Clan Astharoth, similar to Clan Amon, also derived its name from that of a demon. This clan was mainly focused on collecting and reselling information. They were not as good as the witches, but for noble vampires who do not want to associate a lot with witches, they were very helpful.
And their prices were far fairer than witches...
Money mattered even to vampires who outgrew the desire to accumulate wealth quickly, considering they have all the time in the world to earn more money. Greedy vampires just didn't like having to pay 10x the amount for information that could be obtained cheaper.
Most of these vampires were those who hated witches and didn't want to get involved with them.
Currently, similar to Clan Amon... Clan Astharoth had turned into a tundra of ice.
"C-Countess Scathach Scarlett..." The leader of Clan Astharoth stuttered a lot. He was looking at the woman who was sitting on an ice throne, who had just suddenly arrived and frozen the whole place.
All the vampires thought it was the end of them. After all, they knew Scathach Scarlett, and they knew they invaded her territory.
But instead of killing them all, she created an ice throne, sat herself comfortably atop it, crossed her legs sensually, and rested her head in her hand, just looking at the vampires with her eyes glowing blood red.
"I'll give you 10 seconds." Her voice sent shivers down all the vampires' spines. She didn't do anything, she was just sitting there, and it was scaring the hell out of them!
"Tell me who planned this, and I promise that only 50% of you will be killed."
'In the end we will still be killed!?' Everyone screamed internally.
"We really don't know! The ones who contacted us in search of information was Clan Amon! And we just gave them all the information we knew about you, to them!"
"I see... In the end, you were just used as disposable parts too..." Scathach raised her hand and with just a hand gesture.
"W-Wait-" The Leader couldn't finish speaking.
After all, he became an ice sculpture... In fact, everything became realistic ice structures. The entirety of Clan Astharoth perished like that, with a simple gesture of the hand.
"Tsk..." The nagging feeling that Scathach was feeling didn't go away, 'I was having a good time with Victor, and something like that pops up to get in my way. These bugs….I'll hunt every one of them and... Hmm ?'
Scathach stopped thinking and looked to the sky. She suddenly rose from her throne and jumped into the air, and with a speed that few could react to, she caught a black owl.
The black owl that was being held by Scathach's hands began to thrash wildly.
"I see..." Scathach's eyes gleamed even more dangerously.
"I still don't know who you are, but you better hide like the little rat you are..." A black pressure left Scathach's body and spread across the area.
... Death was standing there, and she wasn't happy at all.
"Because if I find out who you are, I will erase your existence from this world."
Scathach squeezed the owl's head, and soon the owl was dissolved by some kind of dark energy.
...
"P-Prince..." The man's subordinate spoke while he had a dark expression of pure fear.
"E-Everything is fine..." The man tried to maintain his composure, but he failed miserably; 'How did the killing intent of this monster affect me when I'm thousands of KM away?' He couldn't understand such irrationality.
"I said it wasn't a good idea." Suddenly he heard someone's voice.
"Niklaus..."
Niklaus Horseman looked at the two screens showing the image of Scathach and Victor.
"That boy... Wrong, Count Alucard is not a normal existence." Nicklaus' eyes sparkled as they looked at Victor and the thing that Victor's face had become.
He looked at Scathach, "And that woman isn't either."
"You don't need to tell me the obvious, I saw him personally attacking my father... I just wanted to see how he would react to an enemy attack... And unsurprisingly, he reacted the same way Countess Scathach did." Prince Theo wore a sly smile.Scathach Scarlett, she is an unpredictable woman..."
"She is not." Niklaus denied it.
"Yes, she's-" Prince Theo was going to tell his thoughts, but he stopped when he heard Niklaus' voice.
"You expected that by the time she arrived at Clan Astharoth, the woman would destroy everything without even letting everyone react, right?"
"…" Prince Theo was silent.
"Instead of doing what you predicted, she just sat there, and then froze everything…"
"In the end, she did what I predicted." Prince Theo laughed.
"... Fool, don't you see?" Niklaus twitched his brow a little.
"Yes… I know, if it was in the past, she would have reacted like I said."
"That's true, if this were the past…" He looked at Theo's subordinate. "Put the first image of the two Counts together."
"Yes!"
And then the screen image switched to a woman hugging a man on the rooftop very gently.
