Chapter 351: Welcome to h.e.l.l.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to my humble abode."
Looking at the tall man who had just arrived accompanied by one of the Maids responsible for capturing them, everyone immediately recognized him.
Victor Alucard, more commonly known as Alucard, was the Youngest Vampire ever to become a Vampire Count and the Vampire who had enough b.a.l.l.s to openly challenge the authority of the King of Vampires.
Choosing the moniker of Alucard was basically an act of defying the King"s Authority. He was a supernova on the rise, something like the Beatles of the Supernatural World.
... Of course, he didn"t have a good image like the Beatles.
In fact, he was quite feared for his insanity. And people who didn"t have skilled informants or weren"t very deep in the Supernatural World were only privy to rumors or leaked information like the games he"d played in or the kind of people he was around.
Ordinary people who, for some reason, ended up getting involved with the supernatural world.
Ordinary Supernatural Beings that tried to blend in with humans.
Beings that just lived their day by day lives.
Beings who had no ties with large organizations, beings who had no relations with fanatical cults, or Clans of suspicious supernaturals.
Ordinary people like everyone present here in this room.
For these people, someone like a Vampire Count would be something they would never see in their lifetime. For these people, the slightest thought of contacting someone important like a Vampire Count never crossed their minds.
After all, if put in human terms, Vampire Counts were something like Ministers or very important people who worked for the president.
In this case, being the King of all Vampires, Vlad Tepes.
As far as they knew, Vampire Counts never directly got involved in any problems and usually only sent their subordinates.
... The only exceptions are Scathach Scarlett and now, the new Vampire Count, Alucard.
After a moment of silence, someone spoke:
"...I wouldn"t call it a "welcome""
"!!!" When the beings in that room heard the man"s voice, they broke out in a cold sweat, cursing the man. "Couldn"t he be quiet?"
"Oh?" Victor looked at the man with the black gla.s.ses, he was wearing a simple suit and holding a briefcase.
He appeared to be a salaryman.
a.n.a.lyzing the man"s expression with his newly developed observation, Victor realized the man was terrified, but he swallowed his fear and tried to keep calm through his professional facade.
"Heh~, I thought I"d get here and just kick everyone out, but someone really has the b.a.l.l.s to talk." Victor was a little surprised internally.
Now that he had Adonis" memories, he perfectly understood his position in the Supernatural World and fully understood how irregular he was.
"You are as famous as the Beatles."
The words Esther spoke back then now made sense to Victor.
"... At least you are alive, right?" Victor flashed a small smile that made the man s.h.i.+ver.
"...Y-Yes."
Victor laughed a little and pa.s.sed through the group calmly, as if he were Moses himself.
And the dark aura coming off his body didn"t help either.
Arriving in the middle of the room, he turned around and said:
"Ladies and Gentlemen." With elegance and n.o.bility in all his movements, he continued:
"I"ve come here to say that you have two choices."
"...." Everyone listened in silence, they didn"t dare utter a word.
"First, you"ll do something for me... A ch.o.r.e, so to speak. If and when you complete your "ch.o.r.e", you"ll make a lot of money."
"Money that even if you spent your whole life collecting, you wouldn"t be able to collect."
"!!!" Victor"s words caused a minor ruckus with the beings present.
Did they not come here to be killed?
Why is he saying this?
Is this some kind of trap?
Several questions ran through their minds, questions most of which they weren"t able to ask.
The salaryman"s eyes gleamed for a few seconds with interest, and he did something that made everyone tense...
... He raises his hand like a kid at school, like a kid who has a question about something for the teacher.
"Yes?" Victor looked at the man.
"How much are we talking about?"
The man"s question made Victor"s smile widen:
"8 digits in US dollars."
"Wha-" Everyone"s mouth didn"t fall to the ground because it was glued to their face.
"Of course, the amount will vary depending on the results of the task, but you are guaranteed to earn over 6 figures for just partic.i.p.ating and doing acceptable work."
"The money will be transferred legally, and the government will not charge you fees. The money will be yours and yours alone."
It is worth saying that all beings here are normal beings. They would never get their hands on this amount of money... And even if they did get their hands on this money, they would pay an absurd amount of taxes to the government just to have this money in their Bank account.
They would never get that kind of amount free by legal means.
Various thoughts were running through the beings" heads, but Victor could see that they were interested.
Leaving that matter aside for the moment, he said:
"Second." His eyes glowed with a violet light for a few seconds, "You go back to your normal life, and you forget all about this event."
"......" After Victor"s words registered in everyone"s brains, they fell silent.
Shock, surprise, and disbelief crossed everyone"s faces.
Someone raised their hand, and this time it was a woman.
Victor just looked at the woman:
Taking his gaze as permission to speak, she asked:
"Why are you letting us go so easily?"
Before Victor could say anything, he heard:
"Probably because we"re not deeply involved in the incident related to the Vampire King"s Daughter." The salaryman spoke.
And when he realized what he had said, he quickly closed his mouth.
