Chapter 13: Raising A Villainess? Host, There Is Something Wrong With Your Education

When Cia woke up, he thought he would see the usual monstrous mechanical spinning metal on top of his head

It was his ceiling fan, but it looked like someone had merged a grandfather clock with a blender.

It usually bounce up and down. At first Cia thought it was supposed to do that, but the fan on the living room looked stable.

It was broken. But with no money for a replacement, Cia let it be and just prayed it won't fall on him.

But no. This time, when he opened his eyes, he found himself floating at a foggy lakeside.

"Did I get transmigrated again?" He hoped his guess was wrong. He was already adapting peacefully (?) in that world. He didn't want a new change of environment.

He looked down, he had seen a pair of chains placed on top of a big rock near the waters.

Although he had only seen his chains two times, those instances were very memorable that Cia immediately recognized the chains below as his.

Seeing that, he already had a guess as to where he was.

"Host!"

That address is very familiar. Cia called out, uncertain, "System?" He looked around but saw no one.

It was strange. Cia was used to the system calling his name inside his mind, but now, he was sure that voice came from just around him.

"I'm here! Right at your left shoulder!"

Cia looked towards his shoulder. Standing on it was a red pom-pom with eyes.

"..."

The pom-pom tilted its head. "Host? What's wrong? Are you startled by the majestic me?"

"System?" Cia's mouth twitched as he took a deep breath.

"Yes, host!" The system's eyes turned crescent. It seemed to be smiling but Cia had no idea where the mouth was beneath that thick fur.

Cia picked up the tiny pom-pom that was sitting on his shoulder. It was tiny. Not even the size of his palm and probably a circle bigger than his thumbnail.

"No wonder you are easily scared by a mouse." Such a tiny body. It would probably not fill the gaps of the teeth of that fat mouth that is about the size of a kitten.

"So where are we?" Cia asked. He juggled the pom-pom, feeling satisfied at the velvet-like texture of the fur.

"This is your mind space host!" Sure enough, the system confirmed its guess.

"Mind space? So it correlates to the metal aspects? If so, does my mind space reflect my mood?" Cia voiced out his thoughts to the system.

The pom-pom nodded, "Yep. Right now, your mind space is very quiet. Meaning you are in a neutral mode. But during those times when you activate your punisher mode, the season inside your mind space would change. It would turn into winter."

Cia narrowed his eyes. So this pom-pom could see his emotional state very clearly? Cia felt a bit of discomfort.

The system had no idea what Cia was thinking as it continued to introduce the mind space.

"All awakeners had this. The size of the mind space depends on the awakener class. You are a SSS Class Awakener, so your mind space is very big!"

"What's the use of the mind space?" Cia looked around and except for the scenery, there seemed to be nothing special.

"It has many uses!" The system rubbed Cia's palm when it noticed Cia's disregard. Its voice sounded dissatisfied, "People who have a blessing really couldn't appreciate it! Being able to access the mind space means you can better monitor your mana components and defend yourself from awakeners whose ability is related to soul!"

"Other people's mind spaces are barren! Even if they have access to it, they have no means to defend it! Yours had many resources such as rocks, trees and water! You can even use your mind space to raise soul creatures!"

"Okay I get it." Cia held the jumping pom-pom. He understood what the system was saying, but without practical application, he cannot really fathom how important it was.

The pom-pom was easy to fool. It happily toured Cia around and let Cia play with it.

Cia realized that this pom-pom really had limbs. With very tiny paws the size of a pinky nail. It was pink and soft.

After this tour, Cia became calm. Although he had many questions as to why the system looked more like a pet than a technological wonder, the moment he asked that, the system would say 'who says a system should look a specific way?'

It was basically as good as not receiving any answers.

...

"Big brother, can you tie my hair up with this bow?" Rena handed Cia a pink bow with a flowery design in the middle.

Cia woke up early today for his job despite the sleepiness. Looking at the calm Rena, Cia couldn't help but compliment her heartlessness.

He thought that a child would have trauma after seeing what happened a while ago, but looked at Rena. She didn't say a word or had any unusual reaction. Automatically back to bows and dolls.

