Villain's Odyssey: Enslaving heroines, Conquering Villainesses
Chapter 38: An ’unexpected’ encounter.

Chapter 38: Chapter 38: An ’unexpected’ encounter.

Walking through the quickest routes his memories could remember, in no time, Asher arrived at the building known as the Elite Lounge, platinum building. It was here he had stayed before everything went to hell, while he was still a student at the academy. He looked around carefully, noting a young girl seated in a wheelchair trying to push forward up a steep inclined path that led upward, just beside the stairs that led to the building.

’Well, aren’t I fortunate,’ he thought, the gears in his brain spinning as he realized he had just found a quick way to speed up a certain part of his plans. He then schooled his expression into a jovial one and walked over, moving toward the girl instead of the stairs. She was too focused on rolling upward to even notice the approaching individual.

"I see you need help," she heard, but before she could say anything, she felt someone grasp the handles of her wheelchair from behind and push it up.

"Eh?!" she blurted at the sudden acceleration as she was pushed rather quickly up the inclined path.

She looked back quickly, her almond eyes catching sight of a disturbingly good-looking young man with a gentle smile looking down at her.

"Who are you?!" She had never seen this handsome stranger in all her life, so her first reaction was as expected—she panicked. Pretty badly at that. She wasn’t used to having strangers talk to her or approach her, and with time, she had grown accustomed to this solitude as her friend further drove away anyone who tried to approach her, stating they could take advantage of her condition and situation to use her. So she was literally a loner with a capital L.

"Hey, calm down," said the young man, stepping a few paces back with his hands up in surrender.

"..." Seeing him retreat, she calmed down a bit and also rolled a few more feet away from him. At this, the young man smiled rather wryly and sighed. "Sorry if I scared you. I just thought you needed some help," he said, and she suddenly felt bad. Yes, she did need help, and this situation was all because of her ’idiot’ of a friend, who had completely forgotten she was supposed to meet her here and probably just stayed with her brother and his various friends, completely forgetting about her, as usual.

’That idiot,’ she groaned internally.

She was still afraid and wasn’t used to dealing with strangers. It was usually her friend who took care of that.

But that aside, it wasn’t that she couldn’t roll up on her own—she actually could, with the use of ether or her abilities. However, the use of such powers was strictly forbidden within dorm zones and other specified areas, so she couldn’t use her abilities or her ether to do it. She could have just ignored the rules and done it anyway, but she didn’t, and that was because she was a practical example of a model student. Because of how shy she usually was, she feared deeply any sort of punishment the authorities would impose on her if she was caught, so she relied on her physical strength, hoping for her friend’s return.

"I-I am s-sorry for my reaction... I was just scared. Thank you for your help," she gave a literal ninety-degree bow while seated in her wheelchair and then tried to escape.

"Wait..."

"...Yes?" she swallowed. Was her appreciation not enough?

Now she was really starting to worry.

"Um... I’m a new student. I just got admitted today and literally know nothing... So I was wondering... could you help me out?" he said with a rather embarrassed expression, his right hand rubbing the back of his neck as he gave a strained smile. It was at this moment she finally noticed what he was wearing.

’Casual clothes?’ she realized. Students only wore casual clothes on weekends or at night before sleep.

’No wonder,’ she thought. She had thought about it over and over again, yet she couldn’t recognize that face—it was completely alien to her. Now she realized it was because he was a new student.

Suddenly, she started to feel an anticipation, but she couldn’t place why. Perhaps it was because the thought that since he was a new student, she could become friends with him, crossed her mind. From his friendly gesture of helping her to his way of talking, she determined he was a free-spirited person. If not for the clothes he was wearing being top grade, she would have thought him a commoner.

"Um... I... I..." she thought deeply about it. Her friend had always warned her never to allow herself too close to a stranger, especially boys. Boys were ’snakes,’ or at least that’s what her friend would always say—however, she did have a huge bias toward her brother when it came to that issue. At this point, she was torn between respecting her friend’s wishes, as it was her friend who had always protected her, or trying to make a friend for once after so long.

"It’s okay, I understand," he suddenly said, and she looked at the violet eyes staring back at her calmly.

"Huh?" she blurted as he turned to leave.

"W-wait," she rolled the wheels quickly as panic set in. She felt like if she failed to make a proper connection this time... she would never again get such a chance. He was so natural with her, something probably no one else would be, and there was something about the way he looked at her—it was just like her friend. He didn’t look at her as a burden.

"Huh?" he turned as she pulled his sleeve.

"I-I will do it, alright. Just help me g-get something from m-my dorm," she forced herself to speak, waiting for his response. At this, he smiled, looking genuinely happy, and then bent down and hugged her!

"EHHHHH?!" Her face turned bright red. She wanted to punch him in the face and push him away, but for some reason, that naivety he displayed coupled with his stupidly handsome face—she couldn’t do it!