The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

TLed by NolepGuy

Chapter 99

I felt a strange emotion at Yuria’s drunken question, asking about a feeling I had never experienced before.

“Not hating me.”

Shouldn’t that be my question to ask?

In the relationship between Yuria and me, the one in control was Yuria, not me.

The perpetrator and the victim.

Even if I had drawn a line and tormented her, the fact that I had bullied Yuria remained an unchanging wrong.

Even if I had reduced half of the hardships Yuria was originally supposed to endure. The hardships Yuria faced at the Academy were likely the first she had ever experienced, and I was one of the main culprits who gifted her those hardships.

With questions in my mind, I looked into Yuria’s eyes.

Yuria’s eyes were moist, glistening with tears. Her gaze, seemingly filled with complex emotions, left me momentarily speechless.

“Why are you asking such a question?”

“…Just because.”

Seeing Yuria attach the reason “just because” to her question, I took a moment to ponder.

I’m not familiar with the emotion of hating others. Perhaps because I live estranged from something called a burden of conscience, Yuria’s question was difficult for me to answer.

After a pause, I answered Yuria.

“Not hating you, huh. Hmm… indeed.”

“…”

Yuria tightly gripped the handle of her beer glass. Bowing her head, her thin fingers trembled slightly with every movement of her lips.

Looking at Yuria, I asked with curiosity.

“Why do you think I would hate you, Miss Yuria?”

“Because I made a big mistake…”

“A mistake?”

Yuria’s mention of a mistake plunged me into thought.

“Did you perhaps touch my wallet, or spit in the coffee you gave me? If it’s the former, that’s serious, and if it’s the latter, well… I’ll hold my tongue.”

“I didn’t do anything like that.”

“Then I really don’t understand why you’re asking such a question.”

At my response, Yuria asked in a trembling voice.

“Why…”

“Pardon?”

“Why don’t you hate me?”

I repeated the answer I had given earlier.

“Didn’t I already tell you? There’s no reason for me to hate you, Miss Yuria.”

Yuria’s expression began to crumble into tears. Perhaps because she had been troubled lately, her tearful face seemed somewhat sorrowful to me.

“Don’t lie to me.”

“Because of me… no, I… I…”

Yuria repeated the same words and then bit her lips tightly.

I didn’t know what Yuria was trying to say, but it seemed she was about to bring up something related to me.

Could it be that she had learned about one of the incidents at the Academy?

The Girls’ Dormitory fire incident, perhaps.

Or maybe one of the lies I had told her. I had moved discreetly to avoid being caught by others, but had someone seen me?

Since it was all in the past, I didn’t pay much attention to it. Facing Yuria, who was asking me questions in a trembling voice, I spoke calmly.

“Why would I hate you, Miss Yuria?”

“…”

“I may have a bit of a nasty personality, but even I know my limits.”

Yuria was at a loss for words at my response.

With her lips tightly shut, Yuria could only mutter in a small voice, “Why are you pretending not to know… You already know everything…”

As the atmosphere suddenly turned into a truth game, I decided I needed to gain something from this as well and cautiously opened my mouth.

“This time, let me ask a question. It’s only fair since Miss Yuria has been the only one asking.”

Placing both hands politely on the table, I spoke.

“Miss Yuria, do you hate me?”

Yuria hesitated, clenching her fists tightly. From her demeanor, I felt I had already received an answer.

Thanks to drunkenness, we could speak comfortably, but if I were to look deep into Yuria’s heart, it would likely be charred black.

Not hating me would actually be the strange thing.

Even if the events caused by me were meant for her, the outcome she received was still a wound.

In fact, I thought that even hoping for forgiveness was a problem in itself.

So.

In a voice close to certainty, I spoke.

“As you know, I’m someone without a conscience. Hmm… you could call me a villain.”

Yuria responded to me with a rebuttal. Without a moment’s hesitation, she spoke firmly in denial.

“No, you’re not.”

“Thank you for saying so, but Miss Yuria, you know what you saw of me at the Academy.”

“That was all because there was a reason…!”

I clenched my fist tightly.

“What reason?”

“…”

“What reason do you think justified me tormenting you, Miss Yuria?”

“Lady Olivia…!”

“Hmm.”

I thought it was time to be a little harsher.

Though it was a blunt remark, I wanted Yuria to draw a clear line, so I coldly retorted.

