Ascension Of The Villain-Chapter 324: Cheap and Basic

Vyan's spine thudded lightly against the wall, his brows shooting up in confusion.

"What are you doing?" he asked half-frowning, half-baffled.

It wasn't that he felt threatened. Hardly. The girl barely reached his shoulder, and those thin arms didn't suggest much physical strength. But Vyan had never been the type to dismiss someone based on size or build. He knew better than that.

Iyana, after all, was only 5'5" with a deceptively delicate frame. But when she moved, there was no mistaking the power beneath; you could see lean muscle ripple under her skin, and she had abs that could probably cut glass. Beneath her uniform, she had the kind of muscle definition that came from years of discipline and combat.

This girl didn't have that defined structure. She lacked the fluid tension, the quiet control that came with trained strength. And Vyan trusted his instincts—he had a sharp eye for reading people. He wasn't just relying on looks—he read posture, energy, the flicker of instinct in a person's eyes. His assessments weren't mere guesses.

So no, he wasn't underestimating her based on her gender or neight.

Then he felt it.

Her fingers brushed the side of his face, reaching up and touching his earring.

His body reacted instantly, instincts of danger slamming into gear. He pushed her off sharply and stepped back. His hand shot to guard his ear, eyes narrowed.

"What are you trying to do?"

Anna was clearly taken aback by the force of his reaction. "What the heck? Why do you still seem so... alert?"

Vyan scowled. "Why the fuck wouldn't I be?"

She grit her teeth, the mask slipping from her face now. "Did you not drink that damn coke I gave you?"

Oh?

So she had spiked his drink, after all. He was right to have been cautious. But to think, she didn't spike his drink at the bar, but right back at the pizza vendor?

"I did," Vyan lied smoothly, tilting his head with mock confusion. "Why?"

"Then why are you resisting me? You should be passed out by now, or at least, too dazed to think straight." Her tone dropped, teeth clenched. "Anyway! Just... give me your earring. And your necklace." freeweɓnovel.cѳm

Vyan raised an eyebrow. "Why would I do that?"

"I know expensive things when I see them," she snapped. "Your earrings, your cufflinks, even your damn shirt buttons—they're all real diamonds, aren't they?"

There was a moment of silence before he let out, "…Diamonds?"

"Yes, diamonds! Give them to me!"

He tilted his head slightly, expression genuine this time. "They aren't even that expensive, though?"

Anna stared at him like he'd just declared grass was made of gold. "Are you pretending to be dumb right now?"

"No," he said slowly, "I'm just saying I wouldn't wear diamonds even if you paid me. They're practically cheap, uninteresting, and everywhere."

"In what world are diamonds cheap, dude?! Are you, like, the son of a billionaire or something?"

Vyan thought about that. Technically, he wasn't a billionaire. The Haynes Empire didn't run on whatever currency they did on—dollars, was it? Haynes ran on its metal coins and vaults filled with stones and ores far rarer than diamonds, and House Ashstone was the richest of all. So, sure, Vyan might be the equivalent of a son of a billionaire.

Therefore, he wouldn't be caught dead wearing diamonds, that too, transparent ones. That's so basic. And they could be so easily synthesized from magic.

All of the jewels used on his clothes were made from Asherah's Tears. It has a lot of backstory on the water goddess's tears or something, which he honestly couldn't care less about, but the important fact was, it was the rarest and one of the most expensive possessions in his world.

He almost pitied Anna's confusion.

She must be a commoner. Makes sense.

"Look," he said with a sigh, "if you really want a diamond," they weren't actually, but whatever floated her boat, "I'll just give you one of my buttons."

"Wait, seriously?"

"Yes, I can't give the earring to you. It used to belong to my father." With an annoyed tug, he ripped one of the buttons from his shirt and dropped it into her open palm.

"Thanks so much," she said, clutching the button. "Rich people are generous."

Vyan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, now that I've apparently gifted you a treasure, can you point me to a library?"

Anna looked at him like that was the weird part. "A library? Why?"

He paused, debating whether the truth—I need to understand your entire civilization and power dynamics before nightfall—would go over well.

