Chapter 990: Doting Father.
You know that feeling when something is happening right in front of you, and you're not sure what it is even though you're using all your knowledge to figure it out?
That was the feeling Evie Moriarthy was experiencing now. She tried to focus her attention on Victor, which shouldn't have been difficult considering how visually striking he was, but the sight of three pairs of violet eyes with dragon horns watching her while smiling sweetly was very... unsettling.
The three little girls remained completely silent, choosing to stay out of the conversation, and although they had never opened their mouths from the beginning, Evie couldn't shake the feeling that they were conversing among themselves.
As they entered her chambers, she closed the door with magic, and she couldn't help but notice that at that moment the three kittens reacted by opening their eyes slightly in curiosity, as if she could see the magic, something that, considering their race, was not particularly difficult to understand.
And then, their reactions returned to the sweet, silent expression.
... Did she mention that from the beginning the three little girls were floating? They seem to not know the meaning of walking.
'Yes, something is definitely happening here, but I don't know what.' And just not knowing that was frustrating for Evie.
Evie sat on the sofa and pointed to the sofa in front of her. "Please, have a seat."
"Hmm." Victor simply approached and lightly touched the sofa as the entire sofa changed into something different, and much more comfortable than before, but that wasn't the important feature Evie noticed; the entire sofa was composed of divine material, making it much more resistant than before.
'Why did he do that?' She wondered, but this curiosity was soon satisfied when the three little girls sat on the sofa, and the sofa visibly creaked.
'... Right, dragons in their humanoid forms still retain all their weight from their dragon form.' Evie now understood the reason for the change.
Next, Victor sat down, but unlike the three little girls, no noise was made, proving his visible control over his own body to Evie.
'Being an older dragon, he should be much heavier than his daughters, and yet nothing was heard as if he had no weight at all.' That was Evie's reasoning.
While Evie was thinking about these things, the three little girls continued to look at her as if they were observing something very interesting.
"I think introductions are necessary," Victor said politely, placing his hand on the girl with white hair.
"Her name is Valentina Victoria Elderblood, my daughter with Violet."
The little girl just smiled slightly as she felt Victor's caresses on her head.
Then, he moved to the girl with golden hair. "Her name is Silvia Elderblood, my daughter with Sasha."
Like her sister, the little girl smiled as she felt the caresses on her head.
Victor placed his hand on the exceptionally red hair of the little girl and said, "Her name is Rosemary Lavina Elderblood, my daughter with Ruby."
"Girls, say hello to Evie Moriarthy, the queen of witches."
"Hello," the three responded in unison.
While outwardly communicating telepathically with each other.
"[Lavina, did you see that strange energy?]" Silvia asked.
[Yes, it seems to be connected to the woman, but it's coming from elsewhere... Although it's not as strong as ours.] Lavina spoke.
[That's what our mothers call Magic, it's an inferior energy, but quite useful for various things.] Valentina said.
[Oh... It's that thing Aunt Albedo uses.] Silvia remembered.
[Yes, she also blessed our father with the ability to use that energy, although it's not necessary now considering what we are.] Valentina continued.
[... Hmm, do you think she's a potential mother?] Lavina asked curiously.
Valentina and Silvia's eyes darkened slightly at those words.
[I doubt it, our beloved father has stopped pursuing women for his harem. Unless it's someone he really likes, like Aunt Hela, I doubt he'll do that.] Valentina dismissed this possibility.
[Hmm, but she seems very competent, right? After all, she's a queen.] Lavina said.
[That... is possible.] Valentina replied a little hesitantly, as probably the only one who read Evie's records before coming to this place, she knows very well how 'competent' she is.
[Maybe a 50% chance of that becoming reality... But I highly doubt it considering there's Aunt Albedo, Aunt Dun Scaith, and Aunt Kali around whom our beloved father seems more interested in, not to mention Aunt Albedo helped our father further develop magic, probably our future mother will come from these three women... To my personal dismay.] Valentina spoke.
