Chapter 583: You are a leader.
Shock and disbelief, these were the feelings the members of Clan Scarlett felt.
Killing a horde of demons and destroying a base? Confronting Alexios, who tried to bring him back to Nightingale? Literally, spitting in the face of the vampire king and giving up the title of vampire count? Teaming up with the werewolves, invading enemy territory, facing an enemy that can lurk between realms, and blackmailing the witch queen.
He discovered the witch queen's plan, and knowing that she was involved not only with the current state of Lilith, the mother of demons, confirmed that she helped the demons prepare for the current invasion by performing magic that helped to disguise the demon base.
"…How long were we gone anyway? Was it years?" Pepper asked, still in disbelief.
"A few days, Pepper." Lacus replied with a face as unbelievable as Pepper's.
"A few days… Yes, it's literally been a few fucking days!! How did he cause so much chaos in such a short time!?"
"Pepper, language," Siena grumbled.
"Ahhh, don't tell me you aren't surprised!"
"I am surprised, but that is no reason to use vulgar words."
Pepper grunted in annoyance as she sat down on the floor again and crossed her arms.
"... Ohhh, I'm feeling that sense of Déjà Vu; I remember feeling the same emotions when my husband would go out for a 'night walk'."
The girls looked at Ruby with strange eyes, and as if sensing something, they all changed their gazes to sympathetic gazes.
'It must have been difficult.' The Scarlett sisters thought.
"... Haha...haha...HAHAHAHAHA!" Scathach's laughter echoed through the hall, and pure amusement could be felt in her laughter.
Letting go of all her feelings of worry and wanting to smack her stupid disciple for doing something without much thought, she was absolutely satisfied with two important pieces of information.
He told Vlad to fuck off, and beat Evie at her game!
This... This... This was just amazing!
God! How she wanted to be there to taste Evie's frustrated face! Fuck, she was so jealous of the vampire Maids who were with her foolish disciple the whole time! She would give away all her wealth easily if she was able to see that arrogant, self-absorbed, megalomaniacal, narcissistic whore with a defeated face!
... Yes, Scathach was full of complaints towards the witch queen.
The reason for her complaints? None, she just doesn't like witches as a whole, but it doesn't get to the point of being hateful.
She is irrational, but not that much. She knew that the queen had nothing to do with the bad experiences that her daughter, or herself, suffered in the past regarding witches.
"Hmm, I'm glad you approved of my actions, Scathach."
Suddenly Scathach's laughter died down, and she looked at Victor with an impassive gaze.
This abrupt change in Scathach's mood caught everyone off guard.
"Make no mistake, I don't approve of your actions. Although I love the fact that you cornered Evie, that's still not enough to ignore what you did."
"Foolish disciple, what did you say not only to me but to my daughter as well?"
Victor opened his eyes wide, and a rather embarrassed neutral look appeared on his face.
"I would not be reckless, and I would count on you more."
"Correct."
Ruby and Scathach knew that complaining to Victor would backfire, so they had to make him see his mistake.
"Victor, tell me, what are you now?" Ruby asked in a serious tone.
Victor shivered a little; he knew his diligent wife only called him by name when she wanted him to see something.
"… I am a leader of a future faction."
"Correct, you are the leader of a Faction which YOU decided to do, and you asked OUR help to organize everything."
Victor understood his mistake, and his face showed it all.
Ruby's eyes became kinder, and she spoke in a loving tone:
"Victor, my love, my darling, my life… Don't make the same mistake as Vlad."
"Don't decide to do things all alone. You are not alone; you never were."
Victor nodded his head gently and unconsciously tightened his grip on Scathach's body.
The woman repressed her desire to hug her beloved and spoke in an extremely serious tone; he needed to understand this:
"Entering enemy territory without a backup plan, even if you were 100% sure everything would work out, is sheer folly. This is no longer the level of madness it used to be. You could have died, not just you, your childhood friends, and all your allies you brought into this madness."
It is noteworthy that not even Scathach would do this, even with her strength.
"There is a fine line between courage, madness, and foolishness."
"Yes, you were brave to invade a place full of enemies and focus on just rescuing the VIPs and escaping."
"You were crazy enough to defy the witch queen and Vlad himself. You definitely have the biggest balls in all of existence, and few could do what you did."
"... But you were a fool to do all this without notifying YOUR allies and letting them know what you were doing."
Victor cringed; he felt like he'd gone back to the time he started learning to use his powers. He remembered that Scathach always gave those lectures.
Scathach's face changed from stern to kind as she realized her words had reached her disciple. She touched his face gently and spoke:
"My foolish disciple... If by any chance you die, how do you think we'll feel?"
"How do you think I will feel?"
"How do you think Ruby, Violet, Sasha, Natasha, Agnes, Aphrodite, your maids, and your parents feel?"
"… How do you think your daughters would feel…?"
Victor didn't need to answer that question; his look of horror was answer enough. He knew very well how everyone felt, considering he would feel the same if he lost anyone mentioned by Scathach.
Scathach gently kissed Victor's lips, it was a simple kiss, but it contained all the emotions she was feeling right now, a fragile kiss that demonstrated everything she felt as a woman when she heard this news.
The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but for the two involved, they felt like they had been like that for whole hours. Even if there wasn't the same kind of connection like he had with his wives with Scathach, the look she gave him now, the gesture she made, and her trembling hands were enough clues for Victor to understand everything.
He was, after all, a good body language reader, and not only that, he completely understood Scathach.
And because she understood that her words deeply touched his being, pain, shame, and acceptance was felt by Victor.
'... I did it again.' Yes, he was more prudent this time, and he didn't make a complete mistake like in the past when he acted all alone.
