Chapter 174: The obsession and love of a mother-in-law.
Nightingale.
Clan Fulger Mansion.
Inside an office, a woman with long blonde hair who was wearing a rather n.o.ble long white dress was organizing some doc.u.ments.
"Ugh, this paperwork never ends!" Natas.h.i.+a thought that the real enemy of all sentient beings was paperwork, and she wanted a way to speed up this tedious process.
"Hmm, if I use my lightning to increase my speed, I"ll end up destroying all the papers…" She started thinking of ways to increase her pace. If she kept up her current pace, it would take forever for her to find her husband again!
She thought and thought, but in the end, she couldn"t find a solution, "Ugh ..."
She even started to think about hiring a witch to help in this tedious process, but like Scathach, she did not trust the witches"
"I do not know how my sister can trust that woman…She"s a witch, you know? They can"t be trusted." Natas.h.i.+a""s eyes sharpened when she thought of Hecate.
Knock, Knock.
Suddenly someone knocked on the door.
The woman"s face took on a visible expression of annoyance, but soon her face returned to normal since she knew that the only people who could bother her when she was working was her butler or her sister:
"…What is it, Jeff? I"m busy."
"Lady Natas.h.i.+a, we received important information from one of Countess Scathach Scarlett"s daughters," Jeff spoke in a neutral tone.
"One of Scathach"s daughters...?" Natas.h.i.+a put her hand to her chin and started to think, but it didn"t take her long to figure out who she was. After all, there was only one woman besides Scathach in Clan Scarlett who had enough influence to contact her Clan whenever she wanted, considering if a small clan did that, they would just be ignored.
Although Clan Fulger was no longer a vampire count rank, the prestige the family had built over 2000 years couldn"t be dissolved so easily:
"Oh, it"s that girl, huh? What does she want with me?"
"Enter." The woman ordered.
Soon a man wearing a butler"s suit entered the office, he was tall and appeared to be a little older. This man"s name was Jeff. Similar to Kaguya"s Clan, Jeff was a butler who was part of a subordinate Clan to Clan Fulger.
The name of the clan that Jeff was part of was called "Larkin".
As a subordinate Clan that had served Clan Fulger since Natas.h.i.+a"s mother"s generation, Clan Larkin in the past had several members, but now the Clan was in decay due to a past incident that killed many Clan Larkin members.
The Clan had been reduced to just Jeff and his son, who were the only survivors.
He closed the door and put his hand on his chest in a gesture of respect, and then he said,
"Lady Natas.h.i.+a, we have received information from Lady Siena through a Witch named "June"."
"Oh?" Natas.h.i.+a"s eyes sparkled with some interest, "Is Clan Scarlett getting involved with witches now? Things have really changed over time..."
In the past, it would have been unthinkable for the Scarlett Clan to employ the help of the witches, but it seemed that things were no longer the same.
"..." Natas.h.i.+a kept looking at the man, she was waiting for him to finish what he came here for, she was busy you know!? She never thought organizing her Clan would take so long. "I"m missing my husband..."
When the butler saw Natas.h.i.+a"s gaze, he realized that his master was going to enter her own world again, and since he knew it was very irritating to wake her from that state, he spoke.
"Apparently, some hunters set a trap for Lady Sasha." The butler dropped the bomb.
"...!" Natas.h.i.+a"s face took on a serious expression as she looked at the butler with her eyes glowing blood-red:
"...What did you say?" She spoke in a voice so demonic that it sent s.h.i.+vers through the butler"s entire existence. And, once again, he was reminded that the woman in front of him, despite acting strange at times, was a former countess, an existence whose very own name caused fear in ordinary beings.
"... I-..." The butler was going to say something, but he couldn"t. The pressure leaving Natas.h.i.+a"s body was too great, and he felt he was carrying the world on his back.
"..." Natas.h.i.+a narrowed her eyes, she took a deep breath and calmed down, and then she spoke again:
"Continue."
"..." The butler sighed in relief when he realized that his master had retracted the pressure she was releasing from her body, then he looked at Natas.h.i.+a with a neutral gaze and continued:
"Lady Sasha had returned to her old mansion, apparently she had gone to retrieve an important item she left in the mansion, and when she arrived at that location, she was ambushed by the hunters."
