Chapter 399: Anna and Aphrodite, a friendship of over 10 years.
A portal suddenly appeared in the middle of the room, and soon Natalia, along with Ruby, Violet, Vlad's ex-wives, and Kaguya, exited the portal.
The group looked at the current situation and saw Anna on the floor muttering 'oyakodon', a word Ruby could easily understand in context, and she couldn't help but blush a little.
Victor looked at the group, especially Violet, and his eyes were serious.
"...." Violet narrowed her eyes as she sensed Victor's emotions.
She looked at him, confused.
She was ready to attack Aphrodite when she arrived, considering that she was responsible for what happened to her father.
And Victor knows this, so why is he protecting her!?
"Don't get it wrong. She has apparently been my mother's friend, long before I became a Vampire." Victor suddenly spoke a sentence with little to no context.
"...??" The people around them didn't understand why he said that, but Violet and Ruby understood what he meant.
Aphrodite, who was looking at the group of women with a curious look, suddenly narrowed her eyes when she heard what Victor said, and she felt like correcting Victor's words.
"Hey, I've been her friend since you were 10!" The Goddess snorted, and to demonstrate that she was telling the truth, her appearance began to change, and soon a blonde woman with a voluptuous body was seen.
"Renata..." Violet knew the woman. How could she not? She'd investigated all the people close to Victor.
"Heh, you grew up, heir to the Snow Clan, the last time I saw you, you were a child."
Violet's words were confirmation that Victor didn't want to hear.
'Bitch…' Violet's eyes glowed blood red, as she was really holding back, trying not to attack the Goddess.
"Mother, wake up."
"Hmm?" She looked at her son:
"Do you know this woman?" He pointed at Renata.
"..." Anna looked at Renata.
"Yeah, I know this bitch, but I didn't know she was a Goddess... Honestly, I thought she was the daughter of a mob boss or something."
"..." Aphrodite felt veins popping in her head when she heard what Anna said about her. The woman never changed with her brutal honesty... And that's what she liked about her, despite it being irritating at times.
"Gah! This is bullshit. How come the only friend I had was a Goddess? I have no doubt that my next-door neighbor was another Supernatural Being or that Adam was some sort of Supernatural Being as well."
"...Well..." Victor looked away.
"Wait, are they really!?" Anna looked at Victor in shock.
"The neighbor isn't, but Adam is a Werewolf, didn't I already say that?"
"Of course not!" She yelled, slightly annoyed, and then the realization hit her:
"Does that mean Leona and Edward..."
"Yes, they are Werewolves too." Victor didn't deny it.
"Fuck it... Although having a man who is apparently an old man in age with much more health than someone young is strange... But given his background, I didn't suspect anything. Or was I forced to suspect nothing?"
"Don't think nonsense. You weren't forced to do anything. Supernatural races have ways of hiding and concealing the clues they leave."
"Witches sell distraction spells as well, which allow the user to wish the individual to ignore strange things. These spells are cheaper than candy sold at the supermarket."
"Ohh, that makes sense..."
[Master, what are you going to do?] Kaguya asked.
[Honestly, I don't know. My wish is only to drive Aphrodite out and, in the future, kill her.] Victor wasn't stupid.
He knew he couldn't fight Aphrodite expecting a victory, or possible death, from the Goddess. Her attributes, that irritating power that can control people's desires...
It's very troublesome, and as long as he didn't have a way to resist this power or was strong enough to deal with it, Victor just wanted to keep his distance from this Goddess.
'And to think that one of the Goddesses that Adonis hates was a close friend of my mother's…' Victor grunted inwardly with disapproval.
The situation just got more complicated.
[But for now, leave all the Maids in my shadow, I don't trust this Goddess, and if she tries to charm someone here, I probably won't notice.]
Kaguya nodded, and in less than a few seconds, Kaguya herself disappeared into the darkness and into Victor's shadow.
"...." Aphrodite saw this move but did nothing visible or hidden, she was trying to save her relationship with her friend, and she understood that making any move now would only cause Victor to distrust her.
"..." Victor looked at Violet and saw that she was holding her emotions well.
"Tsk." Victor clicked his tongue in annoyance, and then he reached out to the left.
"???" People looked at this movement strangely, but after a few minutes with Victor standing in that position, they heard a loud noise, and soon an Odachi pierced the ceiling and fell into Victor's hand.
"...!" Aphrodite felt a slight tremor when she saw the aura of the Odachi that fell into his hand.
The ceiling that was pierced by Odachi started to regenerate on its own and was soon back to normal.
Victor held the Odachi in his hand, approached Violet, then lightly touched her shoulder.
"...." Violet looked into Victor's eyes, and she felt the emotions he was conveying.
"...." Violet's eyes started to return to their violet hue, much like Victor's now.
