"Jeanne, how are things with you and Adam?"
"...Normal... Due to Vlad's lack of presence, he's finally becoming a more 'normal' boy."
"Humpf, that old man's influence was a very vile thing in our children's lives." Morgana snorted.
"Morgana... Just forget about Vlad. By acting hateful, you're just saying you have some lingering feelings for him."
"What!? Of course not! I hate that man!" Morgana snarled as she sent wary glances in Victor's direction. She didn't want Jeanne's words to mislead him.
"If you hate him, just ignore him. Indifference is much worse than hatred." Jeanne pointed out.
"...." Morgana looked at Jeanne with an expression of shock; she had never thought of it that way before.
"Look at me. Even though I hold grudges against Vlad, he's still the father of my child, and eventually, even if I don't want him to, he's going to be a part of Adam's life. That's the only connection that he and I currently have. When I talk to him, I only talk about my son and nothing else."
"This indifference is better than hate. After all, even if you hate someone, you are still paying attention to that person." Jeanne explained sagely.
"That's... That's so mature! As expected of the eldest of the group, I will follow your advice."
"Oyy!" A vein bulged on Jeanne's head. Although Morgana wasn't wrong, she didn't want anyone to point it out!
"...." Victor actually felt a little bad for Vlad when he heard Jeanne and Morgana talking about him, though his pity level was the size of his little finger since the old man deserved it.
A woman who had been neglected and 'controlled' most of her marriage was ruthless when she finally got out of that marriage.
Hearing Jeanne and Morgana's experiences with Vlad in the past, Victor couldn't help but think that there were people like Vlad who didn't take care of their most precious possessions in life, their Family.
'They are fools.' Victor huffed: 'We can live forever, but what's the use of immortality if we are alone?'
If Victor were to live out all of his immortal life alone, he might as well kill himself. He knew that, eventually, loneliness and boredom would consume him.
Material possessions, Kingdoms, it would all get lost in the sands of time, and only those truly close to you would stay by your side forever.
Because of this, Victor was keen to turn every girl around him into Yanderes. After all, only a Yandere would last against the sands of time.
...He was DEFINITELY not doing this because he loved psycho-love girls; he was definitely not that abnormal after all.
Please believe him.
"Cough, cough." Victor coughed, drawing the attention of the two women back to him:
"How are Lilith and Elizabeth reacting to all of this?" Victor asked.
"... They are fine. And finally, Lilith is showing some signs of potential, something that would have happened years ago if she weren't so spoiled."
"That's good." Victor nodded. Hearing that the people around him were getting stronger was always satisfying.
"Still, on the topic of children... What are you going to do about the G.o.ddess of Demons?"
Morgana shuddered a little, "... What do you mean, Darling?"
Victor smiled gently, "It's okay if you don't want to bring it up, Morgana. I'm not judging you or anything."
"..." Morgana was going to say something but just closed her mouth.
"I'm saying this is a good time to talk to the original Lilith about your 'promise'."
Long ago, Morgana had to promise to create a new General for Lilith in exchange for her leaving Lilith's forces.
Initially, this new General was supposed to be her First Daughter, but she failed to train her Firstborn to be a weapon, and for a long time, she forgot about this matter. It wasn't until later that she was reminded of her promise by Lilith herself, which forced Morgana to act.
Using all the forces of her 'dreams', along with Vlad's Energy, a miracle occurred, and she managed to create a life, a life whose name was Elizabeth Tepes.
Her youngest daughter.
But again, seeing the baby before her, she couldn't abandon her daughter, and right after that, she didn't have time to think about it when the whole incident involving the death of one of Vlad's Wives happened, which caused a complete break in her already broken family.
"... How do you know that, Darling?" Morgana asked gently without an accusatory tone. She fully understood that Victor only wanted her to be well, which was why he brought up the subject.
"Lilith can be quite chatty when she's drunk." Victor smiled gently.
Morgana's eyes narrowed, and worry that other unreliable people would hear about her promise to Lilith began to grow in her heart, but Victor's following words calmed her spirits completely:
"Fortunately, only my trusted subordinates heard this, and I erased the memories of those who heard about this event after I was informed of what she said."
