Hero Party's Villain: What's the Point If Heroines Are Not Broken?-Chapter 17 - Arvia’s Mental Breakdown (1)

"....ah, Satteus..."

Just a mild voice, lips parted, eyes blinking, as if the silence permitted in her mind long enough to make her reflect on exactly what happened here—Satteus had stopped that scissor, taking its wound directly on his palm, while preventing it from piercing her back and injuring her.

Not only would she have to carry the physical pain, but she would also bear the emotional trauma of being stabbed by her father.

At that moment, as her mouth started to tremble, her jaws tried to pull out the words stuck in her throat, pupils trembling, her pink hair splattered on Satteus’s chest, hurled as she panicked. She was truly panicked.

She just stared at him, then at the blood, then again at him—everything felt numb. Her head tilted slightly as her lips opened again, her voice shaking, barely able to form the words.

drip

The drops of tears slipped loose from her pink eyes, clearly filtering the grief that carried her mind’s last sanity.

It wasn’t that her mind was so weak, but rather that she was confused, engulfed in grief, pain, and all the emotions coming at her in a single wave that made her whole body feel numb.

"Hic.... n-no... wh-why... What are you doing, Dad...?" she said, breath stuttering, hardly able to pull her words together in a voice that expressed confusion, unable to comprehend anything. "Why are you doing this...?"

She didn’t understand why her father was trying to kill him and not caring about his daughter.

He was being cruel, unlike the kind, gentle, and loving father she had always known.

"Sob...sniff..." She was crying. Not loudly. But completely. Her voice was cracking, breaking apart like her thoughts.

Her tears fell one after another, and her fingers tightened around Satteus’s gown without her even realizing it.

She didn’t understand anything.

Everything was slipping away. Her mind felt like it was shutting down on its own to save her. Her thoughts weren’t coming. Her body was moving on instinct, her emotions doing whatever they wanted. And the man in front of her...

That man...

"Shut up!!" he screamed.

Her father literally screamed—more like he was forced to scream due to the thing controlling his mind after having seen his own death. His whole body had become a vessel for a soul that possessed no humanity whatsoever.

She flinched.

"You were never my daughter!! Don’t forget that!!"

thump thump

’Huh...’ His voice hit her like a punch to the chest. It didn’t even sound real. Her breathing stopped.

The whole world seemed to freeze, and the sounds around her started to ring, trying to protect her body by shutting out all noise except for that silent buzz that stopped everything in her mind, which was struggling to keep up with the pain rushing toward it in an attempt to preserve its own ego.

But...

splash

"Uh... huh... S-SATTEUS!"

Blood splattered on her cheek, falling on his chest as she yelled, clearly turning her head towards his palm only to see her father yank the scissors back from Satteus’s palm.

Blood sprayed out like a splash, red and warm, hitting the edge of the bed and the white floor, reflecting in her eyes as it landed on Satteus’s chin.

Her body jolted.

"Ugh..." Satteus groaned as he needed to push her mind gently—no holds barred—and pulled her close, almost collapsing onto her as he swiftly turned his body, pushing her directly onto the bed, while clearly using his elbows to position himself on either side of her face, leaning in to look towards her.

He saw her blinking, looking at him, eyes wide and unblinking. She was just trembling, as if stuck in some trance.

Satteus knew why it was such a reaction coming from her, as that word might be just the last snap he needed to initiate her mind’s breaking.

Of course, her father’s thought might not be the only thing he needed. He needed to see her ego die every time to make her suitable for him.

But for now, that line—

You were never my daughter.

It was more than enough to break a small link between this father-daughter duo.

Arvia just lay there, looking towards the purple hair brushing against Satteus’s ears as his eyes kept looking at her, but she was unflinching, unresponsive, as if dead from within, as flashes of memories began to play inside her mind.

It didn’t leave her ears. It kept repeating in her head as if being stamped in.

She didn’t want to believe it. But her body did.

Her heart did.

And that was the worst part.

She froze. Her legs went weak, fingers trembling as instinctively she clutched Satteus’s collar, which held blood stains—like she was trying to cling to something real, something that was still left.

Because everything else...

Everything else had shattered.

She had grown up thinking that even if he wasn’t her real father, he was better than one. He cooked when her mom was late, waited when she cried, never once said she wasn’t his, and never made her feel different.

Until now.

Yes. She was not his daughter. She never was.

Her mother had shifted to the city, working under stress and pressure, and met him accidentally.

And he—kind, composed, warm—slowly entered both of their lives. He helped them. Protected them. Stood as a shield when things went wrong. He took care of Arvia, who was just five years old, as if she were his own.

That was the truth Arvia held on to all these years.

That someone could choose her.

But now that man—the one she trusted more than anyone—was the same man standing there with scissors, blood on his fingers, shouting that she never belonged to him.

It didn’t make sense.

Her chest hurt so much, she could barely breathe.

"Haah..." Just a breath escaped her dying lungs, which felt suffocated even to breathe, but her subconscious mind forced her to keep breathing in an effort to preserve her body from death.

Her tears kept falling. She wasn’t sobbing, just... leaking. Her face was already soaked. Her hands were cold.

She looked down at Satteus. His blood was all over her arms, his hand trembling, pierced, but still warm.

He didn’t speak. He just looked at her, that slight softness still in his eyes despite everything.

And in that moment, she realized—

The only one who was still holding her...

"I-I...." She tried to speak, to ask Satteus if whatever was happening to her was not a bad dream, but she couldn’t complete her words as she saw Satteus’s body plunge out of the bed as her father’s shoulder collided with him full force, throwing him in mid-air. "N-no... Satteus...!"

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