Chapter 412: Anna is the best mom.
A few minutes before Aphrodite rang the doorbell.
"Esther."
"Ruby, we have a problem."
"... What happened?" Ruby's expression turned serious.
"Remember that little project you wanted to do together with June and Natalia?"
"Which one."
"About the monopoly of the beauty market."
"Hmmm... Yes, I remember." In fact, she didn't remember, she was so busy researching the Hybrids and other things that she'd forgotten.
"Well, June fucked up, and fought with her partner, and now the project has failed."
"......."
Ruby looked like she'd misheard what Esther said.
She sighed a little, held her brow in a slight show of frustration:
"I told her a million times to control herself... That bitch doesn't understand how much money I'm investing in her..."
"Meow?" Zack, who was lying on his stomach in the sun, opened his eyes confused: 'Why is it getting cold?'
"..." Esther swallowed lightly when she heard Ruby's tone of voice, she was clearly not happy.
Sigh.
Ruby sighed again, and calmed her thoughts a bit:
"Tell me what happened in detail."
"...Apparently her partner was getting arrogant for developing a magic that would make all beings jealous and getting a monopoly, she wanted more benefit in her deal, and when talking about it with June... The woman didn't take it that well, and a fight ensued."
"...Looks like 30% of the profits wasn't enough for this Witch..." Ruby's eyes glowed brightly red.
"!!!" Zack's fur stood on end, and he quickly got up, and looked around confused: 'enemy!?'
"Yy…yes."
Ruby pondered about it, it all started the day June said she had a project about beauty magic.
At the time, Ruby, although interested, hadn't given it much thought, after all, she was already quite busy with her other projects, and couldn't add more workloads for herself.
It was hard enough spreading her time with her Darling and her various projects, adding more projects would just be silly.
Even though she was a Vampire, she still felt mental fatigue, and there was also the fact that she wanted to leave some time to watch her favorite anime and series.
Because of this, when Natalia came to talk to Ruby about investing in this job, the woman initially didn't want to for those reasons.
But after assuring her that June, and Natalia would work on this project to make sure everything went smoothly, she decided to trust them.
... Did she trust the witch? Of course not.
She trusted Natalia, even though she was a human, she was the heir to Clan Alioth, she was capable enough to handle this project.
And Ruby was correct, the project progressed without problems... Well, actually there were some small problems because the Witch was very greedy, and she was in direct conflict with June, but nothing that Natalia couldn't solve, consequently, everything went without problems.
When the project was over, the two Witches, in the case being June and her colleague, would receive 30% of the proceeds from the entire sale.
And the remaining 40% would be all Ruby's.
Ruby was kind and ceded a large amount of profit to these two Witches, despite all the heavy lifting being handled by her group, distribution, protection, marketing, everything was being prepared by her.
Even if she was not overseeing it personally, in the end, she was the one who gave the final orders.
Originally, she was supposed to keep 50% of everything, and the rest would be divided among the Witches, after all, if it weren't for Ruby's existence, this project wouldn't even reach the light of day because of the threats involved.
She knew she was losing a lot of money, but it didn't matter.
After all, she was not interested in money, but in the political power that this tool would give her.
No matter what your race, beauty would always be something others would desire, and if this magic hit the market, it would have a complete monopoly. After all, it was something innovative and was 'permanent'.
This product would allow a person to stay beautiful until the end of their life, unlike current methods where a person had to pay a large amount of money every several years, Ruby's plan was to make something more 'affordable'.
You would pay an absurd amount of money, and per month you would pay the equivalent of a $100 subscription fee, just to maintain your 'beauty'.
And if the person refused to pay, or clashed with Ruby or her family, with just one phone call, the person would lose their 'beauty', consequently, they would gain a blackmail tool as well.
The price Ruby would charge wasn't even that expensive, just to give you an idea it was much cheaper than hiring the services of any Witch.
If you didn't have a connection to Witches, and you wanted to hire a personal Witch for the first time, you'd likely have to pay an amount equivalent to almost 100 million dollars, just to call the Witch and have an appointment with her, and then you would pay again for the service you wanted from her.
And the value of the final service could reach billions of dollars depending on the service.
Of course, this value was only for Witches who held a bit of 'renown' and specialized in one area, Witches who were basically handymen weren't that expensive.