[Valentina, your thoughts were leaking...] Silvia commented.
[Shit.]
[Although I agree with you.] Silvia nodded.
[Look, her brain is rebooting; it seems she's very shocked, let's stay silent again.] Lavina spoke.
Evie's brain kind of started rebooting when the introductions were made, and it was at that moment that her magic sensed something coming from the girls.
"They are goddesses...?"
Lavina narrowed her eyes slightly. [We are not just humble goddesses. We have our father's blood; we are super goddesses!]
[Super dragon goddesses!] Silvia shouted through the telepathic link.
"Goddesses of dragons to be more precise, but yes. You're not wrong." Victor nodded.
"... Just what have you been doing all these years," Evie asked with a persistent sense of disbelief.
"A few things, working, training, enjoying peace, and developing. You know, all those things beings do when they are at peace."
[Does working like rabbits count as work too?] Valentina spoke through the telepathic link, and she shivered slightly when she felt her father's gaze on her small body.
[Valentina, stop with these indecent thoughts! Our beloved father will scold us! You know that nothing escapes his eyes!] Silvia shouted internally when she saw Victor's gaze.
[Ugh.]
"... Compared to your relative peace, all my people have had in these two years was anything but peace. Well, at least the Norse stopped bothering us when they were defeated by Hela."
"In contrast, the Hindu pantheon is more active than before, at least they're maintaining the appearance of negotiation for now."
"I presume that was the reason you summoned me."
"Yes..." Evie sighed. "Over time, I found myself unable to handle the pressure from so many sides... On one side, we have an entire unknown civilization ready to strike, and on this side, we have the gods wanting access to the portal."
"Hmm~" Victor simply smiled faintly as he gestured with his hand, creating three juice cups and handing them to the girls. Grape juice for Valentina, acerola juice for Rosemary, and orange juice for Silvia.
[Delicious!] The three said simultaneously.
[Haah~, when our father smiles, he always looks more handsome! I should have brought the hidden 26k camera to add to my collection.] Valentina sighed.
[Indeed, I really want to steal Mother Violet's and Mother Anna's collections, they have the rarest photos.] Lavina commented.
"So, what's the real reason?" Victor asked.
"What are you talking about...?" Evie pretended to be clueless."Please, are we going to play this game now?" Victor asked with an amused smile, a smile that sent a slight shiver down Evie's spine. "Did you forget who's in front of you now?"
[Here it is! Here it is! The dominant side showing up! Turn on the cameras, Valentina!] Silvia shouted.
[I didn't bring the cameras! Did you forget I said so!?] Valentina shouted back.
[Goddammit Valentina!]
[We can use Aunt Albedo's magic to turn our memories into videos! So just keep watching! Don't miss anything!] Lavina said.
[Ohhh! I forgot about that fact!] Valentina and Silvia spoke simultaneously.
"... Right... The man who consumed Diablo, whose essence I interacted with the most and deciphered my personality."
"Even without Diablo's memories, any kind of falsehood and deception doesn't work in front of me. From the moment you started talking about your situation, every sentence was mixed with lies and truths."
Evie remained silent.
"Very well, since you want to play this game. Let's simplify things." Victor snapped his fingers, and an image appeared in front of Evie, an image that made her dangerously narrow her eyes.
In the image was her daughter Emily lying in bed looking quite sick.
"You would never call me to deal with the gods, you're too stubborn for that, you would only do that when you're 100% sure you're going to lose. The only reason you called me offering your country is because your daughter has acquired a mysterious illness... A mysterious illness of divine origin."
"Who did this? You wonder. The Norse? The Aztecs? Or the recent faction that is growing under the leadership of Shiva?"
"Perhaps the beings on the other side of the gate?"
"You forgot to point out your own faction." Evie pointed out.
[Humpf, we don't need such indirect means to destroy your weak faction, who does she think we are?] Valentina scoffed.
[The weakest of Dragonoids from our faction can completely devastate this place, and we're not even counting on our mothers and our beloved father!] Silvia scoffed.
