Villain's Refund System: The Protagonist's Harem Is Mine

Healing resin still covered half Damien’s back when Mina’s emergency message turned his phone screen red inside Halcrest’s recovery wing.

He sat upright too quickly and pulled every sealed wound at once, ’ugh, that hurts, but Mina never marks anything emergency unless machinery starts eating people.’

[MINA: Workshop sealed. Prototype active. Not mine anymore.]

Another line appeared beneath the first before Damien reached his coat hanging nearby.

[MINA: If you are still injured, send somebody useful instead.]

"Yeah, very funny," he muttered, fastening the coat over fresh bandages, "I will remember that after stopping your homicidal furniture."

The recovery door refused to open while his patient seal remained active, so Damien drew the saber and cut through its glowing latch.

A nurse shouted behind him as Flicker carried his body into the corridor, where evening students scattered around his unfinished boots.

’Workshop Three sits across the west bridge, four minutes running, maybe thirty seconds if Flicker does not tear my legs apart first.’

He crossed the glass bridge through three ugly bursts, arriving outside Mina’s wing while alarms flashed amber above every locked entrance.

Black smoke pressed against the workshop windows, and metal limbs struck the inner shutters hard enough to bend reinforced slats outward.

A security officer stood beside the sealed blast door with one hand over its control plate, though his override kept returning red.

"Lord Sterling, the containment order forbids entry until a faculty artificer arrives," he said, blocking Damien with an armored shoulder.

"Somebody is trapped inside while you protect the hallway," Damien replied, looking through smoke for Mina’s smaller silhouette.

"The professor issued the seal himself, so no student possesses authority to challenge it," the officer answered, tightening his stance.

The name pulled a memory from the original novel, showing Hallow accepting applause beside Mina’s stolen prototype after Lucas carried her out of the wreckage.

’Hallow sealed her in early, fuck, he is not protecting the hall, that bastard waits for Lucas to perform the rescue.’

Damien pressed his signet against the emergency plate, then sent Flicker through the opening during its brief Sterling verification pulse.

The blast door closed behind his coat and crushed one loose edge before he pulled free.

Smoke burned his eyes inside the workshop, where folding barriers lay broken among benches covered with scattered tools.

Mina hung from an overhead cable above the central floor, kicking away a brass limb each time it reached toward her boots.

Her messy bun had collapsed across one cheek, while blood ran from a cut beneath the goggles toward her jaw.

"The injured idiot arrived personally," she called, swinging around another snapping claw, "did every useful adult take tonight off?"

"One stood outside guarding the door from rescue attempts," Damien replied, drawing his saber beneath the moving prototype.

The machine occupied half the workshop as a broad brass torso mounted above six folding legs, with Mina’s amber control core buried inside its chest.

Damien watched those folding limbs scrape toward her boots, ’it ignores everything except Mina, shit, the script wants its grateful rescue badly.’

Black residue crawled across every joint, forming the same hooked rune they had trapped beneath Sterling Hall.

’That black rune is back, somebody shoved murder into Mina’s work, then activated it before Lucas arrived.’

A front limb struck toward Damien, forcing him through Flicker as metal shattered the floor beneath his previous position.

He reappeared beside the hanging cable and cut Mina loose, catching her harness before both bodies hit the stones.

"Hands above the belt unless you want that saber inserted somewhere educational," she said, pushing away from his chest.

"You were falling headfirst," Damien replied, setting her behind an overturned bench, "please file complaints after the giant machine stops trying murder."

Mina grabbed a two-handed wrench-hammer from beneath the bench and checked its charge with one angry pull.

"Hold the front limbs away from my core housing for twenty seconds," she said, wiping blood off her chin, "then I can shut it down."

"Twenty seconds against that thing feels optimistic when it keeps growing new arms," Damien answered as the prototype tore another barrier from its mounting rails.

"Give me fifteen if your mouth cannot stay quiet for longer," Mina replied, running toward the rear joint while her hammer unfolded above one shoulder.

Damien stepped into the machine’s reach and placed Sinner’s Brand against its black rune, though the mark flickered across metal without settling.

