Ruby Side.
"Are you crazy...?" Madam asked after hearing Ruby's proposal.
Ruby just flashed a big smile that sent shivers down Madam's spine.
"...Yes, you're crazy..." Madam put her hand on her face and spoke in a tired voice:
"As expected of that woman's daughter, I think...?"
"..." Natalia, who had listened to the entire conversation in silence, just had her mouth hanging open in absolute shock...
'This... This is crazy! If this plan works, the whole supernatural world would be turned upside down… Wrong, the whole world would turn upside down, it will turn into chaos!'. Natalia can't help but think of disbelief.
"Why are you so shocked? It's a simple thought process. If you can't fix something, you shouldn't waste time trying to fix it, just destroy everything and rebuild from scratch. It's simple, practical, and faster, right?"
"...Don't take this so lightly; what you said could throw the three factions into chaos."
"And isn't that great?" Ruby's smile grew, "The more chaos there is, the more I can take advantage of it."
"...You really are crazy..." Madam sighed, then she asked, "What do you want to do all this for?"
"It's for my family, of course," Ruby replied, as she continued:
"As I was growing up, I learned a lot from the experiences I had and my mother's teachings, and one of the things I'm sure of… Is that I hate the current situation, the present Status Quo. If you will, I despise it."
"Hunters hunt innocent vampires for no reason, simply because we're a 'demonic' species, and of course, they do not discriminate. To them, even a baby vampire who hasn't committed any crimes is still a target for elimination… And they say they're doing it all for God'. A bunch of hypocrites."
"Then there's Younger vampires and their useless pride; they're worse than garbage, they're useless... Even the most useless human is more useful than this current generation of vampires. They disgust me."
"And do not get me started on the werewolves; always being so passive. They never interfere with anything and never progress at all, so their entire society never seems to have evolved... A bunch of barbarians."
"And at the top of my list are the Witches. I despise witches... Specifically the Queen of Witches, that woman stinks."
"What do you mean...?" Madam asked curiously.
"Don't you find this situation strange?" Ruby continued.
"Huh…?" Madam didn't understand what Ruby was implying.
"Witches are a 'neutral' faction; they are like a group of merchants who sell anything as long as someone has money."
"These women are connected to all factions, and because of that connection, they have a great deal of information available at their fingertips. Yet, what do they do with this information? Purely use it to make more money? Even though they are already wealthy? Just being greedy doesn't explain it." Ruby was quite skeptical about this.
"Information is power. Knowing or not knowing certain information can change the situation in the blink of an eye. Even an idiot knows that."
"Werewolves, Vampires, Hunters... She has information on all of these factions, but... We don't know anything about her... Didn't you ever find it weird?"
Madam didn't respond for a second and then just said, "…I don't get your point. The Queen of Witches never hid her society from all factions."
"Seriously?" Ruby smiled, and then she asked a question:
"So answer me this: who is the Queen of Witches? What does she look like? What is her name? How old is she? Did she have sex to have her daughters? Or did she just adopt? Does she have a mother? If she has a mother, then who is the father?"
"...That's..." Madam was silent. After all, she didn't know that either.
"We know about the Queen's daughters. We know their names, what their physical appearances are, but we know nothing about the Queen of Witches, and this woman is the ruler of an entire race; she is the Queen."
"We don't even know if the Queen was replaced over time with another Queen, we don't know the exact location of the Queen, we don't know her plans or how she thinks."
"…" Madam was silent.
"Isn't that weird? How is it that a woman who holds the power to interfere in all factions is not known to the masses? And why is it that no one cares about that?"
"Maybe she's just shy?"
Ruby's eyes twitched. "...Are you serious?"
"…" Madam didn't know what to say. She had never thought about it before, and, for some reason, she just found it all natural.
She found it natural that the Queen of Witches was not known. She found it natural that she herself had never seen the appearance of the queen... After all, the Queen is strong, right? Strong people like to stay hidden...
'Wait... That's weird.' Madam placed her hand on her chin and started thinking: 'Everyone in the supernatural world knows the king of vampires and king of wolves, but no one knows the queen of witches. In all my life, she's never been out in public. She's always isolated in her castle… And the day I won my title, I just saw her silhouette behind a cloth…'
Madam opened her eyes wide as she seemed to have understood something:
"That Bitch…Don't tell me she did what I think she did…" Then, wanting to test her hypothesis, she made a magic circle with her hand and placed her hand on her head.
Crack!
Suddenly everyone heard the noise of something breaking.
