Chapter 466: Self-respect.
Chapter 466: Self-respect.
After a long silence between the two, Victor spoke:
"... How was your day?"
"Horrible."
Victor was a little shocked, he hadn't expected such a…honest answer.
"What happened?"
"The underworld is in chaos. For the first time in thousands of years, I've really needed to exercise my authority as Queen..." She sighed.
"The war, huh."
"...." Persephone opened her eyes a little, and looked at Victor.
"You know it?"
"Aren't you underestimating me a little?"
"Who am I Persephone?"
"...The fifth Count of Vampires..."
"That kid wouldn't miss out on such information, huh." She spoke after realizing what Victor had hinted at.
It was not strange for Vlad to know this information whether he wanted to or not. He was still friends with Shiva, and Shiva was a very influential God in the international community.
Vlad himself, despite not being as popular as the God of Destruction, was quite influential as well.
"Correct."
"What happened in the underworld?"
"...Sigh." She visibly sighed and continued.
"Everything is in chaos, souls are not going through the correct cycle of reincarnation. Because of that, problems are occurring all over the Seven Hells of Mythology."
"...." Victor narrowed his eyes at this information. Not even in Adonis' memories had he seen Persephone with such a... helpless expression.
"Chaos in Hell wouldn't make you worry so much, Persephone."
Now it was Persephone's turn to be shocked:
"...You talk as if I-...Oh." She remembered the words Victor had spoken when he first met her.
'He consumed Adonis, so he is expected to have his memories too.'
"What happened?"
"...." Persephone bit her lip. She knew she was making a mistake; she was telling important information to a personal enemy.
As a Goddess of the Underworld who had lived for thousands of years, there was something that Persephone was quite an expert in.
She could sense the 'intentions' of the soul.
A strange skill, something she'd acquired after so many years of watching souls come and go from the Underworld.
An ability that should only belong to the God who ruled the Underworld.
Because of this ability, she could feel it... She could feel the hatred of this man in front of her.
He could mask it all he wanted, he could have the best expression control she'd ever seen in her life.
But his soul couldn't hide it.
And this was something she didn't understand at first, why did he hate her?
She didn't understand until the moment he said he'd inherited everything from Adonis.
That is to say, that hatred was from Adonis. The man for whom she'd cursed to death in anger because he'd run away from her 'hands'.
The man she fell in love with and was angered when he disappeared from her grasp.
Unlike Aphordite who just forgot about Adonis and got bored, Persephone truly loved Adonis, she wanted him for herself.
But it all went downhill from there when that red-haired Vampire appeared.
Looking at the man in front of her, she saw his expression, that neutral expression that didn't let any feelings or thoughts convey, his relaxed body that let nothing convey.
But to Persephone his intention was clear as water.
'...why am I doing this again? Why am I humiliating myself for this mortal? So what if he's handsome? As he himself stated, he is not Adonis, he is just a substitute.'
'Anyway, no matter what effort I make, Aphrodite will always win in the end, why should I waste my time at this critical moment?'
'My husband has disappeared somewhere, and the leadership of the underworld of Olympus is in my hands, why am I wasting my time with him?'
'I don't even know him, all I wanted was Adonis, and he was killed by him...'
'Oh... He was killed by him, his soul was absorbed.'
'That is, for me to have Adonis, I need to rip him out of his soul, huh...'
"... But is it worth it?"
"Huh?"
'Is it worth going through so much trouble for a man who has always rejected me?'
Persephone had plenty of time to think before the shit hit the fan.
She had a lot of time to think before the events that were happening now in the underworld took place.
She reflected and thought about her actions, and that was after Aphrodite's visit.
Remembering the woman's visit.
...
"Bitch, you once again stole him from me!"
"...Sigh, you really don't understand, huh?"
"What?"
"Men like him cannot be imprisoned, they are too 'free' for that."
"The more you push, the more he will hate you."
"...."
A silence fell around.
"Why don't you just forget about it?"
"Forget Adonis like you!?"
