How to Redeem a Trashy Side Villain

Chapter 80: The Audacity

"Welcome home."

"...Stop staring at it," Quentin sighed.

I couldn't help it. It's not like it wasn't staring me in the face.

He had been gone for five days just as he told me he was and after raising his own red flag, the flag was proven right.

He was missing the entirety of his right arm. Thankfully, it wasn't his left which was his dominant hand.

"I said stop staring at it before I gouge your eyes out," he repeated himself as he dashed towards me and smacked the back of my head with his palm.

I didn't even have time to react to it.

"...Ow," I muttered.

"I told you to continue practicing your sword while I'm gone. Color me surprised. I didn't expect you to duke it out with a dark magic user," he said, nodding his head in approval.

Still staring at his missing arm, I asked, "How did you lose it?"

He rolled his eyes as if disappointed that I was so distracted by his missing limb and not focusing on the conversation at hand.

He should've expected me to be this adamant about it because what could've possibly caused such an injury to such a powerful person?

"Do you really want to know?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Fine. There was some trouble in the abandoned land North from here. I had to assist some old friends and let's just say that the enemy we encountered did not exactly belong to this world," he answered.

He was implying that they faced off against demons.

I wasn't too surprised because with the arrival of the demon king, soon enough, demons would appear left and right, especially in the abandoned lands.

"How did you lose an arm though? Didn't you guys bring a healer with you or at least a few potions just in case?" I asked.

As long as he has his arm and does it quickly, he should've been able to reattach the arm back to his body.

Instead of verbally answering me, he rolled up the sleeve of his Hawaiian shirt and showed me the stub. It was black and purple. It looked like it was rotting and I could visibly see this purplish smoke emitting from the stub.

"No matter what we tried, it didn't work. Even right now, I'm actively using mana just to keep this... rot... from spreading to the rest of my body," he said, shaking his head in disbelief.

I looked at it and wondered which demon could've possibly done this to him.

"Did you guys kill it?" I asked.

He nodded his head then stopped, thought about it for a second, then shook his head.

"Wh-what does that mean?" I asked, confused by his conflicting head movements.

"We managed to kill the demon we were there for but its comrade arrived, the one that did this to me," he explained.

"Who got the last hit?" I asked.

This was a very important question because depending on the person who ultimately was the one to slay the demon, they'd be the one to receive the demon curse mark.

The only way you'd be able to remove the mark is through the help of a real angel.

That's why Eloise's life is so precious to this world and why our father and mother are trying so hard to make sure that nothing involving her goes wrong.

Quentin just smiled.

That was his answer. He didn't say a name. He just — smiled.

"...I see," I said, feeling a little deflated.

Quentin placed his hand on my head and for the first time, he just ruffled it with this tired smile on his face.

After he stopped, he pulled his pair of shades out of his pocket and slid it on his face.

"Let's get to training," he said.

Even missing, despite the imbalance of his weight and having to get accustomed to moving differently than normal, Quentin was still a powerful son of a bitch.

I finished training with my butt on the floor, breathing heavily, and my muscles burning.

"That's it for today," said Quentin, a smirk on his face. He didn't say it explicitly but he was most definitely taking his frustrations out on me.

The amount of rolling I did was enough to travel across the country.

"I'll be honest Bell, not bad. Compared to before when you were just a little ant I could kill by breathing on you... you're now an ant that I need to use my pinky on," he complimented me.

"...Thank you?"

He was saying that I had a long way to go which was true.

In the next few years, I was expecting myself to leap into a level of strength that would be enough to conquer the world if I was to return to Earth.

He sat down next to me and the two of us just stared out at the sunset.

"I know you're still extremely powerful but what are you going to do now with a missing arm? I think it'd be difficult for you to fight the kind of enemies you fought before," I said.

It was the truth but that didn't mean it hurt any less.

"...I don't know yet. Maybe I'll take your brother's advice and retire from the frontlines. There's a lot of other things I can do."

"For example?"

"Teaching children such as yourself. Who knows. Maybe I'll start a small dojo in this city."

"If you do, just let me know. I'll be the first to sponsor you."

