Chapter 38: Pepper is an airhead girl.
A few minutes later, in the personal garden of Scathach's mansion, despite calling it a garden, this place looked more like a forest than a garden...
"Cough" The girl in front of me pretended to cough, she massaged her throat a little, she was trying to thicken her voice:
"A-A-B... Testing, one, two..."
She looks at me with a serious face and speaks, "My name is Pepper, as per my mother's orders, I'm responsible-"
I interrupted her, "Aren't you going to change your clothes?"
"Fue?" She looked confused for a moment, she looked down and saw that she was still wearing a towel, "Oh..."
Suddenly I hear a small explosion, and I see her face turning bright red, then she disappears with surprising speed.
At the same time that happens, my shadow expands, and soon Kaguya comes out of my shadow:
"Lord Victor."
"Oh, Kaguya, what happened?" I asked as I stroked her head.
"Mm," She doesn't say anything and just stays silent.
Feeling her black hair in my hand, I smile contentedly and say, "While we wait for Pepper, do you have any training tips?"
"Hmm... believe in yourself?" She said.
My smile threatened to break, "Is that supposed to help me in any way?"
"Noble vampires instinctively know how to use their powers when they are born; the only problem we have is 'controlling' the output of our power. After all, depending on the noble vampire's bloodline, their power can reach absurd levels."
"I see... So you are born geniuses," I continued stroking her head.
"You are wrong." Kaguya spoke, she thought for a moment and continued: "It's like a baby who instinctively knows how to cry or ask their mother for food... With our species, it's the same. We instinctively know how to use our power, the only problem we have is to control, and improving that power to new levels."
"I see," I understood what she said; it's like moving your arm. You know instinctively how to move your body, right? It's basically something like that.
Suddenly, I see a red silhouette, and soon I see that Pepper has returned wearing new clothes; she's wearing a red uniform and black tights.
She looks at me with her face a little embarrassed, "... Let's continue."
She intends to ignore everything that happened, huh?
"Okay," I said as I stopped stroking Kaguya's hair.
"Cough," She coughed again and explained in a cute voice, "Let's skip the basics; after all, you already know what your unique powers are. So what we're going to do today is learn to control the basic powers of a vampire."
"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.
"It's something like this" She looks like she's going to demonstrate something, she looks at a tree in the distance and says, "Pay attention, I'll just run 'normal'"
Pepper suddenly positions herself, her body starts to be covered by a fog, and she disappears and then reappears in front of the tree, and soon she returns to the same position again.
"See? This is a basic skill for all vampires. As creatures of the night, we can blend into the night easily; what I've demonstrated now is 'fog walking'."
"That was cool… Can all vampires do this?" Despite speaking in a neutral voice, my eyes were gleaming with curiosity.
"Yes, it's a basic skill." This time, Kaguya answered me, "The basic vampire skills are fog walking, bat transformation, night vision, and claws," She said.
She points her hand at me, and I see her hand has changed, her nails have gotten sharper and more deadly, and her hand has seemed to grow stronger.
Pepper looks at Kaguya with a pout on her face; Kaguya just looks at Pepper with a stoic look.
Pepper puffed out her chest in annoyance.
Boing! Boing!
And they swayed like crazy...
For a moment, I see Kaguya's black eyes turning blood red, she looks annoyed at something.
Soon Pepper goes on to explain, "Noble vampires usually ignore these basic abilities and focus only on the powers they inherited from their parents, for example."
She pointed to Kaguya, "This maid, she has the power to control the shadows, and using those powers, she modified the basic vampire abilities to fit her power."
I remember Kaguya's fight with Mizuki, and I nod in agreement, she seemed to 'walk' in the shadows in that fight.
"Oh, do you know Kaguya?" I asked, curious.
"Yes, she was always around when Violet came to visit Ruby."
"Why doesn't Lacus know Kaguya?"
"Lacus... She's really lazy, she just stays asleep and only wakes up when something interesting happens..." She looked uncomfortable for some reason. "Because of that, she doesn't know the people who visit our house."
"Oh…" I didn't know what to say; this seemed to be a family issue, something like having a child who is a 'NEET'.
"..."
She looks at me with neutral eyes, then continues, "Why don't you try to get used to the basic powers first? Try to use your basic vampire powers, and when you get used to them, we'll train the powers you were born with."
"Why should we train these powers if they aren't used a lot?" I asked with genuine doubt. After all, I haven't seen my wives using these powers.
"My mother always said that the basics are the most important; you need a strong foundation to build the pillars for your strength in the future..."
