Chapter 992: The Talk.
If Leon were to say he hadn't expected this situation, he would be lying. He knew his wife... Or ex-wife now, too well.
That look she had shown Victor when they turned into noble vampires, it was the same look he had seen in the past when she looked at him, with the only difference being that the gaze was more intense and predatory... More animalistic.
Despite seeming strange in the context of that time as newly-turned humans. Now, he understood more about the supernatural world to know that this was more normal than it seemed. Noble vampires, werewolves, Youkais, demons, angels, ghosts, gods, evil spirits.
As always, the best example would be the gods, with the strongest example being the Greeks, especially the lineage of Cronos that continued with his son Zeus, and Poseidon, two gods who couldn't see a man or woman without already having bad intentions towards them, whether that man or woman was their family or not.
Although the gods were the most practical and extreme examples, the union between relatives was not uncommon and even happened in large factions like noble vampires, werewolves, and even some great Youkai Clans.
Such a thing did not happen among the pure angels because they are essentially divine creations; their 'reproduction' is done through their god who creates new angels.
So, yes. He expected this situation, he's not stupid... But he didn't expect to see Anna's representation in the form of a child walking around the city of Nightingale.
Standing in front of the child, the little girl looked at him and spoke. "Oh... One of father's shadows..."
"They found me too quickly! It only took 5 minutes! How did this happen? I'm sure I used my powers?" She muttered very quietly although with everyone's strong senses here, her words were very loud and clear.
Leon's mission should have been simple, locate his 'Boss's' daughter, and once that was done, one of the wives would appear, an order he's sure wasn't given by Victor.
Because as overprotective as he is, he would look for the little girl himself. He wouldn't send someone else to do this job for him, so this mission must have been casually given by some of his wives, the most likely being Violet, Sasha, or Ruby; the three wives had more involvement in leading the whole group along with Aphrodite, Velnorah, Kaguya, Eleonor, and Scathach.
These thoughts were confirmed when Kaguya appeared shortly after Victor's daughter, who could be considered his granddaughter, was spotted.
"Is she really my blood granddaughter?... Wait, considering that I was reborn from my son's blood. Is she like a sister to me?" To be honest, he didn't know, supernatural things tended to be complicated the more you thought about it, so he avoided thinking.
"Geh, Mother Kaguya... Why am I always getting the strictest mothers? Where's Mother Pepper when you need her?" She muttered at the end.
"Stella... You're really testing nerves this week, huh." Kaguya spoke harshly.
'Stella... Anna's grandmother's name.' Leon thought, and he remembered something from the past; he remembered that if Anna had a daughter, she would name the little girl Stella in honor of her grandmother who was like a mother to Anna, the great-grandmother that Victor never really knew.
"B-But, I wanted to explore! It's so boring at home."
"Missy, you literally have a whole world to explore, and plenty of entertainment there, how are you bored?"
"... Huuh... I... I... Oh, right. I wanted to see the place where the vampires came from!"
"You're quite capable of consistently lying, something incredible to think about considering who your parents are." Kaguya rolled her eyes.
"Ugh... I should have brought Yuno." Stella muttered. "With her here, I wonder how Mother Kaguya would react."
Kaguya shuddered slightly when she heard her daughter's name. Yuno Elderblood was a quiet, calm little girl, but anything involving her father, she tends to completely overreact. Honestly, if Yuno were here, Kaguya wouldn't be surprised if she found Nightingale's real capital in a sea of black flames just because she couldn't find her 'daddy'.
It's a miracle that Stella didn't involve Yuno in her mischief considering the two are practically inseparable.
"Thankfully, she seems to be entertained with her Maid lessons." Kaguya thought, just like her, her daughter had developed a certain taste for being a Maid, but in her case, it's more of a hobby because the clothes are pretty, not to mention that in her words, the only person she will serve if she really wants to become a Maid is her father.
As a princess and a dragon, she is very proud; she will not serve anyone but her father.
"Why do you only say you're looking for your father?" Kaguya sighed.
When Kaguya opened her mouth again to say something, she stopped when she heard Anna's voice in her head.
Stella stomped her foot on the ground angrily causing a small earthquake around. "Right, I'm looking for Father, he disappeared somewhere with those three troublemakers! And nobody is telling me where he went!"
When Kaguya opened her mouth again to say something, she stopped when she heard Anna's voice in her head.
[Girls, Darling is home.]
Those words put a smile on Kaguya's face, a smile that was noticed by Stella.
"... That smile, you only give that smile to Father, you got a message about him, right!? Tell me!" Stella practically jumped on Kaguya while holding her hands.
Kaguya huffed and delivered a karate chop to Stella's head causing a sonic boom around.
"UGH! MY HEAD!"
"Respect your mother, young lady, or more of those chops will await you. Who do you think you are to demand something from me?" Kaguya narrowed her eyes.
It may seem like she's overreacting, but she's not. For young true dragons, parents need to keep the reins, or the child will grow up spoiled and very proud, two qualities that can greatly harm their future.
Pride is good, but it can't be exaggerated because it will make the person blind, the good example of this is the gods thinking they are invincible until someone like Victor shows up and slaps each of them, leaving them quiet like obedient dogs in their punishment corner.
"And Yes, you are correct, your father is home."
The moment Stella heard those words, she stopped holding her head, her eyes shimmered with powerful violet, and in the next moment, she wasted no time and disappeared into Victor's personal world.
Kaguya sighed. "Troublesome children with even more troublesome powers."
The simple act Stella had just performed may have seemed like a simple teleport, but that perception was very wrong; she bent reality around her and practically tore apart space, forcing her entry into Victor's personal world.
