?Chapter 269: The definition of insanity?
"Tell me, Count Alucard." A man with long black hair that reached the ground asked.
He had a muscular body that was covered in strange tattoos that looked like runes, and these tattoos seemed to cover his entire body as if following some sort of pattern.
He wasn't wearing anything from the waist up. The only thing he was wearing was torn prisoner's pants and two black cuffs that looked very old on his wrists.
The man who suddenly appeared stared at Victor, with an expressionless look, a look completely devoid of life:
"Do you know what the definition of insanity is?" The being that suddenly appeared asked.
"...." Victor didn't answer, he just stared at the man with a not so friendly look, as he looked around, and realized that the whole place was... Still.
Yes, it was the same feeling he had when running at a very high speed. He felt things around him move very slowly, it was like he was walking at a normal speed, but everyone around him was in slow motion.
But unlike those times, everything around was literally stopped.
While Victor was getting information from the guard to talk to the gate, this man literally appeared out of nowhere.
Because of that, Victor was on guard and watching his every move.
He was trying to gauge the man's strength, but… He felt nothing.
Nothing!
He didn't even feel that this man in front of him 'existed'.
Was it possible he was looking at a ghost? Or something he couldn't identify with his current capabilities.
"For me, the definition of insanity are rules."
"…Rules?" Victor asked with obvious awkwardness since he thought the man would say something like 'repeat the same mistake over and over again, that's the definition of insanity.'
He didn't expect this answer.
…Yes, Ruby educated him in the world of culture a bit, but that's a story for another time.
"Rules, a set of words made by a stronger being and which smaller and weaker beings are obliged to follow."
"Rules, the way a king or ruler found to control and administrate his people."
"Rules, chains created to imprison a 'little' of the free will that the creator gave to all beings."
"...." Victor narrowed his eyes:
'Creator... Not God, huh?' He found this word choice quite interesting.
"Rules are created and erased everywhere in the universe."
"No matter the time, no matter the world, no matter the universe. Rules will always be created..."
"This is a natural process decided by the being who commands the order."
Victor, who was staring into the eyes of the being, began to feel as if he was being sucked into something. Like he was being sucked into those eyes devoid of life.
"!!!" And soon, he found himself in a place...
A place that looked like a Medieval land?
"Beings that gain power create rules to gain more power." He heard the man's voice in his head, and soon the view around him changed.
And he found himself in front of a large square, a square that served to let the peasants hear the speeches of a king.
And in that square, a man with strong eyes who gave off the air of a warrior was saying something with a lot of passion, something that Victor didn't understand.
But... He could clearly understand what kind of situation this was. The man was creating his own 'rules'.
He blinked his eyes, and then he found himself elsewhere.
This time, the place appeared to be a forest, and just like the previous vision, he was standing in the middle of a square and looking up towards a mansion that appeared to be built inside a giant tree.
And soon, a woman with long white hair and blue eyes holding a white staff came out and looked down. Her appearance was breathtaking.
She was an extremely beautiful woman, and one feature that stood out about her were the big pointy ears she had.
'...an elf...' Victor opened his eyes wide.
The woman started to say something with a noble expression and a small smile on her face.
Like the man, she was a kind of leader.
And just like the man, she was also creating her 'rules' too.
For a moment, the eyes of the woman, and Victor's, met, and the woman's entire face darkened with fear.
Victor blinked uncomprehendingly, and again he was somewhere else.
This time, it was an even more exotic place than before; he was in a spaceship...
In the darkness of space, a gigantic spaceship flew peacefully on a journey to explore every corner of this universe.
And inside that ship, a man with an eyepatch, a lean but muscular profile, stared straight ahead with eyes gleaming with desire.
I want exploration, I want to see something new, I want an adventure!
But above all that, he had an incredibly sharp focus, as the man looked at what looked like a futuristic computer screen and started to speak something in a language that Victor didn't understand either.
Victor blinked his eyes again.
And this time, he was in a place that seemed to be out of 'space', a place out of 'universe'.
Why did he think this? Well, around him were several galaxies... Wrong, hundreds and thousands of galaxies.
The being appeared next to Victor, and then he snapped his finger.
The moment he snapped his fingers, all the galaxies disappeared, and the image of the three rulers that Victor saw appeared on three screens in front of him, each ruler occupying a different screen.
"Watch."
"..." Victor had his whole face surprised and shocked. He looked like he wanted to ask many things, but hearing what the being said, he was silent.
He didn't feel something bad coming from that man. But, he felt like that man was trying to show him something?
Or teach something?
With these thoughts in his head, he started to look at the three screens in front of him.
The first ruler of the Medieval lands managed to create a great kingdom, but due to his limited life, he died, and the empire he built was divided into several small countries.
Unlike the first ruler.
The woman who was an Elf had a more peaceful reign, but...
As she was a woman who did not leave her own kingdom, her kingdom stagnated...
And it became something like Nightingale, but her reign was still going strong.
Until...
Beings, precisely speaking... Humans covered in futuristic armor invaded the place.
At first, the elves were able to defend themselves, but the more time passed, the more difficult it became for the elves to protect themselves.
Even with all the elves' high-level magic, they were no match for the strange 'technology' of humans... And in the end...
