The Lustful Villain: Every Milfs and Gilfs are Mine!-Chapter 174. Theo Said Nothing, and That Concludes Everything. (He Knows?)

Chapter 174: 174. Theo Said Nothing, and That Concludes Everything. (He Knows?)

Apollo looked at him, and there was something in his face that Rex had never seen before. It was something like asking for help.

Not demanding or giving orders, but asking in the way that people do when they are out of options and have decided that this person is the one they want to ask.

"You saw what happened in the dungeon." Apollo said, "You were there, and you knew something was wrong before it was obvious, and you kept both of them safe when things went wrong."

He clenched his fists. "I know you have your own goals on the island."

"The assessment matters, and I’m not asking you to compromise it." He stopped. "I’m asking you to keep them in your line of sight... That’s all."

Rex was quiet for a moment, not because he was thinking about what to say, but because the moment needed a pause of the right length to be understood.

"It’s already my job to keep them safe on this test." He said, "It wouldn’t matter what you said to me."

"I know that," said Apollo. "I’m saying it anyway."

"Don’t worry," Rex looked him in the eye. "I’ll bring them back safe," he said, and he meant it.

He knew that the simplest version of what he said would always have the most impact.

There was a change in Apollo’s face, a specific release of a tension that had been there for so long that the person holding it had stopped noticing it.

He let out a slow breath, and for a moment he looked like someone who had been carrying something heavy and had found someone to help him set it down.

Then the controlled version put itself back together, but not all the way. It wasn’t back to the tightly controlled state it had been in before, but it was enough.

"Thank you so much, Rex... I knew that you were a reliable person I could trust."

’What a fool... he’s looking at the culprit that started all of this.’

Apollo said, "They’re lucky to be with you," and he meant it.

"I know," Rex said, and he let the little warmth in it be what it was instead of putting anything else on top of it.

Apollo nodded once and then turned around and walked back to the canteen. Rex watched him leave for a moment and thought about Apollo’s worry, trust, and complete lack of knowledge about what had happened in the lower chamber of the Thornmaze.

He put all three of these things in the "things that are currently working in my favor" folder.

’Mental breakdown is going to be his biggest weakness, and I know that soon enough... when I become the Undead Bringer. He’ll lose himself bit by bit.’ Rex smirks.

He turned back to the canteen and thought, "The most interesting thing about the main character is that he keeps giving me exactly what I need, and he does it with real feeling every time."

’I can’t fucking wait to see his reaction when all my plan has finally come to a perfect result.’

He walked in and saw Talyra and Aisella sitting at a table in the middle of the room. They had already ordered three plates, and the island resource document was spread out across half of the available surface.

"Is everything okay with you and Apollo?" Aisella asked, which meant, "What just happened?"

"It’s all fine. Apollo just wanted to talk." Rex sat down and said, "About the test."

"Let me guess..." Talyra said, "He’s probably worried about us."

It was a statement delivered with the affectionate resignation of someone who had been on the receiving end of Apollo’s worry for long enough to recognize its texture.

"Yep," Rex said. "He is."

Talyra looked at her food for a moment. "He has enough of his own things to worry about right now."

"He does," Aisella said quietly. "Which is why we’re going to do this well and come back in the condition we left in."

Rex looked at both of them and thought that the way they cared for Apollo was simple in a way that was very different from how he usually saw relationships based on desire and being close to each other.

It was just care that came from knowing someone well and having a clear idea of who they were, and he thought about how much that picture was worth and then put it away.

"Alright, for now, let’s just enjoy lunch," Aisella told both of them.

They had lunch together and were back to talking about the main topic of the island.

...

The walk back to the Silver Rest from the Academy was a twenty-minute route that Rex usually took through the market district because the afternoon traffic made it feel shorter than the longer, quieter route through the residential blocks. He was two streets into the market when he saw Lily.

And then, he saw Lily two streets into the market.

She was standing at the main intersection of the market, and she was standing in the same way that she did when she was waiting for something and had been waiting long enough that the waiting had become its own activity.

Rex could see her face before she said anything because they were far enough apart. It was worry, but not the usual kind.

This was a specific trait of someone who had learned something but didn’t know how to use it, indicating a sense of confusion or uncertainty about the information they possessed.

He came to her side with a calmness that she could see.

"You’ve been waiting," he said.

"For a while," she said.

"What’s wrong, Lily?" He looked at her face more carefully. "I could see it in your face that something’s wrong."

Lily looked around at the people walking by at the market, as if she wanted to have a more private conversation. Without saying a word, she took him to the end of a side alley.

Rex went with her without saying anything, because the look on her face said that whatever this was, it needed to be in the side alley.

"Well..." Lily said, "It’s about my sister... Diana."

Rex kept his face the same, and he knew exactly what Lily was going to talk about.

"She’s being punished." Lily said, "Mother called her in this morning, and they were in Mother’s study for two hours."

"Diana came out looking..." She stopped, picking her words carefully like she did when the words were important. "Not upset, but my sister doesn’t show upset that way."

"But she’s acting in a way that she usually isn’t."

Rex asked, "What was Helena punishing her for?" in a way that sounded more like he was asking a logistical question than a personal one.

Lily stared at him. "Well, it’s..."

She gulped. "Something to do with Theo."

Rex was quiet because it was the right thing to do when someone was about to tell you something important. ’No fucking way...’

’Did Diana talk about it...?’

"No fucking way she’s confessing to Theo or Helena that she’s in love with me," Rex thought. "Well, I like that, but... I knew damn well it was going to get messed up on so many levels."

"Apparently there was some kind of incident this morning," Lily said. "I don’t have all of it."

"But Theo came to Mother directly, which is not something Theo does unless something significant has happened, and after he left, Mother called Diana in."

Rex thought about it. He thought about Theo, who was asleep at the table when Diana came to get him at the end of the party, and about Diana leaving Theo’s hall before sunrise.

He also thought about how Theo would have felt when he woke up and found the hall empty in a certain way.

He thought about this with the part of his mind that kept track of what would happen next. He noticed that the consequence that had come was earlier than he had thought it would be and smaller than it could have been.

He also thought about Theo.

As if on cue, Theo was there.

’No fucking way...’ Rex saw him. ’This is a fucking weird coincidence...’

Theo wasn’t trying to get to Rex, but he was just on the same street at the same time. This kind of coincidence constantly happened in a city the size of Aethelgard.

He was walking with two people from his household, and when they got close enough for Theo to see Rex, he looked at him.

The look lasted precisely long enough to indicate it was intentional rather than accidental. There was nothing hostile about it, like hostility usually shows itself.

There was no heat or aggression. Their expressions indicated that they had understood something, made a decision about its meaning, and were conveying that decision through the quality of their gaze before looking away and continuing to walk.

He walked by Rex without saying a word and didn’t stop.

Rex just watched him continue down the street.

Lily was looking at Rex’s face while he was looking at Theo’s back. When Rex turned back to her, she looked like she had made up her mind and wanted to see if it was right.

"Rex," she said slowly.

"Yes," he said.

"Do you..." she stopped and reorganized. "Uhm..."

"Is Diana also important to you?"

"The same way that I’m important to you?"