Struggling as a Villain

[Earth]

Bella felt troubled. She didn't know why, but this morning she felt something bad had happened. This wasn't the same feeling as she felt when her brother was in danger. This was more like someone was trying to take him away.

Like that time when a girl confessed to her brother when he was in high school. Although he rejected her and Bella made sure that the girl wouldn't be able to confess to anyone again, still it pained her to think her brother was paying attention to someone else.

And right now, she was feeling the same emotions.

"*KHREEEGHH*" The loud cries of the zombies rose across the streets as Bella, in a fury, continued to burn everything that came in her way.

Was she just clearing her path? No. She has already abandoned a safe house.

Then what was she doing?

Just purely venting.

Scorching every being on which her eyes landed was the only source she could find to keep her mind engaged or this annoying feeling she was having wouldn't let her rest.

'Brother....what have you done...' While she continued to befall the crisis across the city, her mind never ceases to think about her brother.

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Richard was going overboard with potion consumption. He has already finished three vials of stamina booster and any more might inflict severe consequences.

But he couldn't stop.

It was already afternoon, and from the passing by travellers, the nearest town where he could find a teleportation portal was still five hundred kilometres away.

He was using 'Body Strengthening' and running at a speed of forty miles per hour. He would need at least five more hours to reach the town, and by his calculation, he was still on point. However, little did he expect to meet a sudden obstacle in the path.

"Drop all your loot or die here." Local thugs who were wearing scarves around their mouths and riding horses.

Richard scowled as he removed the trap with which they brought him to a stop. He assessed their positioning and found a thug situated at the far side behind a boulder with the aim of his arrow pointed at Richard. Any unnecessary move and Richard might receive fatal damage.

'I don't have time for this!' Richard concluded what he had to do within seconds as he extended the threads of his telekinesis and lifted one of the thugs along with his horse—positioning it just in the way to block the archer's view.

*NIIEEEEGHHHH*

The horse cried, and the men panicked, seeing their comrade being lifted like this.

Richard didn't miss the window and drew his batons. They are charged with enough kinetic energy to blow away a small town. And these few men were nothing to be worried about.

"HEY!"

In a rush to finish things off, Richard didn't wait to contemplate his decision, and the next moment,

**DING**

**BOOOOOOOOMM**

He slammed the left baton into the other with a thunderous crack, unleashing a shockwave that rippled through the air, tearing through the ground in a radius of several meters. The deafening boom was instantly followed by a cataclysmic blast that consumed everything in its path—the bandits, the archer—obliterating them in a flash of fiery destruction.

A massive plume of smoke erupted, with Richard at its epicentre. The bandits were reduced to smouldering husks, their bodies incinerated and turned to brittle charcoal, crumbling into ash where they stood.

Richard was also damaged by the confrontation but not enough to stop. He took out another vial but this time for recovery. Uncorked it before gulping the whole content in one go.

He felt a little dizzy once the potion showed its effect, but he suppressed the sensation and, once again, initiated his march back to Duchy.

'Just a little more...'

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The whole southern side of the continent is surrounded by the ocean, which is why trading and transportation always remain at the peak of business in this part.

Awsperg was also located on the southern side, but because of its history of failure of rulers, the small town never gained permission to begin its own foreign trade. And until now, Awsperg was not popularly known in the world.

If there was anything significant about Awsperg then it was its sole adventurer's guild and that hunter who used to work for that guild. That adventurer made Awsperg's name register in the Golden Book of history because a single adventurer stood on the battlefield seven years ago when a foreign country secretly sent its troops to attack the Empire.

And that adventurer was honoured by the Emperor himself.

Currently, inside the most expensive-looking mansion in the vicinity, there was a boy with a lanky structure and long silver hair who swung his wooden blade in the open field.

The boy looked younger than his age. Even though he was fifteen years old, he still possessed the baby fat on his face and his physique was quite thin and frail as well.

However, despite seeming like he would fall down because of exhaustion any second now, he continued to swing his sword in complete rhythm and without faltering even for once.

His slashes held precision and each of his movements told the story of his determination.

"Huppp!" Swinging his sword for the thousandth time, the boy finally halted and in the next moment...he fell to the ground; completely exhausted.

Just a little far from the ground, from the window of the mansion, a middle-aged couple were looking at the boy with a sense of warmth in their eyes.

"How long has it been since he started learning from you, Cristina?" The middle-aged man with brown hair and a goatee asked the lady beside him.

"It's been four months and I can already see how far he has climbed in just these few months." A look of nostalgia appeared in the black short-haired woman's eyes as she added, "When I picked him, he was working as a porter for the adventurer and used to get pushed around a lot. At that time, even swinging that sword ten times was akin to climbing a mountain for him."

The man smiled in fondness as he said, "Our daughter would have liked this boy a lot. She respects hard work and dedication, and Ethan has both qualities."

"Right," The woman added, "Ethan is destined to become a renowned warrior in the future considering his potential. I guess letting Ethan meet her wouldn't be a bad choice."

Her husband raised his brows before asking, "Do you mean...Ethan and our daughter to..."

Cristina grinned and shrugged before saying, "Who knows what would happen if Ethan gets to train under her? Maybe something can happen between them, and surely we won't be against it, right Henry?"

The brown-haired man scrutinized Ethan with a closer look, thinking whether his wife was right about having Ethan as his son-in-law.

Cristina grinned. If her husband was thinking closely then it meant he wasn't against it.

She softly mumbled some words before walking away,

"I am going to write a letter and call Lilia back."

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It took him ten hours but he finally reached his destination.

Richard was beyond exhausted and was barely holding himself from falling flat on the ground. If there was something keeping him moving then it was the concern he carried for his mother.

Entering the mansion, he asked the first maid his eyes caught, "W-Where...is...Mom...."

The maid was taken aback by his current state but she didn't delay in answering his query, "She is in her room...ah, young master." The maid suddenly remembered something important to tell, but Richard had already walked away, completely ignoring her.

He made his way through the gallery while slightly swaying from left to right with his eyes barely open.

The moment he reached near his mother's room, he found several maids and butlers standing there with concern written over their faces.

"Ah, young master!" Suddenly one of those maids noticed him, and everyone marched towards Richard.

"What happened?" With some vigor in the form of concern returned to him as Richard asked the maid with a frown.

"Madame has locked herself inside the room since morning and isn't replying to any of us."

Richard instantly retorted, "Then why didn't you just break the door?"

The servants shuddered hearing his cry but in his current state no one found the courage to tell him, what the Duchess have instructed them to do and to not.

Richard didn't pay attention to them for long, and while using the last bit of his energy, he pushed open the door, breaking its lock.

With desperate eyes, he looked around the room....only to turn still when his eyes landed on his beloved lady....lifelessly sitting on the chair with blood dripping down her wrist.

"M-mom...."

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A/N:- There is a tag called 'obsessive characters' in the synopsis. Just reminding....

Anyway, as I said the drama won't continue for long since we have to keep the story moving. Thanks for reading.