"Well..."
June made a difficult face like it was a very troublesome subject to talk about and seemed to have discovered something very important.
Gulp.
Somehow Sasha, Violet, and Ruby got anxious when they saw June's face, wondering what she found out.
"I didn't find anything." She made an apologetic smile.
"…" All the women were silent, thinking they had heard wrong.
"Sorry, but... what did you say?" Violet asked.
"…" June didn't answer Violet's question. Instead, she quickly turned her face away and ignored the woman's sharp eyes, as their gazes seemed like they were creating holes in June's body.
"Ara, Ara..."
June's whole body shook when she heard Natalia's voice.
Gulp.
She swallowed hard and slowly turned her head toward Natalia.
"Did you say you didn't find anything? Even after you received that ridiculous amount of money?"
"Hiii," Natalia's look terrified June a lot.
"Perhaps I should report this matter to the witches..." She touched her cheek innocently.
Although witches charged dearly for a service, they had strict work policies. If a witch failed in a job that she said she could complete, the punishment was very severe.
In some cases, if the witch failed to achieve the results required of her work, they were never seen in the human world again.
"…" June broke out in a cold sweat when she saw Natalia's gentle smile.
"I wonder what the witches would do to you when they hear of your sloppy work, fufufufu."
"W-Wait." June hid behind the sofa and looked at Natalia, who had started to walk towards her.
"Do not do this! I was kidding! I discovered something!"
"Oh...?" Natalia kept smiling, as she looked at June with an expression that said: what are you waiting for? Speak up soon!
"...I haven't been able to discover any visible irregularities with Clan Horseman...But."
"I heard this." She got up from behind the couch and took a device from her pocket. She placed that device on the floor, and then a little magic circle was formed on the floor.
The women approached June and looked at the device:
"Is this a spy device?" Natalia asked.
"Yes, I couldn't record images, but I recorded some interesting audio."
A small blue sphere appeared on top of the device, and soon audio began to come out of the device.
"Tsk, failed again." It sounded like a man's voice, but his voice was distorted.
"I wonder what we're doing wrong." It was a woman's voice.
"Does not matter! We need to demonstrate results!" The man sounded terrified.
"I do not want to die…"
"Are you scared to die? Pathetic." The woman spoke with disdain,
"Shut up!"
"All things die, this is inevitable. Perfect immortality is just an illusion of people who refuse to see reality." The woman spoke in a neutral tone, "Even the king of all vampires is not immortal."
"...Stop talking about philosophical things! What happened to Number 0?" The man seemed to change the subject.
"We haven't found it yet." The woman continued in the same neutral tone.
"Ugh, she was perfect…" The man looked disappointed.
"I wonder what-." Suddenly the man stopped talking.
BOOOOOOOOM!
And an explosion occurred.
Soon the device's magic circle disappears, indicating that the audio had ended.
"I don't know how this is possible, but they managed to feel my presence. The explosion you heard was them attacking me." June made a hard face since she realized she screwed up. After all, now they were bound to be more careful with the presence of enemies.
'I hope they don't ask me to do this job again; it smells like something rotten... I don't want to risk myself for nothing. What's the point of getting money if you can't use it?' June thought.
"Were you wearing enchanted clothes?" Natalia asked in a neutral tone.
June woke up from her thoughts and looked at Natalia:
"Yes, and it wasn't just any outfit. It was one of the most expensive outfits available, the ones made by our queen's daughter. It should have been impossible for anyone to detect me wearing these clothes."
June is still crying internally when she paid that ridiculous amount of money; 'Ugh, I know the product is good, but why is it so expensive? This is price inflation!' She didn't even realize she was being a hypocrite now.
"My Darling could do that." Sasha flashed a sneaky little smile.
"That's because he's abnormal!" June growled.
"Hmm... The keywords of this conversation are: Number 0. She was perfect. The result failed." Ruby, who was thinking about what she heard, just said.
"..." The women looked at Ruby, who was deep in thought.
"What are you thinking of, Ruby?" Violet asked curiously.
"...I'm still not sure, I need more information...June, I'm going to borrow this device." Ruby suddenly stood up, walked towards the device, and took it. She seemed interested in this subject.
"Hmm? Where are you going?"
"Visiting an acquaintance," Ruby spoke in a neutral tone.
"Wait, you can't go out alone!" Violet spoke.
Ruby's eyes twitched, "...Are you treating me like a child?"
"I am not. I trust you, and I know you're strong, but at least take a maid for company." Violet turned her face away, and then she continued, "You know that if anything were to happen to you, and Darling and Scathach were to find out…. this world would burn... And we'd help them do so as well."
