Once Emilia got back to the 'White Deer' mansion, she found the parents and the elder sister of the villainess waiting at the dining table for her.
It was quite a bit past their usual dinner time, and they must have had the food reheated several times already.
Emilia had wanted to directly skip dinner and head upstairs to her room once she got back, but couldn't help it once she saw this scene.
'Ugh… I guess if they waited for me for so long then I might as well accompany them.'
She awkwardly took her seat at the table and started piling up food that would just vanish into the void.
'Good thing I can still taste it even if it vanishes in my belly. Mhm, let's see… I'll take this, and this… some roast pheasant, and… ohh, steamed lobster?! Nice! I haven't had it in a while! Thankfully I didn't skip dinner today… Ahh, if they feed me so well, I gotta treat them nicely in the future!'
Cynthia didn't understand people's longing for tasty food, but she was happy to see Emilia munch everything with a smile.
Her poor villainess looked quite distressed on the way home, as if something heavy was weighing on her mind. It's good if she can obtain happiness from little things. If it didn't get in the way of their mission, what's the harm?
It's not wrong to indulge her a little, then.
"Of course you can treat them nicely. Being a successful villainess is all about balance. Be as bad as you want to be to your enemies, and as good as you want to be to your allies! If it's your own family or friends, it's not against the code of villainy to be good to them!"
Emilia paused, with the lobster meat inches away from her lips dripping melted butter and lemon juice. 'There's a code of villainy?'
"Ugh… there can be… do you want me to write it for you?"
'No no… I think I'm fine. Uh, a villainess wouldn't be a very rule abiding character anyway, right? Even if it's the rules of villainy!'
"Ohhh… that makes sense! By the way, they look worried since you've been hanging that piece of meat in the air for almost a minute now."
'Fuck! Don't distract me at the wrong time then!'
Thankfully, neither Samantha nor her parents questioned her much. Danielle was really quite enviable to have them as family, and Emilia was just grateful to get to enjoy their care as long as she can.
Once her parents left, however, Samantha stopped her before she could leave.
Although she hadn't proactively explained to the family where she had been, once her elder sister did ask, it was a different matter.
Emilia didn't think there was anything to hide from her elder sister in this case, so she just came clean.
"Don't worry, Sam. I'm just learning some self-defence from Dixy's grandfather."
Samantha looked confused. "Dixy who?"
Emilia smiled, confirming her guess that her family didn't investigate their daughter much if at all. "The daughter of the Brown's. You know the ones that run a chain of confectionary stores?"
"Oh… oh yeah, I remember daddy once told me they used to be a family of renowned fighters back when he was a kid, but they changed professions and became rich after Mr. Brown and Mrs. Brown got together."
Seeing as how her little sister didn't look bored, Samantha enthusiastically began narrating the 'love story' of Mr. and Mrs. Brown. Apparently, it was quite a scandal at that time, and even in the next generation the story was still circulating.
"Can you believe it? Mrs. Brown actually drugged him with aphrodisiac in her chocolates, and pretended to get pregnant the next day! But Mr. Brown's father didn't agree even when they pled to him, and so she ran away and then pretended to have a miscarriage!"
The twists and turns in their story were making Emilia's head spin, and she was already quite tired from both school and then her day at the dojo.
"Okay… Okay, I think that's way more than I needed to know. Now I can't look at Dixy's mom the same ever again, thanks Sam."
"Uh… sorry?"
Seeing how her sister looked so pitiful, Emilia rolled her eyes. "I was joking! Thanks for telling me, it was kinda funny."
The older girl smiled, but it faded soon after as she seemed to think of something else.
"Wasn't it?! Hehe… Oh wait a minute, why do you want to learn self-defence? Did someone bully you?!"
"Nah, don't worry."
Emilia sighed as the older girl even followed her into the bathroom as she washed her hands. She seemed to have just remembered her own hands needed to be washed after dinner, and abashedly moved to the sink after her sister.
"Ahem… you didn't answer me! Did someone bully you?"
"No, Sam. Like I said, don't worry, I just went along with Dixy since it seemed like it would be good to learn anyway. Not like I'm busy with anything else, right?"
The older girl didn't look fully convinced.
Emilia couldn't blame her since 'she' did hide the hero's actions for a long time before 'coming clean'. So how can Samantha be confident that she wouldn't fall in love with someone else and do it all over again?
But fortunately, the older girl couldn't bear to refute her directly and could only accept her decision.
"Mhm… makes sense. Okay! But you have to tell me if someone bullies you! Or if a boy hits on you!"
Emilia smiled. "Why?"
The older girl rolled her eyes. "So I can talk some sense into them, obviously! Don't worry, it's not like I would crack their skull open with a crowbar. Trust me."
Emilia suddenly felt a little bad for whoever it was that ended up on this girl's wrong side.
"… I'll definitely tell you if it happens."
----------
Emilia felt a mixture of both relief and exhaustion by the time she bid farewell to her elder sister and collapsed back onto the bed in her room.