Victor nodded slightly, satisfied, and soon he sat down on the couch as he shamelessly pulled Violet onto his lap. He let go of the Odachi, which began to float behind him, and looked at Aphrodite and his mother with a neutral gaze.
"We need to talk. Now." His voice was now very serious and heavy. The people around him knew he didn't want to hear bullshit anymore, as he made a statement that, unconsciously, everyone except Aphrodite felt they should listen to him.
But that didn't stop this scene from giving Aphrodite an internal shock.
'Is that... a declaration? How is that possible? He's not even a God?' Aphrodite knew that feeling all too well.
The feeling that Victor used was the same as when Zeus ordered them to do something, and when the God King commanded, the other Gods must obey.
That's the power of whoever had the 'Rule' seat of a pantheon.
...She was completely confused by the Charm that activated when Victor said something with a random power...
...
Victor was sitting on a couch with Ruby by his side, while Violet was sitting on his lap while keeping her head on Victor's chest.
Kaguya was next to Victor's couch along with Natalia. Jeanne, and another Anna, who was Vlad's ex-wife, were sitting at a separate table while watching everything with curious eyes.
Victor's mother was sitting in the middle in an armchair, and Aphrodite was sitting alone on a 3-seater sofa...
She could clearly feel the discrimination in the air.
Isn't she the Goddess of Beauty? Fuck, she should be spoiled!
Aphrodite held her brow and sighed a little, feeling slightly irritated by this situation.
The people who weren't treating her like they were supposed to, Violet sitting on Victor's lap acting all loving, and Victor's endless questioning.
She felt like she'd already repeated the same story about 500 times.
But she put up with it all... As much as she wanted to complain, she put up with it...
All because of the woman who was lying in the massage chair as she relaxed as if the problem had nothing to do with her.
"What do you think, Ruby?"
"I don't think it's a lie, and the whole story she told coincides. She even knew about Violet, and Violet knew about her too."
"...Who wouldn't remember a little Vampire investigating their house while they slept?" Aphrodite rolled her eyes, she just didn't do anything against the intruder that day because she wanted to keep her Renata persona until the end.
And Violet was just a little girl at the time, and even though she was accompanied by her bodyguards, they weren't a real threat to Aphrodite.
"Even Anna confirmed her story."
"Me?" Vlad's ex-wife spoke up.
"Not you. As of now, you are no longer Anna. Only my mother can have that name, change to demon number 1 or something."
"...This fucker..." The woman's eyes gleamed dangerously.
"Umu?" Anna looked at the other Anna.
The Human and Demon faced each other for a few seconds.
"Another hot woman… Seriously, what's the problem with my son attracting this type of Thot? And this time, she is eccentric and even has a tail and wings!"
"Oyy! Don't compare me to Aphrodite! I've only had one husband in my entire life!"
"Why the fuck did you put my name in the middle, demon?"
"I mean… If you think of Thot… Doesn't the name Aphrodite always come to mind?" The Succubus answered honestly.
"…What the fuck kind of stereotype is that!? I am the Goddess of Beauty and Love!"
"Well, even some of our Succubi who work taking life energy from men pray to you in their spare time."
"... Hearing a demon's prayer doesn't make me happy!"
"You have a bad reputation for using men as your personal plaything." Jeanne spoke up.
"It was Artemis who did that. She captured the men and used them as prey for her hunters and pets… I just picked the handsome men and women I wanted and had an orgy."
"Although I got bored with time, and I didn't do it anymore."
"... A very questionable sport, and a very questionable attitude." Ruby spoke.
"Don't come to throw the morals of you mortals on us. We were alive even before the word moral was born." Aphrodite spoke in disdain.
"What morals you have, raping and taking advantage of the weakest... Wow, what morals you have." Jeanne spoke twice to emphasize her contempt.
"...." Aphrodite narrowed her eyes at Jeanne.
"You're just focusing on our bad parts, we are the Gods that helped humans the most."
"Of course, and you took advantage of them and then treated them like cattle." Jeanne continued with a smile on her face:
"Just tell me a Greek hero who had a happy ending in relating to the Gods?"
"...." Veins popped in Aphrodite's head.
"Well, all the Gods in Greek mythology are rapists, Zeus being the worst of them all along with his son Ares and his brother Poseidon. I wouldn't be surprised by this attitude." Jeanne spoke in disdain.
As an ancient saint, she refused to call Aphrodite or any of the Greek Gods, or even Gods of Norse mythology, a 'God' .
"…What do you think about it, Mother?" Victor, who was silent the entire time, asked with a neutral look.
"Umu?" Anna stopped relaxing in the massage chair and looked at Victor.
"What do I think about what?"
"About Aphrodite's Attitude."
"... Hmm." Anna looked at Aphrodite.
"..." Aphrodite shivered inwardly at Anna's gaze, bracing herself to hear Anna's disappointed words.
