Life Of A Nobody - as a Villain

Few hours ago

With a soft growl Rio opened his eyes to the sight of flickering flames, and the scent of grilling meat. He blinked his eyes and recollected his thoughts, remembering the arduous fight with the elite monster and then the fatigue which left him falling unconscious.

"How long was I out?" He asked while suppressing the breaking pain with a grunt, as he tried to sit straight.

"Five hours." Katherine replied monotonously while curiously watching him looking at his bloody hands and then snapping his fingers which magically cleaned the smelly blood from his skin and clothes.

"That's a handy spell." She said and pointed her finger to his side.

Rio turned his head and there near the makeshift pillow of some herbs and hay, noticed a leather storage pouch.

"The monster's corpse and his core." She said before he could ask.

"Tch" Rio clicked his tongue and threw it in his inventory, where the system harvested the trash and turned it into some useful points.

He then picked a meat stick from the fire and started eating it without any reserves. Closing his eyes and making comfortable munching sounds as he did.

"Umm, it's good."

"... It's still raw. nd uncooked." Katherine replied, not knowing how a Duke's son could even eat that with relish.

"Good nonetheless."

The duo sat in silence both busy in their own world, Rio on his eating and recovering his strength, and Katherine in her own thoughts.

"Why did you save me?" She asked after she saw him finish his 'meditation' and open his eyes.

"You could've left me as bait and whizzed out of this cave, so why fight so hard? Why risk your life, when you could easily run away alone?"

"Don't think too much into it." Rio replied as he met her gaze. Though the Katherine he knew from the plot and the one sitting in front of him were very very different, but after spending time together for so long, he could now guess her thoughts a little.

"I would've run if I knew I'd lose. I don't fight those battles." Rio said the truth.

"So you had the confidence to win?"

"100% . And besides, the monster was a nice training partner, who taught me a few things. And gave nice meat, so…"

Rio was still smiling and eating heartily when Katherine cut him off. "How do you do it?" She asked in a serious tone, "How do you smile and make light of everything?"

"I don't know what you mean?"

"I saw you,_ shaking at the entrance before we even set foot in this dungeon, clearly showing you weren't over your past _ and yet here you are." She spoke and asked again, "So how do you do it?"

Rio froze for a second hearing her question, but then raised his head to look up. His smile now gone, expression turned serious.

He wasn't angry that she purposefully reminded him about his dungeon experience again, and scratched his old wounds, _he was just thinking about his response.

Katherine looked at him lost in thoughts and silently waited for a response, which when it came, surprised her again.

"The answer to your question is not as much as a how, but more of a why." Rio said, his words making her confused. But he ignored it and continued.

"Cause when you have people around you who wants you be fine, to be okay _ and you really don't want to hurt them.. You just learn to suppress your pain and smile."

"Won't it hurt them even more to learn that it's all an act?" She asked.

"Perhaps." Rio said and chuckled, "But unless any of us can change the past, this is it. _ Who knows, maybe fake it till you make it theory might work wonders eh."

This answer wasn't something that Katherine had expected, and Rio could see her looking lost in thoughts, pondering over what he said with her eyes down.

He could see where she was going with this conversation, and what she was thinking about, but unless he wanted another sword aimed at his back, he could just lie and curb her dreams. Experience tales at empire

And not like, he had any other advice..

He had spent two lives keeping secrets and shush over his screams, _madness and mayhem may calm his inner storm, but it never erased the essence of pain.

For him killing Noah was a necessity, a problem which got solved with a single order. But for her, his death probably meant losing the last family member who could ever truly love her unconditionally.

People often say being an orphan is the worst fate, but in my guess, being stuck with a parent who doesn't love you and only sees you as an object to earn profits or a burden to take care for, is a fate far more horrible.

"You should sleep, I'll keep watch." Rio said, waving his hand as a single bed with a soft mattress and fluffy pillows appeared in the cave.

Katherine looked around and the warm sight already changed her thoughts. She suppressed the itch to ask him where he even got the bed in academy, or why he's always keeping it handy in his ring, _and chose to say something else. "No, we should be leaving now. The dawn will break soon, and then.."

"We're offcourse and may need to rush for many many miles to get back on route. Not to mention the many monsters who may block our path, force us to fight. So rest, while you can." Rio replied cutting her off and then closed his eyes to meditate again.

Katherine looked at him taking the dead serpent's core in his hands, and then swallow it without saying anything.

She opened her mouth in a big 'O' shape, thinking he must have brought this out by mistake, and tried to warn him that it's poisonous and shouldn't be eaten directly but slowly purify it with mana and then channel it's essence _ but then next second she watched his furrowed brows relax, some color returning to his pale face.

Though she had given him a healing potion to recover, and his own blessings had worked passively, but somehow she felt that the poison which was supposed to be deadly for others, seemed to be working opposite for him.

'What a monster.' She thought in her mind and then moved on to sleep on the bed. Not willing to disturb him. Though her eyes still remained open, curiously watching him.

..

Unknown to her, Rio wasn't 'meditating' at all. He just ate the core, left the rest to his system and Hela's blessings to take care of_ and then moved inside his own personal system space.

Controlling a few ravens to keep watch on the cave's surroundings, and then staring at the everchanging map which showed everyone's positions in this dungeon.

"There you are." He said, while staring at the shining mark which showed Leon's current position, which seemed to going further and further from the positions of those trapped miners.

"It seems your lord Apollo doesn't want to take any more chances, and is directly taking you to the temple." He said with a smirk while zooming in on a cross mark at the map.

"I push you back and he pulls you up,. a pitiful protagonist indeed."

[What's the plan, host?] System asked, appearing as a bright blue ball, [Going by this rate, they'll reach their first.]

"Heh, as if." Rio smirked and shook his head.

"Since his god isn't taking him to save his people, then we'll send his people to him." Rio commanded with a laugh, clicking yes on the payment of points.

[Hehehe. Suck it fate, system's the best.] System too haughtily spoke and gobbled the riches before toppling the dungeon's terrain to send one more of those random teleportation quakes towards the mines.

"This should buy me enough time." Rio said as he noticed the changes on the map, and started planning his route accordingly.

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Author note - Sorry guys, but to my personal issues, job transfer, and then moving back to my city after ages _ the updates have been massively irregular. But everything should be settled soon.

This is also why I've put an halt on everything else too, but know that it's not dropped or forgotten, I'm just super busy, so just.... I'll be back strong soon and then we can continue this.