n

n

n

n“Tell me what happened.”

n“Nothing happened.”

nCough, Cough.

nShe spat blood on the floor.

n“Oh really?” Victor flashed a wry smile.

nNatalia opened the door to the room; she looked a little breathless, holding Victor’s giant Odachi with both hands.

n“Master, why did you leave me out there?”

n“I needed to check on my business partner.” Victor made no apologies. When he arrived at that location, he immediately smelled blood and thought that something might have happened to Mizuki.

nThus, he quickly arrived at this location.

n“…That’s…” Mizuki looked at the Odachi in Natalia’s hand.

n

n“Junketsu.” When Victor spoke the sword’s name, as if calling for some dog, the blade quickly left Natalia and floated towards Victor.

nVictor raised his hand and grabbed hold of the Odachi, “That’s the name of the Odachi you made for me…”

n“…That’s a pretty cute name for an Odachi that you’re going to use.”

n“My Maid named it, and I must say she has good taste.”

nVictor took hold of the Odachi’s sheath and slowly pulled the Odachi out:

n“As the Purest Blooded Vampire… I think the name suits me a lot.”

n“!!!” Although he didn’t completely pull the blade out of its sheath, that simple gesture was enough to make Abe-No-Seimei’s entire existence tremble.

nHe felt threatened by that Odachi.

n‘…Disciple, just what kind of weapon did you give this monster?’

n“Well, considering what you are, that does make sense?” She spoke in a confused voice as if she wasn’t sure.

n“But I’m glad you like it.” She flashed a small smile. Now, she no longer owed this man any debt.

n‘And to think that I would put so much effort into making a weapon for my enemy….’ She felt ironic in this situation, but she didn’t feel bad.

nTo be honest, she was pretty pleased; Victor had helped her so much and shown her the truth about her former organization.

nAnd it was not like she hated making that Odachi; after all, it was an Odachi with properties to kill Beings of the Night.

n‘A Vampire wields a weapon to kill Beings of the Night….’ She couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly at the thought.

n“… I love it.” He returned the Odachi to its sheath and released it.

nAs if having a life of its own, the Odachi began to float close to Victor.

n“… It seems that Odachi has evolved in a strange way when it came into your hands,” Mizuki commented while looking at the floating Odachi; she didn’t remember putting any enchantments on it.

n‘It was as if the weapon was alive… Is that possible? I know using a Vampire’s blood is unusual, but as far as I’m aware, the blade should only get sharper and be unable to harm the Vampire whose blood was used in its creation.’

nMizuki had many doubts.

n“….” Victor showed a small smile but didn’t comment on anything. The fewer people who knew about his Odachi’s mutation, the better, and from what he saw on Mizuki’s face, she didn’t expect these changes in Odachi either.

n“So? What happened?”

n“…” Mizuki turned her gaze to Victor, and, seeing that the man wouldn’t give up until she gave an appropriate answer, she sighed in resignation.

n“A group of Vampires attacked me.”

n“Can a mere group of Vampires hurt you?”

n“They weren’t alone.” Mizuki shook her head, she closed her eyes for a few seconds and remembered what happened, and then she said:

n“Demons and Werewolves.”

n“….” Victor narrowed his eyes.

n“I was attacked by a group of Vampires, Werewolves, and Demons… It was a trap.”

n“Although the demons were just low-level minions, insignificant demons, I let my guard down, allowing them to hurt me. Because of that, this wound is taking a while to heal.” Mizuki spoke in disgust.

nShe was caught in a situation she had never been in before, and because of that, she was injured by a low-level demon.

nAll demons had a type of miasma that was harmful to living beings, and this miasma was even more dangerous for her as she used a kind of magic that channeled the ‘faith’ of the Shinto Gods she believed in.

n“…” Victor touched his chin, and he started to think.

n‘This situation… Several races that would never get along were in a group and set a trap for Mizuki… The only person I can think of who’d use this type of tactic is that bastard.’ Niklaus’s face couldn’t help but appear in Victor’s head.

nWhile Victor was silent, Mizuki started to remember that night when she was injured and running away; she swore she could see what looked like some of the Hunters for a few seconds.

nThough she didn’t tell Victor that.

n‘Why were these bastards in this group of different races?’ She could smell the rotten smell of hidden plots under the table. It was the same feeling she had when she visited the Onmyouji’s last refuge in the past.

nThat place was filthy with corruption.