[We don't even need to use our Dragonoids, just use our orbital cannon, and voilà, this place disappears from the map.] Lavina scoffed.
"Hey, that's not efficient, we need to conquer everything and take everything that's useful," Silvia pointed out.
"Why do we need to do that? Our father can create anything," Lavina said.
"I'm talking about people issues, for example, the queen is very competent, she would help Mother Velnorah, Mother Ruby, and Mother Aline very well," Silvia said.
"Oh, that's true... My bad, I forgot about that... But in my defense, she mildly irritated me," Lavina said.
"Well, that's fair. After all, temperament has always been the issue of our race," Valentina reflected.
"Please, not even you believe in that possibility," Victor rolled his eyes as the image in front of him disappeared.
"Believe me, my dear teacher who never taught me anything very useful... If I wanted Arcane, nothing could stop me from having this country for myself."
The way he spoke in an excessively sweet tone, very gentle, and full of false respect and at the same time threatening was very disorienting and scary for Evie.
[Ughyaaaa, Father so cool!] Lavina, Silvia, and Valentina shouted at the same time.
"Instead of seeking to conquer us, you expect me to come to you for help so you can have the whole country without any kind of fuss," Evie spoke while trying her best to ignore the gleam in the eyes of the three little girls and focus on Victor.
"My dear, I am a Tyrant, the thoughts of others do not matter when you have as much power as I do at your disposal."
"Right now, if I wanted to, I could kill you and revive you in a completely new being, and you would never know... But where would be the fun in that?"
Evie felt her heart squeeze at what she heard from Victor because she didn't doubt his capabilities to do so, if everything Victor showed during his rise was that the man was very competent.
"There is beauty in simplicity as I understand more about creation, and the more power I gain, this thought becomes more visible to me."
An uncomfortable silence fell over the place, and all that was heard was the sound of juice being sucked through the straws of the three little girls, juice that seemed to never end, despite visibly drinking the juice, the contents of the cup did not decrease.
Out of curiosity, Evie analyzed the cup, and she swallowed dryly when she saw that that simple glass was a divine artifact that infinitely replicated everything that entered it.
How many expensive potions could she make with that and earn tons of money was inconceivable, and these three little girls were using it to drink simple fruit juice...
'I guess money doesn't matter to someone who can literally create money as much as they want.' Evie thought, and then sighed.
"Can you help my daughter?"
"Yes, it's quite easy for me."
"... What do you want in return?"
"Everything."
Evie fell silent again; she would lie if she said she didn't expect something like this, after all, she was dealing with a tyrant, and a tyrant wouldn't be satisfied until he had everything. All her effort, all her sweat, all her achievements, even her body and soul... Is it worth trading all that for her daughter?
Her memory returned to her only biological daughter, although she loved her other daughters very much, the reality was that blood is thicker than everything in this world, she would do anything for her daughter... So, yes. It's worth it.
Evie sighed again. "Can you please help my daughter?"
Victor's smile widened. "I was waiting for those words, my dear teacher."
Evie snorted at the title of teacher; he was clearly just using it to provoke her.
Victor snapped his fingers, and as he spoke. "It's done."
"... It's done? Just like that?"
"Yeah, just like that."
Evie used her magic to check on her daughter's condition... And indeed, whatever she had, she was completely cured... Just with a snap of fingers.
Victor's existence seemed to mock all her efforts in researching and acquiring magic, but now she wasn't complaining about it, after all, because of him, her daughter was well.
She took a deep breath, sighing afterward, letting go of all her worries with this simple gesture, she fell silent for a few seconds as her brain tried to rearrange her priorities.
Now that she had practically sold herself for the sake of her daughter, she needed to find the one responsible for all this mess.
Her eyes gleamed with a dark promise of revenge. "... Who harmed my daughter? Can you tell me?"
"Don't worry, my heralds have been activated, soon you'll have the culprit in your hands," Victor said.