"That man changed her…" Niklaus continued.
"…" Theo was silent.
"Now, I don't know if this change is good or bad."
"And Count Alucard..." He looked at the man again.
"He may look predictable at first glance, but he's not... Remember, he's the same type as that woman..."
"Irrational. Are you putting that man on the same level as Scathach?"
"Yes."
"..." Theo frowned. He didn't like that answer, that man on the same level as Scathach? Huh? He's only 21! Do not say silly things!
"I'm not talking about strength, I'm talking about madness, their mentality is the same... Tell me, just which person in all vampire history dared attack the king in his own castle?"
"Scathach... And that man..."
"See? You have your answer… In the future, that man will turn into something far worse than Scathach."
"…" Theo was silent.
Niklaus turned, and before he left, he tapped the prince on the shoulder, "Congratulations, you've just acquired two Scathach's as an enemy." Then he walked towards the exit.
"…" The prince wasn't happy about it at all. "Tsk, just forget it, he can't do anything right now anyway, and not even Scathach would dare attack me..." He was silent.
Suddenly the memory of a woman torturing/training him appeared in his mind…
For a moment, his face darkened a lot when he thought that there would be two existences like that woman.
"Well..." He looked at Victor with eyes glowing blood red, "I just have to change my plans."
...
After the incident, Victor was sitting in his room on a couch, and Ruby was lying with her head on his lap.
Sasha was resting against his side, and Violet was leaning over the backrest of the couch.
She was sucking Victor's blood.
They were watching television.
"Yesterday, Count Alucard, and Countess Scarlett attacked and completely destroyed..."
"Wow, they sure are fast..." Victor spoke as he stroked Ruby's red hair.
"Well, you were very flashy..." Sasha looked at the television and saw the place that was once the domicile of Clan Amon that was left with nothing but small burn marks.
"That is a level of destruction only my mom and I could do. As expected from Darling~!" Violet stopped sucking Victor's blood and spoke.
"You are more amazing." Victor praised.
"Hehehe~" Violet laughed, then she went back to sucking Victor's blood.
"Hmm… Come to think of it now, I've never seen you guys fight properly."
"…" An uncomfortable silence fell in the room.
"Umu?" Victor looked at his wives.
Ruby sat up a little and said, "Darling... You won't let us fight."
"Eh...?"
"Violet and Ruby and I have improved a lot compared to the past, but... You don't let us fight..."
"...Hmmm." Victor put his hand on his chin and started to think:
"But I never forbade you from fighting."
"..." Violet bit Victor's neck harder.
"Ouch." Victor pretended it hurt.
"Darling, it's not that you forbade us from fighting, it's that you always jump into battle first and take all the enemies for yourself." Ruby lay down on Victor's lap again and accepted Victor's caresses.
"Oh..." Victor thought it made sense. Even in the last invasion, he did something like that.
"In that case, the gift that Scathach and I prepared for you could be quite useful..." Victor flashed a small smile.
"Hmm?" Violet looked at Victor. She stopped sucking his blood and licked his neck like she didn't want to leave a drop.
"My Mother?" Ruby looked at Victor.
"Yes." Victor chuckled as he patted Ruby's head.
"..." Ruby started to think about this supposed gift, and soon she opened her eyes wide, "Are you talking about those Assassins?"
"Yes, although they are not on the same level as the king's shadows, they are quite strong. So you can use them as punching bags."
"... Punching bags, huh?" Ruby, Sasha, and Violet all exhibited big sadistic smiles. They didn't like those Assassins one bit, who dared to try to kill Victor and broke into their house.
"Oh? I like those smiles, hahahaha~."
"..." The three hid their faces.
"Hahahahaha~" He laughed even more when he saw his wives' slightly red faces.
Although, Violet was having an easier time. After all, she was on Victor's back, and she believed he couldn't see her behind him… Little did she know that he could see her through the mirror in the bedroom.
"But it's a shame you guys can't use the punching bags," Victor spoke.
"...Oh, today is the day we return," Ruby spoke.
"Yes..." Victor exhibited a gentle little smile, "I will be able to see my mother again... And my father, of course."
"... Why was your father forgotten?" Violet asked as she stopped drinking Victor's blood and licked the area where she'd bitten.
