Chapter 611: Resentments are poison to the Soul.
Victor completely ignored the plea in his father's gaze and walked to the back. He just backed away a little and saw Mizuki hiding while looking at the events.
"Oh? I thought you had gone further." Victor didn't hide his small smile of amusement.
"... I mean, I don't want to miss something so interesting." She spoke curiously as she watched Anna's aura grow and become darker.
'Now, I understand where Victor's personality comes from.' Mizuki thought without knowing that Leon had the same thought as her.
Victor looked at Mizuki with amusement. He never thought that Mizuki had this kind of tendency when she was more relaxed. He spoke close to her ear: "A wise man once said that curiosity killed the cat."
Mizuki felt a shiver go through her entire body and unconsciously tightened her legs. She hated that a few simple words from him caused so many reactions in her body:
"M-Maybe, but-." She tried to act normal but stuttered, and when she was about to continue talking, she heard Victor's serious voice.
"Mizuki."
The older woman stopped peeking, looked to the side, and saw Victor sitting cross-legged on the floor.
"Come, and sit here."
"There!? You want me to sit there!?" She pointed to his lap with an embarrassed look.
"Yes." He spoke with a serious look that held a tinge of amusement: "Let my parents sort it out. I believe my mother will 'discipline' him; come to me."
Normally, Victor would have pulled Mizuki away, but he couldn't do that now, or the woman's arm would be ripped from her body.
Mizuki bit her lip. She was debating what she should do, and when she was going to refuse, she felt someone pushing her, and the next moment, she found herself leaning against Victor's body. She looked back quickly and saw the smile of a Maid with blond hair.
'Maria!' She complained with a glare, but the Maid just laughed and disappeared into the shadows.
"…Better, right?" Victor smiled gently.
"Mm." Mizuki just nodded with an embarrassed look and leaned her body against Victor's. Now that she was here... She might as well stay, right?
'God, why am I acting like a virgin girl? I have more than-... Nevermind.' Mizuki didn't want to remember her age right now.
An age that would be nothing by Vampire standards, but by human standards, she could already have great-great-grandchildren. Still, luckily thanks to a set of factors, time hadn't affected her body yet, and thanks to recent events that had Mizuki fully regain her peak condition, she would live for quite some time.
A few comfortable yet embarrassing minutes for Mizuki passed until she couldn't take it anymore and asked in curiosity:
"... Aren't you upset that your father wants more women?"
"Are you sure some Youkai cat is not possessing you? Why the sudden burst in curiosity?" Victor chuckled, that was a sight he hadn't seen yet from Mizuki, and it's worth mentioning that he wasn't hating it.
"… Just answer me." She demanded as she did her best to ignore the heady scent of his body.
"Hmm, I don't particularly mind. My parents are adults, and it's not up to children to meddle in their parents' love life."
"…Unexpected, I thought you wouldn't like it… That's quite mature of you."
Victor rolled his eyes, "Mentally speaking, I am over 1800 years old, Mizuki."
"Although most of my memories are of being sick in bed, that doesn't change that fact."
Mizuki hugged Victor a little tighter. She had forgotten about that fact, the fact that Victor had all of Adonis' life experience.
"I've witnessed 1800 years, and I know what time does to people."
"And I am not naive enough to believe that my parents will remain faithful to each other as time passes. They are not like my Wives, who are already Supernatural Beings."
"They are not like me, who have the memories of a Supernatural Being, and have a deep obsession and love for my Wives."
"They're just normal humans. Eccentric? Yes, but still normal. As time passes, they are bound to change... Especially now that they will act more upon their desires."
Victor decided not to comment on the fact that if his father hurt his mother, he wouldn't sit still. He loved his parents very much, but his love for his mother was even greater than his love for his father. He wouldn't be able to handle seeing her hurt by his father's foolish mistakes.
'The saying a mother's love is priceless' fits well here. Victor is, after all, a mama's boy at the end of the day.
