Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 864: A Kerfuffle

The fight may have been over, but a kerfuffle was to be had. Not between the contestant but someone rather unexpected–someone who couldn’t match Helga in power, and yet had the courage to confront her head-on. Thus, making her way through the crowd to reach the valkyrie who now stood before Raven’s party, Moxy and Choux both had their eyes set on her with their frost drake Daema angrily stomping along behind them.

“Hey! HEY YOU!” Grabbing the valkyrie by her arm, Moxy forced her to face her. Visibly confused, Helga squinted and, with a slight tilt to her head, she was about to ask the cause, but was swiftly interrupted by Moxy again. “Couldn’t you have been more careful?! You blew away all our stock! Pastries, ice cream, skewers! Who’s gonna pay for that?!”

At a loss for words, Helga simply stared at the woman. Stunned by the sheer intensity of her emotions over what she felt wasn’t even a problem.

“Moxy, how about you calm down a little?” Moving between the two, Raven tried to diffuse the situation. “Ouch!”

To his surprise, however, Moxy pulled him by the ears and brought his face closer to hers and whispered.

“And you! When were you going to visit me?! How many times am I gonna be the last person you see whenever you’re back home, huh?!” Fuming red, the fox-girl let go of the hero, though her raging expression refused to let up. Huffing and puffing for a bit while the rest simply watched her in horror, she eventually closed her eyes and turned to Choux and Daema. “Ughhh… These guys owe us the gold for the stuff we lost. Turn them into popsicles if they don’t pay up, okay?”

Tilting their heads in sync, Choux spoke for them both.

“Big brother too?” Shifting her gaze to Raven, she stared at him. “Okay!”

Her enthusiastic voice was like a silent threat. The girl was mature for her apparent age, and although she was much older than her body might suggest, her innocence seemed to have returned quite a bit after having stayed so long with another member of her relatively similar race.

“My my, quite the ruckus you lot caused here,” the familiar voice of an older woman turned everyone’s attention to the exact opposite direction from Moxy. Waving at the crowd with her left hand pinching the edge of her crimson sun hat, the Red Madam smiled and got close to the group. Lifting her red gown a bit, she gave a formal nod before standing tall and still. “That was quite the display, Miss Valkaria. I would love to take your measurements and put some fine fabric on your skin if you’d let me.”

“Why are you here?” Helga asked, though everyone was thinking the same thing.

Lifting her hat and holding it by her chest, the madam smiled at the valkyrie before turning her gaze to Raven instead.

“I had some news for our beloved hero. But when I got to his mansion, I was told that he would be here and thus I came.” Bringing her attention back to Helga, the madam smiled some more. “Though I have to say. I’m glad I did. How else would I have gotten a chance to see you in action and well…”

As her eyes drifted behind the valkyrie’s body, everyone followed her gaze and found both Stella and Tatiyana rushing towards her mother. A look of worry had taken over their faces. After all, seeing their mom being kicked again and again was far from something that they were used to. Most of the time, she did the kick and not the other way around.

“I got to see your darling daughters as well,” eyeing their dragonic tails, the Red Madam’s heart fluttered at the thought. “I would love to design some clothes for them. Free of cost, of course. Working for such mine clients would be a reward on its own.”

“Speaking of clients,” the snap of a finger cut everyone’s thoughts right in half. “I didn’t think we’d meet so soon.”

“Mistress…” Raven cursed under his breath.

The primordial in charge of Athenia’s well-being was present in the audience as well. Nobody had sensed her yet, but since she was walking right up to them, it became obvious that she was hiding herself before getting a chance to talk to Raven.

Dressed as vulgarly as ever with her boobs barely held in a tight one-piece dress with shoulder straps as thin as strings, she curved her glistening red lips while approaching the group. Holding a pretentious paper fan, she stood quiet for a second and began fanning herself while looking at Helga.

“Been a while since,” her arm reached outward to grab the valkyrie’s skin, but in a flash, it was slapped away. “Ouch~ ahaha! Not fond of little ol’me anymore?”

“Shut the fu–” Though her body turned with a jerk to yell, with her daughters standing right behind her, Helga closed her eyes and shook the frustration off. “Don’t you dare say another word.”

As she opened her eyes again, the Mistress gave her a teasing smile. She was testing the water, seeing how far she could take things without getting pushed back.

“Alright, that’s enough!”

“W-what!?”

Grabbing her by the scanty dress, Raven pulled the Mistress closer to himself. Stunned by the sudden tug, she blinked a few times while staring into his eyes. A raging fire burned within them, another mischief, and perhaps she would be gone.

“I’m warning you for the last fucking time, Mistress.” Slowly letting go of her, Raven jerked his hand as if wiping off mud. “The only reason you’re not dead is because of that stupid goddess Aphrodite’s deal. But if you push us anymore, if you so much as look at us funny, we’re gonna find some other way for Athenia to take absolute control of this place.”

Correcting her dress while the hero screamed at her, the Mistress anxiously gulped for the first time she was being threatened, and that too with visible signs that the hero would go through with them.

“Now we can strike a deal, live in harmony. You do what you need to do, and we will accommodate you as long as you help us in the coming war. State your terms, and I will state mine, but after this. No more games and no more tricks up your sleeves or those stupid smirks and smiles.”

Putting his foot down while everyone was present, Raven stretched his hand outward and awaited the succubus’s response.

“I’m not a kid anymore, and you’re not just some stupid Mistress in the maze. Shake my hand and put that immature past of yours behind you, we have much-much bigger fish to fry than your stupid games.”

Glancing at his face and his hand, the Mistress clicked her tongue, for she knew he was right. She was too old to be acting like a brat, and if the holy war was to come soon enough, then she had to choose a side. Staring at his hand, she considered that very thought for a while, and when the voices in her head settled, she came out with her answer.

“I would like to be with the winning side,” shaking his hand, she added. “I hope that I’m not making the wrong choice.”

“We will find a way to make it right,” Raven asserted, and their handshake broke with smiles on both of their faces.

“NOW WHO IS PAYING FOR THE ICE CREAM?!” Having forgotten about Moxy, however, the tantrums and complaints, both from her, Helga’s daughters, and even Choux and Daema, were yet to be over. Thankfully, the centaurians were back home, and the monster girls were comfortable in the bracelet, but for the rest, they had a long and loud way home.