Chapter 48: Ruby returns home.
After winning over two spies who have questionable competence, Ruby warned the vampires that they were Violet's servants to protect Victor's mother and father. She assured them that if anything happened to Victor's parents, they wouldn't have a peaceful death. Soon after that, she returned to the basement of Victor's house.
"Natália, is everything ready?" She asked, entering the room.
Natalia, who was standing in front of a door, said, "Yes, everything is ready, Lady Ruby... Oh, you're back," She looked at Luna.
"Yes, I'm back," Luna smiled at Natalia, she looks at the Maid who was next to Natalia, "Oh? So it's you..."
By looking at the woman's characteristics, she can instantly deduce who the woman was.
"Yes, Yes. The hunter who killed the vampires, the great villain of the story." Maria spoke in a sarcastic tone.
Ruby narrows her eyes a little when she hears Maria's words, she looks at the Maid, focusing her attention on Maria's lifeless eyes, and notices something; 'she gave up on resisting, huh?'
"A piece of advice. I suggest you don't say that in front of Sasha," Ruby warned.
"Yes, I know." She nodded, "I gave up fighting, but I don't want to die being tortured," she sighed at the end.
"…" Ruby was speechless. What happened in the time she was gone? She looks at Natalia:
"What happened to her?"
"Well... I had a little talk with her; I wanted to put her to work, after all. She was basically a parasite that lay around in a catatonic state... And I unintentionally said that she or that hunter from the church would die anyway."
"... You didn't lie... It's better to tell the truth than to feed a lie and raise false hopes."
"..." Natalia nodded in agreement.
Luna approached Maria and poked Maria's face with her finger.
"What are you doing?" Maria asked.
"I'm just curious... What are you?" Luna asked.
"Huh?" Maria didn't understand what she meant.
"I'm a leech, right? Why are you asking the obvious?"
"...Hmm, you don't look like a Vampire to me?" She spoke as she looked Maria up and down as if assessing, "You look like a dead human to me."
"Aren't vampires dead?"
"It's not that; you look something like a vampire but defective." Luna said, "At least that's how I feel looking at you."
Maria opens her eyes a little, and soon she remembers Sasha's words saying she was going to be a defective vampire.
"According to the words of my-..." She bit her lip, she didn't want to say the word, but in the end, she had no choice, "Master... I'm a defective vampire."
"Sasha did the ritual without the necessary materials," Ruby's face showed a slight annoyance, "What was that woman thinking?"
"She wasn't thinking about anything, she just wanted revenge," Natalia said.
"..." Ruby agreed with Natalia's reasoning.
'I hope this doesn't get out of hand, or I'll have to kill this woman; the race she has become is a hard curse to be exterminated if left unchecked.' Ruby thought.
Feeling a bad feeling about this, Maria asked Ruby, "What do you mean? What have I become...?"
Luna looked at her master curiously.
"…" Ruby was silent.
"You became a Ghoul," Natalia spoke for Ruby.
"Ghoul...?" Maria tries to remember the church records, "Ghoul, a vampire subspecies, the failed result of a vampire, they were used in the past as soldiers in war."
"... Did I become that?"
"Yes." Ruby continued.
"…" Maria didn't know what to say, she didn't really understand the Ghouls. But, from the reaction of the vampires around her, she somehow feels she was in a much worse situation than she imagined.
"Ghoul: A subspecies of vampires, the failed result of a vampire, they were often used in warfare as cannon fodder," Natalia explained.
"According to my mother, vampires at the time used ghouls as a biological weapon. After all, you only need one bite or scratch from this creature, and you become one of them. So vampires usually threw a ghoul into town and expected that in less than two days, the Ghouls would destroy the entire city if they weren't exterminated."
"...Isn't that like the zombies in the movies?" Luna asked.
"It's similar, at least in the way they propagate fast," Natalia said, she looks at Maria and explains, "Seeing that you are still conscious, you must have become a Ghoul King, a kind of leader who is able to control them."
"…great…just great…" She sighed at the end.
"Sasha is really vindictive, she chose the worst punishment a woman can have..."
"Huh?" Maria looked at Ruby, and she explained everything with a small cold smile on her face:
"It won't happen now because you've just 'died', but eventually your skin will start to rot, you'll eventually start to forget about things, and slowly, you'll lose your true self."
"In the end, you'll just become a beast whose only pleasure is killing and multiplying like a virus."
"..." Maria's face darkened, she bit her lip and clenched her fist tightly. Her body was visibly shaking, she lowered her head, and small tears started to fall from her face. "This is very cruel…" She spoke in a low voice.
But since everyone in the room had supernatural ears, everyone could hear her.
"This is the consequence of your actions and also the result of your weakness," Ruby spoke coldly.
"Indeed. If she was strong enough to kill Sasha, this wouldn't have happened."
"…" Maria said nothing.
Ruby turns her face away and starts walking towards the door, "...But if she killed Sasha, her fate would be worse than becoming something like a Ghoul... Trust me, there are far worse fates than the one you are suffering now."
