Chapter 994: Time changes everything, even gods.
Some scholars say that our future selves are formed by experiences from the past, and they're not wrong. Looking at the man in front of him, Victor can't help but think of his past.
A very distant time [for him], counting his existence living, Victor may be much older than 2700 years.
That's not even taking into account the countless memories of different beings in his mind. Faced with this sea of memories, his days as a human seem like mere blurs, a mirage of the past.
But as much as his time as a human is a very long and distant memory, some of these memories will always remain with him; after all, his draconic brain doesn't let him forget... Wrong, his soul doesn't let him forget.
For example, the day he became friends with Andrew, Edward, Leona, and Fred will never be forgotten. The day his father taught him to be a real man will never be forgotten, even though he taught him little compared to his mother, who was always there advising him in everything.
The lessons he gave were very valuable; with that in mind, Victor doesn't want to leave a bad taste in this relationship; he respects Leon and will continue to respect him until the day he does something to break his respect.
It's these thoughts that lead Victor to use all his communication skills to dictate the conversation.
"Leon, what happened has no excuses. There is no right or wrong in this, only actions and consequences. Yes, due to things like instinct, desires, feelings, and other factors, things happened as they happened."
"There are no excuses? Victor, you stole my-"
"Stop." Anna intervened for the first time. "Do not continue with those words."
Anna narrowed her eyes. "We will keep this conversation civilized. First, I am not your property, Leon."
Anna raised the second finger. "Secondly, you cannot demand anything from me when you fell into the same 'trap' as I did."
Leon squirmed.
"Do you remember the first thing you did when you turned into a noble vampire?"
"... I..."
"If you don't remember, I'll remind you; you began to desire other women and started seeking them in secret."
"The only reason you didn't look at Victor's wives is because you were afraid of his reaction, after all, Victor was always watching."
Leon fell silent.
"Again, I'm not pointing fingers or trying to blame anyone; it just happened. There is no right or wrong in this, only the consequences of actions."
"As a male vampire, your desire was for other women. As a female vampire, my desire was for my 'creator'."
"That's just how things are... After training with our respective masters, we managed to suppress that desire and act civilized, but since the day Victor called attention to us, our relationship was already over, you and I know that."
"We just didn't talk about it because of the other things happening around us."
"Haah... I wish I had rejected Victor's offer and remained human."
Victor didn't react to Leon's words; he remained as he was because even if he didn't use his numerous abilities, he could see that Leon himself didn't mean what he said now; he was lying.
Something that Anna also noticed, rolling her eyes, Anna spoke: "Don't lie to yourself. Because I won't. I don't regret ceasing to be human."
"Having this..." An orange sphere of pure power was created in Anna's hand; this sphere was the result of Anna using only her draconic powers to fuel the reality in which she is holding a hydrogen bomb in her hand, a bomb that she can increase even more in power. "Power."
"It's something I would never regret."
NOBODY likes to be weak. If there were a being who claimed they would prefer to remain a mere weak human and not become something more powerful like a dragon, a werewolf, or a vampire, that human would be lying.
Perhaps the reason for not accepting power would be because they didn't want to be bound to anyone, or because they were too proud, but undoubtedly the problem wasn't the 'power' itself, but the human's own personality.
No one would reject power; Anna would be hypocritical with herself if she said she would prefer to remain as a weak human and not the powerful dragoness she is now.
And Anna couldn't be that; one of the deities she is awakening is the <True> after all.
"And you are the same. You don't regret it. Don't lie in front of us because it won't work."
Leon remained silent as he stared at Anna for a long time until he sighed. "You are correct... I don't regret it. This power is intoxicating."
"Time changes everything, even for us powerful beings. I would be foolish not to recognize that... As I once was," Victor spoke, drawing the attention of the two.
"I hoped that gaining this power, things wouldn't need to change for us, but I was naive. It was my selfish desire to offer this power to you, after all, I didn't want you to leave me."
"Darling..." Anna murmured with gentle eyes.
A word that unconsciously caused critical damage to Leon.
Victor couldn't bear to let his parents die a normal death when he has the ability to prevent it. He's not a hero or a very altruistic person who will follow someone else's will.
If his mother had said she preferred to die a human death, the moment she said that, he would have turned her into a noble vampire.
The same would happen with his father.
He prefers to have his mother and father hate him than see them die forever, and these thoughts haven't changed even in the future.
Victor's essence is possessive; the draconic race really suits him because he likes to have all his 'treasures' close to him so he can always take care of them and spoil them whenever possible.
While he is like this, he is also a warrior and at the same time a teacher who likes to see the development of others, something he may have inherited from Scathach, he supposes.
If it weren't for his other side, which is kind, a teacher, and a warrior, a long time ago, he would have locked his wives in a cellar known as his inner world and left them there so they wouldn't have to deal with anything.
But he didn't do that; he values his wives and family too much to do that, so he gives them the freedom to develop, but as a possessive man, he always keeps an eye on them and protects them from everything.
