The Villain Can't Catch A Break

Adam finally reached the Dacre Estate. It wasn't as grand as Duke Yenalova's Estate, but its charm came from its minimalistic architecture both inside and outside.

This is to give you the idea that maybe the Lord who lives there isn't obsessed with profits and the pursuit of power.

Then again, who was Adam to judge Count Dacre? Adam knew that he would do a lot of things that the human moral compass might admonish, just to grow stronger.

But the difference between Count Dacre and Adam was that the Count didn't have a necessity for more power.

Adam needed more power. If he didn't have power, this world would chew him in and spit out his corpse.

The guards at the entrance didn't give any grand welcome to him, nor did they care for his arrival.

It was obvious why they acted this way.

The count's 1st wife, Brianna, really despised Adam's existence.

Thankfully for Adam, Brianna thought of Adam to be so lowly that she didn't even bother with an assassination attempt. She just tried her best to ensure that his life on the estate was miserable.

She managed to accomplish that very easily. I would say that if you believed that she was the biggest trigger for Adam's descent into villainy, you would stand corrected.

She had her eldest son constantly bully Adam during his childhood and even beat him up whenever Adam tried to practice the sword or train for strength.

It's very rare for a child with a miserable childhood to end up right in the head when he grows up into adulthood.

Either way, Adam didn't care about her existence one bit.

He was going to break ties with this estate soon. Once he was free from these chains that bound him, he could finally start preparing for all the disasters that would befall this world in earnest.

The first thing on the checklist was to fix this horrible body of his.

Entering the estate, Adam made his way to his room; before entering, however, he was greeted by the Head Butler, one of the only 3 people in the estate that didn't treat Adam like absolute sh*t.

"Young Master Adam, you have returned much earlier than expected."

"Did the Count not inform you that I would be arriving back home earlier than the rest of the family?"

"The Count did tell me that you would be returning early; however, I just wanted to enquire about the reason why you came back so early, as you would prefer spending time with your beloved than staying here."

'Calling that red-haired wench my beloved, huh?'

Adam chose to ignore the butler's question and handed him a piece of paper.

"Bring me all of the things on this list to my room as soon as possible. Remember to bring at least 10 sets of each of these ingredients."

Taking the piece of paper with a startled expression, the Head Butler regained his composure and, with a slight bow, said,

"It shall be done, Young Master."

After the meeting with the Head Butler, Adam made his way to his part of the estate.

The entire area was devoid of any servants.

Only one maid sat on a sofa, right outside the door to his room, staring into the off-white wall beside the door listlessly.

She was none other than Adam's one and only servant, Henrietta Limoncello.

She was 5 years older than her master, whom she served.

Her light brown hair starkly complimented her skin like the moon shining in the night sky, lighting up the path for weary travellers, serving as a light that guided them.

Depth was added to her light skin naturally, with faint light pink hues all around her skin adding colour to her portrait.

However, even an elegant beauty like she was held down by her unfortunate situation.

Her mother was Adam's mother's maid for her entire life.

When she was little, she fell in love with Adam's mother and admired her.

When Adam's mother was pregnant with Adam, Adam's mother said to Henrietta, just as a passing joke,

"My little Henri, soon my son will be born into this world. I hope you look after him now and then and turn him into a man his mother would be proud of. Seeing the two of you get along would make me smile."

Even though Hannah didn't mean what she said and only said it to play with Henrietta, Henrietta ended up taking it to heart and saw it as her life's goal to accomplish the first and last time Lady Hannah had asked her to do.

Adam's mother passed away when he was 5 years old.

Henrietta's mother passed away 3 years later due to unknown reasons.

And 'magically' as the years passed, everyone in the estate that was remotely related to Lady Hannah either passed away or left the estate.

The only people left were Henrietta and Adam.

Her worn-out maid costume, her fatless face that looked starved for sustenance, with her body, that looked like nothing more than skin and bones, stirred up a nostalgic emotion within Adam.

Even with such an adverse condition of her body. Her face still shone in such a bleak environment.

The first thought that came to Adam's mind when he saw her was,

'She deserves better.'

In Adam's eyes, Henrietta was a very complex character to deal with.

She was the perpetrator of a few of the many ways in which Adam in the original game gets killed.

It's funny how the mid-boss can die even if the protagonist doesn't fight him. Truly a pathetic existence.

The reason why Henrietta killed Adam wasn't due to any personal feelings or that she hated Adam for how horrible of a person he ended up becoming.

The only reason she killed Adam was because she didn't like how he had crossed every line possible and besmirched the memory of Lady Hannah.

Henrietta had little care for her own emotions.

They had already been dulled by the constant torment from Brianna and her servants.

She only managed to live through such a bleak life by living through the memories of the time she had spent with Lady Hannah during her childhood.

Like a film reel on loop, neverending.

The only commodity she owned that brought peace to her heart in a constant state of turmoil.

'Dealing with her death flag was quite easy. All I had to do was let her get on with her life and live in a way that would not bring shame to my late mother.'

However, if Adam's the one involved in anything, it can never be that simple.

|| EXISTENTIAL QUEST #1

QUEST OBJECTIVE: MAKE THIS WITHERED FLOWER BLOOM AGAIN.

QUEST REWARDS: 1000 CE

PENALTY AT FAILURE: ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION. ||

'I would much rather you have me chewed to death by 20 rabid dogs than let me live with that penalty.'

'Also, since when did the system have a knack for poetry like me?'

The penalty seemed quite rage-inducing to Adam. However, he didn't hate it.

The objective of this quest was something that he felt in his heart; he should have done anyway while he was an inhabitant of this world.

No man in this world would dislike the scenery of a good woman smiling.

Especially when he was the cause of that smile.

Before he knew it, his trait activated on its own while he walked towards Henrietta to bring her out of her reverie.

|| A SUITABLE, FERTILE WOMAN HAS BEEN DETECTED IN THE HOST'S VICINITY. TRAIT [WOMANISER] HAS BEEN PERMANENTLY ACTIVATED. ||

Adam couldn't help but feel infuriated at the system window that had just popped up.

Adam had felt a connection with Henrietta; it was said that two suffering souls could organically relate to each other.

But the [WOMANISER] trait might ruin it.

Regardless of what happens next, Adam approaches Henrietta.

"Henrietta, I'm back."

Henrietta, breaking out of her daze, hastily stood up.

"Ahh, Young Master, you're back early; did something happen?"

While the voice that came from her mouth sounded surprised, her face showed no expression of surprise.

It was as if the life she had lived had reduced her to nothing more than a lifeless doll with only a single reason to keep on living.

'It's about time I fix this.'

Adam pointed toward the door to his room and said, I need to talk to you about something important, in private."

After hesitating for a second or two, perhaps due to the sudden request from the man she had served for the past 14 years of her life, this was the first time he had ever allowed anyone to come into his room in 5 years.

This hesitation was probably because it had been years since his very own maid had been in her master's room.

As Adam opened the door to his room and made his way in, he moved his hands towards the light switch; he seemed to already know where it was situated in the dark room.

Almost like muscle memory.

The moment the lights turned on, the scenery in front of Adam infuriated him.

He had now realised why the previous Adam hadn't let anyone in his room for many years.

Henrietta walked into the room with gentle steps that made no sound.

As soon as she saw her young master's room, she stood in front of the door, her mouth agape with incredulity, frozen still.

The embarrassment caused by someone seeing the state of his room was eating Adam alive.

He had wished he knew a fire spell so that he could burn down this entire room instantly.