Chapter 397: A sensitive point for Victor.
"Heh~, you've changed a lot since the last time I saw you, Victor."
"..." Victor narrowed his eyes, realizing that she had done something, but he didn't notice anything.
He didn't have much time to think about what she'd done when the being inside him spoke directly to him, and he was irritated.
[That bitch just peeked inside us with her divine sense, I managed to block her view in time, and all she saw was the thousands of souls that are in our body, so you're safe still.]
Angry would be an understatement, he was furious. Victor had never heard that tone of voice coming out of his inner friend before.
[Safe?] Victor questioned
[Don't talk to that bitch about Roxanne, or mention the world tree, remember what your wives said about the world tree?]
[Yes.] Victor's eyes narrowed even more as he realized what had happened.
"Aphrodite, don't make me regret calling you here."
"...." Looking into Victor's hostile eyes, Aphrodite narrowed her eyes a little as she realized her little peek was felt by him, something she considered impossible, vampire or not, he was just a mortal...
'Oh-... Stupid, of course, he was going to feel me. After all, he's like that man.' Aphrodite thought and felt like slapping herself in the face in exasperation, but that was it since she didn't feel sorry.
She felt, with bad taste, that maybe her gesture had further damaged her relationship with Victor, but it wasn't like they had a good relationship to begin with, given what had happened in the past.
'Dealing with these men is troublesome... But it's fun...' The bigger the challenge, the better the reward, and with how Victor looked now, the beauty goddess's obsession only grew.
And if there's one thing that's the worst thing in the world that can happen to a mortal, it's attracting the attention of a god, especially the Greek gods.
All the heroes of Greek mythology prove this point.
What Aphrodite didn't know was that dealing with Victor was very easy, just don't meddle in his affairs and treat him normally like anyone else would.
After all, no one likes to have their secrets spied on, right? Everyone wants their privacy, that's common sense, right?
... Apparently, this doesn't apply to the gods. Due to being a goddess and thinking very highly of herself, she often took actions that conflicted with Victor.
Forcing him to do something he doesn't want to do, like the first date, even going so far as to use his powers for it.
And now, shamelessly spying on his soul with her divine sense.
"Hahaha~, it was just a peek, don't get angry about something small."
Victor's eyes narrowed as Aphrodite took his threat with the empty words, and he didn't like that at all.
'Something small, huh?' Victor thought of those words with contempt.
'Says the goddess that would curse a woman if she were considered more beautiful than her.' Victor didn't want to hear those words from a goddess, especially a Greek god.
Beings whose pettiness reached completely absurd levels.
Aphrodite snaps her finger, but nothing happens.
"Oh? You have control over it, huh..." Her eyes gleamed slightly, and then she snapped her fingers again.
And this time, a white throne appeared.
"Here we go." She sits on the white throne and crosses her legs sensually.
"..." Victor narrowed his eyes again when he noticed this movement. She just took control of this whole place for just a few seconds.
"Persephone..." Victor looks at the goddess.
"What?" She was quite annoyed.
"Actually, I'd rather be alone with you."
'At least you're easier to deal with than this goddess.'
Victor wanted fun, and he got it, as he brought himself a goddess even more troublesome than Persephone.
He's literally shot himself in the foot now.
As a certain scientist who had four mechanical arms says in a movie he watched:
'Be careful what you wish for.'
"Eh...?" Persephone opened her mouth in shock.
"Ara, you call me here, and this is how you treat me?"
"Why are you saying this all of a sudden?"
"I mean, I realized it was a mistake to call this woman here." Victor was completely honest, and that honesty took a toll on Aphrodite herself.
Something that made Persephone happy.
"I told you." She laughed.
"..." Victor was silent.
'...He's brutally honest, just like her.' Despite feeling several small damages to her ego, it was inconceivable that a man would reject the presence of a goddess of beauty. Wherever she goes, she should be looked at and admired. That's how it should be!
Because of that, she was magnanimous enough to ignore Victor's act.
Aphrodite smiles gently; 'It's time to take control of this conversation.'
She claps her hands lightly.
And it attracts the attention of the two beings present.
"Victor, do you know about the meeting of supernatural beings?"
"...Yes. What's with it?"
"Is it already at that time?" Persephone asked curiously.
"If you weren't so isolated, you would hear the news."
"Well, I was busy with something." She looked at Victor.
"I noticed." She laughed lightly.
"..." Victor was silent as he ignored the fact that Aphrodite avoided his question and focused on something more important.
'With just a few words, she took control of the conversation and made even Persephone, who was hostile to her, become neutral due to the mentioned subject.'
A subject that Victor was particularly interested in.
And knowing her personality, Aphrodite knew that and took advantage of it.
Effectively lessening the hostility, Victor had towards her and becoming more neutral in a Persephone-like fashion.
'She's not an older goddess for nothing...' Victor considered these high-level social skills. As a 'very' social goddess, this skill should already be maxed out in gaming terms.
"I was wondering if you're going to attend this meeting? After all, you're a count. It wouldn't be strange for you to participate as Vlad's bodyguard."
"...I won't. I'll be busy for the day." Victor had no reason to lie. He'd rather go into Eleanor's territory than attend a meeting that even Scathach categorized as boring.
Not to mention that even on paper, taking on the role of that old man's bodyguard was a big 'NO' for Victor.
"I see. That is going to be a shame then since you'll miss out on the fun." She flashed a small smile.
"..." Victor narrowed his eyes at the rather obvious trap in Aphrodite's words.
A trap that a certain person fell into like a lost duck:
"Hmm? What will happen at this meeting?"
"Isn't it the same thing as usual about old beings with huge egos discussing what to do about the world?"
"..." Victor really wanted to comment on the irony in those words.
