The Side Character Turned Villainess - Chapter 297

After graduating the Academy, Artie opened up his own boutique. Thanks to his magnificent style and ability, his boutique soon became the number one in the entire Imperial Kingdom. One had to schedule appointments months in advance just to meet with him to get a dress or a suit. Even though he was a busy man, he still found the time for his hobby.

Aka: Stalking.

Artie began following Lucius after he started acting strange. Lucius would jump and then promptly run away from him without an explanation. Then, Artie heard that Lucius was trying to convince his father to let him marry someone his father didn’t approve of. This only made Artie angrier.

Artie followed him to the Black Death’s gambling den with a frown. What was he doing here? Artie watched as Lucius left after a few hours while he grumbled. Artie followed after him and soon learned that Seri was the apprentice and that she was going to “help” him.

He stopped stalking Lucius and decided to stalk Seri instead. He followed her one night and soon realized that he was brought to a hidden alley. Seri jumped out from the shadows, “Oi.”

Artie screamed, “AH! Seri! Don’t just jump out!”

“Why are you stalking me this time?”

Artie cleared his throat and gave her an innocent smile, “I was merely just out on a walk.”

“At night?”

“Yes.”

Seri smirked, “So this has nothing to do with why Lucius asked me to help him get married?”

Artie’s smile immediately disappeared and was left with a malicious frown.

Bullseye.

Artie spoke in irritation, “Who is the woman he is talking about?”

Seri chuckled and rubbed his head, “Don’t get too riled up.”

She handed him a paper. He took it and read it with a frown, “What’s this?”

“Go there on the day and time I wrote. I have a surprise for you and Lucius. Don’t be late. You won’t want to miss this.”

Seri quickly disappeared without another word. Artie reluctantly decided to follow her instructions. He appeared at the place in question and was surprised to see that William, Dante, Millie, Lucius, Mary, and Mathias were all there waiting. Artie raised an eyebrow, “What’s going on?”

William shrugged, “Seri said she had a surprise and we were all supposed to come.”

Mary giggled and clapped her hands in excitement, “I wonder what she could be planning.”

William scratched his cheek, “Well she never plans anything good…”

Mary shrugged, “Well at least she chose such a delicious restaurant for us to wait at. Let’s order some dessert!”

They all agreed and quickly ordered. Mary held out a piece of cake to William who took a bite of it blushing. Everyone watched in disgust as the newly wedded couple fawned over each other without any care as to who was watching. Lucius huffed in irritation, “Can you two stop acting so lovey-dovey?”

William smirked at him, “What? Are you jealous you can’t get an amazing woman like Mary?”

Feeling targeted, Lucius spat out, “I-I could get an amazing woman like Mary if I wanted to!!!”

Artie glared at him in irritation, “Oh really?”

He hung his head, “Ugh…”

William chuckled, “Lucius. I do have to admit I am surprised that you aren’t checking out any women today. Even when they try to flirt with you, you have been ignoring them. Do you not like women anymore?”

Lucius shouted furiously from sudden embarrassment, “No! I am still into women!”

William smirked, “Really? Then why aren’t you flirting like usual?”

“That’s because…” Lucius glanced over at Artie who raised an eyebrow while frowning. Lucius cleared his throat and looked away, “I’m just not interested…”

The door suddenly opened and everyone turned to look. They watched as Seri walked in followed by someone behind her.  Everyone’s face dropped in disbelief.

There was a beautiful woman with a scowl standing behind her. In her arms were a baby boy with shaggy red hair. His eyes were green as they looked at the rest of the people in the room. The woman clicked her tongue, “There’s that insufferable womanizer. Here.”

She stomped over to Lucius and forced the baby into his hands. Lucius held the baby out with a confused expression, “W-Wha…”

Seri chuckled, “Surprise~”

Millie glanced at her, “Just what is happening?”

Seri explained, “Lucius said his father wanted him to have a son to carry on his family name. It got me thinking… How could a man sleep with so many women and not have any children? Especially in a world without birth control, surely you would have at least one illegitimate son. It took me a while, but I finally found one.”

Artie turned to stare at Lucius with a twitching face that seemed like he was going snap at any moment. “Many women?!”

Lucius turned pale, “I-I-I don’t understand…”

The woman crossed her arms, “It’s your baby, idiot.”

“HUH!?” Everyone shouted out in disbelief.

Millie shrugged, “I suppose there was bound to be at least one child.”

William looked at the woman, “But you’re just going to hand off your child?”

She let out a humph, “I never wanted this child to begin with. I will gladly hand him over.”

Dante spoke, “But how can we trust that you won’t demand the child back later or cause problems?”

She pointed at Seri, “Because I signed a contract with her and was given piles of gold.”

Seri’s face twitched as everyone turned to look at her, “It wasn’t that much gold…”

The woman tossed her hair, “Whatever. I’m leaving to go live on an island in luxury. Have fun with the brat.”

