Chapter 514: Fox meets Vampire…Again.
"Indeed… Oh, Victor, do you want to visit my land, Samar, in the future?"
"...." Fanir, who was the two, suddenly looked at Anderson with narrowed eyes.
'What is he planning?'
"Hmm? Sure, I wouldn't deny such an opportunity, but is that okay?"
"Huh?" Anderson made the face of one who didn't understand the question.
"I mean, inviting a Vampire into Werewolf lands isn't something that is 'normally' done."
"Oh... Hmm, Yeah, it's okay, you'll be my guest after all."
"No need to worry about little things."
"My partner and I will make sure everything goes well."
Victor nodded his head, indicating that he understood. But soon after, he raised his eyebrow and asked:
"Oh? You got married?"
"Yeah, being The Second Prince, it was bound to happen."
"Unlike Nightingale, our society is more focused on the King; therefore, children must have political marriages."
Victor nodded again; he understood that despite Nightingale being a Monarchy, all important matters were in the hands of the 'Countesses'.
Although the King held supreme authority and intervened when necessary, most of the time, the Countesses handled everything.
The reason for this was to share the work.
Dealing with so many things at once could be manageable at first, but over time it would become quite stressful and irritating.
And the main reason was that you wouldn't have time to focus on other things.
Because of this, splitting the work was the smartest thing to do.
And for there to be no conflict or discrepancy between the information, the four Countesses must have at least a good relationship among themselves and not try to harm each other.
This was also one of the reasons that the Heiresses of the four Vampire Counts were childhood friends, Eleanor being a long-distance friend because of her Clan's own work.
It seemed that Samar didn't work that way; all matters were resolved with the King's entourage as if it were an Ancient Monarchy of Earth.
Victor couldn't tell which government was correct, they were very similar, but one thing he was sure of...
It was not Volk who handled the writing and political part of his Kingdom. He was 100% sure of that; after all, he didn't seem to be that kind of man.
'Tasha Fenrir, huh...' He focused on Adonis' memories and remembered an Egyptian woman with chocolate-colored skin and cold eyes.
"...I mean, if you're okay with that." But, of course, Victor wouldn't say anything if the man didn't care about it. For him to marry like this was something quite strange after all.
"Hahaha, it's not as bad as you think, and my mate... Hmm, she's weird... But strangely nice."
Victor raised his eyebrow and asked in curiosity:
"Which Clan did you marry?"
"The Lykos Clan."
"…Eh?" Victor's thought process stopped, and all his rationality was thrown to the wind, rationality that if he used it, he would understand that it couldn't be the woman he was thinking about.
Victor looked seriously at Anderson:
"What is your wife's name?" The reason for his question was obvious.
"…why are you so interested?" Anderson narrowed his eyes.
"Curiosity, and because I know Clan Lykos."
"...Oh..." Anderson understood now, and soon he laughed and quickly corrected the misunderstanding:
"It's not Leona; it's one of her aunts, a sister of Adam."
Victor nodded and thought, 'That's good. I didn't want to have to kill my new friend….' When that thought popped into his mind, he shook his head a little, and all his rationality returned.
He took a deep breath and forced himself to stay calm.
'Tsk, I need to keep my head cool.' Victor understood that anything related to the people close to him could unleash his worst side.
And usually, that side was utterly devoid of logic, and only feelings prevailed.
That was also a weakness, a weakness that Victor had more control over than before, but despite the improvement, that personality trait of his was unlikely to go away.
It was his nature; it could be controlled but not erased.
Now that he'd calmed down, he added in shock, "Wait, did you say 'one' of the sisters? Just how many siblings does that old man have?"
"Oh? You didn't know? Adam's mother was quite a famous woman; she had a Harem of Wolves and had quite a few children. I think the number was over 50?" Ignoring Victor's shocked look, he spoke in a joking tone:
"Honestly, the probability of any white-haired Werewolf you find in Samar being her child or descendant is quite high." Despite being a joke, there were many truths in those words.
"...." Victor just looked at Anderson as if he'd grown a second head, and instinctively, he also looked at Anderson's white hair.
