After Jeanne contacted them through a dedicated communication line, it did not take long for a team of teens of both men and women to appear in another city and rendezvous with the two of them.
Looking at the group in front of him, all still wearing school uniforms, Rod said, "I've had a question for a very long time. Does the Hero Faction specialize in recruiting child labor?"
"This was all Cao Cao's doing."
In the past, Jeanne had never felt there was anything wrong with recruiting these young people.
But after the bloody reality of the blood factories had been placed before her eyes, she realized that even she, an adult, might not have truly been prepared to become a hero.
So how could these children, only fifteen or sixteen years old, possibly do better than her?
These young people were nothing more than children Cao Cao had deceived with grand ambitions and false promises of the future.
Even being descendants of heroes did not change that.
"Lady Jeanne, did you call us here urgently because something important happened?"
The one who spoke first was a girl with a high ponytail. Her attitude toward Jeanne was extremely respectful.
Even among heroes, there were ranks.
Aside from descendants of widely known great heroes, most members of the Hero Faction were merely descendants of obscure, nameless figures.
They had only been invited to join the Hero Faction because they had awakened Sacred Gears.
Jeanne came back to herself and asked, "Cao Cao should have assigned you a mission to attack the Greek mythological faction, correct?"
Hearing that, the high-ponytailed girl looked puzzled.
"Yes. Is there a problem?"
"That mission is canceled. I'm assigning you a new one."
"Huh?"
"But that was Lord Cao Cao's order..."
The group was clearly confused by Jeanne's words.
Recently, the Hero Faction had been divided into more than a dozen teams to attack mythological forces all over the world, using those battles to strengthen and improve their Sacred Gears.
Their team had originally planned to attack one of the Greek mythological faction's branch organizations, but they had received Jeanne's order midway and gathered here instead.
Now, hearing that she wanted them to stop the attack, they were filled with confusion.
Compared to Jeanne, they were clearly more inclined to obey Cao Cao's commands.
Jeanne looked at her companions, who were now doubting her, and a helpless expression appeared on her face.
However, she had once been just like them, so she knew what kind of words would best persuade them.
"If you want to become true heroes, then listen to what I have to say."
After saying that, Jeanne did not give them any further chance to question her. She directly told them the truth about Romania being filled with blood factories.
Jeanne was not highly educated. She did not embellish the story, nor did she pile on flowery language. She merely described what she had seen in plain words.
But precisely because of that, the unadorned account felt even more real and even more terrifying.
When the bloody reality was placed before their eyes, all of them became filled with righteous indignation, as though they had been injected with adrenaline. They looked as if they wanted nothing more than to tear those vampires who plagued the human world apart with their bare hands.
Back then, Cao Cao had only needed a few words to make them join the Hero Faction without hesitation.
Now that they were seeing something happening in reality before their eyes, they would only become even more determined.
What happened next no longer required much participation from Rod or Jeanne.
After Rod gave them the coordinates of the blood factories, these people immediately rushed toward their targets without stopping.
Over the following days, Rod and Jeanne led the Hero Faction members in destroying one blood factory after another.
When only a few remained, the vampires seemed to have received advance warning and sent large numbers of people to protect the factories.
But all of that effort was useless.
Those High-Class Vampires could not stop Rod.
In fact, even Jeanne could deal with them in just a few moves.
After all, Jeanne's Sacred Gear was Sword Birth, and it had a natural advantage against dark races like vampires.
The Sacred Gears possessed by the others were not weak either, so the vampires' defensive forces collapsed completely.
In just a few days, every blood factory in Romania was completely uprooted.
[Mission "Rescue the Hostages" completed.]
[Reward calculation complete.]
[Jeanne Affection +50, Hero Faction Reputation +30, Master Balls x5.]
"Master Balls? So now I can capture higher-level Pokémon?"
Rod was somewhat surprised.
In other words, ordinary Poké Balls could probably only capture weaker non-human species.
Rod had originally considered capturing a few vampires, but after thinking about it, he gave up on that idea.
Using such precious items on vampires would be far too wasteful.
At that moment, Jeanne walked over.
"All the vampires' blood factories have now been destroyed. They're asking me whether there will be any follow-up operations."
"Follow-up? There's no follow-up."
Rod spread his hands.
The system had not issued any follow-up missions yet, so there was nothing he could do.
"I see. But they're all full of motivation right now. They don't seem to want to rest at all."
Jeanne gave a helpless smile.
"Don't they still have their terrorist attack missions?"
In the past, members of the Hero Faction definitely would not have considered attacking mythological forces an act of terrorism.
But now, after receiving gratitude and a sense of salvation from the ordinary people they had rescued, the Hero Faction members Jeanne had called over were no longer very interested in attacking mythological factions.
At the very least, these past few days of action had shown them another side of the world, and they had gained many things from it.
Those gains were things they could never have obtained by attacking mythological factions.
More than that, even their own strength had been improving rapidly.
Far faster than when they fought against mythological forces.
"We discussed it for a long time and have decided not to attack any mythological faction strongholds anymore."
At that moment, the high-ponytailed girl smiled at Rod.
In the past, they had blindly believed in Cao Cao's orders.
But now, they felt that only by following the man before them could they truly find the meaning of being heroes.
"So please continue guiding us forward on the path to becoming heroes."
"???"
So I became their mentor just like that?
Rod thought for a moment, then said, "Then I'll give you another task. Keep an eye on the vampire cities. With so many blood factories destroyed, they'll definitely make another move sooner or later."
There was clearly still more plot to be triggered on the vampire side.
Since these young people were so enthusiastic, Rod simply assigned them a surveillance mission.
That way, when the time came, he might be able to trigger a new mission through a message without even having to show up personally.
"Yes!"
Their answer was full of energy.
After the group dispersed,
Jeanne walked forward with a smile.
"It looks like they've already started treating you as their pillar of support. Their eyes were shining whenever they looked at you."
Shining?
A creepy glow, huh?
Hearing that, Rod thought for several seconds before asking, "Why did you suddenly call them over?"
Jeanne's lips curved into a faint smile.
"Nothing much. I just felt that compared to Cao Cao, you are far more qualified to lead the Hero Faction."