Life Of A Nobody - as a Villain

[Was that necessary?] System asked while Rio and Rebecca walked through the crowd to a silent place somewhere.

'Stealing this chance? No, but I did say I want to hit 500k by tonight.'

[I'm talking about poisoning the chef once you were done.]

'Come on, a guy who's teaching others his legacy, just cause they gave a useless life advice that just happened to ignite an idea in his head - is better off dead.' Rio said in his mind. 'Who knows, maybe leon would tell him to put some salt in some soup some day and that guy would laugh and teach him everything too. Idiots like him are better to be silenced ASAP.'

[Hmm] system who had no counter argument could just nod its head and be silent again.

According to novel, the day of the party leon would lose his way and walk into the kitchen somehow, and would meet a fat chef, who's secretly Apollo's fanboy.

Leon would help this fatty, who was stuck thinking what should he make for his competition by saying his mother is sick and he missed the taste of her cooking, and the feeling of home in academy's food. - this stupid advice would cause the fatty to have a light bulb moment and he'd get his motivation clear for the competition.

In return for helping him, and thinking it was fate, he taught leon a cooking skill passed down into his family and left.

And with this skill mastered to high and beyond level, Leon was able to cook up delicious food in the novel which boasted that the aroma of food could refresh people and spread for miles, and those eating it would fall in love with his cooking.

There was even a side chapter which said his food can cause other people to be free from their clothes and even have an orgasm just by tasting a bite.

What does the taste of sugar or chilli on tougue has to do with the fun things down there, author didn't explain…

Rio just went there and interrupted this meeting first by saying those same words, and giving the fatty his light bulb moment.

Knowing this fatty was Apollo's fanboy who'll follow leon to death if it meant getting to see or hear apollo once, Rio also poisoned the guy and also made sure he loses this competition before his death.

[Poor fatty, he didn't even see leon once, but is already dying due to him.] System said with sympathy in its voice, totally forgetting it was the one who happily suggested him various poisons when Rio had this idea.

___—-

"Was that necessary?" Rebecca said, once they were away from all the crowd and she couldn't even see anyone around.

'Just how far did he drag me out?' She wondered, totally forgetting he let go of her hand ages ago, and she was the one who followed him willingly.

"What?" Rio asked genuinely, getting out of his system's conversation.

"I'm me. And you're _ who again?" Rebecca tried to say it in his style and tone, but made a puking expression "Urgh cringy much."

"Come on, that was cold." Rio said seriously, "Did you see his face? The look in his eyes, hilarious." Rio said and smiled as if reminiscing about Leon's angry face.

Rebecca just shrugged her shoulders, not really curious enough to ask why he wanted to pull his leg like that, and waste their precious time together. So she just changed the topic.

"Anyway where are we? I haven't been here before." she said, glancing around at the empty forest-like area, where lines of lush trees were all around her.

"It's my favorite place in the academy." Rio said seriously, as he snapped his fingers, and tables, chairs and all kinds of cutlery appeared beneath the shade of a big tree at the side.

"Is that…?" Rebecca asked as she looked at his arrangements and noticed the large green tree at the side, which had a big sword slash that nearly cleaved it in two from the middle. She looked around carefully this time and found that though all trees looked the same generally, upon close inspection as she traced her fingers over a nearby tree, she found some name and information carved onto their trunks.

"Are we in the legacy garden?" She asked, recognizing the place.

"Yupp, and that's the tree planted by our principal." Rio nodded his head and took her hand as he walked over to the sword marked tree.

Zenith has a tradition of sorts going back to when it was first created centuries ago, called Chrono Blossom Pledge. Basically what it is, is that whenever a new principal is appointed at the academy, he would plant a tree in this garden and swear an oath about what he wanted to achieve in his lifetime for the academy.

It was meant to symbolize that a person may die and be forgotten, but his past and what he planted remains. A fitting analogy for teachers who can basically plant anything into their students mind.

"Aunt sure was really mad that day, huh?" Rebecca said, as she traced her finger over the deep sword mark, spreading from the top of the 25-30 meter long tree's trunk to the roots below.

"Well, shouldn't she be?" Rio said with a genuine smile as he looked at the sword slash and felt the essence of a familiar mana within it.