She used the same method to exit his personal world because only the wives have the 'keys' to enter and exit Victor's personal world.
But Kaguya is sure that Victor intentionally let Stella do this; after all, his personal world is connected to his soul, he immediately knows who leaves and who enters, he is practically omniscient in his personal world.
Control freak as he is, he wouldn't leave his daughters unprotected; the proof of this was his herald floating nearby, an existence that only Kaguya could see because the herald allows it.
"You are dismissed. Thank you for your services, ladies and gentlemen."
"Yes!" The shadows disappeared, leaving only one behind.
Kaguya raised an eyebrow at that shadow, but when she saw with her own eyes who was behind the mask, she said nothing.
Leon removed the expressionless black mask, revealing his young, vibrant face.
"I need to speak with Victor," he said extremely seriously. "Can you arrange that?"
"... Yes, I can."
...
Victor, Leon, and Anna, once a family, now still family, but with different relationships. Time passes, and everything changes along with it.
Entering the supernatural world thinking you would never change was pure folly. In a world where gods and dragons live, mortal norms mean nothing.
Especially for beings like Victor, who not only deal with the insanity of beings as strong as him, but one of his daughters is an Eldritch Horror who only knows the concept of right and wrong because she respects Victor and does what he asks as her father. If it weren't for that, it was an absolute certainty that this world would be in chaos now due to the chaotic nature of Eldritch Horrors.
Leon and Anna looked at each other; while Leon felt a certain affection, this affection came with great indifference.
Even though 2000 years had passed in Victor's inner world, the girls didn't really feel 'much' passage of time, mainly because Victor refused to say how much time had passed, and he completely refused to set up equipment to monitor time.
So, for some girls who were mortal, they had the feeling that time had passed from 2 to 10 years. The reason for this feeling was their own daughters, who if it weren't for some abnormalities like Gina, all of them would have been children with 120 CM in height, children who would normally be between 7 to 10 years old.
But in reality, some of them may already be over 1000 years old, as in the case of Violet, Sasha, and Ruby's daughters.
Due to these various factors, most did not feel the passage of time; because of this, even as a true dragon, Anna still had her sensitivities from when she was human, but even by mortal standards, 10 years is a long time.
Especially for a dragon whose instincts and desires are much stronger and decisive than other species. Anna felt a familiarity with Leon, something like a friend she hadn't seen in a long time, but it was just that.
That's how she currently felt, but thanks to not completely losing her human sensitivities, she knew how to react here.
On the other hand, matters of time definitely affect a person, and that person was Victor, after all, he was in charge of everything. For him, 2000 years had passed, a long time, and at the same time, it wasn't. Considering he has memories of beings who lived millions of years in his head.
Such passage of time was both irrelevant and significant to him. Overall, he just faced this passage of time to rest and train his divinities and his nightmare form, as well as his martial arts that he hadn't touched for a few millennia. He was about to reach grandmaster at any moment, but it didn't move forward because he was training his other powers.
And more importantly, spending time with his beloved family. A family that extended to the man in front of him. Things may have changed, He may have changed, he may have completely lost his humanity, but some things in his origin don't change.
Eye for an eye. Tooth for a tooth. Blood for blood. A dogma that says, treat me well, and I will treat you well, treat me badly, and I will return that treatment 100 times worse.
He didn't always act like this, after all, he wasn't a machine, and a being truly following only his desires, but he never forgets it, because this kind of thinking was taught by the man in front of him.
Leon Walker taught him to be a man, and Victor respects him, so that will never change.
On the other hand, Leon was feeling quite oppressed, not by his feelings or anything like that, but by the mere presence of the two beings in front of him.
Even though they weren't doing anything, the feeling that he could die at any moment was persistent in his instincts.
A normal feeling considering he was in front of a reality bender, and a goddess of truth and reality, while the other was a chaos dragon, and at the same time an eldritch being.
The presence of the two was overwhelming even for the gods, let alone for a mortal.
Looking at Leon, Victor noticed the state he was in: "... Oh, I apologize for that, I forgot about this little detail."
The moment he spoke those words, that oppressive feeling significantly diminished, but it was still there, lurking, watching, and waiting for any mistake Leon might make.
At least, that was the feeling he had; he didn't know that this sensation was just something emanating naturally from Victor and Anna's bodies, after all, they were gods of the highest order.
Leon took a deep breath... And then spoke: "Just how much time has passed? When did Anna become a dragon?"
Victor and Anna exchanged glances for a few seconds as if they were having a mental conversation, then looked at Leon again. "Understood, I think explanations should be given."
"Considering that our activities are not reported to our subordinates, it's no wonder they are confused," Anna spoke.
Victor nodded; his subordinates had grown accustomed to the abrupt changes around him, so when an unreal situation occurred around them, they just shrugged and moved on, as was the case when Victor's daughters appeared.
They were extremely shocked but didn't care; after all, as long as their Emperor didn't command anything, nothing would be done.
This state was both good and bad. The good side was that no matter what Victor did, he would never be questioned by his subordinates, something that would be bad if he didn't have very competent wives.
The bad side was that his subordinates weren't keeping up with the pace at which he did things; at least in this aspect, Victor felt he needed to improve.
"At least, basic and essential information should be aware... Some basic information about the deities, and the powers of my daughters and wives." Victor, of course, wouldn't put everything in this report; he's not stupid; he knows that even with all his power, information can leak out in some weird way he's not yet aware of.
After all, this is the supernatural world; literally anything unimaginable can happen, so the less everyone knows about his wives and daughters, the better the peace of mind.
"Let's start from the beginning," Victor said, and began to explain to Leon what had happened, updating the man on the events around him.
.....