Chapter 153: Faith.
'It has been a long time since someone looked so sincere in my eyes.' Mizuki thought with a small smile on her face.
As a woman who had lived for a while, she was pretty experienced, and she was also used to people talking about how beautiful she was.
She knew she was beautiful, and that wasn't arrogance or vanity; that was an undeniable truth.
She was hot, and she knew it very well.
… But as time went on, those compliments started to become hollow, those compliments started to become false to her. So, because of that, she was taken aback when Victor praised her so sincerely, and he wasn't even looking at her assets.
Which, in her humble opinion, was quite impressive to ordinary women.
"... So, are you going to tell me what these techniques are?" Victor asked again.
"...?" Mizuki pulled out of her thoughts and looked at Victor, who at some point was close to her again and was looking at her with his eyes glowing blood red.
"..." Mizuki for a moment felt threatened by that look of his, but she didn't feel any bad intentions coming from Victor, and all she felt was curiosity...
And it wasn't just any curiosity. It was a huge curiosity, like a child who found something interesting and wanted to know more about it.
It was like a cat that couldn't stop looking at something new.
His eyes screamed: Tell me, tell me, tell me.
To be honest, she felt a bit smothered by this curiosity.
"...Well..." For a moment, Mizuki was going to tell Victor about her techniques, but she quickly remembered that her master had forbidden her to tell anything about it to strangers.
[It's okay, you can tell him the basics, I'm a little curious about something...] She heard her master's voice.
"Fine..." Mizuki sighed, but, as she had her master's permission, she wouldn't mind explaining a few things.
She then pulled a talisman from her pocket and showed it to Victor, then explained, "The techniques I use are called Onmyoujutsu."
"Oh?" Victor's eyes seemed to shine more. He was really interested and started looking at the talisman and analyzing the object.
Mizuki exhibited a small smile when she saw Victor's reaction. She wouldn't deny that she liked seeing someone with genuine curiosity about the techniques she used, so she started talking without delving too deep:
"In short: Onmyoujutsu, it's quite similar to the techniques used by the hunters of the organization I work for. The only difference between the two is that my spells are used based on the faith of the gods of my homeland."
"Hmm…" Victor put his hand on his chin and started to think; 'It's pretty obvious that she spoke that way because she doesn't want me to learn a lot about these techniques.'
"I see, I see. That's interesting, but there's something I don't understand." Victor nodded several times, then asked his question:
"What is this 'faith' that you guys talk about so much?" Victor felt that this concept was too vague. After all, 'faith' could be anything, so how did this power that hunters use work?
He was quite curious.
"Well..." Mizuki didn't even know how to explain it correctly...
"Let me explain this part." Suddenly an old man came out of Mizuki's body.
"Oh?" Victor looked at the old man and waited for his teachings.
"Faith is an unshakable confidence in yourself, an unbreakable confidence that if you want and wish, you can achieve anything!"
"Faith is a belief in a god, or in yourself. A belief so arrogant it can move mountains."
"Faith is an action of change…"
"…?" Victor didn't understand anything.
And the old man realized this, he approached Victor and touched the area of his heart.
"Faith can be many things. The meaning changes from person to person, but the essence remains the same. An unshakable confidence in something, an unshakable belief in something."
"Once you cultivate these two concepts to extreme levels, you are able to cause a phenomenon that can bend reality, you are able to access the 'source'."
'Is this why most hunters are fanatical?' Victor thought,
"Heh~." He started to get even more interested now.
"Don't get too excited, Oni. That kind of power is unapproachable to the night beings." The old man walked away and said, "Originally, this power was only accessible to humans."
"Eh…?"
"Oni, you have your own malevolent energy, don't get greedy for energies from other races."
"Tsk…" Victor wasn't greedy, just thirsty to learn new things, and thought it would be interesting to learn the hunter's techniques, maybe this could be useful in the future, but if he couldn't access this so-called 'source', he wouldn't waste his time...
But that doesn't mean he won't try to use these techniques...
After all, he was a stubborn man, and if someone said something was impossible, he felt like he'd been challenged.
"You know a lot of things, heroic spirit." Victor displayed a small smile as he looked at Abe-No-Seimei.
"Oh? You seem to know about me, boy."
"I know a little about your kind from Scathach, she said you were strong..." Victor's smile grew disproportionately.
"S-Scathach..." The old man completely ignored what Victor said and seemed to stutter when he heard someone speak Scathach's name so casually. 'What is this man's relationship with that Oni?'
"..." Mizuki's whole body shook when she heard Scathach's name, the memory of the crazy woman ripping her arm off was still too fresh in her mind.
"You damaged my daughter's arm, because of that crime, I will take your arm!"
Mizuki still had nightmares from that night!
"Hmm, you said Scathach, what is your relationship with that Oni?"
