POV Victor.
As I looked at the ceiling of the ice castle I created, some random thoughts came to my mind.
When was the first time I met Ruby...?
When was it?
Yes...
When was it?
If I remember correctly.
The first time I met Ruby was when she was cornered by the hunters. I remember in the past, I learned about Ruby from Kaguya.
At that time, I had no idea who Ruby was, but I had this 'feeling' of closeness with her; I think it was because of the wedding ritual?
... Wrong... The first time maybe it was because of the ritual, but over time, it developed into something more.
Although I didn't spend as much time with her as I did with Scathach, with whom I spent 6 months training alongside, I was able to understand Ruby a little more.
Could I understand her, and in understanding her, I could love her?
Loving her, protecting her from all harm, as if it were a wedding vow...
Yes... How is a marriage vow unbreakable? Something like a vow of eternal love?
But...
Why?
'Why what?'
Why do I have this possessive desire to never let go of her?
'Strange, why is it like that...'
Indeed.
Victor's eyes slowly started to lose life, and more thoughts started to pop into his mind.
I don't know everything about Ruby, and the same goes for Violet and Sasha.
Violet had apparently known me in the past, but I haven't had the opportunity to find out about it.
Ruby had been kidnapped in the past, and because of that kidnapping, Scathach had destroyed a country.
Sasha had a rough childhood, but Julia was there for her, and I don't fully know her past.
Even though we're married, I don't know them completely, and it annoys me...
'Why?'
I need to know everything I need to know so that in the future, I can protect them.
'Protect them from whom?'
From me?
'From us?'
From all...
'apologies made by a fool.'
Perhaps...
'In the end, you are like Violet.'
Violet... My dear Violet, a very passionate woman who is willing to burn the world for me.
A good woman indeed...
I'm like that...?
Thinking about the feeling of destroying everything when someone ambushed Sasha, I couldn't help but agree with myself.
Yes, I am like that.
'Of course.'
You don't need to talk to me.
'I'm here for this.'
Nosy.
'HAHAHAHA~'
Tsk...
Slowly my eyes started to close, and I soon found myself in a world completely made of blood.
I looked at the distorted creature in front of me that had no shape, the only notable features being its blood-red eyes and sharp teeth.
"I saw what you did to that hunter." I spoke in a neutral tone as my smile widened in the same way the creature's did.
"He deserved it, he did something unforgivable..." He pointed his shapeless finger at me and said:
"He touched a dragon's hoard, and everyone knows what happens when an intruder touches a dragon's hoard." His smile grew even wider, and we spoke at the same time:
""They Burn.""
Our smiles increased, and as if synchronized:
"HAHAHAHAHAHA~!" We started laughing, and our laughter seemed to echo throughout the room.
Suddenly, I stopped laughing and said:
"How rude of you to call me Dragon, I'm a vampire, you know?"
He stopped laughing too and looked at me, "Alucard... it's the written form of Dracula in reverse, and do you know what Dracula means?"
"Of course, it means dragon..."
"Oh..." I finally understood what he was getting at.
"See? It is not incorrect to say that you are a dragon, considering you are an 'Alucard'." He laughed a little.
"Indeed." I couldn't help but nod my head in agreement with this being's words.
I looked at him intently and started to think.
It all started when I was training. When I first released my blood vampire Count form, I heard the sounds of chains breaking.
I didn't find it weird on that day. I thought it was something normal, and I had a significant increase in power that day.
And as time went by, while I was training with Scathach, my master said that because I had too much power, it was getting in the way of my progress, and because of that, she gave me a gift that was these gloves that I am wearing now.
But... From that day on, I became aware of this creature living inside me.
At first, it didn't respond, but... When I released the blood count form again in the fight against Natasha and when I started to absorb blood from other beings, I heard it again, the noise of chains breaking as if a beast was being released from its cage.
He calls himself 'Us'.
He is me, and I am him. Half of myself was in front of me, a half that didn't join the 'me' because my body and soul couldn't take it.
.
.
.
Now that I think about it, isn't he a lot like that figure in the painting?
And he's also very similar to Vlad, the first encounter I had with him, he was in a similar shape to that.
Although, I could observe that the characteristics of this being in front of me were very different from Vlad's.
Is he more like me...?
What a strange feeling...
"If it continues like this, it won't take long for us to come together, I think about 300 years?"
'Hmm?' I look at the creature.
'To unite, huh?' I thought neutrally, he's been saying this since I first met him, and then I replied:
"Is that a short time?" My eyes twitched a little.
"Of course. We are immortal, for us, that is like 3 years."
"'Immortal, until a hunter drives a stake up your ass while screaming for god." I rolled my eyes.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA~, indeed, indeed!" He seemed to find this quite funny.
"If there is one creature that is immortal, I'm pretty sure that creature isn't a vampire." I spoke as I created a throne of blood and sat down in a relaxed way as I rested my head on my arm.
I looked at the view of the world around me, and I couldn't help but think that this view was very similar to the way I viewed the world when using my eye powers.
I looked up to the sky, and I saw the magic symbol that matched the gloves I was wearing.
"…Hahahaha~, that I can agree with you." He disappeared and then reappeared beside me.
He looked at the symbol in the sky alongside me, and a silence fell on the place, and soon he said:
"Everyone in this world has secrets." He started to speak.
"Your wives, your mother, your father, your mothers-in-law, and even you."
"...That's obvious, what's the point of telling me that?"
"..." His smile grew, and he pointed at me, "We are your secret."
"..." I couldn't deny that fact. After all, it's something I haven't told anyone.
"We are your secret, we are your motivation, we are your destiny, and at the same time… We are you." For a few seconds, his image resembled mine, but then it faded and became something distorted like before.
