The Villainess Is My Cute Daughter

’Did he figure out that this kid was summoned?’ Roderick thought to himself. ’I knew this guy was basically useless, but maybe Adrian knows something I don’t.’

Roderick’s mind immediately flashed back to a few nights ago, right after the summoning ritual was completed.

A few nights ago.

Roderick stood in the dim cave and looked down at the live monsters that had been dragged in.

They were all tightly leashed and bound. There were two small Red-Horned Boars and about three Goblins.

He looked over at the youngster he had just summoned. The guy was sitting on one of the wooden stools near the destroyed statue, just casually looking at the restrained monsters with a cocky smirk on his face. It was almost like he thought he knew everything there was to know about these beasts just from playing video games.

”So why don’t you demonstrate your ability to me?” Roderick asked with a smile.

The guy nodded eagerly. ”Watch this.”

He raised his hand. A faint, glowing light flashed across his palm for just a fraction of a second before vanishing.

At the exact same time, one of the Goblins tied up with thick ropes suddenly began to glow with the exact same light.

Immediately, the Goblin’s scrawny muscles began to bulge uncontrollably. Its body swelled and its beady eyes snapped open, glowing a bright, violent shade of red.

With a guttural screech, the mutated Goblin flexed its arms and completely ripped the thick ropes binding its wrists with pure, sheer strength. It kicked its legs out, snapping the bindings on its ankles, and violently grabbed the gag in its mouth before tossing it aside.

It didn’t hesitate and directly pounced on the person closest to it.

That person happened to be Roderick’s personal attendant.

This attendant wasn’t just some random servant. He was a master of martial arts who had personally trained multiple elite guards, all of whom belonged to Roderick’s personal army. He was well-versed in combat.

But even he couldn’t handle the speed of the mutated Goblin.

He tried to parry the monster’s clawed strike, but the slash was way too fast. Luckily, the attendant was still wearing his thick leather combat gloves, which protected his skin from the sharp nails. But the Goblin didn’t just slash.

It grabbed his hand tightly.

Just when the attendant thought the monster was going to pull him forward or try to throw him off balance, the Goblin did something else.

It opened its mouth unnaturally wide and chomped down directly onto the man’s hand.

Its teeth sank right through the thick leather. It didn’t sound like it was biting into something soft or fleshy. It sounded exactly like teeth violently clacking against teeth.

And hidden right beneath that awful sound was the sickening crunch of bone being completely pulverized.

Before anyone could even properly react, three of the attendant’s fingers were completely gone, bitten clean off along with a chunk of the leather glove.

The attendant didn’t scream. He aggressively kicked the Goblin in the chest to create space and jumped backward into the cave tunnel. A bead of cold sweat rolled down his forehead, but he didn’t show any other signs of fear.

He didn’t run away. He instantly drew a dagger from his waist, dashed forward, and stabbed the blade straight into the Goblin’s neck.

Luckily, the mutation hadn’t given it thick armor. The blade sank deep, and that single strike was more than enough to kill it. The Goblin struggled for a few seconds on the stone floor before going completely limp.

Watching this, Roderick calmly walked over to the dead monster.

He grabbed the Goblin’s jaws and forcefully pried them apart. The fingers weren’t in its mouth, which meant the monster had already swallowed them whole right after it bit down.

Roderick let out a soft sigh and turned to look at the attendant. The man raised his bleeding hand and Roderick raised his own. A bright golden glow enveloped the attendant’s wound. Slowly, the chomped-off flesh stopped bleeding and the wound closed up. The fingers didn’t regrow, and instead, the skin just sealed over the crushed bone, leaving a permanent, fleshy stump that the man would never be able to recover from.

With the healing done, Roderick slowly turned his gaze toward the so-called ’hero’ he had summoned.

”So you cannot control these monsters, can you?” Roderick asked, his voice having a sudden shapness to it.

The kid was sweating profusely. He slowly shook his head.

There was none of the excitement or arrogance left on his face anymore. He nervously looked at the system screen floating in front of him before looking back at Roderick.

”It... it just says that I can mutate and upgrade monsters,” the kid stammered. ”It does not mention that I can control them. I should have realized it sooner.”

He swallowed hard. A look of desperate determination flashed in his eyes.

”Is there a way?” the kid asked quickly. ”Do you have monsters that you can tame? Like, if you have tamed monsters that already listen to you, then I can make them super strong! That makes more sense, right?”

Roderick just shook his head slowly and let out a heavy sigh.

’So this really was a completely useless summon.’ he thought.

He glared at the terrified kid.

”The monsters in this world that can be tamed are incredibly weak,” Roderick explained coldly. ”And even they are very temperamental. There is no way to control them properly in combat. When we talk about ’taming’ monsters in our world... and I do not know how it works in your world, it simply means finding a way to keep them caged so we can harvest their resources. It does not necessarily make them friendly.”

He took a step forward.

”It is literally impossible to make monsters friendly.”

The ’hero’ just nodded frantically, his face pale.

Roderick let out another soft sigh.

”Okay, whatever,” he muttered dismissively.

He turned away from the kid and looked back at the pile of dust where the Naga statue used to be.

’During the ritual, I explicitly prayed for someone who I need instead of someone who I want,’ Roderick rationalized to himself. ’So even though this idiot is completely useless to me right now, maybe he can be useful somewhere in the future. Based on the ritualistic rules, he will become useful soon. I just have to wait and use him at the right opportunity without missing the chance.’

He turned his attention back to the shivering hero.

”Tell me what your name is,” Roderick demanded.

The kid wasn’t confident anymore, but a tiny spark of hope returned to his eyes when he heard the question.

’Okay, he’s asking for my name,’ he thought to himself frantically. ’That means he probably won’t kill me right now. He looks super scary, but if he wanted me dead, he wouldn’t care about my name.’

He bit his lower lip, took a deep, shaky breath, and answered.

”My name is Leo.” he said and Roderick nodded.

”Okay Leo, we have somewhere we need to be so follow me.”

Hearing that, Leo nodded and followed behind Roderick who had begun walking towards the exit.

’Is he going to kill me or something...’