Victor didn't lie. When his subordinates were surveilling Lilith on her 'tour' of the City, the woman drank a lot of Demonic Alcohol and ended up getting completely inebriated.
And like a nasty drunk, she began to ramble on about the misfortunes of her life. Eventually, she started to get irritable and wanted to break a lot of things.
Fortunately, even drunk, she seemed to have remembered the Lesser Demons' warnings not to cause too much trouble, or even she, a Demonic G.o.ddess and Progenitor of All Demons, would be treated like a criminal.
And as she remembered that, she grumbled again about the world's injustices.
She really was a lousy drunk.
Typically, a G.o.ddess like Lilith wouldn't get drunk so easily, but this alcohol wasn't normal. After all, it was alcohol mixed with the milk of a High-Level Demon Beast and grapes grown in the Demon King's Garden.
It was high-cla.s.s alcohol that only the rich could drink.
"Thank you, Darling..."
"You're welcome." Victor smiled gently, a smile that almost made Morgana jump on top of him and hug him, but unfortunately, his lap was still occupied by two little girls.
"So? What are you going to do?" Victor asked in the same gentle tone.
"... I'll go talk to her. I hope she forgets her promise."
"Don't worry; everything will be fine; after all, she no longer has an army. Lilith isn't much better than an idol to the Demons right now. She'll take anything you say, I'm sure."
'If she doesn't accept it, I can just threaten her with community service.' Despite not destroying many properties, she still 'destroyed' properties.
And since she didn't have a job now and was basically being supported by Victor, she was at the mercy of his goodwill. Lilith still didn't know the horrors of the capitalist world.
'Fufufufu, having a G.o.ddess under your control is so satisfying.'
"..." The older women didn't know how to react when they heard that the G.o.ddess of Demons, the Progenitor of an entire species, was reduced to an idol.
Morgana narrowed her eyes at Victor; for some reason, the last part of his words sent a s.h.i.+ver down her spine.
'Don't tell me he did something to Lilith?' She felt it was quite possible. After all, if there were anyone who could put fear into a Demonic G.o.d, it would definitely be Victor.
Victor turned his gaze to the woman who looked like Natas.h.i.+a.
Victoria froze like a deer in headlights at Victor's gaze.
"I heard what happened. How are you feeling about awakening your Powers?"
"..." Victoria looked at Victor for a long time, expecting to find any kind of deception, but as usual, she only saw kindness and love in the man's violet eyes.
Out of the corner of her eye, Victoria saw Natas.h.i.+a's look that seemed to be screaming, 'What are you doing? Stop being indecisive! Be honest!'
Victoria genuinely wondered when she had gotten so proficient at understanding her sister.
'It must be because of that...' The image of her completely naked on top of her sister while something big filled her completely came into her head, making her blush a little.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine."
"...." Victor raised his eyebrow and smiled playfully at Victoria. He could completely understand what she was thinking right now.
'This reaction is much more like Sasha than Natas.h.i.+a... And to think the daughter would be more like her aunt than her mother.' Victor thought with humor.
Cough!
Natas.h.i.+a coughed as she looked at Victoria.
Feeling her sister's gaze, Victoria swallowed back her embarra.s.sment and berated herself a little for falling into her wild imaginings.
"To be honest, I feel completely lost... A long time ago, I got used to being the 'black sheep' and 'failure' of the Fulgers. I even left the Clan and built a financial empire because of it... But now that I've received the Power I've always wanted so much... I feel completely empty, like it doesn't matter that much."
"Sister..." When Natas.h.i.+a was going to say something, she stopped when she felt Victor's gaze and his feelings through the connection. He was basically saying: 'Let me handle this.' Natas.h.i.+a didn't even need to read his surface thoughts to understand that.
"At first, you probably wanted the Fulger's Lightning Power, but that wasn't out of a l.u.s.t for Power or anything, Victoria." "... What are you talking about? I desired the Power of my Clan and felt I could do so much with it in the past." Victoria answered calmly without changing her voice.
Victor nodded, "That's probably true, but that wasn't the 'real reason' you desperately wanted the Fulger's Power."