"..." Victor was really starting to like this man. He was pretty perceptive. Victor could hear his heart beating fast, the man was obviously scared, but he managed to hide it very well.
ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ ꜰʀᴇᴇᴡᴇʙɴᴏᴠᴇʟ.ᴄᴏᴍ ᴏɴʟʏ.
"...He is correct."
Everyone looked at Victor.
"If any of you were deeply involved in this incident, you wouldn"t be in this room."
Victor looked at Maria:
[Open the door.]
Maria nodded her head and then opened the door, walked a little further, and opened another door that was there to stop the sound from pa.s.sing through.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
And the first thing everyone heard were the screams of pain.
"!!!" Everyone"s attention was snapped, and they looked towards the door, and what they saw...
It made their stomachs turn and their bodies quiver in terror.
They felt nauseous and felt like throwing up, but out of fear for the man inside the room, they did their best to hold on. Some swallowed everything that would come out back into their stomachs.
[That is enough.]
Maria nodded and then closed both doors.
"If some of you were deeply involved with this incident... Well, I don"t need to say it, right?" Victor"s smile grew in a way that completely distorted his face.
It was pretty obvious what was going to happen to them, everyone understood that.
"...He"s a Demon... Wrong, a Demon is still too kind for him, he"s a d.a.m.n Monster!" The salaryman thought.
His face was sick, but as someone who worked for a Black Company and had been through a lot of trouble from Supernatural Beings, he managed to maintain his posture.
"I"ll give you 10 minutes, think about your answers." Victor walked back to the exit of the room, and soon he left along with Maria.
Leaving scared, confused people behind.
Suddenly, a dark power appeared near him, and soon another person was thrown here.
He was a man with white hair and incredibly pale skin, he was relatively short compared to Victor.
The person was unconscious.
A maid stepped out of the shadows and bowed in awe, "Master."
"Kaguya, is he…?"
"Innocent. We interrogated him before sending him here."
"He was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, an unlucky man."
"And... No, he"s not a member of the Snow Clan." Kaguya knew what her Master was asking when she saw the man"s appearance.
After all, she also had the same thought.
"He"s a rare thing, he"s a living ghost."
"Living Ghost?"
"Yes, he is alive, and at the same time, not. He exists, and at the same time, he does not exist."
"His body looks physical, and it"s touchable, but... When you try to touch it, your hand goes through it. I only captured him because of my power."
"…This is… Fascinating."
Kaguya looked at the man; "I hope he wanted to partic.i.p.ate in the plan, this will help even more in my Master"s plan…"
Initially, she just thought about letting the man go when she found out he was innocent. After all, the man was quite thin and didn"t seem to be of any use to her Master"s plan.
But she changed her mind when she understood what kind of existence he was. As a Maid who aspired to be perfect, she must know all sorts of subjects to help her Master!
Victor"s eyes gleamed faintly Violet, and he could see that inside the man, there was nothing.
Nothing!
He was recognized as a wall or a piece of furniture by Victor"s eyes. The only thing that existed in him was a small wire coming out of his head.
Victor slightly approached his hand to the man, and his hand went through the man"s body. Soon the man began to "sink" into the earth.
Victor narrowed his eyes, and instead of trying to touch him normally, he decided to touch him with something else.
His white gloves turned slightly red as he controlled a small amount of his blood and covered his glove.
And this time, he managed to touch him.
[A soul, huh. This is peculiar.]
[Do you know something?] Victor asked the being inside him.
[This man is a soul, but he is alive in soul form, which is impossible. After all, for a soul to exist, it needs a receptacle or something that supports its existence. If it doesn"t have either of those two options, the soul will be automatically pulled by the judges of the abyss and will be judged. After all, it will be considered dead.]
[The only exceptions to this would be Supernatural Beings like Elemental Spirits or a World Tree. These beings are connected to the planet itself, and that is what sustains their existence.]
[Is Roxanne like that too?]
[Yes, but she is connected to something different. She is not a World Tree from Nightingale"s planet, considering that when a planet starts to have life, a world tree is born, and when we met her, she was basically still a baby.]
[But... This man is alive. He exists in the form of a soul, his vessel is his own soul... His soul is so strong that it sustains his existence and prevents the judges of the abyss from pulling his soul. .. In a way, he is a very close existence to a G.o.d.]
"...An interesting existence indeed..."
"...." Kaguya"s expression didn"t change, but she was a little shocked inside.
The man"s face trembled, and he showed signs of regaining consciousness.
He opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was a tall, violet-eyed man looking down at him.
"Hey, you, you"re finally awake."
"Where I am?"
Victor"s smile grew as he chuckled slightly, emitting a sound much like a demonic laugh from the depths of h.e.l.l, before saying,
"Stranger, Stranger!"
"Welcome to h.e.l.l!"
"…Eh?" The man was paralyzed, but when the screams of the beings were heard.
He looked around and saw a literal vision of h.e.l.l.
The man"s face darkened, and he muttered:
"Well, f.u.c.k..."