BXBX NOVEL Chapter 103: Villain Simulator, Ch 102
Chapter 103: Villain Simulator, Ch 102
[You couldn't tell Klee that Alice is her real mother, so you gently reassured her: "Mommy will understand. She wants you to be happy, just like I do."]
["But what about the plan to help mommy get revenge and defeat the evil demon king?" Klee suddenly remembered, her eyes lighting up with excitement. "The story of 'The Hero Klee vs. The Demon King' isn't over yet, right?"]
["It's already over," you said, gently patting Klee's head. "Father will find another way to defeat the demon king."]
[In truth, Klee, now twelve years old, had started to realize that what she had been doing might not have been some grand quest to defeat a demon king, but actual acts of crime. Yet, for her entire life, The Hero Klee vs. The Demon King had been her source of strength. Now, hearing that it had come to an abrupt end was hard for her to accept.]
[It was rare to see Klee looking so downcast, but you knew that after marrying Alice, continuing these criminal activities would be too dangerous. Though Klee was mischievous, she was also an understanding child. She didn't oppose your marriage to Alice but quietly returned to her room, clearly disappointed.]
[The wedding took place as scheduled a week later at Favonius Cathedral, with Jean serving as the officiant. She is a mutual friend of yours and Alice's. Watching her awkwardly hold the speech with her synthetic hand and sincerely bless you both, you felt a twinge of guilt towards this woman for the first time.]
[To your surprise, many people attended the wedding—patrons from the Alchemist Workshop, neighbors, members of the Favonius Knights, and children and parents from the school.]
[To avoid suspicion, you didn't let Klee attend the ceremony and instead asked Sucrose to take care of her.]
[The wedding proceeded smoothly. But when it came time to exchange rings, as you looked at Alice in her wedding dress, your mind began to drift. It felt like you were back at eighteen, recalling the simple and warm wedding you had with Virginia in a small village church.]
[Jean's voice brought you back to reality as she read the vows aloud: "Do you vow before the Anemo Archon to love, comfort, respect, and protect her, in sickness and in health, in wealth and poverty, remaining loyal to her until you leave this world?"]
[For some reason, the words I do felt like a fishbone stuck in your throat. You couldn't speak them. Saying those words felt like a betrayal to your late wife.]
[Just then, a sudden explosion echoed from a distance, shaking the cathedral and causing chaos.]
[What shocked you most was the sound of the explosion—it was unmistakably similar to the bombs Klee used in her past criminal activities.]
[Could Klee have caused this during the wedding?]
[You and your fellow Favonius Knights quickly evacuated the guests, and as the chief Alchemist, you were obligated to join the investigation. The wedding had to be interrupted.]
[When you arrived at the scene, the statue of Barbatos, the Anemo Archon, in front of Favonius Cathedral had been destroyed. Around forty percent of the statue had been blown apart, and over twenty people were injured nearby.]
[You immediately began inspecting the remains, analyzing the debris for explosive materials. Moments later, Jean informed you that they had found the body of a suspect. The cause of death seemed to be a miscalculation in the blast range, which had killed the suspect by blowing apart half of his body.]
[For a moment, your mind went blank, and you nearly fainted. Jean, noticing your reaction, warned you that the body was too gruesome to look at. But you insisted on seeing it.]
[With Jean's support, you approached the mangled remains—it was an adult male.]
[Relief flooded over you as you realized it wasn't Klee. A small, involuntary smile appeared on your face. Jean, confused, asked why you were smiling, and you quickly made an excuse: Evil Sun had finally been caught.]
[But Jean quickly doused your excitement, reminding you that Evil Sun was a girl. This man couldn't be her, meaning this explosion was likely just a copycat crime.]
[The wedding ended abruptly, and you and Alice didn't plan on rescheduling. Alice, ever understanding, didn't press you for an answer to the wedding vows. Of course, you suspected she didn't care much about them.]
[Age 37: You found yourself living in a very "strange" family. You, the husband, pretended to love your wife while secretly seeing her as your enemy. The wife pretended to love her husband but was really only interested in her husband's daughter. And the daughter believed she finally had a happy family, even though she had never truly experienced maternal love.]
