I Reincarnated as a Noble Bastard, So I'm Seducing All the Villainess Chapter 2: I’m a Drunken Poet

Sotis, I get a bit too emotional in my thoughts and rush into what I want to do.

I find myself standing at the corner, looking at the entrance to the building used as a prison. The Imperial City is divided into several districts, and as I’m currently in the red-light district, the main neighborhoods are the Ring districts, also known as the "Holes of Lust," which comprise about four blocks in this area.

Since the entire city is imnse, there’s no way they can accommodate every type of service everywhere. However, due to the nature of this environnt, they had to at least implent a jail to send rude custors who don’t know how to behave politely in brothels and cabarets.

How Ravenna ended up here, I have no idea. I guess she tried to escape and was thrown into this lock-up because it was closer. Now they’re just waiting for a chance to send her to the imperial palace for a trial with the king... but of course, the damn MC will rip off her neck before that happens and find a disturbed romantic partner in the process.

Okay, how do I get in? There are two guards at the door. This body knows so magic in its mory, but I’m not crazy enough to blow up the front door and then be decapitated by the Duke’s hand. Think, Darius, what would you do in this situation?

Well, maybe it’s ti to test out so acting. In my past life, I spent so good hours in an acting club; I’m confident in the performances I gave in school and on stage, in front of nothing more than an audience of parents watching dressed as a tree.

I unbutton two buttons of my shirt, ss up my hair, lightly slap my cheeks to make my face red, and start walking in a zigzag pattern. The trick is to look idiotic, not threatening. I enter the street stumbling from side to side, with a mastery worthy of Hamlet, with those faces turned upwards from so much booze I didn’t drink.

"Heeeeyyy, good... good sirs of the imperial law! I’m looking for my... my beloved... my adored Ravenna!"

I raise my hands in the air. Here’s the master move, acting like a drunken lovesick poet!

The two guards, one with a scar running across half his cheek and the other looking like his childhood was ruined after being run over by a goat, exchange glances. The scarred one grumbles:

"You’re too drunk to be here, friend. Move along."

"Whoa, whoa, my hiccup friend! I am... I am Darius. Darius Moonlight. The Duke’s son! You know? The guy who rules half the city! I ca to visit my... hiccup my truly wronged fiancée!"

"The Duke’s son, huh?" says the goat-faced one, barely hiding his laughter. "I’d believe it if you were a tavern owner’s son."

"This is hiccup serious! It’s a matter... of love! The Duke, that damn guy, wants to keep away from her at all costs!" I point in their direction. "I love Ravenna, I love her more than anything in this world! They want to keep away from her, hiccup! How can they do this to !"

They responded with the good old silent treatnt. Geez, they could’ve at least responded with a curse or given a shove to get out of here. I should have expected it would never work, who knew.

Better I leave and... huh?

A warmth passes over my face, it happens so quickly that I don’t even fully realize it, in the blink of an eye and disappearing the next mont. When I co to, I’m on my butt on the ground, with part of my right eye covered and pain throbbing in my eyelid.

Above, the scarred square-faced man has his gloved arm extended forward, looking at with imnse disgust and ugly veins popping out on his neck and radiant bald head.

"You dare say that to my face, you damn womanizer?!"

His foot is about to crush my best friend. A backward sorsault avoids the damage, but holy shit, I was almost castrated by those spiked boots!

"You want to talk that shit to when all your money is spent on whores and beer, huh, piece of shit?!"

"Captain!" The ruined-faced guard holds the bald man back. "Sir, you can’t do that!"

"Let go of , recruit, I’ll destroy this bastard kid with my own hands!"

Ah, now I get it. My reputation as an absolute piece of trash is big in the city, of course a family man would never trust my words, especially when I show up drunk in the middle of his work shift.

This makes feel a certain pity. This guy seems like a good worker, probably loves his wife and has two kids, while I’m an asshole just wanting to get so girls and live life the way I want. We’re from different worlds, but I can understand his point.

You know what? So be it. I’ll use this.

"Alright, Captain! Arrest and put in the cell with Ravenna, I’ll prove to you that I truly love her."

"What are you talking about, kid?"

"You made realize sothing. I thought everything was lost, Captain... I thought I had nothing left to gain, that I would marry so country girl and never be by Ravenna’s side, because our affair is secret. I had to maintain an identity, you know?"

I crack a smile, crocodile tears sliding down my eyes. The years spent as a tree in the theater club finally paid off for this mont.

"I beg you, sir! I just want this chance, I just want to et her one more ti! I can’t... I can’t let Ravenna go without being able to at least see my beloved’s face!"

My words hit the captain’s nerve, especially with prostrated on my knees on the ground, in the most humiliating pose possible with my hands raised in the air.

The captain is silent, veins still pulsing along his neck and forehead. He looks at as if he wants to hang by my tailbone on the city wall, the typical look of a father who found his daughter with a secret boyfriend for the first ti, until a change finally appears.

It’s one of those rare monts where an honest man full of rage begins to doubt his own character, whether he’s truly choosing the right thing.

"A secret affair... with a traitor to the crown? Kid, are you out of your mind?"

"I’ve never been sane, sir! Nothing’s left for but love! You can arrest , you can throw in her cell, you can condemn . I accept it. Just let see her face one more ti!"

The recruit looks at the captain. The captain looks at the recruit. Finally, he clicks his tongue.

"You want in? Fine. You’ll get in. But you’ll enter as a prisoner, and I swear on my wife’s na that if you try any funny business in there, I’ll pull out your teeth with the shaft of my spear myself."

"Sir, that’s against protocol."

"Shut up, recruit. This idiot will screw himself over in there. If the Duke asks, we’ll say the bastard begged for it on his knees."

He pulls roughly by the collar. For a brief mont, I think maybe I overdid the acting, too bad it’s already too late.

I’m dragged into the building, stumbling like a lamb on its way to the slaughterhouse. The corridors reek of sweat, mold, and despair. The stone floor is damp, the muffled screams of drunkards and imprisoned prostitutes echo from so cells further back.

Before I can blink, the wooden door slams shut behind .

"Five minutes. After that, you’re going back to the gutter you crawled out of," the captain growls, pointing down the corridor ahead.

"Understood, sir," I reply, hand over my heart, still maintaining the pose of a declining romantic.

I’m escorted further inside. The corridors grow narrower, the torchlight weakens as we approach a lead gate secured by a series of special locks.

The captain opens the door and allows to enter, but he himself doesn’t dare step forward. With this, I can get a glimpse of the special cell of the comrade I’ve been searching for.

A stone bench adorns the walls along with unnaturally bent chains, as well as lted tal pieces and black marks on the floor. There are also pentagram scratches everywhere, as if soone had been practicing demonic rituals.

However, what truly catches my attention is the person sitting at the completely opposite end of the door. A young woman with a beautiful pair of thighs, one leg folded over the other in an irresistible provocation, short hair as black as night, and tal-gray eyes that analyze life with disdain.

Her body is protected by a black dress, adorned with smaller chains crossing over her breasts and thighs. Purple dots brushed the tips of the tunic, giving the impression of bat wings, while a black necklace with a ruby is the only trace of color on that dark vampire. To deliver the final blow to the heart, a mole marks the corner of her lip, painted with black lipstick.

This, ladies and gentlen, is Ravenna Galbraith.