The Villainess Is My Cute Daughter

[A/N: Thank you for all the reviews and even more golden tickets! As a token of appreciation, here’s 7 Chapters for the day.]

He choked on his own tears, looked up and locked eyes with Adrian standing right in front of his shop. Cassius slowly balled his bleeding hands into fists. He thought Adrian set this up, so he tried to stand up to fight him.

Adrian casually reached into his coat and pulled out a heavy silver medallion. It was the official crest of his Duke family line. He rarely used it but it carried massive weight.

He flipped the crest so Cassius could see the intricate lion carving.

"I am a member of the Sterling family," Adrian said. "I am a Baron and I did not know your situation was this dire Cassius."

Cassius froze. A Baron from a Duke’s bloodline was standing in front of him.

"I am changing my offer," Adrian said. "I will not give you half the loan. I will completely wipe your debt clean today and I will free you from those thugs."

Cassius stopped breathing.

"But my condition remains," Adrian stated. "You work for me for the rest of your life. You act as my personal merchant and financial advisor. I will provide a safe house for your family in my territory. No one will ever touch them again. If you need loans to start a business I will provide the capital directly. I will invest in you."

Cassius stared at him. The anger vanished and relief took it’s place. Adrian looked like an angel sent from the heavens.

Cassius dropped to his knees right in the dirt and slammed his forehead against the cobblestones.

"I accept!" Cassius cried out. "Please fix this... please bring my family back. I will dedicate my entire life to serving you and I will do anything you ask, as long as it does not involve fighting."

"Deal," Adrian smiled. He walked over and patted Cassius on the shoulder. "Follow me."

Adrian did not march straight to the thug hideout. He wasn’t dumb and he wan’t strong either.

He walked straight to the capital’s Adventurer Guild. The place was packed with heavily armed warriors looking for work. Adrian walked right up to the main reception desk.

He slammed ten solid gold coins on the counter. The loud clink made the entire room go quiet.

"I need an assault squad," Adrian told the receptionist. "I need your strongest available mercenaries. We are taking down a local loan shark gang and I will wait here for exactly two hours. Get me the best."

Ten gold was an absurd payout for a simple gang raid. The receptionist nodded frantically before she started calling out names to the guild helpers and word spread like wildfire.

Adrian only had to wait one hour.

A massive group of fighters lined up in front of him and Adrian picked quality over quantity. He selected a tight group. Three F rank knights and ten incredibly skilled swordsmen.

"Lead the way Cassius," Adrian ordered.

Cassius guided the heavily armed squad through the slums. They reached a fortified warehouse at the edge of the district.

"Beat them all," Adrian told the mercenaries. "Keep them alive but get them as close to death as possible."

The three F rank knights kicked the warehouse doors off the hinges and the swordsmen rushed inside.

Adrian stood outside and listened to the screams. It was a completely one sided massacre. After all, regular thugs stood zero chance against trained guild elites.

Ten minutes later, Adrian walked inside. There was blood pooled on the floor and groaning thugs clutched broken arms and shattered ribs.

Adrian walked to the back holding cells and unlocked the iron cages. He let out a dozen kidnapped victims. Cassius’s wife and son were huddled in the corner of the last cell.

The thugs had a strict policy of never damaging their merchandise. The wife and kid were scared but completely unharmed.

Adrian watched as Cassius ran forward and hugged them before the three of them cried together. He then turned to the bleeding thugs on the floor.

"You guys have three options," Adrian announced. "You can bleed out and right here, I turn you over to the royal guards for execution. Or you can work for me."

The thugs practically tripped over themselves agreeing to work for him.

Adrian knew they were scum but they did not touch the hostages. They had a twisted sense of business morals and Adrian needed disposable grunts to do his dirty work in the future.

"Sign these," Adrian tossed a stack of blood pacts onto the floor. "I will pay you a fair wage. You stop this kidnapping business immediately and you wait for my orders."

The thugs signed the pacts with their own blood while Adrian dismissed the mercenaries. They took their ten gold and left in a happy mood. It was a mission that barely took a few minutes but earned them a fortune.

Adrian led Cassius and his family back to the wealthy district. He booked them a room in his high end inn for exactly five days.

He handed Cassius two heavy pouches, both of which were filled with silver.

"Go buy these specific herbs," Adrian ordered. He listed off a bunch of common cheap medicinal weeds. "Then find a white petaled Moon Flower. It will be expensive and I don’t care about your haggling skills. Just bring everything back here."

Cassius did not ask questions. He just took the coins and walked out.

Adrian chilled in his room for the rest of the day. Around ten at night Cassius returned with a massive burlap sack full of herbs.

"Thank you. Go rest with your family," Adrian said.

Cassius bowed and left.

Adrian linked his mind to his dungeon. ’System craft a heavy copper pot.’

A thick copper cauldron appeared on the floor. Adrian grabbed the pot and the sack of herbs before he left the inn and walked out of the city gates. He found an empty dirt field far away from the guards.

He dug a small pit and tossed some dry firewood inside.

’I should learn fireball just in case...’