n‘A faction of Hunters is working with demons? Which one is it? Which of the Generals is involved with the demons? Or is it just a specific group?’ Despite having left her old organization, Mizuki still had contacts spread across the world, and these contacts showed that demons were becoming more active recently.

nThey were actively possessing dead people’s bodies.

nShe even had spies in The Inquisition.

nCourtesy of Victor and Ruby, whom she ‘borrowed’ the spies from.

nWho were Victor and Ruby’s spies?

nThese two men were the first Hunters Victor had encountered in the past and who eventually became Ruby’s subordinates through a magical contract.

nJimmy, better known as Dick Head.

nAnd Thomas, his teammate, better known as The Shounen Protagonist.

nThey often exchanged information with Ruby and now Mizuki.

nHaving someone of The Hunter’s general class as an ally was quite valuable. Even if Mizuki was previously from the organization, her strength, and her past as an Onmyoji Mage were something worthy of respect.

nBecause of this, Ruby and Victor completely supported Mizuki, and they didn’t even worry about Mizuki leaking information about Jimmy and Thomas.

nA magical contract was always helpful on such occasions; Mizuki would receive information about The Hunters whenever she wanted in exchange for her silence.

nOf course, she must pay the price for that and help out whenever Ruby or Victor asks for something.

n‘These demons, despite being weak, are quite annoying to deal with when they are together, especially with other races supporting them.’

n‘What are they planning?’

nSeeing Mizuki’s distorted face, Victor could understand that she hadn’t told him everything.

nBut it wasn’t like it mattered; he could more or less imagine what had happened.

nTheir enemies were banding together and planning something big. After all, there would be no reason to ally with other races if they didn’t have a common interest.

nBut the interesting thing was, he felt that this ‘planning’ was not for him…

nIt was just his intuition, he didn’t have hard evidence about it, but when he thought about the big picture that he had knowledge of now, he couldn’t help but think about it.

n“Sigh, I swear, one of these days, that your sense of responsibility will kill you.”

nMizuki awoke from her thoughts, “…Someone needs to defend humans from creatures like you.” She spoke in a resolute tone.

n“But that is where you are wrong.”

n“…?” Mizuki looked at Victor in confusion.

n“Humans are not so weak that they need protection.”

n“If history has taught anything, it’s that humans can always adapt, learn, evolve, and get stronger… They can be predators.”

n“Individually, you are weak, yes, but together, you are a formidable force to deal with.”

n“If you had a decent leader who would unite at least the ‘good’ Hunters, separating them from those fanatical mother**ers who are only interested in their own self-interest, the Hunters’ current situation would be quite different.”

nThis opinion did not come from Victor himself but from Adonis’ memories.

nFor someone who’d lived a very long time, he knew a lot about humans. He also got to learn from them. The tenacity of this particular race is quite surprising.

nAn example of this was The Vampire War with humans that took place.

nIf humans banded together and had a quality leader, they’d become a pretty troublesome threat, especially if they were wielding the irritating energy of ‘faith’.

nThe Energy that could completely kill a Creature of the Night.

n“….” Mizuki and Abe-No-Seimei looked at Victor with shocked eyes, and even Natália, who was stoic most of the time, was shocked by Victor’s words.

nThey didn’t know this man thought that way about humans.

n“But… It really is a pity that you have become so useless and corrupt… Well, I guess that’s the fate of all living beings? Although this occurs more easily with humans.”

nIt’s not like there was no corruption in Nightingale or the Werewolf race.

nIt was perfectly natural, of course. After all, though the ages changed and time passed, Greed, the desire for power, remained the same.

nAsking for corruption to be abolished was the same as asking beings to give up the pursuit for power.

nBut this ‘corruption’ could be controlled, an example of this being Nightingale itself.

nVlad, despite not appearing often, has the respect of most Vampires.

nThey all respect his strength, and him being the Progenitor of all vampires helped, too.

nThe same was true for The Werewolves.

nThrough a ‘challenge’ system, if someone wanted power, you just had to challenge another Werewolf and take that power for yourself.

nThat kind of trouble was also avoided for a long time because Werewolves and Vampires were a race of extremely high longevity.

nThat little detail helped too, as with a being like Vlad and the King of The Wolves in power, corrupt individuals had to plan their steps for centuries, and during those plans…

nOrdinary people would experience a long time of ‘peace’.

nYes… It’s not like there aren’t issues in these societies, but… The problems were much smaller because this society had two competent leaders.

n… But what about the humans?

nThey didn’t have one.