"Well, that old man, he's forgettable, Hahahaha~, but I love my dad so much."
"If you love him, don't forget!" The three spoke.
"Hahahaha~, he probably won't mind, it's just that kind of relationship that we have."
"... that's weird." As the three girls didn't have a father very present in their lives for different reasons. They didn't understand Victor's relationship with his father.
Ruby had her father killed by her mother.
Sasha had a parasitic and useless father.
Violet has a father who was always very sick and always sleeping.
"Hmm, if I tried to explain it in words, my dad and I have the relationship of friends who watch movies, and at the same time, he's my dad, and I'm his son."
"Huh...?"
"Hmm, it's like, my dad is my friend, and my dad at the same time, we have a Bros relationship."
"...?" They haven't understood yet.
Sigh
"Just forget it." He was bad at explaining too.
"Oh, by the way, who's going home with me?"
"Of course, it will be the three of us, Kaguya, Natalia, and Maria," Violet replied.
"Oh... And Yuki?"
"Well, her contract with you ended…" Violet continued.
"Oh, that's too bad..." Victor felt that Yuki's existence was more like a clumsy little sister than a maid to him. "Will she return to her house?" he asked.
"Yes, she will be in Hilda's care."
"Hilda?"
"The Chief maid of my Clan."
"Oh." Victor didn't mind too much since he just asked out of curiosity.
"Anyway, we should go." When Victor was about to ask Ruby to get up from his lap, Sasha yelled.
"Wait, Darling! You forgot something!"
"What?" He looked at Sasha.
"Your appearance! How are you going to explain to your mother all these changes!? You're 195 cm tall now, you know? And your eyes are blood red! The puberty excuse won't help now!"
"...Oh." Victor, Ruby, and Violet totally forgot about it.
.....
Chapter 137: Farewells.
Current location.
Scathach's mansion, in a ridiculously huge room.
"Shit. Shit." Victor was walking from one side of the room to the other, Seemingly very worried about something.
"...This is the first time I've seen Victor react like that, what happened?" Siena spoke when she appeared, along with Scathach and Luna.
"Master is worried about what he's going to say to his family... After all, his appearance has changed a lot." Kaguya replied.
"Oh…can't he just use his powers? I mean, he could solve this easily with his Vampiric Charm."
"..." Lacus and Pepper looked at their sister.
"...What?"
"Victor would never do that. He's very overprotective of his family, and, in his mind, by using his powers on his family, it's a way of harming his own family." Lacus explained.
"Oh…that makes sense." Siena thought it made sense, even though she didn't understand Victor's feelings, considering she had no human relatives.
"Hmm... He'll be going back, huh..." Scathach muttered and seemed to be thinking of something.
"..." Siena stared at her mother with a dry look while she was thinking; 'She won't let me handle all the work again, right?'
"... Snif."
"...?" Siena looked to the side and saw Yuki sitting in a fetal position. She looked despondent, as she was emanating a depressive aura.
"What happened to her?"
"She's sad because she's going home." Kaguya exhibited an imperceptibly small smile. She was definitely happy that Yuki wasn't going to come to the human world with her master.
"Oh? Why is she going home?" Siena asked curiously.
"Well, she hasn't finished her maid training yet." Kaguya spoke, then she continued, "And originally, she was only going to serve my master while he was in the vampire world. And the other reason is, now that my master is a Count, he must seek out his own subordinates." She only spoke truths, but for some reason, she seemed to have hit Siena.
"...True...He's a Count now..." Siena was suddenly quite depressed, "A vampire, a little more than six months old, has become a Count...Hahahahahahahaha..." Siena joined in with Yuki, and the depressive aura seemed to get bigger.
"...?" Kaguya didn't understand Siena's reaction.
"Ugh... AHHHHHHH!"
"!!?" The women looked at Victor, who suddenly screamed.
"You know what!? Screw this! I'll just tell them the truth, they'll handle it somehow!" In the end, Victor gave up thinking...
He gave up too fast!
"Master, are you sure about this? After all, once they know, there's no turning back."
"Yes, I am," Victor spoke in a serious tone.
"What about their safety?" Kaguya asked.
"Well, Violet left vampires around my parents' house to protect them, but I guess that's not enough…" Victor was thinking that having strong underlings now would be very helpful.