"Hmm... I'll try," That sounds interesting too. I feel like those men in the comics who are discovering their powers.
I position myself to run, and before I can do anything:
I heard Kaguya warning me, "Remember Lord Victor, don't use your unique powers, just use your racial powers!"
"I know, I just have to turn into mist, right?"
"Yes," She confirmed.
Let's try... Pepper said I must know how to use this ability instinctively; I close my eyes and think of the image of Pepper running, focusing on what I should do. Then, I open my eyes, and I try to imitate what Pepper did.
I put some strength in my legs and run towards the tree...
...
Lacus and Siena, who were drinking tea, suddenly hear an explosion as if a lightning bolt has fallen to the ground.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
"... What is it!? It is not raining!" Lacus was startled by the sudden noise.
Siena just looks at her sister with a neutral expression, she drinks the 'tea' which contains a red drink, and explains, "The noise came from the garden, I think it's our mother's guest-"
Siena stopped talking when she saw Lacus had left, she sighs, "She's too rushed."
...
Pepper and Kaguya heard an explosion as if lightning had fallen to the ground, and soon after, they saw the tree destroyed and in pieces; then, fire started to come out of Victor's body, and soon he slammed his body into a rock...
"... Well, I knew it would happen, but... The destruction is bigger than I expected," Kaguya commented.
"Wawawa, the forest is on fire!" Pepper was freaking out.
Kaguya hits Pepper on the head.
"Ouch!" She puts her hand to her head and looks at Kaguya with a face that could cry at any moment. "W-What? Why did you hit me?"
"Calm down, and use your powers," Kaguya spoke.
Suddenly, Pepper's expression lit up, "Oh."
Pepper steps on the ground, the ground broke with the force she put in, and soon a massive amount of water started coming out of the cracks.
She points her finger at the forest and yells, "Ey!"
The water she was controlling rises to the skies and began to fall into the forest as if the place were raining.
As a surprising display of control, Pepper just doused the spreading fire.
"Good job," Kaguya said.
"Hehehehe," She laughed as she scratched her head.
Kaguya uses her speed and runs towards Victor; seeing that Kaguya is gone, Pepper follows her example and uses her speed.
...
"Lord Victor... Didn't I tell you not to use your powers?" Kaguya asked.
"I didn't try to use my powers..." Victor muttered as he got up from a crater that was more than 1 KM wide; he didn't seem to be hurt. Then, realizing he was wet with water, fire started to come out of his body, and soon he was dry again.
He looks at his clothes and thinks; these clothes are amazing, they are quite resistant...
Kaguya looks at the ground around Victor and sees that the soil was filled with small pieces of ice.
'Hmm… Maybe?' She seemed to be thinking of something.
"I tried to run like Pepper, but for some reason, it happened." He pointed at the crater.
"Fue...?" Pepper looked surprised, she looked around and said, "You tried to run like me and created this giant crater...?" She asked with an expression of shock.
"Pepper, what was that noise." Lacus suddenly arrives, and she looks around, "Wow, this is big."
"...Lord Victor, can you do something for me?"
"Yes? What is it?" Victor replied in a neutral tone.
"Follow me," Kaguya said and started to run.
Victor started following Kaguya, and soon Pepper and Lacus, who were curious about what was going to happen, began to follow as well.
Kaguya stops in front of an ordinary tree.
"See that tree? I want you to pull the tree out of the ground and throw the tree in a random direction."
"...?" Victor didn't understand the purpose of this, but he did as Kaguya asked.
Victor approaches the tree trunk and puts his hand gently on it; somehow, he can instinctively sense that using one hand was enough. So he pulls the tree out of the ground and lifts it with ease.
He looks at an empty spot and throws the tree.
Everyone watched the tree that was suddenly frozen in the air; when that tree fell to the ground and broke the ice around it, a fire started to be created, and soon lightning fell from the sky...
"...!?"
"…As expected…" Kaguya seems to have figured something out.
"... T-This is bullshit!!" Lacus suddenly yelled in frustration, she looked like she was freaking out.
"Fue!?" Pepper was startled by the sudden scream.
Victor puts his hand to his ear, "Why are you screaming, woman?"
Lacus looks at Victor, "Don't you understand what you just did...?"
"...?" Victor looked at Lacus confused:
"I threw the tree, and suddenly it turned to ice; when the ice fell to the ground, the ground started to catch fire, and suddenly lightning fell from the sky even though there were no clouds in the sky." He explained what he saw aloud.
"..." Lacus just looked at Victor with an expression that said she didn't believe what she was seeing in front of her.
..........
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