"It's because of that attitude that I walked away from you, old man."
"Scathach…"
'Shit, she's here.' Alexios silently took a step back, but he was a little curious about the bag that the woman was holding in her other hand.
"What are you talking about, little girl—."
"Stop, don't call me that." She spoke in a neutral, cold voice.
It was pretty obvious that something had changed since that day, and Vlad noticed that easily.
"..." Vlad was silent and continued watching Scathach, as his gaze fell for a few seconds on the bag she was holding and then back to Scathach.
"..." What is this tense atmosphere? Alexios was sweating coldly.
Scathach looked at Alexios for a few seconds and then looked at Vlad again, "Do you remember, old man?" she asked in a cold tone.
"What?"
"1000 years ago... You did the same thing to me. Because I was uncontrollable, and you didn't want me to get involved in your war plans, you trapped me in that horrible world for 20 years."
Ironically, it was being trapped in that very world that made it possible for Scathach to grow even stronger than she was at the time.
"Over time, I forgot about it. After all, I gained many things when I went to that world..."
"..."
"But... I still clearly remember that day." Scathach narrowed her eyes, "Even if I wanted to, I couldn't forget."
"Yes... I remember... You were mad at me for 500 years, huh?" Vlad spoke.
"I forgot about that..." She repeated what she'd said before but soon corrected herself, "Actually, I put that aside..." Her eyes turned wistful as she remembered her adopted daughter's request. And, in respect of this request, she dropped the matter.
"But..." Her eyes glowed blood red, "Victor is different..."
"He is a mean and spiteful man... It will take time for him to forgive you."
"..." Aren't you like that too? Although 500 years was a short time. Vlad thought.
"How long will he be spiteful?" Vlad asked a question.
Scathach replied, "Who knows? 500 years? 1000 years?"
"Maybe he's just angry now and eventually forgets about it. Who knows?" Scathach was purposely vague with her words, but there is a truth only she knows...
He will never forget...
He is that kind of man, a man who never forgets past grudges. No matter how much time passes, he will never forget them.
It doesn't matter if Vlad had reasons to do what he did; it doesn't matter if there was a 'plan' about what happened yesterday; it doesn't matter if the other races were watching the game.
All that didn't matter to Victor.
He is not an understanding being...
In his head, there is only one fact.
Vlad had kept him from seeing the people he loved the most for over 1 year, it may seem like little for a noble vampire, but for a human who had just been turned into a vampire, 1 year is a long time.
Blood for blood, tooth for tooth. Head for head, grudge for grudge.
He will return everything in kind to the enemies who messed with him and his family.
"I see..." Vlad spoke up.
"..." Again, a silence fell around.
"It's really a shame, I wanted to have the pleasure of delivering this gift to you myself, but... He got there before me." She suddenly spoke as she looked at the bag she was carrying.
"... What is it?"
Scathach didn't answer Vlad's question, as she just opened the bag and said, "Old man, it wasn't just him that you distanced yourself from today." She removed two frozen heads from the bag and threw those frozen heads in front of Vlad.
'The tears my daughter shed will not be in vain…' that was the thought that Scathach had when she saw the two heads rolling towards Vlad.
When Ruby cried when she was finally reunited with her mother, Scathach was already thinking about doing something bloody... But she didn't expect herself to be too late.
When she arrived at the residence that Vlad's two grandchildren were in, she was surprised to see the entire place destroyed, and she was even more surprised when she saw five Maids looking at the distorted image of a man who was holding two vampires in the air.
"You came at the right time, Scathach." The voice that Victor used when he spoke to Scathach...
Honestly, it left her a little wet and with a big smile on her face...
He looked so stunning to her.
... But that's something she won't tell anyone.
"Alucard sends his regards."
"..." Vlad looked at the heads and saw that they were the heads of his grandchildren. They had an expression of terror, and it was as if the last moments of these men's lives were filled with fear.
