A Villainess Should Be Strong

The boy had strong features. It was as if his entire body embodied the element of fire.

He had fiery red spiky hair and a glimmering pair of vermillion eyes. His stature was not that big, considering the fact that Tertia had told her that Theo was nine years old. Dragonkin was known to have a larger build on average than the other races with the exception of beastkin, but Theo was even smaller than she was at his age.

This boy was the same one she had saved back in her way home yesterday. The child who was cornered by six trash men, the ones she cleaned up and left discarded on the street in embarrassing postures. The one who ran away from her before she was even able to ask more questions about the situation.

Estelle's eyes widened in surprise as the boy had somehow found herself in this type of situation.

"He's Theo?" Estelle questioned, not hiding the shock that was present in her face. "He..."

The boy also looked at her with apprehension, averting his gaze away.

Tertia formed a small frown as she tilted her head, making a confused sound. "Do you know him, Eirlys?" she asked. "You too, since when did you learn to get along with someone else other than me, hm?" She looked towards Theo's way as she nudged him in the shoulder.

"Well- it's not like I know him, but I did meet him yesterday... What a coincidence," Estelle wanted to speak about the troubling situation that unfolded yesterday more, but Theo had desperately shook his head left and right, telling  Estelle to stop talking this very instant.

Estelle did not know what to do, but she stopped elaborating and coughed to clear her throat. Although the incident was pretty major in her point of view, the boy seemed to really fear Tertia learning about it. She decided to put it off for later and ask him once Tertia was away, and talk about business today.

"Hello.. My name is Eirlys, the one who will be your employer if you choose to accept my offer. I have heard about your skills, Theo. I desire help for my journey, and it's going to take a long time.. For such an arduous and stretched out journey, I need help to get me moving around the country easily. Are you willing to lend me your special knowledge, Theo?" Estelle offered formally with a clear speech.

Theo crossed his hands, shaking his head in discontent. "Absolutely not. I take jobs that have a maximum time span of one week. That's the highest capacity I will take. I have things to do beside Tertia, so I can't just leave her for a long time without feeling worried. If you are looking for someone who can spend a lot of time travelling around, then I am definitely not the one who suits your purpose," Theo resolutely declared.

Estelle pursed her lips, a little troubled.

"Ao, are you worried about me? If you are, then don't. I will be alright by myself. It's your choice, but I don't want to be the reason you are holding yourself back. I talked with Eirlys, and she seems to be a responsible partner. Not to mention, she is willing to pay and was recommended by Alyssa. I don't see how things could go wrong with this," Tertia interjected.

"But- I don't want to! I won't go! It's up to me, right?"

"Well, I can always not let you into my store, if that is alright with you," Tertia replied.

"No! Why would that be fair? I can be a customer here!" Theo grabbed onto Tertia's arm, tugging on her with a bit of force.

Tertia pulled the younger's hands off of her.

"I can always kick out customers I don't want to serve. As for the reason why it is fair.. Because I am the owner of this shop, which is clearly named after myself in the first place. I don't want to let you in. It's my store, so it's up to me, right? Theo, this is a good chance for you to leave me. Ever since I became like this, you have been dragging yourself down just to match my footsteps, but you are so young. I have already aged a lot, I don't mind being stuck in my current position. I am satisfied. But I don't want to see you like this. You have potential, but I am your biggest distractor. If you are going to pretend like you don't know anything about your wrongdoings behind my back, then I am forcefully going to push you away from now on," Tertia scolded with a stern voice, making Theo's expression warp into a terrified one.

"Ter- Tertia! This..." Theo was baffled as his eyes shook in disbelief over what the woman just said.

Finally, the boy clicked his tongue and ran out of the store, leaving the two worried over his wellbeing.

"I may have been a bit too harsh, but it was necessary. Theo is a nice boy, and I can't keep making him hang around me for an eternity. Haah... Eirlys, he will definitely come back, he won't leave for a long time. He can't bear to. You can try to negotiate with him on a later schedule, but today's meeting has to be called off for now. My apologies," Tertia rubbed her temples as she left towards the back of the store and disappeared out of Estelle's sight.

Estelle was slightly hesitant on what to do, but she got out of the store and saw that Theo was nowhere to be found in either direction of the street. She had a bad feeling about the little boy's escape and sought to look for him before her negative feelings could come true.

She jumped up to a tall building and began building her radar web. The child was agile and speedy, as shown from their encounter before. The child disappeared within no time. It was unknown on whether or not it was the child's skill, and whether it was simply a runaway skill or perhaps a concealment spell. Either way, Estelle struggled to catch him on the radar, but she soon found movements in her radar that seemed to match Theo's steps.

Only, the spot was surrounded by other living entities.

One, two, three, four.. there were a lot. More than ten people gathered around this same spot, where she felt Theo's faint presence appear at. Estelle hurriedly rushed to the spot and looked below where she stood at with piercing eyes.

If her bad feelings were correct, then Theo was in trouble. And those feelings proved to be correct, as she saw Theo be surrounded by fifteen adult men who seemed to be threatening and using violence with the child.

Estelle was instantly enraged. Previously, she had guessed that the men she had defeated had companions scattered all throughout this area, and that revenge had a high chance of happening. However, she didn't think that those guys would be seeking the payback this early on.

She saw that Theo already had a new bruise formed on his face, and blood was spilling out from the corners of his mouth. Estelle was furious. She jumped down the building and landed on top of one of the men, her eyes sweeping through the crowd with a killing intent as they backed away. The impact created from Estelle's fall made the man she crushed instantly turn dizzy and fall down to the ground.

Estelle got off said man and turned to look at the other fourteen humans who were trying to cause trouble. Within them, there was one familiar face that she had seen yesterday pursuing Theo as well.

Upon seeing Estelle's arrival, this man seemed to react very badly, scooting behind the other member as he tried to hide himself.

Of course, it was futile as Estelle had already caught him in her sight.

Estelle gritted her teeth as she summoned her spear, putting Theo behind her as she protected the little child and pointed her weapon at the crowd.

"You bastards, haven't you learned from yesterday? What would it take you to not bother this child anymore? You better stop, or else.. I won't just let you off with embarrassment this time," Estelle glared with a menacing aura.

The rest of the men weren't told about yesterday's incident because the six men all collectively decided to not tell anybody about their experience. It was simply too embarrassing to tell, and they were sure to be mocked if the news got out.

Hence, only one person made a terrified sound when Estelle spoke, making the others frown at the one man.

"Hey, what the hell are you talking about?? Little girl, are you sleepy? Coming out here on your own volition, you must desire to be roughed up by big brothers, right~ Don't worry, us big brothers will take care of you to the utmost level," One of the men had a lewd expression as he uttered the disgusting phrases.