The Villain Can't Catch A Break

Chapter 15: The Day I Catch A Break Is The Day I Die



Adam completely ignored Mia's questions as if she didn't even exist in the room. He chose to focus on the Duke's questions.

"Something happened at the party that caused me to awaken. I would rather not talk about something quite personal."

"Alright Adam, I won't enquire about that for now, tell me, what were you doing in the cemetery?"

"It's quite a long story, Duke....."

Adam started to tell Duke Gavin an incredibly twisted version of the story.

In his story, he turned the bandits into members of Darkus Maximus who attacked Adam's trailer and slipped up about their plan when Adam was about to kill them.

He then told them that he had come to Brahken to deal with the situation on his own since nobody would have believed him even if he had screamed it out to everyone due to his terrible reputation.

Hearing the story the Archmage said, "It was quite interesting to see that you know how to make magic formations. How did you get the idea to deal with the undead like that?"

"The original plan was to use an anti-magic formation to destroy the skeletal knights since the only thing that holds the skeletons together is dark mana and without dark mana those skeletons would cease to exist regardless of their strength. Unfortunately, my formation skills weren't up to par and the remaining dark mana overwhelmed the formation causing a Dark Implosion."

"That's a good story Adam but the question remains, what if you're lying to me? What if you're a dark mage yourself?"

Adam had waited for this question to come up. He had already prepared an answer that would rid him of all suspicions. Unfortunately for Adam, currently he wasn't in control of his own body, it was [WOMANIZER] that had its own plans.

"If you're still suspicious of me, then you can just burn my mana to see whether there is dark mana in it or not."

Duke Gavin was taken aback by the words that Adam had uttered. Mana burning was a process where a mage of 6th circle or above grabs onto an exposed nerve in the person's body and uses their mana to burn the mana inside that body to check for dark mana.

If the dark mana is present then the burning process will stop halfway, if there is no dark mana in the body then the process will continue until the body runs out of mana.

This process is great for checking whether a person is a dark mage or not, the only issue is it's incredibly painful.

"Adam, are you sure you want me to perform Mana Burning on you?"

After a long period of silence, Mia chimed in and said, "Yeah Adam, don't just say it because you're trying to act tough in front of me and Dad."

Adam, once again, completely Ignoring Mia's existence looked towards Duke Gavin, his eyes started to emit a faint purple glow, Duke Gavin took note of that change, he could see faint strands of purple light emit from Adam's body, all around his physique.

"Archmage, to clear myself of any suspicions in the present or the near future, I would like you to initiate the mana-burning process on me."

The look in Adam's eyes was serene. There wasn't a single hint of regret over what he had just said. All that Gavin could sense in those eyes was utter indifference. Especially for what Mia had said, mocking Adam's advances to prove himself innocent as he tried to act tough to impress him and his daughter.

'There is no way a 16-year-old can behave like this, let's get this kid a taste of what he wants so bad.'

"Fine then, bring your hand forward, and let's begin this."

Gavin knew the reason why Mia and Adam had a falling out during their childhood. Like any normal father, he absolutely adored his daughter and wanted to teach Adam a lesson for what he had done.

Gavin couldn't do it directly since it was just a fight between children and the elders shouldn't come in between it but now after all these years, the golden opportunity had come.

He could now personally punish Adam for toying with the heart of his lovely daughter all those years ago.

Gavin wasn't an unreasonable person however, he knew how inhumane the pain experienced in this process was, he only planned to put Adam in his place for acting so arrogantly in front of him.

'This kid used to call me Uncle Gavin back when he was little and Mia used to play with him regularly.'

'Now he calls me Archmage, Duke and all these titles only used to refer to me by complete strangers.'

'When a kid you have seen grow up right in front of your eyes acts so rebellious it's completely understandable to discipline him a little but it does sadden me quite a bit.'

"Adam give me your hand," Gavin said as he walked closer and closer to where Adam was.

The mana blockers were removed and he now held Adam's right hand palm side up by the wrist.

With just a finger movement, Adam's wrist cut open, exposing his vein. While the situation taking place was quite gruesome and cutthroat there was something exquisite and pristine about how not a single drop of blood fell when the skin was cut through and the vein was exposed.

Duke Ivrea Arlae grabbed onto the vein gently with 2 fingers. He was about to start the process, he felt that the current predicament Adam was in was already quite painful.

He didn't want to go forward with his search but he felt that he had to keep his word as it wasn't about personal feelings now but honour.

