Chapter 47: like mother, like daughter. 2
Arriving at Violet's mansion, Ruby's car pulled into the garage.
Luna got out of the car, opened the door for Ruby, and, just as Ruby got out of the car, Luna stood in front of Ruby protectively.
"Lady Ruby Scarlett," A vampire who was Violet's servant, spoke in a neutral, respectful tone.
"Luna, what are you doing?" Ruby asked.
"Sorry, I acted unconsciously," Luna smiled apologetically.
"Hmm," Ruby looked at Luna and thought; maybe she's thinking about that incident still?
A Maid who failed to protect her master must have affected Luna's mind in some way.
Deciding that she must solve this problem in the future, Ruby looks at the man, "Where are the prisoners?"
"Follow me," The man spoke as he started walking.
Ruby followed the man as she was accompanied by Luna, who walked behind her in silence and eyed the man cautiously. The two women followed the man into a dark basement that was lit only by torches.
"The prisoners are in this room," The man spoke as he pointed to a door, and then he disappeared.
"He's still around," Luna warned in a low voice.
"I know," Ruby said.
Ruby wasn't too worried, these vampires were Violet's servants, and they didn't have the balls to do her any harm. Unlike some hunters who underestimate Scathach's strength and madness, vampires knew all too well how crazy that woman could be.
And Ruby wasn't weak either, she was trained by her mother, and there's a massive difference between a hunter with the rank of a general and those vampires who are only good for cannon fodder.
Ruby walks through the door, and the first thing she sees is Jimmy and Thomas, two budding hunters who were captured by Violet and Victor; they were playing cards in a very relaxed way.
She looks around and realizes that there is a lot of food lying around. 'They are feeding the pigs,' She thought.
"Mister Vampire? Did you bring more food? Thank you so much, you can let-" Jimmy spoke, but he stopped talking as he looked toward the door.
"Hmm? Who are you?" Thomas asked as he turned away.
"Idiot!" Jimmy hit Thomas on the head.
"Ouch! Stop hitting my head, Dick-head!" Thomas yelled angrily.
Jimmy ignores Thomas and says, "Long red hair, and accompanied by a white-haired maid, and they're both vampires, how come you don't know them!?"
"...?" Thomas looked at Jimmy, confused.
"…I know what I know, and I don't know what I don't know." He snorted.
"...." Jimmy was speechless.
Jimmy sighed and ignored Thomas completely.
He gives Ruby a fake smile and says, "Lady Ruby Scarlett, daughter of the most powerful female vampire in the world, Countess Scathach Scarlett, what do I owe your visit to this humble place?"
"!!!" Hearing what Jimmy said, Thomas opened his eyes in shock, and then he eyed Ruby warily.
"Hmm," Ruby puts her hand to her chin like she's thinking about what to do. For her, these hunters weren't even worth her time. She's just here in front of these hunters because she wants to sort out the loose ends that her husband and her friend left in this town, she could clearly see that they were novice hunters; they wouldn't give her a lot of useful information.
"..." Seeing Ruby in silence and looking at them coldly.
Jimmy and Thomas broke out in a cold sweat; somehow, they could deduce they were in danger.
Ruby kept thinking until an idea popped into her head, she flashed a cold little smile.
Looking at the cold smile on Ruby's face, the two budding hunters knew they were fucked...
"Luna, bring me the magic contracts; Violet must have some in her personal room."
"But you're going to be alone-..." She wanted to protest, but she stopped talking when she saw Ruby's cold eyes:
"Do as I say."
"Yes, Lady Ruby," Luna bows in respect, then she turns and walks towards the exit.
Seeing Luna leaving the room, Ruby sighed inwardly, she changed her mind when she saw Luna's reaction. She thought to herself that she should solve this little problem as soon as possible, she didn't want an incompetent maid. Ruby faithfully follows the teachings of her mother and remembers what Scathach once said in the past:
'Ruby, if you ever make a mistake, don't take it to heart, try to learn from the mistake, and more importantly, try not to make that mistake in the future.'
Ruby agreed with her mother's thoughts; repeating the same mistakes over and over again was just insanity.
Ruby stops thinking about it, then she looks at the hunters with her cold, indifferent eyes, "First, clean up this mess, are you pigs?"
"Yes, mam!" Jimmy responded vigorously, and soon he got up and pulled Thomas:
"Help me, you idiot!"
"I-..." Thomas was going to say something, but when he saw Jimmy's eyes like he was telling him not to say anything, he closed his mouth.
Soon the two hunters began to organize the room. Not wanting to sit in a spot these two men have already sat in, Ruby creates an ice throne, and sits on it, crosses her legs, and waits patiently for her Maid to return.
