The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

TLed by NolepGuy

Chapter 96

The busy day came to an end.

After escorting the Young Lady, who absurdly claimed that mint chocolate tteokbokki was the greatest masterpiece, back to the estate, I strolled through the capital in the late evening.

“Mint chocolate is the bane of society.”

Muttering the nonsense the Young Lady had uttered, I let out a deep sigh.

Despite the late hour, the streets of the capital were bustling with people.

The Guards on night patrol, adventurers unwinding at taverns after a hard day’s work, and Academy students burning with youthful energy.

Watching the people wrapping up their exhausting days, I murmured to myself.

“They’re young. So young.”

I, too, had a time like that once.

Back in my Academy days.

Though it was less than a year, I had lived a rather student-like life.

Roaming around for fortuitous encounters.

Completing quests.

Taking down remnants of heretics.

Hmm…

It wasn’t exactly a great school life, was it?

Thinking back, it suddenly struck me that my school days weren’t ordinary. Instead of leisurely enjoying my youth like others, I spent that time living a life more fitting of the word “busy.”

Still, it was fun in its own way.

Though the Young Lady gave me quite a headache, the fact that the story was entering its main phase made it all the more interesting.

Seeing events I had only read about in the novel actually unfold and watching the heroine, Yuria, grow was both fascinating and heartwarming.

Yuria’s bullying incident.

The Academy Fire.

The process of Yuria and Ruin becoming close.

Witnessing events that had only existed in the novel felt, how should I put it, like an emotion difficult to put into words.

They were memories I didn’t entirely dislike, as they included moments of both tears and laughter. Especially the memories with Yuria—they were a bit more special.

I had intended only to watch over her, but we grew close.

I had planned to live as a stranger, but the memories of becoming friends were not easily forgotten.

Walking through the shimmering marketplace, I reminisced about those old memories.

-Why are you crying here?

-Huh…?

Thinking back to the first time we spoke, I looked up at the brightly lit moon.

“It’s disgustingly bright.”

I should have a drink for the first time in a while.

*

A tavern near the Academy.

In a quiet corner of a regular shop, Yuria sat with a gloomy expression.

A place where not many people came.

A tavern devoid of rowdy adventurers or unpleasant individuals.

The small bar-style tavern was Yuria’s regular spot, a place where even a woman visiting alone didn’t have to worry about being harassed.

Though Yuria wasn’t particularly fond of alcohol, it was a place she occasionally visited when she felt down—a place filled with old memories.

Draping her outer garment over the chair, Yuria timidly raised her hand.

“Excuse me…”

The clerk, busy wiping glasses with a dry cloth, didn’t hear Yuria’s timid voice.

Yuria turned her head, glancing around nervously.

Couples in love.

Students laughing as they prepared to wrap up the semester. Yuria hoped to catch the clerk’s attention, but the busy clerk’s eyes didn’t meet her wish.

Watching the situation, Yuria hunched her shoulders and mumbled softly.

“Can’t they hear me…?”

Closing her eyes tightly, Yuria called out to the clerk in a louder voice than before.

“Excuse me… I’d like to order!”

However, Yuria’s timid voice was drowned out by the noise of the other guests and failed to reach the clerk’s ears.

“Ah… ugh…”

Fidgeting with her fingers, it took quite some time before the clerk finally approached, allowing Yuria to place her order.

“I’m sorry. It’s unusually busy today. Haha…”

“No, it’s fine. Um… could I get a draft beer and some jerky?”

The clerk nodded at Yuria’s order and jotted it down.

“One draft beer and jerky, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Please wait a moment. I’ll bring it out shortly!”

Yuria responded to the clerk in a small voice.

“Take your time.”

“Got it~!”

After a short while, a plate of bite-sized jerky and a cold beer were placed on Yuria’s dining table.

Staring quietly at the beer, Yuria let out a deep sigh from her core.

“Haa…”

A deep sigh filled with heavy thoughts.

Perhaps because of the weight of the worries she carried inside, Yuria, who usually didn’t enjoy alcohol, found herself gazing sadly at the beer.

“Why am I so stupid?”

Yuria muttered in a bitter voice.

“I can’t even do what I’m supposed to properly, I jump to conclusions on my own…”

In Yuria’s dejected murmurs, there was a clear sense of self-reproach. Ever since the hallucination she had seen in the dungeon, Yuria had been unable to shake off her gloomy mood, and her self-esteem was steadily declining.

When I first discovered I had a talent for divine power, I was so happy… but these days, it feels like there are more depressing moments.

