Saving the Villain

Cosette had been staying in her room for the past few days, but tonight would be different. She accepted the fact she transmigrated into the world of the novel. She had to — not like she had any other option.

Therefore, she planned that her mission would commence tonight.

"I heard you weren't feeling well in the past days." Conrad broke the silence as his daughter finally joined him for dinner. He watched his daughter glance at him briefly before she set her eyes back on her plate.

That was Conrad's cue to stop talking. fr𝚎e𝙬𝚎𝚋𝚗૦ν𝚎𝒍.c૦m

His daughter was cold and aloof. Although he was already glad that she was doing well and topping her exams, he couldn't help but worry. Cosette was still young, but she was too mature for her age. He appreciated her efforts and intentions to become someone worthy of being the next head of the family, but Cosette was wasting her youth.

He couldn't directly tell her that, though. It would only upset her and she would only think that he didn't have enough trust in her.

As Conrad thought of ways how to make his daughter listen, Cosette was secretly beating herself on how to ask her father a favor. Although she already knew that Conrad would agree to any of her requests, she still wanted to wait for the perfect time.

'There will be no perfect time in here,' she told herself, nodding mentally. 'There's no development from the last dinner with him to now. If I don't act now, I will surely regret it later. The original story will start in ten years, but the last boss is slowly becoming the devil incarnate.'

"I want to transfer school," came out a weak voice as she raised her head, revealing the determination written all over her face. Her father quirked a brow, a bit baffled at what he just heard.

"You want to transfer school?" he repeated for clarification and saw her nod. "Why? Is there something wrong in the academy I must know?"

Cosette shook her head lightly. "It's nothing like that. The past few days, I locked myself in my room to meditate and think about everything and not because I was unwell. After mulling over it, I want to change school."

Conrad was a bit taken aback by her remarks, but it wasn't really surprising for Cosette to decide on things suddenly. What was surprising was her suggestion to transfer to another school in the middle of the school year.

There were myriads of questions inside his head, but he knew those types of questions were things that Cosette wouldn't like. Thus, he only considered what was important.

"Why?" he asked in the same distant tone. "What will you gain by transferring from the best academy in the country to another?"

"Because…" Cosette paused as she gazed up at him, staring at him straight in the eye. "… I wanted to understand what a normal sixteen-year-old girl is like."

Her answer made his eyes dilate momentarily. Did he hear her correctly? Cosette? His daughter? Who was obsessed with becoming a perfect leader was saying she wanted to be… normal?

"I will not gain that development in the academy since everything in there is about connections. I want to attend a school where my peers won't see me as the heiress of the BLK Group. I may be sacrificing future connections and opportunities, but… I don't want Father to worry about this thing anymore."

Conrad opened and closed his mouth, but his words were stuck in his throat. His daughter was a perfectionist, so to think she wanted to transfer school just because she wanted to understand something she considered 'ridiculous' was shocking. But the real bomb she dropped was when she called him father, not chairman or master.

"I already had a school in mind, the Winter Highschool. It only needs Father's approval." She kept it short and simple, acting like how the real Cosette would act and speak. She looked at her father without showing too much information, watching Conrad clear his throat.

"If that is what you want, I'll make arrangements…" his eyes dilated because for a split second, his daughter smiled.

It wasn't a big smile; it was even barely noticeable, but she did smile. Not the usual smile she had practiced, but a candid one. He could not help but have this lingering hope that Cosette also sincerely wanted to become a normal sixteen-year-old where she shouldn't be afraid of committing mistakes.

"Thank you, Papa." Cosette resumed eating, grinning internally as she couldn't shrug off this happiness in her heart. It was as if she could feel her heart slowly get healed.

******

Three days later in Winter Highschool...

After Maxen got discharged and returned to his small apartment room, his life returned to how it was. Dull.

Although Cosette nagged him to take care of himself and take plenty of rest, there was no way he would do that. He wasn't like her, who had the leisure to rest. He needed to attend to his part-time.

'I shouldn't think about her,' he told himself, gazing at the window from where he sat with his elbows propped against the desk in their chaotic classroom. 'I don't even know her name, nor does she know mine. It's not like we will meet again.' 𝒇𝐫ℯ𝑒𝒘ℯ𝑏n𝑜ѵ𝐞l.c𝗼𝗺

He mentally nodded, erasing the memory of the young lady who was the first person to show kindness to him. For Maxen, that type of person was someone who was pampered at home and had so much compassion to give. She just pitied him. That was why she was like that.

Just as he thought he would never meet that strange young lady again, he thought wrong.

A second later, their homeroom teacher finally arrived and his classmates that were standing and talking loudly took their respective seats. Maxen didn't pay attention to their homeroom teacher, nor did he find the silence that dawned on their classroom odd.

He was just there for attendance, so he wouldn't get kicked out. So, it didn't really matter.

"Okay, class. Before we proceed to our lesson, I would like to introduce to you your new classmate." The teacher smiled as he cast the new transferee a look.

Everyone in section F gazed at the beautiful girl standing next to the teacher; male students had their jaw fall open at this beauty they had never seen before while females bore mixed expressions. Some were displeased by the appearance of the beauty, while others could not help but admire her.

Meanwhile, Maxen slowly set his eyes in the front and they instantly dilated as soon as his gaze landed on that familiar face.

"Hello. My name is Cosette Blac. I hope we get along well." Cosette flashed an amiable smile as she tilted her head down politely.

'What the...' Maxen felt a chill down his spine when he caught her gaze that beamed evilly for a split second.