The Villainess Is My Cute Daughter

Celeste was choking.

She laid there on the floor, clawing at her own neck while Serena frantically grabbed her arm. It felt like trying to suck air while being stuck inside a wall.

Her vision started to blur.

And then the heavy pressure just stopped.

Celeste sucked in a massive breath. It felt exactly like being yanked up from the bottom of a freezing lake right before her lungs gave out. She stayed on her hands and knees and just coughed violently.

On the bed, Aria slowly sat up.

She looked past Adrian and stared right at Serena who was kneeling on the floor.

”Bring Hugo here.” Aria said, her voice completely flat. ”He should be able to heal Papa. Do it quick.”

Serena just nodded and looked down at Celeste while holding a small mana crystal in her hand.

Neither Serena nor Celeste even looked at the kid sitting on the bed. They didn’t even try to connect the dots about who just crushed the air out of the room. Their brains just blocked it out mysteriously.

Serena looked down at the Celeste and whispered, ”Are you okay?”

Celeste was still catching her breath. She swiped a hand across her teary eyes and gave a weak nod.

”It is fine.” she wheezed. ”You go. I’ll manage here.”

Serena nodded, let go of her arm, got up, and went straight out of the bedroom.

Aria just sat on the mattress. She waited for the door to close and then she watched the apothecary drag herself up from the floor.

Aria took a long breath in.

’Do not lose your temper.’ Aria scolded herself internally. ’Do not lose your temper. She did nothing wrong. She was just telling the truth.’

But the emotional part of her brain refused to just let the woman say whatever she wanted. She hated hearing that Adrian was going to die.

So Aria just glared at her.

”Go and work on the potions.” Aria muttered.

Celeste swallowed the lump in her throat. She wiped the sweat off her face, gave a stiff nod, and hurried out the door. She didn’t look back even once.

A couple of maids shuffled in right after her with fresh water bowls.

Aria stared at them for a few seconds and then the room started spinning. Her body just gave out and she fell backward, her head hitting the soft pillow next to Adrian.

She passed out again.

A few minutes prior to the chaos in the bedroom, Vaelin and Ilyndra teleported away from the dark forest.

The two high elves popped up a few hundred meters away from where Aria was.

They turned around and stared back through the dense trees.

They waited as they kept their awareness to the maximum.

”She is not following us.” Vaelin grunted and touched the burns on his bald head.

They both just slumped their shoulders and let out long breaths.

Ilyndra leaned against a thick tree.

”What do we do about that other mage who was with the man we almost killed?” Ilyndra asked.

Vaelin just shrugged.

”Well, we didn’t kill him.” Vaelin muttered. ”But we hit him hard enough that he couldn’t join the fight to help them. It is too risky to go back there to finish the job right now.”

Ilyndra nodded slowly.

”What do we do now?” she asked.

Vaelin glared back in the direction they came from.

”Let’s just wait until that kid leaves the area.” Vaelin spat. ”She is a complete monster.”

Ilyndra didn’t argue. Slyndra rubbed her bare arms to feel warmer.

”Let’s just head back to the dungeon.” Vaelin decided. ”We need to see if that Wang Lei kid made it back.”

Ilyndra nodded sat down on the ground while resting her back against a tree nearby. Vaelin sat down right next to her.

They waited for a few minutes in silence. And while they sat there in the rain that they themselves had triggered, they channeled their mana.

The mana began to move around their bodies, slowly healing the massive burn injuries they took from Aria’s lightning.

After a few minutes, they stood up.

They started walking quietly back toward the dark cave and once they reached the clearing, they looked around.

”Looks like the mage is not here anymore.” Ilyndra noted, looking at the spot where they had sneakily one shotted Lorcan before either Adrian or himself could figure out what was happening.

”Doesn’t matter.” Vaelin scoffed. ”He is too weak for us to care about. The only actual threat we have right now is that kid.”

He walked straight into the cave. He stopped in front the tall, oval rock sitting in the center of the dark space.

He placed his hand flat against the dungeon entrance and instantly disappeared.

Ilyndra walked up and did the exact same thing.

They appeared inside the main dungeon room.

But it wasn’t the huge underground cave setup they remembered from earlier. They appeared inside a very small, completely empty square room. It looked like a box carved straight out of solid rock. There were no windows, just a single wooden door behind them.

They just stared at the blank stone walls.

”What happened here?” Vaelin asked, his voice echoing in the tiny space. ”There is no way a dungeon can just change this much in a few hours.”

Ilyndra looked around the empty room.

”What do we do now?” Ilyndra asked, shifting on her feet. ”The elf girl is gone too.”

Vaelin just started laughing.

”If she is gone,” Vaelin smirked. ”That only means we are finally free from her binding scroll. Let’s go and find the others.”

Ilyndra smiled and nodded. The two bald elves turned around and walked out of the dungeon.

The Marquis’s mansion was a mess with running servants and yelling guards.

Celeste found an empty room and locked the door behind her. She just stood over a large iron cauldron and started brewing a potion using whatever medicinal herbs she could get her hands on. Caelum spent his time sitting on the floor of the same room, carefully carving a complicated runic magic circle onto a massive wooden board.