Team villains except me

It is bitterly cold in late autumn.

The scent of roses is wrapped in cold air and the moon is also covered in shadows.

Irene has fallen into a deep sleep, and according to her wishes, Ellit weaves the dream she wants for her.

Norvia sat at the long table, repeatedly drawing circles with a red pen. The newspaper had been torn, but she was still unaware.

Yalinxiu packed up her schoolbag, then walked over to Norvia and took away the torn newspaper.

"Irene is sad, but she's not that sad. Nolvaya, Irene didn't lie."

Yalinxiu blinked and comforted Norvia.

Norvia nodded.

"I know...it's just that I'm sad."

"Why are you sad? She's already asleep. You should go to bed too. Don't you have to work tomorrow? Why are you staying downstairs by yourself?"

Elliott came down from the second floor. He didn't look very happy, but he was still beautiful, like a god decorating the glass at night.

He seemed more sensitive than usual, more fragile.

Nolvaya looked up at him.

"Ellit, why don't you go to bed? Isn't there a quiz tomorrow?"

"You don't have to remember my class schedule so clearly."

Ellit particularly disliked the word "test" in Norvia's words. He first sent Yalinxiu back to her room, and then went downstairs to find Norvia.

"I saw Musa in the evening."

"I know."

"I wanted to go and have dinner with you. But halfway there, I saw Musa carrying a lot of food. She invited me to have dinner with her. She doesn't put sugar in her food. She only knows how to fry meat. It's really not very tasty.

She told me she loved Loretta."

Elli pulled out a chair and sat next to Norvia, continuing his conversation with Musa in the evening.

"I asked her how to prove it. She said she was now returning to the diet she had when she wanted to be a beast warrior. She wanted to fight for Loretta. Nolvia, does she really love her daughter?"

"Ellit, you already had the answer when you asked this question, didn't you?"

Ellit was silent. After a while, Zhuyi poked her head out from the second floor, her hair spread out like a forest. Zhuyi asked them what they were doing.

"Zhu, this is very dangerous."

Fiana appeared behind Zhu Si, she pulled Zhu Si to a safe place, and then walked to the first floor with Zhu Si.

The lights in the living room were turned off, and only the candles on the long dining table were burning quietly. The autumn wind was not quiet, but it lost its strength when it hit the castle, and it sounded low like a painful gasp.

Ellit asked Fiana.

"Shutt and Dooku fell asleep?"

"No."

Hught appeared on the second floor with Dooku. They walked down the stairs, making an inconspicuous sound.

The atmosphere was a little depressing, and Elliott looked at his teammates, raising his eyebrows slightly.

"Irene is not that fragile. She just isn't loved by her mother. Many people are like this. Isn't this normal?"

Eldit said this nonchalantly, and asked Dooku if he thought so too.

Dooku's reaction was much slower than during the day. He almost answered based on his body's instincts. He nodded, then shook his head, a little confused.

"I don't, know. I haven't. I haven't seen it, mother."

Zhu Yi glanced at Elliott, she understood Elliott's intention. If Elliott didn't care, he wouldn't have appeared on the first floor, and he wouldn't have asked such a question, and by the way, he would have used it to explore Dooku's life experience.

The spider turned and asked Dooku.

"No, or yes but I haven't seen it?"

Dooku had no defenses at all. His body had adjusted to his normal sleeping schedule, and he should have fallen asleep by now, but Irene's words kept ringing in his mind.

He felt something muffled inside his body. He had no concept of a mother or a father. His understanding of "family" and "family members" mostly came from his teammates.

Why are mothers important? Why is Erin bothered by her mother? Why is Erin so sad? Why is he so confused and can't figure out what's wrong with his body?

Dooku was thinking randomly. His body functions had returned to his dormant state, but he was still thinking about these questions.

Does he have a mother?

He tried to think. In many blank memories, in the cold abyss, in the white light of the instrument in his grandfather's hand -

"…Yes. I have, mother. I haven't seen it."

