I became a vampire princess and then a dragon girl?

Although the Imperial Army will launch an all-out assault on the Vampire defense line once the Judgment War begins, Eve believes that she can end everything before the Imperial Army and the Vampires start a large-scale battle. At that time, they will just go back to their homes, and the war will end perfectly with zero casualties.

What if the devil's followers, those sewer bugs, don't jump out and cause trouble? Although that's unlikely.

§89 Pre-War Meeting

Dang——dang——dang——

The resounding bells echoed over the mobile fortresses, awakening the metal fortresses that had been silent all night and marking the beginning of the last meal before the war.

Every soldier of the empire firmly believed that this day was destined to be engraved in the glorious history of the empire. The iron hoof of the empire finally broke through the blockade of the despicable vampires, and the boundless Western Continent was about to be incorporated into the territory of the empire. They were the creators of this history.

The imperial generals were also making final pre-war confirmations with the elite adventurers they had hired. Everyone in this meeting had the combat power of an imperial general, and the number of people far exceeded Idinas's expectation of ten, reaching the level of twenty. It was no exaggeration to say that all the elite of the human race had gathered here.

"So, after entering the vampire defense circle, if the other side doesn't initiate a judgment battle, we should all concentrate on breaking through the defenses and opening a path for the mobile fortress. Is that a problem?"

After looking around at everyone in the conference room, and finally stopping his gaze on the eight people who were hired, Felum said in a deep voice.

"You have the final say, but according to the agreement we have the right to evacuate if we encounter danger."

One of the people from the Land of Travelers answered as a representative.

Although the reward offered by the wealthy country is very generous, it is still incomparable to one's own life.

This directly leads to the fact that once the situation becomes bad, these eight people will scatter.

Although whether or not he could escape by then was another question.

"No problem, that's what the agreement says. The Empire will be the primary attacker, and you will just provide support."

Although he was somewhat displeased with these guys' lack of sense of responsibility as human beings, Felum nodded expressionlessly.

After all, he was an adventurer who prioritized his own life, so I couldn't ask for more.

It is better to say that if they had so much unnecessary responsibility, most of them would probably not have been able to grow to where they are today.

Unlike the generals who have the support of the empire, their strength and resources are entirely obtained by themselves bit by bit, and only they themselves know the hard work involved.

At this moment, the door of the conference room was suddenly opened by a messenger.

"Emergency report—"

He glanced at the expressions of the adventurers obscurely, praying secretly that it was not some news that would make these fence-sitters change their minds, and said in a deep voice.

"explain."

"Yes! An unknown vampire appeared in front of the Mobile Fortress and challenged our army to a battle of judgment!"

"only one person?"

"Yes!"

"What about your appearance?"

"Silver-haired, short woman."

After hearing the messenger's words, Felum frowned and subconsciously looked at the crystal ball placed beside him, wanting to confirm the whereabouts of the Blood Queen. He reluctantly suppressed his hand movements and continued to ask.

"Did the other party avoid appearing in the sun?"

"It seems he was trying to avoid the sun. After the invitation to the Judgment Battle was issued, he entered the tent he had brought with him."

"How long has it been since the signal for the battle was issued?"

"five minutes."

"Okay, you go down first. Tell all fortresses to prepare. The plan has changed. Let's execute the deadly surprise plan."

Before the war, the Empire had predicted various actions that the vampires might take and made contingency plans, and the current situation was naturally among them.

"Yes!"

After sending the messenger away to convey the order, the first thing Felum did was to activate the crystal ball next to him and show the image inside to everyone.

Although the picture has changed a bit, it is not difficult to see that the Vampire Queen is still fighting with the enemy in the picture. That is to say, the person who appeared in front of the fortress and challenged them to a judgment battle was not the notorious Vampire Queen. But apart from her, who else in the vampire clan would dare to challenge the entire imperial army on his own?

At least not one that Fareham could think of.