What the Duke had done was already much worse than anything Adam had ever done to Mia.

Speaking of Mia, while the entire situation was unfolding, she covered her face and eyes with her hands, keeping only one eye open.

She was terrified at the sight of a cleanly exposed nerve coming out of Adam's wrist and being exposed and held onto by her father's fingers.

She had never even seen any bloodshed throughout her life this was an incredibly surreal experience for her, her body couldn't help but tremble out of fear due to what was being shown to her.

"Dad let's stop this already, I know what Adam did was bad but we shouldn't go that far because of it." Said Mia, observing from the sidelines.

"Adam, I will give you one last chance, are you sure you want to go through this?"

Adam Ignoring Mia's existence once again, deeply stared into the eyes of the Duke and said, "Do it."

'Hannah I apologize for putting your kid through this but he needs to learn his limits, when you look down at me from above, admonishing me, think of this as a teaching moment for your child that will further improve his growth.'

These are the excuses he gave himself as he began to start the mana burning but deep in his heart he knew, that Adam surviving this while retaining his sanity would be an amazing achievement.

Adam didn't feel any pain when his naked nerve was being held, it was as if nothing was happening to him, the look on Adam's face showed complete confidence and calm.

As soon as the process started, the look in Adam's eyes changed drastically, his body still stood up straight not a single scream or sound was uttered from his mouth but, Adam's eyes that were previously calm were now staring daggers into the eyes of the Duke.

If looks could kill, this was it. Adam felt his entire body burning from the inside as if his nerves were filled with gunpowder instead of blood and someone had set fire to all of it as the burning sensation slowly swept through his entire body.

He couldn't even think straight anymore the pain was so mind-numbing. He didn't understand how he wasn't screaming or going insane with the amount of pain he was feeling since pain resistance didn't seem to be working currently.

Probably because his MIND stat was too low to be able to negate pain of this level.

He finally got to know the reason why he was unable to express how he felt or even move an inch from his current position through a system window.

|| A WOMANIZER NEVER SHOWS AN UNSIGHTLY APPEARANCE IN FRONT OF A MAIDEN HE CHOOSES TO COURT. ||

This was it. [WOMANIZER] didn't allow Adam to express his pain or even change the expression on his face.

He felt like a hostage within his own body.

If someone were to tell him this new life of his was purgatory, he would believe it in a heartbeat.

'All of this because that b*tch refuses to leave.'

Blood had started to splatter out of his wrist in small quantities, it seemed that his frail body couldn't physically endure the agony it was being put through.

Even then, there wasn't a single change of expression on Adam's face.

However, the Duke could see the rage that leaked out through his eyes was getting even more intense.

The Duke was flabbergasted, absolutely amazed at what was happening in front of him.

As he stared deep into Adam's eyes he could feel that he was entering into an illusionary world.

'So those eyes can passively activate illusions on their own?'

The Duke had caught the illusion magic affecting him but he chose to let it happen anyway since he was curious about what he would see within the illusion.

The scenery changed and behind him stood soldiers of the empire that were on prison duty.

He was currently inside a cell block, mana burning a convict for interrogation purposes.

The man was a dark mage of the 7th circle while during that time, Gavin was only of the 6th circle hailed as a genius to the empire that was coming up, bringing glory to the Ivrea Arlae Dukedom.

He began the mana-burning process on the dark mage. The screams that he let out were deafening because this mana burn aimed to burn the entirety of his dark mana itself.

The mage's eyes popped out of his sockets, he started bleeding from all orifices. Blood slowly tricked out of his mouth, his eyes the gap between his fingers and his nails even some inappropriate places.

The mage had gone insane after the process and was incapable of giving any useful information.

The illusion was now broken and he came back to the real world where he continued the process on Adam.

Adam was bleeding from his eyes, nose, and mouth just like the man in the illusion of Gavin's past.

The only difference was, that Adam didn't even flinch, let alone utter a single sound.

The floor and walls were smothered in Adam's blood.

A few drops had fallen onto Mia's hands and hair.

She was crying and screaming saying," DAD STOP WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ADAM? IT'S FINE, DAD I FORGIVE ADAM FOR IT PLEASE STOP!" *sob* *sob* *sob*

Duke Gavin chose to ignore his daughter's wishes as she cried and screamed for the first time in his life.

The Duke had never seen something like this before.

A man so resilient that he refused to even utter a single sound while he felt such inhumane amounts of pain.