[Your role was clear. You didn't need to commit any more crimes or find ways to defeat Alice, a woman of nearly monstrous power. All you had to do was play the perfect husband, allowing Alice to experience the happiness of family life—especially the joy of being a mother.]
[Without a doubt, Alice was a capable mother. She wasn't overly indulgent and adhered to sound educational principles. If there was one flaw, it was her lack of cooking skills, which hadn't improved.]
[The hardest part for you was constantly showing affection toward your enemy. You had to act like you were madly in love with Alice, preventing her from becoming suspicious of your true intentions.]
[This foolish woman actually believed that you were hopelessly in love with her. She even went as far as practicing in the bedroom for your sake.]
[But you had to admit, aside from her cooking, Alice learned incredibly quickly. She even kept a notebook, recording your feedback after each session and analyzing her performance.]
[Before long, her scores improved from twenty-three point five to passing marks: seventy, eighty-three, ninety-one, and even one hundred twenty-eight...]
[Yes, that damn woman had quickly evolved from naive and inexperienced to insatiable. After all, in human terms, Alice was at the stage of life where her desires were at their peak.]
[The person most dissatisfied with this situation was Sucrose. She had complained to you more than once that the genetic samples she collected were becoming increasingly diluted, making them less useful for her alchemical experiments.]
[But there was something else you couldn't ignore.]
[The explosion that occurred during your wedding last year was later confirmed to be a copycat crime. The perpetrator was not the long-wanted "Evil Sun," but an unidentified man.]
[Initially, you thought it was just a coincidence, but it unexpectedly marked the beginning of a series of troubling events.]
[After you halted Klee's criminal plans and shelved the adventure book "Hero Klee vs. the Demon King," the name Evil Sun
seemed to vanish from existence.][Some suspected she had retired from crime and was living freely, while others believed she had died in one of her own explosions. But for some reason, her disappearance triggered a wave of copycat explosions.]
[The motives of these copycats weren't for profit but purely for destruction. Many used suicidal methods, and they shared two common traits—]
[First, they all had black sun tattoos on their bodies, seemingly paying homage to Evil Sun. Second, their identities were untraceable, as if they had appeared out of nowhere, leaving no clues to follow.]
[These copycat crimes were even more destructive than the ones you and Klee had committed, as they seemed to serve no purpose other than causing chaos.]
[For a time, Mondstadt was gripped by panic, and the Favonius Knights had to double their efforts to restore order. Every time you saw Jean, her dark circles seemed to have grown deeper.]
[As the chief Alchemist of the Favonius Knights, your job wasn't easy either. Every time an incident occurred, you were called to analyze and investigate. What had started as a convenient position to cover your own crimes had now turned you into a tool for the Knights.]
[However, these madmen's actions worked in your favor, distracting attention and reducing the chances of you and Klee being discovered.]
[Age 38: Your marriage had passed its first year smoothly. Aside from the occasional bombing case giving you a headache, your life had become much more comfortable.]
[Without the constant need to walk the edge of danger, Klee seemed to have moved on from the regrets of The Hero Klee vs. The Demon King.]
[It's not surprising, considering Klee has no real memories of her "deceased mother," and Alice has filled that void in her heart.]
[As for you, you've gradually adapted to this life— a beautiful wife, a lovely daughter, and a respectable job. In every sense, you appear to be living the life of a winner.]
[Alice not only loves Klee deeply, but she has also grown accustomed to her role as your wife. You're unsure if her affection for you is genuine or merely a fa?ade to maintain this warm family, but you no longer care. As long as she plays her part, that's enough.]
[One day, while looking in the mirror, you noticed the white hairs at your temples and the wrinkles starting to appear on your face. Perhaps due to the comfort of your life, you hadn't used alchemical enhancements in a long time, and your body was slowly reverting to its natural state.]
[Age 39: Alice hadn't planned to get involved with the increasing bombings until one day, a group of deranged criminals took advantage of her absence to break into the school she had founded and planted bombs.]
