The villainess shall be mine

"Do you follow me?" I asked, trying to make sure that the girls had at least understood our priority. "In summary, all we need to do is find a ship or a vehicle, repair it, and get out of here."

"Yes, it sounds simple when you say it that way," Zax said, trying to lighten up the mood, and if I had to guess why, then it was certainly because Liu looked at me with odd eyes.

"Well, let's try and see," Blanca said, looking at me as if she was trying to tell me that she would rethink her position if this plan failed, or so I guessed.

I didn't show any reaction on my face and just nodded at Blanca's words but various thoughts crossed my mind when I thought about her. 'Why is she still here?' I thought, trying to think more about her situation. 'If she regained her consciousness months ago, why didn't she leave this area and moved to another place? Was it because she couldn't do it or because she didn't want to do it? There is something that she is still hiding...'

"Well, we can't do anything much for now but it seems like we can still eat one more canned food today, so pick one from these. I don't know about their content but they're edible." I said, pointing at the canned foods and trying to end the discussion there because I thought that revealing too much information would be counterproductive and in the end, it would be me who would do the actual job, after all, I couldn't rely on the girls that much, knowing that they were too unpredictable.

'There is Liu and her power, Zax and her trauma, and also Blanca and her unclear intentions.' I couldn't possibly put my life in their hands so I had to take care of this even if I had to do it alone.

But after I said these words, Liu showed a weird reaction and I knew what she was thinking about.

"Don't worry, we can still obtain more canned foods," I said, trying to test if my thoughts were accurate but as I thought, Liu's expression didn't change so I knew that there was something that spurred such a reaction from her.

"Do you have something to say, Liu?" I asked.

"Not really." She replied and grabbed two canned foods for her and Zax then sat on top of the bed, giving me her back again.

'What's her problem,' I thought, 'or did she not understand my explanation? Well, if it's not that then...'

Liu was suspicious of me and the reason was simple. She knew that I didn't tell her everything and since I would bring Blanca with me the next day, she thought that Blanca would learn something that she didn't, or so I guessed from her rection. 'Well, it may be just my imagination too... I am still wondering how did I end up in this mental state. Well, I know how it happened, but I just feel extremely different, mentally, emotionally, and physically.'

"You won't eat?" I asked, looking at Blanca after thinking about Liu's puzzling reaction.

"..." Blanca didn't answer and just pretended to not hear me.

"It's okay, I am not trying to feed you poison or anything," I said, sounding a bit sarcastic, "and I won't make fun of you even if you look like a little girl when you eat it."

After I said these words, I could see Blanca's eyelids twitching and her face turned a bit red.

'Why is adopting the prideful act now?' I thought, looking at the woman in front of me. It seemed like after I looked at her with an amused face while she was eating earlier, she thought that I was trying to exploit her hunger and use it against her.

"Here." I handed her a can and she awkwardly took it from me and then opened it.

"Cristal and I will keep guard for the night so after you eat, you can rest, and you really should, because there's no telling what would happen tomorrow," I said and then sat next to the door again.

"Okay." Liu and Zax said.

Blanca didn't say anything and tried to eat like a noble for some reason. 'Did my words bother her that much?'

After that, time passed quickly and as I sat there listening to Liu and Zax's conversation, it was already midnight and the girls seemed to have fallen asleep.

'Of course, they are asleep.' I thought, 'Canned food wasn't the only thing I brought back after my exploration.'

"This is quite effective," I mumbled, looking at the colorless liquid that could be used as a sleeping potion. I didn't know why the owner of that building kept such a thing inside that storage but it seemed like an odorless and colorless potion like this was quite rare.

I had already told Cristal to analyze the content of the cans and the liquor before I came back so I knew that it would not harm the girls.

"I need them to rest for now," I said, and I walked toward Liu who was sleeping in a very strange position on the bed.

It seemed like she didn't want to sleep so she tried hard to stay awake but the potion was too effective.

I grabbed her in my arms and put her next to Zax and then used my cape to cover the two of them.

Blanca slumped on the flower and slept deeply, looking like a completely different person.

I took her and put her on the floor next to the bed and covered her with the black coat that she wore when she first appeared. 'The bed is too small, unfortunately...' I thought.

[Miss Liu will scold you if she knows about this.]

"I know, but her mental state is important too since it's just the first day. I am not sure how long we will have to stay here but having three mentally exhausted people will lower our chance of survival." I said, admitting that Cristal's prediction was unavoidable. After all, Liu already looked a little bit displeased when I didn't tell her everything.

I knew that she wanted to trust me but my actions didn't give her enough reason to completely believe in me.

Nevertheless, there were things that she didn't need to know, at least until I gather more information on various things, so I made sure that her attention was focused on what I hid from her and she wouldn't realize what was already happening.

[Master, I received another message saying that it would be difficult for them to come here, so if they weren't sure that Liu is alive, they wouldn't take a risk. Thus, they are asking to speak with her.]

Cristal examined the message and translated its true meaning to me so I knew that even though we were already in a pinch, these people seemed to hesitate about the authenticity of our claim. "Thanks for sparing me the details. Still, this could be more of a pain than I expected."

'As of now, I shouldn't draw any conclusion too fast because I didn't know what really happened. There is the possibility that Timothy and the others stayed at the Empire... Still, there are also concerning issues related to this scenario. In the end, I need to make it possible for us to leave this planet even if after some unfortunate circumstances these people decide to change their minds.' I thought as I sat down on the floor and began to meditate.

"Okay, let's begin."

[Roger.]

*****

:::[Third person POV]:::

The next day, Liu woke up in a brusque way. "No! I..." She shouted, but before she finished her sentence, she understood that she was dreaming.

It took her a few moments to collect her thoughts and be completely aware of her surrounding, and as she did, she realized that she slept next to Zax, and a black cape covered both of them.

'I fell asleep? How could I?' She thought and then looked at the man who was the owner of this cape.

"It's only around 6 in the morning. Slept well?" Adam said as he prepared what looked like breakfast, looking like he guessed Liu's thoughts.

After hearing Adam's words, Liu was a little bit shocked because she slept for a few hours and let her guard down completely.

"It's fine. Nothing happened and all of us needed to rest after what happened. It will be more troublesome if one of us falls sick now." Adam continued after looking at Liu's reaction, once again, as if he guessed Liu's thought.

After that, the black cape moved by itself and flew toward Adam then put itself on his back.

"Hungh..." Zax grumbled, feeling a little bit cold after the cape took off and she needed a few seconds to recall everything that had happened, but when she did, she woke abruptly.

Hearing Adam's voice Blanca suddenly stood up and unlike her sleeping face, her attitude reverted to what appeared to be an attitude of a proud woman.

"Okay, let's eat and then talk about today's plan," Adam said and he looked different than how he was the day before which surprised Liu once again, but like before, she couldn't tell what changed.