The Villain Who Invests in a Witch to Survive Chapter 130 : Chapter 130

Chapter 130: Hungry Ghost

The white tablecloth stretched from one end to the other, and it was covered with dishes that made it impossible to look away.

Most eye-catching of all was a whole roast suckling pig lying in pride of place. Its skin had been roasted to a crisp golden brown, gleaming with oil wherever the light touched it. At the carved opening, the tender pink-white at beneath was exposed, still releasing thin threads of steam.

Beside it was a whole roasted leg of lamb smothered in sauce. The deep brown glaze slid slowly along the grain of the at, and the scent of spices mingled with the aroma of roasted flesh, rushing straight into the nose and making anyone who slled it want to swallow.

Farther down was an entire row of seafood. Crab legs had been laid out in perfect order, their shells a dark red, with fine white fuzz still clinging around the joints. The oysters had already been shucked, revealing plump flesh soaking in pale green lemon juice. Prawns as large as a man’s palm had been piled into a small mountain and set over crushed ice, tiny droplets of water clinging to their shells and sparkling under the lights.

Ryan picked up an empty plate.

His movents were unhurried. First, he used a fork to take a few slices of the crispest part of the roast pig. Then he took three crab legs. At last, he went to the fruit section and chose a few strawberries. They were large and brilliantly red, each topped with two fresh green leaves.

Carrying his plate, he turned and headed for a corner.

There was a small round table there with three chairs. Two were empty, and in the third sat a figure in gray robes.

Evans did not look up. On the plate before him lay only a piece of bread with one corner torn off. The rest of the food remained untouched. His gaze passed beyond the spinning hems on the dance floor and fixed on so empty point on the far side of the hall. Under the lights, his pale green hair looked even paler, like a patch of condensed fog.

Ryan sat down in the chair beside him.

Evans did not look at him, and Ryan said nothing.

He cut off a small piece of roast suckling pig with his fork and put it into his mouth. The skin had been roasted just right. The mont his teeth touched it, it let out the faintest crackle, and beneath it ca the soft, tender at, the fragrance of its fat lting across his tongue.

Then he picked up a crab leg and split the shell neatly along the seam with his fingertips. A whole length of snow-white crab at slid out intact. He dipped it in a little of the sauce at the side and chewed slowly.

His eyes drifted toward the dance floor.

Lillian was standing there talking with a girl in a champagne-gold dress.

The ice-blue gown she wore tonight shimred under the candlelight like running water. The teardrop sapphire at her throat swayed gently with her movents, scattering tiny blue glimrs against her collarbone.

A proper smile rested on her face. Her ice-blue eyes curved into a lovely crescent, her lashes casting a faint shadow across her eyelids. Every now and then she blinked lightly, like two feathers settling upon the surface of a lake.

The girl in champagne gold was probably the daughter of so Marquis. The two of them leaned close together as they spoke, occasionally covering their mouths as they laughed, their manner intimate enough to suggest they had known one another for years.

But Ryan noticed that every few seconds, Lillian’s gaze drifted sideways.

In the distance—

Rex was standing in front of the long table.

There were three plates piled up in front of him. Not three plates with a few token pieces on them, but three plates stacked so high they were practically spilling over. In his left hand, he clutched an entire lamb bone. In his right, he held a spoon and was shoveling pudding into his mouth. His cheeks were puffed out like a hamster stuffed full of nuts.

He was still wearing that deep gray formal suit with silver patterns. The outfit had originally been well tailored, with clean shoulders and a neat line—but now, every ti he moved while eating, it stretched visibly against him. Whenever his shoulder blades shifted, the fabric gave off the faintest strained hiss, as though the seams were on the verge of splitting apart.

Lillian’s smile froze for an instant.

She said sothing softly to the girl in champagne gold. The other girl covered her mouth and laughed, then followed Lillian’s glance toward the banquet table and laughed even harder.

The tips of Lillian’s ears turned red.

But the smile on her face remained flawless. She dipped her head politely to the girl, then turned and walked toward Rex, her skirt tracing an arc of ice blue.

Her steps were light and quick, her hem drifting softly behind her.

She ca to a stop behind him.

Rex noticed absolutely nothing. He was reaching for a fourth plate—one that held the last remaining piece of crisp roast pig skin.

Lillian stood behind him.

The proper smile was still on her face.

Then she spoke, her voice so low that none of the surrounding guests could possibly hear it, yet every word seed squeezed out through clenched teeth.

“…What exactly are you doing?”

Rex’s hand froze in midair.

Slowly, he turned his head. He still had pudding in his mouth, and both cheeks were puffed up like an angry pufferfish. Blinking his gray eyes, he mumbled thickly,

“I-I’m eating…”

Lillian’s smile did not move in the slightest.

“Do you know how much that suit cost?”

“Y-yeah… It’s almost a month’s worth of my food money…”

“And do you know,” Lillian said, still smiling perfectly, though the corner of one eye twitched very slightly, “that if you keep eating like this, you are going to burst that suit right open?”

Rex lowered his head and looked at himself.

That deep gray formal suit with silver patterns was now stretched tight over his fra. The shoulder line had gone slightly out of shape, and the buttons across his chest looked as though they were trembling in fear. He could even feel the fabric pulled taut across his stomach, so tight that the smallest deep breath would make it hiss.

He swallowed.

“…Well, Miss, I think it can probably hold out a little longer—”

“Hold out for what?”

Lillian’s voice dropped even lower. Her smile sohow beca gentler still, gentle enough to send a chill down one’s back.

“Hold out until, in front of all the nobles of the Empire, you go ‘bang’ and burst right out of that suit?”

Rex opened his mouth.

No words ca out.

Lillian kept smiling. Then, beneath the cover of her skirt, her right foot slowly extended forward—the foot in its silver-white high heel lifting just slightly—

And then she brought it down hard on the top of Rex’s foot.

“HSSS—!!!”

Rex sucked in a sharp breath. His whole body almost jumped off the floor. He slapped a hand over his mouth and forcibly swallowed the scream that nearly burst from his throat. His eyes reddened at once, and he could only keep gasping from the pain.

Lillian’s foot had already withdrawn beneath her skirt.

The hem fell back into place, hiding everything, as though nothing whatsoever had happened.

The smile on her face was still proper, still gentle, still impeccable. She even gave a slight nod to a few guests nearby who had turned to look in confusion, as if to say, Nothing at all. Just a small joke between friends.

“Co on.”

She reached out and seized Rex by the wrist.

“W-where are we going, Miss…” Rex stumbled along after her, limping badly. Every step he took on the foot she had stepped on made him suck in another breath.

“To dance.”

“B-but didn’t you just say you weren’t going to dance with …”

“Now I am.”

“Why?”

“Because if you stay beside that table any longer,” Lillian said without even turning her head, the words drifting out between her teeth, “the entire Empire is going to know that the person I brought with tonight is a hungry ghost reborn.”