Struggling as a Villain

[Earth]

The situation on Earth has turned severe. Not only the humans but the animals have turned into zombies, and now they are mutating at a rapid pace. It feels like they are evolving along with humans.

The number of people awakening their skills has elevated by several folds as well. It was like nature was balancing itself out.

At such crucial times when many of the clans and groups were taken down by mutated zombies, there was one situated in Vegas which was one of the biggest human groups of awakened.

"Today's hunt has been very good. I caught one evolved mountain goat all by myself." A young man boasted of his achievement of hunting a D-rank beast as he flashed a smile in his comrade's direction.

The group of awakened sitting around the campfire sneered seeing that before they returned to their conversation.

"Hey, have you heard? Our leader is going on a hunt tonight?" One of them asked with a trace of excitement in his voice.

Another man with a long beard added, "Yup~I also heard. Despite having so many subordinates under her, she often goes out to hunt beasts like she is some kind of bloodthirsty witch."

A woman commented, "I have heard that she is quite hot."

The first one added an excited smile, "Yeah! That she is. Despite being young, she has a very radiant and mature aura. Silent and cold types."

The fourth person said something which attracted everyone's attention, "I looked at her from close yesterday."

"Really?!" The other three exclaimed.

The man who was smoking the cigar nodded with a proud smile before he announced, "I am in the department of skinning so I went there when she brought a whole ass Mud Gorilla."

"Damn...." The bearded man exclaimed, being petrified of the memories of facing Mud Gorilla once, only to nearly lose his life.

The cigar-smoking one continued, "Yeah. I was there when she brought it, and when she landed, she was just in front of me....haah~I was captivated by her looks."

Taking another drag, he looked at nothing constant before saying in a dazed tone, "Pure blue eyes like crystal. A small and charming face. High nose. And long black hair with several streaks of red added in her hair. Goddamn, she was hot."

Everyone concurred.

They all fell silent for a moment when suddenly the only female in the group asked, "Wait! We always call her Leader, but does she have a name?"

The bearded one nodded before he spoke in a hesitant voice, "She...calls herself Rine."

(Pronounced as: Reené)

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[Some time ago]

Richard was strolling in the garden since Henry had to bring something from the market. Richard didn't insist on coming since in public, he attracts unnecessary attention.

Currently, Richard was quite focused on his 'Detection' spell, realizing that it has improved a lot from the last time he had to be on alert.

A person can suppress their ether but can't get rid of it. And also, a person can decide their lower limit to a certain degree. Like an S-rank awakened can only bring their ether to seem like D-rank. They can't willingly make it seem like they are any lower or any higher rankings than that. And right now, Elizabeth was also suppressing her aura to not get suspected by Cristina.

Richard could sense Ethan as well and concluded that the Protagonist was at rock bottom for now. He was giving a very subtle aura and when Richard looked at him previously, Ethan didn't look anywhere near the person described in the book.

'If anything, he possesses one hell of an amount of luck stats...' That's why he survives tomorrow's invasion.

Thinking about tomorrow, Richard was feeling a little complicated. If only Elizabeth hadn't been present here, he wouldn't have shown even a single hesitation in calling the Grandmasters working for Scarlette house. With their presence, the attack tomorrow wouldn't have been any issue to get troubled about at all

However, if Richard now calls them here—before the disaster—there was a chance for Elizabeth to suspect him.

"Haah...." Heaving a heavy sigh, Richard contemplated the possible route to get out of this situation.

Maybe it was because he was so deep in thought that Richard realised only a fragment of a second before the attacker neared him, and on instincts, he reacted.

*Dhak*

He swirled on his feet, body fluidly twirling on his instinctive command and grabbing the ambusher by shoulder before kicking their heel and pinning them down on the ground with their arm held behind their back.

"Your Highness Princess Elizabeth," Richard muttered with an indifferent tone as he stared at the blond bundle right before his eyes.

