Fated to Be Loved by Villains
chapter-19

༺ Class (2) ༻

As a healer, Trisha’s presence in the Hero Party was subtle.

Whether it’s in combat or anything else, there’s not much for her to do.

However, the reason why she’s never been ignored in the group was because she had her own set of strengths.

It was primarily her job to keep everyone on the same page and make sure that they got along. She was basically responsible for livening up the mood.

Currently, however, Trisha was feeling distressed about fulfilling that role.

‘Oh no…!’

Although the effect of Divine Power varied greatly from person to person, the special abilities it brought forth were no secret to the world.

And Trisha’s ability was being able to see, yes literally see, people’s emotions.

‘Why is she like this…?’

She trembled when she saw Iliya’s current state.

Although Iliya was bright and smiling like usual, her emotions were surging violently like a strong undercurrent.

To put it simply, she was furious about something…!

“…This should be the last one.”

Luca said after cutting a wolf-like monster in two with his massive double-edged axe.

“Given the presence of these powerful monsters, there should be something here.”

“Right.”

Listening to Lucas’s words, Falco raised his monocle. His gaze was focused on the bluish rocks scattered nearby.

“It’s a rare mineral deposit. We shouldn’t get a low score if we take a couple.”

“Oh, then let Luca handle it.”

“… Come and help, Grid.”

As the reluctant Grid got dragged along, Trisha approached Iliya.

Iliya was just silent and seemed lost in her thoughts.

Even now, her emotions were still churning with insidious colors. Ultimately, Trisha could no longer bear to watch on from the side.

“Hey, Ilya.”

“Hmm?”

“Is something bothering you?”

Trisha cautiously inquired, but Iliya only shook her head and smiled in response.

“No, none at all.”

Lie.

The dark energy within her welled up as she uttered that response.

“I am here if anything is troubling you. I don’t want you to take it all on your own.”

“Eh, you’re my friend. Of course, I wouldn’t do that.”

… Lie again.

Trisha broke out in a cold sweat.

Emotions reflect a person’s disposition. Using her ability, she was able to observe its color and roughly guess people’s personalities.

Now, if Trisha were to say the most unique people she’s seen as of late, it would be none other than Lady Tristan and Iliya.

Lady Tristan’s color was basically a grey void of nothingness. However, black matter would surface from time to time. It was like sticky ink, that was how dark it was in its shade.

But it looked like she was suppressing it.

‘… I’ve seen it a few times.’

Although not common among the general populace, it wasn’t really strange to see such a sight from someone in the Tristan Family.

Iliya on the other hand.

‘Truly, strange.’

Evil people naturally radiate negative emotions.

However, Iliya had always radiated a color close to pure white. But now, Trisha was shocked to discover dark colors mixing within her pure white emotions.

Possessiveness, dominance, monopoly, something along those lines, and much more.

It was as if whenever Iliya thought of a certain person, it would bubble out.

Perhaps, even Iliya herself was not aware of this.

‘… It was definitely not like this before.’

It felt like this all started after the freshmen welcome party incident. Fortunately, the monsters were subdued without any casualties.

What exactly happened there for her to change so?

“But you look like you’re thinking about something.”

‘More importantly, you’re so angry that it’s literally changing your very color.’

Trisha wouldn’t be able to be at peace if she didn’t appease Iliya right here and now.

“… Was I too obvious? As expected, nothing can really go through you, Trisha.”

Ah, she’s starting to open up.

When she saw the white light shining within Iliya, Trisha couldn’t help but smile in relief.

She then started to wrack her brains to keep the conversation going.

‘At what point did Iliya get so angry…?’

“Ah, by any chance, that Dowd Campbell—”

However, Trisha immediately shut her mouth before she could even finish her sentence.

It was because she saw Iliya’s emotion quickly getting stained with darkness once more.

What made it scarier was the fact that Iliya still had a wide smile on her face.

“Well, I suppose I have indeed guessed correctly.”

Fortunately, she seemed willing to share her thoughts.

“No, it’s just that, I’ve been involved with him lately…”

Iliya then continued to tell one story after the other.

From asking him to become friends with her to her owing him for saving her life. Hence, to return the favor she went on to act as a wingwoman for him and sang praises about him to the person he liked, going as far as even breaking her own principles because that person, the one he liked, was from the Tristan Family— her enemy. And yet, she had been dismissed as not even a friend by him…

Seeing Iliya pouring out such a steady flow of sentences made Trisha blink blankly a few times.

This, could it be…?

“Iliya, do you think of that person as a real friend?”

