...
Seeing Niklaus leave the arena, Scathach looked at Agnes, and she stepped towards the woman and disappeared from the platform where she was and appeared next to Agnes.
"In the end, we just did useless work." Agnes spoke with a neutral face as she looked at the man leaving.
"This piece of shit is hiding his power, thinking he can deceive us." Agnes continued.
Agnes narrowed her eyes even more when she remembered the power she felt at the moment when Niklaus was going to finish Natashia. For a few seconds, she felt a power that forced her to leave her place and close the entire royal capital.
"What is the king thinking of setting this man free?" Agnes spoke aloud. If it were another time, this man would already be dead.
"Indeed, that's the question we should ask... What is this motherfucker thinking?"
"..." Agnes looked at Scathach, and when she saw the woman's face, she swallowed hard.
Gulp.
"You're angry..."
Scathach looked at Agnes with a neutral look, "It's your imagination, I'm normal."
Agnes was silent as she started to think while feeling like she had seen Scathach angry like this in the past.
... Thinking back, she recalled an incident that happened a thousand years ago, and when she thought of Victor's hair growing so much, her mind connected the dots.
"He did it again, huh?"
"...Yes."
"He did... And this time, with my Daughter... That piece of shit." Scathach spoke and then disappeared.
"Well, I think I'll get out of here before things catch fire... I mean, everything freezes." Agnes spoke aloud to herself. She looked at Niklaus for a few seconds and then thought:
'The king was planning something today, and as usual, he didn't tell anyone. If I hadn't dealt with these kinds of beings before, I wouldn't have known what I was dealing with...' Her face became annoyed.
'I do not like this.' Despite being 'subordinate' to Vlad, Agnes didn't like that feeling...
The feeling of not knowing anything... And of being used.
She looked at the king who had risen from the throne he had created and then looked at the king's eldest sons.
"..." Her eyes narrowed a little as she looked at the two oldest children, but soon she turned her face away and disappeared from the pillar she was standing on.
...
Victor appeared in his cabin along with Natashia.
"Darling!!
A white rocket flew towards Victor.
And a golden rocket flew towards Natashia.
"Oya?" Natashia laughed and opened her arms.
Victor flashed a loving smile while copying Natashia's actions.
When Violet fell into his arms, he gently hugged the woman.
The same happened to Sasha with Natashia.
"Mother, I was so worried..." She hugged the woman even more.
"...I'm sorry, daughter..." She could only say that since she wasn't very good with this kind of situation, but she felt very happy the moment she saw her daughter in her arms.
Feeling the long white-haired woman on his arm, Victor's expression became solemn.
"Father...?" Ophis looked at Victor strangely, and no one knew what was going through the little girl's head.
"Darling...?" She felt strange when she felt Victor's emotions.
"I missed you... A lot, a lot... I really missed you..."
Violet looked at Victor's expression, "Darling..."
Violet was the woman who knew Victor the longest. She had watched him since he was a human; before everyone knew Victor, she already knew him, the woman who knew both versions of Victor.
The human version and the vampire version... The woman who turned Victor into a vampire.
And even this woman... She'd never seen Victor make that kind of expression.
A somewhat desolate and depressed expression, and at the same time... A happy expression. It was as if he were a man who lost everything and regained everything again.
"...." Violet was silent while she hugged Victor gently, she didn't know the cause of Victor's emotions, but she knew something...
He needed her now, and she would give all her love to him... Just like it always was.
Sasha, who was next to Natashia, looked at Ruby, "Ruby, tell us what happened..."
"Let my mother arrive, I'll explain...-"
"No need. I already have more or less an idea of ''what happened." Scathach suddenly appeared.
"..." The two women looked at each other for a while.
"I think it's been a while since we've seen each other, daughter..." She spoke those words carefully.
"..." Ruby just walked towards her mother and hugged her gently.
