Chapter 496: Natashia Fulger's Madness.
While Agnes was very shocked, an incident was happening in Clan Fulger.
"Helena, honey. Tell me, where are you taking my son?"
"I-I..." Helena stuttered a lot; Victoria was scary now!
Natashia smiled smugly. As expected of her sister, the Fulger family genes didn't fall far from the tree after all!
Needless to say, she was quite pleased with the look Victoria was giving Helena now.
But that aside, she needed to sort out this mess and talk to her dear sister.
"Helena, leave."
"Sister, I need to talk to you."
"Hell no, you're not leaving-."
"Victoria!"
"...." Victoria looked at Natashia, and seeing Natashia's serious gaze, she cringed slightly. That look was not how Natashia always looked at her; it was the look of a Countess looking at her subordinate.
"Helena, Leave."
"Y-Yes!" Helena quickly left and closed the door.
When the door was closed, Natashia's tone became softer as she asked:
"Do you love your son like a man?"
"…Huh?"
"For god sake, don't play stupid, you heard what I said, and it's not like it's unthinkable. How many female Vampires haven't had children just to create an ideal husband? I've already lost count of the number!"
As an immortal race, their sense of 'normal' is entirely different; rather than settling for a husband who may never fully love them, a female Vampire often raised a child and molded that child into the perfect husband for her.
A similar situation is when a female Vampire adopted a child Vampire to make him her perfect husband in the future, but often, said child lacked the 'talent' required, which was bad from a political and Clan point of view.
If the woman married her own child, the lineage remained stronger and purer, and in addition, they would get the perfect husband they'd created from the start.
Instead of being disappointed in unknown men, let's create a perfect man!
And everyone lived happily ever after!
A typical story, a cliché that old women like Natashia and Victoria knew. Because of this, Natashia spoke contemptuously to Victoria.
... Fun fact, this was the same story Scathach recommended to her eldest daughter Siena when Victor first came to Nightingale. Though Scathach was talking about humans back then, not Vampires, or her making her own child and marrying her own child.
Unlike humans, seeing Vampire children around Nightingale was a relatively rare occasion; as a long-lived race, they hardly have many children.
"... Why the silence? Answer my question!"
Victoria sighed and spoke with a difficult face:
"I don't like my son that way."
"Then why are you so obsessed with him? This obsession is far greater than a mother would give her own child."
"He is my son!"
"I know, and?" Natashia continued with the same flat tone.
"Look, it's complicated, okay?" Victoria spoke in a tone that didn't want to talk about it, but Natashia clearly ignored it and spoke.
"Uncomplicate it for me, please; I have time."
"…." Looking at her sister's face, Victoria understood that Natashia wouldn't let it go so easily.
"And how about you? What are you going to do when your child is born? Won't you be worried about them? What will you do when he or she starts to like someone else and leaves you alone?"
"…." Natashia narrowed her eyes when she saw her trying to change the subject.
"Do not change the subject."
"Answer my question!"
"...Fine, but you will answer mine."
"... Okay."
"Simple, if I have a boy, I will train him to be strong and protect to the Clan."
"If I have a girl, I will do the same, but she will become my husband's wife in the future."
"...." Victoria looked at her sister in shock.
"Are you going coerce your own daughter...?"
"Of course not. Are you treating me like a monster?"
"..." Victoria didn't say anything, but they both knew she was thinking about it.
"Victoria, my sister. What the fuck am I?"
"A crazy woman?"
Natashia felt a vein popping in her head; she wasn't crazy! Maybe a little… But not completely crazy!
Like a kind woman, she corrected her sister:
"I am a Clan Leader."
"I am a Countess."
"And most of all, I am a woman who wants the best for her children."
"I will raise my children and make them strong, but if she is a girl, I will always leave open the possibility of my daughter joining my husband."
"The reason?"
"You should already know."
"Who the fuck is Victor?"
"Answer me."
"...." Victoria thought of Victor, and she said:
"He is the youngest Vampire Count in history?"
"Not only that, he's a good man. He was the man my daughter and I trusted our hearts with; I'm absolutely sure that regardless of his future wife or wives, that part of him will never change; he won't change and become like Vlad."
"...."
"As a mother who wants the best for her daughters, and as a Clan leader who looks out for the well-being of my Clan, I have judged that if I have a daughter, my daughter will always have the door open to enter into a relationship with her father himself."
"This act will strengthen my clan's bloodline; this act will protect my daughter and ensure both emotional and bodily safety."
"My daughter won't be like me; she won't suffer from wrong and rash decisions, and she won't have an unknown man breaking her heart."
"..." All Victoria expressed was absolute shock at everything her sister said.
'And to think she has already planned so far into the future...' Looking at it from a logical and objective point of view, what her sister said actually made sense.
'With this action, as she said, our Clan will always remain strong and united, and in the future, our lineage will be much stronger; after all, the blood of the Progenitor will greatly boost the next generation... And a failure like me maybe not be born in that future.'
Victoria couldn't see any downsides, and she knew that if it was another Clan leader, they would do the same.
"...Training is good; I don't deny Scathach's point of view."
"Hmm? What are you talking about?"
Natashia sighed and explained better:
"Scathach believes that with training, anything is possible, and I don't deny that point of view. But without talent, that effort is worthless."
"Scathach only achieved what she is today because of her talent, willpower, and experience."
"Luck was a factor too; after all, she caught the time when humanity was progressing the most."
"Not everyone will have the willpower she has, that luck, and that talent; times are changing."
"Everything is getting more dangerous."
"And we need to curb the possibility that our future descendants may be unable to handle this danger."
"If I have a daughter, and this future daughter of mine has another daughter, I want my granddaughter to be as talented as possible." That was the mindset that led to Natashia kidnapping Sasha's father.
When she saw someone with such high 'defense' talent, she immediately used the man and the consequence of that? Sasha was born with a body immune to lightning itself; effectively, Natashia eliminated the weakness of her Clan's power.
"...I mean, I agree with you on that; you're not wrong, but..."
"Isn't it wrong to dictate the child's fate from the start?"
"...." Natashia narrowed her eyes: "Are you going senile?"
"Eh...?"
"Did you not hear what I said?"
"I said I would train my children to be strong, and I will leave the door open to a future relationship with their own father; it depends entirely on the woman that my future daughter will become. I will not coerce anyone."
"Oh…but."
"Will Victor accept this?"
"Not now, but in the future? Perhaps. Nobody lives 2000 years and stays the same; the passage of time changes a person."
"The people we are now are not the same people we were 1700 years ago, right, My Sister?"
"...." Victoria's face darkened, and she couldn't help but nod, completely agreeing with her sister.
......
