Rolando was a cunning, treacherous, greedy, sinister, and unpopular Vampire Marquis. His Haier City was disliked by association.
"Those are all lies! They're deceiving you!"
After meeting Annan, whose name had recently become famous far and wide, Marquis Rolando defended himself. He claimed he was being targeted because he shared a name with a Vampire Hunter.
"Why not change your name?"
Marquis Rolando replied that a Vampire's true name, like a Devil's or a Dragon's, held power of its own. Changing it would cost him some of that power.
Annan got straight to the point: the Scarlet Queen needed Haier City.
Marquis Rolando's smile slowly faded, and he sank into troubled thought.
There was no helping it. Haier City was too far from Heaven and too close to the Stuart Family... It was unpleasant to put it that way, but unless something was done, the city would sooner or later become a bridgehead against the Stuart Family.
The Stuart Family lacked forces it could deploy. Annan had to put his plans in place before the enemy reacted.
"My opinion doesn't matter, Master... Annan."
Marquis Rolando came out of his thoughts and said tactfully, "I may be the City Lord in name, but I don't actually control this city's development..."
Human City-States had tangled politics, and Vampire cities, whose inhabitants were nearly immortal, were only more complicated. The current stability was the result of competing powers holding one another in check.
"Forgive me for being blunt, Marquis Rolando. You know I'm a City Lord too. My city has only eighty thousand people, but I can guarantee that every one of them acts according to my will. My will is their direction."
As Annan spoke, his eyes seemed to shine. Marquis Rolando could not help showing deep envy...
But he was a