Grandfather once said.

[Your eyes... look like hers. Don't look at me. She destroyed my most outstanding work. You are left behind as a monster that is neither a puppet nor...]

Grandfather rarely gets drunk to that extent. If he were sober, he would not have kept this memory. Confused, he asked who the "she" his grandfather was talking about was.

Grandfather sneered. He looked at him as if he were a worthless piece of wood, and spoke with disgust and mockery.

"You don't even know this. You are the lowest of low. You don't have any human emotions at all. You are just a broken puppet... Let me think, you should call her 'mother'...

Hahahaha, are you worthy of it?"

Grandfather laughed loudly, his laugh was dark, filled with twisted pleasure and madness.

Dooku's memories were pieced together in a chaotic manner. He could only remember this scene. This was the only scene related to his mother.

Then he felt like something was wrong.

His grandfather, his master, often mocked and belittled him. Even though he had no expression on his face and didn't understand some of the words, his grandfather would still try to provoke him. But his grandfather rarely mentioned "mother". In his limited memory, there was only this one time, but according to his grandfather's character, his grandfather shouldn't have mentioned it only once.

Grandfather was drunk. Passed out. So he retained the memory of this time.

Grandfather loathed him, hated him. Grandfather would not miss any opportunity to humiliate him. If "mother" was a word that could hurt him, then why didn't Grandfather let him know.

Dooku covered his head. He thought he had discovered something——

"Why. 'Mother'. Why, 'Mother', what is it?"

Nolvia and Shute took turns explaining to Dooku what a mother is. Dooku listened in a daze. The candle was shedding tears and the wind outside was very quiet.

Dooku struggled to analyze with his dormant mind. Then he spoke, like a stuck tape.

"If I had a mother, then I would not be..."

He is not a puppet. He is not a puppet that his grandfather said was unworthy of emotions.

Isn't he a puppet created by his grandfather?

Then who is his mother?

Does he, father?

...He had never seen them. Had he ever seen them? Were they ever in those erased memories?

If he wasn't a puppet, then what was he? Why did Grandfather do this to him? What was the experiment Grandfather was doing on him? How could Grandfather create a puppet that looked just like him... He didn't understand.

His head hurts.

Nolvia sensed Dooku's thoughts from what he had not finished saying. She stood up, and the chair slid with a harsh sound.

"Dooku, you are not a puppet. Never were. Whatever your grandfather said, it was a lie. Dooku, is Arynthus a puppet?"

Dooku can't figure things out about himself, but he tends to be more sensitive when it comes to important family members.

He raised his head and shook his head firmly.

"...No. Yalinxiu is Yalinxiu. It has its own thoughts. It is not a puppet. Puppets need to be controlled. Puppets cannot think for themselves."

Ellito sighed. His mood was already unstable today, and now after hearing what Dooku said, he became even more annoyed.

"So you think you are a puppet? Dooku, what do you usually think about? Don't you know how outrageous your grandfather is? If you don't know, why don't you come and ask us? Do you think you are a puppet?

There is no puppet that can't pick fish bones, and there is no puppet that can't learn the common language no matter how hard it tries! "

"Ellit."

Huett called his name. Elliott raised his head and looked at Huett.

"What's wrong? You won't let me speak? Am I wrong? Don't you want to know what happened in the Abyss? Don't you want to know why Dooku is like this? Just wait for Dooku to speak up. If you don't ask him, he will never say anything..."

"Ellit, did we ask you?"

Fiana stood up and asked Elliott.

"Dooku will never tell? What about you?"

Elliott asked back.

"What's wrong with me? What do you want me to say? You ask?"

Zhu Yi stood up and stared at Elliott, not giving him any chance to retreat.

"Okay. Then let me ask you. What did you encounter in the northern continent? What happened in your past? Tell me. Tell me."

Elliott took a step back, his beautiful eyebrows and eyes were covered with a layer of shadow, as if the surroundings around him suddenly became cold just by mentioning the northern continent.

