Voyage Of The Villainess

Oliver opened his eyes and all he could see was entirely black. "What\'s this place? Is this part of the process of the awakening of the demon king?"

Suddenly, he could hear the mutterings of kids. The entire dark space morphed into someplace. He found himself in a new strange place, that was different from what he had seen in his entire life so far.

"Wonder pets, wonder pets..." 

He glanced up to see a strange square item placed at the top of some wall. It had some sort of singing animals on it. "Beastman? How can they appear in that small box and do all of that? It\'s different from the orbs. Is that some new technology of magic? Or perhaps the process of being a demon king acquires this for some sort of enlightenment?" Oliver said with full confusion in his voice. 

Oliver continued to observe the surroundings. Now that he noticed it, there were kids of different ages, sitting in a group at each long table. All of the kids have the same attire of grey polo shirt and pants.  \' Where am I? Is this school? Or any type of  orphanage?\'

He tried to touch one of the kids but his hand just passed through them. He glanced at his hands then back at the kids, \' what the hell happens to me right now? are they just illusions?\'

"Uwahhh!!! I want my mom!!! Give my mom to me again! I don\'t want to be here!!"

Together at the dining table, every one of the kids was looking at the lone girl that arrived at the orphanage. The said girl had messy black hair and was quietly eating her food. She was also given the feeling of being distant and lonely.

"She\'s the new kid."

Oliver turned around when he heard someone talking behind him. There was a girl, shorter than him by estimation of two feet, her age should be around ten or eleven. She had short dark hair and her dark eyes were looking straight at him. 

\'Is she talking to me? This girl saw me?\' Oliver opened his mouth to speak but surprisingly the said girl walked past her.

When he followed to where she was going, she took a seat at another table where there were three other kids similar to her age, one boy and one girl.

"Riza! Where have you been, lunch is almost over." The boy said.

"I got their names." Riza grinned.

The boy and the other girl who had a single ponytail tied in her back glanced at each other. Their eyes widened as they glanced back at Riza.

"Come on Riza, Don\'t tell me you sneak in again in the office!!!"

Both of them received a smack in their heads from Riza. "Shh! Quiet down, you two. Tss you bring me into trouble when you speak too loud"

The two kids covered their mouths realizing that they had been too loud. 

" Oops sorry, we just can\'t believe you did that again Riza." the girl whispers to her that only the three of them can hear. 

"How many times do we need to tell you that you mustn\'t sneak into the office to get the records of the new kids? Carolle, l say something to her."

\'Carolle?\' Oliver glanced at the fourth kid who remained quiet all the time.

She had long black hair and was wearing glasses. But strange enough when Oliver saw her dark eyes, Oliver found them quite familiar. That calm and nonchalant gaze...

"Ingrid, King," Carolle spoke up. "You know that Riza is Riza. No matter how many times you will tell her to stop, she will only continue to do things her way. No one can stop her if she wants to, even though you hold a lot of power."

"But Carolle, we are just worried." They both looked down, dejected hearing her words.

"You heard them, Riza." 

Riza sighed when Carolle looked at her. 

"You don\'t need to worry. I\'m always careful in everything I do.."

Carolle also sighed. "So what is her name?"

"She\'s Erin around seven years old. In the record, it says her aunt gave her custody to the orphanage since she couldn\'t take care of her properly."

\'So this is really an orphanage.\' Oliver continued to observe the four kids.

"Give her custody huh, more as she sold her for money," Ingrid said as she clenched her two fists on the table.

King also glanced down with a dejected and pained expression on his face. 

"Sold by her aunt?" Oliver kneaded his brows as he found the situation more interesting.

"Her shipment?" Carolle continued to ask despite the heavy atmosphere that loomed over her friends.

"A week from now on," Riza answered as she averted her gaze.

"That\'s pretty unfortunate."

[\'To think that there is someone who already bought her as soon as she arrived here. Her aunt surely received quite a lot of amount through her...\']

Oliver glanced towards Carolle, although her mouth was closed, strangely he could hear her thoughts.

Then the scene morphed into something again. And Oliver saw a series of next events.

The four kids decide to befriend the girl whose name was Erin. 

"Hello, my name is Riza." Riza breaks the silence and introduces herself first," and these are my friends, Carolle, King, and Ingrid." The three of them waved their hands and smiled with enthusiasm.

"Hello! Nice to meet you. I\'m Carolle." Carolle said. However, Erin didn\'t respond, making the whole atmosphere awkward. 

"Don\'t worry we will not hurt you, we are here because we want to be friends with you," Riza said with a soft and convincing voice. Erin looked at her directly in her eyes.

"I-I\'m Erin," she said in a shy voice. She glanced down at her shoes trying to avoid eye contact again.

Riza gave a piece of her bread to her. "Hey! Since we\'re now friends, take it!" her voice was full of energy and enthusiasm. Erin looked at the bread and reached for it slowly. " Tha-thanks Riza," Erin said.

Riza gave Carolle, Ingrid, and King the \'Say something\' look.

"Yay! We are now friends, the more the merrier." Ingrid said happily as she clapped her hands/

"Yes, yes, yes. Do you want to join us now?"

"He-Here. I want to share it too." Erin grabbed her bag and she took her biscuit too. "Yes, sure I want to join you."

The next coming days passed around with them playing around together until Erin became quite comfortable with them as well.

The scene morphed once again. Now. Oliver could hear the loud sounds of the rain. The whole place he was in, seemed to be a library due to the shelves of books.

He suddenly heard soft sobs of someone crying and walked towards it.

"She really loves reading books despite being so young." 

Oliver saw Riza together with the three kids. She was consoling Ingrid. Unlike in the series, he saw earlier, Erin was no longer with them this time.

"She\'s a smart kid. I\'m sure that she will survive wherever they bring her." Carolle said though there is also a visible pain in her face.

Ingrid continued to sob more. "Why, why do they need to be sold out to those scary-looking people?"

\'So that Erin was already shipped out.\'

The scene morphed out once again and now Oliver found herself in another dimly lit bedroom. There was Carolled and Riza in the room. Oliver noticed as well that their height also increased.

"Ingrid and King are already gone as well." Riza kept punching the wall while Carolle was on her side, tears streaming down her eyes.

"I didn\'t know those adults are spying on them and they eventually found out that Ingrid and King knew that the orphanage was selling kids for human trafficking. And they even refused to tell them that we also know. If I only become more vigilant."

Carolle hugged Riza. "It\'s alright. None of that is our fault. We are just powerless against them."

"And that\'s why I\'m so frustrated, for being so powerless!" Riza cried even more.

[Ingrid, King, and Riza. Damn, damn this all. I swear... I swear they are all going to pay with their crimes.]

The scenes morphed once again and now it showed Carolle confessing that she knew about the real actions of the orphanage. And she made a deal with those adults that she would help them to spot kids who secretly know the reality of the orphanage, in exchange they would let her and Riza stay unharmed. When she gained the trust of the adults, they started to let her use this small strange rectangular object, where Carolle was frequently tapping. 

\'So even in this lifetime, she is already this cunning.\' Oliver\'s eyes widened when he realized something. \'Don\'t tell me, what I\'m seeing in her past? No given this place and the difference in technology of the place, it was a far cry of being just a past. It was like another world. I see… so this is what it is, Lady Malaya\'s last lifetime. But why am I seeing this?\'

Oliver felt something throbbed in his hand and that\'s when he noticed the ring that sealed his powers. The red ring with the head of the red dragon. It was now shining brilliantly. \'This ring...\'

Then the next thing that occurred, Oliver was quite surprised when someone passed him in a hurry.. He heard multiple loud noises like those pistol and rifle shots.