“… Uh?”

Seeing Iliya’s shocked response, Trisha hurriedly shut her mouth.

She saw Iliya’s emotions getting mixed up and had unknowingly blurted that question…

Her emotions didn’t budge, regardless of the situation, when they were together so she was just way too shocked to see such a phenomenon when it involved Dowd Campbell.

“Ah, it’s nothing!”

“…”

Trisha was feeling a suffocating tension from Iliya’s silence.

This was the first time she’d seen her hesitate. It was as though she had never thought of such a scenario before. Inside, her already muddled emotions became murkier by the second.

“…But, he drew the line because we’re not that close?”

As Iliya struggled to come up with an answer, Trisha’s face became more contemplative.

Iliya’s normally incandescent emotions were creeping into a gloomy mess right now.

She had to say something here…!

“I, I’m sure that person didn’t mean it!”

“Then why did he say that?”

‘How would I know?’

But she couldn’t possibly say that.

“Uh, it, isn’t it because he’s being considerate of you?”

“… Considerate?”

“Isn’t that Dowd from a small barony with no backing? He probably thought that if he sticks to you, who’s the hero candidate, it’ll bring you a lot of trouble. Many will definitely get dissatisfied with it…! So, he’s preventing that from happening now…!”

“…”

Trisha managed to squeeze out an excuse.

And although the rationale was weak, at least she was not wrong.

“…”

It even made Iliya think deeply about it, her hand resting on her chin while she pondered.

“…Is it necessary to go that far? No, he is the kind of person who does things without saying anything… But still, it’s only between friends…”

“You can see it for yourself the next time. He’ll definitely say that he didn’t mean it when he said you weren’t close! Eun!”

“…Is that so?”

“He’ll draw a line with you until his status becomes a bit more stable! Deep inside, he probably feels very close to you…! Yep, that’s it…!”

“… Really?”

Please stop asking more questions.

Please understand my situation and let your anger go.

Trisha hopefully thought in her mind.

“Oh, wait. Isn’t that Talion?”

Fortunately for Trisha, she was saved by these words from the men gathering minerals next to them.

“Where?”

“About a 30-minute walk from here.”

“…You can see that, Grid?”

It was Grid who spoke, as he was staring into the distance.

As a long-range marksman, his eyesight was naturally quite good.

“By Talion… you mean Viscount Armand’s son? They’re good at using spears, right?”

“But it’s a bit strange. I’ve never seen him so angry. And is he muttering curses?”

“…He’s cursing?”

“Okay. Let’s see…”

Grid frowned and focused on Talion’s mouth.

“…I swear. I’ll kill that bastard. I’ll kill that dog scammer. I’mma kill him. I’ll turn you fucker into a skewer… Wow, how bloody.”

Everyone’s heads turned at Grid’s words.

Talion Armand was known as the epitome of human excellence and restraint. The most perfect role model.

What made such a person become this angry during class?

“…”

There was only one.

Iliya flinched upon hearing the word, scammer.

I had no intention of provoking the guy that much.

All I wanted was to experiment on the gift’s reach.

[ Target Talion’s anger has reached the threshold! ]

[ Giving indelible shame! ]

[ Negative tendency has been imprinted! ]

[ Rewards Available! ]

[ Skill: Evil Ruler has been activated. Obtained 1 command right over the target! ]

“…”

It worked so well.

Well, it wasn’t really anything special in the first place.

It was an obvious route that any freshman would take. A talent like Talion would’ve done the same.

That’s why I just went ahead and tried to hit all my targets.

I even threw in some of these lines, just in case the provocation wasn’t enough; It’s really amazing! You’re always behind! Thanks for the materials! Thank you for your incompetence! If you try a bit harder, you might catch up!

All of which were from the original story.

The polite sarcasm was pristine.

That’s roughly… I’ve repeated it about 25 times.

“…”

Well, he’s really mad right now.

Thinking so, I quickly ran away from the pursuing Talion.

I couldn’t care less about class, I was about to get skewered by a damn spear, dammit!

[ Danger Detected. ]

[ Determined an attempt to injure. ]

[ Skill: Desperation raised to C Class. ]

This even came up.

I wouldn’t die, but the model student was definitely angry enough that he was contemplating breaking my jaw.

‘The problem is…’

If he kept chasing me like this, I would eventually have to face him at some point.

I really don’t want to fight Talion right now.

Headmistress Atalante herself warned me to not stand out. Nothing good will happen, especially since this guy was related to the big boss— Purifier.

