Chapter 149: The fifth count.
"This is weird…" Leona commented.
"Yes," Edward added along with his sister.
"This is definitely weird…" Leona continued.
"Yes, Yes."
"I'm not the crazy person here, right? I'm normal, right?"
"...That's debatable." Edward said, then added, "After all, everyone is crazy."
"Meow~." Zack was lying on the table with his legs open while receiving the caresses of Victor.
"Hehehe, Buddy. You're a spoiled guy, aren't you?" Victor started stroking him more.
"Meow~." Zack, for a moment, seemed to have reached nirvana under Victor's caress. He especially enjoyed belly caresses! On the belly! Important things must be said twice!
"..." Violet looked at the cat with a neutral gaze and seemed to be thinking about several things right now...
"...Meow?" For some reason, Zack felt a shiver down his spine, but soon he didn't care anymore and went back to enjoying Victor's caresses.
"Then why were you interested in this man? You interacted with him, you know what kind of personality he has, I don't think he would be good company for you, but it's not like I care." Victor asked as he continued to pet his cat.
"...Why do I feel like you are speaking those words with ulterior motives?" Mizuki spoke
"You're imagining things." Victor laughed; he was just making small talk.
"You still haven't answered my question." He continued,
"...If you let me pet the cat... I'll answer your question..." Mizuki's eyes sparkled strangely as she gazed at Zack.
"Meow..." Translation: I feel a disturbance in the force...
"Umu? Hahaha, Buddy. You are a popular cat." Victor chuckled amusedly, then continued:
"That's fine with me, but be warned, he hasn't been bathed yet."
"That's okay..." Mizuki approached Victor, sat next to him, and immediately started stroking Zack's fur.
"Meow!?" Translation: Who are you, damn woman!?
Zack jumped, feeling startled when he felt an unknown hand caress his fur.
"Do not run away," Mizuki spoke as she started to caress Zack's belly.
"Meow, Meow..." Translation: Whoever you are, just keep going...
"Hahahaha, this cat is so spoiled." Victor laughed a little when he witnessed the expression Zack was making.
"Darling... What are we doing?" Violet looked at Mizuki with dark eyes like a black hole; this bitch was too close to him, wasn't she!?
But the woman didn't seem to mind Violet's gaze since she was too focused on the cat.
"..." Leona, Edward, and Fred nodded furiously in agreement with Violet's words. This situation was just too weird for them!
A few minutes ago, a fight looked like it was about to break out at any moment, but suddenly, as if he were a man who had master level social skills, Victor spoke:
"Why don't we sit down and talk? I'm a little interested in your organization..."
Violet looked at Victor with her mouth open in pure shock, 'Is this my husband? Huh? Didn't he always fight right away!? Did someone switch places with him!? Is he an imposter!? ... But I'm sure he's my Darling, the smell, the presence, the eyes, the little movements, all the little things I know about my Darling are in front of me now, I feel like he's my Darling, that's 100% sure...'
Because of Victor's unexpected words, Violet's brain short-circuited for a few seconds, but she quickly recovered!
Victor's actions were simple, he didn't want to fight in his hometown, his parents were living here, and he had many acquaintances residing in this city too, so, because of that, he preferred not to fight here.
But that was just one of the reasons. He wouldn't say it out loud, but he was interested in the woman's techniques, he couldn't quite remember what had happened when he fought her in the past, but he knew she used quite exotic techniques.
Mizuki thought for a moment, "That sounds like a good idea; I didn't come here to fight anyway…" Then, she swallowed hard as she remembered the moment Scathach ripped her arm off, "And I'm a little interested in you."
"...Huh?" Violet's eyes weren't pretty now.
After this dialogue, Victor walked around using his powers and created an ice table. He looked at Leona:
"I'll be closing shop for a few hours; let your customers know something came up unexpectedly."
"E-Eh...? Okay…" When Leona picked up the phone to call her customers, she suddenly stopped moving and looked at Victor.
"Why are you treating this place like you own everything!?" She just realized she was caught up in his rhythm!
"Umu?" Victor looked at Leona with an innocent expression and said, "I'm used to it."
"…" Leona didn't know what to say.
Victor created six ice chairs around the table and chose a chair to sit on.
"Sit down." He told everyone, and, somehow, they too got caught up in Victor's rhythm.
...
And now everyone found themselves in this strange situation...
Victor was sitting in a simple ice chair, Violet was sitting to his left side, and Mizuki was seated to his right as she petted Zack.
She was petting the cat with a neutral expression on her face, but everyone could tell she was enjoying this activity very much.
Edward was sitting on the other side of the table, and beside him was Leona, followed by Fred, who didn't know what to do in this awkward situation...
And, he felt a little cold sweat when he saw Violet's lifeless gaze, his instincts said, that woman is not good news! She was mad!
Completely crazy! He just wanted to get away from here!
He could tell she was crazier than a certain pink-haired girl he saw in an anime!
He was a man of culture, and he could accept everything! But…
Yandere is awesome… Yandere is just awesome…
But he couldn't deny that Yandere had their charms.