"..." Again, Natas.h.i.+a"s gaze twitched as she heard what the butler said.
"How is my daughter doing? Is she fine?" Even though she was speaking coldly, it was quite obvious that she was worried about her daughter.
"Yes... Count Alucard was around at the time, and he took care of the situation." By handling the situation, the butler meant that the new count had killed everyone involved.
And Natas.h.i.+a knew this:
"Oh…" She flashed a loving smile; "As expected of my husband!" She laughed inwardly.
"...?" The butler didn"t understand Natas.h.i.+a"s smile when he mentioned the new count"s name...
"Don"t tell me the rumors are true?" The butler opened his eyes a little in shock.
A rumor had been going around among the servants of the Clan Fulger mansion, and the rumor was quite simple:
"Apparently, Lady Natas.h.i.+a Fulger is in a relations.h.i.+p with the new Count of Vampires."
The rumor was born when a maid heard Natas.h.i.+a talking aloud that she was going to do this and that with her "Husband", and she heard Natas.h.i.+a screaming that she wouldn"t be left behind just because the man became a count!
It didn"t take a high-IQ brain for the maid to understand who her master was talking about.
And as a hardworking maid, what did she do?
She told another maid…
And that maid told another maid, and that other maid told another maid, creating a cycle that spread the rumor like a wildfire. Soon everyone in the mansion knew about Natas.h.i.+a Fulger"s new relations.h.i.+p...
A hardworking maid indeed…
Did Natas.h.i.+a do anything to stop this rumor from spreading? Of course not. In her mind, this wasn"t a rumor; it was an absolute truth.
Natas.h.i.+a suddenly got up, walked towards a picture of a woman, stopped in front of it, and looked at the woman with a slightly annoyed look:
"Why didn"t my b.r.e.a.s.t.s grow like yours, Mother?"
Rumble.
She reached out her hand, and lightning shot out of her finger and hit the board, but when the lightning struck the board, what Natas.h.i.+a expected to happen didn"t happen...
Surprisingly, Natas.h.i.+a wasn"t upset.
"...Julia, you sneaky maid." She exhibited a gentle smile. She wasn"t annoyed by what the maid did. After all, it was for her daughter"s sake!
How could she be angry?
But... She was quite annoyed about something.
Rumble, Rumble.
Lightning started to cover Natas.h.i.+a"s body, her hair began to float as if it was defying gravity, a frightening pressure started to leave her body, her face distorted with pure hatred.
"Those f.u.c.kers…" She clenched her fist angrily.
Rumble!
The lightning covered Natas.h.i.+a"s entire body as if it were an aura.
Natas.h.i.+a"s lightning seemed to be reacting to her anger and began to spread around.
BOOOM, BOOOM.
The furniture around Natas.h.i.+a began to fade out of existence.
"Master!?" The butler retreated quickly since he didn"t want to get caught in the crossfire.
"I felt a frightening pressure, something happened to my-... Natas.h.i.+a!?" Victoria, who appeared suddenly, was shocked when she saw her sister"s condition.
"What happened to make you so angry?" Victoria looked at the butler:
"Explain what happened."
"Yes!" As if he were a seasoned rapper, the butler told Victoria what had happened.
"I see..." Victoria now understood Natas.h.i.+a"s reaction.
"What are you going to do, Sis?" Victoria asked with a sharp look in her eyes. She didn"t like to know that someone in her family was ambushed by hunters. Yes, Victoria has had her issues with the Fulger Clan.
Because of being born without the "lightning" talent of Clan Fulger, she was excluded and humiliated and had she not fled this Clan, a fate far worse than death could have befallen her.
But... In just one night, all her problems disappeared in a flash, all because of her sister.
And she was so grateful for that.
"What do you think? I"m gonna kill-…" Natas.h.i.+a looked like she was going to say something, but she suddenly stopped.
Suddenly she remembered Victor"s words: "Become a good woman, become a good clan leader, become a good mother, and regain everything you lost. When you do, I will marry you, and you will be mine, and I will be yours."
...again, he didn"t say that! She completely distorted what he said!
Suddenly all of Natas.h.i.+a"s killing intent disappeared as if it had never existed in the first place.