"Something similar can happen to the girls and me too, but my tolerance and that of my Wives for it is higher. After all, 'we' were raised in this society..."
"But... I won't let these feelings die. Most couple breakups in the modern world are because the couple is not invested in their relationship and because the man can't satisfy his wife, and providing satisfaction to my Wives is not something I am lacking in. I will do everything for them; I'll invest my all into my relationships. I will become the monster in bed; I will make each of them as crazy and obsessed with me as I am with them."
"The flow of time will not take my Wives away from me… Never."
The last word came out in a sound so possessive and heavy that it sent chills through Mizuki's entire existence. She felt fear... Afraid of that heavy feeling, afraid that underneath all that kindness, there was a monster that would do anything to keep a woman's love and obsession by his side for eternity, but at the same time, she felt jealous of women who had someone willing to do anything for them.
'I must be out of my mind. How did I think this was such an attractive idea?' Mizuki shook her head inwardly. Living around crazy people was making her sanity go down the drain too.
"It seems that fusing with Adonis had some side effects..." Mizuki joked.
"Believe it or not, I've always been like this…."
"The memories of Adonis just gave me the patience to nurture those feelings in girls and the experience of knowing when to act and when not to act. He was the man who came closest to understanding the creatures called women, after all." Victor chuckled in amusement.
"Whoaa, you are openly saying that you are shaping all the women you like to act as crazy as Violet."
"Indeed." Victor did not deny her words.
Mizuki was left speechless by his blatant acceptance.
'This man has problems... Does he really like the crazy, psychopathic, sociopathic, obsessive type of woman like Violet? He loves it so much that he's willing to create more of these types for himself!?'
Okay, Mizuki might have gone a bit overboard with the adjectives for women, but she was speechless. She couldn't tell if the man was crazy or very brave. Just thinking about the future problems that these types of 'special women' could cause made her shiver a little.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"I'm telling you this because you're indecisive, Mizuki."
"..."
"The moment you fall into my clutches, I will never let you go. Not even death will make you part with me."
Mizuki had to admit that those words had a certain charm to them.
'No! Bad Mizuki! Don't be lured by those words! Don't you realize the kind of trap you're stepping into!?'
As if answering her inner question, Victor said:
"Because of that, I'm letting you know what hole you're getting yourself into because once you're in, you can't get out."
'Is this some secret organization or something!? Why is he acting like this!?' Mizuki was holding back so hard not to react to his every word.
'He's reacting like he knows what I'm feeling-... Oh.'
Mizuki remembered Victor's ability:
"... Haha, sometimes I hate how you can feel emotions. It's unfair."
"Hate and Love are two sides of the same coin. The Goddess of Love can also feel the Hate that is born from Love... Even if what you feel is not considered 'love' yet, the feeling of 'Like' is linked to the early stages of Love."
"Vic, I don't hate you."
"Yes, I know. You don't hate me. But you hate what I am."
Mizuki just lowered her head, ashamed. She didn't have the words to refute that statement; after all, it was true.
A few minutes pass in this strange silence until Victor opened his mouth:
"Resentment is a cruel poison."
"...."
"It lodges in the deepest corners of the Soul and will slowly erode it, leaving it rotten."
"One day, you'll have to face it, Mizuki. You can't hide forever."
Mizuki clenched her fist tightly, and she gritted her teeth. Anger took over her entire body language, but even seeing this, Victor remained calm.
And even though he wasn't stroking her head, as she always saw him do with the other girls, his very presence brought her out of these angry thoughts.
She opened her hands and took a deep breath. Her whole body language became more relaxed... More tired. It was as if she had fought a very exhausting battle.
"Not today, Vic... Not today." Her tone was heavy, indicating she didn't want to discuss it further.
"Mm, just know I'll always be here. Don't try to face it alone."
"... Thanks." Mizuki thought the conversation was over, but she definitely wasn't expecting Victor's following words:
"Vengeance has already been taken, but the past must be faced head-on, or you won't have a future... Just know that even though Vampires caused that incident, you shouldn't blame an entire Race for it."
