[Ding! Task completed successfully! Reward of 200,000 villain points successfully deposited! Please check out your stats, hostie~]

[Ding! One Surprise Package rewarded! Kindly check your space!]

[Ding! Two Original Memories awarded! Kindly check your space!]

[Ding! New permanent skill unlocked! Persuasive Voice! Kindly check your space for the user manual! Be sure to read it twice!]

The dings echoed in Anna’s head, bouncing in her skull and ricocheting off one another. The stamina boost wore off, or maybe Anna was just too exhausted and anemic to keep her eyes open.

I feel like shit. But at least Leon won’t die.

[You did great today, hostie~ you embodied the true essence of a villainess. Well done~]

Yeah. But I broke a promise I don’t remember making. And I just made Leon hate me even more.

[But he didn’t die~ and the council is proud of you~]

Anna didn’t bother replying. At the end of the day, the System was going to deliberately not see her angle. So she exhaled, leaned into Kai, and tried not to think of how to get the collar on Leon.

Or the heir they had to make in six months.

Meanwhile, Kai was ultra aware of the woman in his arms.

And yet, his mind was in turmoil. His thoughts spiraled, one after the other:

She has not said a bad word to me in thirteen hours.

I broke free twice and she hasn’t locked me up in the dehydrator.

She accepted my gift...and she didn’t vomit. The last time I gave her my teeth, she was sick for three days.

She also let me touch her. Cutie never lets me touch her. Never.

He looked down at her. She wasn’t asleep, but her eyes were unfocused. And she had her hands clasped together, reminding him of a scared cat.

Cutie is never scared. I’ve never seen her scared. Or tired. Or happy. Oh, she was happy one time, after I ate that assassin for her last year. That was the first time she praised me.

I like her praises.

I wonder if she’ll praise me now.

Should I ask her?

She looked up, and their eyes met. Kai flashed her a smile, one with too much teeth.

She should shudder now. She’s always disgusted at my smiles.

Instead, she smiled back. Warm. Blinding.

Kai’s mind stuttered to a halt.

She smiled at me.

Cutie smiled at me.

She smiled...at me.

"Are you getting tired?" She asked softly.

Kai frowned.

A feeling he didn’t have a name for erupted within his chest.

Why is she smiling? Why is she...

"Kai? Is everything okay?"

"I’m fine~" he sang, "shark strength, remember?"

And she smiled again. That smile that reminded Kai of his home, of the morning sun filtering through the sea. The coral coming awake. The routine swim with his family.

He hadn’t been reminded of home since he was three, taken away and sold to those men.

Kai didn’t want to think of home. He hated home. He hated those men. He hated what they did to him, how they touched him, how they cut him up to pieces only to stitch him back in and write down their observations.

He hated them.

But when his Cutie came along...those things didn’t seem so bad anymore.

He liked her. She was pretty, and she was cruel. He liked how her spores felt when they turned red. But he liked the times they turned purple even better.

Kai looked down at her. Again. Deeper, as if unraveling her deepest secrets. The secrets were on her face, open for the world to read. He noted her spores. They were yellow. Calm. Sweet.

She never gave off calming spores. Never. She also never wore her secrets on her face.

Kai hated that.

He hated being able to read her.

He hated her smiles.

He hated her warmth.

He hated this version of his Cutie.

Cutie, where are you? And who is this fake?

***

Anna wished she could fall asleep the moment Kai and Ray accompanied her back to the clinic.

Instead, the doctor hounded her. The man wasted no time brewing tinctures and force feeding them to her. He muttered the entire time as he changed her bandages, talking about how she was becoming weirder by the day.

Anna watched him work and thanked him once he was done.

By this time, her eyelids were dropping.

"You said there was something for me," Anna said, turning her head to Ray.

The bat beastman nodded. His eyes were grave and his lips drawn into a thin line. "Lord Azul is returning to the palace this week." He said, delivered in the tone surgeons used to announce a failed surgery.

Anna blinked.

Ray blinked.

Anna turned to Kai. His face was grim, his eyes glaring into the distance.

Anna turned back to Ray. "Who is that?"

Ray looked like he’d been slapped. "I beg your pardon?"

"I...I’m sure he’s someone important to me...just can’t remember right now. Stress and all. Haha."

Ray narrowed his eyes. Anna had the feeling he was searching her for a lie. Then he shook his head and said. "Your husband."

"Ohhhh! Right! My fourth husband. That leaves one person out..." her face burned red with shame and she rubbed the back of her neck, laughing nervously.

Kai and Ray exchanged a loaded glance. Then Ray went on.

"That leaves Drax, your highness."

"Right! Drax! And um...where is he?"

Suddenly, Kai stood in front of her and peered into her face. Startled, Anna yelped, leaning back, her heart picking up the pace.

"Who are you?" Kai hissed, his eyes narrowed.

[hostie~ remember, no one can find out you’re not the real Princess.]

Anna panicked.

Flat out panicked.

Her mind raced and she struggled in the span of miliseconds for the safest and most Princess Orchid like response.

Be the villainess. Right!

Anna’s heart flew out of her chest. She clenched her fist and glared at Kai. "I...what the fuck does that question even mean? Did you hit your head?"

Kai slowly leaned back. "Curious~" he said, the look of suspicion reduced but not entirely gone.

"I almost forgot these," Ray said. He left for a while and returned with a small plate. On the plate were three small pills. They were pale yellow, like watered down dandelions.

"What are those?" Anna asked, frowning at the sight of them.

Ray held the plate in front of her. "Your food."

You’ve got to be fucking me. Anna thought.

"Food? These pills are food?"

"Yes," he replied Matter of factly. "You haven’t eaten since you returned from the barracks."

Anna didn’t even notice. Back in her world, her diet consisted of protein bars, coffee, and energy drinks. Most times she forgot to eat anything at all, and had gotten used to minimal food.

However, nothing could have prepared her for this.

Is this how food is in this world? There’s nothing better? No meat or vegetables? Ha! Who am I to complain? I can’t recall the last time I ate a vegetable.

Anna exhaled, vowing to read more books about this world the moment she got out of bed. She didn’t want to ask about the pills for fear that she’d been seen as even more crazy.

So she took the pills and swallowed them. They tasted like nothing, with a faint sweet aroma.

"Thank you," she said.

Ray cleared his throat and bowed. "I must take my leave now, your highness. I wish you a speedy recovery."

Before Anna could reply, he vanished.

Anna glanced to Kai. He hopped into bed and curled up beside her without saying a word. Anna sighed and laid back into the bed.

"Cutie~ Do you still have my teeth?" Kai asked after a few seconds of silence.

"Mmhm," She replied, trying not to think about that incident, or his teeth safely tucked away in her pocket.

"I want them back."

What?! Where did that come from?!

Anna nodded, too exhausted to form a reply.

The next time she opened her eyes, it was still light outside. She was informed by the doctor that she’d spent two days asleep. Kai was gone, and she was the only one in the clinic.

That sleep was so refreshing! She thought as she stretched, standing in the stream of sunlight and sighing softly.

She felt well rested, and her mind was crisp and sharp. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d had such good sleep. At most, she got three hours of sleep before her internal 4am alarm woke her up.

Not bad.

She had a big smile on her face as she looked out of the window, gazing on the grounds and the servants and people strolling in the morning sun.

Anna felt like she could fly, grab the sun and plant a big kiss on its face.

"System?"

Immediately, there was a reply. [Yes, hostie?~]

"Let’s talk."