Becoming The Villainess

Under her icy gaze that demands submission, the two receptionists bowed at almost a 90-degree angle and greeted her with hints of fear in their voices.

"Good morning to you as well, young miss." When they saw her crimson eyes and silky black hair, they realized that she had to be the newest addition to the Duketh family. The illegitimate daughter of Alexander Duketh, the CEO of Duketh group.

Cynthia Duketh. There were many rumors about her floating around the workplaces owned by the company.

It had only been over a week since she even came to this city but these rumors were running rampant.

"Hmm," Cynthia just nodded and ignored the two women as this time, she dragged Lilly with her. This was because she was too eager to look at all the facilities here.

Once her trance of the outside view was broken, she had an overwhelming desire to explore.

She also dragged Lilly with him because she couldn't navigate this place on her own and because Lilly was dragging her earlier. That kind of stung her arm since her little sister was not weak whatsoever.

Before they turned the corridor, Lilly flashed an apologetic smile towards the receptionist and said "Good morning to you too."

Since the women were always polite to her, she didn't hesitate to give replies. She liked how they were always pleasant and welcoming when she came.

Lilly assumed that the two were just well-natured people like her servants and gave her respect not only because of her standing but because of how lovable she is.

As soon as the two rich girls were out of sight, the women sat back in their seats as they watched the imposing bodyguards chasing the young ones. The bodyguards had to keep a fair distance from the girls.

This wasn't an issue as the building's security had already been informed of their arrival and had put in the latest security measures that were recently written up by Antoine.

The lobby was now quiet. The two women sighed in relief and took deep breathes to calm themselves down.

"Did you see how she looked at us? It's as if we are nothing but bugs," exclaimed the woman with brown hair tied back in a bun. Her expression was that of a scowl.

"That look in her eyes was unfeeling and sent shivers down my spine. She made me feel like a bug." replied the receptionist with black hair that went up to her shoulders. She is Receptionist 1.

The first one wasn't as intimidated by the presence of Cynthia and only found her stare to be distasteful while the other one was timider and felt the weight of her pressure unbearable.

"Those rumors must be true then." said the brown-haired one, let us call her Receptionist 2.

"Which one?" Receptionist 1 wasn't a person that kept up with the gossip. She was too busy making a living.

"It is said that she was dissatisfied by the servants and summoned a storm on them."

"OH! I remember, everyone said there were really fast winds a blue portal that tossed ice spikes at them." Receptionist 1 always needed little details to jog her memory.

"The doctor was called to their house twice that day. One to help some of the injured servants and the other was to help the second youngest of the family, Oswin Duketh." Receptionist 2 had a very sharp ear and spent a lot of time socializing with her colleagues.

"They said she kicked her older brother, Oswin in the d*ck. He is at the hospital to get surgery on it." she continued.

"How do people find out about these things?" asked Receptionist 1. She was curious as to how all of this information comes out even though the rich families are good at keeping secrets.

"Beats me. I hear it from people who say they heard it from someone else." Receptionist 2 shrugged and then went back to looking at house listings on the web. She and her fiance were planning on getting a house before marriage.

Receptionist 1 went into thought as he put all the rumors together with the very scary gaze of Cynthia and her back began dripping with beads of sweat. . She made a very easy conclusion and inwardly planned to tell everyone she knows of the horror she experienced.

'Cynthia Duketh is a scary monster who will skin you whole if you displease her!!!' This was the message she planned to spread. It's not that she wanted to harm Cynthia's image.

She just wanted her acquaintances to be safe from the possible actions of that young yet scary girl. Her very deep imagination also facilitated that as she was convinced from just the mention of rumors.

This event here outlines the main reason why Cynthia was highlighted as a villainess in her previous life. There were always rumors floating around that painted her in a bad light, even if she did nothing.

She never understood how a story that goes through one person and then passed onto another hundred could never be consistent. At the end of the line, it would be drastically different from the original.

To the people around her, she might be a saint but to the rest of the world, she could be the devil.

...

"That way is the weight room. Over there are the speed training rooms. The pools are in the back and the practice rooms for us are upstairs." Lilly had begun to narrate the placement of all the training rooms in the building and even took Cynthia into some of them.

They didn't stay long though as there were people buys with strengthening themselves and they didn't want to be a bother.

She did however get the chance to see some of the advanced machines in action. This includes the weight machines that were adjustable in however much weight on wanted.

It ranged from 10lbs all the way to 10,000 pounds. There were also these futuristic pods that had an assortment of tubes attached to them. Inside were people with gas masks on and submerge in different colored liquids.

When asked, Lilly said that they were for helping with the muscle soreness of the users. Such machines were needed to maximize training as soreness would be alleviated in less than a day.

This would allow them to train as many days in a row as they want without harming their bodies.

Cynthia was fascinated by all of this even though her face did not show it. To the outsiders, she looked disinterested and bored. All due to her naturally stoic face.

After they had a thorough tour of the first floor, they took an elevator up to the second. Up here, the number of doors was sparse and the hallways were somewhat narrow. Allowing for only 2 or 3 people to walk side by side.

"When building this space, they decided to maximize the amount of space for the rooms. People need as much space as they can get to test their abilities out." Lilly explained.

Sometimes, the abilities of certain Extractors were area effects or wide-ranged so it's necessary for them to have winder fields for testing.

( As a reminder, this is what we call people with superpower/mana in this world. This only applies to the generation subsequent to the First Generation known as the Linears.)

They planned on walking towards the opposite end of the hallway where Lilly and Cynthia's assigned training rooms were kept. As they walked, a figure of a teenage bot came into vision.

