How to Redeem a Trashy Side Villain

Chapter 113: Nightmares

[Selgaath's Son]

"Mother, there's no need to sugarcoat it. Father is dead… isn't he?" I asked.

My mother seemed hesitant to answer me but after seeing the expression on my face, she eventually gave me the truth.

"Yes. Your father has died."

"..."

"But do not mourn him."

I'm not.

"He has brought honour to our family. Our king had a plan for him and in death, he's fulfilled the task that he was given."

I looked up at the painting in our home. One of them was a family portrait, but above it was a large portrait of the demon king.

"Do you know which puny human killed my father?" I asked her.

Mother went quiet for a bit before she responded.

"Bell Agnus."

❖ ❖ ❖

[Francis]

The cure to heartbreak is distraction.

The remedy for the loss of a loved one is the gains in muscles.

Where I lost a lover, I acquired a body that is to die for.

One day, she will come to regret that—

My poem was interrupted by an arrow that nearly nicked my ear.

"Watch it!" I yelled at Cormier.

"Are you thinking about your ex again?!" Jess yelled at me. "Focus up! We are in the middle of a spar!"

Recently, the three of us had been promoted to Second Class students. It was proof of our hard work, a little bit of talent, and a little bit of aid from our bestest friend, Bell.

When we were told by the Headmistress that we would be forming teams of four, my natural thought was the usual four, including Bell but it seemed he had other plans.

"You're just like my ex. Breaking my heart…" was what I told him. I guess Jess didn't like that because she ended up smacking me in the back of my head.

I'm 99 percent sure that I now have CTE because of her.

"Who's going to be your replacement then?" I asked him, putting on the saddest expression I could muster.

He recommended one of his friends, Bictor.

Bell described him as… a "crashout". Whatever that meant.

But if Bell recommended him then he's who we were going to go with.

Our first activity as a team was a space against another team. Our mentor told us that if we lost, he'd make us run a lap around the entire campus.

I can't afford to lose. Cardio is okay but excessive cardio can lead to losing muscle mass.

Not my muscles. Anything BUT my muscles.

Having been fighting together for quite some time, our usual trio of three barely got in each other's way. However, Bictor… he was something.

Regardless of who was attacking, his teammate or his opponent, he leaped into the middle of the other team and swung wildly.

As he was getting hurt, the smile on his face grew wider and wider.

"More!" he screamed, licking his lips. "More! Hahaha haha! MOREEEE!"

Is this what Bell meant by a crashout?

❖ ❖ ❖

[Bell]

We reached the eighth floor and because I was restricting myself from using codes or my artifacts, that floor ended up being our last.

Just as we were on our last legs, Quentin rushed in to save us. Within a few seconds, he cleared out all the monsters.

"Heal up," he told us.

Standing there with his singular arm by his side, I tried to read his face but it was a difficult task to do.

Was he satisfied with our performance? Was he disappointed? Or was there even any thoughts going on in that skull of his?

"You four did better than I thought," he said.

My three teammates smiled but I knew better than to be happy so soon with his compliments.

"I thought you four were the equivalent of a pile of shit surrounded by flies. Turns out, no flies. Just shit," he nodded with a smile.

"..."

"..."

Before we could comprehend, he had grabbed all of our sleeves with one hand and pulled us along as he left the dungeon.

He released us and I listened as Merlin threw up.

Sarakit looked sick as well but she held her urges back.

"Disgusting," Quentin made a stank face. "Clean that up."

He walked over to the man at the counter.

"Do you have a spare room?"

"Yes." The man pulled out a key with a tag attached. "Room 404."

Turns out, we were at a hotel.

A part of me felt like having a hotel built above a dungeon was a dangerous game to play but I chose not to express it out loud.

After the vomit was cleaned up, he led the four of us to the room.

There, he began setting up incense sticks.

I uttered, "Are you…"

Quentin nodded.

The other three seemed confused about what I was saying but knowing what was to come for them, I chose to keep my mouth shut.

"Alright you three, lie down. We're going to do an activity. It requires you guys to completely relax your body and give yourself to me."

"...Give myself to you. Are you sure this isn't some sort of sham?" asked Merlin, wrapping his arms around his body as if he was being asked to stand in the corner and sell his body for a quick buck.

Smack!

None of us even noticed Quentin's arm swinging. From our perspective, he didn't even move a single centimeter from where he was standing.

But Merlin was sent flying, caught by Arthurr who happened to be in the path of his trajectory.

