The Lustful Villain: Every Milfs and Gilfs are Mine!-Chapter 131. We See Two Lovebirds Walking, and That’s Where We Stepped In

Chapter 131: 131. We See Two Lovebirds Walking, and That’s Where We Stepped In

Rex filed that information very carefully. This was not due to its usefulness in combat, but rather because it provided a unique perspective on an individual’s areas of weakness compared to their strengths.

It’s like it showed you where the door was.

Apollo was on the other side of the room, doing what he did best: being outstanding at everything while making it look like he was working with others instead of against them. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

He had answered two of Elizabeth’s questions, helped Zeraphyra fix a technique that was giving her unstable output, and at some point he pulled out a small snack from somewhere and offered it to the people closest to him without saying anything.

The nine women reacted to everything in ways that were true to their personalities. Rex wrote down each response with the methodical patience of someone making a detailed map of a place they planned to visit for a long time.

He paid the most attention to Kaelira’s answers.

She could act like she didn’t care at all that Apollo was there, and she did it a lot. But Rex’s Emotional Insight could see through indifference like a thermal lens could see through darkness, reading the heat that was there.

Kaelira’s body language showed a tiny but very real reaction every time Apollo paid attention to someone else. She had clearly worked hard to hide it.

The jealousy was there. It was just well-behaved enough to look like nothing.

’Yeah... she’s a no-no target for me. I can’t risk it with that kind of woman anymore.’

’I need to get rid of her with something natural.’

He was still trying to figure out what to do with that observation when Elizabeth closed her demonstration notes and made the announcement toward the end of the session.

"Tomorrow’s session will be held outside the Academy," she said.

The room’s attention sharpened right away, just like it did when something new was being introduced. "About two hours from the city, there is a dungeon."

"It’s a maze-like structure with many levels of monsters, and three adventuring parties went in four days ago and haven’t come back."

She let it sit for a while. "We’re going to rescue the missing people."

"We’ll find them, get the adventures out, and get rid of anything that’s stopping them from leaving."

"Standard formation assignments will go out tonight." She looked around the room. "Any questions?"

Zeraphyra raised her hand with the energy of someone who had been waiting for this kind of news for a long time. "Classifying threats on the monsters?"

"Mixed, and the upper levels are fine for your skill level, but the deeper parts are marked as higher risk, which is probably where the missing people ran into trouble." Elizabeth’s face said she wasn’t going to insult them by softening the assessment. "And this is not a training exercise."

"There is real danger, real stakes, and extraction is the most important thing."

"So I want you all to take it seriously and professionally."

As expected, Apollo looked like someone had just given him a present. Rex saw him out of the corner of his eye and felt the familiar, low-level annoyance of watching someone who was truly heroic.

Rex thought about Kaelira as he looked around the room.

A maze in a dungeon with different kinds of monsters and a formation assignment that would decide who would sit next to whom in a stressful situation. And a woman whose emotional armor was already starting to show a very specific crack.

"Alright..." he thought, "I know what I’m doing tomorrow..."

"I see it clearly..."

...

Elizabeth let them leave class early, giving them the entire afternoon to prepare and rest before the next day. Rex walked out of the Academy with Talyra and Aisella flanking him.

This arrangement seemed to be the default, even though none of them had explicitly agreed to it.

When they were halfway down the main road, Talyra suddenly stopped, and Rex followed her gaze.

"I-I-I-I-IS THAT...!?" Talyra exclaimed, her body trembling with excitement as she fixed her eyes on someone.

Rex looked as well, and he noticed it was Diana.

She was crossing the street about forty meters ahead. Her hair caught the afternoon light, and her posture displayed a mix of determination and uncertainty that Rex had learned to interpret.

The funny thing is that Rex could see Theo walking next to her with an easy stride, seemingly engaged in a conversation about something.

’My next target seems like it’s with somebody else...? Don’t tell me they’re already confessing their own feelings...?’

’Well... none of that matters anyway. Taken or not, everything’s mine.’

Talyra made a noise that wasn’t quite a word. It was as if all the air had left her lungs at once.

