I Only Summon Villainesses

Chapter 237: I Think I’m About To Had One More Hatred To The List

Nisha looked at me, confusion pinching her brow before irritation took over.

”What do you mean, why? Do you want us to get caught?”

I frowned at her. ”Get caught? Get caught by what?”

She turned around and walked back to me. ”The Master, obviously.”

I closed my eyes for a moment before looking at my hand. I clenched it and slammed it against my temple. My own blow sent a sharp crack of pain through my skull and staggered me back two steps. For a second my vision swam, the trees tilting sideways before I stilled, slightly bent, and righted myself.

’Ah, I was right...’

It had been brief, but for a moment I genuinely felt like I’d been beside myself. Completely and utterly beside myself, and I hated it. The hit had jarred something loose, like shaking a jar to see what settled differently. Whatever had been creeping into my thoughts, that impact had rattled it enough for me to feel the edges of it.

But it was difficult to pin down exactly what it had been. I was aware of it at the very least, and I believed the only reason I’d caught it at all was because of my attribute.

’But still, I’m disappointed. The description said I could not be mentally dominated or charmed.’

Then again, when I thought about it, it wasn’t like I had been mentally dominated. Whatever it was, it had tried to dominate. That was different.

I fixed my gaze on Nisha.

’This one is gone...’

Nisha dispelled her summon, convinced it was the best thing to do, maybe to keep herself from being found by what she’d called the master.

The entire reason we had that summon out in the first place was to detect whatever was hiding in this forest, the thing exuding that insidious wave of fear and trying to dominate our minds. We wanted to draw it out.

And she’d just dismissed our bait because she was afraid of being caught by the very thing we came to catch.

I continued to stare at her as I thought about what to do.

She glared at me. ”What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”

I stepped closer and clenched my fist, but before it could land, Nisha vanished from in front of me. She flew back with an easy leap and landed about ten meters away.

Her hands were poised in front of her, held like she wanted to box, not that she knew anything about boxing. White lights were already orbiting her hands as she leaned her upper body forward, her eyes sharpening with a dangerous light.

”Are you insane? What were you about to do?”

”Help you!” I shouted. ”I want to help you!”

She frowned. ”You want to help me? You clearly had the intent to hit me right now.”

”Yes, to hit you, but did you notice any intention to kill you?”

”What’s that supposed to mean? So that’s supposed to make you trying to hit me okay?”

I was silent for a moment. ”Uhm, well... no, but what if I tell you that’s the only way for you to snap out of it?”

”Snap out of what? From where I stand, it’s you that has anything to snap out of.”

My gaze froze. For that moment, I almost questioned myself, almost wondered if I was the one acting wrong. But I narrowed my eyes and frowned again.

”Think about it. Why are you trying to not get found by whatever the master is when we literally came here to kill that thing?”

Her eyes widened and she trembled. ”K... k-kill? You want to kill that thing?!”

Her face went white. Her hands, still raised in that amateur boxing stance, were shaking so badly the white lights flickering around her fingers stuttered and dimmed. Her breathing had gone shallow and rapid, and she kept glancing past me into the trees like something was going to come crawling out of the dark at any second.

This was not the Nisha I’d met three months ago. The carefree girl who’d laugh in the middle of a fight was gone. Whatever was wearing her face right now ran on pure terror.

’Yup. Her mind has been dominated by fear.’

Now I was stuck on how exactly to free her from it.

’Maybe I can use Conqueror’s Will on her?’

But I was fairly certain [Conqueror’s Will] was a passive attribute. I didn’t think it was possible to use passive attributes on someone else. If there was a way, I had to find it, and I had to find it fast.

Meanwhile, Nisha shook her head.

”I will not be a partner of this nonsense. If you want to walk right into your death, then walk alone.” She twirled on her heel and was about to start walking back, but a ring of white fire from my hands swung out in a wide arc and slammed into the ground in front of her. The flames hissed against the damp earth, throwing pale light across the trees and cutting off her retreat.

She grimaced as she turned back to me.

”What are you doing?”

I smiled. ”Stopping you from disgracing yourself.”

Her grimace darkened further. Her Cleavers were still in her hand and she was subtly repositioning the handle.

I continued anyway. ”If you recover, somehow, and remember this moment, I think you’ll be grateful that I did this. If I let you go... I think you’ll be so embarrassed with yourself that you might resent me.”

Nisha shrugged. ”This just looks like you’re desperately looking for an excuse to attack me.”

I paused for a moment and thought back.

Her words actually made sense. What if I was the one under a superior mental hex, made to believe that I was fine while she was compromised? Her actions would seem odd to me because I was the one being manipulated, and in the same way, my actions would seem odd to her because she believed she was perfectly fine.

Both of us were convinced the other was the problem. And if I truly was the hexed one, I wouldn’t even be able to tell. That was the whole point of a good hex.

I shook my head and threw the thought away, hissing under my breath.

’Whoever the culprit of this is, when I catch them, I’m not letting the bastard off easy.’