"... He did that." Vlad looked at the two men's heads indifferently and then looked at Scathach, who was walking towards the exit:
"Scatha-..."
Scathach suddenly stopped walking and said:
"Our conversation has ended." She turned around again but suddenly looked back at Vlad again, while she had a face that said she had forgotten to say something:
"Oh, and don't involve us in your schemes ever again. Once I accept, and twice is understandable. After all, we've known each other for a long time..."
A cold air began to come out of Scathach's body, and she looked at Vlad while she showed the face she only showed to her enemies:
"There won't be a third time... The next time this happens, it won't just be your grandchildren's decapitated heads that are frozen in front of you... I can guarantee that."
Crack, Crack.
"Will you become my enemy, Scathach?" Vlad narrowed his eyes.
"If necessary, yes. I really don't mind freezing this little 'paradise' and destroying it." Scathach's eyes glowed blood red.
She didn't give a damn about Nightingale. From the beginning, it was always like that, and she just stayed here because... She had nowhere else to go, but now...
Now, it was different.
"..." A black pressure started to come out of Vlad's body; clearly, he didn't like Scathach's answer.
"Remember, Old man. Don't involve my family in your schemes... This is the last time." Scathach warned and then turned around.
"Scathach-." He was going to say something, but the woman had already disappeared from his palace.
"...." A silence fell over the place, and suddenly, frozen bodies began to fall from the ceiling.
Looking at the bodies, Vlad saw that they were his 'eyes'.
"..." Vlad looked at the bodies on the floor.
'The maids are going to have a hard time cleaning all this up.' He was indifferent to the death of his men, considering he could create as many as he needed... But he couldn't help but think.
"That little girl... She got stronger, huh?" He spoke in a neutral tone that contained a small smile:
'She's been drinking that man's blood regularly… If she continues like this, and she never stops training, she'll eventually reach my level…' That thought seemed to put a smile on Vlad's face.
Alexios broke out in a cold sweat when he saw the bodies frozen on the ground,
'When did she attack them?'
"The moment she looked at me, she sent her power through the ceiling and killed these men."
"Why didn't you do anything?"
"I thought that if I didn't do anything, she would calm her anger, but it seems that still wasn't enough..."
"Looks like it will take her quite a while to calm down now." Vlad spoke in a nonchalant tone while he rested his head on his hand as he looked at his messy palace with a bored expression. It was like everything that just happened didn't matter to him.
Sigh...
"My King, sorry to say this, but."
"Hmm?"
"You should socialize more."
"Huh?"
"If you don't, I'm afraid... You will provoke a rebellion because of your arbitrary decisions."
"…I don't understand what you're getting at. And a rebellion? It's not like this is something new. Several times they tried to take me off the throne, but no one could." He spoke with the same bored tone as if it was something that happened all the time.
.
.
.
A vein popped in Alexios' head.
"I'M SAYING YOU NEED A VACATION!" The man couldn't take it anymore.
"Take your wives, go to the human world, or wherever you want! Go socialize more! You made a lot of wrong decisions today! What kind of king walks away from his best fighters?" Alexios was fed up with this. So he created a portal and said:
"I'm going on vacation too, I'm your adviser, but you never listen to me! I'm tired of this shit, so I'm going to visit some pretty girls in the human world."
"Call me if you need anything." Alexios dropped a phone into Vlad's lap.
"…Huh?"
It took a while for Vlad to process what he'd just heard, and he couldn't help but flash an amused smile as he glanced at the cell phone in front of him.
Step, Step.
Hearing footsteps, Vlad looked ahead, and soon his two eldest sons appeared.
"Father, my children-..." The two spoke at the same time and were surprised at the same time when they saw their children's heads on the floor.
"..." A bloody aura began to come out of the two men.
"Looks like I don't even need to open my mouth to explain what happened, huh?" He flashed an amused smile.