Cia held the pink bow in his hand, it looked very different from Rena's collection that he saw in the drawer.

"I thought you like purple. Why did you choose pink?" Cia looked at Rena's room. It was all purple. The bedsheet, the curtains, and the lamp.

"I hate pink." Rena pouted, "But people seemed to prefer pink more than purple."

"Well, big brother likes purple." Although he also doesn't hate pink, "What makes you think that people prefer pink more than purple?"

For Cia, it was just a casual chat. But Rena's answer surprised him a bit.

"Dirty Dreshena had a new pink bow and many classmates complimented her. I always have new bows, why did no one compliment me?" Rena sounded very confused as she thought of the situation.

"Calling people dirty is not good Rena. Besides, maybe they didn't compliment you because you having new bows is nothing special." Cia felt his eye twitch listening to Rena talking. It felt like a bad omen.

"Why is calling people dirty bad? Isn't lying also bad? Dreshena is really dirty. She likes wearing white clothes for some reason. Well, they say white but it looked dirty yellow to me." Rolling her eyes, Rena pouted, "I don't understand why people like talking to such dirty girl more than me? Is being dirty really better than my attitude?"

"I'm glad you know." At this point, Cia realized that Rena is not just a smart child but also understood others. It's just that she doesn't want to compromise her personality for the sake of others.

"But why cater to their preference now?" Cia glanced at the pink bow in his hand.

Rena hugged Cia on the neck and whined, "I hate her very much. She stole my friend. She had many people to talk to and I only have one. Why does she have to do that? They said she is kind but I think she's a witch!"

"Witch to bewitch people! Deserved to burn to death!" Clearly, Rena doesn't understand the logic why people liked Dreshena. If that's the case, it's probably witchcraft right.

[Host, don't you think it's necessary to step in?] The system looked at Rena and felt that she seemed to have grown crooked.

"Okay... Let's educate this child."

"Rena, don't talk like that." Cia frowned and he pulled Rena's arms that were clinging in his neck. He let Rena stand in front of him, "That's a very bad accusation to give someone. Don't do that. Also, hating someone blindly will harm yourself more than how much you want to harm the other person. Because in people's eyes, you are the unreasonable one."

[Good!]

"If that friend is a true friend then she wouldn't be that easily taken away by someone."

[Right!]

Rena's eyes reddened. She felt like Cia was blaming her, "But I hate her. I just want to have a friend but they all don't seem to like me."

"Rena." Cia smiled, "Are you listening to me? Blindly hating makes people think you are unreasonable. But what if you have the reason to reasonably hate that person?"

[Wait—]

"Huh?" Rena looked at Cia, confused.

"People always wanted to side with the perspective that they think is righteous... Rena, it's very easy to manipulate people's hearts." Cia put down the pink bow and grabbed the purple one that is on the table, "Rena wanted to be love by others right? Then make your personality reasonable. Not in way that you suddenly became good, but in a way that your behavior is justified by something."

[Host I think—]

"You can act pitiful or maybe let the other person feel like they owe you something. Human relationships are not that complicated Rena. Although unconditional and fiery feelings exist, so do the feelings that are born from calculation."

Cia smiled as he combed Rena's hair, "Does it sound exhausting?"

Rena had been silent the moment Cia started his 'lecture'. Now hearing that question, Rena looked up at Cia and grinned mischievously, "What's exhausting in that brother? It sounds fun."

"Good Rena. Now let's go to school. Brother still needs to go to work." Cia carried Rena in his arms as he opened the door.

[Host, what you said to Rena sounded a bit...]

"Sketchy?" Cia had a feeling as to what the system was trying to say. He thought for a moment and honestly answered, "Isn't this the usual way to educate a child? You can't let them be bullied, you can't let them be sad, but you also can't let other people view them as bad or evil?"

[Yes, but there seems to be a more proper way to handle things, right?]

"Hmm, I think it's okay. I also grew up like Rena and I turned out just fine."

[No wonder you got shot to death.]

"What did you just say?"

[Nothing] said the system, but deep down. It was already implementing a plan to pull its host back to goodness.