"And I thought… Why not? And so I did that and gave her blood. A large amount." He displayed a small smile.
"After that, it's like you already know." Victor went back to reading.
'Just from these two pages of this book, I've learned the importance of the world tree to the gods...-' His thought was interrupted when he heard Sasha's voice:
"Darling then gave a drop of his blood, causing him to start screaming in pain." Sasha continued Victor's story as she read her book.
"...That took me by surprise." Sasha muttered.
[...Eve, you were around... Why didn't you stop the master?]
[...] Eve was silent.
[Stop, Kaguya. You, of all people, should know well enough that when the master starts something, no one can stop him.] Maria spoke.
[He's just very stubborn like that.] Bruna continued.
[Indeed.] Roberta agreed.
[.....]
[Sigh, you're right... I'm sorry, Eve.]
[It's okay.] Eve replied.
"...." Victor flashed a small apologetic smile when he heard his Maids' conversation in his head.
Realizing that the girls needed an explanation, he said:
"That was because I got the memories of the individuals she fed on." Victor added in the story.
"....." An awkward silence fell over the place, and all the girls looked at Victor.
"What!?"
"...?" Victor looked out of the corner of his eye and saw his wives' expressions of shock.
"Oh, hadn't I told you this before...?" He just remembered that he forgot that fact:
"When I feed on an individual, I can see their memories."
"When did you learn to do this!?" Violet asked.
"It was the year I spent with Ruby." He replied in a neutral tone and went back to reading. Unexpectedly, he was enjoying reading about the mythology behind the world tree. It was quite interesting.
Sasha and Violet looked at Ruby:
"... I did not know that." She quickly spoke as she thought back a bit and started to remember all the times she felt awkward and caught off guard when Victor would talk about something he shouldn't have known.
After the initial shock, Scathach said, "...That makes sense now, as you absorbed a lot of memories, you couldn't handle it all, thus, you passed out."
"Yes."
'Has he already awakened this ability? Huh? That should only happen when he becomes a 1000 year old vampire!' Scathach's mind was confused. The information she knew about the Night Kings didn't match the experiences she'd had while observing Victor.
The skill that Victor just talked about was a passive skill of all Night Kings with a Vampire origin.
But this ability could only be awakened when he was at least 1000 years old, considering it was an ability he'd only acquire during an evolution.
But... Victor had already awakened it...
'Why is he so special?' A smile began to grow on Scathach's face; 'He's like a box of surprises, always surprising me and not allowing my life to be dull at all...'
"Although this skill is complicated... Every time I use it, I just take it all in, and if I don't focus on what I want to know, information just gets thrown around in my head, and I don't learn anything." Victor made a difficult face; he had quite a hard time controlling this ability.
"And sometimes, the skill doesn't work..." Victor had already come across cases where he couldn't use this skill on other beings.
"...By biting a person, you know their whole life..." Sasha swallowed hard and thought how absurd that was.
"It makes me uncomfortable... Is Darling going to be okay with having lots of memories that aren't his, in his head?" Violet talked about her concern.
"..." The girls fell silent as they began to share the same concern as Violet, except for Scathach.
"You are wrong Violet, and Sasha."
"..." Victor and the girls looked at Scathach:
Seeing that she'd gotten everyone's attention, she continued while looking at Violet:
"He won't get lost in someone else's memories. It's impossible for that to happen, after all, he's the 'predator' that swallowed that individual... A predator won't get lost in the memories of his prey. Victor's own blood wouldn't let that happen."
"...Oh... That's good then." Violet didn't fully understand what Scathach was implying, but knowing that Victor was going to be okay, was enough for her.
Scathach looked at Sasha, "By biting a person, he won't know their whole life, this skill is not that gentle."
"He needs to kill the individual, and after he kills the individual, a process called 'the absorption of an existence' takes place. And through that process, he absorbs a fragment of the individual's soul."
'Fragment of their soul?' Victor thought, confused. Now that he thought about it, the times that the abilities didn't work were when the individual had died a long time ago, despite having absorbed that individual's blood, he couldn't see their memories.
'So... What I absorb is not their blood, but a fragment of their soul?' He thought to himself, but soon he heard Scathach's words that verified his thoughts.