Scathach hugged her daughter, she closed her eyes. As she felt tiny tears fall to her chest, a rising hatred began to swell in her stomach, but she knew this was not the time to show that hatred... not yet.
She asked in a gentle tone:
"How long was it?"
"As expected of you, I think... Mother..." Ruby flashed a small smile as she pulled away from her mother and wiped her face a little, which was a bit watery.
She looked at her mother and said, "One year... To be more specific, one year and six months."
"I see..." Inwardly, Scathach was relieved that it wasn't as long a time as what she'd been through.
She looked at Natalia for a few seconds.
The maid only showed a small smile.
"Were you a part of it?" Scathach narrowed her eyes.
"No. I didn't know that, I just came to realize what happened when my father told me." She was completely honest, "When I heard what happened, I immediately went to help him..."
Natalia swallowed hard as she remembered the mood Victor was in when he was found by her... If she were to try to say it, she wouldn't be surprised if when she returned to the human world, she saw all of Earth burned.
'But thanks to Lady Ruby, that didn't happen...' She thought that if Victor were alone, a scenario like this wouldn't be completely impossible.
"I see... That's good."
"...Scathach, can you enlighten us-." Adonis wanted to ask Scathach to explain what happened, but Scathach just looked at the man and the people who weren't part of the 'family' and spoke.
The people being, Ophis, Eleanor, Adonis, including Natalia...
"All of you... Leave now."
"..."The three sisters swallowed hard when they heard her mother's tone, it was a tone they knew very well.
To avoid making Scathach more irritated and to understand the situation, the three sisters kept silent, watching everything.
"... Okay." The people Scathach looked at could only agree.
"But..." Ophis made a face that didn't want to leave.
"Ophis and Eleanor can stay... Including Natalia." Victor suddenly spoke, as his eyes returned to the same cold and indifferent feeling, very different from what people were used to seeing, "But you, my father-in-law..."
"You should go... After all, you have someone waiting for you, right?" The moment Victor said that Agnes appeared in the room.
"Boy...-" Agnes looked like she was about to say something.
"Stop." But Victor interrupted the woman with just one word.
Agnes felt her body shake for a few seconds when she saw Victor's lifeless gaze:
"No matter what you say, my mind won't change today..."
"I've gained two enemies... And nothing you tell me will change that."
"..." Adonis opened his eyes wide when he heard Victor's statement, while his eyes seemed to glow violet for a few seconds.
Agnes saw it out of the corner of her eye, and she thought they should get out of here right away, but before she did, she said,
"I hope you know what it means to say that to me..."
"I do not care." He spoke in a simple, easy-to-understand tone.
"I see...-"Agnes looked like she was going to keep talking.
"It's no use... Agnes, what would happen if you were prevented from seeing me by someone for 1 year and six months?" He didn't know exactly what happened, but he did know that Victor hadn't seen his wives during that time. He could more or less deduce that from Scathach's conversation.
Agnes' eyes turned lifeless, "I would kill that person."
"Oh..." Agnes' eyes opened, and she finally understood Victor's motives...
She flashed a small smile since she finally understood that he was just like her and Violet.
"I see... Well, good luck. You will need it."
"...Thanks."
...
Three days later.
In Vlad's throne room.
"The duel was a disaster." Vlad spoke in a simple tone to the man beside him.
"Yes, all the traps we set up, but... It didn't work." Alexios spoke.
"Tsk, it's annoying to deal with traitors, they always hide like the plague." Vlad wasn't an idiot. He knew that one of his sons was part of the traitors he was talking about.
But... His son wasn't the leader of the group that he could be sure of, and so, because of that, there was no point in killing his own son.
If there was one thing Vlad had never forgiven in his entire existence, it was traitors, and it didn't matter if they're of his own blood or not.
'If Niklaus had fallen into the trap, I might have known which group he and my son were working with.' Vlad simply had too many enemies, and if he were to count how many enemies wanted his head... The number would be countless.
The problem with everything was that these enemies hid like mice.
