Chapter 291: Changes are not always welcome, but they are necessary.
Agnes opened her eyes.
She saw a familiar ceiling, her head was confused, and she didn't remember when she went to sleep.
"Darlin-..." She rolled over in bed and touched the part where Adonis should've been...
But he wasn't there.
"Darling..." Agnes's chest tightened tightly, and she felt a sense of loss in her heart.
She finally remembered what happened, her eyes filled with tears, and her only thought was:
"Why... Why... Why did you do this to me..."
Crystalline tears started to stain the pillow Agnes was on, her feelings were confused.
She understood why Adonis had done this. She saw Victor's memory, and everything the two talked about in secret.
She knew he would rather die for Victor than have his soul stolen by Persephone.
"...Persephone..." Her eyes narrowed as they became lifeless.
As tears fell from her beautiful golden eyes, a feeling of emptiness filled her heart, and along with that feeling.
Hatred...
She gripped the part of the cushion where Adonis used to sleep, and with sheer force, the mattress was ripped.
'Persephone…' It was all her fault… Everything…
Step, Step, Step.
Agnes suddenly began to hear footsteps near her room.
"Ugh, so many floors. Why does he need all these documents? What is that man thinking?" A woman's voice was heard, and Agnes knew that voice very well.
That voice was Yuki's.
"Shhh, don't ask, just do your homework. Didn't you see what that man did?" Another Maid said.
"How could I not have seen? That horrible scene is in the middle of our city." Yuki rolled her eyes.
"But even though he acted like that, he's a good person." Yuki displayed a gentle smile.
"Woman, are you blind?" The woman commented coldly.
"...Wha-."
"What kind of good person drives a member of our clan to the stake and leaves him burning in the town square for all to see?" The Snow Clan maid commented coldly, she appeared to be a younger Maid.
"That is the most effective method, that man was a traitor." Yuki replied in the same tone of voice.
"Even if he's a traitor, he doesn't deserve to have that kind of treatment."
"So traitors should be treated kindly? Should they be treated like royalty?"
"...That's not what I'm saying, I'm saying he doesn't deserve that kind of treatment." The maid seemed to back off a bit when she heard what Yuki asked:
"For example?"
"To be instantly burned like Lady Agnes does? Or be arrested?"
Yuki snorted and then turned around, "...If he did that, he wouldn't be able to get the message across." She started walking towards a location.
"... What message?" the maid asked curiously.
"Don't mess with the Snow Clan."
"But… This is still excessive."
"Just how many of our members died yesterday?"
Yuki narrowed her eyes, "...Don't be naive, don't you hear what Countess Agnes always says?" And she turned to face the younger Maid.
"...Traitors are not to be forgiven." The younger Maid spoke up.
"So you remember." She flashed a small smile.
"..." The Maid was silent and nodded in agreement.
Yuki was definitely not a cruel person, but her attitude seemed to be cruel because she was very loyal to the Snow Clan.
And because vampire society as a whole was cruel.
To the younger vampires, that demonstration that Victor made was very cruel; it was something that no being should do to another being.
But for the older vampires? Vampires who were used to carnage?
This was a nostalgic sight, of course... Even though it was a nostalgic sight, having not seen it for a long time, the impact was equal to the newer vampires.
After all, they went a long time without conflict.
Couple that fact with the sight of the pile of bodies left by Victor.
They felt nauseous for a while.
Yuki kept flashing her smile, but inside she was thinking, 'That fool, doesn't she know that the Snow Clan is sensitive about this topic now? Why is she talking about it out loud?' She could already feel several eyes watching her from the shadows.
'If I didn't give a perfect answer like that, I could be accused of treason for no reason.'
"Come on, we need to get these papers." Yuki turned around and started walking.
"Yes." The younger maid obediently followed.
"... What is happening?" Agnes, who listened to the entire conversation in silence, spoke confused.
She got up from the bed. She didn't even bother to fix her hair or put on the fake glasses she always wore.
She wasn't in the mood for this.
Walking towards the door, Agnes looked at the door handle...
Several thoughts went through her head, and all those thoughts were going in a bad direction, but before doing anything, she decided to first check the state of her Clan.
She knew that before she went to sleep, she was walking around the mansion hunting traitors.
She touched the handle and opened the door.
The moment she opened the door, she heard footsteps again from her clan member.
"This man is cruel! How can he make us review all these documents!? We don't do that kind of work!"
"..." Agnes looked at the two Snow Clan men and recognized the two men as guards of the manor.