A few minutes later, Luna returned with three golden papers in her hand; these were magical contracts made by the witches.
She handed the papers to Ruby and waited patiently beside her. Ruby took the papers, "Three, huh?"
"I didn't find any more magic contracts; I think Lady Violet only had these."
"Unexpected. I thought she would have more. After all, she has frequent contact with that Witch," Ruby commented, then she continued: "Well, three is enough"
She stands up, bites her finger, and a drop of blood falls on a paper, the paper starts to glow slightly, and then Ruby starts speaking in Latin:
"Primo clausula: Proditione et mortem." Translation: First clause. Betrayal and death.
When Ruby spoke these words, the gold paper began to float, and letters began to be written on the paper.
Listening to what Ruby said, Jimmy, who had already tidied up the whole room along with Thomas, said:
"Fuck…we're fucked." His face darkened.
"Huh? Why are we fucked?"
"..." Jimmy looked at Thomas with a tired face.
"Sometimes, I'm envious of your simplicity..." He sighed
"...?" Thomas didn't understand.
Jimmy wasn't in the mood to explain, and he just looked at Ruby with a tired face. He seemed to have given up on trying to resist; he was already in the vampires' lair. What could two mere budding hunters do?
Ruby flashed a cold little smile:
"Secundi clausula: Magister et secreto.." Translation: Second clause: Master and confidentiality.
"…Great…Just Great…" Jimmy already understood where this was going; sometimes, being a smart guy is a curse.
"Tertium clausula: Exploratorem." Translation: Third clause: Spy
The gold paper has stopped glowing gold; Ruby raises her hand and takes the paper, then she looks at Thomas:
"The contract is simple, be my spy. If you betray me, you die. If you leak information about this conversation, you die. If they find out you're under a magical contract, you die."
'This is basically a slave contract!' Jimmy wanted to scream.
"...Do we have choices?" He asked.
Ruby looks at her healing finger, "No, you don't."
Sigh!
Jimmy sighed; he looked very depressed now.
Thomas looked at Jimmy curiously and asked, "Hey Jimmy. Why are you so depressed? Something happened?"
'This motherfucker!...' For a moment, Jimmy almost exploded with rage, but he swallowed that rage and tried to control his emotions.
"Just be quiet, okay? Don't make our situation worse." He spoke in a low voice as he bit his lip.
"..." Thomas nodded.
Jimmy knows it was Thomas's fault that they were in this situation; he warned him several times to come back and stay close to the more experienced hunters. But, he was obsessed with looking for the vampires alone, and, in the end, they both got stuck in this situation.
But, despite knowing that, he couldn't lose control of his emotions right now. He needed to think about how to get out of this situation; 'The witches' contract can only be canceled by another witch, we can cooperate with that vampire now, and the first opportunity we meet a witch in the future, we ask her to void that contract... But canceling the contract requires an exorbitant amount of money... Fuck! Damned mercenary witches!'
"Have you finished thinking?" Ruby asked in a disinterested voice.
"... Can we try to negotiate the terms of the contract?" He asked, a little unsure.
"..." Ruby looked at Jimmy.
Jimmy felt his body tremble with fear when he saw Ruby's cold gaze.
"You seem to be getting something wrong." She spoke in words that made both Jimmy and Thomas' spines go cold, "You two are of no use to me; or to my husband. I just didn't let the vampires of this house feast on your guts only for the reason I believe anyone can be helpful with a little encouragement."
"Death... It's a good incentive, right?" She exhibited a small smile.
"..." The two hunters were silent, and they didn't dare say anything now.
"Then? What are you going to do?" She asked and added, "Death, or become a spy?"
Luna looked at the slight smile on Ruby's face and couldn't help thinking that Ruby was having fun with this situation, she was very similar to her mother; they both have the same cruelty and sadism… The only difference is that Lady Ruby is not as crazy as her mother.
Chapter 48: Ruby returns home.
After winning over two spies who have questionable competence, Ruby warned the vampires that they were Violet's servants to protect Victor's mother and father. She assured them that if anything happened to Victor's parents, they wouldn't have a peaceful death. Soon after that, she returned to the basement of Victor's house.
"Natália, is everything ready?" She asked, entering the room.
Natalia, who was standing in front of a door, said, "Yes, everything is ready, Lady Ruby... Oh, you're back," She looked at Luna.
"Yes, I'm back," Luna smiled at Natalia, she looks at the Maid who was next to Natalia, "Oh? So it's you..."
By looking at the woman's characteristics, she can instantly deduce who the woman was.