But no matter what, what needs to continue must continue.

"Okay, we need to change our plans."

The original advancement plan on the sand table was changed in just a few moves, Felum continued.

"The other party has initiated the Judgment Battle first. The single-point breakthrough plan is invalid. There is less than half an hour left before the Judgment Battle officially begins. Everyone, please make preparations."

According to the rules, after one party initiates an invitation to a referee battle, the other party needs to respond within half an hour, otherwise the battle will automatically turn into a melee meat grinder mode, which is what the imperial generals are trying hard to avoid.

Although the various strange metal creations they use can obviously enhance the combat effectiveness of the soldiers, they are still completely incomparable with the top strong ones.

It's basically the difference between stepping on an ant and stepping on a larger ant.

"...What about the other party's identity? Completely unknown?"

Although Felum told everyone to go back and prepare, only the imperial generals left according to his orders. The few people from the Traveler's Country showed no intention of moving. After looking at each other, everyone continued to ask questions.

"Her silver hair suggests she's related to the royal bloodline. Her courage to come alone suggests she's confident in her own strength. However, her avoidance of sunlight suggests her bloodline isn't pure. This contradicts the previous conclusion and suggests this is a deliberate smokescreen. Therefore, it's up to you to decide whether to join the fight or not. Once you choose, there's no way out."

"..."

After listening to Ferem's analysis, the meeting room fell into silence. Everyone's eyes flickered, as if they were weighing the pros and cons, and seemed to be waiting for one of them to make the first statement.

Although theoretically their hiring fees already included the cost of participating in the arbitration battle, the agreement also stipulated that they could choose to abandon the commission if they deemed the situation critical, and now this unknown enemy was the moment for them to make a decision.

“…I join the fight.”

"Join the war."

As everyone expressed their opinions one after another, Ferem's mood visibly relaxed.

In the end, six of the eight top adventurers from the Traveler Kingdom chose to stay and fight, while two chose to withdraw.

"Sorry, I choose to withdraw. I have a bad feeling. I will refund the commission fee in full."

After bowing their heads and apologizing to Felum, the two adventurers who chose to withdraw left the meeting room saying similar words, casting a faint shadow over everyone's hearts.

As the strongest adventurers in the Kingdom of Travelers, the others were naturally familiar with the situation of those two people.

Both of them had a vague premonition about the near future, and it was very accurate.

Since they have all chosen to quit, shouldn’t they also choose to quit?

"Alright, time is running out. Everyone, go back and prepare. The Empire will pay you extra compensation after the war as a thank you for your help."

Fereham added a little emphasis to the extra two words.

Although he didn't know anything about the two adventurers, Felum was still keenly aware that the atmosphere in the meeting room was not right, and he quickly offered a higher price to stabilize them.

As for the effect...it's immediate.

After hearing about the higher reward, the hesitation on everyone's faces disappeared, and they left the meeting room as agreed to make preparations.

Only Fareham will have to worry about how to explain this considerable expenditure to the finance department.

§90 Judgment before the war

Vampires, inside the Fallen Fortress.

"Order all fortresses to enter combat readiness and implement defensive strategies. I will initiate the adjudication battle and delay the enemy as much as possible until I conclude the battle."

After listening to Idina's report on the imperial army, Eve officially issued the order to prepare for war, and her clothes changed into formal battle robes, looking quite heroic.

"!…yes!"

Faced with Eve's order, although Idina was a little hesitant, she still lowered her head and chose to carry out the order given by Her Royal Highness the Princess.

But rather than saying that Edith believed in Eve's strength, it would be better to say that she believed in Elizabeth's strength and judgment.

Idina's mind was filled with the thought that Her Majesty the Queen would never allow Her Royal Highness the Princess to get into trouble, and that she must have prepared some secret weapon for her.

As Eve's order was issued, the vampire fortress on the Source of Fall became busy and slowly revealed its fangs.