"..." Ruby displayed a gentle smile, "You're right, I can't worry my family, can I?"
"..." Sasha and Violet flashed a small smile when they heard Ruby's words.
"Natalia, go with Ruby, you seem interested in the subject." Violet walked towards the sofa and sat down elegantly.
"...Yes, Lady Violet." Natalia was a little surprised that Violet noticed her interest in this subject. 'I'm sure I didn't show any emotion on my face... That's weird, she usually only cares about Victor. Is she now paying more attention to me?'
"To think that I would have someone from Clan Alioth protecting me, that's an honor."
"Ara." Natalia flashed a gentle smile, "Protecting someone from Clan Scarlett is a great honor, you know? After all, everyone wants to be on Scathach's good side... And the new Count Alucard."
"Heh~" Ruby's eyes glowed red for a few seconds, then she turned her face away and said, "Let's go."
"...?" Natalia didn't understand Ruby's reaction.
"Yes, Lady Ruby."
"..." Sasha kept watching Ruby and Natalia's back until she turned to Violet, "What do you think they'll do?"
"I don't know, and I don't care." Violet says, then she continued, "Ruby never does anything without purpose. She's probably only interested in this subject because of you."
"...I see." Sasha displayed a small, gentle smile.
"Hmm." Somehow Sasha was feeling restless; she didn't like to do nothing while her friend was off working. "I'll go out too."
"Okay," Violet replied in a disinterested way.
"...Aren't you going to ask where I'm going?"
Violet looked at Sasha with eyes dark as black holes, "Are you going to need any help?"
"Hmm...not that I know of," Sasha spoke after thinking for a while.
"Then it's settled." Violet turned her face away and continued, "Just be careful out there. Even though you don't like her, I recommend you take Maria. I don't need to say what will happen if something happens to you, right?"
"Yes..." Sasha nodded her head in agreement. She knew that if something happened to her, Victor would freak out, literally speaking. She then continued, "And that's a good idea, I'll take Maria."
Sasha got up from the couch, and she looked at one place, her eyes starting to glow blood red:
"Maria!" Sasha yelled, her voice like a lightning rumble.
"Yes!" She heard Maria's voice.
"…Why are you imitating Scathach and Darling? Can't you call her the normal way?" Violet spoke in an annoyed tone as she covered her ears.
"Oh... There is that option too."
...
Around afternoon, Victor came out of training.
"Hmm..." He was walking in just a pair of black shorts that looked to be badly burned. His suit had long since been destroyed, and all that was left was this little piece of clothing. "I need sturdier clothes, the clothes Scathach gave me can't withstand all my power."
He was speaking his thoughts out loud, "I can use the money I earned to make 10 pairs of clothes, the problem is finding a trustworthy witch who won't steal from me."
Victor knew that the witch's wares were way above what they really should be, and good prices depended on the connection you had with a particular witch.
"Have you made any progress today, master?" Kaguya, who was walking beside Victor, asked.
"Umu?" Victor looked at Kaguya:
"I made little progress, considering I don't know what to train..."
"What do you mean?" Kaguya didn't understand.
"The power of ice is very different from the power of fire." Victor looked ahead and continued explaining, "And when I trained my ice power, Scathach taught me personally. She was very proficient in ice control, and in teaching people. Because of that, I was able to evolve more quickly." Victor points his palm up and starts creating ice sculptures:
"Look, I just need to imagine, and I can do it."
Kaguya looked at the sculpture of Scathach, Violet, Ruby, and Sasha with awed eyes.
The ice sculptures looked exactly like the real ones.
As she looked at the sculpture, Kaguya thought, 'It doesn't work that way, even if the teacher is proficient in teaching, you don't learn something at that level that quickly if you don't have the talent.' But she didn't say it out loud.
"I see... So you need a teacher?"
"I don't need a teacher."
"Eh...?" Kaguya didn't understand.
"I need an experienced opponent who knows how to control the power of fire. If I were to fight against this opponent, I feel I could improve at a rate faster than what simple training can provide..."
The reason he thought this was because that was the feeling he had when trained/fought with Scathach. He evolved better through battle.
"Ah..." She understood now. After thinking for a moment, she said, "In that case, how about Hilda?" she suggested.
"Hilda, are you talking about the Chief maid of Clan Snow?" Victor remembered hearing about her from Violet.
"Yes. She is a vampire who is about the same age as Agnes, and she is very proficient in the power of fire."
"Oh?" Victor's eyes gleamed with interest, "I wonder what I have to do to get her to help me."
"It's hard to know. Unlike other maids like Yuki. Hilda only accepts orders from Countess Agnes."
"Hmm, I think I'm going to ask Violet for help."
"That might work."
....
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