He tried to say something, but his throat was blocked.

He used to think that misunderstandings between people in love were very stupid. He trusted his teammates enough, and he now felt that it was okay to talk about his past, but for some reason, he was in a state of speechlessness and could not speak.

This is so strange. When facing people who have nothing to do with him, he can even use a teasing tone to talk about his past bloodstains. He can abuse his charm at will.

In this atmosphere of silence and stalemate, he used to have countless ways to adjust the mood, but now he suddenly became tongue-tied.

In this silence, he thought of that afternoon in Taran House long ago, when he and Irene were preparing a childish prank, and then he was caught off guard and touched upon Fianna and the Spider's past. What was his reaction at that time?

It was silence. There was a trace of pain in the silence. He wondered why those malices were befalling them. Wasn't his past misery enough to offset their pain? If their experiences could become more painful memories for him, he would be willing to do so.

But he couldn't say it. His pride prevented him from opening his mouth. At this moment, he was annoyed with his character. However, his character was also shaped by his past experiences, and he had no way to defend himself.

"...Can you check it yourself? Do you really have to ask me to tell you in person?"

Ellito said this stubbornly, and before Norvia and Shute could take any action, a shadow suddenly covered them.

Irene placed the communicator behind her. Light emanated from behind her, and her shadow was diffused into a giant.

Irene asked.

"Why aren't you guys sleeping and secretly quarreling here?"

Irene was halfway out, and she was about to fall. She noticed the swaying and simply jumped down.

The water magic turned into a cradle that lifted her up and allowed her to land safely on the ground.

Zhui opened a box of cookies and asked Irene while eating.

"Aren't you asleep?"

"Yes, I'm awake now. Didn't Elliott tell you what I wanted to dream about? I want to see my mother and have her say to me, 'You are so great, I am so proud of you.'

This dream ended very quickly. Although I asked Elliott to help me, I soon realized that I was dreaming and that it was not the real Isana. My mother would never say such a thing to me. But I am already very satisfied.

When I woke up, I wanted to go downstairs to get some fresh air, but when I left the room, I saw you guys sitting at the dining table arguing - what happened?"

Irene asked curiously, and after knowing what happened, she looked at Dooku and then at Eldit.

"Then I'll go to the northern continent to check. Is there anything you don't want us to know?"

"I've asked you to check it out. There's nothing I can't let you know."

Elliott shrugged indifferently. Zhuyi threw him a bag of cookies with syrup. After seeing clearly, Elliott pushed the cookies back with great pain.

"Zhu Yi, you are basically harming me. If you really wanted to give me cookies, you shouldn't have given them to me when everyone is here."

"Eat it or not."

Zhu took back the biscuits.

The topic jumped quickly.

In the darkness, Huet no longer hooked the green bracelet on Norvia's wrist.

Just now, Nolvia tried several times to get past Dooku and Elliott's speechlessness, but he gently hooked Nolvia's bracelet and shook his head at her.

Dooku needed to think, and Elliott needed to push. There would be no better time than now. He believed that they would not end up arguing, and he also knew that Norvia understood and cared about every member of the team.

Norvia was always able to sense her teammates' psychological changes in advance. She calmly made gentle moves, turning anything that could cause huge emotional fluctuations into insignificant trifles.

She almost nipped all dangers in the bud, and was absolutely tolerant and protective.

But sometimes a little toughness can help things move forward, like now that they have permission.

Ellito had already let go, but Dooku was still sitting there in a daze. He couldn't process the series of changes just now. He was shocked by the truth that his grandfather had concealed, and he didn't know where to start telling his story. His story had no logic, and he didn't even know what he was.

Irene sat next to him.

She held her face in her hands and looked at Dooku.

"You're still awake so late, Dooku, are you feeling sorry for me?"

Dooku took a long while to react before nodding slowly.

Irene said "oh" and looked at the burning candle, then turned her head to look at Dooku and asked him in a normal tone.

"Dooku, would you be willing to remove your mask?"