When Ruby grabs the doorknob, she turns her face and looks at Maria, who made a sudden movement!
Maria ran towards the kitchen that was near the bedroom, and took a knife and tried to pierce her head, she was trying to kill herself.
"... It's useless," Ruby said as she looked at the knife that was inches from piercing Maria's eye, "The master's orders are absolute. If Sasha doesn't allow it, you can't kill yourself."
"Fuck!" Maria throws the knife to the ground.
"..." Luna and Natalia just looked at everything with cold, disinterested eyes; they didn't care a bit about Maria.
"Is the pointless joke over? Let's go back now; I need to see my Darling~" Ruby flashed a small affectionate smile.
...
Passing through the portal, Ruby finds herself in her personal room.
"My room…" She looks around and realizes that nothing has changed since she left the house.
"Oh?" Hearing a surprised voice, Ruby looks towards the voice and sees her mother:
"Mother!"
"Daughter, you've finally come back; I was wondering if I would have to kidnap you too." Scathach exhibited a loving little smile.
Hearing what her mother said, Ruby sighed, "Where are my sisters?"
"Siena is at work, Pepper is sleeping, and Lacus is sleeping too."
"Hmm?"
"Siena and Lacus, I understand... But why is Pepper sleeping too?"
"I do not know? Maybe she got tired from training Victor?" Scathach spoke like it didn't matter much then, she looked at Luna, and her eyes lit up, "Is everything ready?" She asked with a small smile on her face.
"Yes, whatever Countess Scathach asked me to do, I'm done," Luna spoke in a respectful tone.
"Good. Good!"
Scathach can't help but smile a little more, she can't wait for three days to pass soon!
Ruby sighed inwardly when she saw her mother's interest in Victor; 'Darling will be left with eternal scars after this training.'
"Luna, this is my house; I want you to treat them like my guests," Ruby said while pointing to Natalia and Maria.
"Hmm, even the Ghoul?" Luna asked to be sure.
"Don't call her that, she has a name, and yes... Even her." Ruby spoke.
"As expected from Lady Ruby, you are very kind!"
Ruby looked at Luna, "Wrong, I'm not nice; that's just basic etiquette."
"Yes, I know!" Luna smiled with a smile that said, 'I understand everything!'
"No, you don't understand" Ruby rolled her eyes and explained, "Maria is Sasha's problem; it's my friend who should solve this problem. I'll only get involved if she asks for help, and since she didn't, that's not my problem yet."
"Yes! As expected from Lady Ruby! You have a kind heart!" Luna flashed a smug smile.
"..." Ruby looked at Luna with a tired expression.
"Forget it," Ruby gave up.
"Come, daughter, let's talk" Seeing that the conversation ended, Scathach spoke to Ruby, then she started walking towards the exit of the room.
"Okay," Ruby nodded and started to follow her mother, she looked at Luna for a moment with a face that said, 'do your job'.
Luna looked at Natalia and Maria, "Come on; I'll accompany you two to the personal rooms."
"Pass," Natalia held up her hand, saying.
"Hmm?" Luna looked at Natalia curiously.
Natalia explained, "I went back to Nightingale, my work as a Maid is temporarily stopped until my master Violet leaves this town, so I'm on vacation~."
"... Envy~" Luna commented, she wanted a vacation too, but due to the mistake she made a few days ago, she thinks it's going to be difficult for her to get a vacation.
Natalia flashed a small smile when she heard what Luna said, she walked towards Ruby's wardrobe, then snapped her fingers.
She opens Ruby's wardrobe and sees that the interior of the wardrobe has changed to a portal, she looks at Luna and says, "I'm going to go back to my clan, and enjoy my vacation days, seeya~."
Soon she goes through the portal, and the moment she goes through the portal, the portal is closed.
"…Now that I've stopped to think about it, isn't she a human? What is a human doing in the vampire world?" Maria asked.
"Hmm? That is not so uncommon; humans can always come to this world at the invitation of noble families. Normally, humans of high status in society are the guests... and that woman's family is just very special; they are direct servants of the king of vampires himself."
"..." Maria looks at Luna with a bit of shock, she never thought Natalia would have such a deep background, she thinks a bit about what she heard in the past when Victor was kidnapped, "Clan Alioth, huh?"
"Oh? How do you know that?"
"I've heard Master talking in the past," Maria replied.
"Oh..." Soon her face darkened a little, "You're not supposed to know that woman is part of the Clan who is the direct servant of the king..."
"..." Maria was speechless when she heard Luna.
"...Is this supposed to be a secret?" Maria asked.
"I do not know...?" She spoke doubtfully, "I think so? But seeing Maria's ability, everyone in the vampire world will associate her with that Clan's servant... Only ordinary humans shouldn't know anything."
"...So I think it's okay? I'm not a human anymore; I've become ... that." She said the last part in disgust.
"... Make sense," Luna said, and soon dropped the subject, she started walking towards the exit, "Come on, I'll show you to your room."
"Okay."
...
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