Villain's Odyssey: Enslaving heroines, Conquering Villainesses

Asher pushed the wheelchair toward the exit of the bar-restaurant, his stomach pleasantly full despite the questionable neighborhood. The same waitress from before approached with a sleek payment device, its screen displaying [Insert Pin] at the top and [100 Points] glowing at the center.

The young woman in the wheelchair accepted the device with practiced ease. The waitress stepped back respectfully as Natalia inserted her pin, and the screen flashed [Transaction Complete] in cheerful green letters. She handed the device back, and the waitress presented a small card to Natalia with a professional smile.

Then something odd happened. The waitress looked directly at Asher, bit her lip in what seemed like a practiced gesture, and walked away with an exaggerated sway of her hips.

"What was that about?" Asher asked, genuinely puzzled.

Natalia's expression darkened. "Let's go," she said curtly.

He pushed the wheelchair as they left the building, emerging onto a modest but bustling street. The people here looked rough around the edges—the kind who'd seen too much and trusted too little. Asher couldn't help but scan the crowd with growing unease.

"The food aside, I still don't think it's safe for someone like you to come to places like this," he said, noting how several passersby's eyes lingered on Natalia with expressions he didn't particularly 'like'.

"Well, my friend is really strong, so I don't worry about that," she replied with surprising confidence. Then, more timidly, "Um... can we go somewhere first, before I show you the places you ought to know?"

"Sure. I mean, you treated me to a meal—it's only right I return the favor. Use me as you please, princess," he said with mock formality, even adding a little bow.

"Eh?" Her cheeks flushed pink.

"What? Aren't you a princess?" he asked, reaching down to pat her head with a gentle smile.

"Hey, don't do that!" she glared up at him, but notably didn't move away from his touch.

"Fine," he removed his hand, and somehow her glare seemed to intensify.

'What does she want then?' he wondered, genuinely confused. Even with his cursed memories from Emilia, he still couldn't understand women at all. Perhaps it was because Emilia had been certifiably insane—there were times she'd act like a sweet little girl wanting to be pampered, and other times she'd transform into a deranged maniac.

He could still remember it clearly: the day he realized he could no longer run away from her. It was the very day he thought he'd successfully escaped the city.

How wrong he had been.

Something had happened to the bus he'd boarded that day. It seemed like an accident—he couldn't clearly remember that part—but he did remember waking up in the hospital, paralyzed. Everyone on the bus had died; he and two children were the only survivors of that ghastly accident. On that very day, she'd walked into the hospital, clearing all his medical charges and taking him home to 'care' for him, since he was basically a vegetable at that point.

It was on that day it all began.

"Asher?" The voice seemed to come from very far away.

He felt a hand tugging at his sleeve and looked down to find concerned golden eyes staring up at him.

"...Princess?" he said automatically.

"Stop calling me that! It sounds weird when you say it," she pinched his hand, but he only smiled, acting like it didn't hurt.

"But you are a princess."

"No, I am not."

"But you are."

"Huh?"

"Until the day ends, you are my princess. Your orders are absolute." He gave her a playful salute.

"Stop saying stuff like that," her face flushed red, and her hair began crackling with static electricity. He realized that teasing her any further would end in a world of pain.

"Wait," he muttered, suddenly realizing they had gotten... lost?

"Where am I supposed to go again?" he asked, looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings.

Natalia looked around and frowned. "Eh? Where is this?"

'Something isn't right here,' he realized with growing alarm.

[You both walked right into an array]

'What? When?' he thought frantically. He couldn't remember anything suspicious, or what could have possibly served as a trigger.

[...]

'Great. I have to figure it out myself,' he sighed, realizing the entity wasn't keen on spoon-feeding him information.

"Asher?"

"What?" he asked, trying to keep his voice calm.

"Maybe we should go back... I don't know this alley," she said, looking genuinely disturbed for the first time since he'd met her.

"Okay," he responded, then carefully maneuvered the wheelchair back the way they'd come. They turned around only to find two pathways ahead of them where there had definitely been only one before.

"Um... which way, princess?" he asked, though his playful tone was strained.

"Goddamn it, Asher! This is not the time for that!" she yelled, but he just gave her a smile that made her realize something terrifying—he was an insufferable demon with a cute face. Who knew what atrocities he might commit, yet his face would wash them all away. "Stupid idiot with a stupidly handsome face and a—" she groaned and continued her muttered complaints as he pushed her through the left pathway.

They kept walking and walking. The path was eerily quiet—there was literally no one around. The silence pressed against them like a physical weight.

They walked and walked, but for some reason... it was as though they remained in one place. The same cracked cobblestone, the same weathered brick wall, the same rusty lamppost—everything repeated in an endless loop.

'An illusion?' Natalia thought, her eyes squinting in annoyance.

"Wait," she said, then stretched her hand forward. Her eyes began glowing with golden light, and in the next second—

ZZZZZZZZ!

A massive bolt of lightning shot forward, illuminating the alley in stark, electric blue.

'O...kay,' Asher realized he had been teasing literal lightning for a while now and made a mental note to tread more carefully. She was extremely dangerous.

"!" His eyes widened as he sensed something rushing toward them. Without thinking, he pushed the wheelchair to the side and dove down.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Something crackled through the air where his head had been moments before.

He looked up quickly. "Fuck," he muttered. He would have been fried—literally—if he hadn't sensed it coming.

"Stay down!" he heard Natalia scream. He looked to find her stretching her hand forward, power building around her like a storm given form.

BOOOOM!

The explosion of lightning lit up the entire alley, and he felt a surge of electrical current flow through him, making his hair stand on end.

When the light faded, he looked up cautiously.

"You can stand now," she said, turning to look at him. For the first time, she looked genuinely anxious, her usual confident demeanor cracking.

"What's happening, Natalia?" he asked, getting to his feet and brushing dust off his clothes.

"I think we just walked into a loop array," she said grimly, her golden eyes scanning their surroundings with new wariness.

'That's a problem,' he thought, and for once, the entity in his head remained ominously silent.