"Yes."
"You-." Persephone was about to say something, but Aphrodite interrupted.
"I won't lie, I once 'loved' Adonis, but..."
"It's tiring, you know?"
"…Huh?"
"I am the Goddess of Love, Persephone."
"I can see the Love in people."
"Adonis didn't love me..."
"Lies, he always loved you, he always loved me." Persephone rejected Aphrodite's thought, she knows what she felt in the past was no lie.
"Yes, in the beginning."
"...But what happened was..."
"We pushed the human a lot... In the past, I couldn't understand. How could he not love the Goddess of Beauty and Love? It was impossible, everyone loved me, everyone sought my attention, it was common sense."
"But after some events in the present, I came to understand a little bit."
"Their 'male' pride had been destroyed." She spoke with disdain, and with a little sadness.
Disdain because the same thing happened with Agnes, but the man came to sincerely love the woman.
'Stockholm syndrome maybe?' She laughed to herself.
And sadness because it took her a long time to understand the effects her actions had on the person she 'loved'.
"And it went on to make him hate us... I couldn't take it..." She bit her lip.
"As the Goddess of Love, I couldn't bear to imagine hurting my 'love'. Because of that, I blessed him with beauty. I poured all my Divine Power into this blessing, and he became the only bearer of my blessing. I sincerely wished for him to be happy... And I left."
"...What's the point of telling me this now, Aphrodite?" she asked in a slightly shaken voice.
"I'm telling you to be a fucking respectable woman."
"…Huh?"
"Have respect for yourself, don't be chasing a crush that hates you, aren't you ashamed?"
"Aren't you a fucking Queen?"
"Be more aware of yourself."
"…Are you really saying that to me? You the Goddess Slut-."
Aphrodite's eyes glowed pink, but other than sweet, hot pink, it was a cold, dangerous pink.
"I've never slept with a man for fun."
"I've never pursued a woman for fun."
"From the beginning of time, from the moment I came into being, my sister Rhea taught me the proper respect for a woman."
"All the male and female lovers I've had have been people I've had a certain kind of interest in, whether it was emotional or personal."
"I didn't become a fucking cum toilet like that bitch Gaia who lay with her children in Tartarus to raise thousands of monster children to destroy us, children who are patiently waiting to come out of Tartarus to kill us!"
"....." Persephone swallowed hard when she saw Aphrodite's cold outburst.
She'd forgotten for a moment that she was dealing with a Titan, and she wasn't just any Titan, she was one of the strongest.
"This 'Slut' you talk so much about is just a 'title' that you jealous Goddesses labled me with. You envy my beauty, envy that no one can ignore me if I'm present, you envy my existence as the Goddess of Beauty."
Persephone narrowed her eyes, and a vein popped in her head.
"We are Greeks, before the word modesty or morals even existed, we already practiced orgies."
"Orgies in which you, your mother, and my nieces participated in."
"Humpf, as if you didn't participate."
"There's a difference."
"Huh, what was it!? I clearly remember you practicing this in the past."
"The orgies I did, I organized with the men and women I was interested in. I organized everything, I would never let a God with the attitudes of Zeus or his two brothers touch me. I repudiate these men."
"I never let them touch me either, just Hades, and he's different from his brothers."
"I wasn't accusing you. You can give your pussy to all the Gods and I wouldn't bat an eye." Aphrodite rolled her eyes.
'This bitch, don't those words contradict what she said before!? She really knows how to piss someone off.'
Soon Aphrodite continued:
"And just like everything else in my life, after 5000 thousand years had passed, I had already given up all my 'interests' and moved on, I got bored… None of them made me activate my 'divinity of love', none of them made me really feel something."
"...." Persephone didn't say anything, but she could relate to Aphrodite's emotions. She was a Goddess, and Gods live a long time.
Over the millennia, things started to get uninteresting. Sex might've be interesting at first, but in the end it was just that, sex. After 20,000 years, it becomes boring. Because of this, most Gods didn't consider 'sex' important but the 'emotions' behind the act.
