This Time, I'll Be the Villain's Favorite Daughter novel Chapter 254

This Time, I’ll Be the Villain’s Favorite Daughter

Chapter 254 We Can Grow Up Together

81

Finished

“Onyx, have you ever thought about what kind of person you’ll be in the future? Or what you’ll do when you grow up, what your personality will be like? What the future will even look like?”

Edric mulled it over, understanding she wasn’t asking idly. “I don’t know. The future’s too far off. I’ve never thought that far ahead.”

He wasn’t like normal kids who loved letting their imaginations run wild, since every step of his had already been laid out for him by his elders.

His wishes didn’t matter. His thoughts didn’t matter.

Gain and loss had nothing to do with him.

Maya said, “You don’t have anything you want for yourself?”

She’d had a rough past, too. Back then, she still used to imagine a future with her brother. But Edric seemed to have no will of his own, always going along with whatever others wanted, without a shred of spirit.

Edric’s dark eyes lowered slightly, his voice mild. “I want to leave this place, with you.

“We could wander around–it doesn’t matter where. Anywhere’s fine.”

Anywhere would do.

Even dying along the way would be fine.

He didn’t want to be left behind.

The boy’s gaze had nowhere to settle, and this simple, honest wish softened Maya’s heart.

At the end of the day, he really was just a kid.

At eight years old, lost and unable to find any meaning to his existence, he was still innocent enough to want to run off and wander the world with her.

She understood that this child’s pain was real, that his sorrow wasn’t faked, and his tears even

less so.

And the grown–up Edric–was he still the Onyx she knew?

Hard to say.

So she treasured the boy in front of her all the more.

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13:01 Thu, Jul 2

Chapter 254 We Can Grow Up Together

“Edric, I’ve met you. To be exact, the grown–up you.”

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Finished

Even though Edric had known the topic she’d brought up earlier would have something to do with him, he never once expected this answer.

The boy looked at her, a little dazed.

He didn’t really buy the explanation, figuring Maya was just using it to comfort him, but because it was Maya who’d said it, Edric didn’t argue and simply went along. “So what am I like when I grow up?”

“When you grow up…” Maya racked her brain to picture that Edric she’d spent so little time around, and managed a strained bit of praise. “You’re very brave, and very impressive.”

Edric hesitated a few seconds, then pointed out quietly, “It kind of seems like you’re not too happy with the grown–up me.”

Maya said, “You could tell?”

He bit his lip, his eyes welling up again beyond his control. “Maya, when I grow up, do I really turn into someone you dislike this much?”

Maya actually enjoyed watching a man cry, but a kid was another story, and his crying gave her a headache.

“It’s not like I really dislike you.

“There, there… don’t cry.” She scratched her head. “I just couldn’t quite picture how different the grown–up you would be from how you are now.”

Just how rough did his childhood have to have been to turn him into that?

Edric rubbed the mist from his eyes and kept his tone calm. “So, I become a really bad person someday.”

“No, no, no.” Maya felt a little embarrassed, since she was genuinely helpless with kids. “Whether you’re good or bad isn’t decided by what other people like or dislike.

“If some people hate you, then naturally some people will love you too.

“And besides, Edric, it’s okay even if you can’t grow into a really good adult.”

Maya gently tapped the back of his head and pressed her forehead lightly to his, something. she’d picked up from George, and said softly, “Just growing up is enough.”

For any kid at all, simply making it to adulthood safe and sound was already hard enough.

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13:01 Thu, Jul 2

Chapter 254 We Can Grow Up Together

81

Finished

Maya’s arrival couldn’t change a single thing about how it would go, and he was destined to become the Edric in her memory.

He’d be a more than capable leader.

Not this little kid in front of her who shed tears.

“Grow up well.” The girl gently ruffled his hair and told him the truth. “You can’t imagine what you’ll look like grown up, and I don’t know much about your childhood either.

“Life is very long, pain is a constant, and only by staying alive will there be hope.”

Staying alive.

Maya’s greatest wish, once, had been simply to survive.

Edric listened, his face pressed helplessly against her shoulder, and he said in a low voice, “I’ll grow up well and become a useful adult, so I can protect you.

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