The Villainess Is My Cute Daughter

Lorcan sat alone in the dark.

It was just him, a small wooden spoon, and a simple bowl of lukewarm broth. Because he was currently sitting right on the very edge of the mattress in the guest room right next door to Adrian’s.

He slowly brought the wooden spoon up to his mouth and took a quiet sip, focusing his breathing at the exact same time to actively pull the ambient mana from the room straight down into his chest to cycle it through his mana veins.

Because he had taken a nice beating out there in the woods. And he didn’t even remember a single thing about it. Not one bit.

Dark and ugly purple bruises covered his ribs and arms. It was the exact same kind of massive blunt force trauma that Adrian had suffered. But Lorcan was actually in much better shape. The sheer amount of bruising wasn’t nearly as high. And only a couple of the hits he took actually looked serious enough to warrant some heavy bandages.

He lowered the bowl of soup. He turned his head and just stared blankly at the cold stone wall. The exact same wall that connected his room directly to Adrian’s.

’I really hope he isn’t angry with me.’ Lorcan thought to himself.

He rubbed his sore shoulder and let out a tired sigh.

’I could have actually helped him.’ Lorcan reasoned. And his pride was violently stinging way worse than his physical injuries. ’If I hadn’t been knocked out by pure surprise while I was shadowing him through those trees, I could have done something. Literally anything.’

So he just let out a slow and tired sigh.

’I thought there was only one person in this entire world who could naturally counter my high tier illusion magic.’ Lorcan grumbled right inside his head. ’But this is just getting totally ridiculous. This is way too much. There are way too many freaks popping up out of nowhere who know exactly how to counter my spells.’

He tilted his head back and looked straight up at the wooden ceiling boards.

’Master.’ Lorcan thought as he spoke to the ghost of the man who originally trained him. ’You specifically told me that this was one of the best branches of magic. You said illusions were the absolute apex of assassination. So why the hell am I failing so much? Why are all these random monsters just popping up who can casually swat away everything I throw at them? Isn’t this a little unfair?’

And he just stared at the ceiling.

But unfortunately for the master assassin, the dead didn’t really talk back. He did not get a single answer.

So he just dipped his wooden spoon and took another quiet sip of his lukewarm soup.

But right next door, Hugo was standing completely still next to the edge of the mattress. The massive teenager reached out with a trembling hand. He gently placed his palm right on top of Adrian’s bruised forehead.

And a soft, pulsing golden light immediately flared to life.

It completely washed over Adrian’s entire head. But then history just repeated itself.

Hugo’s entire body completely seized up. He started shaking uncontrollably. And at the exact same time, Adrian tightly gritted his teeth in pure agony. Because he too felt the exact same spike of terrible pain wash over his own body at the same exact time.

Hugo’s eyes rolled straight back into his skull and his knees completely buckled under his heavy weight. He tilted backward and he was just about to crash head first right into the wooden floorboards.

But Serena and Caelum were already moving.

They quickly lunged forward and grabbed the massive boy right by his shoulders. They managed to catch him and completely stopped his fall right before his head hit the hard floor.

But unlike the last time he tried to do this, Hugo didn’t actually black out.

He stayed fully conscious. He just shook his head and groaned loudly as Caelum actively helped him lower himself down to sit on the floorboards. So Hugo just sat there on the floor while violently clutching his chest and taking massive, greedy gasps of air.

He just sat there panting for a really long time.

He looked straight up at Adrian’s broken body resting on the bed and exhaled deeply. He frowned. Then he wiped a thick layer of cold sweat right off his forehead with the back of his wrist.

Then he slowly turned his head. He looked right over at the other bed.

He just stared at Claire.

The injured knight was currently sitting completely propped up against her pillows. And she looked a little confused by the intense stare that the massive teenager was giving her right now.

”Lady Claire.” Hugo rasped.

His voice was incredibly rough. He coughed and loudly cleared his throat.

”Can I please heal you first?”

Claire just blinked. She looked right over at Serena and then looked straight back to Hugo.

”I mean, sure.” Claire answered hesitantly. ”But why do you want to heal me first? Isn’t the main goal here to help Lord Adrian?”

Hugo just rested his heavy elbows on his knees.

”I just have a gut feeling.” Hugo muttered quietly. ”I have a weird feeling that I am really close to unlocking a skill. Just like those rare enlightenment stories that people keep talking about. And I do not think I will be able to push through and actually unlock it if I keep passing out from the pain. Because I am absolutely sure that I will just faint again if I try to heal Lord Adrian right now.”

Aria was still sitting on her small wooden stool. Her eyes had been locked dead on Adrian this entire time.

But the exact moment Hugo finished explaining his reasoning, Aria quickly turned her head and looked right down at the boy sitting on the floor.

”Did you unlock the Pain Tolerance skill yet?” Aria asked bluntly.