Villain: 10x Rewards Begins With The Protagonist's Mother

Natasha came back a few minutes later with a healing potion. Her face was perfectly normal, like they weren’t doing anything weird a while ago.

"Here, drink this. The wound will heal instantly." She handed it to him quickly.

Dante took it without saying a word.

But instead of drinking it, he stepped closer to her with his eyes slightly narrowed.

’Did he notice the glow? Or is he angry that an old woman like me s-sucked his finger?’ Natasha took a step back without thinking and her eyes shut as his hand reached toward her face. ’Is... is he going to slap me? Is he really that upset?’

’Should I stop him? No, I deserved it! But, I am his master!’

However, when she peeked through one eye, she saw the tissue in his hand.

"There’s some blood on your mouth, Master." Dante wiped her lips gently while Natasha stood there looking like an idiot.

Her brain had been preparing for a slap and got this instead. She had no idea what to do.

Dante treated the woman who just sucked the blood out of his finger like a kid who ate too messy. After that, he popped the cap off and drank the potion in one go.

"Master, shall we continue?" He asked, tossing the empty bottle into the bin and turning back to her like nothing happened.

"Uh... yeah." Natasha nodded awkwardly after her brain finally caught up. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

****

An hour later, the two of them somehow managed to finish the pasta. Natasha had taken over the cutting while Dante handled the rest under her instructions.

Now the two of them sat across from each other at the dining table with two plates of pasta between them.

The atmosphere was.... weirdly normal.

Dante picked up his fork and started eating.

Natasha followed and did the same. She kept glancing at him between bites without meaning to.

’I should eat quickly and get out of here. I can’t handle this anymore!’ She had already prepared excuses for both the finger lick and the mana glow in case he brought it up. But watching him eat so normally like nothing had happened only made her more nervous.

’System, where is the mission completion notification? And that manual better be worth what I went through!’ She asked while shoveling food into her mouth.

Dante was waiting for exactly this moment. He wanted to hear the reason straight from her own mouth.

Why did she stop healing him and start sucking his finger instead?

[Before we start, Random Question of the Day!]

[Why did you lick Dante’s finger?]

[A) His finger looked tasty *Yummy Emoji*]

[B) I am a freak *Freaky Emoji*]

[C) I want to do it again *Drooling Emoji*]

[D) Others [Must Share]]

[You will get the reward after answering this question]

Natasha almost choked on her food after reading the message.

She grabbed her glass and chugged the water while Dante watched her from across the table with a ’concerned’ face. "Master, are you okay?"

"I am fine." She managed between coughs.

’WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THIS?!’ She screamed internally. ’RANDOM QUESTION OF THE DAY?! SINCE WHEN DO YOU HAVE THAT FEATURE?!’

’Hehe, since now.’ Dante thought, barely keeping the grin off his face as he watched her struggle to hold it together.

’What the hell are these choices? His finger looked tasty? I am a WHAT? And I want to do it AGAIN?!’ Natasha’s body started trembling as she went through the options one more time.

Lines formed on her forehead.

’System.’

[Yes?]

’DO YOU WANT TO DIE?’

[Do you not want the reward?]

’You fucking bot...!’ She had a murderous look in her eyes as she stared at the system window floating right below her plate.

’You already know why I did it. Are you doing this just to humiliate me?’

[I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s just a question based on YOUR actions. The choices are based on YOUR actions. You can always ask others about this if you want.]

’.....’ Natasha didn’t say anything.

She realized arguing with this thing was a complete waste of time.

This blue screen of bullshit was just messing with her.

But the ragebait was really hard to ignore, especially since there was some truth to it.

If she ever told anyone what she did, she could already picture the disgusted look on their face.

’I did it because Dante is going to learn that technique later. He’ll realize I shouldn’t have been able to use it in my current state.’ She recollected everything, struggling to keep her anger under control.

’After seeing his suspicious face, I just panicked and did the first thing I could think of to distract him! Okay? Are you happy now??’

’So that’s why...’ Dante finally learned the real reason behind her actions. And he had to admit, the finger lick was a crazy good move.

The kind of distraction that made a person forget what they were even suspicious about in the first place.

[Do you want to hear some good news?]

’What?’ Natasha asked in an irritated tone.

At this point, she just wanted to collect the reward and see what was so great about this manual.

If it turned out to be useless, she was going to break something.

[Your actions weren’t in vain. Dante didn’t see the mana glow on your fingertips. He was just puzzled by your sudden actions. Additionally, he doesn’t think of you weirdly for sucking his finger.]

’Phew...’ Natasha let out a breath of relief the second she heard those words.

[And one more thing...]

[Congratulations! You have successfully completed the mission — Let Him Cook!]

[You have obtained Path of Recultivation (Super Rare)!]

With that, the system finally went quiet.

Natasha pushed the system panels aside with a thought and relaxed a little.

Dante gave her some time to recover before asking with an ashamed expression.

"Master, is the food not good?"

She wanted to say it was good, but when she looked down at her plate, she had barely eaten a few bites. ’It’s all that system’s fault!’

"Haha, I was just thinking about something." She said with a nervous laugh. She started stuffing her face while adding. "I really like it!"

"Is that so?" He looked at her with some doubt.

"I LOVE IT!" She said after swallowing a mouthful. She pointed at his plate with her fork. "You eat too. It’s going to get cold."

Dante nodded at her with a smile and went back to eating.

Natasha kept her head down as she kept eating, but a flustered look crept into her eyes.

’Why....! Why the hell do I still taste his blood?’