[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-why-do-i-keep-attracting-villainesses":3,"chapter-why-do-i-keep-attracting-villainesses-why-do-i-keep-attracting-villainesses-chapter-40":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Why do I keep attracting Villainesses?",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},748003,989,"Chapter 40: JACOBS POV.","why-do-i-keep-attracting-villainesses-chapter-40",40,"\u003Cp>Chapter 40: JACOBS POV.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Urrgh....\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A low groan escaped my throat as I slowly regained consciousness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My head felt like it had been used as a punching bag by a giant squid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was a dull throb behind my eyes, and my face felt swollen and sore from where I’d hit the ocean floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I tried to move, but my body felt heavy and sluggish, like I was buried under a pile of wet sand. Probably the after effects of the beating I was dished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As my vision began to clear, I blinked in surprise.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first thing I saw wasn’t the dark, jagged ceiling of the cave or the cold sand of the seabed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Instead, I saw two beautiful mounds hovering just inches above my face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It took my brain a few seconds to process what I was looking at.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My eyes drifting upward, following the curves of pale skin, until I realized where I was.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was laying head-first in someone’s lap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The view above me was none other than Persephone’s soft chest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course I didn’t gawk like an idiot, this wasn’t the first time I was resting in her lap, rather I felt a wave of gloom wash over me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Why... Why did I have to come back here...’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I grimaced at my own folly. I wanted to reach up and rub my temples, but I was too afraid to move.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of all the places in the vast, endless ocean that I could’ve accidentally swum into, why did it have to be back here with her?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had outrun a hundred sharks, saved a village from a potential calamity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And was in the midst of planning what scrumptious meal i’d eat on Artria’s comfortable bed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet now, non of those things would ever happen again!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because I was right back at the start, trapped in the arms of the one person who terrified me the most.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Look who’s finally awake...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Persephone’s voice drifted down to me. I looked up and saw her glancing down at me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To my utter confusion, she was pouting. Her lips were turned down in a small, childish frown, and her eyes weren’t glowing with that terrifying red light anymore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Instead, she looked just like Artria usually did.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I shivered inwardly, to think this monster could actually cause such a reaction in me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wait? Why was she pouting? I wondered, my mind racing to catch up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And what on earth was I doing in her lap?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shouldn’t she be torturing me right now?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, she had seemed really pissed off the last time I was conscious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back then, she looked ready to tear me limb from limb for staying at the village for so long.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So how come she seemed calm now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Honestly, I couldn’t figure it out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The shift in her mood was so sudden and strange that it made my head spin even more than the concussion did.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But since she didn’t look pissed like before, I felt a tiny bit of relief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The crushing weight of fear in my chest loosened just a bit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without thinking, a light, nervous smile crept onto my face. I guess I was just happy to be alive and not currently being eaten by sharks or strangled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Wipe that smug grin off your face before I do it myself,\" Persephone said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course. Good things never last. Her voice was cold again, cutting through my brief moment of relief like a shard of ice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The pouting remained, but the temperature in the water around us seemed to drop.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I’m still upset with the fact that you left me here alone. How could you worry your mistress like that...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I stared at her, my jaw dropping. Was she serious? She sounded like a hurt girlfriend complaining about a late date, not a cold hearted sea witch who had left her servant for dead in the middle of some dilapidated reef.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And after everything I did for you!\" she continued\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I even went out of my way to help you, I made you into something stronger, and gave you an opportunity.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\" But instead of being grateful, you ran off to that blue-haired witch! Didn’t you! Don’t even try to deny it... I can smell her foul scent all over you....\" She squinted her eyes to a dangerous degree.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\" I’m sure you also ate her food too, right?\" She revealed a cruel smile that could easily cause ones blood to turn cold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Normally, I would be absolutely terrified right now, stuttering out apologies, begging for her not to kill me, and promising to never see Artria again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was what I usually did anyway, in order to survive, I just had to do as she said, and hope to live another day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But quite the contrary, I felt a spark of something else.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rather than fear, I was annoyed. No, I was beyond annoyed. I was angry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’What the hell is she talking about?!’ I thought, the heat rising in my chest. ’Running off? She was the one who almost sent me to meet God!’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The memories of the day she left me came rushing back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The way she had beaten me until I couldn’t move.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How she had looked at me as she did it, and her swimming away afterwards, leaving me for dead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If it hadn’t been for that random merfolk finding me in time and taking me back to Artria’s village, I would’ve been a pile of bones at the bottom of the reef right now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And yet, she still has the gal to act like I was the one who had committed some great betrayal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was too irritating to stomach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was acting like the victim in a story where she was clearly the villain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"If anyone’s to blame! It’s you!\" I accidentally blurted out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My heart stopped. My body began to shiver violently as the reality of what I had just done hit me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My eyes widened, and I felt the color drain from my face for the second time that day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Fuck! What did I just do?!’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I panicked inwardly, my eyes glancing upwards at her face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I felt even more fearful when I saw her expression change.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The pout was gone. Her cold, hard glare was fixed on me, and for a second, the water seemed to stop moving altogether.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You’re blaming me?\" she said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her voice was no louder than a whisper, but that sentence was more than enough to chill my spine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lap that had felt soft a moment ago now felt like a bed of stone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I suddenly wanted to plead for mercy,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But then again, something occurred to me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What’s the point of all this? Why should I continue to fear this woman?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I lay there, looking up at her beautiful, angry face, and I realized that I was tired.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was tired of running. I was tired of being afraid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was tired of waking up and wondering if today was the day I’d be killed for saying the wrong thing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was very clear to me that she had been doing as she pleased all this time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She treated the world like her playground and me like her favorite toy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If I went back to being her servant, would anything change? Or would I only continue to endure under her feet, waiting for the next time she got bored or angry enough to leave me for dead again?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Is that what I wanted? A pitiful life of servitude under someone like her?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I thought about the village. I thought about Garin’s kindness and the way the mermen had stood by me even when they were scared.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even Artria who found me irritating at first at least treated me like a person instead of a \"thing.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if Persephone claims she was looking for me now, even if she’s acting like she missed me, it still doesn’t change the facts that she almost killed me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I took a shaky breath, my lungs still feeling the bruise from the ocean floor. I didn’t look away from her glare. For the first time, I didn’t lower my eyes when faced with her pressure.\u003C\u002Fp>",1383,"2026-06-02T12:01:34.720Z",1,"novelbin.me","e6342d42bd0785ba7e542accb0faddbcb02ff892e580a5ff91560de522cf6d79","why-do-i-keep-attracting-villainesses-chapter-89","why-do-i-keep-attracting-villainesses-chapter-88",102,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fwhy-do-i-keep-attracting-villainesses-cover.jpg"]