He had short cyan hair in a fade cut and glimmering golden eyes that seemed similar to Lilly's. The only difference was the faint trace of sinister thoughts that swam inside of it. This sinister gaze was hard to notice unless one was well versed with the world.

"Yo Lilly. How is ya doing on this fine Saturday?" said the boy as he looked straight at the girl was clung tightly to Cynthia's arm.

"None of business stinky sludge," she said with a pout while turning to look away from his somewhat handsome face that had yet to mature. She obviously did not like this guy much.

"Oh come on! Can you please forget that happened? It was all a very big mistake." He claims while trying to make a sobbing expression like a puppy.

His face made it for quite the endearing look but this did not affect the sister whatsoever. Lilliana's response to his appeal was to stick out her tongue and mock him with her eyes.

The bodyguards behind the girls started to chuckle as they found this interaction both cute and hilarious. Cynthia on the other hand had a drastically different idea.

Tink! Tink! Tink!

Within seconds, the floor around her was frozen as hair defied gravity and started to float in the air even though there was no wind present.

Out from the ice beneath her feet, ice spikes with the thickness of a football appeared and were hurled at sonic speeds.

Swing! Swing! Swing!

They tore through the air before anyone could react and arrived just inches away from the various body parts of the boy.

His expression changed to one of panic but was soon settled as an orb of light was formed around him. He was trapped inside a clear bubble that engaged the ice spikes head-on.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

After about a dozen of these spikes, Cynthia calmed down as her hair floated back down and she took some deep breaths. She then calmly looked at the figure of the cyan-haired boy that was kneeling on the ground.

There was a white ring on his pinky that shattered into pieces after the bubble disappeared. it was the item that saved him from the life-threatening projectiles.

there was a drawback to its activation though as he clutched his stomach in a pained expression and coughed blood.

Keuk! He then slumped to the ground and fainted.

Right now, Cynthia's eyes had a crazed glint in them as she was feeling quite serene.

This was because she had just injured Derek Zayden. The other revenge target excluding Oswin. This was the man that stood next to Oswin as he shot her on the head. He was engaged with Lilly at that point in time but the wedding was delayed time and time again.

'That felt good!' Cynthia exclaims on the inside as she really wanted to smile but couldn't. She would look like a lunatic to the crowd of people that had just gathered due to the commotion.

Derek's own bodyguards came over and surrounded their young master as some of them checked his condition while the rest started to prepare their attacks.

The Duketh bodyguards did the same as the mana belonging to the two sides flared up and formed an invisible pressure around them.

There were also some onlookers who came out from their training rooms and looked at the situation with amused expressions. Clearly, they were bored and looking for some entertainment.

Cynthia needed to quell the situation that had gotten out of hand due to her impulse. So she looked at the shocked Lilly and said "The stinky sludge is down. He won't dare bother you for a while."

She said this with a kind smile but it somehow looked deranged to everyone else. The bodyguards on the other side took a gulp when they saw her devilish expression.

And here was Cynthia, thinking she made a warm expression. Even her own guards felt uncertain about what was going on in the head of their young miss.

"Did you do that for me?" asked Lilly as she tried to understand her elder sister's actions.

"Why else?" she retorted.

Lilly was happy to hear that as she gave off a truly warm, angelic smile that countered Cynthia's demonic one. Everyone started to agree that these two are polar opposites.

Everyone could see their expression but couldn't hear what they were saying to each other as they had an item of their own that Cynthia had activated to allow them to have a free conversation.

This was an essential item to every member of a rich family in order to prevent others from listening in to secrets.

After talking to Lilly and getting her out of the stupor, her arm was hugged even tighter. She had a little difficulty going through the pocket of her coat and deactivating the item but still managed it.

Cynthia then faced the crowd and Derek's bodyguards. The devilish smile left her face as it became stone cold again. She narrowed her eyes and created a menacing look that worked well with her face and spoke.

"Do you think you can safely take your young master out of here if you start a fight?" she questioned in a mocking tone.

The guards absorbed those words and clearly understood that she was both threatening them and undermining their strength.

They were all quiet and looked over to their leader, a middle-aged man with an amiable face and stressed expression. He had a light brown shade of hair and dark eyes. He was also quite tall but not too muscular which meant that his ability probably had nothing to do with physical strength.

The leader looked back at his subordinate and nodded. It was obvious that this situation was dire. This building belonged to the Duketh clan and there were probably over a hundred other guards and employees that were willing to fight them head-on.

The only safe solution right now is a peaceful one. The leader understood this so he gestured the others to stand down. they all complied and the mana receded back into their bodies.

Cynthia did the same for her crew. Both sides were now in a relaxed stance as the leader took the initiative to speak.

"What is it that the first young miss suggests we do?" he asked. Since Cynthia was the one that gave them the idea to stand down, surely she must not want to escalate this any further.

"You can take that stinky sludge of yours and leave. You can send people to our house for an explanation later," she said nonchalantly before gesturing her guards to take the sister out of this cramped hallway first.

Because of the commotion, the hall was filled with people which with its already small width made it hard to breathe clean air. There was more than one exit to this large building or else it would be a fire hazard. That's why the two groups can leave without meeting each other again on the way.

'There really is no time to relax. That's both my fault and the world's.' Cynthia sighed internally. She once again couldn't control her emotions today for some odd reason as wrath just welled out from her heart.

Cynthia really wanted to test her powers safely and show off her skill in front of Lilly but that was a failure. She ended up revealing it in public but she decides it's not a bad idea as no one would annoy her once they hear of this incident.

[Congratulations! The user has now been assigned the role of Villainess by Gaia.]

The system's timing never disappoints.

(Author's Note: Want to find out why Derek is called "stinky sludge" by Lilly? You can find out on the next episode of...)