"Exactly," Kraven said, then added self-deprecatingly.
"It just so happens that some members of my tribe also hate vampires. After seeing so much, I understand now; it turns out it's all our tribe hunting Werewolf."
"Then I started to reflect: Why do I hate a tribe I've never met? Why do I hate a Werewolf who hasn't affected my interests or harmed my family? I started to think about why this happened, and finally realized that the problem lay in my upbringing. I was instilled with many ideas from a young age, such as 'Down with Werewolf '... and ' Werewolf are a threat'..."
i. Trillian realized. "Isn't this exactly what the young master was talking about before, what those fraudulent promoters have been doing all along?"
"Yes," Kraven affirmed before continuing:
"Later, when I started to neglect my duties, some people accused me of undermining the collective and said I should prioritize the greater good. I wanted to say, they're just inconvenient materials, do they even deserve to be on the table? And you think you can talk about the greater good?"
"You're nothing more than a palanquin bearer, supporting the high-ranking vampire lords, and you're also responsible for fighting, hunting wolves, and filling in the gaps—doing work worse than pigs and dogs in the clan."
Kraven gave a bitter laugh, "One day I realized I didn't want to be used as waste anymore, and I didn't want to stay at the bottom for the rest of my life."
However, I didn't argue with them.
"After all, understanding too much is still painful."
Kraven began to recount his personal journey to the group.
"At first, I could wait, I could slack off, I could just go through the motions when fighting the Werewolf, and then clock out and go home."
"Because I still hold onto hope, hoping that the wealth of those upper-class vampires will run out, hoping that more of my people will see reality and join me in giving up, using this as a form of protest."
But reality is far crueler than I imagined.
Those wealthy, long-established vampire nobles sensed the trouble early on and quietly absconded with their fortunes.
"Many vampires fled the vampire territory and tried to survive by assimilating into human society. With nowhere else to turn, I hatched a plan and secretly contacted Lucian, the Werewolf leader, wondering if we could join forces to bring those vampire lords down from their thrones."
After listening, Draco asked a pointed question:
"Have you considered that once you successfully seize power, the tribe will still need people to maintain its operation, the lower classes will still need to work, and people will still need to carry the palanquin? At that time, who do you plan to make the tribe hate? There can't be no opposing external enemies."
Kraven chuckled self-deprecatingly. He confessed, "I haven't decided yet. Maybe I'll still target the Werewolf, or maybe I'll choose a different target. In any case, this group always needs an opposing force to divert attention from its conflicts."
Trillian clicked her tongue:
"You're really honest—so the dragon slayer slays dragons only to become the dragon himself..."
Kraven did not deny it, he said:
"Isn't that how history goes? Either you're in power, or I'm in power... I've suffered for thousands of years, and now that I'm a ghost among ghosts, can't I even ride in a sedan chair?"
"That's how things are in the world, and I can't stay out of it," Kraven went on to explain the root of his rebellion.
"The reason I rebelled against the old upper class was essentially because I received too little benefit and could only act as a puppet ruler. I had no shared interests with those powerful figures, so naturally I could only choose to stand on the opposite side of them."
Trillian asked hesitantly:
"Aren't there still selfless rulers?"
"Perhaps," Kraven said. "You human historians call them 'great men,' but those are figures who appear only once every few thousand years."
"Even the emergence of a great person doesn't really change anything, because there can only be one great person." Draco, having experienced history, understands this better. "While a great person is alive, you can suppress things, but once they pass away, it's over. Because the more you suppress things, the stronger the backlash will be later. It's impossible for everyone to be a great person; most people have selfish motives, just like you and me."
"But this is a good thing." Draco changed the subject.
"Is this another good thing?" Trillian was convinced.
"Of course it's a good thing," Draco said. "The dragon has been replaced, everything is reshuffled, and those who had no chance before now have a chance. Of course, for Laodeng, it's definitely a bad thing."
Kraven wholeheartedly agreed, "That's right, I want to overthrow the three elders and become the new ruler, but I can't do it alone, so I thought of Lucian."
"Only by joining forces with him can we have a chance to shake the foundations of the vampire race controlled by the three elders. In order to make contact with Lucian, I voluntarily joined the Death Dealers; this is the only way."
Selene recalled that night and asked, "So, Lucian personally cut off the tattoo for you?"
"That's right," Kraven confessed. "We've been plotting this since then. But unfortunately, we still failed."
"This constitutes treason... betrayal of the vampire clan..."
Selene said calmly.
" Lucian only wants to kill Viktor, while I only want to seize power," Kraven nonchalantly. "This doesn't harm the oppressed vampire people. What's wrong with it?"
"The dragon slayer becomes the dragon himself. Are you sure Lucian won't become a dragon after he succeeds? You can't even beat him."
These words silenced Kraven. Indeed, he had never truly solved this problem; Lucian was superior to him. If Lucian succeeded and then turned against him, he would be helpless.
Kraven looked at Selene and asked:
So what are you thinking now?
Selene uttered three words: "Kill him."
Kraven smiled; he knew who Selene was referring to.
"Aren't we standing together?"
Moreover, with Mr. Malfoy as our powerful backer, do we still need to worry about Lucian becoming the new evil dragon?
Selene stared at Kraven curiously. "No wonder you ran this way. How did you know he would definitely help you?"
Kraven shrugged. "It's just a gamble. Even if he doesn't help me, it won't matter much. At worst, you'll catch him and take him back, or he'll have to join Lucian. Could things get any worse?"
Selene remained silent.
At this point, Draco picked up the conversation, steering the topic to a deeper level. "Not entirely. Historically, changes of regime have always been caused by internal corruption, leading to widespread poverty and hunger among the people, which ultimately results in foreign invasion. And when the invaders arrive, the suffering populace might even lead the way."
"They'll support whoever gives them a way to survive."
"Yes." Kraven nodded, but then added with a sense of helplessness about the present era, "Rebellion was already very difficult in ancient times, but at least they had cold weapons, so there was still a chance to fight back."
"That's not the case now. With modern weaponry, anyone who dares to rebel will be killed instantly. We can only rely on foreign enemies."
Everyone says the country is destroyed and the family is ruined, but whose family is truly ruined? The more society develops, the fewer men have wives and families left. Who cares about those things anymore... Everyone's all alone now, so let it be.