"Father, do you think this is funny!? A count you named killed your grandson!" Theo yelled angrily.
"You must do something, Father!"
"Of course, it's funny." He spoke with a big smile on his face.
"…Eh?"
"You two being here is funny, you two acting and thinking I should do something, is funny."
"This whole situation is funny."
"..." The two children were speechless.
"From the beginning, my position on them was clear. These pieces of shit mean nothing to me."
"And..." Vlad's eyes began to glow blood red as his existence began to be covered in darkness.
Gulp.
Lucas and Theo swallowed and took a step back as they felt their father's mood.
"You pieces of shit, how old are you?"
"3000 years..."
"2000 years..."
"You are older than Jesus, and yet when a problem occurs, what is the first thing you do? It's coming to ask me for help."
Crack, Crack, Crack.
The entire castle began to tremble at the presence of the man.
"Grow up!"
The two lowered their heads as if they were a small child being scolded by their father.
"..." Vlad really couldn't understand his children. Take Theo, for example; sometimes, he was like a poisonous snake that was smart and did everything to take the throne…
But when he blinked his eyes, he suddenly became a predictable teenager.
Lucas was another one; at one point, he had the posture of a strong warrior, but as if someone had clicked a button, he lost all of his stature and became a teenager.
'What the fuck is this?' For the first time in a long time, Vlad didn't understand what was happening in front of him.
... What the vampire king didn't understand was this was something very simple to solve.
Vlad had spoiled his children a lot, and because of that, despite being 'independent', when something they were not used to occurred, the first thing they'd do is ask their father for help.
And now, after thousands of years of that, seeing Victor's development, Vlad wanted to demand a more mature attitude from his children since... From the beginning, they didn't have it...
Yes, indeed. His two eldest sons have great abilities, but the king never let them grow up properly.
And that was something he didn't understand because despite being a father, he was never present in the growth of his children.
An example of this is Ophis.
Vlad removed the pressure on them and said, "You were attacked, your children were killed, now what?"
"... E-Eh...? The two looked at their father.
"What are you going to do?"
...
Leaving Vlad's castle, Scathach started down the stairs towards the exit.
"...Welcome back, Scathach."
The woman looked towards the voice, but she didn't find anything, she just saw a strange darkness:
"Victor?"
"Yes."
When Victor replied, several red eyes began to open in the darkness.
Looking into those blood-red eyes, Scathach felt strange, she knew those eyes were the maids that lived inside Victor, but it still felt strange to have so many eyes staring at you.
Suddenly, a smile full of sharp teeth appeared:
"How are you?"
"Were you worried?"
"Of course not, no one can defeat you, right?"
"..." She flashed a small smile, liking his answer.
"I was just taking my night walk, and by 'coincidence', I passed by this place and, sensing your presence in the palace, I decided to wait for you." Victor knew that if he said he was worried, Scathach would be offended.
"Oh...I see..."
Victor came out of the shadows, and soon the red eyes seemed to enter his body as he walked beside the woman and held out his hand to her.
"Do you want to join me?"
"..." Looking at Victor's hand, Scathach seemed to think about what to do.
She looked at the man's face, and her attention was caught by his long hair:
"Aren't you going to cut your hair?"
"Hmm?" Victor touched his hair a little then answered,
"You're right, I think I should cut it. It's a little long."
"Yes, it gets in the way of battle."
"It makes no difference to me." He replied.
"I see..."
"Aesthetically, men with short hair are more handsome..."
"Or at least that's what I heard from a friend."
"Oh...? You have a friend?" Victor asked.
"... What? Can't I have a friend?"
"Of course, you can."
"..." An awkward silence fell around them.
Victor displayed a gentle smile and said, "Shall we?" This time he completely extended his arm.
"..." Looking at his arm, a feeling of satisfaction rose in Scathach's stomach, as she felt that this was better.
"Sure." She took his arm, and then the two walked slowly towards the exit.
........
