Villain: Your Heroines Were Delicious

Chapter 175: Chapter 40

At this moment, in the storage house at the back of the school.

As usual, the entire place was filled with the usual, comforting cacophony of lunch—the clinking of chopsticks against bento boxes, the rustle of snack wrappers, and the lighthearted bickering that had become the heartbeat of their group.

Erina sat in the center of the chaos, delicately nibbling on a piece of tamagoyaki.

Thinking to herself, that never in a million years have she imagined that one day, her life would be full of laughter and joy.

Back then, her world was a cold, monochromatic landscape populated only by Rei and Taro, and even then, she couldn’t quite enjoy anything because of the pressure of her family.

For them, every actions she had to take must always be calculated, and how it would bring the most benefits to the family.

In fact, since she was old enough to hold a pen, Erina had been a project of her family rather than a person.

She was the failsafe, the designated savior of a sinking Kurosaki ship, their hope to one day rise and join the ranks of the most elite family in the world.

Her childhood was measured in ledgers, political theories, and advanced mathematics, all designed to harden her into a weapon that could contend against the attack of other families.

But now, in less than two weeks, that iron-clad discipline had begun to melt.

She had completely forgotten her father’s desperate command to “seduce the Kageyama heir” and had enjoyed the life of an ordinary girl.

Because in this storage house, she wasn’t a strategic asset; she was just Erina.

She enjoyed laughing with Suzune, debating with Haruka, and sharing her feelings with people who didn’t view her as a paycheck or a social stepping stone.

“…and that’s my win.” Emi raised her left hand, her right hand holding a controller.

Beside her, Sakai was on all fours, completely defeated.

These two had actually brought a gaming console from Seijirou’s home and brought it here so they can have something to do during lunch.

And to establish who gets to play first, they hold a tournament, and whoever wins can designate a schedule.

And as expected, Emi completely dominated everybody.

“How is she so strong!? This is totally unfair!” Sakai complained. “I even specifically choose to play strategic games, which are my specialities! And I still lost!”

“I won the championship when this strategic game held a tournament three months ago, it’s not that hard.” Said Emi, twisting her shoulders.

“Huh? Are you Kageyashi!?”

Before Emi could answer, a sharp, intrusive knock shattered the atmosphere.

“Um, excuse me? Is Kurosaki-san here?”

The voice was thin and hesitant, but it might as well have been a thunderclap.

The conversations died down instantly as Suzune, Haruka, Emi, Yukina, Touka, Renji, Sakai, Shou, and Rei all frowned with a synchronized, chilling intensity.

Even Erina couldn’t help but feel displeased. After all, this was their territory, the only place in the school they can play around without anyone’s eyes watching them.

Suzune stood up, her aura shifting from playful to serious in a heartbeat, her spirit energy leaking a little, which caused even Haruka to shiver.

She threw open the door, her arms crossed over her chest, her eyes narrowing as she glared at the intruder.

“I think there’s a very clear sign right there,” she said, her voice dropping into a dangerous register.

She tilted her head toward the door, where a sign painted in aggressive red letters clearly stated: KEEP OUT.

The man at the door was a mid-level teacher who looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

It’s understandable, after all, Suzune wasn’t just standing there; she was intentionally leaking a faint, suffocating pressure of her spirit energy, making the very air around the doorway feel heavy.

The teacher stuttered, his knees visibly shaking. “I-It’s… Is K-Kurosaki-san here?”

“And why should I answer that?” Suzune raised an eyebrow, her posture immovable.

Erina felt a cold prickle of apprehension at the back of her neck as she stood up, her orthopedic cane clicking rhythmically against the wooden floor as she joined Suzune at the door. “Ara? Yumanei-sensei? Why are you looking for me in such a frantic manner?”

Behind her, the rest of the gang crowded around, their faces a gallery of displeasure and curiosity.

They were honestly like a pack of wolves protecting one of their own.

“Kurosaki-san… your father is looking for you,” Yumanei-sensei managed to wheeze out.

Erina’s brow furrowed. Father? That made no sense. Kurosaki Kirei was a man who lived and breathed in his office, a prisoner of his own failing empire. He didn’t have the time or the temperament to visit a school during lunch.

