Stone Mage: Revenge of the Villain System

"AGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

Cermin's eyes widened when he heard a scream nearby. It was guttural like the roaring of an injured beast.

"Ooooooffff, that sounds like someone got hurt pretty bad---"

"Focus, Your Highness."

"I am focused!" Cermin answered back---

Until a wooden dummy came to slash a sword towards him!

Cermin barely parried on time and continued to swish his sword against this magical automaton. "It's just that I'm worried someone got really injured or something---"

"That's no longer our problem. This is the Training Rooms. People are bound to get hurt if they do not train well enough."

Ronin responded plainly, holding four sets of ropes in hand.

Those ropes were actually attached to Cermin's four limbs. It was a solution for his hesitance and slow reaction speed.

Whenever he felt like Cermin was moving too, slow, he would tug at the rope before the dummy could make its attack.

But it was also a way to 'punish' him for not paying attention to the opponent, yanking it hard until Cermin yelps in pain and twist his elbow joints or make him trip.

"I really can't fight like this!" Cermin told him. "My movement is restricted, Ronin!"

"That's the whole point! I'm restricting it to add more risk, so you would keep up your full alertness."

"I am alert! It's just... Can't you just check on that person?"

Ronin frowned. "Since when have you become so noble?"

"Huh?" Cermin didn't hear him, as the clanging of swords was too loud.

"Nothing."

He knows who had yelled on the other side. He knows his own sibling's voice very much, but he was not worried enough to check.

Because for one, it was not his battle to fight. This was between Don and Volken, arranged by the story itself. Don wouldn't like someone swooping in to save him, he wanted to win this himself.

And not to mention that intervening would bring more consequences rather than benefits, more trouble than it's worth.

It's the same for Cermin, actually. He doesn't even know who this hurting person was, and he wasn't even sure how badly injured they were in the first place or if they want his help.

But his worry was really strong, and he had this impulse that usual brave and valiant protagonists have that he didn't have before.

'The coward Min Cheng I know, the one who hid under tables during that party..... He wouldn't be this gutsy. No, even during the party.....'

'The past him wouldn't have risked going after Bella and unlocking the toolshed even when the nobles were busy fighting. He knew he was still a child back then, and was too scared for his own skin, yet did it anyway.'

'At first, I thought that he was just that desperate to gain Bella's favor and some H-points.....'

'But no. There is definitely something odd going on here, and he had become odder the longer he stayed in this world.'

There's a recurring theory in Ronin's mind, because he had come to notice that it was not just Cermin acting odd.

"I'm tired!" Cermin exclaimed, and sliced the head off the dummy.

He let go of the sword, and started walking with determined eyes. "I'm going to find if that person was doing okay---"

Ronin pulled on all the ropes. "No."

"Ronin." Cermin's tone then became different.

It was not the same childish one that he has when talking to him. It was more serious, and almost resembles the tone he had when he made that speech to Don at the Banquet Palace that day....

It was firm, but the desperation was still there. But if that time, he was desperate for Don to see the truth about the nature of his and Ronin's relationship, and that he's not the bad guy.....

"I need to help them if they needed it, Ronin. My heart screams for it like a beast in a cage."

He was desperate for Ronin to see his determination and let him go. His determination to be a savior to someone.

'He's speaking in a deeper way too. I remember he even used the metaphor that I was his light in the darkness.'

He considered things, and so decided to not let go of the pull on his rope.

"If you finish our training, I will let you check up on this person." He said.

Cermin blinked, and that strange noble aura was gone for a bit. "But..... aren't I just finished here? I defeated the dummy---"

"Not yet. Take away your sword, we'll practice hand-to-hand combat." Ronin told him.

Cermin was surprised, but followed as Ronin said. He then asked. "But with who?"

"With me. No Mage Focus, just pure physical combat. The only difference is...."

"These ropes stay. You need to defeat me even while I'm pulling at your ropes."

Cermin found that this fight was really impossible, he didn't want to hurt his friend. Also, because of these goddamn robes, Ronin had way more leverage.

"But I really want to help the person on the other rooms..... I have no choice. Sorry, Ronin."

He yelled, and went ahead to throw a punch at him!

Ronin had quick reflexes, but he noticed that Cermin's punches were much more deliberate and had more strength to them now. He was taking this part more seriously than ever.

'So this is what makes him tick... Saving others. Really such a Hero thing..... Could it be that he's really---'

But even while he was busy dodging and analyzing, he was still defending himself very well enough.

He kept his distance so that the ropes would be pulled taut. As Cermin pulled another punch, Ronin pulled quickly on the ropes at his foot, and sent him stumbling.

But Cermin stood up like no problem, and went back to it again.

This continuous exchange sent Ronin's blood rushing, and his adrenaline rush came to the point that it was disorienting.....

Until he said things that he wouldn't usually say.

"Hah, you puny little golden boy! You think you could even hurt a hair on my head!? You can't even land a single blow, how do you expect on protecting anyone now?"

Cermin was baffled a little bit, breaking from his own adrenaline rush. (Eh? What is Ronin---)

He then noticed that his eyes were red and almost bursting out of those sockets like that time. That time he made his speech about death during the Ascension exams.

There was a sort of arrogant and wild rage in him that was opposite of his usual calm and meticulous behavior.

Ronin also noticed this, and gritted his teeth.

So this was what it was. He felt this strongly as a child, but it had always been present. He just regained more control, and kept his cool as much as he can...

But back then, the reason why he was so temperamental, and why his blood boiled too much to the point that he did not act like his usual self when Cermin first appeared.

Forgetting about his 100,000 years of experience as a system, acting so brash and immature....

'You're here, aren't you?' He asked in his head with a sneer. 'You are within me.....'

'Fausforus.'