"Wait... Miss Julia, I haven't finished talking yet."
Hearing Damien's slightly desperate voice, Sierra's mother, who was about to get up from her seat, immediately froze in her place.
'Huh? What did he just call me...?'
Her brows were slightly furrowed as she looked back at the weirdly grimacing young man, feeling a little confused about how he addressed her.
Now why was this guy – who fervently insisted on calling her 'mother-in-law' until now no matter how she persuaded him – deciding to use her name all of a sudden?
...Normally, she would certainly feel a bit happy, seeing that he finally grew some sense and stopped calling her that with a cocky smile on his face—
"...At least, can you please tell me, what about me is it that you didn't like?"
—If only the current expression on his face didn't look so dark and foreboding to her, sending waves of cold chill down her spine.
Looking into his burning red eyes, Julia suddenly felt like she caught sight of a violent storm brewing within, the loud noises of illusory thunder crackling in the sky almost sounding a bit too real in her ears.
– Gulp.
She unknowingly found herself swallowing her saliva, feeling a cold, icy claw grip onto her heart. Her voice trembled a little as she hesitantly opened her mouth.
"I...I-I didn't exactly say that I disliked you. J-Just that, y-you are still too young to—"
But before she could finish, Damien's face abruptly twisted into an ugly grimace as he rudely interrupted her with an impatient glare.
"I thought we already agreed to speak without all these pretenses."
"—U-Ugh."
Julia groaned in a small voice, becoming visibly more tense and nervous under Damien's unrelenting gaze. The naturally intimidating aura of a savage gangster like him was simply too much for a normal office lady like her to bear.
"U-Um, I-I meant..."
Her gaze frantically moved in all directions while she worked her mind into overdrive, trying to understand what the hell just happened to this formerly well-behaving young man for him to act like this all of a sudden.
...It felt as if he was a feral animal who had his tail stepped on, instead of a rational human being.
She naturally didn't understand the reason behind this abrupt change. But whatever it was, the previously calm and yet cocky boy in front of her seemed to have turned into a different person altogether!
...Damien didn't keep her wondering for too long, however.
After waiting for her to speak for a few more seconds in vain, he abruptly stood up from his seat, before stepping closer to her with an angry scowl on his face.
"...Well, in truth, I already have a guess in mind."
His tall figure towered over the nervously fidgeting lady, as she shrunk back in instinctive fear.
"I think... It's either that you believe I'm lying, or that you think I'm such a bad person that I should never be allowed near your daughter..."
"I-I..."
He then slowly leaned over the shallow-breathing woman, grabbing onto both armrests of her single-seater couch as he looked deep into her amber-colored eyes, casting a long shadow over her gradually paling face.
"—But since I've already made it easy for you to verify my financial stability, I'm guessing it's the second reason why you don't like me... Right? Did you perhaps get a bad feeling about me...?"
Julia's trembling pupils suddenly dilated under his gaze, causing Damien to crack a twisted grin in response.
"...Heh, will you look at that? Now, why would you even come up with an idea like that, hm? All this bullshit, just because of a gut feeling of yours? Are fucking kidding me?!"
His grip on the armrests also grew stronger as he audibly ground his teeth in frustration.
"...Hey, do I really look so evil in your eyes that you can judge my character with a single glance? Or are you some sort of a mind-reader? Huh?"
"N-No, I-I was only t-thinking..."
"Well then, maybe you can start by stopping your damned thinking for a moment!!!"
"U-Uhh..."
There was a dark, malevolent light shining in his eyes that slowly intensified with each passing second, making the scared lady faintly tremble under his gaze.
From how things were right now, the protagonist was sure to find out that something was wrong with Sierra much sooner than he was supposed to, thanks to Damien already irreversibly changing a vital part of the original storyline!
'Fuck... I didn't even make a single mistake this time! From where did this plan start going wrong like this?!'
In the original story, Julia had been a major roadblock in the protagonist's attempt to discover what was wrong with Sierra, ironically giving a drug-addicted Damien free rein over Sierra for far longer than he should've had.
...However, that was only made possible because the 'Julia' from the story didn't know that her daughter's problems were related to Damien, and not Alaric who introduced himself as Sierra's boyfriend to her.
