The Villain Bought the Female Lead - Ch. 4
It was a time early enough that it could hardly be called morning.
Alicia woke up precisely, not wanting to be late, and as she changed into her clothes, she greeted the faint rays of sunlight.
The first thing she had to do upon waking was already decided.
⎯⎯Click, click.
It had already been four months since she came to this grand mansion. She walked down the now-familiar opulent corridors quickly but gracefully. Her steps led her past a room where neatly laundered towels were stored, and she passed a special well from which cold, clean water continuously flowed.
“Alright.”
After gathering the necessary items from various places, Alicia stood before a door leading to an unusually large room filled with peculiar objects.
⎯⎯⎯!
Suddenly, the sounds from the other side of the door reached her.
The soft friction between shoes and the floor, the rough breathing with each breath, and the dull yet loud clashing of metal.
All of these were a form of art produced by one person.
When on earth did he wake up? It seemed he went to bed late, so he must be lacking sleep. Then, where did he get such drive and endurance?
After listening for a moment at the door, Alicia gently opened it, careful not to be noticed, and peered into the narrow space to observe the man.
The heat emanated from the man’s shirtless body. His defined muscles moved prominently with each breath he took.
He was drenched in sweat, almost as if he had already bathed. A drop of sweat that hung from the tip of his hair fell to the floor and scattered into several droplets.
The man, who seemed to live as he pleased, was in fact a diligent hard worker, living his days busily with countless tasks, to the point of exhaustion.
‘He’s a completely different person from the first impression.’
Such thoughts continued in her mind.
At that moment.
“What are you doing?”
Alicia’s eyes met with his sharp gaze.
“Ah… I thought your training was over and brought a towel and cold water for you to wipe your sweat.”
The man approached her in long strides and forcefully opened the door to reveal his full presence.
“Were you spying on me like that?”
The heat from his training was palpable.
“I, I apologize, Master Vargan! I was just peeking to avoid disturbing your training.”
“Well, it seemed like that.”
Fwoosh.
He snatched the towel Alicia was holding.
He didn’t seem inclined to punish her today, fortunately.
He walked away, drying his hair with the towel. After walking a bit, he looked back at her.
“At this point, can’t you take a hint? Hurry up and bring that cold water over here.”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
“Honestly, there’s so much to teach you. You’re a handful.”
“… I’ll be more careful from now on.”
As usual, his words were harsh. She would probably hear more of his harsh words today too.
“On top of that, spying on your Master training, what a pervert. Ha… there’s no hope.”
“Y-yes?! Th-that’s not…!!”
Today started more tumultuously than usual.
***
“Master Vargan… what is this place….”
The mansion’s basement. It was dark and cold enough to send chills down her spine.
“Oh, it’s nothing special. I did this when I was young too, so there’s no need to be so tense.”
“B-but… inside here…!”
Alicia looked pale as she stared into the deep pit. The depth made it look dark, but that wasn’t the only reason.
“There are just a few bugs down there.”
“A few… you say.”
Of course, calling them ordinary bugs would be an understatement. The adult ones were at least 30 cm long.
Alicia looked at the densely packed bugs with trembling eyes.
Their tough, shiny shells. Dark-colored and resembling household pests, but with large mouths making them even more grotesque.
“These are called scavenger bugs. As their name suggests, they eat anything and everything, making them beneficial decomposers in the ecosystem.”
“Decomposers… like fungi?”
“Exactly, but they also eat living creatures. They devour anything, whether it’s magical energy or flesh. Very useful creatures. However, if ordinary people encounter them in the wild, they’d be eaten alive, suffering a painful death.”
“…….”
Why was she just staring?
It wasn’t someone else’s business.
“What are you waiting for? Get in there.”
“… inside this?”
Alicia swallowed dryly as she asked.
“This is to awaken your talent. Last time, we confirmed how long your spell circle lasts, so today is the advanced version.”
“I understand your deep intentions, Master Vargan….”
