little?"
—This was the number of blood bags they requisitioned from hospitals each month.
Even the Earl of Orleans, who requisitioned the most, only took a mere 220 bags. At 200 milliliters per bag, that amounted to just forty-four liters.
The amounts requisitioned by the other Children of the Moon were even pitifully low... The lowest was barely over sixty bags.
For the Children of the Moon, that seemed far too understated...
Sherlock had failed to realize this immediately only because it happened to fall within a blind spot in his knowledge—he really did not know much about the Children of the Moon. He had no idea how much blood they normally needed to consume.
Iver knew this as well, so he explained in detail. "There's actually something counterintuitive here—the Children of the Moon don't actually need to drink blood every day. To maintain their rationality, their basic blood requirement is merely 200 milliliters every fifteen days.
"In other words, with sufficient nutrition, one Blood Slave would theoretically be enough to sustain three or four Children of the Moon. And the Children of the Moon's craving for blood is actually closer to a human craving for fine food. It's an expression of 'pure desire.'"
"...So it isn't treated as food, but as a snack?" Sherlock's expression darkened as he muttered quietly.
"More accurately, it's a beverage. The Children of the Moon are addicted