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

On the other hand, Dante was in his room, watching Natasha gobble down those rice cakes without even wiping the smears off her face.

"Man, she’s so cute." He had no idea she had a side like this.

"Maybe she always did..." He paused, his heart pulling as he recalled the scenes where she talked about her past. "But she was definitely forced to bury all of it and act like a responsible adult when she was still a child."

The higher-ups at Eden’s Gate were really fucking bums. Instead of rebuilding their organization, they treated a little girl like their savior and dumped all of their responsibilities onto her.

Being the leader of Eden’s Gate was a thankless job. That was why even the protagonist rejected the position. Honestly, Dante didn’t really want to be the successor of Eden’s Gate either.

"She worked her whole life for that position. To become the leader. She even chose to marry that son of a bitch just to protect that organization..." He glanced at Natasha on the feed and shook his head with a smile. "Yet she handed it all to me like it was nothing."

How could he refuse that?

"What a stupid woman." He said as he took a rice cake for himself. "I would never do that."

Even though those were his words, there was no contempt in his voice. His eyes softened as he watched her.

Dante knew he was getting attached to her, but he didn’t try to fight it. The reason he chose to be a villain was to defeat the protagonist and take control of his own fate.

He didn’t choose to become some emotionless machine, and he didn’t want to collect heroines just for their bodies.

Then there would be no difference between him and Ryan. It would just be swapping from the left hand to the right.

Besides, the heroines were real people with their own lives, not items to be collected in a gacha game.

"Damn... this is actually good!" He said with some surprise after taking a bite.

’So this is what she likes’ He thought, grabbing another one.

Dante spent the rest of the day cultivating since he had nothing else to do.

He absorbed another Mythic Mana Stone, leaving him with four. He was approaching the peak stage at lightning speed.

And just as he expected, Natasha never took a single step outside her room the whole day.

The next day, he stood in front of her door with a package again. This time, he added some cheese.

But that wasn’t the point.

"Master, are you really okay? Is it really just training?" He asked in a worried tone.

"Dante, I’m really telling the truth. Master is just busy training." Natasha said with a guilty look in her eyes.

There was no one to see it, so she didn’t bother hiding it.

That’s what she thought.

Dante was talking to her while watching the feed.

He asked in a disappointed tone. "So we can’t go shopping today either?"

"I’m really sorry. We can go in a few days." She replied, instantly regretting why she said a few days.

"Then I’ll just leave the food here."

After that, he returned to his room, and a hand shot out a few minutes later to grab the package just like last time.

In the evening, Dante opened his eyes and ended his training session as the mana stone in his hand turned to ash.

Now he was down to three. He would reach Mana Awakening Peak Stage in a day or two. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

But there wasn’t a hint of happiness on his face.

"I can’t go on like this!" He said with urgency in his voice.

With Natasha locking herself in her room, he had no way to farm rewards or villain points. Even the 2x cultivation boost he had stacked was running out.

He had already thought about assigning a system to one of the other heroines in the city.

But once he did that, he would have to wait until he bedded one of his targets, and before that could happen, Emma would be back.

He planned to use the second slot on her since he wanted to get her before Ryan returned.

And he still needed a lot of villain points to buy another slot.

Just as he was thinking about what to do, a notification sound came from his phone.

The same thing happened in the master bedroom.

Both Natasha and Dante picked up their phones and looked at the message from Freya.

[Freya: Tomorrow, Crimson Hollow is having a monthly meeting. We’re invited.]

"Yes! Finally something to do!" An excited grin spread across Dante’s face, teeth showing and all.

Natasha had the opposite reaction. She stared at the message with concern. ’Oh no...’

Even though his safety was guaranteed with Felix and Freya around him, she couldn’t stop herself from worrying.

While she was locking herself in her room while her student was working hard to take revenge in her place.

’Oh Natasha, what are you doing?’ She pressed her hand against her forehead, then slowly dragged it down her face in frustration.

***

Another day passed swiftly.

In the morning, Dante walked out of the mansion with an extremely happy face.

"Did something good happen, sir?" Felix asked as he drove out of the gate.

"Obviously. We’re going to the meeting!" Dante said with a grin.

"Are you really that excited about going to a scum gathering?" Freya asked with a puzzled look.

"You wouldn’t understand..." He said, turning to look out the window. He wanted to open the sunroof, spread his arms, and scream "FREEDOM!"

They had no idea how bored he was cultivating from morning to night.

He was going to have a lot of fun today.

’But it won’t be more fun than tomorrow.’ He thought as he recalled what Natasha said before he left.

"Dante, I’ll finish my training today."

"W-we can go shopping tomorrow."