This attack was a sign of chaos his mother had caused when she first learned he was dead in that dungeon. When she forced her way in the academy and started killing every examiner who was present in that tournament yet failed to do their job.

If not for the principal stepping up himself, she might as well have fought those staff to death that day.

When he first came back and learned everything about what she did from Esme and Erza, he didn't even know how to react.

There's a warm feeling in your heart after having someone care enough about you that they'd do anything for you without hesitation. Knowing that if someone tried to harm you, they'd get you justice or revenge, whatever you want.

That's what he felt at that moment. The love and care she had for him. And for that very reason he liked this place the most in the whole academy.

But that's all for another day.

"Come, let's have breakfast, or you'll spend your whole day roaming around like this." Rio said, pulling Rebecca towards the chairs, and forcing her to sit down, before pulling a chair and sitting next to her.

"Here, I bought this all for you." He said as he placed a few dishes in front of her.

"Bought this?" She asked doubtfully.

"I mean, I got this for you." He corrected himself, or did he.

Rebecca looked at the dishes in front of her with a sweet smile. She could see they were all her favorite, and just the way they looked and the aroma they had was enough to tell they were all perfect. "Thanks." She muttered under her breath.

'Though he lies more often than he breathes, at least he's still caring.' she thought as she lifted the plate and a perfect aroma of heavenly food filled the air and making her mouth water, just imagining how good would it taste.

"Did they really make it? Why does it taste…" She said after taking a bite and forgetting to finish her words in ecstasy.

"Different?" Rio paused and passed her a second dish. "If that's not to your liking, you can try this."

"No, it's okay. It's.. Did the chefs really made this?" She asked doubtfully, not believing as what felt like heavenly food, could be made by mortals, and that too from the chefs working at her academy. "It's too good." She finished.

Rio coughed hearing her doubt, and chose not to answer, instead of speaking another lie. Gladly, Becca was more busy on her eating then to focus on him at this moment. Rio, who saw her eating like that in a rush and happy expression just smiled and thought - looks like Amy's habits are brushing off on her.

'Would I need to spend my points on her too?' He couldn't help but think, feeling a little regretful getting Becca dishes arranged by the system. 'Well, I earn a lot from her, so I guess I'll spend some back.' He thought, while drinking a juice.

"What're you staring at?" Becca asked as she noticed her gaze.

"Just another foodie."

"No, I'm not." she replied instantly. "I'm just hungry." She said.

"Now you can't joke about how I gave you poison on your birthday." Rio seriously replied, remembering how many times she cursed him for that one thing, while passing her another dish. "I'm wondering how can you still look fine while eating like a fatso." He joked.

Rebecca who smiled sweetly hearing the first part ended up choking on her food as she heard him finish that sentence.

"Tshmm hahaha" Seeing her coughing madly while glaring daggers at him, he just burst out laughing.

"Y_you…"

"Okay, okay. Don't be angry, why don't you try this?" Rio said, trying to calm her anger, but Becca just raised her hand in refusal and stopped him.

"No, I'm full. It's enough." She said, looking a little reluctantly at the dishes still left on the table, but thinking if she ate any more, she'd just be sitting in this place and feel sleepy, ruining this alone time, so she gave up on her stomach's desires to follow her heart's wishes..

"Enough eating, you said you'd follow my commands after I helped you steal all this?" She said.

"But I did it for you. And don't call it stealing, that's a bad word." He replied. .

"Ohh is that so?" Becca spoke in a teasing tone and started walking. "Come, you'll have to accompany me all day today. So you better not mess with my mood now."

"Yes, your highness." Rio said doing the same messed up royal salute which only he could get wrong.

"I told you not to joke around." Becca said, dragging him forward.

#####

Author's info dump…

Legacy garden is a public place where anyone can come.

The trees planted before have the person's name, the year they were born and died in, and titles for the glorious deeds they did or dreams they achieved for the world.

[Only titles, so if anyone wants to learn more, they can visit the library and check the records pertaining to that person and his life.]

The tree planted for this ritual is a little special. Its name is Timeless Birch. Its specialty is that it never withers, it never dies, as long as its seeds keep on passing. Every tree gets stuck in their time and freezes in growth when the next generation of tree gets planted.

So Artemis trying to chop the current principal's tree down, also symbolized her resolve to cut the legacy of this academy and shut it down for good.