The Lustful Villain: Every Milfs and Gilfs are Mine!-Chapter 240. An Easy Target! (Just Because I Save Her From Apollo’s Explosion)

Chapter 240: 240. An Easy Target! (Just Because I Save Her From Apollo’s Explosion)

She became motionless, similar to how cats become still when something demands their full attention. She narrowed her eyes and stared intently at the thing that fascinated her, as if she could figure out what it wanted.

At that moment, everything else in the world faded away, leaving only the excitement of the unknown.

Rex shared the accurate version with her—not the damning version or one intended to provoke a specific reaction. He spoke in a calm way that was very different from the storm of feelings inside her. As she listened, the stress started to go away, and she became more and more interested in what was going to happen next.

The accurate account included what Bryan had been doing, what Marceline knew, the actual situation at the Silver Rest, and Linda’s unintentional involvement in it.

As the story went on, she became more and more interested, and her mind raced to sense the connections. Every new piece of information helped her understand the complicated web they were all caught in better, and she realized that the truth was more powerful than she had thought.

Linda listened intently without speaking, indicating that she was absorbing the information rather than preparing to respond.

She remained silent for a moment after he finished speaking.

"So, your choice?" Rex asked with his hand raised.

Linda clenched her fists while taking a deep breath. "I knew it... my cheetah instinct never betrays me at all... Bryan is indeed a piece of shit."

"I want to say I’m sorry to her," she said. "His wife."

Rex said, "I thought you might."

"She didn’t do anything wrong," Linda said, "and she’s been living with something I had some part in, even if I didn’t know I did."

Rex said, "That’s a fair way to look at it."

She stared at the river. Her stomach growled again, this time quieter, like a body politely asking for sustenance and beginning to lose its patience.

Growwlllll...

Linda felt embarrassed when she couldn’t control her stomach, and he chose to stay silent about it, hoping that Rex didn’t hear it.

"Poor you," Rex said sarcastically. "Maybe I have some spare change on me to help ease that hungry stomach."

Rex looked at the coins in his pocket. They were the ones he had gotten from people who had seen him in the northern district during the evacuation and had pressed them into his hand.

They were the ones he had gotten from walking through the residential neighborhoods that morning.

He put them on the wall of the embankment that was between them.

Linda saw them. Then she turned to face him.

"There’s a food stall two streets to the east." Rex said, "They’re open all morning and make good flatbread."

She looked at the coins, then at him with the look that someone gets when they get something that isn’t charitable in its manner but is generous in its effect. It was the kind of giving that didn’t require the receiver to show gratitude in a certain way.

"Why?" she asked, which was the honest answer. "I didn’t deserve free money like this..."

"But..." Then she looked suspicious of him. "Don’t tell me you’re no different than Bryan by giving me money just to do something lewd."

"Don’t be so fucking stupid... it’s all because you didn’t eat," Rex said, "and... I have more than I need this morning, and it seems like the right thing to do."

"O-Ohh..." Linda then realized that Rex might be different and intriguing. "You’re rather weird, but I respect it."

She picked up the coins with the careful speed of someone who had learned how to get help without making things hard.

"Thank you," she said. "I’ll pay you back someday, when I get a job."

Rex said, "You don’t have to."

"I will anyway," she said, and the ears moved to the front, which meant that something had been decided.

Rex stared at the river.

"The Silver Rest Inn," he said. "On the main street, two blocks from the eastern gate..."

"They’re looking for additional staff, and the owner is the woman whose husband you were just handling, and she knows about the situation and holds you blameless for it."

For a moment, Linda was very still.

Rex said, "That’s not a joke."

"I know," she said. "I can tell when people are joking."

She held the coins tightly in her hand and gazed at the embankment stone. Her thoughts raced in a manner akin to someone analyzing every possible angle, arriving at the same conclusion from each perspective.

"I want to apologize to her first," she said. "Before anything else."

Rex said, "That’s the right order."

[LINDA LYSANDRA — DESIRE LEVEL: 0 → 69/100]

"W-what...? A huge raise just like that...?" Rex thought. "Is it because of the money I gave her?"

[TARGET WAS EASY TO PLEASE]

’Ahh... got it...’

"Oh... I also want to thank you for what you did to Aethelgard." Linda said this with her tail starting to wave around. "You honestly saved my life back then, and to be honest... I already know who you really are."

She then laughed. "Hehehe~! I can’t believe I could meet a real hero like you who dares to sacrifice himself for everyone here!"

"Receiving this money from you confirms that you truly are a good and reliable human," she continued, her eyes sparkling with admiration. "Your kindness is something I’ll never forget.

Rex listened with the enthusiasm of someone whose theory had once again proven correct through its application. He hadn’t done anything significant.

’What a great fucking coincidence... I didn’t realize how many people I saved back then, but of course, if she’s one of them...’

’I can tell that she’s definitely an obvious target.’

He had given correct information, useful help, and the kind of attention that made someone feel like they were being considered a person instead of a group of people.

The number on the screen indicated that she had apparently seen him in the northern district during the evacuation and recognized him as the person who had moved toward the blast instead of away from it.

Rex remarked that reaching sixty-nine desire from a complete stop in under twenty minutes was quite an impressive accomplishment for the morning.

He pushed himself away from the wall.

"First, eat something," he said. "Then come to the Silver Rest. I’ll be there."

Linda stared at him.

"Thank you," she said, and it was the short version that meant what it said.

"You say ’thank you’ a lot, you know," Rex sighed. "I’m tired hearing it."

"Well, you deserve it, anyway."

Rex nodded once and walked back to the inn in the nice morning light, thinking about what he would do the rest of the day.

...

When Rex came back in to the inn, Marceline was at the bar in the position she used when she was managing a lot of things at once and had set herself up to do it well. She looked at Rex when he walked in, and the look on her face answered the question she was about to ask.

"She’s on her way," Rex said.

"You’re really bringing her here?"

"Yeah, she wanted to apologize."

"Apologize...? She doesn’t need to..." Marceline put down the glass she had been cleaning. " When?"

"About an hour," Rex said. "She wanted to eat first."

Marceline nodded, and for a moment she looked like someone who was getting ready for a conversation that wasn’t going to be fun but was going to be necessary and therefore going to be done well.

Marceline asked, "How is she?"

Rex thought about the embankment wall and the coins and the way the ears had gone to the forward position when she decided she would pay him back.

"She’s someone who’s been in a difficult situation she didn’t cause," Rex said, "and she’s been handling it with more class than the person who put her there."

For a moment, Marceline looked at the top of the bar. "I knew it... demi-humans are having a hard time finding a job here, and now I feel like she doesn’t need to apologize at all."

"Yes."

"I’m going to tell her she doesn’t have to."

"She’s going to do it anyway," Rex said. "She decided."

The corner of Marceline’s mouth moved in the specific way it moved when she encountered something that produced an unexpected version of warmth.

"Alright," she said. "Then I’ll let her."

She picked up the glass again and resumed polishing it. Rex made his way to his usual table and ordered the late breakfast that Mara had kept warm for him.

The morning continued to unfold at the Silver Rest.