Elizabeth's face was pressed against the ground and her hand tightly locked by Richard. His knee ground against her back as he held the Princess in complete deadlock.

"You must be feeling quite triumph right now, no?" Richard narrowed his gaze, seeing that crazed grin that made her lips visible even from behind.

However, before he could have thought of the reason behind her half-hearted assault, someone shouted.

"What are you doing to her?!"

Richard rolled his eyes, hearing that voice. There was only one male in this house that possessed such a feminine voice.

Richard slowly released Elizabeth and heard her sobbing uncontrollably while lying on the ground. The way her previous smugness shifted into a pitiful one, made even Richard shocked.

However, he didn't have the time to think about her, as suddenly the Protagonist lunged at him,

"Iyaaaaahhhhh!" With a mighty(?) roar, Ethan jumped from his spot and with his wooden sword raised above his head and held by both his hands, he leapt in Richard's direction.

Richard nonchalantly moved two steps back to avoid that slash, only to raise his hand when Ethan went for a backhanded cut with his wooden sword—aiming for Richard's neck.

Richard used his left hand to block the attack and in the process, both teenagers came into a stalemate.

It was then, "WAIT!"

Suddenly Lilia, along with Cristina, arrived, and seeing Lilia was about to attack Ethan, Cristina slammed her daughter down on the ground.

Ethan showed shock seeing that knife in Lilia's hold, and his astonishment elevated the moment he saw how flawlessly Lilia got rid of her mother and once again was advancing towards him at a pace which he could barely trace.

He instinctively released pressure from Richard and aimed to defend against Lilia if he could. However, it turned out to be futile as Lilia went past him like a mist and sliced his wooden sword into several large chunks.

Ethan didn't have the time to show a reaction over his treasured weapon as he suddenly felt the cold metal against his throat, and his life flashing by his eyes.

It was then, "Stop Lilia. It was a misunderstanding."

The cool and indifferent voice of Richard reached the brown-haired maid, and Lilia stopped just after grazing Ethan's neck by an inch.

Ethan gulped in fear and found his legs shaking. He has been tortured many times in the past, but death never seemed this close before.

Lilia slowly removed the knife from Ethan's throat before asking Richard, "But young master, he clearly was attacking you."

"I know but there was a reason for the boy to attack me." Richard encouraged Ethan to present his reasoning which the latter gave,

"Yes! Mister Richard was assaulting Eli! Right....Eli?"

When Ethan turned towards Eli...he was baffled to see another person standing beside her while holding Eli's arm behind her back.

It was another blond girl, equally beautiful as Eli but wore more expensive and elegant clothes.

Eli had an ugly expression on her face as she tried to remove herself from the stranger, but to no avail.

The blond girl turned to look at Richard and for a moment the look of warmth appeared in her eyes. But she didn't focus on him for long and with a bow, she said,

"Good evening, I am the daughter of Count Cravenford, Emily Cravenford. I arrived here in search of my friend and found her creating trouble for you people."

"Count Cravenford? Isn't that place a little too far? How did you end up being here, Miss Emily?" Lilia asked, her tone suggesting caution and a little wariness.

Emily didn't take offence to being asked by a maid before she replied, "I knew she was here since she left a note before disappearing from the Capital."

Elizabeth's eyes widened as she flailed her body even more. However, the barrier Emily had cast around her throat and arms just didn't allow her to speak or move at all!

"From the Capital?" Ethan gasped, before he asked, "Is Miss Eli someone close to the Royal Family?"

Elizabeth shook her head with a threatening look in her eyes as she wordlessly warned Emily.

However, the blond girl didn't pay attention to her and spoke without hesitation, "Yes, she is the Princess of the Empire—Princess Elizabeth Haven Eldor."

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A/N:- What has Elizabeth planned? To make Ethan an enemy of Richard so the Goddess of Fate wouldn't mind if Elizabeth killed Richard.

And what did she get? Possibly getting disliked by Ethan.

Damn....