Villain’s Favorite 197

Chapter 197 New Guardian 

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“Not being able to bring yourself to do it isn’t the end of the world,” Philbert said. “That kind of resolve can be built over time. You’re not the only one in this family who started that way.” 

“Wait, there’s actually someone else like me?” Maya blinked. 

She’d been fully convinced the entire household was populated by people with a complete and cheerful indifference to human life. 

“One person.” He gave her a long, weighted look. “But he’s already learned the hard way what softness costs. I hope you won’t end up the same way.” 

Wait, who? Who is it? 

Maya was absolutely burning with curiosity. 

But she also sensed, with some animal instinct, that asking too many questions in this house was a reliable way to get herself into trouble. 

Edric arrived well past midnight. The study door sat slightly ajar, and a thin blade of warm light spilled through the gap. 

He stopped at the threshold and didn’t go in. 

Through the narrow opening, he could see a small girl settled on the study sofa, both legs dangling in the air and swinging freely. 

Philbert sat across from her, a teacup in hand, saying something. 

Maya listened and nodded along, though her eyes had taken on the heavy, glassy look of someone fighting a losing battle with sleep. 

The corner of Edric’s mouth curved just slightly. He raised his hand and knocked. 

Two quiet knocks against the doorframe. 

Maya’s attention snapped to the door immediately. 

She looked at a face she’d never seen before in her life. 

The moment she found him, the young man’s eyes curved gently at the corners. 

He was striking in that particular way that felt almost unfair. His complexion was the kind of 

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pale that came from never quite seeing enough sun, and when his face was still, his features carried a faint coolness to them. But right now, that small curve at the corners of his eyes softened it completely. 

Paired with the calm, unhurried ease that seemed to settle around him like a cloak, that coolness simply dissolved. 

It was like moonlight slipping out from behind a cloud. His whole presence went soft and luminous. 

He had the kind of face that made a person drop their guard before they’d even decided to. 

“Hello, Maya.” 

Maya hadn’t expected this total stranger to walk through the door and immediately address her, specifically her, the child in the corner. 

Every single person Philbert had met with over these past few days had looked straight through her like she was part of the furniture. 

The rare ones who glanced her way did so with the same idle disinterest someone might give a decorative vase. 

But this one was different. 

His gaze had found her from the very first moment he stepped inside, as though she were the only person in the room. 

Maya lifted her hand in a small, curious wave, with all the guileless inquisitiveness of a child. “Do you know me?” 

He shook his head. It was a slow, unhurried motion. 

“I don’t.” 

His gaze settled on her face and stayed there. 

His eyes were deep and still, the way someone’s eyes get when they’re studying something that matters enormously to them. 

Then the young man spoke, his voice low and quiet, like something said more to himself than to anyone else in the room. 

“I’ve never seen you before.” 

Maya stared at him. 

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Right. She’d never seen him either. Thank you for that. 

“Then why are you looking at me like that?” 

The question was so blunt it was almost charming. 

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Edric didn’t answer. His gaze moved over her face, slow and searching, like he was looking for something he hadn’t found yet. 

A few seconds of silence settled over the study. 

Philbert hadn’t said a word through any of it. 

“Could I take her with me, Grandpa?” 

After a long pause, Edric turned and met the old man’s probing gaze, his expression still carrying that same surface-level warmth. “I’ll teach her well.” 

“Wait, hold on a second,” Maya said. 

She looked at Philbert, then at Edric, then back again, caught completely off-guard by this development. A thought surfaced in her mind with startling speed. 

Am I getting a new guardian right now? 

Philbert finally spoke. 

His voice was measured, carrying the unshakeable steadiness of a man who had seen everything worth seeing. “Are you certain?” 

Edric gave a single, quiet nod. 

“Certain.” 

Philbert looked at him and something flickered through his eyes. Something that looked almost like surprise. “You never ask for anything.” 

And when you finally do, it’s for a child? 

Edric stood where he was and waited in unhurried silence. 

Philbert looked at him once more. 

Then his gaze traveled past Edric and landed on the wide-eyed little girl sitting in the corner of the room. 

Maya met that gaze and straightened her spine on pure instinct. 

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Chapter 197 New Guardian 

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Philbert studied her for two full seconds. 

Then he pulled his gaze back, lifted his teacup, and took a slow, deliberate sip. 

“Take her,” he said. 

Maya watched her own guardianship get transferred to a complete stranger in roughly two exchanges. 

She launched herself off the sofa, darted behind Edric, and bit down on her lip before unleashing her grievances at Philbert in a voice full of genuine affront. “You’re really just going to hand me off like that?” 

Silence. 

“Who said anything about handing you off?” Philbert said. 

“You did!” Maya announced at a volume that filled the entire study and then some. 

Philbert went quiet. 

His mouth opened. Something that might have been an argument tried to form, then retreated entirely. 

He drew in a slow breath and pointed at Edric. 

“You’ll be better off with Edric,” he said, his tone blunt as a stone wall. “Better than you would be with those unreliable parents of yours, at any rate.” 

In his estimation, Wendy was a delightfully unhinged woman with a truly creative relationship with common sense. 

And Raymond drifted through life with the faint, boneless energy of someone perpetually on the verge of a nap. 

What kind of well-adjusted child could anyone realistically expect from those two? 

Edric was easily the more dependable option. 

Maya heard that, hesitated for two seconds, and tilted her head up to sneak a look at the man standing beside her. 

So this is the legendary Edric. 

Since she was apparently moving on to a new situation, getting on his good side right away seemed like the smartest possible opening move. 

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an favorite Daughter