I Am a Villain, So What?-Chapter 189: Interrogation

"Lucien. Let’s go to your room."

"Yeah. Let’s do that," I said downcast, walking past the peanut gallery.

The rest of this conversation needed to happen in private. I followed Ariana up the grand staircase to my room on the second floor.

The moment the heavy wooden door clicked shut behind us, her composed facade completely crumbled.

"Do you have any idea how terrified I was?!" Ariana spun around, her voice cracking. "I got the news from academy hospital! A High-Ranking Demon, Lucien! In an unmapped ruin! You were supposed to be planting trees at a safe border camp!"

"The situation escalated. I had to step in," I tried to explain gently, taking a step toward her.

"You always step in!" she cried, tears finally spilling over her eyelashes. She stepped forward and hit my uninjured shoulder with a weak, trembling fist. "You treat your body like it’s a disposable shield! What is the point of me brewing the greatest healing elixirs in the Empire if you keep finding ways to almost get yourself killed before you can even drink them?!"

"Ariana..."

"It’s not fair," she sobbed, her hands gripping the lapels of my coat. She buried her face into my chest. "I hate this. I hate sitting here waiting for you. I wish... I wish I had combat talent. If I could use a sword or destruction magic, I could have gone with you! I could have stood next to you in that ruin and taken those hits instead of just being the useless alchemist waiting at home!"

My heart twisted. The old insecurities from her days as the ’useless’ Solmere daughter were flaring up, fueled by her overwhelming fear of losing me.

"Don’t ever say that," I said softly, wrapping my arms tightly around her trembling waist. I pulled her flush against me, resting my chin on top of her head. "You are not useless. You’re the only reason I can fight the way I do."

"You’re just saying that..." she sniffled into my shirt.

"I’m serious," I murmured, rubbing soothing circles into her back. "When I was out of mana and cornered by a demon, knowing I had your potions in my pouch is what kept me calm. Your alchemy is already standing right beside me on the battlefield, Ariana. You protect me more than any knight ever could."

She hiccupped, her grip on my coat tightening as my words slowly sank in. She looked up at me, her beautiful eyes red and puffy, her cheeks stained with tears.

"You... you really mean that?" she asked, her voice small.

"I swear on it," I smiled faintly.

I leaned down and pressed a tender, lingering kiss to her lips. She let out a soft, surprised squeak, but her arms quickly moved up to wrap around my neck, melting into the kiss. The fear and tension slowly drained out of her body, replaced by a warm, deep affection.

When I finally pulled back, her face was flushed a brilliant shade of crimson. All of her previous anger had completely short-circuited into intense, adorable shyness. She quickly buried her face back into my chest to hide her burning cheeks, mumbling something incomprehensible about "unfair tactics."

I rested my cheek against her hair, closing my eyes.

I let out a long, silent sigh of relief. The High-Ranking Demon was terrifying, but defusing Ariana’s tears was the real boss fight of the day.

****

For the next hour, we just sat together in the quiet comfort of my room. Ariana had comfortably settled sideways across my lap, her legs draped over the armrest of the chair while she leaned her head against my chest. We watched the sunset paint the Capital’s sky in shades of deep orange and purple through the window, exchanging light, meaningless chit-chat.

I gently stroked her golden hair, thinking the storm had completely passed. I thought everything had ended with her calming down.

But who knew there was a second phase to this boss fight?

Ariana suddenly shifted, tilting her head up to look at me. A perfectly sweet, incredibly bright smile spread across her face.

My Sixth Sense immediately blared a warning siren in my head.

"So, Lucien..." Ariana began, her voice sickeningly sweet. "What exactly is going on with Elisha Ravenscroft?"

"Huh?" I blinked, acting as clueless as possible.

"I think I told you not to rope in another girl before you departed for that ’volunteer’ trip," she said, her smile not reaching her eyes.

"What are you talking about? Who did I rope in?" I asked, raising my hands in surrender. "We just fought a demon. There was barely time to breathe, let alone flirt."

