Am I The Villain?

6. What is Magic, Anyway?

I'm currently sitting while leaning back on the charred corpses of the wooden creatures. Thanks to the girl's fire magic, these corpses feels warm and nice to lean on. On my lap lies the head of a sleeping girl. Her face is fair white decorated with beautiful lips and nose. Soft hair the color of sunflower flows from her head to her shoulders.

But what made me most envious of her is her eyes. Because I don't have them.

Long eyelashes cover the upper and lower perimeter of her eyes. I can't see the eyes themselves obviously, she's sleeping.

It seems like the girl passed out. Is it because she used too much magic? I can see that her cloud is fainter than it was before. Maybe these clouds are some sort of fuel for magic.

Having a little girl sleeping on my lap like this remind me of my youngest sister. Whenever she was sick I would always spoil her and let her sleep on my lap while I caress her hair. I used to hum lullabies until she fell asleep. I reflexively started to caress the sleeping girl with my hands and hummed some soft tunes like I used too. Her skin is milky smooth, if not for the dirt and soot on it.

"Mommy.." The girl mumbled in her sleep. A smile crept its way into my face as I witness such a scene.

She looks about 13 or 14 years old. Definitely way younger than me.

... or is she? Currently I'm in the body of a little girl after all. Physically, I look much younger than her. Well, whatever.

This is nice and all, but I'm kinda bored now. I decided to experiment with my tentacles. At first I just summoned as many tentacles I could until the pain is unbearable. So far I can summon 6 of them at once. After that I just maintained the tentacles for as long as I could. My theory is that I would get used to the pain and I would be able to push it even further.

It surprisingly didn't take that long for me to get used to it. Instead of summoning even more tentacles, I decided to play around with what I have for now. I picked up rocks, twigs, and branches with them and swung them around in the air.

Hey, this is kinda fun!

I keep picking up and swinging objects around for a while until I felt a movement from my lap. Is she awake?

I looked down and get greeted by a face filled with confusion. Yup, she's awake alright.

"Morning! Feeling better?" I put on a gentle smile.

"Ah- uh.. yeah.." She obediently replied. "Um.. those things... are you doing that?" She pointed at the floating objects.

"Oh right. Sorry about that." I said as I dispersed my tentacles. "Can you stand? Do you need help?"

"Yes. I mean, no. I can stand." She raises her head from my laps, stood up, and dusted herself off.

I also stood up, with the help of my tentacles obviously. Am I getting lazier? These tentacles are just too convenient, I can't help it.

"Ahem. I, Lana Carinthia the first daughter of Arnulf Carinthia, offer you my thanks for saving my life, kind stranger." She bend her waist forward with her right hand on her chest.

"... yeah, sure." I'm not sure how I'm supposed to reply to her thanks. She put on a confused expression once again.

"... are you not going to ask for a reward?"

"Reward?! Do you have food? I'm starving! You know how long I've walked without food?" In my excitement, I closed the gap between us and grab her shoulders.