Fated to Be Loved by Villains

Considering the environment he grew up in, one could say that the boy was miraculous.

In the first place, it wasn’t a place where one could live normally.

For an orphan who wasn’t under protection of a guardian, the poor community he lived in was a place where all kinds of dangers were looming around at all times. It wouldn’t be outrageous to call it hell on Earth.

There was a case where someone who appointed themselves as his guardian turned out to be a sex offender. There was also one time where he was almost sold into human trafficking after running away from an orphanage he lived in, and got involved with bad people.

It was natural for someone who grew up in such an environment to be lacking in many ways to become a bodyguard for a lady from a rich family.

He learned how to deceive others before he even learned letters, how to run away from a fight, how to shove anything into his mouth in order not to die...

Those were the only kinds of knowledge the boy had—the kinds of knowledge that could sell off his future, to damage his own body just to survive through the day.

“He’s practically a wild animal, Milady.”

Hence why it was understandable that his ‘trainer’ made such a remark.

The guttersnipe of the slum. Someone who lived a lowly life without receiving any education, someone who couldn’t learn about humans’ emotions and warmth.

Typically, a person would slowly dry up to death without money; without money, they’d be unable to afford anything; unable to afford anything, they’d gradually turn into something more similar to a beast than a human.

Theft, drug dealing, contract killing...

There was nothing the boy hadn’t done in order to survive.

“...He’d survive whatever place you left him be, for sure. He learns anything quickly, he’s also quick-witted and composed, but...”

Everyone wanted to live and survive.

It was even more so in his case, hence he was willing to do anything to survive. He had to.

“I’m not sure if he would be suitable to ‘protect’ someone.”

However...

“-That won’t do, then.”

In his memory, he heard such words...

Uttered by the girl.

“That means we have to teach him how to. He’s like that because he hasn’t learned it yet.”

Although the girl wouldn’t remember it properly since it happened a long time ago...

She was the one who taught the boy how to ‘live as a human’.

For the first time in his life, he received warm food, a place to sleep, chances to interact with others, how to deal with his emotions, how to blend in with people...

And more importantly, she...

Taught him what ordinary happiness was.

It was to the point that his life in the slum became memories of a distant past, overlapped by the new memories he had experienced.

He...

Gradually became a ‘human’ under the girl’s protection.

“-Why did you do something like that?”

“Did what?”

“Just what did you see from me that made you go this far for my sake?”

One day, the boy once asked the girl such a question.

This wasn’t the first time he asked that, but the girl had never given him a satisfying answer.

At this point, it had been almost five years since he met the girl.

Both of them were almost coming of age.

Perhaps that factor had a big influence in how the girl willingly answered his question that day.

“As I grew up, many things were prohibited for me.”

The girl had always been sickly.

Looking back, she spent most of her time either sitting or lying down in her bed.

The boy heard that it was a rare disease where her blood vessels that were connected to her heart would become narrower day by day.

Hence why, to her, actions that were simple to others were almost like drudgeries—she could only do it under the influence of various devices.

Being born as a daughter with such a rare disease in a rich family, it was a matter of course that she received the best medical support. But, as a consequence, the list of ‘things she couldn’t do’ was bound to get ridiculously longer.

“You can’t do this because of this, you can do that because of that... It’s irritating how they interfered with whatever I did. So I wanted to kick over the traces. Bringing you in as my guard was such a simple whim.”

“...There wasn’t any particular reason?”

The boy muttered, looking somehow disappointed.

Seeing that, the girl giggled, as if finding him cute, and replied.

“No, there was a reason why it just had to be you.”

“What was it?”

“When we first met, you were just like a cat in the rain. Like them, you bristled your hair, trying to look threatening.”

“...”

“Even after I brought you here, you kept that cuteness with you for a while. Seeing you made me feel like I was raising a coy pet, you know?”

“...”

“Believe me. You act like you’re very cool-headed, clever, and smart, but in the end, you’re destined to be whipped by the woman who got you wrapped around her finger—”

“...Enough.”

The boy said brusquely with a frown, prompting the girl to start giggling again.

Even while he was acting irritated like that, his hands didn’t stop peeling the apple for the girl. This showed the boy’s nature.

“Don’t be like that. Come here.”

The girl said as she tapped the space beside her on the bed.

She gestured to him to come and sit next to her. Of course, since he had just heard all kinds of insulting remarks from her, he refused to do so.

“Why should I?”

“If you want to keep your life, come here.”

“...”

Sometimes, the girl changed her speech into that of a drunken sailor’s instead of a daughter of a rich family’s.

The boy knew from experience that he would be in big trouble if he didn’t listen without saying anything, so he obediently sat beside the girl. As he sat down, the girl immediately lay flat on the boy’s lap.

“...I just did it on a whim back then.”

“Hm?”

“But, somehow, my affection for you grew more than I thought. To the point that I ended up making all kinds of memories with you, even though I originally only brought you here on a whim.”