She impressively tried not to lose her smile. But her facial muscles were trembling, revealing her true feelings.
“… Master Vargan, if I must enter, could you give me a moment to prepa⎯”
Alicia, your preparation time was too long.
⎯Push.
I pushed her lightly.
Her body was so light that she fell without much resistance.
As her body flipped in the air, her horrified expression was fully revealed. Her mouth, left hanging open in mid-sentence, remained agape alongside her wide eyes.
“Kyahhhh⎯⎯⎯⎯!”
With a scream, Alicia disappeared into the darkness.
Then.
Whoosh! A blinding blue light exploded out with a gust of wind. The force was enough to make even a grown man like me stagger. The mana Alicia released overwhelmed everything around it.
The pressure from her mana, released all at once, caused the wind to blow fiercely. Though it was a wasteful action in the long term, in this moment, the brilliance was remarkable.
It hadn’t been long since she started properly using mana, yet she was already capable of such rapid release and high purity of magic. She deserved respect for that.
As the storm of mana subsided, the light dimmed. I no longer needed to squint my eyes.
I looked into the pit.
The bugs, having regained their senses, were gathering around her blue light. They quickly surrounded Alicia, sealing off any escape for the light.
That wasn’t all.
Gnaw, gnaw. The bugs’ mouths moved busily. They devoured the light as if it was the most delicious thing in the world.
Seeing this, Alicia, in shock, widened the radius and purity of her mana. It looked like a balloon inflating with air from the outside.
“Master Vargan, how long must I stay in here?”
Among the cacophony of noises, her usual quiet voice now echoed urgently.
“Until the bugs feel full and stop eating, I suppose?”
In short, it wouldn’t be brief.
Alicia looked at the swarm surrounding her. She seemed to be terrified by how much mana she would need to exhaust to satiate them all.
“… I’ll try my best to endure.”
Gnaw, gnaw.
With those words, the bugs closed in tightly, leaving no gaps for light to escape. They swarmed.
Then, a sound was heard.
Click, click.
Clear footsteps. A woman’s silhouette appeared.
“Why are you here?”
“I came because I was worried about Miss Alicia. Master, you are too much. Throwing Miss Alicia away without any explanation.”
A woman in a long robe, the magic instructor Paula.
“The insects aren’t just consuming magic power, right?”
She pointed to the very thin threads attached to the bodies of the insects, indicating that a continuous activity was happening in real-time on those thin lines.
“The magic power consumed by the insects through Miss Alicia is being channeled to you, Master. In other words, no matter how much magic power Miss Alicia extracts, she cannot satiate the insects.”
Oh, as expected of a magic instructor with a sharp eye, even though she was quite talkative.
“Yes, you’re right. No matter how much magic power Alicia extracts, she can’t escape from there. She’ll probably realize that soon enough.”
“And tormenting her with words of hope… let’s see… ugh! It’s really disgusting, isn’t it? Miss Alicia is in there, right? If it were me, I would’ve run away immediately… wait, the state of the insects….”
Paula squinted her eyes and focused. Soon, she let out a hollow laugh as if in disbelief.
“Master… you added another trial on top of extracting magic power?”
I responded to her question.
“Of course, naturally.”
I smiled faintly.
***
Something was wrong.
No matter how much magic power Alicia extracted to create a barrier for the insects to feed on, they did not stop their feeding.
No, that wasn’t all.
“The speed at which they’re eating is getting faster….”
The rate of consumption of the magic power that was protecting her was excessively fast compared to the beginning.
Alicia was fervently pouring out her magic power. It had been several hours since she first noticed something was wrong. Despite having no alternative, she continued to squeeze out her magic power, but she was nearing her limit.
Without even a moment to wipe the sweat running down her entire body, Alicia urgently manipulated her mana. With the pain and dizziness in her head, she felt like she could lose consciousness at any moment, but she squeezed out every bit of mana from deep within her.