Angering him was fine, but if I fought and accidentally hammered him too hard, I was risking the loss of the connection point between him and the Purifier group.

I didn’t want that.

“Hey!”

So, I tried to talk it out with Talion, who was still chasing me with a hideous look on his face from behind.

“Look, let’s just say it’s my loss and split the harvest in half. How about that?”

[ Danger Escalated. ]

[ Determined as an attempt to seriously injure. ]

[ Skill: Desperation raised to B Class. ]

“…”

Well, that didn’t work.

I wasn’t even trying to agitate him this time.

Right now, I just kept running away from the angry, demonic Talion.

‘…But won’t I eventually get caught like this?’

After all, this was a man who could closely keep up with Iliya herself. Even with the B Class Desperation, I felt like I was definitely losing in terms of speed.

If he does catch up, won’t I have to fight him?

While I was contemplating my next move, someone suddenly appeared in front of me and I nearly crashed into them.

“…!”

I almost ate dirt because of my forceful stop. Fortunately, the person grabbed me before that could happen.

“What are you doing, mister?”

Iliya sighed while patting her forehead. Beside her was a tired, panting priestess.

‘It’s Trisha.’

She was the Hero Party’s Healer. She was nicknamed the Natural Lie Detector because of her ability to see other people’s emotions.

As I briefly glanced at the familiar face, Iliya calmly said.

“Trisha, can you isolate us?”

“Uh, en!”

A hemispherical barrier then formed around us, which blocked people’s perception.

Iliya continued.

“You could’ve just peacefully come with us. Why are you running around in a such place?”

“…No, there’s a reason for this.”

She turned her head in dissatisfaction.

“So what’s the reason? We saved you, so you should tell us that much.”

Although Iliya sounded normal, seeing Trisha’s contemplative face on the side was indicating that she was having some… violent thoughts.

It was clear that she was angry with my response.

“…”

That thought flashed through my mind.

However, making Talion angry and her anger were on different levels of importance.

Who knew what sort of strange effects getting stained by negative tendency would bring to her?

It might not be a big deal for a mid-boss, but something like that on the protagonist would undoubtedly cause a butterfly effect.

So, what now?

The lie detector Trisha was next to her so an excuse would just backfire.

For now, let’s go with the truth.

“That guy started the fight first.”

“Fight?”

“He asked why a guy like me is friends with you.”

At this time, both Iliya and Trisha’s expressions became strange.

“…?”

Was this really such a surprise?

“…Why would you fight over something like that, no, I guess he probably thought of you as a scammer or something.”

After muttering that, Iliya looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“Then why don’t you just ignore him? Talion is pretty strong. And you said that we’re not even close…”

“How can I ignore that?”

It was literally a test subject served on a silver platter.

“…”

Hearing those words, Iliya cleared her throat while turning her head slightly to the side.

Her nape was slightly red.

… Was she still angry about this?

Was I not speaking the truth right now?

“…”

“…”

Meanwhile, Trisha’s eyes started to twinkle when she heard me and poked Iliya on the side.

Immediately after, Iliya asked.

“… Mister, did you know that this would happen?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you know that he would act like that from the beginning?”

Did I know that Talion would be so angry?

I purposely agitated him so how could I not know?

“How can I not know? Anyone with some sense can tell.”

“… Is that why you didn’t come with me before? Were you afraid that he’d harm me too?”

“…?”

Uh, no?

I don’t understand what me provoking Talion has got to do with you being harmed.

[ Favorability of the target Iliya has been increased! ]

[ The favorability level has been upgraded to Interest Level 2! ]

[ Rewards Available! ]

[ Due to the good inclination of the character, the reward has been reduced! ]

“…”

I had no clue why this suddenly popped up here.

While I was at a loss, Iliya sighed and turned her head to Trisha.

“Trisha, would you mind removing the barrier?”

“Uh, why?”

“Nothing, it’s just…”

After saying that, she suddenly reached for her sword.

“I’ve always hated nosy people. Especially meddling in others’ relationships.”

“…Uh, Iliya?”

Trisha stiffly called out.

Iliya’s current expression wasn’t something a Hero candidate should have.

“You have to return the favor of harming your friend in the same way, right?”

‘I haven’t been able to relieve some stress lately. This is good.’

As she muttered something like that, the following message appeared:

[ Target Iliya has been influenced by you and is feeling intense anger toward the target Talion! ]

[ Negative tendency has been imprinted! ]

[ Rewards Available! ]

[ Skill: Evil Ruler has been activated. Obtained 1 command right over the target! ]

“…”

What’s this?

What the hell is going on?