Villain's Odyssey: Enslaving heroines, Conquering Villainesses
Chapter 52: Almeria

"No need for that. He’ll be alright—he just exhausted his ether pool," she replied with a small smile. "Just get me my order."

The man nodded and walked away, leaving them in the golden-lit splendor of Almeria.

Natalia’s gaze swept around the impressive interior. Almeria—a merchant company solely focused on selling all sorts of potions, from mundane low-tier healing concoctions to literal limb-regenerating elixirs. They sold every conceivable potion and alchemical ingredient, having monopolized a huge sector of the trade over time.

Rumor had it their headquarters was located in Arcane, with branches spanning all kingdoms regardless of species. Their reach was truly universal—every organized community had some form of Almeria presence. The level of each branch corresponded to the importance of its location: small towns far from major centers got modest branches, strategically placed to widen their reach while disrupting any potential rivals.

This particular building rose five stories high, marking it as one of the major branches throughout the human kingdoms—at least for both Ezram and Montellia. After all, both kingdoms were more or less in alliance and Vermillion as a whole was created from a union of both kingdoms, though none of them actually OWNED it . As for Albion, there was supposedly a massive branch at the capital that might rival even this one.

The place buzzed with activity. Smaller merchants bought in bulk alongside serious alchemists, all bathed in the radiant golden glow from an enormous chandelier above. The walls were a sleek green with strategically placed light fixtures that enhanced the beauty and splendor of the space. Various attendants and cashiers worked efficiently to attend to the crowd, though even with their numbers, long queues were inevitable.

The only reason Natalia had been able to get priority service was her golden card—well, technically her father’s card. The privileges that came with it made these visits smooth and efficient whenever her ’medicines’ ran out.

"Ugh..." A soft groan reached her ears, and she looked down to find Asher stirring from sleep. She’d kept him on her lap the entire time they’d been here, though she couldn’t feel any numbness even till now—probably because her legs provided no sensation anyway.

"Wait," she said gently as he attempted to sit up, keeping him down with a light touch.

"Natalia?" Asher frowned but remained where he was, still resting on her lap.

"How do you feel?" she asked with genuine concern.

"Like I’m going to throw up," he responded with a grimace.

"Please don’t," she said quickly.

"I can’t promise anything," he muttered, his right hand massaging his forehead.

"What happened?"

"You passed out."

"I know. I mean what happened after that." It was pretty obvious what had occurred initially.

"I... managed to bring you here," she said, and something in her expression seemed off—almost evasive.

Something definitely happened, Asher thought but decided not to press the issue.

[Oh... the connection’s back,] came the familiar voice in his mind.

What connection? Asher asked mentally.

[I don’t know what occurred, but at a certain point in that illusory world, I couldn’t trace your soul any longer. It was as though you ceased to exist for a while.]

What? Asher’s mind raced. Perhaps this explained why the entity had remained quiet during that time. But what could be powerful enough to actually halt the influence of such a being? His mind began running at maximum speed, analyzing possibilities, and instantly he arrived at a troubling conclusion.

No way, he thought, then immediately killed that train of thought.

Why? Because he needed to keep the entity from knowing what he’d just realized.

From the very beginning—since he’d first awakened and started interacting with this entity—he’d never trusted it for a single second. It would be stupid to do otherwise. When he’d died as Noel, something had broken inside him. That final sight before his death had murdered a certain feeling within him, and it had carried over into his life as Azalea.

He didn’t know exactly what that feeling had been, but he knew something was fundamentally wrong with him now, and it was that thing that created a sort of shield between him and the world. That very thing that kept him feeling lonely no matter what he did, no matter how much friends he found, he was always remained alone. And it was that very sensation that made it extremely difficult... to trust.

He simply couldn’t trust anyone anymore. It was damn near impossible. That was why Isabella’s betrayal had broken him so completely—it had literally destroyed what little ability he’d had left to trust anyone in this world.

So when he’d awakened to find Anna enslaved, then later discovered it was some clandestine entity that had given him that ability, the first thing he’d done was test whether it could read his thoughts. Sure enough, it could—and that was a major problem. He didn’t trust it, but he couldn’t hide anything if his thoughts were an open book.

So he’d conducted another test. He’d thought with the intention of passing his thoughts along, and as expected, it heard him. Next, he’d thought with the intention of NOT passing his thoughts, and to his surprise... it didn’t hear those.

From that moment on, he’d played a careful game. He’d cleared his mind, thinking openly and freely about surface-level concerns, letting the entity know his apparent thoughts so it wouldn’t realize he could hide deeper ones. He’d made it believe he naively trusted it, feeding it thoughts like "I’ll give you entertainment" and similar sentiments to keep it hooked on the idea that his only objective was revenge.

Revenge was his goal, certainly. But he didn’t trust this entity one bit.

Why? Well, there was always the chance it had been the goddess all along.

....

A/N- Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation! Also, if you have enjoyed the story so far perhaps you can try dropping a review, the author would appreciate that, thanks!

Villain, out!