The evidence of how much Adam was suffering was already splattered all around the room, even on his daughter's hair.

This wasn't just about punishing a kid for slapping his daughter anymore. This was now a test of strength between men. Adam's gaze had remained unflinching throughout the entire process.

It would be wrong of him to not reciprocate with the same sincerity for Adam.

Duke Gavin went all out, immensely speeding up the process of mana burning, increasing the already mind-numbing pain 10-fold just to get the process over with.

Adam could feel it. He was losing his sanity. He couldn't even feel his arms anymore let alone his legs that he stood on. He could see the scenery in front of his eyes vanish, being consumed by blinding white light. He was going insane from the pain and he was finally about to let go.

However, when he was about to take that last step into insanity, something stopped him.

It was as if something didn't allow him to go insane.

A system window popped up barely visible in the white light behind it.

|| MENTALLY ILL MEN ARE UNATTRACTIVE TO WOMEN, TRAIT [WOMANIZER] REFUSES TO LET THE HOST GO INSANE. ||

In this world, Adam couldn't even go insane on his own accord.

The process was finally over. He could slowly feel his senses returning to him.

The first thing he saw after regaining his eyesight was the Duke knelt in front of him apologizing to him.

Adam couldn't make out the first entire part of what the Duke was saying because his sense of hearing hadn't completely returned yet.

Adam moved his eyes around, and he saw Mia, quivering behind her father's office table, poking her head out slightly from behind, looking at Adam.

Adam chose to not spare another second looking at her.

He knelt in front of the Duke saying," There is no need for the Archmage of the Empire to be kneeling in front of someone as lowly as me. The Archmage was simply doing his job, ensuring that the empire is safe by trying to locate a dark mage."

These aren't the words he wanted to say but these are the words that came out of his mouth.

"Adam, you don't have to keep up the act anymore I saw your rage in your eyes, I know you must really hate me right now, you have my permission to let it all out on me."

"Duke, while I do admit that I felt a lot of pain, that doesn't mean I would hold it against you since you were only doing your job as a protector of the Empire."

'IF ONLY I WAS STRONG ENOUGH I WOULD HAVE YOU AND YOUR DAUGHTER HEADLESS, HANGING ON THE TIP OF MY SWORD!'

Adam had overheard Mia during the situation when she was talking about why her father was going so far just to punish Adam for her.

'ALL OF THIS BECAUSE I SLAPPED YOUR DAUGHTER ONCE? I AM SO F*CKING SICK OF FATHERS THAT ARE OVERPROTECTIVE OF THEIR DAUGHTERS ITS THE SAME SH*T IN THIS LIFE AND THE PAST LIFE.'

Adam was complete over this family and everyone inside it. If he didn't leave now, his rage would take over and he would try to kill both of them.

"Sir, have I proven that I am not associated with dark mages or dark mana?"

"Yes you have Adam, but are you sure you are completely fine? We can have you checked by the healers of our family.."

Adam didn't even wait for the Duke to finish his sentence, he had already turned his back on him and started moving towards the door as soon as he heard the first words of his sentence, everything else that was uttered in the exchange was completely meant nothing to him.

Adam walked through the door of the office, his body clad in his half-burnt noble robes, his own crimson blood painted all over his stature.

As he walked through the hallway all the guards looked at his condition in shock whispering to each other as he walked towards the lift.

"Psst, I think the Duke has outdone himself, look at that kid, why is he in such a bad state? I get that the Duke was suspicious of him being a dark mage but you still can't be this ruthless with the child of a noble."

"You know nothing, our Duke has sacrificed so much for the empire and protecting its peace against the dark mages. Have you forgotten about the incident in the empire's prison?"

As Adam walked by, all he heard was more worthless chatter. All he wanted was to go back to his room and go to sleep. Nothing else mattered to him.

He knew that as soon as he were to leave the duke's premises, [WOMANIZER] would shut down and he would have to walk his broken body back to the hotel on his own.

Adam pressed the button for the lift.

It turned out that the lift would take quite some time to reach his location since he was in a tower as tall as a skyscraper.

He only had to bear with it for a little while longer.

Suddenly, Adam was brought out of his thoughts by someone calling toward him, behind him.

"Adam, wait for me, I need to talk to you!"

It was Mia screaming at the top of her lungs as she ran out of her father's office, through the hallway.

Adam genuinely considered whether he should just jump out of a window instead of waiting for the lift.


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