That's one of the reasons why Persephone was so obsessed with Adonis. Because, for a God, that real 'feeling' is enough for them to act.
"I took an interest in the child of Zeus and Hera. Ares was a strong man…but boring with his tiny thinking."
"Adonis was next, and he actually activated my Love Divinity, I had fallen in love with him. But... I realized it wasn't reciprocated, and for a Love Goddess, that's a worse feeling than betrayal."
"After Adonis, I just wandered the world looking for anything interesting to do. I hid my Divinity, and my real appearance. I visited different Pantheons, and I made true God friends, friends who just weren't trying to get into my skirt."
"After my trip, when I came back to Mount Olympus, I had noticed that the environment of Olympus was very toxic, something I hadn't noticed before. Soon after I decided to move to the human world..."
'And this proved to be the best decision of my life, I finally... I finally found a true friend, and a friend much closer than the God friends I made in the other Pantheons.'
A moment of silence fell around them.
During this silence, Persephone was waiting for Aphrodite to continue, but seeing that she wouldn't, she spoke up:
"And then? What are you doing now different from running after Adonis? Aren't you chasing this man now that he's absorbed Adonis? Is it not the same thing?"
Sigh...
Aphrodite visibly sighed.
"... Wrong, it's different."
"Oh, how is it wrong?"
Ignoring Persephone's sarcastic tone, she spoke:
"I'm not chasing a dead man, and I'm not putting myself down as a woman either."
"Victor is…interesting." She flashed a small smile.
"At first, I was interested in him as I had been interested in Ares. He was handsome, he was brave, he was a warrior, a perfect match for my tastes."
'He was also my friend's son, which increased his attractiveness even more...' She thought, but didn't speak aloud.
"I helped him. But, that same day that I helped him, I made a mistake because of my arrogance, and our relationship soured... I was honestly interested in him and I didn't want to give up, but everything changed when someone got in trouble. .."
"Even if Víctor was a man I liked, I wouldn't risk that person's friendship for his sake."
"...Would you rather give up on someone completely than lose a friendship...?" Persephone spoke in shock, the very thought of this happening not even conceivable in her head.
"Yes." She spoke in an honest tone, and with a conviction that shocked the Goddess even more.
"...You've changed, Aphrodite..." Persephone couldn't help but recognize that, she would usually never sacrifice anything for someone else… This wasn't the Aphrodite that Persephone knew.
"...." Aphrodite was silent.
'Anna is just very important to me. Her friendship is something I value very much. If I had to give up on Victor to keep Anna's friendship, I would do it without a second thought.' She clenched her fists tightly, then relaxed when she felt Persephone's gaze.
"The interest I have in Victor has evolved into something else when we interact. I honestly enjoy interacting with him, he makes me laugh, he amuses me, he doesn't look at me like I'm a piece of meat walking around."
"His heart is very kind, his care for the people close to him is a stark contrast to his attitude towards his enemies… And as I spent months talking to him, and getting closer, I really started to genuinely like him."
'I really enjoy his company, I don't mind we don't do anything intimate… Just talking to him, and talking about various things makes me happy, and that's a feeling I haven't had in a long time… I don't want to spoil it.'
"...That's the difference between us."
Persephone narrowed her eyes. "...I don't understand how this is different from me."
Aphrodite snapped angrily.
"I'm not looking at a fucking dead man's corpse, I'm looking at him, only at him, I'm not using him as a replacement like you!"
"..." Persephone opened her eyes wide.
"You're just replacing him and chasing the past, because of that, I told you to have self-respect for yourself."
"Tsk, I'm done. I don't know why I wasted my time with you." Aphrodite turned around and started to walk furiously outside, but before she left completely, she stopped walking and looked back with a sly smile:
"He is very hot under that outfit, too bad it's something you'll never see." Soon she disappeared.
Veins popped in Persephone's head, as expected this bitch just wanted to tease her!
"BITCH!"
....