The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

In someone’s hazy dream, as if shrouded in mist.

The dream’s owner was crouched, throwing pebbles into a sewer where filth flowed.

The owner of the dream was a small, fragile girl. With silvery hair like the Milky Way spilled across the night sky and fragile shoulders that seemed ready to disappear at any moment, she sat crouched.

Depressed.

Everything was unfamiliar to her.

‘Plop.’ The sound of a pebble falling into the sewer made her sniffle.

-Mom…

The world was too vast for the girl who had been abandoned by her parents. Although it was cold, the world her parents protected was everything to her.

Even being scolded for being dirty.

Even when people pitied her by dropping coins to the ground, it was frightening and challenging for her.

The girl always held onto hope.

She believed that, after just one night of sleep, her parents who abandoned her would come to take her back.

Her parents made that promise when they let go of her hand, so she didn’t want to let go.

Imagining herself different from those scruffy kids, the girl wandered around the place where her parents left her, like an abandoned puppy.

-Why aren’t they coming…

Outside, the voices of children laughing and playing could be heard.

The girl didn’t want to hear the laughter of the kids who were happy about having received a lot of coins in their donation boxes.

Giggling over what would disappear after buying just one toy, she couldn’t understand them.

The money was woefully insufficient to escape the slums.

As the pitiful noises of her sniffling intensified.

A soft touch was felt on the girl’s head. A tentative yet warm and playful touch.

The girl rubbed her head and looked back, feeling a sharp pain.

-Who are you!

-Who else? The most handsome beggar in the world.

In front of her stood a boy with red hair.

.

The boy smiled and spoke to the girl.

-What are you doing, kiddo?

-Mind your own business.

-You’re really prickly. As if you’re the protagonist or something.

-What!

-Nothing~ Today, too, you look handsome.

Despite the girl’s sharp reaction, the boy smiled lightly and moved on.

Normally, other kids would distance themselves after seeing his negative attitude, but the red-haired boy didn’t.

The girl disliked the boy.

She was annoyed by the scruffy kid talking to her.

She was annoyed by how he kept trying to get close.

She thought she was different.

She thought she was different from the abandoned ones like them. She pushed the boy away.

-The spot next to you is empty.

ht of him sitting on the damp ground with a wry smile.

Used to being rejected, the girl found the cold shoulder easier to give.

The boy hummed a tune after sitting quietly for a while.

-When mother goes to gather oysters…

The song the boy sang was unfamiliar but not unpleasant.

-When mother goes to gather oysters by the shadow of the island…

ard it only made it linger more.

-The baby stays behind to watch the house…

The girl just hugged her knees and listened to the boy sing.

-The waves tell the baby… Aaahhh↗ Ahem. Is my voice breaking?

The girl disliked the boy.

She disliked how he kept acting familiar.

And.

The girl liked the boy.

When the boy’s humming reached its sorrowful end, the girl turned to look at him.

-I’m good at singing, right?

-You sing terribly.

-I’ll sing better next time.

The boy smiled and flicked her on the forehead.

-Kiddo.

As always, the boy pulled out a piece of chocolate from his pocket and offered it to her.

The girl’s dirty hands, holding the wrapper stained with wear, didn’t seem so bad anymore.

-Eat up, just for you.

*

Late evening.

Michail, panting heavily, wiped the sweat from his forehead and woke up.

It’s that dream again.

The nightmare, always containing an old memory that remained hidden without showing a face, came again.

He ht back sad memories, thumping at his heart.

It was an old memory.

A very old one.

Even after over ten years, the memory still haunted Michail.

“Stop appearing already.”

How long are you going to torment me?

Isn’t it time to stop?

I know. That I’m a bad person.

But… I need to live my life too…

Michail hugged his knees and buried his face in them. Feeling like he might cry if he let go of his emotions, his shoulders quivered as he repeated deep breaths.

“Hoo… Hoo…”

The mistakes of the past weighed heavily on Michail.

A child abandoned by his parents in the slums.

The gentle image of the red-haired boy who always called him ‘kiddo’ was still alive in Michail’s memory.

And the guilt over his actions towards the boy grew larger.

Promising never to kill another person by his own hand again, his obsession with justice bordered on the pathological. It was all to atone for his wrongdoing.

He knew.

How pathetic his stubbornness was.

And that Ricardo’s words were practical advice.

-Are you an idiot?

Knowing full well that those blunt words carried weight and sincerity, Michail accepted them.

But.

He had an unwavering stubbornness too.

-Run away!

-…

-Don’t just stand there. Run…!

The only thing left for him, who couldn’t stay with the boy until the end, was his crude stubbornness.

“Sigh…”

Michail began slowly peeling off his sweat-drenched shirt.

Swish. The shirt slipped off his slender shoulders and fell to the ground, revealing his white, naked body.

Michail’s skin was as white as porcelain, his body fragile and alluring, not looking like a man’s.

He looked at his reflection in the mirror.

“…”

Without saying a word, he merely gazed at his own form, lowering his head.

To soothe his troubled heart, maybe he should take a walk.

Michail picked up a bandage from the desk and began wrapping it around his chest.

Skillfully wrapping his chest in bandages, Michail quietly watched, and a bitter smile came over him as he looked at his reflection in the mirror.

“…It’s suffocating.”

*

“Heya! Heeheehee!”

Today, too, the mansion was peaceful.

like a villainess.

“Fetch!”

-Gom!

“Heehee!”

. Though I was annoyed by her remarks comparing a bear to a human, saying I couldn’t do such things, I’m not petty enough to be bothered by such trivial provocations, so I smiled faintly and looked out at the wide yard.

“Throw it as far as you can.”

“Okay.”

“Throw it as far as possible. I want to show the difference between a bear and a human.”

“Okay…!”

Since it was to defend human dignity, maybe I should be excused.

To grab the ball before Gomtangi, I placed my sword on the ground and gathered strength in my legs.

“Fuuuu! Eeyaaahhh!!!”

With the lady’s spirited shout, the rubber ball flew. Swallowing my saliva, I tensed my legs.

-Thud.

The ball fell helplessly to the ground, and I looked at it with an awkward expression.

The lady, with an embarrassed expression, looked at the rubber ball on the ground.

“Hmm…”

Seeing my disappointed look, the lady awkwardly smiled.

“Heh!”

“…”

Our awkward gazes met.

Maybe such a valuable lesson and was about to bend over to pick up the ball when.

-Gom!

Gomtangi, wagging his tail, picked up the ball from the ground and walked to the lady.

“That darn bear.”

“Pfft. You lost to Gomtangi.”

“Throw it again.”

The lady repeated throwing the rubber ball until her arm cramped.

“Enough…!”

“No.”

“Heee!”

*

Hans was shedding tears of joy.

“Magic…!”

The grimoire Hans received wasn’t an extraordinary one. Of course, that standard applied to Ricardo, who knew a lot.

The grimoire Hans received was one that should have returned to the possession of the heretics.

Since Hans, htful owner.

Grimoire ‘Black Wall’

The magic that had most troubled the protagonist’s group in the original story, the ultimate barrier magic, was now in Hans’s hands, who was pledging his loyalty with tears.

And.

“Mmm…”

Olivia was watching Hans, who was hiding his appearance.

End of Chapter