"...?" Ruby didn't understand what happened, she looked to Madam for answers.
"…a suggestion spell…" Madam's face twisted in anger. She didn't like knowing someone was messing with her head.
A suggestion spell, what does it do? It's a pretty simple spell; it slowly affects an individual's mind, similar to Vampyric Charm but more discrete.
One could use this spell even in conversation to slowly influence the individual's opinion in the user's wanted direction.
In this case, the magic was: Treat everything as if it were something natural.
"Oh?" Ruby showed a slight smile, "What did you do?"
"I was under the influence of a suggestion spell. I probably acquired it through products sold by witches or through living in their society for a long time? I do not know."
"Interesting." Ruby started thinking about several things, and in less than a few seconds, she said:
"This is weird."
"What is?" Madam asked.
"Would the Queen of Witches be so stupid as to use a spell that even you can identify? Not wanting to belittle you, but you're not one of the strongest witches."
Madam ignored what Ruby said, "...You're thinking wrong, Scarlett."
"Hmm?"
"All witches worship our Queen. The Queen of Witches is like a mother to all these women, meaning..."
"All witches are allies of the queen..." Ruby opened her eyes wide.
"Yes, and, because of that, she didn't mind using a spell that even I can identify." Madam snorted in disdain.
'That makes sense considering the other factions don't have much knowledge of magic… After all, they wouldn't learn something they couldn't use.' Ruby thought.
Madam wouldn't deny that in the past, she thought the Queen of Witches was like a mother to her too, but after living so long with witches, she came across several situations that she didn't like, and because of that, she deserted and became a clandestine witch.
Being a clandestine witch wasn't bad. You just had to hide and pray the Queen of Witches wouldn't find you, or you'd never surface again.
The Queen was not very fond of deserters. Either you were with her, or you were her enemy.
"I see... That's why you want to do this..." Madam understood why Ruby wanted to carry out that plan.
Ruby's smile grew:
"One thing my mother always told me was: 'Do whatever you want because I will always be your ally, my daughter…' And my beloved husband has the same kind of mentality as my mother."
'Even Krishna has a similar mentality but I should probably keep his involvement a secret for now. As long as he appears to be aloof and not bothering with much these Witches will not be too worried....'
***************
On top of a building with over 30 floors.
Fred was cornered by Mizuki, looking like a helpless lamb that was powerlessly awaiting slaughter by a predator!
"…Okay, Milf…I'm sorry, okay? Let's talk? Please?" Fred spoke with a strained smile as he looked back with a bit of fear. Despite being an Altair fan, he couldn't take a leap of faith from such a high place!
He would die if he did! He wasn't a game character!
Veins began to pop in Mizuki's head. The man just threw gasoline on the fire!
"Stop calling me Milf!" Mizuki stomped the ground angrily!
Crack!
The ground broke in a spider web pattern from the force!
"Hiii!" Fred dropped to the ground in fear:
"As expected of a gorill."
"What did you say...?" Mizuki looked at Fred with a look that sent shivers all over Fred's spine.
Gulp.
"N-Nothing."
Krishna was standing a few buildings away with Victor and Edward.
"He is a Idiot.... but he is still our friend." Edward said with a sigh.
"I'll take care of it. That woman is a hunter and uses weapons that are your natural weakness, it's too risky for you to interfere."
"Oh?" Victor looked at Edward with curious eyes and completely ignored what he said about Mizuki. After all, for Victor, it didn't matter. In fact, he liked it. The more complicated and difficult the fight was, the more he would evolve and get stronger.
"What are you going to do?" Victor asked.
"... Just observe." Edward disappeared.
"Die!" Mizuki was completely enraged. She had never been humiliated this much! She just put up with this man because it was her mission to recruit him into the organization she worked for!
She was sick of putting up with this rude man!
"Hiii!" Fred closed his eyes and put his hand in front of him, an instinctive gesture of self-defense.
As her odachi approached to cut Fred's head vertically down the middle, as if he were a hero who arrived late to save the day, Edward appeared and grabbed Mizuki's blade.
Tink!
The sound of the blade hitting metal was heard.
"Enough." Edward looked at Mizuki with his blue eyes.
"Heh~." Victor's smile grew when he saw Edward's current appearance.
His face took on a more animalistic appearance, his teeth were sharper, white fur rose from his arms, and he seemed to have more defined muscles. The pressure he emanated from his body indicated that a predator was among them!
An Alpha Werewolf!