[Invalid Target]

[Correction Interference]

’Of course the murder robot refuses normal rules, fine, hit it until something important becomes valid.’

Two limbs crossed toward his ribs, and Damien Flickered over their intersection before landing on the prototype’s broad shoulder plate.

His saber entered one rear hinge while Mina struck the opposite joint, forcing the entire machine down several centimeters.

"That was my expensive alignment housing," she shouted, wrench-hammer sparking against brass, "try breaking only possessed parts, rich boy."

"Color possessed parts differently next time, then my blade might respect your budget," Damien replied, jumping before a smaller claw closed around his ankle.

The prototype opened its chest and released a white pulse through every bench, throwing loose tools across the room.

One steel driver turned toward Mina during flight, ’not her, damn, every weapon here received the same target before activation.’

Damien turned his shoulder between Mina and the blast, then Iron Veil appeared as a locked option inside his sight.

’Still too expensive, seriously, System, this would be a wonderful moment for a free trial.’

A steel driver buried itself through his coat and stopped against one rib while Mina’s barrier pack unfolded behind them.

She pulled him down as another projectile crossed overhead, then snapped two compact charges onto his saber guard.

"Those explode after your next full cut," Mina said, reaching toward the lodged driver, "do not miss unless you enjoy losing fingers."

"Your encouragement feels very personal when that machine keeps throwing metal at me," Damien replied, gritting his teeth while she tore the steel piece free.

Pain filled his side, and the Blood Ledger accepted damage even though Sinner’s Brand had failed against their target.

[Flesh Debt: 112]

The black rune inside the prototype stretched toward Mina when she approached its core housing, ignoring Damien completely.

’It wants her alive until the machine owns her work, no, the script needs Lucas to save her after everything gets stolen.’

Damien ran beneath the front limbs and cut through their shared pivot, letting Mina reach the chest while metal crashed behind him.

She drove both hands into the open housing and caught the amber core before black residue could close around her wrists.

"Hold this conduit," Mina shouted, kicking a live cable toward Damien, "and do not release until I say something extremely rude."

"That instruction lacks useful timing when your definition of rude covers every breath," he replied, catching the conduit as violet current burned across his injured palm.

Mana poured through Damien into the Blood Ledger, raising its tally while Mina rewired the core beneath snapping black threads.

[Flesh Debt: 284]

[Flesh Debt: 437]

His knees shook as the machine gathered another pulse, ’come on, if she needs ten more seconds, my hand might leave before the cable does.’

"Fuck this stolen rune, Damien, cut across the center before it closes again," Mina shouted, slamming her wrench-hammer through the core’s outer ring.

Damien released the conduit and swung his charged saber through the black line, triggering both compact charges during contact.

Amber fire traveled along the cut and tore the foreign rune away from Mina’s core, then the prototype collapsed around them.

The last metal limb struck Damien across the back before dying, throwing him beside Mina beneath a shower of harmless sparks.

She rolled onto one elbow and stared at the ruined machine, then laughter escaped through several exhausted breaths.

"You destroyed thirty percent of my prototype while saving the remaining half," she said, touching the cut near her jaw, "somehow your math still feels generous."

"Charge Professor Hallow for the missing twenty percent and whatever my back needs tomorrow," Damien replied, pulling the black rune fragment from his saber.

A faculty seal glowed beneath its residue, showing Hallow’s name across one edge before the fragment began turning to smoke.

Mina caught Damien’s wrist and trapped the mark beneath a clear sensor plate, preserving one black thread before everything else vanished.

The surviving thread twisted under her fingers, ’she caught proof again, good, Hallow loses another chance to call this random failure.’

"He activated it," she said, anger replacing every trace of laughter, "Hallow signed the ignition rune with his own mana."

Damien looked toward the sealed workshop door as somebody finally began opening it from outside, ’good, now we know the thief, though next time he will bring something larger than her prototype.’

He helped Mina stand among the broken limbs while her captured black thread kept twisting toward the west faculty tower.