"I'm hungry let us go find something to eat."

Yes, but do you have to pull me along like this?

Please stop dragging me around by the collar, Hero, everyone is looking at us. Also I'm choking slightly, this is embarrassing.

This is the main trope of villains after all. Imposing their will against everybody else but when the Hero shows up, they get nerfed to the ground.

"You're tired. Right, Claud?"

Agh.. finally she released my collar from her claw grip.

"It's okay, you don't have to say anything. I know-"

Somehow it feels like she's been cutting me from speaking since the conversation with Hildegard earlier. Have we gotten so close as friends that we can do that? I'm slightly annoyed.

"-I know you're feeling tired. Since..."

She stopped talking... why did she stop?

"-you're my friend~ Hihihi."

What was that giggle? She's acting really chummy with me. I feel uncomfortable.

"It seems like the cafeteria and training centers are open all day and night. We won't have to worry about getting food at inconvenient times, friend."

Okay that's creepy. Please stop saying friend. It doesn't even fit the sentence structure...

Did something happen? Why is she like this?

"Look at all the food here! I'm sure you're hungry too!"

What is that look in her eyes... This feels like the evil witch fattening Hansel and Gretel before she tries to eat them.

Did I do something wrong? Does she know I'm the Villain? Is she planning to restrict my movements with lots of food and then assassinate me after?

Her holding my hand feels like she's taking me to the guillotine.

"Claud, is something wrong?"

How can she tell how I'm feeling! I'm sure my face has kept the same cold expression so far!

"You look a little pale... maybe we should head to the barracks to rest instead?"

The barracks..?

She wants to kill me in my sleep.

"They said barracks so I was expecting bunk beds. But we can all get individual rooms. The academy is way bigger in person. They have enough accommodations for up to three thousand potential students!"

She's going to kill me in my sleep then hide my body in one of the unoccupied rooms! I can read between the lines!

"H-hey Claud? Are you okay? Can you say something?"

I don't stand a chance even in a straight up fight anyways... The stat difference is too much. I guess going out in my sleep isn't such a bad way to go. I just hope she does it with something sharp and not a pillow...

"You look ill, we should get you to rest. I'll cast a healing spell for you later too."

She's in a rush to murder me... the golden goose that I helped grow is going to kill me.

"Lay down, Claud. Hang in there, I'll bring a priest right away!"

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

The Hero's colluding with the church to cover up the death of the Villain. I expected something like this but not this soon...

It's not even been a full day since I entered this other world.

But I want to close my eyes now.

...

"Sir... is Claud... okay?"

"... delirium... brought on by dehydration..."

I can't make out what Sophie or the other person is saying...

"...stress...hunger..."

Hunger. Now that I think about I really am hungry. I haven't eaten anything except biscuit rations since I came here. I want instant noodle...

Delicious, spinning instant noodle, swirling inside the soup. Around and around and around.

----------------------------------------

I'm. I'm not dead. Not restrained either.

My vision is so narrow. Can't quite tell where this is. So dark.

"C-Claud, are you awake?"

Urgh, too bright.

Oh, it's the golden goose. Hey.

"The priest said you were really exhausted, you have to have something to eat. Here's some porridge."

"What time is it?"

"It's been some time since the sun set."

"Thank you for the food."

Why does she look so shocked? I just thanked her.

Hmm. Now that I'm thinking about it. How come I didn't get any notifications for using up Willpower? I didn't get any prompts for dialogue either.

I must be so out of it, the foul mouthed trait isn't activating or maybe the system is taking pity on me.

Either way, thank you system overlord. I'll be taking full advantage.

My hand sloppily puts scoops the porridge into my mouth, mechanically like an excavator. Ah, so bland. This sucks. But it is food, I'll take it.

Ah this is embarrassing. I passed out before she did even though I have double her stats. Much shame.

She's just observing me eat. I feel weird.

"Why are you here?"

"We're friends, aren't we, Claud?"

Chills ran down my spine at that word.

"And friends take care of each other. I'm glad I paid close attention to you, otherwise I might not have noticed you were feeling sick. While we were returning to the academy, you looked a bit unsteady on your feet."

So that's what it was. I did feel a little bit out of it after running out of Willpower. She was paying close attention. She took my place in conversations because she knew I was tired. Then after that, Sophie who was overly excited to be exploring the academy with her first ever friend, couldn't maintain the proper distance in the new relationship and became overly clingy!

Now that I heard why she acted so odd, in hindsight everything she did became so obviously pure.

Oh my dearest Hero, I should have never doubted you for a moment. Clearly I wasn't in the right state of mind.

In the future, I should be careful not to run out of Willpower. It seems to directly affect my mental state. Leaving at least 1 Willpower is crucial.

"Sophie, you should get some sleep."

"Yeah... you too, Claud."

She walked away, taking her lantern with her.

Kay, she's gone. Time to check how are my stats doing.

[Name: Claud Branford

Age: 13

Title: Little Tyrant of Branford

Personality: Foul mouthed (Legendary) -currently disabled due to fatigue-, entitled, calculative, selfish, sadistic

Class: Priest (Villain)

Skills: Heal Lv1

Stats

Strength: 12 +1

Vitality: 3

Dexterity: 8

Intelligence: 2 +1

Luck: 36

Karma: -200

Willpower: 12/12]

Wait, personality traits have different grades. Why does mine have legendary... Is that why it penalizes me for talking normally?! Damned system, doing whatever it likes!

I've also noticed my personality changes very abruptly. I had vindictive for a while but it disappeared almost immediately after...

Oh. There's a skill list for Heal! First skill in the other world! All the knowledge on how to use the spell comes naturally to mind when I think about it. How convenient! But lets not consume Willpower on that. Next is stats.

Hah! Strength is my second stat to reach double digits.

These extra plus stats on close observation it reveals that they come from my Priest class. So my actual Strength stat is 13.

From a single day's subjugation, Sophie's Strength increased by 5, Vitality by 1, Dexterity by 3 and Luck by 9.

Her Intelligence didn't budge huh... I might end up as a Battle Priest who doesn't heal his teammates at this rate. I hope it improves soon.

But dang her Luck sure shot up, didn't it? I don't know how or what Luck changes but I guess this is a good thing.

The Hero's still weak but I believe my current stats can carry her.

I don't know how strong the other trainees are but if I take Hildegard as a comparison, the Strength stat definitely held up. She did seem like the dumb bruiser type. Her weapon was a mace. So if my Strength was evenly matched with a bruiser, 13 would be a good upper number to set our sights on.

I want all of Sophie's stats to reach 13. Then wouldn't I be indestructible for quite some time? Hehehe.

With 26 in each stat, I'd be like a mentor archetype character. A character who carries in the early game but due to weak base stat growths falls off in the endgame. Except I won't fall off. I will continue to grow and scale based off the Hero.

Just like when we fought the goblins, I'll wound them and then give my golden goose the last hit for the most experience points.

Then by the time dangerous monsters start coming out in the late game, the Hero will be strong enough by herself and I can retire to the backlines where it's safe. I'll pretend that I'm protecting the priests and mages in the back and heal the Hero from a safe distance. I can already picture it. A well timed Heal, then a grateful smile from Sophie all while I'm defending the squishy party members.

What a splendid thought.

Ah I'm still tired but I can hardly sleep. I'm excited for a new day in this other world!