The Villainess Is My Cute Daughter

Adrian looked directly at Roderick.

"Well, do you really think that just because you are from a royal lineage, you can just bully whoever you want?" Adrian asked. "I mean, yeah, you did visit my territory a few months ago, and you did express that you somewhat liked how I ran things. But if your brother is being an idiot, then that’s not my problem."

Adrian slowly stood up from his chair.

"And on top of that, I personally do not like you," Adrian added, staring Roderick down. "You’re the kind of person who just uses people for his own benefit and throws them away when it’s convenient. I was originally willing to form a loose alliance with you, but I don’t think that’s possible anymore."

Adrian leaned over the table.

"I know you are exceptionally good at calculating the risks and benefits of everything you do," Adrian said. "So why don’t you calculate this? If you do not agree with my conditions and choose to go against me right now, do you honestly think you guys are returning to the capital alive?"

Roderick didn’t answer. He just stared silently at Adrian.

The Financial Minister slowly turned his head to look at the surrounding soldiers aiming those weird-looking metal sticks at his head. He then glanced across the table at Leo.

The ’hero’ was literally shaking in his chair. He was hyperventilating, his eyes blown wide with absolute terror.

Roderick frowned. "Why are you shaking? Why are you scared of metal sticks?"

"T-Those are rifles," Leo stammered, his voice cracking. "How the hell did you get your hands on rifles?"

Adrian looked at the terrified Leo, smiled pleasantly, and then looked back at Roderick.

"It’s a technology that was given to me by the gods," Adrian lied smoothly. "It is a weapon that your precious hero’s world currently uses. So, Roderick. Since you have a little bit more information now, why don’t we negotiate properly? We can either go for an all-out war right here, or we can just split the empire apart with mutual consent."

Roderick just stared at him. His mind was racing, trying to figure out exactly how much destructive power these ’rifles’ could possibly hold.

Meanwhile, Maximilian was just sitting there at the end of the table like a useless doll like he always had been. Whenever truly important, kingdom-altering matters were put on the table, the Emperor literally had no say. He just clenched his fists, bore the crushing humiliation, and stared blankly down at the table.

Roderick took a deep breath.

He rapidly calculated the odds in his head. The Oresfall soldiers were mostly commoners and even if they were knights, their ranks would surely be low. Even with strange weapons on top of that, his royal guard consisted of elite knights and high-circle mages. If they struck first and fast, they could slaughter Adrian and break the encirclement.

Roderick’s eyes flashed as mana swirled around him.

"Attack!" Roderick yelled without any warning.

But instead of his elite knights and royal mages leaping forward to attack their opponents, a completely different sound erupted across the camp.

BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!

It wasn’t the fiery sound of magical explosions. It was the sharp, deafening crack of something breaking the sound barrier.

And it happened multiple times within a single second.

A sudden, very bad feeling pooled in the pit of his stomach as Roderick slowly turned his head toward the royal knights.

He watched in horror as all of his royal mages slowly collapsed to the dirt. Their bodies were completely riddled with dozens of bleeding holes. Their defensive barriers hadn’t been enough to stop the supersonic bullets. They could stop one or two of them but multiple hitting them without giving them any time to recover? They were done for.

And then there were the knights. The D-rank, the A-rank, and even his singular S-rank knight guard.

All of them were on the ground.

It was just the S-rank knight and two A-rank knights who hadn’t died instantly. The A-rank knights were severely injured, bleeding heavily as they knelt on the ground. Their superior knight reflexes had allowed them to evade just enough so the bullets didn’t hit their vital organs, but they were still completely out of the fight.

As for the S-rank knight, Roderick could see that even though the man had tried his best, there was a limit to what speed could accomplish against a firing squad of assault rifles.

There were multiple bleeding holes through the knight’s arms and legs, and dozens of deep, cracking dents hammered into his heavy chest plate. Luckily, there were no dents on his helmet, but the man was pinned to the ground, groaning in agony.

Roderick sucked in a sharp, trembling breath.

He slowly, mechanically turned his head back to look at Adrian.

"You..." Roderick whispered, his voice completely hollow.

Adrian didn’t react. He didn’t gloat, and he didn’t laugh. He just stared coldly at the Financial Minister.

"So this is how you want to do things?" Adrian asked, his voice completely flat. "You know, there is a reason why I even let you inside this camp in the first place. Because even if you had brought your weapons... you never stood a chance."

Roderick took a deep, trembling breath.

He stared at the fallen bodies of his elite mages for a few seconds before looking over at Emperor Maximilian. The Emperor was pale, completely terrified into silence. Roderick finally turned his eyes back to Adrian.

"I can agree to most of your terms," Roderick said, his voice straining to remain levelled and calm. "But we want the Mana Crystal Mine back. We paid a lot of money and resources to secure it, Adrian."

Adrian just looked at him and casually shook his head.

"Well, you did pay for it in the past," Adrian corrected. "But right now, it’s basically under my control. I can take it over whenever I want. If you want to take it back, you will need to go through me first, and then you’ll need to go against the entire Avarice Kingdom to actually hold it."

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