"Oh? Is that so?" Ariana hummed, tracing a circle on my chest with her index finger. "So you are telling me that Lady Elisha called in the Ravenscroft family’s absolute best private healers and senior doctors, mobilized them to the Academy hospital, and paced outside your ward crying her eyes out... just out of concern for a normal friend?"

I swallowed hard. "She... she did that?"

"She seemed remarkably desperate for someone who claims to hate you," Ariana pointed out, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"Hey, how am I supposed to know what she is thinking?" I defended myself. "I was unconscious!"

"Oh, you don’t know?" Ariana’s sweet smile finally dropped, replaced by a terrifyingly cold pout. "So you are saying women just deliberately get attracted to you out of nowhere? First it was Clara Marigold practically throwing herself at you, and now Elisha? Her concern went way beyond the boundaries of a ’normal friend,’ Lucien."

"I swear, nothing happened!"

"Then explain it," she demanded, crossing her arms while still sitting on my lap. "What exactly happened between you two down in that ruin?"

Under the crushing pressure of the Genius Alchemist’s interrogation, I cracked. I recounted everything. I told her about the quicksand trap, the Aethelgard ruins, her trauma flaring up, the Desert Wraiths, and how we had to synchronize our attacks to survive. I explained how I pushed her to overcome her panic attack and how she landed the final blow on the Regent’s shield.

Hearing the full, harrowing context, the terrifying aura around Ariana finally deflated.

She let out a long, defeated sigh, resting her forehead against my collarbone.

"Sigh... what am I supposed to do with you?" she mumbled.

"Are you still mad?" I asked cautiously.

"I can’t even be angry at you for this," Ariana grumbled, wrapping her arms around my waist. "If you perform that extraordinarily, stepping in to protect her completely alone... of course she would be attracted to you. Not to mention you saved her life multiple times and forced her to overcome her deepest childhood trauma."

She looked up at me, puffing her cheeks. "You are too heroic for your own good. It makes my job as your girlfriend very difficult."

I chuckled, relieved that the interrogation was over, and kissed the top of her head. "I only have eyes for my personal healer."

Time passed comfortably after that. The sun fully set, casting my room into darkness, illuminated only by the faint glow of the mana lamps outside.

Suddenly, a loud, rumbling growl echoed through the quiet room.

Ariana blinked, then burst into a fit of giggles.

I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling my face heat up. My stomach was aggressively reminding me that fighting a High-Ranking Demon burned a lot of calories.

"Alright, alright," I laughed, gently lifting her off my lap. "Let’s go down and have dinner. I think Lily was making roast beef tonight."

"I’m starving too," Ariana smiled, taking my hand.

We walked out of my room and headed down the grand staircase, laughing lightly at a joke she made.

But as we reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped toward the main parlor, Ariana’s laughter abruptly died. Her face instantly froze, her expression shifting into absolute zero.

I paused, feeling a literal drop in the room’s temperature as Ariana’s mana leaked out in pure hostility.

I looked into the parlor. There were guests sitting on the couches. Guests that Ariana absolutely did not want to see.

Clara von Marigold and Elisha Ravenscroft.

Elisha, who possessed the sharp senses of a master archer, immediately stiffened. She didn’t say a word, her eyes darting nervously toward Ariana. Elisha could clearly feel the sudden, freezing drop in temperature and the immense, jealous pressure radiating from the blonde alchemist holding my hand.

But Clara, entirely lacking in spatial awareness or simply choosing to aggressively ignore it, leaped up from the couch the moment she saw me. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"Lucien!" Clara beamed, practically bouncing across the parlor.

Before I could step back, she hopped right up to me and tightly hugged my free arm, pressing herself against me.

"How are you? I rushed over as soon as I heard the news! I heard you were injured in the Northern Territory! Are you okay?!" Clara fussed, looking up at me with wide, sparkling eyes.

"Ha... haha. Clara, I am completely fine," I said, my voice incredibly awkward.

I immediately, yet gently, peeled her hands off my arm and took a deliberate step back, intensely aware of the fact that Ariana’s cold glare was currently boring a hole directly into the side of my head.