Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 1048: Moon Child's Pre-made Dishes

"Blood supply..."

Sherlock murmured and repeated, and immediately understood what Aiwass meant: "I see... Now that you put it that way, it's indeed no problem.

"There are only 24 registered family members in the Count of Orleans's residence, which makes him the third-fewest family members among the eight earls. However, their blood needs are the first..."

He looked at the "blood supply" item in the data card, a little confused: "But why is it... so little?"

——This is the number of blood bags they retrieve from the hospital every month.

Even the Count of Orleans, who had the most blood, only had 220 bags. Calculating that one bag of blood was 200 milliliters, this was only 44 liters.

The quantities retrieved from other Moon Children were even pitifully small... the least was only more than sixty bags.

For these moon children, it seems a bit too low-key...

Sherlock didn't realize this at the first time, just because this part happened to be in his blind spot of knowledge - he didn't know much about the child of the moon. So he didn't know how much blood the child of the moon normally consumed.

Aiwass also knew about this, so he explained in detail: "There is actually something counterintuitive here - that is, the Moon Child does not need to drink blood every day. The basic blood requirement to maintain the Moon Child's rationality is only 200 ml every fifteen days.

"That is to say, under the condition of adequate nutrition, theoretically one blood slave is enough to support the survival of three to four Moon Children. The Moon Children's thirst for blood is actually similar to humans' thirst for food. It is the embodiment of 'pure desire'."

"...Not as food, but as a snack?" Sherlock's face darkened and he murmured in a low voice.

"To be precise, it's a drink. The Moon Child's thirst for blood is addictive, just like an alcoholic's thirst for alcohol. Based on this demand, the blood supply allocated from the hospital cannot be provided to the upper Moon Child."

As he spoke, Aiwass explained to Sherlock the operations of the Healthy Party in Iris.

Ever since the "Health Party" to which the Moon Children belong basically controls half of Iris' votes, the Moon Children can get a stable blood supply.

The so-called "Healthy Party" is also called the "Stability Party". Its full name is the "Iris Patriotic League for Security and Stability". Their party logo is a red heart. They believe that all the current problems in Iris are just temporary chaos, so they hope to maintain the status quo unconditionally.

They do not want to make major policy changes, nor do they want war or any unexpected events that could cause major social changes.

The core competitiveness of this party lies in the magical potions provided by the witches - and themselves. Therefore, this party basically covers 70% of all big businessmen and almost all old nobles. This is also the reason why the Earls of the Sons of the Moon can directly transfer blood packs from the hospital... Many old nobles are trying to transform themselves into Sons of the Moon, which is a "risky trend" in Iris today.

"In the public opinion of the Health Party, those who dare not hold the transformation ceremony are even considered to be 'cowards' and 'old-fashioned'. There will also be many 'successful transformations' who publicize their wonderful experiences now, and in this way, they are subtly lured to gradually become Moon Children."

"……absurd."

Sherlock frowned, "Those who have successfully transformed are already different people."

"Yes." Aiwass nodded. "Outside, they have many experts unanimously saying that 'regular blood draws can effectively prevent disease', but 'if the operation is not done properly, it will cause infection'. Based on this theory, the Iris people can only go to the hospital regularly to draw blood - not even to donate blood, because it is regarded as a kind of 'health preservation', and they even need to pay the hospital in return."

“…It’s just stupid.”

Of course Sherlock knew this was useless.

But Aiwass shook his head: "No, it really works.

"——Because after drawing a large amount of blood, in order to quickly heal the wound and regenerate the blood, the hospital will let them take diluted potions, or simply let the trainee priests in the seminary use them to practice illumination."

Illumination magic cannot cure diseases, it can only heal injuries... But if these apprentices are really allowed to treat seriously injured people, there is a possibility that the injuries will worsen to the point where they cannot be treated and not even a single light can be produced.

But for these "blood donors" who were only losing blood, they had enough time to receive this free treatment, which would only waste some time but effectively speed up their recovery. And the Iris priests who lacked orthodox theological heritage just needed a lot of "teaching materials" to increase their proficiency in illumination, and at the same time practice the principles of dedication by not charging money, which could be said to kill two birds with one stone.

——And the truly useful "health-preserving" part is actually in the subsequent lighting techniques and potions.

"So the hospital got a lot of blood that way."

Aiwass concluded.

Although refrigerators in this era are only based on alchemy and magic, hospitals can have large ice cellars to keep the blood. The ice is blessed, and the light it emits can slowly dissipate the disease and pollution in the blood, allowing it to be preserved for a longer time... They can be used to reverse blood transfusions to patients during surgery, or they can be sold to the Children of the Moon.

Even the blood preservation technology was kindly provided by the Son of the Moon!

"This blood with preservatives added has a special strange smell. It will greatly reduce the sweetness of the blood in the mouth of the Moon Child, and can only be used as a dry food that can be preserved for a long time. It is probably equivalent to a bucket of mountain spring water delivered to your door - it is definitely fine for quenching thirst or cooking, but if you really want to entertain guests or drink it daily, you have to at least make tea, coffee, stew soup, etc."

However, for the Moon Child, this kind of "ration" is actually equivalent to a "pre-prepared meal".

Aiwass explained: "The truly prestigious Moon Children would definitely not drink this kind of blood. Even buying this cheap blood is a shame for the noble Moon Children. It is mainly used to quench the thirst of those wild Moon Children and those who do not have much status... It is a kind of mutual assistance within the race.

"To put it simply, this blood is for servants to drink. The correct way to use it is to make decorations. For example, a blood fountain, or bathing in blood... But even for these decorations, the noble Moon Son of Iris tends to use living people to make them - this is a symbol of strength for the Moon Son.

“Just like human nobles, they would also make some fakes of their expensive jewelry and wear them on less important occasions to prevent loss and theft. But if other nobles found out that they couldn’t afford the real jewelry, it would be a shame.

"Other nobles also need to buy some blood packs from time to time. This is because the number of blood slaves in their mansions will change. Sometimes they will be consumed, and sometimes they will be sold or given to other nobles. There are also times when they die for various reasons and cannot be replenished in time. At this time, they will stockpile some blood packs just in case.

"But the number of blood packs purchased by the Count of Orleans is very balanced. The number of their blood slaves also changes, and the number of their followers also changes - from a minimum of sixteen to a maximum of twenty-six, but the number of blood packs they purchase is always between one hundred and one hundred and forty, and the fluctuation number is obviously lower than that of all other Moon Son Counts.

"——Therefore, this is the most direct evidence."

(End of this chapter)