She quickly left the room after finishing the handoff leaving behind an eerily quiet room. Dante turned to Seri with a strange smile, “How much money?”

“Eek!” Seri stepped away quickly, “It was for a good cause!”

Lucius still looked at the child trying to process the information that he actually had a child, “B-But how can we be sure it’s mine?!”

The child that looked exactly like him tilted his head.

Everyone: “…”

Artie spoke through a clenched jaw, “Just how many more children do you have? Hmm? How many more women have you knocked up and forgot about?!”

Lucius looked at him in a panic, “I-It was all in the past! I promise I haven’t slept with any women lately! AAAH! ARTIE!”

Artie ignored him and looked at Seri, “Why did you even try so hard to find him a son?”

“Ah!” Her eyes widened, “That’s right. You actually don’t know. Lucius wanted to marry you, but his father was demanding that he had a son to carry on the family name. I said I would help him, so I found him a son. Now his father shouldn’t be able to disagree with you two living together and-”

Lucius jumped up, “SERI! STOP TALKING!”

The sudden movement startled the baby who began to cry violently. Artie blinked in disbelief from the news. He turned to the child who looked at him while wailing. The child held his hands towards Artie, “MAMA!”

Artie broke instantly.

He snatched the child from Lucius and cradled him while sobbing, “MY SON!!!”

Everyone watched the two crying while holding each other with mouths agape. Lucius looked at his son and his lover getting along as if they were actually mother and child. Lucius leaned forward, “So then you will-”

Artie nodded after calming down, “Yes. Yes. I will move in with you.”

“But what about your father?!”

Artie watched the child who was now giggling at him, “My father is a wimp. If I threaten to cut off his head he will listen.”

“…”

After they went back to eating to celebrate the news, Mary finally spoke up, “I am a bit surprised you want to get married, Lucius. You were always so insistent on being with multiple women.”

Lucius glanced at Artie who was too busy with the child to pay him any attention. Lucius scratched his cheek, “I had fun with those women, but I never could remember their names afterwards. I didn’t actually care for them. There was really only one woman I met that I have never been able to forget. However, I still don’t know who she was. After I met her, I found regular women to be too boring.”

Artie glared at Lucius from a sudden rise in anger after hearing this. William found this hilarious and he nudged Lucius, “Oh?”

Lucius, who didn’t notice Artie’s angry state, began to explain, “It happened at the birthday party after Seri and I got drunk together. I was so drunk that I can only remember that the woman in question helped me to a room. I fell in love with that tender embrace and couldn’t stop myself from kissing her. Although I barely remember that night, I can recall that it was the best time I ever had with a woman. It is just a shame I didn’t get her name.”

Usually, Artie would have grown furious with Lucius for fantasizing about another woman and talking about it so openly. However, everyone was surprised to see that not only was he taking it well, he was also pretending to watch the birds outside. Everyone thought it was strange, but no one was brave enough to ask about it.

William chuckled, “That wasn’t a woman.”

Lucius blinked, “Huh?”

William turned to Artie who was pretending not to listen, “It was Artie.”

Lucius was stunned, “IT WAS?!”

Artie felt everyone turn to look at him, so he casually looked away with a chuckle, “It was? I must have forgot.”

William nodded, “I suppose that makes sense. You were drunk as well.”

Millie giggled lightly, “Artie was drunk as well? But I remember him dumping out the alcohol into the plants so he didn’t have to drink it.”

Everyone turned to look suspiciously at Artie who blushed heavily, “I… What…”

Seri chuckled, “You were caught~”

Lucius looked at Artie with his mouth agape, “You weren’t drunk?!”

Artie turned red and immediately started shouting at him, “What do you want?! Huh?! A f*cking medal?! YES! I wasn’t drunk! I WAS SOBER AND AWARE THE ENTIRE TIME!”

“T-Then why did you…” Lucius recalled just how good this other person made him feel. He forced himself to speak, “Do… It…”

Artie puffed out his cheeks and looked away, “I couldn’t help it.”

“You couldn’t help it?!”

Artie turned to Lucius with a snicker, “Didn’t you just say that I was the best time you ever had?”

Lucius turned red realizing that it was true. Mary leaned to William, “What are they talking about?”

William nearly choked. Of course, Mary was such an airhead that she couldn’t catch on to what they were referring to. William could only sigh and pat her head in exasperation.

Seri clapped her hands together, “Oh yes! I almost forgot. I got you a gift to celebrate your new union, Lucius.”

She handed him a small present from her bag. Lucius opened it and looked at the jar filled with a strange liquid, “This… What is this?!”

“You probably don’t know since I couldn’t find it in any stores. I had to work with scientists to invent this. This place doesn’t understand that gel is sometimes needed to make things go smoother in bed.”

Lucius still didn’t understand, “Smoother?!”

Seri whispered in his ear, “You put it in your [censored] so that way Artie can [censored].”

Lucius screamed out in embarrassment, “Why didn’t you give this to Artie?!”

She gave Lucius a sympathetic pat, “It’s more for you than him.”