"Oni?" Victor didn't understand that strange word.
"Oni is something of a devil in Japanese culture." The one who spoke was Fred, who, without Victor noticing, approached him along with Edward.
"Oh..." Victor exhibited an amused smile. He wasn't irritated by this old man speaking ill of Scathach, considering he knew that when his mother-in-law wanted to be scary, she could be horrifying:
"She did a lot of things, huh? I can see that just hearing her name made you scared."
"..." The old man didn't deny or accept Victor's words and used his right to remain silent! He was a free spirit!
"To answer your question, Scathach is my master, and my mother-in-law." Victor spoke.
"...M-Mother-in-law." Mizuki and the old man stuttered a lot.
'That demon accepted someone to marry her daughter!? Impossible.' Despite having denied this thought, the old man felt that Victor's words were not false. After all, there was no madman in this world who would say this without being afraid of the consequences.
And he conveniently ignored the part where Victor said that Scathach was his master...
Being a senile old man had some disadvantages...
"...Unbelievable..." Edward, who knew a little about vampire society, just made a face of pure shock.
'I thought he was only married to the heiress of Clan Fulger and Clan Snow, but he also married one of the daughters of Clan Scarlett!? What is this luck?' Edward thought.
"Is this woman Violet's mother?" Fred asked.
"She is not. She is the mother of my other wife." Victor replied.
"... Eh?" Fred felt that his world was cracked like a fragile glass.
"Old Man-." When Victor was about to ask him more about the doubts he had, he heard Fred yell.
"Chotto Matte!"
"Huh?" Victor didn't understand a thing Fred said.
Fred walked up in front of Victor, "What is this...?"
"...?"
"What is this!? What is this situation that only happens in harem anime!?" He sounded very desperate, "How envious! You were turned into a vampire, and now you have two beautiful wives!"
"...How do you know she's beautiful?" Victor displayed an amused smile.
"Come on, she's a vampire, there's no way she can be ugly!"
"Make sense." Victor spoke, and then he continued, "And who said I only had two wives?"
"...Huh?" Mizuki and Fred spoke at the same time.
Crack, Crack!
Fred's world is shattered!
"...Hahahaha...This can only be a joke, while I'm using my divine right hand, my best friend created a harem!"
"..." Everyone didn't know how to react to what Fred said.
Fred kneeled on the ground, looked at the clouds, and assumed a position as if he were a believer who was praying to God, as some tears started to fall from his face:
"God, why is the world so unfair! Why!? Whyyyyyy!?"
"I want a harem too! I want to practice dual cultivation! I want to explore the dragon cave!"
"Why doesn't Truck-Sama come visit me at these times!? I want to be the protagonist too!"
"..." Mizuki, the old man, and Edward didn't know how to react to Fred's despair.
And what the fuck is Truck-sama?
Only Edward understood the reference Fred made... The world is so lonely.
"If you want a harem, just get stronger." Victor suddenly spoke.
"...Huh?" Fred looked at Victor.
"My master said that as long as you are strong, you can have as many women/men as you like in your harem."
"The strong are the boss. If you are a woman, if you want, you could have a harem of men. Same goes for men, as long as you're strong, you could create a harem of women if you wanted."
"Even the vampire king has a harem." Victor looked like a shepherd who was teaching the way to the lost lamb.
"That's true, there are many werewolves who have harems." Edward supported Victor's words.
In the supernatural world, it was relatively common for beings to surround themselves with several partners, and this was true for both males and females. It all depended on the individual's will, and of course, their strength.
When Edward was little, he had heard several stories from his father of a woman who was a general of the wolves who had more than 50 men in her harem.
Coincidentally... This woman was Edward's grandmother, but he preferred not to comment on that.
"..." Fred looked at Victor and Edward with determined eyes.
"It's decided. I will become a hunter, and I will raise a harem!" Fred was already imagining himself becoming strong and having several nuns as lovers.
Somehow, when imagining this forbidden scene, he started to get full of motivation!
"Let's fucking goooooo!!!!!!"
"... It's not allowed to interact in church, it's against the rules." It only took a few words for Mizuki to break Fred's dreams.
Crack, Crack!
Fred could even hear the noise of his dreams breaking.
Fred dropped to his knees again as he looked up at the sky, "This is too much, God. Who made this stupid rule? Don't you have control of your organization?"
"...He completely freaked out." Victor facepalmed.
"And we went to so much trouble to cheer him up again." Edward sighed.
"Hmm... Sorry?" Mizuki felt awkward apologizing for a pointless subject.
"I will not become a hunter! Who wants to be a simp of god! Screw this!" Fred got up off the ground and threw his middle finger at the sky.
He changed his mind very quickly! Everyone thought at once.
"…In that case, don't you want to become an Onmyo mage?" The old man spoke after thinking for a few seconds.
"... Eh?"
.....
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