Willful Beauty Takes the Villain | System | BxB

49: Swindled?

The oldest son of the Rong household stood in stunned silence. The moment his mother spoke disrespectful words to the young master he thought he must have heard wrong. When she fell down and begged for mercy he nearly collapsed.

He knew all to well and path forward for the family would be narrow if there was any at all. No one would hire them as servants. The family name was indelibly tarnished.

Once disloyal, one cannot be used for a hundred times.

If any survived this they could only become a soldier family. He desperately clung to the hope that their families promising young men would be spared death and given a chance to prove themselves by military merit.

~~~The villain, Song Min, Sen Shuai

At the conclusion of his involvement in nanny Rong's matter, Sen Shuai felt an oddly discordant sense of satisfaction. It was just as Sen Jia had described. It was clearly not from his own consciousness but he felt it deeply. It was very uncomfortable.

Along with the odd feeling, he experienced a number of memories related to that woman's misdeeds ending in Song Min laying in bed covered with sweat. A parched throat to sore to speak anymore. 

Sen Shuai noticed that the young man in the memory still felt strong and determined despite the heavy illness. 

-Nil.- 

|Is there something, host?| A languid voice floated across his thoughts like a hazy cloud.

-This body seems hardy. Did it truly die from just a fever?-

|Host is intelligent to catch it.| The presence of the system seemed to solidify, the voice becoming clear.

-Was the spirit weak, crumbling under the pressure?-

|Not at all.|

-.....Then....?-

|That one would have survived. The spirit wasn't weak. At the peak of the fever, I was able to speak to him a little.|

-Did you..... trick him?-

Nil scoffed at the suggestion. |You humans sure like to paint me as a villain.|

Sen Shuai shrugged nonchalantly. -Who isn't a bit of a villain?-

|That one chose fairly. Even now he is satisfied with his part of the deal. You may even get a chance to meet. Ask him yourself if you can.| 

As Nil spoke, his voice floated away until the final words seemed like the fleeting memory of a dream.

|Work hard and show him something good, host.| 

For a time, Sen Shuai sat in quiet contemplation.

"Jia, is it normal for the soul of the body to remain in the world as a different person?"

"Oh!? Not normal, but happens sometimes. Did Song Min's soul remain in this world?"

"It seems so."

"Interesting, let's play a good show then!" Jia's excitement was clearly reflected in his eyes. Such a rare anomaly would make this world far more enjoyable.

"En." Sen Shuai nodded lightly.

"I wonder why he didn't fulfill his wishes on his own. Was he swindled by that system Nil?"

|He had something he wanted more than anything. It is a thing impossible to achieve with the identity of Song Min.| The voice of system Nil seemed irritated.

"Seems not." Sen Shuai didn't bother to repeat what Nil had told him. He was also too lazy to ask Nil why he was eavesdropping since it had saved him the trouble of asking.

"If we meet, we can talk slowly about his grievances with the system." 

Sen Jia took it for granted that the soul would be unhappy with his outcome. Sen Shuai had a stronger sense of that Song Min's character from the shared memories though. He felt Nil's words were likely true. In all the memories of Song Min he had no clue of what the young man had wanted most though, so he couldn't be sure.

~~~Seventh

|Seventh, why am I getting bullied so?|

Seventh was startled by the sudden interruption. His entire consciousness felt overrun by a huge dark force... that seemed to be pouting... [What?]

|The humans. They doubt my integrity.|

Was that...whining? The force shifted back and forth across his consciousness like....shaking him from side to side? This system Nil was too strange. Ignore... Ignore...

[Of course they doubt you.] Seventh wasn't interested in this matter and turned his attention back to his task.

|Seventh, I worked hard for that Song Min fellow from this world and the humans are disparaging my good reputation.|

[Oh, you have such a thing?] Seventh mumbled.

The inky depths of Nil's consciousness roiled for a moment as Seventh felt icy, prickling sensations.

Seventh felt a hint of danger, he decided to humor the moody system a bit. [But why would you do that for him?]

Nil perked up. |His wish was interesting.|

Seventh finally gained a bit of interest in the topic. What sort of thing would Nil consider interesting? [His wish was?]

|I won't tell.| The connection was severed, the weight on his consciousness completely gone in an instant, leaving Seventh stunned for a few moments.

He just rolls in and out like a storm! Doing as he pleases, what good reputation? What working hard? Pah! I won't believe it!

.....

...he got me all worked up again...

How can he say we knew each other. I've never known such a ridiculous and mercurial system.