Villain Hiring: Help! Author Wants Me Dead-Chapter 212: A Villain’s Laugh

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The world stood still.

For the first time in my life, silence wasn't peace.

It was judgment.

Everyone's eyes were on me...Pixie's broken form, Grandpa Venus's cold, steady gaze, the heirs, the guards.

All of them seemed to be waiting, watching for me to take an action.

My heart didn't beat faster.

My breath didn't falter.

I wasn't afraid.

I wasn't sad.

I wasn't anything.

This was one of those times when I realised that something inside me seemed to be slipping out.

Ever since I'd left the house and arrived here to train as usual, I'd felt something was wrong.

And when Pixie'd appeared... looking like that?

It had broken something inside me.

As if the girl I knew had died.

If not for Damien helping me stabilize my mind and prove to me that she was indeed my kitty cat, I can't even imagine how I'd react or even be protecting her to right now.

The villain making system had told me that she had undergone an awakening and the seal on her real race was so deep that even he hadn't realised it until it opened.

After all, everything had gone out of the story line in the book of sin.

It was only slowly that the things written in the book of sin started to change, trying to keep up with the changes with the help of that so called bastard of an Author.

Bear.

Looking at the husky figure of the girl I'd come to care for and her sudden confession, something deep inside me seemed to have stirred...and I didn't even understand what it was.

All I know is that I can't lose her too.

That I would do anything to protect her.

And then I spoke.

My voice was low, steady, and sharp enough to slice through bone.

"So this is how it is."

Even my bones froze at the sound.

It wasn't anger.

It wasn't grief.

It was certainty.

I raised my hands slowly, meeting every single gaze one by one, making sure they understood.

No one would leave here untouched.

Not anymore.

And then, I did something I hadn't done in months.

Something I had ignored because I thought I could live quietly, thought I could avoid what I was destined for.

I opened my status.

[Status]

Race: Human

Title: The Fated Villain

Strength: 134 ⇒ 135

Agility: 111

Mana: 0

Charm: 69

Soul Power: 498

Skills: Soul Siphoning [Lvl 4], Mana Drain [Lvl 3]

Coins: 999,999,999,9999+

Items:

Cube (???)

The Dagger Of Asking

Thread Of the Almost

The Ink Of Memory

The Aeges Pendant

Egg (???)

***

My eyes lingered on the numbers on my soul power.

They weren't just numbers anymore.

They were chains. And I was tired of being chained.

My lips parted. The words slipped out like venom.

"Soul Siphoning."

The hall didn't move.

For a moment, it seemed as if nothing had happened.

But then...

A guard, who had been sneaking behind me and Pixie collapsed. His body hit the ground with a loud thud, his armor clattering as his soul ripped out of him in a pale, screaming wisp.

Gasps echoed all around.

Every heir.

Every soldier.

Even Venus's eyes flickered for the briefest second.

Pixie's cracked lips parted in horror.

I could feel it.

The soul I had just consumed slamming into me.

Not softly.

Not gently.

It tore through me like fire through dry wood, filling every nerve, every vein, until my head rang with sharp clarity.

A wall inside my mind.

My vision twisted and I could almost feel the pressure of something huge, something ancient, pressing against me.

My soul power, I realised, it had somehow increased to 499 even tho It didn't since such a long while recently.

I realised that I was close.

Too close to breaking whatever came after this 499 soul power.

And so I understood.

To go further, I couldn't just live.

I couldn't just fight.

I had to consume.

A wall that could only be broken by ramming souls against it, again and again, until it shattered.

My body shivered, not from fear, but from excitement as my lips curled upward.

A smile.

A crazed, jagged smile I hadn't even realized I was capable of.

Because I understood something very clearly now.

Every person in this hall, every person, every guard, every so-called "family" member...they weren't allies.

They were food.

The moment that thought settled, my heart no longer ached.

The grief, the guilt, the pain of seeing Pixie broken and her bleeding, it didn't vanish, no. It twisted.

It fueled me.

"You're all against me," I said quietly, my voice cracking into something wild.

"So why should I hesitate?"

Gasps spread like wildfire as people stepped back instinctively, looking at the corpse of one of the Romero Family's guards.

Pixie's hand reached towards me weakly. "Noah…"

But I couldn't hear her anymore.

Not fully.

Because the hunger roared louder.

Every soul in this hall pulsed in my head like a beacon, like prey begging to be devoured.

Their fear was sweet.

Their hesitation?

Delicious.

I licked my lips unconsciously, my smile stretching further as my fingers flexed in anticipation.

Venus finally spoke, his voice low and steady. "So you've chosen this path after all."

I tilted my head, meeting his gaze, and for the first time, I didn't see him as a grandfather figure, a wise elder, or a leader.

And I laughed.

It wasn't loud.

It wasn't manic.

It was soft.

The kind of laugh that made my cousins spines stiffen, that made the guards grip their weapons tighter.

Because they could hear it.

The madness.

The inevitability.

My hands trembled, not with weakness, but with the sheer need to consume.

"Five hundred…" I whispered to myself. "I'll break through five hundred, and then…then none of you will be able to touch my Pixie."

My gaze swept across the hall.

They were my family, my blood...and now

my enemies.

And for the first time in my life…

I accepted the title.

I finally accepted the fact that I was the Fated Villain.

***

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