"My daughter Sasha is fine. After all, my husband is with her. I"m pretty sure he won"t let anything happen to her."
"... Eh?" The butler opened his mouth in shock. Didn"t the rumor just come true!? He needed to talk about it to others! His master is going to marry a count! "Wait... if she marries a count, will she be able to become a count again? Huh?" The butler"s mind seemed to stop working for a few seconds.
"... So what? You"re not going to let these motherf.u.c.kers get away with it, right?"
"Of course not, but I need to regain what was mine."
"...So it"s time, huh?"
"Yes."
Natas.h.i.+a"s smile grew disproportionately on her face, "Let"s put the plan: "I will regain my happiness" into action."
"... As I"ve said several times, this name is too big!" Victoria grumbled.
"HAHAHAHA~, what matters is the intention of the words and not the words themselves!" Natas.h.i.+a laughed.
Rumble, Rumble.
Suddenly Natas.h.i.+a"s body began to be covered by lightning.
"Take care of everything, Victoria. I"m going to pay a little visit to our king."
"Okay, be careful around there, sis."
Natas.h.i.+a exhibited a gentle smile, "I will."
…
Current time, Midnight, a few moments after Victor left.
Inside a room were Siena, Violet, Ruby, and Sasha. Since it was late, Anna returned upstairs to her house.
Pepper and Lacus were in their private rooms. Luna was sleeping, she was very tired, she worked a lot today.
"What did you do!?" Sasha yelled and sounded like someone who couldn"t believe what she was hearing.
"…I told your mother about what happened…" Siena repeated what she said.
"Why did you do that!?"
"Well, she"s your mother. She deserves to know the truth and stop screaming, no one here is deaf."
"You-," Sasha looked like she was going to scream again, but she controlled her emotions, then took a deep breath and spoke in a neutral tone, "Don"t you understand what you"ve done?"
"...?" Siena looked at Sasha like she was dumb, "I told your mom about what happened."
"That"s the point! You shouldn"t have done it!"
"... Stop yelling." Siena spoke as she put her hand over her ears, "Your voice sounds like lightning hitting the ground, it"s quite loud, you know?"
"Ugh." Sasha put her hand to her head as if she had a ma.s.sive headache and could already feel the problems coming thousands of miles away.
"Mother, don"t blow up Nightingale." For some reason, Sasha thought her mom was going to commit a terrorist attack. She"s not going to do that!... Probably.
"Siena." Ruby suddenly spoke.
"Hmm?" Siena looked at her sister,
"Sasha"s mother"s current state is…" She was going to say crazy, but she decided to think of gentler words to say, "Peculiar."
"And?" Siena didn"t understand the problem. After all, she put herself in Natas.h.i.+a"s situation, and if something happened to Ruby, she would also want to know about it.
"Tsk, stop beating around the bush, Ruby." Violet clicked her tongue in annoyance, then looked at Siena and said,
"Sasha"s mom"s new personality is very unpredictable, that crazy woman has more screws loose in her head than Ruby"s mom and me combined, and when talking about what happened with Sasha to her, you just provoked the sleeping monster in the woman…"
Violet put on a neutral expression as if it"s not her problem, "No one knows what she"s going to do now, she"s too unpredictable."
"Oh…" Siena understood now and thought a bit, "Didn"t I just provoke someone with the vampire count level to move and cause chaos?" She broke out in a cold sweat as she imagined what Natas.h.i.+a could do.
"f.u.c.k, I should have known better before saying something. I could have said it in a more formal or less honest way… But I still believe it was better for Natas.h.i.+a to know about what happened." Siena didn"t change her mind easily and faithfully believed that this was the best choice.
"Well f.u.c.k it, I don"t want to know." In a way, she stopped caring more about vampire society. This was all the effect of Victor since, because of that hateful man, her family was much closer now than it ever was.
And she liked it…
"Ugh…" Just thinking about Victor"s face and his smile made her annoyed; "Humpf, you hateful man." She still hadn"t forgiven him for dragging her into her mother"s training/torture!
"..." Ruby and Sasha looked at Violet with a dry look. Did she just admit she was crazy?
"So, she"s aware of it, huh?" Sasha and Ruby thought at the same time.
....
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