He snapped his finger, and images of the battles I've fought began to appear in the sky.
"Tell me, do you know the difference between you and these worms?" He spoke while looking at the hybrids.
"...Am I a noble vampire?" I said something random.
"Tsk, Tsk. Wrong." He snapped his finger again, and an image of the girls teaching me about vampires appeared.
"Do you remember? When a vampire bites a human and does the ritual, they turn into slave vampires."
"Slave vampires cannot make noble vampires."
"Vampire slaves do not inherit the powers of three houses of vampire Counts."
"But with us, it was different."
"The blood of the Night King runs through our veins."
"RH Null Blood." I said, because of this blood, my life has completely changed.
His smile grew a little, and he said, "...Our race is connected by blood."
"And the creatures of the night are connected to the Night King..."
He started floating towards the magic circle in the sky:
"And we are the beginning and the end of everything…" He looked at the magic circle for a few seconds and then looked at me, "I think you already know the answer yourself, right? After all, you yourself said the answer a few days ago."
"... Who knows?" I flashed a small smile as I closed my eyes.
"HAHAHAHAHA~, you're learning! This is a good thing!"
"Anyway, I have to go. If you want to traumatize some motherfuckers who dare tamper with your treasures, just have them pay me a visit." He flashed a big smile that showed off all of his sharp teeth.
"How scary~." I played around a bit.
"Not as much as you. I remember the face your enemies make when facing Count Alucard."
My smile grows, "I learned from the best."
"Indeed, we learned from the best..."
With the same smile on my face, I got up from the throne of blood, turned around, and started walking. Then, as I walked away, I said:
"See you later."
...
"Hmm?" Victor opened his eyes, and he was on a block of ice that looked like a bed.
"You woke up, Darling." Ruby spoke with a gentle smile as she was sitting next to Victor's bed and seemed to be watching him silently.
"I slept?"
"Yes, you looked very tired."
"Oh..." For a few seconds, he looked very stunned, while he seemed to be thinking about a few things:
'Did I sleep without realizing it?' He felt weird. No matter how much he used his powers, he never got tired to the point of sleep, he just needed a few minutes of rest and some blood, and he would be 100% again.
'Oh...Blood, huh?' Come to think of it, he hadn't eaten in two days.
"Are you okay?" Ruby asked in the same gentle tone.
"Yes, I'm just tired." He flashed a small smile and then sat up on the ice bed.
"Ugh, a bed of ice isn't very nice..."
"Indeed. I still prefer my mattresses." Ruby laughed. Even though she didn't suffer from the cold, she still preferred the 'comfort' of modern life.
"Oh, you didn't like my present?" Victor spoke in a somewhat sad tone of voice.
"…Eh?"
"I see, if I had known that, I would have taken you somewhere else." Victor looked at the ceiling and seemed to be thinking about a few things:
"Oh well, I'll just destroy all of this, and we'll go somewhere else!"
"W-wait!" Ruby held Victor's hand very tightly.
"Hmm?" He flashed a small innocent smile.
"I love this place! Do not destroy it!" How could she not like it? This was Victor's gift to her.
EXCLUSIVELY for her.
She loved her gift!
And she was no fool, she saw that Victor put all his heart into it, after all, this castle had everything she liked...
A big lab, a big empty room full of bookshelves that was made to accommodate several teddy bears.
Including an entire area dedicated only to anime, manga, and everything related to it...
And he did it all with ancient architecture as if it were an ice queen's castle.
She loved it!
But the question that was on her mind was: how was she going to use this location? After all, she was at the North Pole! The signal here sucked, there was no internet, and computers wouldn't work here because of the cold.
'Oh... I can use magic .' She should just hire a witch, and voilà! All her problems would be solved.
Coincidentally, she had a witch at her disposal 24 hours a day.
As she thought about it with her head, she said:
"Please don't destroy this place..."
"Why?" Victor's smile grew a little.
She knew she was being teased when she saw his face, and it made her even more ashamed, but even so, she said:
"...Because I love it."
"...What?" Victor put his hand to his ear as if he had not been listening properly.
"Repeat that again, please."
"Ugh..." Ruby made a hard face, that bastard...
"I see, I will destroy it!"
"Wait!" She gripped Victor's arm tighter than before.
"Hmm?"
"...D-Don't destroy...-" Her face turned pure red, she didn't want to say it, but she took a deep breath and said, "DON'T DESTROY THIS PLACE, I LOVE YOUR GIFT!"
"OHHH, I see, I see." He nodded several times while making a satisfied smile, "So you do love it so much."
"Y-Yeah..." She turned her face away. She didn't want to look at him right now! That bastard!
"I'm glad you love it."
"..." Ruby didn't look at Victor and seemed to find the bedroom window quite interesting.
She felt an arm wrap around her body, and, suddenly, she was pulled towards Victor.
"E-Eh?" She was a little surprised when she saw that her head was on Victor's chest.
Seeing that, Ruby's face turned red, and her body started shaking a little.
"Hey? Aren't you bold? I remember you woke up naked with me the day we met."
"What are you talking about... I don't remember that..." She said in a sulky tone.
"Hahaha, don't worry... We have five more days to remind you."
"...What are you planning to do to me...?" She asked in a tone of fear, but one that contained a little bit of expectation.
Victor lifted Ruby's chin and spoke with a gentle smile and empty, lifeless eyes:
"Many things... Many, many things~." He caressed Ruby's cheek, which trembled a little at his touch, and slowly their faces drew closer.
"Darling~..."
And as if they were under two very powerful attractive forces, the two lips connected.
...