"... Right... Of course he is." Evie forgot how efficient Victor could be when dealing with things.
"And then... what happens now?" She asked not knowing what to do, should she serve him or something? Right here? In front of his daughters!?
Evie made an effort to erase that mental image from her head and waited for his response.
[This woman... She looks just like Mother Natashia when she's thinking something inappropriate.] Silvia narrowed her eyes.
[Ignore her, it's our beloved father's presence that's too bright for a simple witch like her.] Valentina scoffed.
[Right...] Silvia said, but still kept an eye on Evie.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, do I need to do something? Like prove myself competent or something...?
"You don't need to do anything, after all, you already belong to me."
The way he said that made her blush slightly in embarrassment, but she didn't disagree, after all, she sold herself here. 'How ironic, the witch who used to buy everything with money in the past, ended up selling herself in the future.'
"The only thing you should do now is work as my personal witch... Just like your mother."
"... Eh?"
Victor didn't say anything else, he just snapped his fingers again, and all of Arcane was covered by a thin veil of energy, and the next moment, the entire kingdom disappeared, and appeared in another place. Specifically, in the city ruled by Velnorah.
Honestly, Victor didn't need to snap his fingers to do this, but this way it's more feasible for the people around him to know that he did something.
Evie opened her eyes widely in the face of the absurdity she was feeling intensely through her magic. "You... You took my entire country, and transported it somewhere."
"There's nowhere, my dear... This is a very special place... A technocracy ruled by my wife Velnorah, the place where you and the witches will live from now on."
"... Just like you bypassed all my defenses..."
Victor clasped his hands together and opens them while a rainbow forms: "Magic."
Evie felt an immense urge to hex this man right now, but she didn't, because she knew it would only backfire on her in a very bad way.
Two space distortions appear, and a tall woman with long blue hair and a woman with white hair appear.
"Aya, it seems my beloved daughter couldn't resist, fufufu~."
"Mother...!" Remembering Victor's previous words, she realized where her mother had been all this time: "Of all places, you've been here from the beginning!?"
"Of course, I can't stay away when such an interesting city is being created."
"You B----." Their words were censored by Victor.
"No bad words around my daughters, okay?" He smiled 'sweetly' at Evie.
"... Okay." She nodded stiffly.
"Fufufufu~. You've been scolded like a little child, hahahah ~"
Veins popped on Evie's head; this irresponsible woman never tried to help her people in need and constantly ignored her calls. It was very irritating to know that her mother Albedo was enjoying all the privileges here while she suffered.
"Darling."
"Velnorah, I leave everything here to you."
"And about the portal...?"
"Let's treat it as an experiment for my wives' future conquests... For now, just seal the portal and take care of the witches."
Another distortion occurs, and a herald appears along with a goddess of poison and a god of curses.
"Here is your gift, Evie. Enjoy."
"They're the ones responsible?" She asked.
"Isn't that obvious?" Victor said.
"Celtic gods... They were my best bet since some of them are experts in this type of attack, but there were so many possibilities that it was hard to ignore the others."
"Sometimes, the answers were right in front of us all along; we just didn't know it." Victor spoke as Albedo nodded.
"... Take care of them, Velnorah, I'm sure you know what to do."
"Yes, Darling."
"Where is my daughter?" Victor asked, as the only mother present, it was obvious he was referring to his daughter with Velnorah.
"She is studying."
"Hmm, just don't force her to do anything she doesn't want to, she is still very young."
"... You spoil our daughters too much, Darling." Velnorah sighed.
"Maybe." Victor laughed as he stroked the heads of Valentina, Silvia, and Lavina, who smiled widely when they felt their father's caresses. "But in my defense, they are my little treasures."
"Hehehehe~"
That's why they loved their father! He's the best! Unlike their 'boring' mothers, their father spoils them completely!
Velnorah just sighed again; fortunately, despite Victor spoiling his daughters as a doting father, when he needs to be strict, he takes on the role very well... Although in most cases, it's the mothers who are responsible for educating the girls.
.....