"Yes, Yes. The hunter who killed the vampires, the great villain of the story." Maria spoke in a sarcastic tone.
Ruby narrows her eyes a little when she hears Maria's words, she looks at the Maid, focusing her attention on Maria's lifeless eyes, and notices something; 'she gave up on resisting, huh?'
"A piece of advice. I suggest you don't say that in front of Sasha," Ruby warned.
"Yes, I know." She nodded, "I gave up fighting, but I don't want to die being tortured," she sighed at the end.
"…" Ruby was speechless. What happened in the time she was gone? She looks at Natalia:
"What happened to her?"
"Well... I had a little talk with her; I wanted to put her to work, after all. She was basically a parasite that lay around in a catatonic state... And I unintentionally said that she or that hunter from the church would die anyway."
"... You didn't lie... It's better to tell the truth than to feed a lie and raise false hopes."
"..." Natalia nodded in agreement.
Luna approached Maria and poked Maria's face with her finger.
"What are you doing?" Maria asked.
"I'm just curious... What are you?" Luna asked.
"Huh?" Maria didn't understand what she meant.
"I'm a leech, right? Why are you asking the obvious?"
"...Hmm, you don't look like a Vampire to me?" She spoke as she looked Maria up and down as if assessing, "You look like a dead human to me."
"Aren't vampires dead?"
"It's not that; you look something like a vampire but defective." Luna said, "At least that's how I feel looking at you."
Maria opens her eyes a little, and soon she remembers Sasha's words saying she was going to be a defective vampire.
"According to the words of my-..." She bit her lip, she didn't want to say the word, but in the end, she had no choice, "Master... I'm a defective vampire."
"Sasha did the ritual without the necessary materials," Ruby's face showed a slight annoyance, "What was that woman thinking?"
"She wasn't thinking about anything, she just wanted revenge," Natalia said.
"..." Ruby agreed with Natalia's reasoning.
'I hope this doesn't get out of hand, or I'll have to kill this woman; the race she has become is a hard curse to be exterminated if left unchecked.' Ruby thought.
Feeling a bad feeling about this, Maria asked Ruby, "What do you mean? What have I become...?"
Luna looked at her master curiously.
"…" Ruby was silent.
"You became a Ghoul," Natalia spoke for Ruby.
"Ghoul...?" Maria tries to remember the church records, "Ghoul, a vampire subspecies, the failed result of a vampire, they were used in the past as soldiers in war."
"... Did I become that?"
"Yes." Ruby continued.
"…" Maria didn't know what to say, she didn't really understand the Ghouls. But, from the reaction of the vampires around her, she somehow feels she was in a much worse situation than she imagined.
"Ghoul: A subspecies of vampires, the failed result of a vampire, they were often used in warfare as cannon fodder," Natalia explained.
"According to my mother, vampires at the time used ghouls as a biological weapon. After all, you only need one bite or scratch from this creature, and you become one of them. So vampires usually threw a ghoul into town and expected that in less than two days, the Ghouls would destroy the entire city if they weren't exterminated."
"...Isn't that like the zombies in the movies?" Luna asked.
"It's similar, at least in the way they propagate fast," Natalia said, she looks at Maria and explains, "Seeing that you are still conscious, you must have become a Ghoul King, a kind of leader who is able to control them."
"…great…just great…" She sighed at the end.
"Sasha is really vindictive, she chose the worst punishment a woman can have..."
"Huh?" Maria looked at Ruby, and she explained everything with a small cold smile on her face:
"It won't happen now because you've just 'died', but eventually your skin will start to rot, you'll eventually start to forget about things, and slowly, you'll lose your true self."
In the end, you'll just become a beast whose only pleasure is killing and multiplying like a virus."
"..." Maria's face darkened, she bit her lip and clenched her fist tightly. Her body was visibly shaking, she lowered her head, and small tears started to fall from her face. "This is very cruel…" She spoke in a low voice.
But since everyone in the room had supernatural ears, everyone could hear her.
"This is the consequence of your actions and also the result of your weakness," Ruby spoke coldly.
"Indeed. If she was strong enough to kill Sasha, this wouldn't have happened."
"…" Maria said nothing.
Ruby turns her face away and starts walking towards the door, "...But if she killed Sasha, her fate would be worse than becoming something like a Ghoul... Trust me, there are far worse fates than the one you are suffering now."
When Ruby grabs the doorknob, she turns her face and looks at Maria, who made a sudden movement!
Maria ran towards the kitchen that was near the bedroom, and took a knife and tried to pierce her head, she was trying to kill herself.
"... It's useless," Ruby said as she looked at the knife that was inches from piercing Maria's eye, "The master's orders are absolute. If Sasha doesn't allow it, you can't kill yourself."