He took allies, he made plans, and he didn't take so many unnecessary risks, but... He still forgot the most important thing; he forgot his current position.
Something he really couldn't be blamed for since the change was so abrupt. Suddenly, he became the leader of a 'faction' that exists in everything but physically, but...
That wasn't an excuse, and Victor knew that.
'I am the damn leader, if I move in a dangerous direction in these times of war, all my most trusted allies must know of my movements to act accordingly.' The responsibility of being the 'leader'.
He mistakenly thought that he could still act like before, but he got it completely wrong. He couldn't act like before anymore, not in times like this.
He needed to act as a group.
Ruby displayed a gentle smile, a smile that dismissed all her worries. She could clearly feel her husband's emotions from their connection.
'Haah, sometimes I feel envious of my mother and how she can affect him so much with so few words.' Something that she found normal, like it or not, the woman was his 'master', and she taught him everything he knew.
And at times, Victor needed that authority to realize the things he did wrong because, just having a rather high wisdom because of Adonis' memories, he is still prone to making mistakes.
What is normal, after all, he was not perfect. Nobody was perfect.
"Vic, you are very important to us… You have our hearts in your hands, don't destroy them because of your recklessness."
"I will not." He spoke seriously as he looked into Scathach's eyes.
The older vampire narrowed her eyes, "... You won't promise, huh." Scathach knew that if he promised, he would definitely keep that promise. That was one of the qualities she liked about him; he was a man of his word.
Victor displayed an awkward smile, "I can't promise that because in the end-."
"If a desperate situation arises, a situation where you need to sacrifice yourself to protect us, you would do it without a second thought." The woman knew him well enough to know that, after all, she would do the same for her daughters.
Victor just kept smiling, this time with a gentle smile.
"... Do you understand the consequences?"
"Yes."
"And even so, would you take that action?"
"Yes."
The two stared at each other for a long time until the older woman sighed:
"Huh... You are truly unbelievable." Despite the words, she had a gentle smile on her face.
"I'm sorry."
"Do not apologize. That's what I love about you. That's your best quality, you are an honorable warrior, a warrior who will do anything for his family, and I couldn't ask for a better man." She kissed him again.
Cough, Cough.
The two looked to the side and saw Ruby looking at them with a neutral expression.
"... In order for this cursed future where you have to sacrifice yourself not to happen, we have to become the strongest and have everything under our control." That was why Ruby fought so hard and planned so much, and she didn't even mind having her husband with influential women as long as it increased the power of the group overall.
Although she wouldn't hand her husband over to some whore just because she has power and influence, she has to pass his personality criteria.
"Strong enough that none of our words go unheeded."
Victor and Scathach flashed a predatory smile, their gazes glistening in a mischievous tone, a tone very similar to Ruby's.
""This is a plan I would like to follow."" Victor and Scathach said at the same time.
The two suddenly stopped, looked at each other in shock, and then laughed at the timing.
Ruby rolled her eyes. It was really weird sometimes how they responded the same way.
It is noteworthy that the husband and wifes were on the same wavelength now, and all that tense atmosphere disappeared as if it had never happened.
"Now that he has received his punishment, Mother, get out."
Scathach raised an eyebrow as she looked at her daughter with visible amusement. Then, when she was about to open her mouth to say something, Ruby spoke:
"How about informing Haruna that we're ready to talk to her? Isn't that your job as a general?"
"… Ugh, sometimes I hate how you act all smart ass on me," Scathach grunted as she reluctantly got off Victor's lap.
Ruby's eyes gleamed, and she quickly took her mother's place and nestled her face into her husband's chest.
She breathed deeply like an addict who found her drugs. She loved the smell of her husband! Soon she melts into his masculine heat.
Ignoring the looks of her family and Victor's gentle laughter, she brought her mouth to his neck and licked:
"…Darling~…" Lust could be heard in her tone, and she was tense and leaking bloodlust.
"Not now, Honey... We both know it won't end in a single meal."
Ruby snorted in a rather cute way but didn't refute his words.
"I'll go talk to the Youkai."
"Mm, call me if you need something, Scathach."
"I will." Scathach flashed an amused smile and then walked towards the exit, and Victor swore she purposely swayed her hips as if she were luring him into a sweet trap.
Of course, Victor didn't look away and looked completely at the older woman as if he was devouring her with his eyes.
Scathach, who was walking away, just smirked when she felt Victor's gaze on her. She loved that feeling! The feeling of being loved and desired!
'Haah, I'm wet... Good thing my armor has runes for this occasion.'
Since it was normal for her to get very excited in a fight, she made runes specifically for that.
... If her master knew how Scathach was using the runes, she would have a talk with her disciple.
Victor stroked Ruby's long Scarlett hair and looked at Ruby's stepsisters.
Seeing the three of them focused on the game while having slightly red faces, Victor chuckled a little.
"My beloved maids... You can leave if you want."
Victor's shadow stretched, and soon all the maids had left.
"Hmm, not being in the master's shadow is a strange feeling..." Bruna mumbled as she stretched a little.
"Weird..." Eve had the same thought.
"Hmm? Hey Girls, are you playing something!? Let me join in!" Maria looked at the Scarlett sisters.
"Oh? I want it too!" Roxanne jumped towards the group.
"Ugh, now the group has increased… Shall we restart the game?" Siena asked.
"Yeah, I think it's a good idea." Lacus nodded.
Kaguya just silently approached her master and sat beside him on the couch.
Roberta and Eve's eyes flashed at this action, and the two quickly took up the other spaces on the couch.
Victor laughed in amusement and didn't say anything, as he just petted his sly wife.
Bruna looked at the girls playing and said, "I want to play too!"
Soon the previously silent room was filled with conversation, most of them being girls.
....