"I ain't into little boys," Quentin smacked his lips. "Unless you're a cougar with a fat, juicy buttocks, don't make those sort of jokes."

Sarakit looked a little uncomfortable at how vulgar he was but she chose to lie down.

Arthurr and Merlin lay down next.

"Why aren't you lying down?" Arthurr asked me.

"I've already done this activity once," I responded.

"...How was it?" asked Merlin, still sceptical.

"It was interesting to say the least," I smirked. I could already imagine their reactions once they wake up.

Half a minute later, the three of them fell asleep.

I observed Quentin who was using his ability. He was sitting with his legs crossed and a part of me wondered what would happen if I interrupted him. But I chose not to test out any theories that came to mind.

My best guess was that if I interrupted him, some sort of backlash would occur to both Quentin and the three people asleep.

If I were a villain, this would be the perfect opportunity.

"..."

Wait, don't tell me I just raised some sort of flag?

I snapped my head, my focus dialed to a thousand.

After a few minutes of nothing, I slowly lowered my guard.

I watched the three people. At first, nothing seemed to be happening as if they were simply sleeping.

Then the changes slowly began to show. Sarakit's breathing had turned uneven, beads of sweat beginning to form on her forehead. As it dripped, her hair began getting soaked.

Her brows knitted together tightly, and her lips were trembling as if she were trying to speak but was unable to get the words out from her throat.

Merlin was slightly worse than her.

His entire body stiffened up and he looked like a mummy. His fingers were twitching against the floor and veins bulged all around his neck. His chest rose and fell in quick but short bursts.

Even Arthurr, whom I knew from the novel, was mentally tougher than most; he was sweating heavily. His jaw was clenched so hard that it seemed like his teeth were ready to shatter.

Whatever nightmare Quentin was making them see and experience, they were going through it.

"Sucks to be them," I chuckled.

A few more minutes passed like that.

Sarakit was the first to jolt awake.

Sitting upright with a sharp, "Kuhhh~!" She gasped, her eyes as wide as possible, her pupils unfocused.

In an instant, tears began streaming down her face.

"Mom!" she cried, reaching out with shaking hands. "Mom, please don't—!"

Taking a knee next to her, I grabbed her wrist before she could panic any further. "Hey, it's over. You're back in the real world. Whatever you saw, it was just a nightmare. It wasn't real."

She looked at me and it took a few seconds for my words to sink in.

Looking around the room, she uttered, "It was a dream?"

"Yes. It was just one bad dream."

She glared at the incense stick, then at Quentin. Memories of what had happened before the nightmare came to mind.

Realization hit and her hands dropped back to her side.

"It was just… a dream," she said as she wiped her face. Then her gaze turned straight to Quentin and she had a bunch of words that she wanted to scream in fury, but chose to withhold them.

If looks could kill, Quentin would've been a skeleton.

"My mother is okay, right?" she asked me again.

"Yes. She's fine. You'll see your mother later today," I said as I patted her back.

Merlin was the next to wake up.

He didn't shout or gasp. He simply opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds.

Pressing his palms on the floor, he pushed himself up. His glasses were fogged and he took them off, trying to wipe them but to no avail because his clothes were soaked through with his sweat.

He didn't ask where he was and showed zero indication of what his nightmare might've been about.

He looked like a shell of himself, but as time passed, his soul began to return.

He stood up and joined Sarakit and me.

"You okay?" Sarakit asked.

"I'm… I'm okay," he answered.

Finally, a minute after Merlin, Arthurr woke up. He sat up as soon as his eyes opened. He blinked once, twice, then — he laughed.

The laugh wasn't loud, nor did it seem like the laugh of a crazy person.

It was just a natural laugh that slipped out of him.

"...What a terrible nightmare," he said quietly, rubbing his face.

Quentin had woken up from his trance at the same time as Arthurr.

Standing up, he flickered his finger, and a sharp gust extinguished all the incense sticks.

He addressed the three, "What you just experienced… was your greatest fear. I threw you into your worst nightmare, something tailored to break you and flood your emotions to their limits until you could no longer tell up from down."

"..."

"The goal isn't to traumatize you for fun," he added. "Although that would be hilarious."

No one laughed.

"It's to raise your emotional threshold. After experiencing that? Nothing else will hit as hard."

Turning his head slightly towards me, he continued, "A lot of demons have ways to pull out some of the darkest fears you've kept close to your heart. They will use hostages if needed. They will play mind games with you. You can't let them get to you. Because once you do, you're not only letting down yourself, you're letting down all those who are relying on you."