"Shut your mouth! And do your job! Do you want to end up like that body in the middle of the square?"
"Ugh…"
It must be said that what Victor did was quite effective...
Everyone was working hard and with a smile on their face... A smile of despair, no one wanted to end up like that man in the middle of the town square.
"..." Agnes decided to follow those two guards.
She closed the bedroom door, and walked through the halls.
As she walked through the halls, she felt a familiar sensation as she realized that the way she was going was where Adonis always went when he worked.
Badump.
Seeing the two guards entering the office that was used by Adonis.
badump, Badump.
Her heart began to beat frantically, and a small sense of hope grew inside her.
She walked towards the door and slowly opened it, as she started spying on what was going on inside.
And that's when she saw a man with long black hair that flowed like silk, violet eyes, and with an unearthly beauty.
He was looking at various documents with a neutral gaze.
'Adonis-...' For a moment, the image of the man seemed to be replaced by Adonis, but slowly that hope was destroyed.
"What a mess. What was Agnes doing? How did she not notice that?" He complained in an emotionless neutral tone.
"Money embezzlement, Clan members using money for useless things, and to make matters worse… This ridiculous spending by my wife Violet." Victor touched his brow in frustration.
'Just what kind of being spent 190 million dollars on a fucking magic pen?'
'Magic pen my ass, this is just a fraud.'
"And you, Oda… Why do you spend 500 million dollars a year on booze? You can't even drink!"
"... It's for collection... Every Japanese man needs his Sake at home, you know?" The man turned his face away as he spoke.
"Oh...?" Veins started bulging through Victor's head.
'Isn't this man very shameless? He even looks like me.'
"I will confiscate it." He spoke coldly.
"Wha-."
"Kaguya, put these drinks on the human auction. We can try to get something out of it."
"Yes, Master." Kaguya disappeared into the shadows.
"WW-Wait, Master, you can't do this to me. How am I going to live from today!?"
"You can't even drink! Why are you acting like this?" Victor narrowed his eyes.
"What matters is the decoration! It is every man's dream to have his own Open Bar."
"….I will confiscate it." He spoke definitively.
"..." Oda opened his eyes in shock, and, seeing Victor's gaze, he realized that this was a decision he couldn't argue with.
Oda just walked towards a chair, and he felt like a boxer who had lost everything.
"...This is very cruel..." Some members of Clan Blank commented when they saw their leader's state.
"...Cut Violet's allowance, confiscate all the assets of the Clan members who were buying personal things with our money." Victor looked at some documents and then looked at the Snow Clan members, who were looking at him with a look of disbelief.
"What are you waiting for?" He narrowed his eyes.
"Do it."
The entire body of the Snow Clan members visibly trembled when they saw that violet gaze looking at them:
"Y-Yes!"
They ran towards the exit.
Agnes quickly leaned against the wall, and soon several members of the Snow Clan came through the door.
"Hilda." Victor took a document and showed the woman.
"…What happened at that meeting?"
Hilda looked at the document and saw that it was an official document of a supernatural meeting that took place in Japan. She remembered that some Youkai members wanted to visit Nightingale.
"…A Youkai tried to take Agnes to bed by force, Agnes got angry and burned the whole place down."
"The meeting was a failure, and the youkai became our enemy."
"Oh...?" Victor's violet eyes gleamed with a dangerous glint.
"What happened to this Youkai?"
"Last I saw him, he was on the brink of death… He must have recovered by now."
"What is this Yokai's Clan?"
"It's a Clan of spiders. I think they're called Arachne? Arcne? Arai? I don't know." She didn't bother to remember, since the Youkai had a lot of Clans, and few were relevant.
"...I see." Victor leaned his back on the chair as he rested his head on his hand and began to think:
"..." Seeing Victor's state, Hilda began to get a bad feeling.
"Put sanctions on youkai."
"…Eh?"
"As of today, by the decree of the Snow Clan, any supernatural who does business with youkai will completely lose access to the vampire market."
"....." Hilda opened her eyes in shock.
"You can not do that."
"Why?"
"You need authorization from Clan Snow, Fulger, and Scarlett to make those kinds of decisions."
"…Hilda, who am I?" Victor asked in a neutral tone.
"...The husband of-...Oh." Hilda finally understood.
"I'm also a vampire count, although my role is something completely outside of politics like Clan Adrastea."
"And even if I didn't have that influence, I could do that. Clan Snow is responsible for international and domestic politics, other Clans have no right to meddle in this matter."
"... That's true."