"I don't need your handouts," he chuckled as he playfully smacked me in the back.

Need I remind you that even his playful smacks hurt extremely bad?

He got up and said, "Alright. That's enough moping around like a little bitch. I'll see you tomorrow Bell."

Before I could respond, he vanished.

I could see beneath all the tough guy attitude and the mask he kept on his face, he was extremely dejected by the fact that he had lost his arm.

I could only imagine how much pain he was in at the moment. Especially since he never got the chance to just sleep and rejuvenate energy.

After all, if he sleeps, that rot would spread since he wasn't actively suppressing it with his mana.

"Who could the demon be?" I muttered, wondering if I recognized the symptoms, cross-referencing it to the novel.

When I returned home, I saw another face that'd also been gone for quite a few days.

"Brother," I said.

He ran over from the living room where he was playing with Rubi and gave me this big bear hug.

"I'm finally home," he said.

"Welcome back."

I looked at his face and I could see just how tired he was.

It was like Quentin and Cyro were two sides of the same coin.

"When did you get back?" I asked.

"Just an hour ago."

"So is the issue at work resolved?" I asked.

Cyro had this defeated smile on his face, oddly similar to Quentin's.

"I wish. We were just allowed to return home for the moment because we lost the trail," he explained. "As soon as they have a lead, I'll be leaving again."

"Come on you two. Stop discussing work," said Mother who was in the kitchen cooking all of Brother's favorite foods. "Come help me out before your father gets home."

She was clearly happy to see her son finally return home after being gone for so many days.

His work was extremely dangerous so I understood her concern for his safety.

You never know when one day, you await his phone call, just to learn that he passed away on duty.

"Yes, Mom," the two of us responded.

That night, our family was whole again and all of us were able to be there for dinner and the usual family night where we played board games while watching a movie in the living room.

As I was heading to bed, I heard a knock on my door.

"Come in," I said, in the middle of buttoning my pajama shirt.

"Hey Brother," said Cyro who was a little tipsy from the alcohol. He and my father must've been drinking something extremely powerful for these two superhumans to be able to get drunk even a little bite,

"What's up?" I asked.

"I have something I need to tell you," he said as he activated the sound-blocking device to ensure that no one could overhear our conversation.

"What is it?"

"Sit down first," he said.

Confused, I sat down on the bed and he joined me.

"You'll need to be extremely careful from now on," he warned me.

"...What are you talking about?"

"During the few days I've been gone, I've been traveling to many places for various reasons. I heard from a close and trusted friend of mine that because of what you did to that baron, exposing the secrets he was keeping in his basement... a secret organization of dark magic users is now determined to do whatever it takes to kill you," he said.

'I... I already expected this,' I thought to myself.

His warning wasn't necessary. I already knew that I was placing myself in the face of danger by revealing the baron's secrets but I did it anyway because I didn't fear the retaliation.

Once the story really starts, these dark magic users won't even be able to compare to the true dangers that I'll be facing.

Demons, vampires, witches, liches, true dragons, and plenty more.

Do you think I care about some little human who has to tap into the dark arts just to reach a fraction of the power that these other villains have?

But that's not what I told Cyro.

Grateful for his concern, I said, "Thank you for letting me know. I'll be sure to keep your words in mind."

"Thank you," he said.

"Is that all?"

"Yeah. That's all I wanted to say. I just didn't want Mother to hear about this because she's already stressed enough as it is taking care of the two girls," Cyro explained.

"So you've already informed Father?"

"Yes. He says that he'll see if he can deal with them in advance but said that it might be a little difficult due to their cockroach-like nature."

'These dark magic users better run and hide. Them hunting me? Hahaha. No. It's more likely to be the other way around.'

After Cyro left the room, I sat there alone in silence for a while before getting up and going onto my computer.

I logged into the dark web and placed a few highly expensive bounties on some people's heads.

"How dare you think of getting revenge," I scoffed. "The audacity of these losers."

I knew a few of these users' names. They may be concealing their true nature from the rest of the world but the novel is a cheat code that even they can't hide from.

Turning the lights off, I went to bed without a single worry in my mind.