It's this essence of his, something that will never change; his future that is protecting the records is proof of that.
"Haah..." Leon let out a long sigh again. "I would be lying if I said I didn't expect this, after all, I know my ex-wife well enough."
"Just as I know you well enough." Anna turned her gaze to Leon. "And your 'wife'."
Leon shuddered. "You know."
"It surprises me that you think you can date one of our citizens, and I wouldn't know. Your position is quite important, you know?"
'Only who told... Oh, the women of the Blank Clan.' Leon felt like facepalming now.
All the female shadows working for Victor are completely loyal to their emperor; they are his eyes and ears, and the same goes for the men, but Leon knows very well that the women of the organization are even more loyal to Victor.
This is due to the fact that their wives, who are the leaders of the clans of these women, often give these women rewards that come from the emperor himself, such as his photos, some personal belongings that Victor doesn't mind disappearing.
In more extreme cases where these women do a good job, the wife herself will call the emperor to give them a 'more intimate reward.'
Leon has personally witnessed several testimonies of this.
Kaguya, who leads the shadows in Victor's absence, has often rewarded the girls of her own clan in this way.
Helena, who leads the demon realm in Victor's absence, practices the same act with the female population of the demons.
Tasha, who leads the werewolves, Haruna, who leads the Youkais, they were all no different.
The same applies to Valeria Alekerth, the high priestess of the blood god's religion, a woman who is the emperor's fanatical disciple.
No matter which woman you look at, if that woman is within the Emperor's sphere of influence, she will be completely loyal to him; they will be his eyes and ears.
In other words, they are all a bunch of fanatics who have dedicated their entire existence to their god. And this level of fanaticism was determined by how 'close' they are to the emperor.
'Honestly, it's foolishness on my part to even think they wouldn't know,' Leon thought of the vampire mistress he found in Nightingale.
The shadows that work directly under him are definitely among the most fanatical. Any small act, if considered betrayal by these observers, will be quickly reported to the proper authorities, and they will do it for anything, all to gain the slightest attention of the emperor.
To be honest, Leon finds all this madness, this level of fanaticism and loyalty, ridiculous, and to make matters worse, this type of loyalty can be found in men too.
'Not only women, I think my partners would also report me.' Honestly, you couldn't trust anyone if you intended to hide something important from Victor.
Yes, the fanaticism of men isn't as ridiculous as that of women, but it's definitely there; male demons and male vampires are the perfect example of this.
If Leon were to quantify the level of fanaticism in percentage, the women's level would be off the charts, while men's would be at 96%, with the remaining percentage focused on their own personal desires.
With some being off the charts, these being those who are very ambitious and want more power. Something more common among demons, noble vampires, and recently the gods who were enslaved, who are slowly coming out of slavery due to their contributions to society in general.
Honestly, it was incredible how so many beings could move perfectly because of the desires of a single being.
The fact that Leon doesn't fully understand the actions of the beings is because he doesn't fully understand what kind of position Victor holds in the supernatural world.
The fact that he is a God of negativity gives him supreme authority over ALL the gods who use concepts that feed on negative energy; with just this divinity, he could already be considered one of the most respected beings just for existing.
Him being a conqueror, along with several more divinities, and being the man who practically restored the earth to its purest state... The level of influence and respect they had for beings was off the charts.
Leon didn't understand this because he still saw him as 'his son,' not to mention that he didn't get involved much with the other divine factions.
The area he was dealing with was more focused on Nightingale, and occasionally Samar. His influence was very restricted, due to this and several other factors, he couldn't fully understand who Victor was to everyone else.
At this point of existence, Victor made his faction untouchable just by existing, and gained even greater faith from mortals due to his policy of; Hard work must be rewarded.
In Victor's society, as long as you strive, work hard to nurture your talents, and help society as a whole, you will be rewarded, no matter what kind of discovery it is. For humans, this is easier to understand, and works better for them.
His society is terrible for the lazy, but as long as you do your part, you will live well. Not to mention that Velnorah's 'Technocracy' provides all the basic necessities; you don't even need money to live with basic survival in the city of Velnorah, of course, other things require money.
Another very important fact is that... They now know where they will go when they die. In the minds of mortals, if they die, they will go to the Emperor's hell or to the celestial father's heaven. Life and death are no longer 'unknown'.
The reason for this is that on the entire planet Earth except for India, the most predominant religions are the religion of the blood god and the celestial father.
Being the religion of the blood god larger as it encompasses several other gods, Amaterasu from the Shinto pantheon is his wife, because of this, the title of Emperor God is not an exaggeration.
The religion of the blood god had to reformulate several times to add more 'gods' who are the 'subordinates' of the God Emperor.
Most of these new gods in the religion of the blood god are Victor's wives who have ascended to divinity. Eventually, Victor's own daughters will be added as well, forming a full-fledged pantheon where he is the creator of everything.
.....