So he settled for, "It's because my head's not clear. From that drink you gave me."

"Ah, my bad." She winced a little. "That should have made you faint by now. Anyway, you really wanna go to a library now?"

"Well," Vyan said with a shrug, "it's not like I have a place to sleep, so why not?"

"Wait. Why don't you have a place?"

"I used to share a house," he lied smoothly, "with my girlfriend. And... we broke up. So now, I don't have anywhere to stay." That was actually a piece of gossip he had picked up on while sitting at the counter.

Anna looked sympathetic. "Man, that's rough."

He gave her a flat look. "Mmm."

She glanced back toward the door, then nodded. "I can ask the bartender here to lend you one of the upstairs rooms. He sometimes lets me crash here when I'm... between places."

"And why would you do that?" Vyan asked, arching a brow as they walked down a dim hallway, the flickering neon signs outside the doors casting lazy streaks of pink and blue across the scuffed walls.

Anna shrugged, cradling the jewel-button like a newborn fortune. "Well, you just gave me something that'll keep me afloat for at least a whole month, so… yeah. I can help you. Seems fair, doesn't it?"

Vyan narrowed his eyes slightly, lips twitching. "You're a great scammer, you know that? I totally thought you were just a nice girl."

She grinned without shame. "Haha. I know."

There was something oddly admirable about her honesty. Just blatant opportunism with a charming personality.

She led him up a narrow staircase, her heels clicking lightly on the carpeted floor. At the end of a short hallway, she opened a door, which looked milder than the other paid guestrooms, and nodded for him to enter. The room inside was surprisingly clean—minimal, with a small bed, a desk, and warm yellow light spilling from a lamp. It reminded him of his knight's quarter back at House Estelle. It felt unexpectedly cozy.

Vyan stepped in, scanning the space. He barely had time to turn around before click—the door shut behind him with a soft thud.

He glanced back, eyebrows raised. "Why did you close the door?"

Anna leaned against it, tilting her head, lips curling in an amused little smile.

"Well…" she said playfully, "I thought we could, y'know… since you're currently single."

He stared at her.

She bit her bottom lip. "I did say you're pretty hot."

Vyan was baffled, processing her boldness. Then he sighed, utterly unimpressed, his voice deadpan. "Seriously? That's your follow-up after drugging me and trying to rob me?"

Anna laughed, light and unapologetic. "What? That's not related. They are two different things. You're clearly fine. And setting aside poverty," she stepped closer, just enough to test the tension but not quite cross the line, "I'm quite a catch, wouldn't you say? We could have the perfect night together—"

"Haha, you know what? I just had a great epiphany," he let out a strained laugh. "I am still very much in love with my ex. So I'm going to take a rain check on your offer and go suck up to her for taking me back."

Before Anna could even blink, he brushed past her and strode down the hall like a man escaping a war zone.

"Wait, what?" she called after him, confused and maybe a little offended. "You're really leaving me for your toxic ex who kicked you out of your apartment with not a piece of cloth on your back?"

"Yup," he called back over his shoulder.

"Man, you're gonna regret that! Mark my words!" she yelled from the hallway.

Vyan didn't stop. He took the stairs two at a time, practically leaping the last few. His coat flared behind him, and the jewel-studded buttons that had somehow started this whole nonsense glinted under the club's sporadic lighting.

The moment Vyan burst out of the club's doors, he didn't walk—he sprinted. Like his dignity was on fire and the extinguisher was on the other side of the city.

"Never again," he muttered under his breath, coat flapping wildly behind him as he tore through the sidewalk. "Why are women here built like predators? I need to stay at a church. Or a shrine. Or find myself a sword." He needed to escape to an isolate place, away from these people. He was sure if he kept roaming around, he was bound to bump into a library.

Therefore, he was too caught up in his internal crisis to notice the blaring horns, the flashing red light at the pedestrian crossing, or the very modern invention that was traffic regulation.

And so, in his full sprint of "let me preserve what's left of my self-respect and leave this word as soon as possible," he ran straight into the road.

Beeeeeeep!

A flash of white headlights, screeching tires, and—

Thump.