He Was Too Soft to Hurt Anyone Until They Took Me Away Chapter 01

He Was Too Soft to Hurt Anyone Until They Took Me Away Chapter 01

The system gave me one job: corrupt the villain, Julian Ashford. The problem was, the guy didn’t have a single evil bone in his body.

I drugged him, got him into bed, and the next morning he offered to marry me.

His parents abused him his whole life. Yet he still wired them a monthly allowance.

Nathan Ashford, Julian’s brother, literally tried to put a hit out on him. Julian’s response? One sigh and a one-way ticket overseas.

I screamed at him until my throat hurt. He just knelt at my feet with a basin of warm water to soak them, asking if I felt better.

Eventually, I cracked. I gave up the mission.

The day I staged my death, everything went sideways.

Nathan, the one Julian couldn’t bring himself to punish, came back and kidnapped me.

I flipped the script and threw myself off a cliff.

Back in the real world, with the mission failed, I went back to my corporate job like nothing had happened.

A week later, a notification pinged. Mission complete.

The system popped up in my head, sounding like it was about to cry.

[Host, what you did broke him. The villain is about to burn the whole world down. Please go back in and fix this.]

…

I stormed back into our penthouse. Julian was in the kitchen, making dinner. Of course he was.

I marched straight up to him and threw my bag at his chest.

“You sent Nathan overseas?”

Julian caught the bag, set it aside without a word, and nodded.

“Yes.”

“He’s screwed you over how many times now? He literally tried to have you killed.”

“You fought tooth and nail to get your company back, and you just shipped him overseas?”

Julian didn’t even flinch.

“What else was I supposed to do?”

“Run him over! Ruin his life! After everything he did to you, he deserves to rot!”

Julian furrowed his brow, just barely.

“…That’s illegal.”

“He’s still my brother. And now that he’s gone, he won’t bother us anymore.”

I saw red. I was literally shaking.

Even the system lost it.

[Are you kidding me?! What kind of villain is this guy?!]

[Abused as a kid, betrayed by Nathan as an adult, he’s got the perfect villain origin story! Why won’t he snap?]

I took a deep breath.

[What’s his corruption level at?]

The system answered weakly.

[12%…]

12%.

Five years. I’d been stuck in this world for five full years.

Five years grinding through the mission. Five years tormenting him, belittling him, doing everything the system told me to.

The only reason I even managed to marry him was because I spiked his drink.

And took what I wanted.

The next morning, I looked him in the eye and told him he was pathetic in bed.

He didn’t argue. He didn’t even flinch. He just looked at the bruise on my wrist from the night before.

Then he let out a quiet breath.

“I’m sorry. Last night must have been hard on you. I’ll make this right. I’ll marry you.”

I just stared at him.

The system, completely missing the point, lit up.

[This is perfect! Lock him down, marry him, and make his life hell! That corruption level will skyrocket!]

So I married him. And I pulled out all the stops.

I treated him like hired help. Bossed him around from morning to night.

None of it worked. The man was unbreakable in exactly the wrong way.

Nothing touched him. I could throw everything I had at him, and his mask never cracked.

He absorbed every tantrum without blinking.

I stole his company’s trade secrets. His first instinct was to blame himself.

“Chloe, did I do something to upset you?”

And it wasn’t just me.

The parents who abused him? He wired them money every month like clockwork.

Nathan, who tried to destroy him? Got a slap on the wrist and a plane ticket.

Five years of this.

At this rate, my corruption level was going to pass his.

And Julian? Still sitting at 12%.

Dinner came and went. I was still furious.

Julian knelt beside the sofa with a warm basin for my feet, same as every night.

On a good day, I’d pull him in for a kiss.

Tonight I didn’t even look at him. I soaked my feet and scrolled my phone.

Julian hovered beside me, waiting. No kiss came. He didn’t say a word.

When I was done, he crouched down with a towel, reaching for my ankles.

The system sighed. [Keep it up. Stay mean.]

I didn’t bother drying my feet. I planted my dripping foot right against his shoulder.

His hand closed around my calf. His voice was low.

“Still mad at me?”

I didn’t answer.

He picked up the towel, fumbling with it.

“Let me… just let me dry you off…”

I looked down at him. Then I wiped my wet soles on his crisp shirt.

I tilted my chin up.

“Don’t bother. You make a perfectly good doormat.”

Even I winced internally at that one.

But maybe it worked. I checked with the system.

[Tell me that moved the needle.]

A long pause.

[It went down. 11%.]

I had no comeback.