"Yes, Master is a Count now, which means that eventually stronger enemies will show up. Those vampires won't be strong enough to deal with bigger threats." Kaguya spoke.
"I just have to make some vampires to take care of my parents, right?" Victor also thought about recruiting some stronger vampires in the future as servants. Of course, as he didn't want men near his wives, he would recruit women.
"…." An uncomfortable silence fell in the room.
"Heh~..." Scathach looked at Victor menacingly. She didn't like what she heard at all.
"Master..." Kaguya facepalmed.
"...?" Victor didn't understand, but when he thought about it, "Oh…" He understood.
Basically, what he said implied that he would create new vampires to be part of his Clan, and knowing Victor's personality didn't like men around his wives, the girls knew he wouldn't turn men into servants, which means more girls...
Victor ignored Scathach's menacing look and began to think, "A squad of maids..." Somehow that thought put a big smile on his face.
'With the money I received yesterday from the king's servant, I can hire some witches to enchant the maids' clothes...' Victor thought it was a good idea, and thinking of the reward he received yesterday, he couldn't help but be a little surprised.
Yesterday Natalia's father visited Victor and handed him an absurd amount of money in the form of a black credit card with the symbol of a bat, and also a map of all Nightingale, along with a letter from the king that said:
"You are a Count responsible for exploring new lands, you will need a lot of money and this map. Take good care of the map, it is important...
PS: stay away from my daughters."
For some reason, Victor thought that the king's real objective in sending the letter to him was the warning at the end of the letter.
'Don't worry, Vlad. I'm married, I would never be interested in your daughters!' Victor didn't want to have a father-in-law like Vlad. For him, an old man with family problems of more than 5000 thousand years is a big 'NO'.
He didn't want to get into the mess that was Vlad's family.
Kaguya and Scathach's ears seemed to have grown for a few seconds, "Master... Did you say, maid squad...?"
"Umu?" Victor stopped thinking and looked at Kaguya, and seeing her red eyes, Victor smiled, "Yes, what do you think, my maid? Do you want to have a squad of maids as subordinates?"
"..." Kaguya was silent, but her red eyes seemed to have increased in intensity, and she was obviously interested.
"Victor…" Suddenly Victor felt Scathach touching his shoulder.
Crack, Crack.
His shoulder broke in Scathach's grip.
"...My mom is scary... She's scarier than before." Pepper hid behind Siena with a look of fear.
"…" Siena and Lacus couldn't help but agree with Pepper's words. What is that dark aura? And that lifeless look? Isn't she scarier than before!?
Victor is definitely not a good influence! Look what he did to their innocent mother!
"Yes, Scathach?" Victor ignored the pain in his shoulder and smiled.
"...What did you say you were going to do...?" The gleam in Scathach's eyes seemed to have grown stronger.
Victor's smile widens, and he suddenly does something that stuns all the women.
He turns quickly, he takes Scathach's hand and pulls it away, then he hugs her.
"Eh...?" Scathach did not expect this.
"Don't think about all that nonsense, I'm just worried about my parents. With my current position now, and my personality, I'm 100% sure I will make enemies... I need to protect them, you know?" Victor spoke in a voice close to her ear. He pulled back a little and caressed Scathach's face as he displayed a gentle smile.
Ba-dump, Bad-dump!
"Like you, they are very important to me. I don't want harm to befall them because of me."
Seeing Victor's gentle smile and hearing his words, Scathach's heart was beating like crazy, and she couldn't form coherent thoughts. Her mind was totally blank, and she even forgot where she was.
"... O-Oh." She turned her face away, which was now a little red.
"..." 'She became more meek!? What the fuck!? Where is that bloodthirsty woman!?' The daughters could not believe what they were seeing.
Kaguya just looked at everything with a dry look. "Tsk." But she can't help clicking her tongue in annoyance.
"Darling... Why are you hugging my mom?" Ruby's voice was cold as ice.
Hearing Ruby's voice, the group looked at her.
Soon they saw Ruby, Sasha, and Violet who were accompanied by Maria, June, and Natalia, they were bringing a lot of suitcases with them.
"Oh, my daughter." Scathach's eyes seemed to glow for a moment, and she took the initiative to hug Victor, "Don't worry, I'm just saying goodbye to my disciple." For some reason, she felt a sense of competitiveness.