After all, she knew all too well the prejudice that modern-day mortals had towards the Greek Gods. She didn't really care about those prejudices because, at the end of the day, she understood that they were just hypocrites hiding their dirty nature.
"To be honest, I disapprove, and I don't agree. As a woman and a lawyer who has dealt with a number of rape victims, I know how horrible this is for the victim."
"..."
"But it's not for me to judge her or to antagonize her... After all, a mortal can't judge a God, right?" Anna asked Aphrodite.
"Well, yes." She wasn't going to deny those words. A mortal cannot judge the Gods by their standard since they are completely different existences.
"I think the correct words for this situation would be... I'm just disappointed."
"....." Aphrodite bit her lip a little. To be honest, having Anna's disgust and hatred was better than that word.
Disappointment...
"And to think that my friend had done so much shit in the past, I really can't help but feel disappointed. Because that's the only emotion I can feel."
"After all, there's no use crying over what happened thousands of years ago. It was another time, with another culture and mentality."
"In any culture, I don't think rape would be seen as a good thing." Jeanne spoke.
"..." Victor just looked at Jeanne for her to shut up.
"Tsk." Jeanne muttered and turned away.
"...But, I have a question for you." Anna spoke.
"...?" Aphrodite looked at her friend Anna:
"In the modern world, have you practiced this kind of act?"
"Answer me honestly." Anna looked at Aphrodite with a neutral gaze, her sapphire blue eyes seeming to pierce through Aphrodite's entire existence and look straight into her soul.
Of course, this was just Aphrodite's impression:
"I didn't do that. I got bored with Olympus, and the day I descended into the mortal world was the day I met you."
"..."
"I just used my powers to work at the same agency as you, secure my job there, and solve some problems related to you." She was completely honest.
"I see... I appreciate you helping me in the past." Anna smiled gently, then relaxed back into her chair.
"...So we're still friends...?"
"Umu? I thought that was clear."
"Oh..." Aphrodite was happy inside.
"History would be different if you had done it in the present, I would sue you and put you in prison… although you would have walked out there with your powers." She joked.
"...." Aphrodite flashed a small, amused smile, but Anna didn't seem finished.
"But yes... Knowing that my friend is the Goddess of Beauty, that she is a Greek Goddess, and that she has done many questionable actions for a mere mortal like me..." Anna spoke in disdain to herself.
"It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, so can you... Hmm... Let me think for myself? I need peace of mind right now."
"I need time to accept that the friend I had for over 10 years is a Goddess…"
"..." Aphrodite bit her lip. As expected, she was still thinking about it.
But she understood her friend's shock since it was because of that shock that she kept her alter ego close to her for over 10 years!
"Call me, even if it's to throw shit in my face."
"I definitely will, you know me."
"Always honest, huh."
"Indeed."
A pink power covered Aphrodite's body as she disappeared and warped to her home.
"...." Looking at her plush bedroom, a dry look appeared on Aphrodite's face, and then.
"FUCK!" She took the table that was nearby and threw it on the wall, then grabbed a vase from her other side and threw it at the wall.
"Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!!"
Chair, bed, luxurious vases, the entire room was being destroyed by Aphrodite.
She didn't know what she was doing, she was just very frustrated.
"Always a trial! Every time! These mortals! Always thinking they are better, but they hide in the flames of 'rules', and 'morals' to do their dirty deeds!"
Aphrodite was the one who understood humans the most. After all, she had watched them for thousands of years.
She took her bed and threw it at the wall.
BOOOOM!
"They are the first to point the finger when something goes against their 'morals', but they are hypocrites that when they gain a miserable spark of power, they are the first to use it to satiate their disgusting desires!"
She'd seen so many similar situations in the past that she'd had enough, mortals loved to point the finger at the Gods, but when they gain a wretched spark of power, they become something worse than the Gods.
The phrase:
"Give mortals a little power that surpasses their fellows, and they will show their true nature."
It's pretty accurate in this situation.
In 99% of cases, when giving a mortal power, they will reveal their disgusting nature, a nature far worse than any God they know.
Aphrodite fell to the floor while looking at the ceiling, as everything around her was destroyed:
"Worst of all, she is not a saint on Earth. She has defended corrupt politicians in the past to advance her career and make money... Hypocrite."
Aphrodite knew Anna very well, she knew the woman much more than her children, who she rarely saw, and she knew Anna didn't judge Aphrodite too much and asked for time to think since she understood she wasn't a saint either.
"...." Aphrodite put her arm over her face, and small crystalline liquids begin to fall from her pink eyes and paint her divinely beautiful face.
"I don't want to lose my friend..." A painful and sad voice was heard.
The worst thing that can drive even the Gods mad is not a terrifying enemy but a single, simple, emotion.
Loneliness...
An emotion that the Goddess of Beauty had always felt since she began to exist...
......