"...This time, it's going to be a little different, I found out from a friend of mine who's been on top of the preparations-..." She made a show of crossing her legs while keeping one of her eyes on Victor, but she was disappointed when she saw zero reactions to her teasing.
And the word 'friend' was something she said to see if he would be jealous of her or something.
'Hmm... He's not reacting, as expected, even though it's a sight for sore eyes, he didn't react to me or get jealous.' She decided she should take a few steps back and capture Victor's attention again.
"And I have the names of the representatives of the races that will participate, and this time, big names will be in that place."
"Vlad, King of Vampires, accompanied by Scathach Scarlett."
"Volk Fenrir, the king of the werewolves, along with him will be his two sons, Fenir, the first son, and Anderson."
"..." Victor raises an eyebrow and looks at Aphrodite.
The goddess smiled slightly as she caught his attention.
"Evie Moriarty, the queen of witches, along with her will be Selena Moriarty, the queen's first child."
"On the side of the angels, Archangel Michael himself will be with his brother Gabriel."
"Oh? Is that man not participating this time? Weird."
"…Yes, I found that strange too. He was always present at these meetings, I wonder why he sent his children."
"...." It didn't take a genius to understand who the two goddesses were talking about.
'The god of the bible, huh... Interesting that they don't name him and just call him 'that man'. I wonder what's going on.'
"Back to the point, on the side of the gods, we have Shiva, the god of destruction, accompanied by Thor, the god of thunder."
"That's an odd combination. I thought Thor would refuse to be treated as an escort."
"Well, Thor lost to Shiva in a battle that lasted 7 days and 7 nights. I had to convince him to participate, or otherwise, he wouldn't have come."
"Yeah yeah. I'm sure you 'convinced' him the right way." Persephone spoke in disdain.
'Probably she used her powers or had sex with him, the likelihood of it being both is possible.' Victor thought to himself, and that chill in his back overcame him again.
'This power is dangerous...' Even a god in his own right could not resist her 'persuasion'.
Aphrodite ignores Persephone and continues:
"A new candidate was called this time."
"She is quite interesting, her name is Otsuki Haruna, she will be representing the Youkai. For the first time in history, these Youkais are under a flag; she is a very promising rookie, and by her side, as a companion, will be Genji ."
"...." Victor reacted internally when he heard that name.
'What is she doing there?' Victor thought about this matter very carefully, and he asked himself the question:
'If it were me, what would I do there?'
It didn't take long for the answer to come:
'Look for opponents, find out who the great powers and main actors in the supernatural world are, plan and make countermeasures against them...' Victor could understand what Haruna was doing.
"As the organizer, the owner of The Limbo prison."
"Hmm... I don't understand. Despite having big names, why do you think it's going to be different than usual?" Persephone spoke.
"Well, this time, Lilith, the mother of demons, was invited."
"!!!" For the first time, Victor had a visible reaction, a reaction that made both women a little uncomfortable.
'Lilith, huh? Isn't she the one with the GodSlayer?' Victor's smile grew.
'Just hearing Lilith's name, he reacted like this... Is he interested in her?' Persephone narrowed her eyes a little coldly.
Ahh... If only she knew.
"… Unfortunately, she declined due to particular situations happening in hell." Aphrodite put a lot of emphasis on the word 'unfortunately'. She didn't like demons at all, and seeing this man react so much to Lilith's name left her with a bad feeling.
"...." Victor's smile died, and a neutral expression took over his face.
"Tsk."
"You look disappointed that Lilith isn't going." Aphrodite asked.
"Indeed." Victor didn't deny it.
"...I don't understand why so much interest in a demon?"
"..." Victor smiles gently, but the words that come out of his mouth are not kind at all:
"That's none of your business."
"...." Aphrodite squeezed her throne lightly, and it caused little cracks.
"Are you more interested in a demon than a goddess? The goddess of beauty?"
"Isn't that clear?" Victor replied as if it was obvious.
'She has something I really need, if I can borrow that weapon, I can kill a god!'
Victor couldn't help but think of Vlad, the man who had the ability to erase a person's soul from existence. He clearly said that when they were talking about the Elder Gods in Nightingale.
'In the future... Maybe, I can do that, but for that to happen, I need to be in my progenitor form.' Something he hadn't been able to do for a really long time.
Crack.
"Hmm?" Victor looked at Aphrodite and flashed an amused smile when he saw her breaking her throne.
It was amusing to play with a goddess, especially a goddess who wants an 'extremely rare' item that can be obtained for a limited time so badly.
Victor really had a bad taste in his mouth when he thought these goddesses only saw him as an object to brag about.
Because of that, no matter how divinely beautiful they were, Victor's interest in the two was non-existent.
"Tsk, Anna didn't say her son was so mean."
'Anna...?' Victor's mind completely shut off when he thought of his mother's face. He couldn't help it. The way she said the phrase hinted at something.
"......" The room suddenly turned pitch black, and the two could feel a horrible killing instinct coming out of Victor.
"!!!" Aphrodite and Persephone quickly looked at Victor, and what they saw was a being made of darkness and blood, giving off the feeling of death itself, whose intense blood-red eyes and razor-sharp teeth were the only visible feature.
"What did you say...?"
In the blink of an eye, Victor was in front of Aphrodite.
"Eh…?"
Aphrodite looked at Victor in shock. If before, he had had a slight sense of hostility, all she could feel from him now was hatred.
Pure uncontrolled hatred towards her.
'What happened!? What did I do!?' She didn't understand why he reacted so badly and could only think about it as Victor's dark hand reached for her.
But before his hand could cup her neck, she was somewhere else.
"…Huh?" She looked around and realized she's returned to her apartment in New York.
She took a deep breath and thought about what happened, and now that she was away from Victor, she understood what she had done wrong:
"Fuck! I mentioned his mother!"
......