In fact, Erina had never even seen her own father outside his office, and even the few conversations she had with him all took place in his office.

Suddenly, a figure stepped out from behind the corner of the building, and Erina’s eyes widened slightly.

It was Kurosaki Kirei. He was dressed in a sharp, expensive suit, but there was something different about him—a strange, triumphant energy that radiated from his pores as he wore a faint, chilling smile.

Who…is this? Erina couldn’t help but doubt the person here.

Although he looks like her father, he doesn’t act like him at all! Her father was always frowning, and not to mention smiling, she had never even see him look calm.

“Daughter, so you are here,” Kirei said, his voice smooth and devoid of its usual frantic edge.

“Fa..ther?” Erina managed to let out, still confused.

Kirei looked at the dilapidated storage house with blatant condescension. “Our family’s crisis has been resolved. There is no longer any need for you to mingle with the likes of them anymore.”

Erina’s heart skipped a beat. Resolved? How?

Her mind immediately raced through the financial variables.

She knew how bad her family’s situation is, and as someone who was forced to learn how to managed the family since young, she knew that there was no mathematical path to salvation that didn’t involve a massive influx of capital.

So did the Kageyamas finally agree to the marriage? Or did he find another investor? Was it an alliance of benefits? Or… a marriage alliance?

“Hey! What do you mean ’people like us’, huh?!” Renji growled, stepping forward with his fists clenched, his face twisting in a mask of delinquent fury.

Kirei’s smile didn’t waver as he looked at Renji as if he were a particularly loud insect. “Exactly as it sounds. Did you truly believe my daughter would willingly lower herself to your level? Please. Everything she did was under my direct order—to get close to you so we could try and win over the Kageyama heir. But now that we have found a far more powerful ally, there is no need for her to play around with you children anymore.”

The group’s reaction was surprisingly flat, as if hey weren’t hurt by the insult, but were were simply unimpressed.

“Eh? Is that so?” Sakai muttered, picking at his ear.

“Erina! Your father wants you back! Hahaha!” Rei laughed, her voice loud and mocking. “Look at you, acting like such a big girl when your daddy still has to come pick you up like a toddler!”

She expected Erina’s usual retort, and Rei already prepared her practiced anger since she knew she couldn’t come up with a better retort to Erina without weeks of thinking.

But her laughter died in her throat when she looked at Erina, surprised that the girl wasn’t retorting, instead, she was trembling, her grip on her cane so tight her knuckles actually turned white.

Erina looked down, she wasn’t thinking about the insult, or rather, she was so lost in thought that Rei’s words didn’t even register.

She was thinking about the ally her father mentioned, about the price her father would have paid to save a bankrupt legacy.

With how her father personally came to bring her back, it means this alliance most likely involved her…so it should be something like a marriage alliance, or something worse.

No.

She didn’t want to go.

She looked back at the messy, warm storage room—the first place she had ever felt safe, then turned back to her father’s smile and lowered her head, her shoulder trembling.

Suzune, standing beside her, felt the tremors in Erina’s shoulders and realized that this girl genuinely wanted to stay.

So she stepped forward, her body acting as a physical shield between the father and the daughter.

“Erina,” Suzune said softly, her eyes never leaving Kirei. “Your father is here to take you home. What do you think?”

Erina looked at her friends—the people who knew her as a girl who liked sweets and hated math, not as a business asset.

She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I… I don’t want to go back. I want to stay here.”

Suzune’s smile turned sharp and lethal as she took a final step forward, her spirit energy flaring like a flame, effectively forcing Kirei to take a step back.

He stared at her in shock…this feeling, it is the same feeling as what he felt with Mister!

Could it be there are other people wielding supernatural powers aside from the mister!?

No, this must be different, there is no way there is someone like mister out there.

He refused to believe it. After all, if it turned out that the power Mister wielded isn’t unique…then what was the point of his sacrifice?! What was the point of him agreeing to send away all the girls in the clan!?

“You heard the girl,” Suzune hissed, her voice like grinding steel. “She doesn’t want to go back with you, so fuck off before I make you.”