"...I see..." Ruby, Sasha, and Violet's eyes were as dark as a black hole. They had agreed to leave this messy situation to Victor, but...somewhere in their heart, they still didn't like it.
"Heh~" Scathach exhibited a creepy smile.
"…" The atmosphere around was very tense, and people felt that a single wrong move could cause a battle to erupt.
Gulp.
Maria, Natalia, and Luna gulped. They didn't want to be caught in the crossfire between these women.
"HAHAHAHA~" Suddenly Victor laughed out loud.
"...?" All the group's attention was turned to Victor.
Victor hugs Scathach tighter, he spends a few seconds hugging her, and then he says:
"I will miss you..."
"Hmm..." Somehow Victor's action made her more embarrassed. Now that she was more aware, she realized she was hugging Victor in front of her daughters!
"…" The wives' eyes narrowed a little at the sight.
Victor suddenly stopped hugging Scathach and kissed her cheek:
"I have to go now, Scathach." Then he turned and walked towards his wives.
"Eh...?" Scathach just stared at Victor's back in amazement.
Are you ready?" Victor displayed a gentle smile that could soothe the heart of even the worst monster in the world.
"Yes..." Their answers were quite tame since they were somehow caught off guard by Victor's smile.
"Good." He continued with the same smile and looked at Natalia, "Let's go."
"Yes, Count Alucard."
Victor's eyes twitched a little, "...Aren't you going to change the way you call me?"
"You are a Count now," Natalia replied with a gentle smile.
"... Do whatever you want." Victor had given up since he knew it was impossible to change a maid's mindset.
"I will."
Kaguya suddenly turned to shadows and went into Victor's shadow.
Natalia snapped her fingers, and soon a large portal was created.
"This is amazing, no matter how many times I see it..."
"It's my clan's pride." Natalia seemed to puff out her chest a little.
"An Incredible skill, indeed…" Victor exhibited a gentle smile, then he turned back and looked at Luna, Yuki, Siena, Lacus, Pepper, and Scathach.
He displayed a small smile and said in a playful tone, "I'll see you in the future." Soon after, he turned and entered the portal with the group. They didn't require long goodbyes; after all, this wasn't goodbye. He was just going home, and he wasn't very good with goodbyes.
Besides, Ruby, Sasha, and Violet had already said their goodbyes to the other girls.
The last to pass through the portal was Natalia, and then the portal was closed.
"…" An uncomfortable silence fell in the room.
"Ah… He's gone…" Lacus said.
"…The house is suddenly so quiet…" Pepper felt uncomfortable.
Lacus, Siena, and Luna agreed with Pepper. They had somehow gotten used to the noisy mansion.
Scathach kept watching the place where Victor disappeared from while she had several thoughts running through her head.
"Luna, prepare everything, we're heading back to our territory," she suddenly spoke, then she walked towards her room.
"Yes!"
"And, girl from Clan Snow." She spoke without turning around.
"Yes?"
"Aren't you going home?"
"Yes..." Yuki got up from the ground, then she left the mansion without looking back.
"...Mother's mood seems to be very bad," Siena spoke with an uncomfortable face.
"Yes..." Lacus and Pepper agreed and had the same feeling as their older sister.
"But she'll be fine, it's not like she's going to freak out because she won't see Victor for a few months, right?" Pepper laughed.
"…" Lacus, Luna, and Siena didn't respond and just fell silent.
"...Right?" She asked again.
"…" Everyone was silent.
Somehow, the women's lack of responses made Pepper very concerned.
When Yuki came out of the mansion and was a bit far from Scathach's territory, suddenly her shadow seemed to grow, "Oda?"
[Yes.] The shadow spoke in Yuki's mind.
"What are you doing here?"
[Countess Agnes is coming here looking for the new Count, I came first as an escort.]
"Oh, tell the countess that the new Count has returned to the human world, and my services are no longer needed." She spoke in a neutral tone but contained some sadness.
"I'm coming home too."
[Okay... I'll leave some subordinates just for protection.] Despite being a Snow Clan Maid, Yuki was still from the main Clan. She had a slightly higher status than Oda, who was from a subordinate Clan to the Snow Clan.
"Thanks." Yuki exhibited a small smile.