"When he absorbs that shard, he gains all memories of the individual he killed."
"I see... That's what you meant by an ungentle skill, huh?" Sasha spoke up, and she thought this skill was perfect in a war situation or when Victor wanted to get information from the enemy.
'He could just skip the torture process and kill the individual.' She thought it was a very useful skill.
"One of the restrictions of this skill is that it cannot be used on individuals who have already died, the user himself must kill the individual, although it is a good skill, it is not perfect."
"Ohh... So he can't go to the grave of someone who just died and absorb that individual's memories, huh?"
"Eww, drinking a corpse's blood? There is a limit to nasty tolerance, Sasha." Violet made a disgusted face. After all, for vampires to drink the blood of a corpse is basically the same as eating garbage.
"... It was just an example, Violet!" Sasha growled at Violet.
Violet just stuck her tongue out at Sasha and hugged Victor!
"...This bitch." A vein bulged on Sasha's head.
"You seem to know a lot about this, Mother..." Ruby commented curiously.
Nod, Nod!
Violet and Sasha nodded in agreement.
"Well, I've lived a long time, you know?" She flashed a seductive smile, and her mature charm seemed to explode throughout the room.
Gulp, Gulp, Gulp.
The three of them swallowed hard when they realized that this woman was unconsciously showing off her charm to Victor.
"…But I used it on a corpse?" Victor suddenly spoke up.
Her smile faded, her charm faded, and a shocked expression appeared on her face:
"…Eh?"
She looked at Victor and asked in disbelief, "What did you say...?"
"I said I used it on a corpse, and I could see his last memories." He remembered that as long as the corpse hadn't died for a long time, he could do that.
An example of this were those vampires attacking the tree, they had died recently, and because of that, he could see the last moments of those vampires.
But... He didn't understand how he could see the memories of those individuals the tree killed.
'Is it related to the soul...?' Victor touched his chin and began to think:
'Scathach talked about the soul fragment, by absorbing it, I can see the individuals' memories... The key point here is 'soul'.'
Wait... Could it be?
When the tree absorbed beings, did it absorb everything?
By everything, I mean…
The entire existence of that being...?
'That innocent little girl is so scary, huh?' That thought couldn't help but put a small smile on Victor's face.
'But... that makes sense... The tree was like a soul prison, and when she gave me that fruit, I received the soul fragments from all the blood she absorbed?'
But... Why didn't this happen the first time?
Hmm... Victor started to think deeply until he remembered Roxanne saying:
"You ate a part of me, and I ate a part of you..."
'... WAS THAT!?' Victor held both of his hands to his head when he realized that by eating that fruit the tree offered, he had basically agreed to 'marry' Roxanne.
And in the process, he ate a part of Roxanne, and in that part he had eaten, all the memories/soul fragments of the beings she had absorbed over a millennium passed onto him.
'Fuck, no wonder I passed out.'
[Tsk, Tsk, Tsk. If you weren't a vampire, your brain would have exploded, you know?]
Victor heard an annoying voice in his head.
A vein bulged on Victor's head, and he thought, 'Seriously, there are so many people in my head that I feel like I have a lot of personalities at this point. Will I become the son of that wheelchair-bound bald man from the comics?' Victor's thoughts ran wild as he remembered a comic that Ruby had introduced him to.
"...."
"Did Scathach's brain just stop working?" Sasha commented with a smile on her face.
"Oh, I know that feeling, it's when this man..." Violet grabbed Victor's cheeks and tugged.
"Ouch, Ouch." Victor lost his concentration and looked at Violet.
"...does something so absurd that she feels her common sense breaking." She flashed a smile so beautiful it made Victor freeze.
All thoughts in Victor's head emptied, and he just remembered that he had another promise to keep.
"... Come to think of it, I had promised you 7 days and 7 nights-." Victor was about to say something, but they were all interrupted by Scathach's sudden scream.
"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"
"… Wha-." They all put their hands to their ears when they heard the woman's sudden scream.
"A Night King doesn't have that ability!" She refused to believe such nonsense.
"What you just described is literally the work of a death god!"
The work of a Death God, when coming into contact with a dead body that had died a long time ago, the God could 'learn' about his last moments by absorbing the fragments of the soul that remained in the body.