"Just do as I said, and in less than three days, these Youkai will offer this Spider Clan or whatever their name is on a golden platter to me." He flashed a small smile that sent shivers down Hilda's spine.
She started to think about the big picture, and she realized that he was right; the sanctions were not for the Youkai Clan but for the greediest beings in existence.
The witches…
It was common sense that witches were involved in all kinds of trade, and it was pretty obvious that they also had contacts with youkai.
By putting such strict sanctions on the Youkai, the witches would feel that a possible market door has been closed. After all, some Youkai sold exotic things that all supernatural beings loved.
Like the famous few virility medicines that are sold by Yuki Onnas, humans were their main buyers, and most of those buyers were wealthy people.
Even if Victor was doing this, he was sure the witches would not retaliate against the vampires.
After all, for witches, vampires were like a land of gold. After all, they were all rich, and it was common sense that if you had contact with vampires, witches would be heavily sponsored with resources.
For lower level witches who didn't have access to resources like higher level witches, losing this market to some low level clan was a big no.
Consequently, the younger witches who were in the majority would pressure the older witches to do something.
And these older witches, of course, wouldn't keep quiet, considering that even they have clients who were vampires, and because of that, they would try to fix this problem as quickly as possible.
And what solution would they come up with?
Sacrificing a small penniless Clan to the Snow Clan… Specifically speaking to Victor. By doing so, the whole problem would be solved, and they could go back to the trade they were in before.
Gulp.
Hilda swallowed hard, this ability to plan so far ahead... It was as if she was seeing Adonis at work and not Victor...
Seeing the smile on Victor's face, she understood something again.
'Wrong, it wasn't Adonis, but a mixture of the two beings...' She thought that because Adonis would never make that smile.
"Why are you going so far? It's like you're protective or something for Agnes." Hilda narrowed her eyes.
Victor stopped with his hands.
"Indeed… I wonder why?" Victor didn't say much, and Hilda understood that he didn't want to reveal anything.
Victor returned to work.
The moment Victor heard what happened to Agnes, he felt an overwhelming feeling of possession, jealousy, and anger.
Feelings he was familiar with, those kinds of feelings he only felt for his wives and, recently, Scathach and Natashia.
But... Unlike before, Victor knew that this feeling was influenced by Adonis' ritual with Agnes and Adonis himself that he'd absorbed. Because of that, he didn't comment on anything.
'I will protect her, as I promised... But I will never be your substitute.' That was something Victor swore to himself.
He wouldn't let himself be fooled by those feelings, he didn't want to be anyone's replacement.
Victor was Victor.
Adonis was Adonis.
They were two different beings that, because of certain unfortunate circumstances, Victor had to absorb Adonis to protect his soul.
It was just that, nothing more.
And Agnes, like Victor, knew that too... But knowing and accepting were two different things.
"...." Agnes looked down at her feet, her long white hair covering her entire face, her face filled with tears.
'Darling...' There were so many similarities, similarities that made her cry whenever she remembered he was no longer with her.
Hilda looked towards a location, she could feel her master in that place, and she could also imagine what state she was in now.
'... Sigh... This is complicated.'
"..." Victor looked at where Hilda was looking for a few seconds and then went back to looking at the papers.
'I will finish everything in two days, I will make the Snow Clan self-sustaining, and I will put Hilda in charge until Agnes can deal with it all again.'
'After that, I... I'll leave...'
badump, Badump.
'Ugh' He placed his hand on his chest as he felt his heart ache.
'Tsk.' Victor ignored the pain in his heart. It was the same pain he felt when he was away from his wives for a year and six months.
But this time, he ignored that pain.
He had no right to feel this pain.
'Being close to Agnes now is only harmful to the woman herself.' Victor understood that. Victor's presence was a constant reminder that Adonis was no longer alive.
And it hurt Agnes, so the best option now was to leave.
'...I can't leave her in that state either...' Victor needed someone to help calm Agnes down.
'Violet...' Amazingly, she was the best option.
'Despite their disagreements, the two know each other better than anyone, and they are mother and daughter.' Victor thought of a memory of child Violet and Agnes.
Despite having recalled this memory, he felt no paternal 'feelings', he made a point of erasing it during Adonis' absorption.
He didn't know what would happen to him even if he saw Violet as a daughter and not a wife.
"Hilda, I'm counting on you."
"...?" Hilda looked at Victor, and when she remembered his orders, she said, "Yes, I will prepare everything." Then, she walked towards the exit.
"Thanks." Victor nodded and went back to digging through the documents for irregularities.