The girl said so and immediately hugged the boy in her arms.

With that, they transferred their body’s warmth to each other. As she buried her face in her belly, the girl continued while giggling.

“Now, it has to be you.”

“...Yeah.”

The boy replied calmly before cutting the apple again.

In that sickroom, where only the sounds of the fruit knife slicing the apple’s skin could be heard intermittently, the girl muttered in a faint voice.

“Earlier, I said that I wanted to kick over the traces when I brought you here, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Actually, I wanted to do something else as well—something that would get me scolded hard by my mother and father if they knew.”

“What is it?”

Instead of answering his question right away, the girl just grinned at him.

“It’s a see-cret—”

—That was what the boy recalled.

The conversation that they had in the past.

That happened just a week before the ‘kidnapping incident’ happened.

●

“You’re doing better than expected.”

Professor Mobius muttered while looking at Dowd Campbell on the stage.

Of course he didn’t think that Dowd was an opponent that he could subdue easily, but he was still amazed at how his spirits hadn’t dampened even though the man had been gone through a series of battles against Automatons that had ‘Demonic Aura’ installed—not the real thing, of course, just artificial ones that Mobius created to be as close as possible to the real thing.

“The third one...hasn’t been defeated properly yet, it seems.”

Mobius muttered while looking at the Automaton that was spreading red hellfire in all directions.

The Automatons that imitated the Demonic Auras of the Blue Devil, who possessed the Pulverization Authority, and the White Devil, who possessed the Enthrallment Authority, had already collapsed.

He had made the Automatons to imitate the people around Dowd so that his will to fight would be diminished as much as possible, but his efforts hadn’t borne any fruits so far.

However...

As the battles went on...

He noticed how the ‘anger’ inside Dowd was becoming bigger and bigger.

Because the gazes that Dowd had been sending him in the middle of his battles contained burning hostility that gradually grew more intense.

Hence why...

That will do.

Mobius let out a satisfied smile.

It was his intention to evoke such emotions in Dowd.

Anger was an emotion that would dull one’s judgment, making one prone to following their impulse, greatly reducing one’s resistance towards sudden developments...

And...

Most importantly...

There was still a long way to go for Dowd to reach the ‘trump card’ he was hiding at the very end.

Once he faced the thing at the end of this...

That anger he had been building would eventually burn himself.

“Although it’s not my place to say this as someone who tried to start a civil war in the Empire...”

Marquis Bogut—on his knees with a sword—who had been watching this all unfolded besides Mobius, suddenly uttered as such.

There was his usual flippant atmosphere as he said that, but there was a rare, genuine ‘disgust’ mixed in his voice.

“You really are a trashy guy, Professor Mobius.”

Hearing those words, Professor Mobius stealthily shifted his gaze at him. Marquis Bogut continued, sounding as if he was chewing on his words.

“If you aren’t, you wouldn’t have done something this dirty just to offend someone. You’re the owner of the Magic Tower, where the fuck is your dignity and honor?”

“...”

What a cheap provocation...

“No, you seem to be mistaking something.”

Mobius said so before crossing his legs with a smile.

“Both that man and yourself are now in this predicament because you two are tied up to something insignificant. Don’t you think so?”

“...Pardon me?”

“I heard Professor Astrid was your first love. You don’t have much time left to live anyway, so you came up with plans to save her from me. That was why you bare your fangs at me, no?”

“...”

From his perspective...

“I don’t understand. Why would you risk your lives for such a pathetic thing?”

“...”

“Such a thing would just make you prone to be controlled by a real wise person. Just like what’s happening right now. Don’t you think so?”

As someone who had been analyzing the world based on merely data ever since he was born...

Familial love, friendship, love...

The things called emotions were the most insignificant things. Emotions were merely things that could change anytime due to the hormones’ chemical activities secreted in the brain.

To him, who had put those sorts of things into the controllable variables category, both the man called Bogut—who wished to save his first love and ended up in such a miserable state—and Dowd Campbell—who was twisting his body to save his mother over there—were just pathetic humans.

“...”

Marquis Bogut let out a deep sigh.

Guess, that’s how he’s seen it, huh?

I don’t get it, but you aren’t supposed to understand the thoughts of a lunatic anyway.

It’s just...

...That sort of mindset is the thing that would make him go down.

Bogut thought so while fixing his gaze on Dowd Campbell who was still fighting on the stage.

Even he could see how angry that guy was.

It was clear that his desire to kill Mobius, who was practically insulting the people around him and himself, gradually became stronger the more he fought.

But...

That wasn’t all.

Underlying the emotion that he was showing on the outside, if he dug deeper below the surface, going down to the deep layer that held the emotion that was a little bit more important than the others...

His ‘innermost thought’...

...Again.

As someone who had been observing him all this time, Bogut’s intuition was telling him...

You’re up to something, huh?

That man...

Was definitely thinking of getting his ‘retribution’ from Mobius.