Living as the Villainess Stepmother

Chapter 61 - A Playful Bet

It took a lot of persuading to have Lacias' approval. He was not on board with the idea at first, but after prodding him to no end showing how adamant she was to practice, he finally gave in and heeded to her wishes. She had been restless the whole time, itching to learn in preparation of teaching Hir how to use rings.

"Where's Roxana?" Lila asked.

"She went on investigating the area where a hole appeared."

"Oh."

Lila stopped at Hizette's answer. She thought that the Wiperes would stop looking into the holes after finding out that Enrique was a shadow, just like in the original novel.

What made Lacias change his mind? Lila's heart raced as the gears in her head turned, thinking of possible reasons that could make him shift directions.

The information Lila knew grew more worthless as the world she was in deviated from the original novel, and she seemed to be at a standstill where nothing was going as planned.

"Lady, hit the ring that I'll shoot with a pistol! Your skills would improve a lot more and mind you I taught Hizette the same way."

"I never learned from you. Why are you lying?" Hizette shot Lugar a glare.

"Have you lost your memories, Hizette? Did you suddenly forget the times we spent together?" Lugar asked mockingly.

"What are you talking about?" Hizette hissed.

"You're too tense, Hizette. Stop being so negative."

"Did you by any chance forget to take your medicine?" Hizette snapped.

Lugar huffed at the remark. "I don't do such things."

"Have this, then." Hizette quickly pulled his hand and aimed his pistol at Lugar. The ring shot out of the barrel like a gleaming bullet as it blazed with a bang.

"You kid too much. You should see how scary I can be."

Lugar casually covered Hizette's nuzzle with his palm as if it was a normal occurrence. His ring enveloped Hizette's, diminishing it completely as he cocked his head to the side and said, "I'm afraid you'd have to step down from your position, seeing that you skipped a lot of practices."

"Hey! Don't say such things in front of her!" Hizette bellowed as he took a step back, positioning his pistol away from Lugar and shot a ring at a far away distance.

"That won't work, you see." Lugar adjusted his stance and shot Hizette's ring with his pistol, aiming like the expert he was. "You shoot your rings in a straight line, which could be anticipated just as easily."

Hizette's ring spun haphazardly in the air. The younger man scowled at the sight and grabbed the ring with a sneer.

"You see this, Lady? You can neutralize your opponent by aiming at a ring in motion." Lugar smiled as he explained the specifics to Lila. She nodded and committed the scene to her memory.

"Let's do this." Lugar said.

"Right now?" Lila asked.

"Yes, right now. Practicing and putting it into action are much more effective than hearing hundreds of explanations on how to go on about it."

"I don't really want to." Lila said. The truth was, Lila deemed that it was too easy, that shooting rings were no different from shooting flying birds in the sky. What she wanted to do now was to practice how to create rings as fast as she could.

"How about we bet on it? Since it seems like you're not too keen on practicing."

"A bet it is then." Lila relented.

"How about you go against Hizette? He summons rings quite well, but I can't say the same on how he shoots—"

"Shut up." Hizette spoke, cutting Lugar off as he narrowed his eyes at him.

Lila's eyes glassed with excitement. "This seems fun. What's the condition?"

"Condition? How about the winner gets to decide?"

"All right." Lila turned around and threw a Hizette a smirk, oozing of confidence like she was sure of herself. Hizette felt the slight jab on his pride upon seeing the proud grin on her face, and nodded in mutual agreement.

"Fine. I won't go easy on you."

*

Lila thought he was cute, child-like from the way his lips set into a thin line after having his ego provoked. Lila fought the smile that was slowly creeping on her face, knowing full well that Hizette would be embarrassed when she laughs at him.

"Hizette, what will you do if you win?"

"I haven't given it a thought—"

"You don't have to since I'm going to win anyway." Lila cut his words short, smiling broadly.

Lila had her eyes on the prize, determined in winning against Hizette because there's something she wanted, and her urge to win was not something that could be extinguished easily.

"Are you underestimating me?" Hizette tipped his head towards Lila, who had a smug grin stretched across her face.

"It's not that I'm underestimating you. It's just that I'm confident of myself and my skills." She clarified.

Hizette stared at Lila with his mouth slightly agape. He couldn't believe the words that stumbled out of her lips, how sure of herself she was. Lila could feel the intensity of his gaze boring at the side of her head, but she paid him no attention as she turned towards Lugar.

Lugar's white ring floated up in the air, transforming itself into three butterflies as they fluttered in the spring breeze, with the creamy white flowers right underneath them...

Please read this TL's note:

Rings are form of energies. It comes in different forms for each character, others may take creative forms such as butterfly. It's called a Ring as it comes from the hand literally. Inexperienced ring users uses pistol to summon their rings. The more experienced they are, the more rings they are able to produce.

Shadows are people who uses distorted rings which are called "Holes." Rings such as these are colorless. They attach to other people's rings and sap its energy to gain power.