"Fuck!" Maria throws the knife to the ground.
"..." Luna and Natalia just looked at everything with cold, disinterested eyes; they didn't care a bit about Maria.
"Is the pointless joke over? Let's go back now; I need to see my Darling~" Ruby flashed a small affectionate smile.
...
Passing through the portal, Ruby finds herself in her personal room.
"My room…" She looks around and realizes that nothing has changed since she left the house.
"Oh?" Hearing a surprised voice, Ruby looks towards the voice and sees her mother:
"Mother!"
"Daughter, you've finally come back; I was wondering if I would have to kidnap you too." Scathach exhibited a loving little smile.
Hearing what her mother said, Ruby sighed, "Where are my sisters?"
"Siena is at work, Pepper is sleeping, and Lacus is sleeping too."
"Hmm?"
"Siena and Lacus, I understand... But why is Pepper sleeping too?"
"I do not know? Maybe she got tired from training Victor?" Scathach spoke like it didn't matter much then, she looked at Luna, and her eyes lit up, "Is everything ready?" She asked with a small smile on her face.
"Yes, whatever Countess Scathach asked me to do, I'm done," Luna spoke in a respectful tone.
"Good. Good!"
Scathach can't help but smile a little more, she can't wait for three days to pass soon!
Ruby sighed inwardly when she saw her mother's interest in Victor; 'Darling will be left with eternal scars after this training.'
"Luna, this is my house; I want you to treat them like my guests," Ruby said while pointing to Natalia and Maria.
"Hmm, even the Ghoul?" Luna asked to be sure.
"Don't call her that, she has a name, and yes... Even her." Ruby spoke.
"As expected from Lady Ruby, you are very kind!"
Ruby looked at Luna, "Wrong, I'm not nice; that's just basic etiquette."
"Yes, I know!" Luna smiled with a smile that said, 'I understand everything!'
"No, you don't understand" Ruby rolled her eyes and explained, "Maria is Sasha's problem; it's my friend who should solve this problem. I'll only get involved if she asks for help, and since she didn't, that's not my problem yet."
"Yes! As expected from Lady Ruby! You have a kind heart!" Luna flashed a smug smile.
"..." Ruby looked at Luna with a tired expression.
"Forget it," Ruby gave up.
"Come, daughter, let's talk" Seeing that the conversation ended, Scathach spoke to Ruby, then she started walking towards the exit of the room.
"Okay," Ruby nodded and started to follow her mother, she looked at Luna for a moment with a face that said, 'do your job'.
Luna looked at Natalia and Maria, "Come on; I'll accompany you two to the personal rooms."
"Pass," Natalia held up her hand, saying.
"Hmm?" Luna looked at Natalia curiously.
Natalia explained, "I went back to Nightingale, my work as a Maid is temporarily stopped until my master Violet leaves this town, so I'm on vacation~."
"... Envy~" Luna commented, she wanted a vacation too, but due to the mistake she made a few days ago, she thinks it's going to be difficult for her to get a vacation.
Natalia flashed a small smile when she heard what Luna said, she walked towards Ruby's wardrobe, then snapped her fingers.
She opens Ruby's wardrobe and sees that the interior of the wardrobe has changed to a portal, she looks at Luna and says, "I'm going to go back to my clan, and enjoy my vacation days, seeya~."
Soon she goes through the portal, and the moment she goes through the portal, the portal is closed.
"…Now that I've stopped to think about it, isn't she a human? What is a human doing in the vampire world?" Maria asked.
"Hmm? That is not so uncommon; humans can always come to this world at the invitation of noble families. Normally, humans of high status in society are the guests... and that woman's family is just very special; they are direct servants of the king of vampires himself."
"..." Maria looks at Luna with a bit of shock, she never thought Natalia would have such a deep background, she thinks a bit about what she heard in the past when Victor was kidnapped, "Clan Alioth, huh?"
"Oh? How do you know that?"
"I've heard Master talking in the past," Maria replied.
"Oh..." Soon her face darkened a little, "You're not supposed to know that woman is part of the Clan who is the direct servant of the king..."
"..." Maria was speechless when she heard Luna.
"...Is this supposed to be a secret?" Maria asked.
"I do not know...?" She spoke doubtfully, "I think so? But seeing Maria's ability, everyone in the vampire world will associate her with that Clan's servant... Only ordinary humans shouldn't know anything."
"...So I think it's okay? I'm not a human anymore; I've become ... that." She said the last part in disgust.
"... Make sense," Luna said, and soon dropped the subject, she started walking towards the exit, "Come on, I'll show you to your room."
"Okay."