Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 909: Valentina O’Hare

I once was a mother, a patron to the noble family O’Hare. Athenian nobility with blood as pure as silver, they weaved drapes of gold and other precious metals in my name. Amongst them was Viridian O’Hare, a man who became my most loyal servant. He praised me and brought me gifts of sweets and fabric and spread the whimsical joys of living in his domain. What better servant could a fairy ask for?

With time, he sowed the seeds of joy in his family by bringing into the world with his wife, a daughter. Valentina O’Hare, she was... wondrous. Her gaze was a kaleidoscope of beauty, and her magic paralleled my own–perhaps due to my influence on her father. She was meant for greatness, to bring the joys of colors to this world, but not all good things last, I suppose.

Growing up in Mansion O’Hare, the little girl learned to control her magic through her mistress herself. I stood before her as yet another human, helping her direct her potential in the right direction. First, she learned to weave clothes with her multi-colored hair. Weaving gloves, socks, mufflers, and the sorts, and then I taught her how to infuse them with magic.

Everything she wove with her tiny fingers had a glow of its own and just as impressive strengths. En’path to surpass me, the little girl had to deshell her family name and set out into the real world. An adventuring socceress, she became the only one the Athenian adventurers’ guild had seen until then. Working alone with pure fae magic coursing through her veins, she was granted the rank of Nightsilver after just a few months of working as an adventurer.

Killing monsters for their skin, their hair, and other materials, which then she would use to make equipment, Valentina quickly became a pillar for the guild–especially new adventurers looking to buy flashy equipment. Dressed in her own hair wrapped around her body like armor, she kept her true identity a secret. And yet that metallic rainbow-like armor hugging her tight curves set her apart from everyone else.

Only a handful ever saw her bare of her outfit, but those men were far too busy swaying their hips to match her grinding rhythm to truly grasp the charm on her face. Unfortunately for them, however, a fae as pure as her only mates with a partner once, and thus once they’d been courted by her in bed, nobody saw them ever again.

If only one of them was capable enough to land her a child...but the chance of a fae pregnancy proved far too much for their pathetic seed. Valentina herself wasn’t interested in birthing her progeny; she’d only taken those men as momentary pleasures. Perhaps if she had had a child, then what happened next wouldn’t have ended the O’Hare bloodline.

Valentina’s talents drew the attention of many, and amongst them was the wretched goddess Aphrodite. I should have been more cautious of her, but how could you escape her when she was the patron goddess of this land? Sent on a mission meant to cripple Valentina by none other than the accursed co-conspirer of the goddess, the Mistress, my daughter was faced against the force of a lesser demon general disguised as a mere vampire lord.

He wasn’t the first vampire Valentina had faced, nor was he the second, but with Aphrodite helping him, things proved quite difficult. Forever, the land has been infested by vampires, including a vampire demon general–one who’d been killed long ago, but whose servants still lingered in Athenia. And for that very reason, even I didn’t expect that monster to stand out too much from any other reclusive vampire, but at the moment of his death–the damned wretch cursed my spirit daughter.

The curse of vampirism stripped her of most of her powers and slowly started turning her into a bloodthirsty vampire. Her savior in those times? Aphrodite. The wretch offered her a deal, a deal to abandon me, and became her servant who shall find a way to cure the slow death of her divine soul. As a sorceress, Valentina jumped at the offer even if she had no clue how she could find such a cure.

With her abandonment of me, her family suffered in silence. They were quickly shunned by other nobility for having lost their touch at fine weavery and the like. The O’Hare name eventually faded with the death of Viridian and his wife. Valentina had already cloaked herself in a different name, and thus came the unfortunate end of the O’Hare bloodline.

The Red Madam–it was no title, but rather a sign for the vampire serving nobles of Athenia to recognize her as another familiar. She was to be left untouched, not to be toyed with, even if she’d killed a lesser demon general. And with Vlad preparing for the revival of a true demon general right under the city’s watch, those very nobles had bigger fish to fry than go after her or her new business.

Left alone, Valentina did her best to find a way to keep Aphrodite alive. However, lacking expertise in the matter of souls, the goddess perished before she could come up with anything substantial. Thankfully for her, however, with Aphrodite gone and Athenia having no clue about her deal with her mother, the Red Madam embraced her new role as a humble servant of the noble families.

Weaving clothes and spreading the threads of fashion as a half-vampire. Her aging slowed by the effect of her other half, she served the nobles in silence as an aged lady for about a hundred years. Nobody questioned how she was alive for so long and simply attributed her long life to the everspring of the land and her being a loyal servant of Aphrodite–and later, Athenia.

But with time comes boredom, and boredom bores hate. Soon her annoyance towards the nobles turned to hatred, and yet forced to work for them, she was ecstatic when something different came knocking on their doorstep. Which just so happened to be the chosen of Athenia. As for me? With no child left to host me in themselves, I returned to Mother Natura–forever watching my daughter as she struggled to spread the joy of color with her now faded white hair.

’All good things come to an end.’ With that, I try to comfort myself every day.