Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 1333  Need for Pain

Quinlan didn't answer right away.

The sounds of the battlefield drifted up around them. Distant shouting. The clatter of metal. The steady hum of mana strained to its limits below.

Then he extended his hand.

Ria paused.

Her gaze dropped to it, then lifted to his face, then fell back again. When she took it, her grip was a little too fast.

His hand was warm. Solid. Steady. Her shoulders locked as she observed.

'This is fine. Completely fine. Very normal. Why is his hand like that? Why is everything about this man built like it's unfair on purpose?!'

Those thoughts were something the girl would take with herself to the grave, she decreed inwardly. Many of the more observant girls were grinning at her slyly.

"I'm glad to have you," Quinlan said.

Hearing his words of acceptance, heat climbed up Ria's neck and settled in her face. She looked away at once with her lips pressed tight, ears burning as Felicity squinted at her with open suspicion.

"Is everything okay~?" Feng purred.

"…Good," Ria muttered. "Good. Yeah. I'm… good."

Her grip lingered a moment longer than necessary before she finally let go.

Quinlan turned next with his attention settling on Felicity.

The masked princess stood a step apart from the others, posture straight, hands folded at her front. The wind tugged at the edges of her cloak. From this height, with the dwarves far below and their sightlines broken by distance and glare, discretion was easier.

Quinlan reached out and lifted her visor just enough to see her face.

Felicity stiffened. Her breath hitched, eyes widening before she caught herself. A faint flush crept up her cheeks, betrayed by how quickly she looked away.

"What about you?" Quinlan asked. He gestured downward with his hand. "That city. Those people. That land. It all belongs to your family. We are helping a hostile force tear it apart. We are your father's enemy."

He studied her face. "Are you okay with that?"

The playful lightness she had worn until now vanished. Felicity's shoulders lowered. Her hands tightened, then relaxed, then tightened again.

"What would you do if you were in my place, Quinlan?" she asked quietly, timidly even.

Quinlan let out a short breath. It sounded almost like a laugh, but there was no humor in it. "I would not pretend to know. I've never been confronted with such a decision, not even remotely."

He met her gaze. "So I will not answer for you. I will only tell you this. Felicity, perhaps the greatest luxury in this life is being able to live without regrets. I want you to have that."

Several heads turned.

"If you are unsure," he continued, "I will take you back to your father right now. I will lift your Subjugation. You can tell him everything you saw here. The undead inside the walls. The suppression. The siege engines. You can help him prepare whatever response he still can."

"If that is what you need to feel no guilt and regret, then I'll help you."

The air shifted.

Aurora's wand hand stilled. Orianna's eyes narrowed.

Letting her go meant giving up leverage. Everyone present understood that. Felicity might've been here voluntarily, but that did not change the fact that she was one of the greatest cards Quinlan had in his game against the king. Giving up such an important piece was a drastic move.

Felicity drew in a sharp breath.

"Thank you," she said. Then she paused. "But."

She lifted her head. When she looked at Quinlan again, the hesitation was gone.

"My heart is telling me humanity needs a painful lesson. We have grown too comfortable. Too certain that we stand above everyone else simply because no one has been able to give us a painful lesson in recent history."

Her gaze moved, lingering on Seraphiel, then on Blossom. Her voice wavered, but she did not stop.

"I hate some of my nation's policies. I want slavery abolished. I want nobles to stop treating blood as a sacred law. I want common people to smile without carrying debt and fear from the moment they open their eyes in this beautiful world."

She swallowed.

"And changes like that do not happen quietly."

Her hands clenched at her sides. "They need force. Something that cannot be ignored."

Her eyes returned to Quinlan. "Like the Primordial Villain standing together with age-old undead, crafty dwarves, and lethal elves…" Then she sent a look toward the Black Fang gang, and added, "Helped by perhaps the biggest human syndicate in the nation's history. That is the sort of force humanity needs to face for change to occur."

She bowed deeply with her cloak and hair falling forward. "Please help my country change for the better, Lord Quinlan!"

For a moment, no one spoke.

Even the siege below seemed to fade into the background, reduced to distant motion and muted sound. Heads slowly turned toward Felicity. A human princess was bowing in the open sky.

Not to a king.

Not to a god.

But to a wanted criminal, a man branded as a threat to the kingdom. And she was not begging for mercy or protection. She was asking him to become the hammer that would strike her own people hard enough to break old rot.

The weight of it settled across the group.

This was not defiance spoken in private chambers. It was not youthful rebellion whispered behind silk curtains. This was a declaration made while her homeland burned below, while her father's lands were being torn open by siege engines and undead claws.

Felicity was asking for pain. Deliberate, undeniable pain. The kind that rewrote history and changed the course of humanity.

Quinlan looked at her for a long second.

Then he reached out toward the bowing girl and settled the helmet back into place before adjusting it properly, looking like a commander correcting a soldier before battle.

"We've got a war to fight," he said simply, grinning proudly at the girl.

Just then, a sharp sound rippled through the air beneath them.

The glow along the barrier stuttered. It was time.