The Villainess Is My Cute Daughter

”Maybe we should try getting Hugo to do it again.” Claire suggested.

She turned her head to look at Aria.

”Maybe he might actually succeed this time. After all, Lord Adrian is awake now, so maybe he can give some active feedback on if it’s even working or not.”

Adrian rolled his eyeballs sideways to look at Aria since he couldn’t physically turn his head to look at Claire.

’What actually happened last time?’ Adrian asked through the magical link. ’Did Hugo fail or something?’

Aria looked down at the floor and let out a very awkward chuckle.

’Well...’ Aria started hesitantly. ’What happened last time was a little messy.’

A few days ago.

Aria stood perfectly still next to the bed and stared at the empty doorway. She watched Roderick walk out the door. And the exact moment the financial minister left the room, she turned around to look at Hugo.

The massive teenager was just standing awkwardly near the foot of the bed.

So Aria pointed a finger directly at Adrian’s broken body.

”Can you heal him?” Aria demanded.

But Hugo didn’t hesitate at all. He just gave a firm nod and walked heavily over to the side of the mattress.

He reached out and placed his large, calloused hand flat against Adrian’s bruised chest. And instantly, a massive, blinding wave of golden green light erupted straight from Hugo’s palm. The warm blessing completely washed over Adrian’s broken body.

But then it all went to hell. Because after just two seconds of sustained healing, Hugo’s entire body just started to shake violently.

He started vibrating uncontrollably. It looked almost like he was having a massive full body seizure.

His eyes rolled straight back into his skull. And he just stood there shaking for a few terrifying seconds before he collapsed completely backward onto the wooden floorboards.

And the exact moment his back hit the wood, his skin literally tore apart.

Deep and jagged cuts spontaneously ripped open across his arms, his chest, and his neck. It wasn’t like a knife had cut him. It looked more like the terrible internal pressure of the pain was breaking his skin open from the inside out.

Blood started flowing freely out of the wounds. But it wasn’t just the cuts.

Thick and dark blood started pouring right out of his nose. Blood leaked out of his ears and it dripped heavily from the corners of his mouth.

He was bleeding from almost everywhere.

”Hugo!” Serena screamed in pure panic.

Aria and Serena rushed right over to the massive teenager as he thrashed around in a growing pool of his own blood. They grabbed his arms and frantically tried to hold him down to stop him from hurting himself even more. But the boy was just way too strong for them.

So Celeste pushed right past them. The apothecary ripped a small glass vial out of her small bag and dropped straight down to her knees.

She violently pried Hugo’s bloody jaw open and dumped the red potion straight down his throat.

It worked.

The jagged cuts on his skin slowly started to close up and his violent thrashing finally stopped. His rapid and shallow breathing slowly went back to a stable rhythm.

But he didn’t wake up. He just laid there in the pool of blood while being completely unconscious.

So Celeste let out a shaky breath and sat back on her heels.

”He should be fine.” Celeste muttered quietly while wiping blood off her hands. ”He just needs some rest.”

She looked down at the boy.

”It looks like something happened... maybe related to his curse?” Celeste reasoned quietly. ”I guess his body just goes straight into shock whenever he tries to heal someone?”

Serena and Aria just sat there right in the middle of the bloody mess and looked at each other. And nobody else in the room said a single word.

”I don’t know either.” Serena whispered quietly to herself.

She just stared blankly at Hugo’s bloody face.

They all just sat there on the floor. They secretly hoped that someone else in the room might actually know what the hell just happened.

But looking around at each other’s pale and terrified faces, they could easily tell the truth.

Because absolutely no one actually had the answer.

Adrian just listened to the whole story and let out a very soft sigh. But even that tiny push of air violently stung his chest.

And he winced hard.

He closed his eyes and pushed his thoughts back through the mental link.

’Hugo has a curse, yes.’ Adrian explained slowly. ’It is directly tied to his blessing. The blessing lets him heal himself and other people with a ridiculous amount of efficiency. Way better than normal priests. But the curse forces him to feel every single ounce of pain the patient is feeling.’

He kept his eyes shut.

’He has been training for months.’ Adrian continued. ’He mostly trains by beating himself up and healing his own broken bones. So he should be pretty used to handling pain feedback by now. But this...’

Adrian thought about his own shattered body.

’Healing me was just way too much for him to process.’ Adrian explained. ’Because even I couldn’t handle it. And my pain tolerance is ridiculously high. So I am really not surprised that trying to heal me threw him into heavy shock. Though I must say... his reaction was way too extreme.’

He slowly opened his eyes and stared right up at the wooden ceiling.

’Let’s just leave him alone.’ Adrian decided. ’I really do not want to traumatize the kid. It is a lot better if he just stays in his room and trains at his own pace.’

He paused his thoughts for a second.

’He is still way too young to be dealing with this level of pain.’ Adrian thought. ’Let him do his own thing. It is fine.’

Aria frowned.

’I will get back to normal eventually.’ Adrian reassured her. ’I just need a little bit more time to do it myself with the runic magic circles. Because even right now, just trying to move my jaw is incredibly painful. Even taking a normal breath physically hurts my broken chest. So I really do not think it is a good idea to force a teenager to experience that exact same feeling. Maybe we can just try again in a month or two. Once I feel slightly better.’

Aria stared at him and slowly chewed on her bottom lip.

’Why don’t we just get him to heal you bit by bit?’ Aria suggested.

Adrian blinked.

’Just your face.’ Aria explained. ’And your neck. Maybe just the top of your chest. Just enough so you can actually breathe and talk to us without being in total agony.’

And Adrian just kept staring at the ceiling as he thought about her idea for a while.

’Well.’ Adrian replied. ’That is not a bad idea.’

He could compartmentalize the healing.

’He could just heal me in tiny chunks, yes.’ Adrian agreed. ’One small body part to another. The localized pain feedback wouldn’t actually impact his brain that much. We could definitely try that.’

He just rolled his eyeballs to look at her from the corner of his eye.

’Yeah.’ Adrian projected. ’Go call him for me.’

Aria did not waste a single second. She practically jumped off the wooden stool. She spun around and looked at Serena who was standing by the wall.

”Let’s bring Hugo here!” Aria ordered excitedly.

But she didn’t even wait for a reply. She just bolted right out of the bedroom and ran straight down the hallway.

Serena just looked at Adrian’s face. She glanced over at Claire sitting on the other bed. Then she lifted her skirt a little and hurried out the door right behind the little girl.