The race was destroyed, its queen captured and used as a lab rat.
The third ruler, the one in space, seemed to have had a better development...
He had an adventure through the cosmos, he discovered and cataloged new planets, his ship became a giant ship that could already be called a floating continent, he had several dates, got several wives, and became a father.
Until at the end of his life, he died in a bed, but he had a happy smile on his face.
His subordinates and 69 wives of different races mourned his death, his children mourned their father's death.
And just as he asked, they put him on the first ship he used to venture out and threw his body into the sun...
He was immortalized as the first galactic emperor… The sun's name was changed to his name in his honor.
... But
100,000 years after he built his empire... The empire that that man took his life to build had returned to what it was before.
A small spaceship, all of his wives and children have already died, and the only thing left of that man's legacy... was his two descendants who were traveling the cosmos with the same twinkle in their eyes that the man had.
"Because of a set of rules, the third man was successful. He was able to build an empire that lasted for several years."
"...What were those rules?"
"Disputes between the family must be resolved on the spot."
"If a child has a lust for power, don't go after your family. Explore the cosmos and find your power."
"Do not be lazy."
"Death is part of the process."
"If someone in the family has a confrontation with another family member, and death occurs... Both must be held accountable and die."
"......"
"He knew the nature of beings well, huh…" Victor said.
"That's the advantage he had." The strange man replied.
"Unlike other rulers, the experience of meeting various civilizations gave him something very important, something that all rulers forget."
"...." Victor continued watching the being beside him until the man spoke:
"Humility."
"..." Victor's eyes widened in shock.
"…And wisdom, of course. You can be humble, but if you don't have the wisdom to see the important 'lesson' that is right in front of you, your whole journey will be useless."
The man looked at Victor and spoke in a tone of voice that made Victor's entire existence shudder:
"In all ages, in all universes, the rulers think they are invincible and that nothing can kill them. When gaining power, in gaining a status that is above ordinary beings, he thinks he is untouchable."
"Arrogance!"
Crack, Crack.
All the space around Victor seemed to break, and soon he woke up where he had been before.
Victor was breathing heavily, and his whole body felt heavy. He didn't understand what had just happened.
"Although I think that... Rules are the definition of insanity..."
Victor looked at the man.
"I also think that if they are used correctly like that man did. Rules could become something amazing."
"...." Victor caught his breath.
"Alucard... Wrong, Victor."
"Remember, as you fall into the deepest abyss, only order will be your guide."
"Nothing can be born from chaos, only more chaos will be born. Only when a tiny spark of 'Order' exists, only then can sentient beings show their full potential."
The moment he said that the man for the first time flashed a small smile, and just like before, the moment Victor blinked, he disappeared.
"Hmm, what do you mean by just talking around?" Natashia asked.
"Like I said, the prison has a mind of its own, and we're basically in its stomach! If you speak, you will be heard!"
"Bitch, do you realize this doesn't make sense?"
"Huh? How does that make no sense!? And stop calling me Bitch, I'm still a virgin!"
"....." Natashia looked at the woman with a face that said; I don't give a fuck.
"When I used to come here as a kid with my mom, she would always talk to someone through a screen or something."
"And when I came here as an adult, I did the same! I didn't have to talk to the wind like a retard!"
"...Oh." The child's eyes opened a little.
"Are you from the domestic sector by any chance?"
"Huh? Domestic sector, what's that?" In all her life, Natashia had never heard of it.
"Domestic sector is the area that we categorize as 'light' crimes, usually people who will report to this sector follow this type of procedure that you did."
"... How many sectors does this place have?"
"I don't know?"
A vein popped in Natashia's head when she heard the childish voice, "How do you not know!?"
"I already told you, I'm just a subordinate!"
"The Big Boss doesn't mean anything to me! I just have to do my job, and voila! I make money."
"...." Victor looked at his hand that had a small letter, he ignored the noise around him, opened the letter, and a document appeared in front of him.
...
Read this aloud:
Security protocol, codename, RULES.
"I authorize The Second progenitor Victor Alucard full access to criminals with the 'Vampire' designation."
Criminals from level 5 to level 7 will be completely given over to the domain of the mentioned being.
The Limbo assumes full responsibility for what happened.
Codename, Rules. You're not authorized enough to tell what happened here to the first progenitor, Vlad Dracula Tepes.
...
As told by the letter, Victor read all of this aloud.
"…Eh?" The guard looked at Victor, cold sweat running down her head.
Soon something started to happen, the previously empty rooms began to be covered in white light, and quickly all the cells were filled with pale-skinned criminals, who looked quite dehydrated, and they all had lifeless expressions on their faces.
The letter disappeared from Victor's hand, and he heard a voice in his head:
"May order accompany you, child loved by the chaos."
"Are you an administrator!?"
"...." Victor looked at the little girl.
"... Husband?" Natashia looked at Victor strangely. Even though he didn't do anything, he looked quite... Tired?
Sigh.
Victor took a long breath, he put his hand on his brow and spoke out loud everything he was feeling right now:
"Just… Just… what the fuck happened?" Those words felt like they came from his entire being.
He was full of questions in his head now.