"I would even understand if you were a witch specialized in necromancy like that bitch who visited my house a few hours ago. She could do that easily, considering the basic principle of necromancy was to take souls out of the reincarnation cycle and use them as your soldiers, and through that magic, the soldier himself could tell his memories to the witch."
"She should also be able to just pull out the 'fragment' of the soul responsible for the memories and learn about it." She explained everything correctly like a teacher.
"Those bitches don't have as much authority over death as a Death God does, but... They can do something simple like that, and that's also one of the reasons why the witches are market leaders when it comes to information." She looked quite elegant as she taught the lost 'lambs' about this divine knowledge.
Suddenly, her body started to shake, and she pointed at Victor as if he were the culprit of a crime:
"But you're a Vampire!" Her next scream seemed to come from her whole soul.
"Me?" Victor pointed to himself.
"That's right. You're a Vampire! Even if you're a special vampire who has special blood, you shouldn't have that kind of ability!"
"That goes against the rules!"
"...." Everyone was silent. They were just very surprised when they saw Scathach's reaction since they had never seen her react so strongly like that before.
Victor showed a small smile and thought his mother-in-law was very cute now.
A vein bulged on Scathach's head when she saw Victor's hateful smile, "Stop flashing that smile, and explain what happened!" she growled.
"...Even if you say that, I just did it, and it happened?" He spoke with an honest and confused face. It wasn't like he was trying to trick Scathach.
"Ugh..." Victor's honest face caused cuteness damage to Scathach's heart.
She couldn't even accuse him of being a liar. After all, she knew he didn't lie to her.
She stopped talking and touched her chin as her brain began to spin with all her ability to try to understand what was going on.
"Mother..."
She stopped thinking when she heard her daughter's voice and when she felt her daughter touching her shoulder.
She looked at her daughter.
"You get used to it." Ruby spoke with lifeless eyes and with a lifeless smile.
"…Eh?"
"You get used to it." She repeated it again.
"Umu, Umu!" Violet nodded several times, "It's Victor we're talking about, I wouldn't be surprised if my Darling farted and the planet exploded.
"...." Victor opened his mouth in shock when he heard what Violet said; 'Just what kind of image does she have of me in her head to think that?'
"In my husband's defense, he is capable of easily breaking common sense as if it were his typical 9 - 5 day job! Which means it's a normal routine for him!"
"....." That was your defense!? You are not defending me! You're just stating Violet's words!
"Oh..." Scathach's eyes opened wide, Violet, Sasha, and Ruby seemed to be glowing from Scathach's point of view.
"This…"
"This..." Scathach seemed to be in a state of denial.
'Yes, my mother-in-law, defend me and say that this makes no sense! After all, I'm not that kind of irrational being!' Victor was rooting for Scathach internally.
"Make sense..."
'WHAT!?' Victor looked at his mother-in-law with shocked eyes.
"If you think about it, it actually makes sense." Scathach spoke with a smug face.
'What makes sense, woman? I fart and the planet explodes?!?!'
"It is Victor we are talking about here, for him, this is something common." She looked like a woman who had discovered an immutable truth of the universe and achieved enlightenment.
Nod, Nod.
Everyone nodded in agreement with Scathach's words.
[She finally joined the cult of my god!] Bruna was delirious.
[What's this cult story?] Maria was interested.
[Come here, I'll tell you...] Bruna looked at Maria as if she had found another inductee.
[Ara, I'm also interested...] Roberta has joined.
[Me too.] Eve went along.
[...] Kaguya looked at this site with a dumbfounded expression.
"Scathach has joined the club at last." Sasha flashed a happy smile.
"Yes, I thought it would take a while because she and Victor are so alike." Violet commented.
"But I'm glad it was sooner than we expected." Ruby flashed a small smile.
Several veins started bulging on Victor's head; 'These women, just what kind of image do they have of me in their crazy heads? And what Club are they talking about!? More importantly, why is Bruna creating a cult?'
"..." Looking at the happy faces of his wives and his mother-in-law, who seemed to be having divine enlightenment.
Victor rolled his eyes and thought, 'Whatever, I don't care anymore. I'll just go back to reading.' He didn't want to spoil their happy mood.