But this time, because of Damien not using those explicit pictures and videos on his phone to blackmail Sierra like he was supposed to, Julia – who should not have discovered his relationship with her daughter this early – was now aware of his existence.
Initially, he obviously didn't have any problems with that.
After all, he had planned for Julia to be on his side from the very beginning this time. With her help, finishing off the original protagonist would've been a piece of cake too.
...But things no longer seemed so simple anymore, thanks to her unreasonable and stubborn suspicions about him.
Because now, if that Alaric guy ever decided to personally visit Sierra's house and have a talk with her mother, any plan Damien made to get rid of him would easily come undone – all because of Julia!
'Arghhh...! Why did it have to be this way? Why, dammit!?'
Just thinking about how many problems she alone could create for him, Damien felt an intense headache coming.
It was hard for him not to flip out right at this instant, but he still held onto his rationality, calming himself by repeatedly thinking about the lovely girl upstairs.
"...Okay, I'm calm now. I'm fucking calm."
He repeatedly took in deep breaths, before getting away from the halfway terrified woman and tiredly sitting back down on his previous seat, as he threw back his head and closed his eyes in silent contemplation.
*Tick–tock!*
One minute, two minutes, three minutes...
Soon, five whole minutes passed by in silence as Julia's faint trembling finally came to a stop, while the young man still remained unmoving in place.
'I-Is it over...?'
But even then, she didn't attempt to make any sound yet, only staring at the boy in front of her with a wary gaze.
'Wh-What even was that? S-Some kind of mental issue? J-Just as I thought, s-something is definitely wrong with him!'
At this moment, Damien slowly opened his eyes, meeting her apprehensive gaze with a calm and peaceful look on his face.
He then heaved a short sigh.
"...Right, since it has come to this, I might as well come clean to you."
Saying that, he began to lazily roll up his long sleeves, gradually exposing his heavily ink-laden arms to Julia, causing her wary gaze to turn surprised, and also a bit terrified.
"W-What are you....?"
'H-He's not going to h-hit me, r-right?'
After all, rolling up one's sleeves could also be interpreted as a universal sign of impending violence, and she wasn't even sure whether this young man was mentally distressed enough to resort to such an outrageous thing!
"—I'm simply showing you what I've been hiding all along. From now on, I will be completely honest with you."
...His calm words dispelled her worst worries, however, while also alleviating some of her excessive tension.
Noting her unusual reaction to his words, he then pulled down his hoodie's collar, revealing another portion of tattoos and artistic writing on his upper chest.
"You see, just like you guessed – or perhaps felt with your soul or something... I am indeed a very bad person by nature."
He clenched his right hand into a fist, looking at the coiling eastern dragon on his forearm with a neutral expression, before he lifted his gaze and stared straight into Julia's amber eyes.
"But before saying anything else, let me first tell you this clearly – I truly love your daughter, more than anything and everything. And that is the only thing I can swear with my life. So, no matter what you do, at least don't doubt me on that."
Julia immediately flinched back a little when she heard his words.
For some reason, even though he only confessed his love for her daughter in a slightly unusual way, it strangely sounded like a mortal threat to her ears.
'...N-No, I-I must be hearing things, right? Right!'
Unlike before, this time Damien was speaking calmly, showing no signs of agitation on his face.
...And yet, somehow, instead of feeling calmer, she inexplicably kept feeling increasingly uneasy about his actions.
Faintly guessing what was going through her head, he sighed a little.
As things stood right now, there was no way for her to cooperate with him in his plans.
And what use did his 'young millionaire' ruse even have, if Sierra's mother truly believed him to be a bad person from the bottom of her heart?
"...Miss Julia, I know that you're a stubborn person. Once you've made up your mind, unless I do something drastic like this, you will always remain unsupportive of me... And unfortunately, I really can't afford to let something like that happen at the moment."
That's why, he decided to simply come clean to her and make her an accomplice in his plans.
Whether she was willing or not didn't really matter, he would simply have to 'convince' her if such a need ever arose.
He sighed again, before shaking his head a little in apparent disappointment.
"...I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'll tell you everything about myself. And this time, it will be the complete truth – including things I haven't even told your daughter. All I want in return is—"