“Even if the Young Lady ordered it, those things wouldn’t have happened if I had refused.”

It would have been harder if I hadn’t stepped in, but I didn’t bother to say that.

Because it wasn’t cool.

And because I didn’t want Yuria to feel guilty.

That was the atonement I could offer.

And one of the few gifts I could give Yuria as a possessor.

“If I had given you even a hint beforehand, it might have been harder. And if I hadn’t sided with the Young Lady, you might have had a more comfortable life at the Academy.”

Hearing my cold words, Yuria clenched her fists and shouted.

“Then why did you help me?”

Yuria’s voice was heavy with emotion.

“In the dungeon, in the classroom, even when I was eating alone, it was always Ricardo who came to my side!”

“I mean nothing to you. I’m nothing to Ricardo…! So why did you treat me so kindly?”

“Did you pity me?”

“Did I seem pathetic because I was alone?”

“Or…”

“Was all of this just another scheme of yours, Ricardo?”

Yuria’s eyes trembled.

Faced with her gaze, filled with truth, I couldn’t easily find the words to speak. I didn’t know what to say or what emotion to convey. For someone like me, unfamiliar with such feelings, it was hard to come up with an answer.

So I decided to end the conversation in a trivial manner.

“…Indeed.”

“I don’t know either.”

“Maybe it’s because I’m a bad person.”

*

On the way back home.

Yuria, drunk, was carried on my back.

For someone who couldn’t even drink, to overindulge like this. With an awkward smile, she would down a beer in one shot when I gave a vague answer, and order another when I tried to dodge the question.

And so, the now-drunken Yuria was on my back.

“Ugh… the world is strange.”

“Miss Yuria, you’re the strange one.”

“Ugh… ugh… my stomach feels queasy.”

“Could you please hold it in?”

The ominous retching motion from Yuria made me uneasy, but I couldn’t just leave her on the cold floor, so I let out a deep sigh and headed toward the Academy.

“It’s been so long since I’ve taken this path, I barely remember it.”

With hazy memories from about a year and a half ago, I walked through the park like a monk lost on his pilgrimage.

Surely, if I followed the main road, there should have been a sign pointing to the Academy.

After retracing the same path multiple times, I found myself standing in a gloomy alleyway.

“Hmm… is this some kind of hallucination magic?”

I let out a deep sigh.

It felt like someone had been following me for a while now.

The sensation was incredibly unpleasant.

Ever since we left the tavern, someone had been persistently tailing us, and now that we’d reached a dead-end alley, they began to reveal themselves, creeping out like cockroaches hiding under a pillow.

Letting out another deep sigh, I muttered to myself.

“I wonder if violence caused by drinking can be excused as temporary insanity.”

Between the dark alleys, one by one, black silhouettes of people began to appear.

A man slowly stepped forward, wearing the Academy’s school uniform, while the men emerging behind him had swords at their waists.

The men, exuding a menacing aura, approached me.

And the one who seemed to be their leader revealed himself from the shadows and spoke.

“I received your gift. Ricardo sure played an amusing prank. I thought I was going to die.”

A man wearing black-rimmed glasses.

Looking at his face, I gave him a calm smile.

“Hans.”

Hans glanced at Yuria, who was on my back, and said.

“Leave that behind.”

“Calling someone ‘that’? That’s quite offensive.”

A haze-like black aura began to emanate from Hans’s hand. The pitch-black darkness grew so thick that it obscured the alley.

I spoke to Hans, who was slowly approaching me.

“So, you dropped out and joined their side?”

Hans chuckled softly and replied.

“They’re generous with grades over here.”

“Hmm… I see.”

I carefully placed my hand on the hilt of Tirbing. Then, looking at him with emotionless eyes, I said.

“I think it’d be better if you just left.”

Hans’s eyes began to tremble violently as he saw the black blade.

“Otherwise…”

I am not the kind of person Yuria thinks of as a good person.

I am someone who meticulously calculates benefits and avoids battles I might lose. Such a person as me didn’t suit the label of a good person.

In a calm voice, I responded to Hans.

“You’ll die.”

Hans muttered softly.

“Try killing me.”

“Alright.”

The pitch-black darkness vanished with a single slash.

Hans looked at me with vacant eyes.

Hans, staring at me with the same expression Pascal had, muttered softly.

“Crazy bastard.”

[Limit Break tests the limits of ‘Dark Magic Resistance.’]