The Hero's System: Return of an Extra Villain - Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Chapter 16 – Spoiling My Stomach
‘Is placing her in a life-or-death situation enough?’

‘I’ll have to think about that later.’

Grrrmble~

The sound of her stomach growling echoed, demanding to be fed. If this were his past self, his body wouldn’t have begged for food. After all, back then, he had been starving so often since being kicked out of the house.

Lev picked up an apple lying on the small table next to his bed.

He was reminded of unpleasant memories from the past. There were times when he had to scavenge for food from the trash, steal and get beaten as a lesson, or beg on his knees, kissing the ground, just to get something to eat.

What made it even more painful was when he caught a fever and had to shiver alone in a filthy alley. No one cared; every person was too busy shopping at the market or simply going about their day.

‘Until she came to me…’

In short, he had been used to going hungry for days back then.

In contrast to the past, nowadays, it hadn’t even been 24 hours, and his stomach was already begging for food.

When he saw the sun setting through the window, he finally understood his body’s reaction. ‘… It’s probably normal since I’ve been unconscious from morning until evening.’

Just as he was thinking about how delicious the food would be, the door opened, and Greda entered his bedroom.

“Young Master, you’ve been invited to dine in the dining hall.”

“Oh, I thought they wouldn’t want to see me and would just send food here. If they’re inviting me to dine together, Father must have something to say.”

“I’ll escort you, Young Master.”

“… No need—fine, do as you please.”

Lev intended to refuse Greda’s offer to guide him. However, when he saw the frown on her face, he decided to nod and let her lead him to the dining hall.

Greda’s expression clearly showed how much she pitied Lev. She looked sad about the outcome of the coming-of-age ceremony he had just gone through.

Indeed, along the way, many people had already started insulting Lev.

The more insults directed at Lev, the deeper Greda’s frown became.

“You don’t need to frown like that. Aren’t you afraid your wrinkles will multiply?”

Lev tried to lighten Greda’s annoyed expression by gently touching the wrinkles on her forehead, but it seemed his attempt failed.

After all, Lev should have been the one who was upset.

What Lev should have done included: shouting, smashing vases, and hitting the gossips. ‘If this were my past self, I might have exploded in anger.’

In fact, he had done so in his previous life. He even remembered a servant who lost the ability to speak after receiving a punch from him in a fit of rage.

Unlike his past self, Lev now chose to ignore all the insults from the servants in the mansion. ‘This morning, their target was Daria, and now they’re aiming at me, huh.’

Greda, who could no longer stand hearing their remarks, immediately shouted at them, “It seems you all still have a lot of energy left, even after just managing the coming-of-age ceremony. If that’s the case, get up now and clean up the banquet hall immediately.”

Greda placed her hands on her hips and yelled.

The servants, who had been resting, quickly stood up and ran off.

From what he had heard from Daria, as soon as High Priest Elias announced that he had a trash-level mana pool, the party after the ceremony was canceled, and the guests immediately left the estate.

From Andrei’s personality, the decision to immediately cancel the party was understandable. After all, such parties usually lasted at least two days.

“We’ve arrived, Young Master.”

Greda tried to open the door to the dining hall. She intended to let Lev enter first, as was customary for a servant. However, her movement was stopped by two fully armored soldiers.

Just the presence of soldiers guarding the dining hall door was strange enough, but now they even dared to stop Greda.

“What are you doing? Let me open the door!” Greda scolded the two guards harshly. If we were talking about rank, the soldiers might have been slightly more respectable—but since Greda was Lev’s nanny, the two soldiers should have known better.

“Has your Young Master lost both his hands? If not, then he can open the door himself, can’t he?!”

“Pfft!”

Instead of obeying Greda’s order, the two soldiers mocked Lev and laughed at him.

Before Greda’s head exploded in anger, Lev patted her shoulder and told her to step back.

Lev could only sigh, step forward, and open the door with his own hands.

“Aren’t you angry, Young Master?”

“Why should I be angry?” Lev answered Greda’s question casually. ‘Besides, their lives will soon come to an end.’

When the door opened wide, the interior of the dining hall was revealed. Unlike the luxurious atmosphere of the banquet hall, the dining hall felt simpler and more elegant. There weren’t many decorations inside.

One thing stood out about the dining hall’s design. A glass wall stretched along one side of the room, facing outside.

The reddish-orange sunset looked incredibly beautiful. Especially when the sunlight illuminated the flower garden right outside the room.

The garden was clearly visible because the dining hall was on the ground floor.

The combination of the natural colors of the flowers and the sunlight was soothing to the mind.

Despite the beautiful scenery, the atmosphere inside the dining hall was anything but soothing. In fact, it was extremely tense.

It turned out that not only were there soldiers in full-body armor at the entrance, but there were also soldiers inside the dining hall. “One, two, three… eighteen.” After counting their numbers, Lev couldn’t help but slightly drop his jaw.

There were a total of 18 soldiers standing in the four corners of the room.

‘It seems there’s going to be quite a show here.’

Ignoring the intimidating gazes of the soldiers, Lev walked to the center of the room, where a large dining table awaited him. Unlike the abundance of food on the table welcoming him, the family members already seated did not seem to welcome him warmly.

Especially his father, Andrei. From Andrei’s face, a cloud of black smoke, a sign of irritation, seemed to rise above his head. Now, he didn’t hesitate to show his displeasure toward Lev.

Ignoring his family members, Lev took an empty seat and sat at the end of the rectangular table. Opposite him, Andrei sat facing him, while Boris and Irini sat on Andrei’s right and left.

“I have something to announce!” With his hands clasped together, Andrei put on a serious face and informed everyone present that he had something to say.

“Wait.” Lev raised his hand, stopping Andrei from speaking further.

Venison pie, soup filled with vegetables and pork, and other dishes filled his vision. Without wasting any more time, he immediately started eating all the food in front of him. The tenderness of the venison pie and the warmth of the vegetable soup filled Lev’s mouth.

All the food he was eating was something rarely seen by commoners. Unless they were nobles, they might not even get to taste a single dish that Lev was eating now.

After years of suffering, he could finally enjoy the delicious food of the nobility. There was no way he would let Andrei distract him from his meal.

However, as he lifted his head after finishing a bowl of soup, something unexpected came flying toward his face.

Whoosh!

A plate flew through the air, heading straight for Lev’s face.