"HYAAAAAA~!"

"It’s the legend from the Starlight family itself...!"

"Miss Elizabeth’s nephew!"

"The one and only greatest archer in the universe...! Diana Von Starlight," she said in a way that Rex thought people talked about things that were very important to them.

"Looking at her up close, it’s clear she’s incredible! I read an interview she did for the Academy alumni magazine. Did you know she developed a modified anchor point technique that reduces lateral deviation by—"

Aisella said, "Talyra," with the calmness of someone who had done this many times before.

"Nargh! I... uh... I’m just being a number one here," Talyra said, clearing her throat. "She really is impressive, and I want to be close friends with her so I can have the same level of archery as her!"

Rex was watching Diana, who had just noticed him from a distance. Her face did the thing it sometimes did when she saw him: a flash of something that she was skilled at turning into calm recognition.

He waved with his hand, and she nodded back. They changed direction after she said something to Theo.

"W-WHAT WAS THAT...!?" Talyra’s voice went up about half a register when she said, "You KNOW them, Rex?"

"Well duh," Rex said. "I’ve known her for a few weeks."

"She’s brilliant, right?!" Talyra said, as if she were summarizing a thesis. "The lateral deviation technique by itself—"

"And there she goes again..." Aisella said softly.

Talyra became very still, like someone who was trying very hard to look relaxed.

Diana and Theo approached them, and Theo offered Rex a simple nod, as if he didn’t harbor any complicated feelings about the meeting. Diana managed to maintain a calm expression, and her acknowledgment felt genuine.

"Rex," she said. "Are these your friends from the academy?"

"Yeah, my classmates," Rex said. "This is Diana Von Starlight and Theo Nightwing."

"And this is Talyra Skydancer and Aisella Moonbloom."

Talyra did a good job of introducing herself without talking about lateral deviation archery techniques. Her voice was only a little higher than usual.

Diana accepted it with the polite warmth she gave most people, but Rex saw that Talyra’s reaction to her was real, and it made Diana’s face light up with a small, slightly confused smile, the reaction of someone who wasn’t used to being looked at like that.

"I heard Lady Elizabeth gave the dungeon mission to you guys as well..." Theo asked Rex. "Is the dungeon going to work tomorrow?"

"We received the briefing today," Rex said. "Did you receive it too?"

"Yup, it seems like we’re going to team up again." Theo’s face changed to one that was more businesslike. "Diana and I were both given the same dungeon to work on a joint party mission."

"It looks like they’re sending more than one group."

Rex gave Diana a look. "What’s your role in the formation?"

"Scout and mid-range support," she said. "While Theo here as always is going to be the lead for us all."

Rex said, "We should coordinate," and he meant it in a practical way, not a conversational way.

"If we’re in the same dungeon but have different party roles, it’s important to know where everyone else is."

Theo nodded in a way that showed he wasn’t overthinking how to work together. "There’s a park about ten minutes to the east, and we were about to go that way anyway."

"You can come if you want."

"We’d love to." Rex nodded in agreement with Aisella, while Talyra looked excited, her mouth wide open.

...

The park was the kind of place that cities built when they had enough money to think about green space. It was lovely, well-kept, and had benches near a small pond where birds did what birds do near water.

They found a place that was far enough away from the other people who were there in the afternoon, and the conversation naturally turned to planning for the operation.

Theo talked about the dungeon’s known structure as if he had done it so many times that the planning phase was just as simple as the execution. Diana filled in the gaps in Theo’s tactical details, and the two of them fell into a rhythm that showed they had practiced.

Rex gave Elizabeth what she had asked for, and when he had questions about what the Nightwing team could do, he asked them directly instead of making assumptions.

Talyra and Aisella added their own parts to the picture, and Rex saw that having them there meant that the information was coming together across what would be two parties, which was exactly what he wanted.

He also saw Diana watching him while he was talking and not talking, and the way she was watching him made him feel like he was "not yet named but building."

"Progress," he thought. "Slow..."

"...but real."