Interpersonal relationships, too.

Studying, as well.

As the school years progressed, the weight of her worries only grew heavier.

-Dad! I… I got accepted into the Royal Academy!

-What!?

-Yeah! I was even selected as a scholarship student, hehe!

-My daughter is amazing!

-Of course! Now you can quit being an adventurer and just live off the allowance I’ll earn!

-Puhaha! Are you seriously telling me to quit!?

-Of course!

-No way. I still need to earn your allowance.

-No, I’ll study super hard and keep getting scholarships! So, Dad, take a break for a bit.

How long had it been since I was thrilled at the thought of becoming a daughter worthy of my father, who lived as an adventurer despite his uncomfortable body?

Thinking about the time when I earned a scholarship through painstaking effort and gave my father an allowance still made my heart swell, but thinking about my current school life only made Yuria feel depressed.

At the start of the semester.

Yuria was being bullied.

-Why is she acting so uppity? She’s just a commoner.

Back when I thought being outgoing would help me make friends. Yuria had her first encounter with the wall of social status.

Everything I did was disliked.

Even just passing by, they’d insult me, saying I smelled bad during the early days at the Academy. Yuria had been mentally exhausted.

Back in the quiet countryside, smiling brightly and being lively made friends like me, but the Academy wasn’t like that.

If I hung out with boys, I was a fox.

If I brazenly approached the girls, I was called a shallow idiot.

I didn’t know how to fit in.

No matter how much I tried to change myself to avoid being criticized, all I got in return were cold reactions.

-Why are you pretending to be close?

-Seriously, it’s so awkward.

Thinking about it alone, the truth was, Yuria hated her Academy life.

The Academy life Yuria had anticipated was cold, and despite its claim of no discrimination between commoners and nobles, there was an unmistakable invisible line.

In the gray monotony of Academy life, Ricardo became Yuria’s sole source of joy.

He was confident, unlike her.

Because she had fallen for him at first sight.

At the Freshman Orientation.

When she first saw him, the emotion she felt was so overwhelming that the words “This is crazy” naturally came to mind.

Deep red hair.

Striking tall height.

Features without a single flaw.

Ricardo, with an appearance that seemed both fierce and kind at the same time, made Yuria feel the emotion of falling for someone for the first time.

Though the opinions of the students around him weren’t very favorable…

-Is that him? Olivia’s butler?

-Probably. He totally looks like a crazy woman’s butler.

-Connections really are everything. Even a commoner bastard like him can get into the Imperial Academy.

-Hey, your voice is too loud.

-Why? Let him hear. It’s the truth anyway.

Ricardo was infamous for having a bad personality.

Among nobles, he was called a Mad Dog.

Among commoners, he was labeled a lowly bastard who sucked up to the nobles, surrounded by malicious rumors. But Yuria wasn’t swayed by those when it came to Ricardo’s appearance.

She wondered why people hated him so much.

He was so handsome; why wouldn’t they like him?

It was a petty thought, but back then, she was actually relieved that she had fewer rivals to be jealous of. If, in her imagination, she were to become his lover, it would mean there’d be no one to compete with.

Just as every student harbors a first love in their heart, Ricardo had settled in Yuria’s heart as her object of admiration.

When Yuria ended up in the same class as Ricardo, she buried her face in her pillow and squealed with joy for the first time.

-This is crazy… This is crazy…! We’re in the same class! What do I do!!!

Especially since Ricardo’s behavior was so peculiar that she couldn’t stop laughing whenever she saw him.

-Hey. Commoner. Go to the store and buy me some bread.

-What.

-What? A commoner talking back?

-A noble talking back?

-You crazy bastard.

-Young Lady!!!

Ricardo, who never cowered just because he was a commoner, rampaged wildly without caring about others’ gazes.

Maybe it was because he had strong backing, but Yuria thought Ricardo’s actions stemmed more from a fundamental boisterous personality and confidence.

In the early days of enrollment, he even got into fistfights with nobles and used dirty tricks like throwing sand during Ranking Battles to secure victories.

The students’ evaluations of Ricardo hit rock bottom, but he didn’t care and lived his life as usual.

Just watching from the sidelines made her happy, excited… and at the same time, she cheered him on.

That was how Yuria spent her school days.

Then, one day.

Yuria spoke to Ricardo for the first time. Not by her own will, but by someone else’s. And it was in the most humiliating situation she could imagine.

[Idiot.]

The day she ran away after seeing red graffiti on her desk.

-Why are you crying here?

Ricardo had approached her as she was crying.