nBecause they were a race that had a vast population of different ethnicities, cultures, and languages,

nIt was literally impossible to unite the entire human race into a single large group.

nHuman countries would always prioritize their own interests.

nThe Inquisition, an organization that was supposed to ‘guide’ and protect humans, had become corrupt because of its leader.

nDo they protect humans?

nYes.

nBut in return, they create enemies all over the place due to their fanatical members killing every supernatural being they encounter.

nThey had no discernment to decide whether someone was innocent or not.

nIn their view, all supernatural beings were enemies that must be eliminated.

nThey may be protecting humans, but at the same time, they were creating enemies everywhere.

nTo control all humans, they needed an ‘ideal’ to unite them. Humans had to face a perilous situation that threatened their very existence.

nAnd they needed an important figure, an exceptional leader.

n…Yes, something like… A God… And not just any God.

nThe God of the Bible would be ideal.

n‘Well, this is all hypothetical; it will never happen.’ If before ‘globalization’ it was impossible…

nNow it’s even more impossible, and it’s not as if humans were suffering a crisis that threatened their very existence.

nOne human dies today, and 20 are born tomorrow.

nThey are fine~.

n“…I never knew you thought of humans like that.”

n“Well, we haven’t really had a conversation before…” Victor trailed off as he stared at Mizuki’s toned abs.

n“That’s true…” The woman was silent.

n“Oh…?” Victor walked towards Mizuki, as he seemed to have found something.

nFeeling a sense of threat, Abe-No-Seimei appeared in front of Mizuki, but just as he was going to start talking,

nHe just felt a giant hand holding his face,

n‘Wha-‘ He didn’t even have the ability to process what happened. Before he understood, he had already been thrown out of the room; wrong, he was thrown from the structure itself!

nAbe-No-Seimei had a face of pure shock, starting with the fact that a living being had touched him, which should have been impossible.

nSecond, he couldn’t even react to the man! Before understanding what happened, he had already been expelled.

nHe quickly tried to return to his disciple’s room, but the Spirit’s entire existence shook with just one look from Victor.

n“Begone, old man.”

nHe knew that if he decided to go back to the room now, he would disappear from existence.

nNormally it would have been impossible, but he felt that Victor could do it now.

nA terrible fate awaited him if he invaded that place.

n“…How can you touch a Spirit?”

n“Some things have changed.” Victor laughed; he had a theory.

nBecause of his significant soul augmentation and control of his blood, he could ‘touch’ someone’s soul now.

nAnd since a Spirit was just a strong soul in the physical world, it was a simple job for him.

n“Natalia, close the door,” Victor spoke as he crouched down, and looking at Mizuki’s belly, he narrowed his eyes even more, and his eyes began to glow violet.

n“Yes, Master.” Natalia locked the door.

n“Alucard…?” Mizuki felt strange when she saw the man staring at her abdomen so seriously.

nSeeing his violet eyes glowing, she could deduce that he was using some kind of power.

nVictor could see black energy like a miasma all over Mizuki’s body, the woman seemed to be trying to fight it, but it wasn’t working.

n“Are you sure you’re getting better?” He looked into her face.

n“Yes?” She replied confusedly since, even though it was taking a while, she was definitely getting better.

n“… Tsk, apparently you’re getting rusty too.”

n“Huh?”

n“You are dying,” Victor replied in a cold tone as he took off his gloves.

n“W-Wha-…”

n“The miasma is devouring your body as we speak.”

n“That’s impossible! I have had wounds like this in the past, and the miasma usually heals within a week or two.” She completely doubted Victor’s words.

n“This is different from ordinary miasma.” Anyone who had encountered a demon in the past knew about the miasma they used.

nAnd Adonis was no exception. Despite having lived most of his life in Nightingale, that’s not to say he hadn’t received reports of demon-related incidents.

nHe had never seen the ‘miasma’ personally, but he was aware of the miasma.

nEven Victor was aware of the miasma. After all, he had personally seen Belial’s son’s subordinates using it and Belial’s own son using it.

n

nSpeaking of the son of Belial:

n‘In the past, I didn’t know this, but when I killed Belial’s son, I killed his soul using my blood. Because of that, when Belial saw his son’s head, he went mad.’ He just realized it, and it put a smile on his face.

nWhile the strongest demons came to the human world weakened, Victor was at full strength, and he could permanently kill a demon.

n“Unlike an ordinary miasma that only weakens beings that are weak against the air of the demon world,”

n“This miasma is eating you up and getting stronger as we speak.”

n

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