"!!!" Fred shook his head several times. He wanted to get that thought out of his head!
"Before we go any further, let's introduce ourselves properly this time." Victor displayed a small smile.
"This beautiful woman beside me is Violet Snow; she is my wife and also the heiress of Clan Snow."
"…" Mizuki raised an eyebrow; 'The new count is married to the heiress of Clan Snow…'
Mizuki didn't know much about Nightingale society, but she did know something, vampire families couldn't mix. It would cause an imbalance of power.
'What is happening?' Mizuki couldn't understand, and she thought she lacked information for her to make a proper decision.
Violet exhibited a gentle smile and said, "…pleased to meet you." She looked like a very loving wife.
A complete personality change! She didn't even look like the woman who was about to jump at Mizuki's neck at any moment.
"... Eh...?" Somehow, Fred didn't believe what he heard.
"…" Leona narrowed her eyes a little when she heard what Victor said.
Edward looked at his sister out of the corner of his eye; 'I'm proud of you, Buddy. You didn't break the code we created. But I don't know how to feel when my sister is sad like that.' He thought.
Despite not having shown much, Edward was the one who knew his sister the most, and he knew that she was pretty affected by Violet's presence.
'But... I think this is a good thing, considering wolves and vampires can't be together.' Edward thought.
"… Buddy, I don't know if I'm jealous of you, or if I admire your courage… But because you're a vampire, everything is okay? After all, you're immortal... Wait, isn't that worse? And if she freaks out and locks him in one place, and does this and that…" With every word Fred spoke, his face darkened with pure fear.
Yandere is good, but only in fiction! In real life, they are scary!
Fred was not an immortal vampire! He still feared for his life!
"…" Violet's gentle smile threatened to break when she heard Fred's words, but then she took a deep breath; 'Calm down, you can't kill him, he's my Darling's friend…'
"…?" Victor didn't understand Fred's reaction and said:
"You're still very innocent, Fred." He chuckled
"What…" Fred opened his mouth in shock and couldn't believe what he heard.
Victor stopped looking at Fred and looked at Edward with eyes indicating for him to say something.
"...I'm Edward Jonathan Lykos, and this is my sister, Leona Elizabeth Lykos."
"...Lykos?" Mizuki suddenly stopped petting Zack and then continued, "Are you the children of the former general of the wolves, Adam William Lykos?"
"Yes." Edward displayed a small smile.
"Oh? That old-man is an ex-general, huh?" Victor's smile grew a little since he had some knowledge of how wolf society worked.
Quite simply, the wolf society worked like this, the king was the Alpha among the Alphas, all wolves were part of his 'pack'.
And this king had four individuals that were like his right hand, they were called the four wolf generals, and these generals were all alpha wolves.
After that came the Betas that were all the wolves that decided to be part of the werewolf king's pack, and the Omegas werewolves that chose to abandon the 'pack' and act alone. They were at the bottom of the hierarchy.
A simple hierarchy, as expected from wolves.
"..." Edward and Leona felt awkward when they saw Victor's smile.
"So are you, Alphas?" Victor asked in curiosity.
"Yeah." Leona and Edward spoke, and slowly their eyes began to change.
Looking into their bright blue eyes like a cloudless sky, he smiled smugly, "A family of Alphas, huh?"
"..." Edward and Leona didn't say anything and just displayed a little smile confirming Victor's words.
Edward and Leona were the children of an Alpha werewolf; hence they were also born Alpha Wolves.
Despite that, being an 'Alpha' was something that was decided at the time that the wolf reached maturity.
For example, even though they were the offspring of an Alpha werewolf, if they grew up with the wrong mindset, they wouldn't awaken as an Alpha.
Ancient texts say that for a werewolf to awaken as an Alpha, they needed to have the right mindset for it, the mentality of a leader, the mentality of a king, but Victor didn't know if that was the right reason.
After all, he couldn't imagine Leona having the mindset of a leader or a king...
'But... There are many types of leaders in this world.' Victor contemplated in silence, even though she was not like her brother, when something happened and something needed to be done, Leona was always the first to step forward. In a way, she was a kind of leader too.
An interesting thing about werewolves is that... An Alpha's strength is decided by the number of Betas they have in their pack.
It is because of this peculiarity that the king of wolves is so feared. After all, how many wolves does he have in his pack? Hundreds? Thousands? It's hard to know.
Strength in numbers defines werewolves, and because of that nature, werewolf society was very close-knit.
Individual strength is what defined vampires, and because of that, they were a pretty individualistic species. So in a way, vampires are the most human-like.
'The two races are the complete opposite of each other, huh?' Victor thought.
Edward looked at Fred, "This man is Frederick Winter, an otaku, a gamer, a NEET, and a self-proclaimed 'Man of Culture'."
"Why was my intro longer!? Come on, Dude!"
"Hahahaha." Victor laughed amusedly, really enjoying his friend's reactions.
"..." Suddenly, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Victor.
"I think it's my turn, huh?" Victor displayed a small smile when he saw everyone's eyes.
"My name is Victor Alucard; I am the new pillar of vampire society; the fifth count of vampires."
....
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