[Upon receiving the news, you and Alice rushed to the school, only to find that the leader of the criminals specifically requested to meet with Alice for negotiations.]
[Alice immediately agreed. With her strength, she had no reason to fear any tricks from them. However, when they confronted the criminals, the leader handed Alice a remote with two buttons—one red and one blue.]
[The criminal told her that he had planted bombs in both the red and blue classes. Pressing one button would detonate the bomb in that class, while the other class would be spared. Alice had one minute to choose which class to save.]
[For Alice, the decision should have been simple. There were only a dozen students in the red class, while the blue class had over fifty. According to her principles, saving the larger group would have been the obvious choice.]
[But this time, Alice hesitated because Klee was in the red class.]
[After half a minute of agonizing struggle, Alice pressed the blue button.]
[A violent explosion followed. The criminal smiled triumphantly, but in the next moment, Alice punched his head with such force that it exploded.]
[The red class was saved, and Klee was unharmed, but all fifty-three students in the blue class perished.]
[Before the other criminals could be arrested, they committed suicide, leaving you even more perplexed. It seemed that this operation wasn't just about causing destruction but about forcing Alice into making an impossible choice.]
[This situation seemed eerily connected to the incident from years ago, when Alice blew up the mountainside to prevent a larger catastrophe.]
[However, you're convinced it's just a coincidence. After all, no one else could possibly torment Alice this way, except for you.]
[Though Alice wasn't directly responsible for the deaths of the fifty-three students, public opinion quickly turned against her, labeling her selfish for choosing to save her stepdaughter over innocent children.]
[Alice locked herself in your home, deeply shaken. For the first time, you saw her so utterly broken. Logically, seeing your enemy in such pain should have brought you immense satisfaction, but this time, you felt no joy at all.]
[While comforting Alice, she revealed a past event to you: years ago, during a geological survey near Mondstadt, she discovered that a village lay in a low-lying area. If a mudslide occurred, it would wipe out the entire village.]
[Alice planned to blow up the mountain to prevent the disaster, but the mudslide came sooner than expected. Faced with the choice of saving the village or sacrificing one household, she chose to sacrifice the few to save the many.]
[Throughout her five hundred years of travel, Alice had encountered similar situations and had always chosen to save the majority without hesitation.]
[But this time, she went against her principles. The fairness she had always upheld now seemed like self-deception.]
[You cautiously asked, "If you were given another chance, would you still choose to sacrifice those children for Klee?"]
["Even if the other side of the scale held the entire world," Alice replied without hesitation, "I would still choose Klee."]
[This incident has had a profound impact on Alice. Parents who lost their children appear at your doorstep almost daily, crying and cursing, as if Alice were the one who had killed their children.]
[In the past, Alice would have fought back against such accusations, but now she hides at home, as if wanting to escape it all.]
[During this time, Alice has become particularly dependent on you, seeking comfort from you more frequently, as if trying to drown her inner turmoil in physical pleasure.]
[While Alice's pain should bring you satisfaction, the fact that it wasn't caused by your own hands leaves you feeling indifferent.]
[You "used all your strength" to help Alice recover as quickly as possible, but in her current state, you feel no desire for revenge.]
[Age 40: Alice's period of despair lasted for several months, but under your and Klee's care, she gradually began to recover.]
[Klee, now sixteen, has blossomed into a beautiful and vibrant young girl. She seems to have forgotten her identity as Evil Sun and is fully enjoying her peaceful, happy life.]
[But you know it's time to take the final step in your revenge. Once Alice fully recovers, you'll take Klee and Sucrose and leave her forever, stripping her of all her happiness.]
[You can't wait any longer—the longer you stay, the deeper you'll sink. Sometimes, you even find it surprising that you haven't dreamed of your deceased wife and daughter in a long time.]
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Author's Note: I've been discharged from the hospital! While it will take a few weeks for a full recovery, I'm feeling much better now. Thank you all for your kind wishes and support!
So I'll start uploading daily extra Chapters again.
Goal is same 400 p.s = 1 extra Chapter! You won't have to wait till the weekend so vote now!