"It's good that she's there to look after the company, along with Danielle's parents. I can't imagine managing all that on top of this."
"Cheer up, Emilia! As your cultivation rises, so will your stamina!"
Emilia was too exhausted to even roll her eyes. "Cynthia… isn't there some way to make my body stronger? Like… right now? Do I really have to wait till I finish a mission and start cultivating?"
Her system's voice was a little awkward, but her words were blunt.
"Uh, even if you train as hard as you can, it won't change a thing. The only way to make your body stronger is to cultivate using void formula! And you will only have the energy to do that once we finish a mission!"
Emilia's tired eyes held a trace of confusion as she reminisced about her time in the dojo. Dixy's grandpa was weird, but unlike his disciple, he knew how to teach very well.
He seemed to grasp that she was a hands-on learner, and instead of lecturing her on stances and movement, or even telling her the name of the combat technique, he had her learn right from the fight itself.
Even though she had practiced the sword with her knights in the past life, and even had plenty of combat experience, she still felt like she was learning something new.
"But I felt like I was improving a little when I trained today, you know?"
Cynthia thought back on it some more and nodded. "Uhh, alright. Well, it's not like you can't improve your techniques without changing your body? Your memories and thoughts aren't discarded into the void, after all."
Emilia closed her eyes as she organized her thoughts. It felt like she was a bit closer to understanding the limits of this body now. If she knew what it could and could not do, then she could work on improving on things she can and avoid things that would just waste time.
"Hm… so I guess it's like I can learn how to punch someone in a better way, but can't improve the maximum strength behind my punch just by training repeatedly, right?"
A bunch of delighted claps resounded in her mind.
"You got it! Normal people's muscles tear down and build up from repeated practice, but a cultivator of the void formula is detached from the world."
"No matter what you eat or how you train, it won't have any physical effect on your body. Even the injuries you sustain will vanish without a scar after some time, even without using shapeshift."
"The only thing that can make you grow… is pure energy that can fuel the void formula. And one of the only sources of that energy is to chip away at the world will, which requires you to complete your missions!"
Emilia nodded. "Alright… I understand."
—Follower Summoning: Cynthia!
—Cynthia's projection can be sustained for: 7 hours 36 minutes 43 seconds.
Cynthia looked shell shocked as she plopped down on the bed. "I-I'm out?!"
She didn't even have the time to create a gauze clothing from energy, and could only dive into the blanket hurriedly to cover herself.
Just as she was starting to calm down, she felt Emilia's arms wrap around her waist and pull her closer through the blanket. Even with the fabric between their bodies, though, Cynthia felt practically naked.
It was better than Emilia was outside the blanket rather than inside though. That would be even worse!
And as if to further her embarrassment, Emilia's face inched closer to her own till their noses were practically touching each other.
It was only now that Cynthia realized that Emilia had also used her shapeshift skill to revert back to her original form. The beauty with long, flowing red hair, and arctic blue eyes seemed to give her a look that sent shivers up her spine.
"E-E-Emiliaaa… what are you doing?! Did you forget there's an eight hour cooldown on your shapeshift skill? What will you do if someone walks in right now?!"
Emilia didn't respond at all, and gently moved forward till her soft lips pressed gently against Cynthia's.
"Mm?!"
Even minutes after the redhead had let her go and moved away uncaringly, Cynthia could only stare blankly with her mouth opening and closing.
"Wa- Wa- Wha- What… What?!"
It looked like even Emilia couldn't ignore her flustered blabbering anymore, and turned to her with a roll of her eyes.
"You talked too much, so I felt like shutting you up."
"Eh?! That's all it was?!"
Emilia smiled as she looked at her partner's disbelieving expression. "Fufu… no, I guess I just wanted to give it away to someone who will stay with me forever."
Cynthia's still half fried mind couldn't comprehend her words as well.
"Give it away?"
The redhead nodded. "My first kiss."
Cynthia's emerald eyes were open wide. It looked like she was even more shocked than when she had been kissed.
"Is it really?! You weren't just fooling those girls earlier?"
Emilia's expression was neutral, with neither a smile nor a frown, but Cynthia could still sense that there was a self-deprecation hidden deep in her eyes. "Mhm. It doesn't matter, anyway."
The raven haired girl scratched her head as she sat up, no longer caring about her embarrassing state. "No wait, Emilia… weren't you together with that backstabber for like ten years? Don't tell me you guys did nothing for so long?"
Emilia felt like her old wounds had been dug up carelessly by others, but she had no one to blame but herself. Besides, she had impulsively imposed her will on Cynthia like this, so even if she dug up her old wounds one by one, it was just punishment she was willing to take.
Emilia's voice remained neutral, and this time Cynthia couldn't tell what she was feeling at all.
"That's right. I followed her around for ten years, showering her with adoration. Our first kiss would be at our wedding, and our first time together would be on our wedding night.. That was the promise she took from me when she accepted my proposal."