"Real reason?" She shuddered a little, "... What do you mean?" She asked in a more shaky voice.
"Acceptance."
"..." Victoria froze.
"Yes, maybe you wanted the Power of the Fulger's because you felt it was something you should have or because you thought you could do a lot of things with it, but that wasn't the main reason."
"The main reason was acceptance. By having the Power that all Fulgers had, you would be recognized as one of them. You would no longer be left 'out'; you would truly become a 'Fulger', and consequently get your Family back."
"...I-..." Victoria tried to say something, but her feelings were too close to the surface to formulate words. Despite appearing calm on the outside, a storm was raging inside.
"Because of that, you feel empty receiving that Power now, Victoria."
"...Huh?"
"After all, you've already been accepted as a Fulger, and you already have a Family."
"...." Another shock spread across Victoria's face as her mind went completely blank.
"Everyone here in this mansion is your Family. You are not an 'outsider' anymore, Victoria."
Hestia smiled gently when she heard his words.
'He really has a way with words. He completely dispelled the dark clouds from her heart, and the Family bond grew even stronger, making my home Divinity work on her now.'
Victoria never really felt like part of the 'Family'. After all, the way Natas.h.i.+a introduced her back in was quite abrupt. How could someone who had been neglected for hundreds of years suddenly forget about all that?
"Victor... I..." She bit her trembling lips, as she took a deep breath as if gathering courage, and spoke:
"Thank you for your words. It means a lot to me... You have no idea how much it means to me."
Victor smiled gently, "... I completely understand what this means to you, Victoria."
"..." She sniffed a little, and tears formed in her eyes.
When Victor was going to get up to get Victoria and comfort her, Natas.h.i.+a made her move, hugging her sister, then she looked at Victor with a smile that said:
'Leave her to me.'
Obviously, the sisters needed to talk more now than before. Natas.h.i.+a and Victoria's problems were something only the two of them could fully understand.
And Natas.h.i.+a was very determined to get along with her sister.
Getting Natas.h.i.+a's message, Victor smiled slightly and said:
"Go pick your seats. The other girls will be here soon." "Okay"
"Yes, Darling."
"Mhm."
Sounds of recognition rang all around, and soon the older women scattered across the room.
...
A few minutes later, Victor watched the two sisters break away from their embrace and spread out across the room.
They didn't say anything; they just hugged while all the 'resentment' that Victoria had flowed through the tears that fell on Natas.h.i.+a's shoulder.
Honestly, Victor didn't know exactly what happened. How could someone let resentment go so easily? He would never be able to do that.
Even though he said he did not care what Loki did, that was a fulfill lie. He still harbored resentment; he just chose not to act.
Perhaps he was like that because Victor was a vengeful creature naturally.
The dogma he followed was a perfect representation of this. 'Perhaps, she was tired of feeling resentment?' Despite not fully 'understanding', Victor could 'theorize' why she reacted that way.
The word 'understand' meant that Victor understood how Victoria felt, which would be impossible. After all, he had never been in a situation like Victoria's.
Victoria was compared a lot to Natas.h.i.+a all her life. She was called useless for not having the Power of Lightning, and in the end, some groups of Clan Fulger tried to use her as a breeding mare. Because of that, she ran away and built a finance empire using the Rider surname.
Victor had never experienced this. He had never been looked down upon as worthless by his Family, he had never been threatened with being used as a stud horse by his Family, and he had never been compared to anyone before by his own Family.
His parents raised him very well, and he was very grateful to them for that.
Because of this lack of experience, he couldn't 'truly' understand Victoria.
After all, individuals only truly understood each other through similar experiences.
'I guess the Blessing of The Home must have had an effect... Or she was just tired of it all and just wanted her Family back, and now that she has a big Family, she might finally let go of the resentment, but will probably never entirely forget what happened.' The last possibility seemed the most likely, and it also matched his feelings for Victoria.
'Let the bitterness go... But never forget it, huh...' He looked at Victoria for a few seconds and nodded.
'I can understand that.'
...
Edited By: DaVo 2138, IsUnavailable
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