Mizuki visibly froze when she heard what Victor said. She completely forgot to breathe, and only one thought crossed her mind at this moment:
"Y-You... Do you know?" Vocalizing her thoughts aloud, she waited for Victor's response that came right away:
"The Snow Clan keeps a register of all Vampires Nobles who once came into contact with them... And they catalog the endings of those same Noble Vampires when they meet their end. That way, we keep the Noble Vampires on the lookout."
"Such is the size of the Snow Clan's influence."
"...Victor, you didn't answer my question," she growled.
Victor closed his eyes for a few seconds and opened them again as he looked into Mizuki's eyes.
"Yes, I know."
Mizuki didn't think that just a few words could make her whole body cringe in horror.
Absolute horror appeared on Mizuki's expression, her eyes became lifeless, but they weren't the same eyes that Victor's Wives had. Instead, it was a look of despair.
Her body visibly sprawled, and unpleasant memories began to resurface in her head.
'He knows about it... He knows about what I did... What I had to do...' She couldn't understand. She thought she had hidden this incident very well.
She thought she had destroyed all traces of her past.
But was the Snow Clan so influential that they could archive the events of that place?
"Mizuki," Victor spoke in a firm tone that contained an authority that didn't allow for refusal or inattention but, at the same time, carried a gentleness that filled Mizuki and brought her back to reality.
"Everything is fine."
"… Aren't you disgusted?" Her voice held so much pain that it broke Victor's heart, but he remained neutral, kind, and honest. Mizuki didn't want his pity, and neither did he want to give it to her. He just wanted her to get over these unpleasant memories.
"... It's not a sin to want to survive, Mizuki. This is the basic instinct of any living being... And you were just a child; you had no control over your situation."
"You don't-."
"I do not feel disgusted, Mizuki."
"....."
"If it were me before, I would have felt something similar, but… Mass genocide, committing the worst tortures, and 1800-year-old memories of an Elder Vampire who did horrible things for the Snow Clan changes a being whether it wants to or not."
Mizuki remembered the events when Victor attacked the squad in the Human World and the incident in Japan.
Mizuki finally remembered who was in front of her. She had forgotten because she'd gotten so used to seeing him acting with his family. The man in front of her was responsible for killing more than 50% of the population of Supernatural Beings in a country.
Regardless of his reasons, many people see him as a monster.
What she did... What she was forced to do in the past to survive was cute compared to the actions of the man she was embracing now.
To be honest, she was a little happy that this monster was the one to find out about her past because she knew he'd never judge her for what she'd done.
She felt relieved that she was in this monster's arms; after all, she was one too.
'A monster must walk among his fellows...'
Mizuki displayed a small empty smile and hugged Victor tighter:
"Thanks, Victor… Thanks for being here." She closed her eyes and laid her head on his chest.
"Mm."
...
2 hours later.
Victor was looking at his father, who looked thinner and had more skeletal-like features on his face. He looked like a man who was suffering from malnutrition. He looked at his mother, who had a dissatisfied frown on her face and a dangerous glint in her eyes which she occasionally directed at Leon.
'Well... He faced and fought a 'succubus', and survived...' Victor wondered if he would look the same when Aphrodite got her hands on him. [Something the two were avoiding right now due to the situation of the world and due to lack of time.] After all, they knew that when it started, the fight would be long… Very long.
Victor didn't need to be a master of body language to know what happened. They went to do night activities, but his father likely couldn't handle his mother's impulses and left her unsatisfied.
Victor was going to make a sarcastic comment or say something, but... He decided not to touch that landline. After all, he had nothing to do with it.
Victor was a good boy, and a good boy didn't meddle in his parent's love life.
"Vic?" Mizuki muttered.
"Hmm? Oh… Anyway, let's continue the procedure." Victor looked seriously at his parents and continued...
.....