Tens of minutes later...

"Your Highness, the entire Fallen Plains has entered its highest state of combat readiness."

"Well, hard work."

Since it had been speculated long ago that the imperial army would arrive at the vampire defense circle today, Eve's combat readiness order did not take too long to be executed.

While the order was being conveyed, Eve also explained to Istina and the others what they had to do. Basically, it was to assist in defending the vampires, to avoid problems in the defense line that would lead to heavy casualties, and at the same time to slow down the advance of the Imperial Army as much as possible to buy time for her to end the Judgment War. However, they must not obviously show their attitude of not wanting to cause heavy casualties to the Imperial Army.

As the saying goes, those who are favored are fearless. If the imperial army notices this, the war will be over.

"Then I should set off as well."

Standing on the fortress and looking at the metal fortresses connected in a line in the distance, Eve jumped up and then turned into a streak of blood and rushed forward.

"That's about it here."

Not far from the metal fortress, Eve stopped after noticing that the magic cannon on the fortress began to aim at her, and then shot a huge magic mark into the air, representing the sign of initiating the arbitration battle.

On the mark, a countdown is constantly changing numbers, representing the time until the judgment battle begins.

Within half an hour, if the Empire does not respond, then Eve can launch an unrestricted attack on the Empire, entering a meat grinder-like melee. The same applies if the Empire directly attacks her without declaring war.

Being so far away from the vampire defense line, Eve was fully confident that she could stop the entire imperial army on her own.

After sending out the invitation to the arbitration battle, Eve casually took out an extra-large luxury tent from the demiplane and crawled in, ready to welcome the arrival of the combatants from the Empire.

Twenty-five minutes later...

Hearing the footsteps coming from outside, Eve raised her eyebrows. There was something wrong with the number of people. It seemed that there were many more than Idina had expected.

Snapped--

After putting away the tables and chairs that were originally placed in the tent, Eve adjusted her skirt, stood up and looked towards the entrance of the tent.

One, two, three... In the end, there were as many as eighteen people in the tent, making the originally spacious tent seem a little crowded. If Eve had not just put away the tables and chairs, there would probably be no room for everyone to stand.

Twelve of these people were wearing military uniforms of similar styles, and they looked like generals of the empire. The uniforms of two of them were obviously more complicated, and if nothing unexpected happened, they were the great generals of the empire.

As for the fake hero, I didn't see him and I don't know where he went.

The other six people were dressed in unique styles. Eve felt that some of them looked vaguely familiar. They seemed to be very famous adventurers from the Traveler's Country. She didn't expect that the Empire would hire them as well.

After entering the tent, these people stood as far away from Eve as possible and looked at her warily.

"Well, hello everyone."

After performing a perfect vampire ritual, Eve smiled at the people in front of her and introduced herself.

"I am Eve Lesombra, the vampire princess. I am here to entertain you all. I hope you will forgive me if I am not doing my best."

"Oh, that sounds nice, but not even preparing a seat is the vampire way of hospitality?"

After hearing what Eve said, the yellow-haired Samuel sneered coldly.

"This is indeed my negligence."

Facing Samuel's ridicule, Eve nodded slightly, then glanced at the people in front of her one by one, and said with a smile.

"After all, I didn't expect you all to be so enthusiastic, so I didn't prepare enough seats. Obviously, I'm just one person."

"you!"

Samuel became furious after hearing Eve's words which were obviously suggestive, but before he could say anything, he was suppressed by Felum.

"Your Highness, please do not provoke a junior with your status."

"A young man with the strength of an imperial general?"

As if she had heard a funny joke, the smile on Eve's face suddenly became even more intense, which completely angered Samuel. But before he could get angry, Eve shook her head and continued.

"But since the Second Sun General has said so, I will treat it as a matter of the younger generation."

"It's just a name from others, not worth mentioning. Instead of that, Princess, why don't you start the judging battle?"