Seeing Victor's gaze, Anderson laughed:
"I'm not her son or her descendant; these hairs came from my mother's genes; one of my uncles also has white hair, you know?"
"...." Victor just nodded in a somewhat paralyzed way.
"Adam's mother has a lot of children scattered across Samar, but only the strongest Child can be the Clan leader, which, in this case, is Adam."
"As Royalty, I am marrying the strongest woman in Clan Lykos, who is second in command only to Adam."
"...." Victor didn't know how to react to this. Was this the so-called culture shock? Although, now that he thought about it, he'd felt the same way when he learned about Nightingale's culture.
This was new information that wasn't in Adonis' memories either; after all, the man only dealt with the politics of things. He knew who the Main Clans of Samar were and who The King and Queen were because of politics.
But he had no interest in how things worked internally; Agnes usually handled these things.
"Hahaha, your face is really hilarious."
Victor's brow quivered a little, and then he sighed.
"I will visit Samar in the future."
"Good-."
"I just hope you don't get me into some complicated mess and, if possible, keep that woman away from me."
"...." Anderson's smile trembled.
"Why are you so averse to meeting this woman?"
"I don't know; I just feel like if she sees me, she'll want to add me to her harem." It wasn't arrogance or narcissism, but he knew it himself; everyone knew, even the Gods knew, he was fucking handsome.
... Okay, maybe it was a little bit of narcissism.
With the same shaky smile this time at Victor's own narcissism, Anderson spoke:
"You're pretty insightful, huh."
"As expected of a Count, I think?"
"...Just know that women don't like that." He added playfully.
"You're not a woman, and I don't give a damn about other women's opinions." Victor snorted in disdain; he had four beautiful wives, three wonderful Mothers-in-Law's, a squad of cute Maids, and a literal Goddess of Beauty; he was quite fine, thank you very much.
"Ugh."
"As for the issues, just make sure you don't involve my family. If it's me alone, I don't mind."
"…Eh?" Now it was Anderson's turn to look at Victor as if he had grown a second head.
"That's what friends are for; just don't get used to it," Victor spoke in a neutral tone.
"..." Anderson opened his eyes and looked at Victor in a grateful, somewhat strange way.
"What is that look?"
"I mean, are you sure you're not a Werewolf?" He looked at Victor like he was suspicious.
"...Stop thinking nonsense, and don't forget what I said." Victor snorted and walked towards another place.
"I will return that favor, Vic; a Wolf never forgets," Anderson spoke in a serious tone.
Victor looked back with a small smile:
"Just treat me nice when I get to Samar; that's enough." Then he turned to face forward while assuming a serious, neutral look.
Anderson nodded; he understood what 'treating well' to Victor meant; basically, it was a fight. He intentionally asked him to get 'specimens' for him to fight in Samar.
'As expected, he is definitely a Werewolf; this attitude is not that of a leech.' No one could get those thoughts out of Anderson's head right now.
When Victor was far enough away, Fanir spoke:
"What are you planning?"
"Hey? What are you talking about?"
"Humpf, fine, keep your secrets. Just don't get in my way." Fanir snorted and crossed his arms as he turned away.
Anderson just laughed a little coldly and thought:
'Keep it up; soon, I'll knock you down a peg or two.'
Walking up to Haruna, Victor felt Vlad's familiar gaze on his back, a gaze he wholly ignored.
Vlad, who was seeing the fox, felt complicated feelings. The woman was a carbon copy of his late wife, despite not having the same appearance as his wife.
Her attitude, the way she acted, her authoritative walk, and the whole atmosphere around her was too much like his late wife, making him uncomfortable.
He knew it wasn't his wife; she was just similar because this woman was his wife's younger sister, but… It was an uncomfortable feeling.
And seeing that man approaching Haruna only made him even madder, his rational side knew it wasn't his wife, but his feelings were complex.
Luckily, he was a pretty controlled man, and this isn't the time to cause trouble, especially in this place. Because if he did, Progenitor or not, he'd suffer the consequences.