When she checked the duration four months ago, she could absorb mana floating in the air around her, but this time, the insects did not allow that.
Only the mana she possessed. That was the only means of survival.
“Urgh…!”
It was difficult to breathe as if her throat was blocked. She tried to expand her body forcibly, but it didn’t feel like the air was filling her lungs.
She felt nauseous. The agony boiling inside made her want to vomit everything clean.
She wanted to give up.
Considering how long she had endured; it was a long time for someone as pathetic as herself.
From some point, such weak thoughts began to fill her mind. She tried to suppress them with both hands, but like the insects, they showed no signs of stopping.
Yet Alicia did not stop releasing her magic power. The task she had to do now was to carry out the order given by her master. If she didn’t follow it properly, she wouldn’t be worth the 100 gold she was bought for.
She increased the intensity. The insects moved away again as a strong light emanated, reflecting her will.
The insects distanced themselves due to the thickened layer. Good, if she kept this up, she could endure longer….
Thud. Her forehead hit the ground. She had been maintaining a state of exertion but having exhausted all her strength in an extreme situation, all her magic power was depleted.
“This won’t do… like this….”
Alicia had no strength left to move her fingers. The most she could do was turn her head to the side, glued to the ground.
She couldn’t even close her eyelids that were drooping as she watched the insects approaching through the narrow gap.
Was this the end?
That fleeting thought didn’t come as despairing to Alicia. Rather, it seemed sweet, as if taking a bite of that thought would make everything blissful.
She could see the people she missed.
Her past flickered before her eyes. The happiest moments of her life before meeting her second mother. At the same time, the beloved faces and the terrible day emerged.
“……”
Her memories continued to flow. Recently, astonishing events happened one after another. All because of one person, yet everything changed with his light steps.
She didn’t mind dying like this. Living was a series of pains, and there were more hard times than good ones.
But two beings wouldn’t easily let go of her fragile heart.
Her second mother, who would be left alone.
Despite all the hardships, she took in an orphan like herself, who was on the verge of collapse from hunger, with no place to go. The mother who raised her to this point.
And another person, surprisingly, was that man who had suddenly appeared recently.
Though he was arrogant and cold, he was the first to believe in her worth. Disappointing someone like him by dying so futilely would probably make him very disappointed. That was what held Alicia back.
Yes, she had to live.
She couldn’t die like this.
She tried to muster strength in her trembling muscles. Even with slight trembling, she had to exert maximum strength.
“Ma… ma….”
Alicia called out to him, who would be waiting above. Her throat quivered accordingly.
“Master….”
“Miss Alicia has been talking in her sleep for a while. Well, she would be out of her mind after exhausting all her magic power.”
“It was a good opportunity to check Alicia’s current state and forcibly increase her magic capacity, so we have to bear with this.”
“You’re still cold, Master. Or rather… you rescued her just before she was completely covered by the insects, so perhaps you’re actually kind?”
“Stop your needless chatter and move her properly. We’ll be very busy from tomorrow, so she needs to be restored to her original state.”
Paula stopped talking and used magic to levitate Alicia. She would take her to the room and help restore her magic power. It wouldn’t take long for her to recover.
Once she did, Alicia would have taken another step forward from this training.
⎯So far, everything was perfect.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that everything was progressing as planned. But there should be no complacency. The real moment of change began now.
The upcoming trials would transform Alicia completely. Forcing a moment that would’ve taken much longer to come would have significant repercussions.
But it didn’t matter.
Any task required bearing the risk that matched the reward. The greater the reward, the higher the risk. Therefore, achieving it made it all the more valuable.
I approached the levitating Alicia. Her fair skin was distinct.
I brushed the hair off her sleeping face and tucked it behind her ear. It was the face of an innocent girl, unaware of what lied ahead.
“Sleep well.”
And greeted the morning.
The basic preparations were complete, so you should show a more transformed self. As your audience, I was waiting for it. Did you understand?
Cowardly Alicia.