It's just a simple 10 million dollar amount just for a query... Yes, the Witches were inflating the prices a little bit because there was no competition.
Because of this, what competition is good, right WeTube...? Cough.
Ruby knew very well the size of the target she would put on her back, but she didn't care, after all, who would dare provoke Scathach?
The weight of the strongest female Vampire in the world was very great, even if it didn't scare beings like Shiva, Odin, and Zeus.
Her name definitely scared off every other being who wasn't a great player, after all, in addition to being the strongest female Vampire, she was also the general of Nightingale.
Although this title was not so flashy, it still gave her the right to command Nightingale's forces if the reason was 'justifiable'.
'That bitch, she's getting very greedy, she should have been content with just 30%... Now she's going to lose-.'
*bell sound*
Ruby's thoughts stopped when she heard the bell ring.
"Hmm?" She looked towards the entrance of the room, and saw Anna running towards the entrance of the room.
"Bitch, you came fast!" She opened the door, and the appearance of a voluptuous blonde appeared.
'Geh, Aphrodite...'
"Esther, I have a problem to solve, I'll get back to you later."
"Okay."
Ruby hung up the phone, then called her husband.
"You said 'now', remember?"
"Indeed, indeed." Anna nodded several times.
"Oh, Renata, did you come to visit?"
"Yes." Renata looked at Leon and displayed a professional smile.
"But that was pretty quick, I heard my wife talking to you not even a few seconds ago."
"..." Renata looked at Anna.
"Didn't you tell him?"
"... Oh, I forgot." She flashed an innocent smile.
"Ugh." She placed her hand on her brow.
"Do not blame me! A lot had happened in a short time, and when he got home, I was already asleep! And it also looks like my children or their subordinates didn't count either."
"…Hmm, are you talking about yesterday?"
"Yes."
"Oh, I remember some men who were under Violet's subordinates asking me to drink at a bar, and as I knew them, I didn't refuse." When Leon walked into that bar, his eyes were immediately drawn like a pregnant woman to the attendants.
It's like they say, the bigger the size of an object, the bigger the attraction.
And those attendants had pretty devastating Nukes.
Leon was a simple man, and even if he was a faithful man, at the end of the day, a man was still a man, gravity would affect him.
...Although he wouldn't take long or do anything, after all, he loved his wife very much, he also didn't have the energy for it...
As far as he could tell, his wife was becoming a succubus lately, he wouldn't be surprised if she was a sex Demon...
"...." His eyes went lifeless as he imagined what he would spend the night with.
Make no mistake, he loved it, what man wouldn't? He also made sure to satisfy his wife, never that he would admit defeat in bed, his bricklayer's pride couldn't stand it.
... He was just... Tired.
So kids, if you see Leon walking around tired, don't forget to salute in respect.
He is a real man.
... But honestly, Leon was curious about something:
'How the fuck can my son handle so many women?'
He knew very well that female Vampires were thirstier than male Vampires. He'd even heard that there had even been cases of male Vampires being killed because they were dried by an older female Vampire.
"Ohh... You were in a bar, huh." Anna's eyes gleamed slightly as she looked at Leon.
"..." The man's body shook a little, but he still kept looking at the air with dead eyes.
"Do you count or do I count?" Renata asked while ignoring Leon's lifeless gaze.
"...Ugh, I'll do it, it's my responsibility."
"Fine."
"Leon."
"Hmm?" Leon looked at his wife.
"See this woman?"
"Yes?"
"Renata, my best friend."
"...." Aphrodite's cheek turned slightly red as she heard Anna openly speaking the words 'best friend'.
'Seriously, this woman is very honest... That's why I like her!'
"She is the Goddess of the Thots."
"Oyy! I am the Goddess of Beauty! The Goddess of BEAUTY!" She made sure to spell it out for Anna.
"Bleh." Anna stuck her tongue out at Renata.
Veins bulged in Renata's head: 'I take back what I said, I hate this woman!'
"Huh...?"
"Is this some new prank from you two?" Leon said, "Is it like that time when you guys pestered your neighbor with the loud music because she was a grumpy old woman?"