His Kingdom could be harmed, which was a big no for Vlad.
"You didn't come to visit Ophis."
"...Busy," Haruna spoke lightly as she looked at Victor intently.
Victor nodded. He understood that reorganizing the forces of an army that was previously an enemy was a very complex situation.
"Will you visit in the future?"
"Ophis, or you?"
Victor just smiled slightly, "Both."
One thing is a fact, Victor is brazen.
Haruna smiled slightly, and her tails danced hypnotically behind her.
"Hmm…I will."
"I will be waiting for your visit." Victor smiled kindly:
"Indeed, I will definitely be looking forward to your visit." His eyes changed from gentle to somewhat predatory.
"...." Haruna's obsidian eyes seemed to shine for a while, too; she clearly understood his intention; it was quite obvious he wanted to fight her.
And frankly, it was something she wanted too.
"Oh, here, take it... It's a way to contact me." Victor got even closer to Haruna and invaded her personal space. He did it so naturally that Haruna didn't feel discomfort or anything.
She was a very reserved woman, but her natural barriers didn't seem to work with Victor.
He lightly touched Haruna's hand and squeezed Haruna's hand gently.
And at that moment, quite imperceptibly to everyone, and quickly, he brought his face close to Haruna's ears and spoke in an extremely low tone:
"Beware of the Demons; if anything happens, immediately retreat to your people."
Haruna's fox ears twitched a little, and her face turned slightly red; hearing Victor's melodic voice so close was quite…devastating.
But Haruna was a Leader before she was a woman, and hearing Victor's warning, she narrowed her eyes.
Victor turned away from Haruna and smiled: "See you later, Haruna."
"Mm..." She nodded; now, her mind was spinning pretty quickly.
Victor looked at Kuroka and displayed an innocent smile: "Kuroka-nya."
A vein bulged on Kuroka's head: "That's not my name-nya!"
"It's Kuroka-nya!"
"I know," Victor responded with the same innocent smile.
"Ugh." She looked at Victor like a cat about to pounce on its prey; even her tail was standing on end.
Victor chuckled lightly; he couldn't leave without teasing this woman a bit. She seemed fun to interact with. Then he turned away and walked back to his group.
"Grr... Jerk." Kuroka commented with accusing eyes, but it didn't contain any harmful intentions. She knew he was joking, and to be honest, she liked it, she didn't enjoy all this formal atmosphere, but whatever, she needed to act like that.
She looked slightly at Haruna, who was lost in thought.
Haruna came to this place to acquire 'representativeness' for their organization. They were no longer a small faction; they needed to attend this meeting to be recognized.
It could be said that they were recognized as a Great Faction just by appearing at this meeting.
Her primary objective was completed, and the second objective was to secure a non-intervention law for at least 100 years, which was enough time for them to develop.
Despite being a large faction, they still needed to grow in many areas and expand their influence.
And mostly, they needed to solve their energy problem. 'Youki' could only be used in Japan if you were not one of the Big Clans like the Foxes, the Oni, or the Dragons.
She needed to sort this out, or her scope would be limited to Japan only, which she didn't want.
That was one of the reasons she only brought one escort; only Kuroka and Genji were capable enough to come to this place at their full potential.
But... Victor's warning changed everything. It was apparent that something was about to happen, something she didn't know, related to Demons.
And she needed to be careful with that.
Glancing lightly at Victor's back, she felt a complex sense of gratitude and confusion.
'Why did he help me?' She wouldn't believe that Victor had nothing to gain from this, but the moment she thought about it, she shook her head.
'He's not like that.' She had had few interactions with Victor, but during those few interactions, she could assess his character very well. He didn't make sneaky moves with people he liked. Instead, he was very loyal and would only fuck you over if you fucked with him first.
And she knew very well that Victor liked her; it was pretty obvious.
For some reason, when she thought about it, she felt quite sweet inside.
Her tails, which were still, began to move hypnotically again, her fox eyes looked at Victor's back with evident interest, and a small smile couldn't be hidden from her face.
....