'My son doesn't know who they are... Neither does Niklaus... Who am I dealing with?' For Vlad, who had his vampiric Charm, it was quite easy to extract information, but, even using it on the two men, he found nothing.
Whoever was targeting him, this being was careful...
Alexios continued in a sympathetic tone, "You even sacrificed the friendship of your 'friend' to catch the traitors..."
"...?" Vlad looked at Alexios.
"What are you talking about?"
"...I speak of the actions of making me close the gates of this world to Count Alucard and making me mess with the time of this world." Alexios explained what he was talking about.
"Oh... that?" Vlad seemed to think for a while.
"Sigh..." He sighed visibly.
"Honestly, I expected him to stay outside longer... Who would have thought he would find a way to come back to this world in just one year?"
"My King, you are wrong."
"Huh?"
"He didn't find a way... My daughter helped him." Alexios corrected Vlad.
"Natalia?"
"But my spies said she was with Victor's group the whole time?"
"... How can I say she is far more talented than I am in wielding our power." Alexios flashed a small, proud smile.
Vlad narrowed his eyes, "...Did you help her?" It was the only thought he could have. After all, only the Alioth Clan leader had the 'keys' to the door of this world.
"Yes." Alexios didn't deny Vlad's words.
"...why?" The thought of Alexios' betrayal never crossed Vlad's mind, so he just wanted to understand his right-hand man's motives for doing so.
"My king, you always forget one fact."
"..." Vlad continued watching Alexios.
"The difference in time perspective from you to others is different."
"For you, a year may mean nothing, but for Alucard, who was a human until recently..."
"A year is a lot..."
"..." Vlad was silent.
"You forbade that man from seeing his loved ones, a man whose greatest treasures are his wives. I wouldn't be surprised if he was angry with you." Alexios explained.
As the king's advisor, it was his duty to point out what Vlad did wrong.
The man may be an ancient vampire, the progenitor of a race, but even he was flawed.
Ironically, this being's fault was that he was himself. After all, how could a god understand a human's feelings? How could a god understand the complexity of beings that, for him, are like ants? Because of this, for generations and generations, Vlad's advisors had always been human.
Vlad needed a human advisor, someone who would give him a different point of view to understand 'lesser beings' because...
This monster really did have a knack for making enemies.
'The consequences of always being on top, huh?' Alexios thought about that when he saw this whole chaotic situation.
"..." Vlad thought about Alexios' words, and he could see several spots where he went wrong, but overall it was not a big problem. It was nothing that time could not fix.
"Anyway, my king. Why did you ask me to leave Count Alucard out of this?"
"... If everything I planned went right today, that man's presence would have jeopardized all my plans since he is very unpredictable."
"..." Alexios was speechless.
Just for that!?
Sigh...
"And why did you ask me to change the time of this world compared to Earth's?"
"Well, he was on a date, right? He probably wanted more time to spend with his wife... and in doing so, he would forget about this game a little bit."
Are you fucking serious?
A vein popped in Alexios' head.
"Couldn't Master just... politely ask him to stay away?" He spoke in a respectful tone.
"I...? Ask someone...?" This time it was Vlad's turn to be speechless.
"Yes, it's not difficult... Just go to his house, and say, 'This and that will happen, don't interfere.'"
"..." Vlad looked at Alexios with a look as if he was looking at a fool:
"Alexios, I am a king. I'm not an errand boy."
Alexios facepalmed.
"Master... Have you been ruling so long that you've forgotten how to interact with people?"
"... What are you talking about?"
"Ugh..."
"Remember, Alexios. That man is like Scathach, he won't take orders, and if I ordered him to do something he didn't want to, he would probably disobey me..." Vlad spoke and then looked ahead.
"Well, yes... But there are better ways-." Alexios was going to continue giving Vlad advice, but he was silent.
"It's because of that attitude that I walked away from you, old man." Scathach suddenly appeared in the middle of the throne room.
"Scathach..."
.....