Yes, Anna was a woman who held a grudge, and when she hooked up with Aphrodite things only got worse, because Aphrodite had no common sense, and anything fun she would do with Anna.
"Nah, that's very different from that grumpy old woman... Speaking of which, thank goodness she died." She made a prayer sign:
"RIP, no one will miss you."
"...." Leon didn't really know what to say when he saw what his wife was doing, but it's not like he wasn't used to it.
"Anyway! I'm serious, she's the Goddess of Beauty, she's Aphrodite!" Anna stood in front of Aphrodite as she opened her hands as if she was expecting something.
"....." A silence fell around them, and nothing happened.
"Anna, are you okay?" Leon was really starting to worry now.
"Ugh." Somehow her husband's gaze hurt.
Anna quickly got close to Aphrodite's ear.
"W-What-" She didn't have time to question Anna because she soon heard:
"Idiot, this is the time you transform, become a power ranger, take the power out of your ass or something like that!"
"Ohhh...Wait, are you treating me like a clown or something?"
"Eh...? You are not a clown."
"Correct, I'm a Goddess-."
"You are the entire circus." Anna flashed a shitty smile.
"......" Veins bulged all over Aphrodite's face.
'This bitch, she became more unbearable than usual when she found out I'm a Goddess!'
"Anyway, just transform! It's faster to explain that way!"
"Yeah yeah. Whatever." She was too tired to deal with Anna right now.
Her appearance began to slowly change.
And then a woman with long pink hair, a body that can only be described as perfect, who was wearing a Greek dress appeared.
"Tada, this is the Goddess of Beauty."
"...What the hell..." Leon looked like a goldfish as he looked at Aphrodite with his mouth open, the woman wasn't doing anything, she was just standing there with an irritated pout on her face as she looked away.
And yet, he was completely caught up in her charm… and also in the shock of the revelation that his wife's friend was a Goddess.
"Umu, I was surprised too. To think that my longtime friend was a Goddess..."
"..." Aphrodite looked at Anna.
"I must admit I was surprised." Her tone of voice became more neutral:
"I had time to think... And I thought, I thought, I thought... And I ended up not moving. In the end, I gave up thinking and just acted like myself... And only when I acted like myself did I realize that in the end, it didn't change anything."
"Anna..."
"Don't look at me like that, it's all thanks...-"
"Thanks to Ruby's advice..." Anna looked at Ruby who was standing with her arms crossed.
"...." Aphrodite looked at Ruby for a few seconds, and then looked at Anna again.
Anna showed a small smile: "In the end, I realized that regardless of whether you are a Goddess or not, whether you are a being from different times and customs or not…"
"You would still be my friend, this interaction we had just reaffirmed my thoughts."
"..." Aphrodite opened her eyes wide, her heart pounding, in her view only her friend's face was seen.
"…Hmm, and how do I say this?" Anna scratched her cheek while looking a little to the side:
"When I woke up in the morning, I missed talking to you... And for a moment I was sad to know that maybe this routine that we'd built for over a decade would be destroyed and I wouldn't be able to talk to you anymore."
Tears threatened to fall down Aphrodite's face as she bit her lip.
"Ugh, I think I'm really pathetic-." Anna couldn't finish talking because soon she was hugged by Aphrodite.
"Eh...Ehh?"
"W-Wait, what are you doing you perverted Goddess, just so you know, I'm straight okay!?"
"Anna... Just... Shut-up."
"...." Feeling liquids wetting the area of his chest, and feeling Aphrodite's body trembling, Anna sighed.
Sigh.
Anna sighed a little and smiled gently.
"Seriously... What a worthless Goddess you are." She began to gently stroke the Goddess's pink hair.
"S-Shut up… Bitch… I'm not crying, this is just a normal reaction to smelling your stinky breasts that smell like onions… Yes! It's all your smelly breasts fault!"
"...." Veins bulged in Anna's head and her smile nearly broke. For a moment, she felt like squeezing Aphrodite's head.
...But as a benevolent Goddess herself, she decided to forgive Aphrodite for that insult... For now.
"... A crying Goddess." Ruby was sure that if she told this to someone, people would laugh at her. She looked to the side, precisely at the man who was leaning with his arms crossed against the wall.
"That's interesting, isn't it?"
"Darling."
.......