"…" Mizuki was a little shocked internally. Even though she didn't put much force into her attack, this man still held back her attack like it was nothing!
"Edward...?" Fred looked at his friend's back, and, for some reason, he felt like those heroines who were saved by the hero at the last moment.
Badump, Badump. (Doki, Doki)
His heart began to pound quickly.
"Thanks-." When he was going to thank Edward, he heard:
"Even though he's an idiot whose personality is a plague from a woman's perspective, he's still my friend, so I won't stand by and watch you kill him." Edward stood and pushed her odachi's blade away.
"Oyy!!! I'm not like that!" Fred protested strongly; he wasn't that kind of man!
Edward slowly turned his face and looked at Fred:
"Shut-up, stop making a mess, and most importantly, apologize to her."
Gulp.
"Y-Yes..." Somehow Fred felt he should obey Edward now. The feeling he was emanating from his body was too dangerous.
Fred looked at Mizuki.
A mature Japanese woman, who had a curvaceous body and large breasts, long black hair, and who wore a white professional suit, she exuded a mature woman feeling that could only be found in experienced women.
"I'm sorry, Milf-."
Slap!
Edward smacked his friend on the head.
"She has a name! Apologize correctly, or I will burn your entire manga collection!"
"...M-Monster, don't you dare!" How could he commit such a great crime so naturally!?
The threat Edward made was more impactful than his current appearance.
"..." Edward just stared at Fred with a neutral gaze.
"Ugh..." Fred realized that his friend wasn't kidding. Fearing for his precious possessions, he looked at Mizuki:
"I'm sorry, Mizuki." He seemed quite sincere when apologizing.
"...Fine..." Mizuki wasn't an irrational woman and accepted Fred's apology.
She undid the spell that created her odachi and turned her face away. She was still annoyed but seeing the man sincerely apologizing, she became a little calmer.
"See? You can do it when you want." Edward smiled in satisfaction, and soon he undid his transformation.
"…Shut up, I don't do it consciously, okay? Things somehow always end like this with this woman, she has a short fuse."
"... Aren't you the one who teases her without knowing?" Edward spoke.
"…" Fred used his right to remain silent. He'll be honest, he didn't know how to treat women, and he'd never received this divine knowledge from anyone. Anime didn't help much either, so, because of that, he was just being himself.
It wasn't like he was trying to insult Mizuki.
"I still don't understand these talismans, are they different from the techniques that normal hunters use?"
"!!!" She was startled when she heard Victor's voice near her ear, and unconsciously she jumped back as she prepared to do battle.
"Oh?" Victor flashed a small smile when he saw a hint of embarrassment on the woman's face. If she reacted like that, it was because she saw him as a man, not a creature she must kill, and that was something Victor didn't understand.
"I thought you hated vampires like other hunters." And as he didn't understand something, he asked his question directly.
Mizuki was surprised by Victor's honesty, "…Yes, I hate them. But for some reason, you and your friends don't seem like supernatural beings to me... You guys are very-."
"Normal?"
"Yes..." Mizuki felt that Victor was very different from the vampires she encountered. He seemed calmer, and he didn't look at her like she was cattle that should be fed upon.
"That's obvious," Edward was the one to speak this time.
"Huh?" Mizuki looked at Edward.
"Victor was a human before, and I grew up away from werewolf society, so, because of that, we're different from our peers," Edward told the truth. His only interactions with the supernatural world were when his father told him something, but he knew the basics of every faction in the supernatural world.
After all, their father Adam did not want his children to be unaware of these basics.
The environment and other influences are what shape an individual's personality. Because of that, even though Victor had turned into a different race, it wasn't like he was going to change his attitude all of a sudden.
The same went for Edward since he grew up among humans and wouldn't act like Emo that would turn away from his friends just because he was a wolf.
"... Eh...?" She looked at Victor in disbelief, " You were once human...?"
"Yeah." Victor displayed a small smile.
"Bullshit!" Mizuki screamed with all her strength.
"It's not bullshit, Just because you cannot be strong does not mean Humans are not strong its just that we have had too much interference from all other races. Especially witches. Not every human can become strong but at least 20% should be able to achieve a respectable level of strength that is if no other race comes to kill them or something like that before they reach that level." Krishna said with a solemn expression
Mizuki just looked at Krishna with a confused face but she too agreed with Krishna on some level but that does not explain Victor's case.
"Stop thinking so hard about it... even if we knew we would not tell you who wishes to kill us." Krishna grinned.
"... So, are you going to tell me what these techniques are?" Victor asked