The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen - Chapter 43



43 – Two Guests -1-

Three weeks had passed.

Three weeks, whether short or long, had quickly changed the awkwardness between us.

We spent one week in silence, feeling awkward.

Another week exchanged awkward greetings.

In the last week, we faced each other and had a serious conversation.

An apology for causing a terrible event and a thank you. And we talked about our arms.

The more we talked, the more tears the lady shed, but our awkward relationship started to recover.

Crying while looking at the arm.

Crying while looking at the awkward smile.

Crying even when looking at the stars that appeared at night.

Like a man going through menopause, the lady, whose sensitivity had increased, gradually regained her smile as we spent more time talking and looking at each other.

That day, the lady said,

She will reduce her curse words and her complaints about side dishes.

And she was really sorry.

We got to know each other and made sincere apologies.

The lady faced my arms once again. She looked at my hand with trembling hands, saying that if not now, there would be no chance.

I couldn’t forget the expression on the lady’s face, still soaked in shock.

-…Did I create this?

-I…

The young lady, who had been silent for a while, looked up and covered her face with her hands, crying.

The young lady gradually returned.

As the audacious and food-loving villainess, Olivia.

She hadn’t changed for the worse like before.

“Ricardo, what do you want to eat?”

She returned as a generous villainess who gave choices in selecting the menu.

Although she still made a teary face whenever she saw me and said “Ah… Does it hurt?” when I scratched my arm, it was very different from when I saw her three weeks ago.

She wasn’t the lifeless young lady anymore, but a brazen young lady.

I liked this better.

I preferred the young lady who, even if a little shameless, would say everything she wanted to say and express what she desired, rather than being locked up in the room burdened with guilt.

I had been hiding the scars on my hands because I was afraid it would create a suffocating atmosphere, so maybe this wasn’t so bad either.

*

In the quiet room of the young lady.

The young lady sitting on the bed furrowed her eyebrows and focused on one spot.

Like a surgeon in the operating room, the young lady concentrated, holding a cotton swab in one hand and ointment in the other.

The words of the adults came to mind.

The words of the adults saying that if she had studied that hard, she would have gone to Seoul National University. If the young lady had focused on her studies like she does now, she would have easily been the top student in her grade.

First place in practical exams at the Magic Department.

Last place in written exams, the young lady.

The young lady squeezed the ointment from the cotton swab and hiccuped.

“Sniff.”

She bit her lip and concentrated, trembling her hand, and said to me.

“If it hurts, let me know.”

“Ah…”

“…Hic!”

Even though I didn’t touch her, she shivered when I said it hurt. I laughed as I watched her.

“I didn’t even touch you.”

“Is… Is that so?”

“Phew.”

Taking a deep sigh, the young lady focused on her right hand, which was wrapped in a sleeve.

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With an expression that seemed like she would cry if provoked, the young lady concentrated on her wounds. She seemed so desperate to be mocked.

I covered my twitching lips and looked at her sparkling right hand.

Instead of the black scar, her right hand only showed white ointment. Laughter escaped me due to excessive concern.

“Young lady.”

“…Be quiet. I’m concentrating.”

“If you apply this much, it might even make it into tonight’s steak.”

She flinched. The young lady, who had stopped her hand at the mention of food, awkwardly nodded and turned the wheel of hope.

“Since it’s meat that is hurt, applying ointment might make it worse.”

“That’s a reasonable argument.”

“…Isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

The young lady made a gloomy expression and mumbled, “Then let’s eat a little less tasty.”

The young lady was putting ointment all over my arm.

She applied it to the already treated areas.

She even applied it to the unharmed areas.

In my eyes, there didn’t seem to be any more places to apply, but in the young lady’s eyes, it seemed insufficient.

It was as if she was giving me a foam bath, and the sticky ointment had already exceeded two tubes. But still, she was taking out another unopened ointment from the first-aid kit.

The young lady muttered,

“If it hurts… I can’t bear it.”

“It doesn’t hurt.”

“But still…”

The young lady said as she applied ointment to the unharmed areas.

“It can’t hurt.”

The young lady ignored my words.

Poking at the wound to check my reaction, and whimpering if I flinched from itchiness. “Oh… It can’t hurt, right?” muttered the young lady to herself.

Applying ointment to skin that had died from dark magic was a meaningless act, but it was me who extended my arm because of the young lady’s touch filled with affection.

I remember that time. It was the day after I showed the young lady my wounds properly. She spoke to me with a serious expression, and my heart was trembling as if I would die.

-Get away.

-Yes?

At that moment, on the day when a shameful thought had entered my mind, causing inner conflict, the young lady closed her eyes tightly and said to me.

– I’m going to bandage your arm. Take off your clothes.

– My arm?

Though I awkwardly hid my arm behind my back, the young lady, who had already figured everything out, was determined and unyielding. If I didn’t show it to her, she would lie in bed all day, sulking and thinking, ‘I’m a bad girl…!’ How could I avoid it?

After rolling up my sleeve, the young lady wiped away her tears and spoke bravely.

– I’m going to apply some ointment.

She spoke decisively.

Reluctantly, I showed my arm to the young lady, and right there, I began to apply the ointment as she cried.

– Sigh… S-sigh…

– Why are you crying again?

– It stings… and it looks very painful…

Since then, showing my arm to the young lady became a daily routine.

When I bought chocolate, she would take gold coins from her pocket and tell me to buy ointment. Of course, the warm coins were carefully stored in my drawer.

I couldn’t give away the coins with such a deep story behind them. It was absolutely not for perverted reasons.

“Okay.”

With a bandage wrapped around her arm, the young lady smiled contentedly.

“hehehehe…!”

As if proud, she straightened her shoulders and looked at her bandaged hand. I looked at her work, which contained the essence of her soul, and smiled with a feeling of nostalgia.

“What’s this?”

“Treatment.”

“Isn’t it wrapped too thick to call it treatment? If the maids see it, they’ll think your arm is broken.”

The loosely wrapped bandage was so thick that it could be used as a splint even if you were asked to nail a nail through it.

“hehehehe…”

She had a self-satisfied expression, so I couldn’t complain.

The young lady took out a pen and started drawing on the bandage.

“What are you doing?”

“A magic spell.”

“The drawing looks too despairing to call it a magic spell.”

“…Be quiet. I’m focusing.”

The young lady continued to draw on the bandage.

One orc and one goblin.

A beautiful letter was left for me, saying, “Hurry up.” But the monster family photo didn’t quite fit in.

I looked at the orc, who had a sinister expression, and said, “Um, do you have fangs?”

The lady nodded vigorously.

“Yup.”

“…”

I wanted to hit them with a club.

I pointed at the goblin next to them, who had an unusual chest. A seductive design of a goblin that reminded me of the lady’s emergency fund.

When I pointed at it, the corners of the lady’s mouth rose.

“Is this yours, miss?”

She nodded in the same way. She looked at me with shiny eyes, full of expectations for her masterpiece, which she had poured her artistic soul into.

“How is it?”

I turned my head towards the window.

“Why don’t you have an answer?”

“…”

“Are you amazed because it’s so well drawn?”

It’s not right to give false hope to someone with desperate talent. What if she mistakenly thinks she has talent in art and becomes a painter? My compliments were not taken lightly, as they were enough to praise her desperate talent.

The lady looked at me cautiously.

With my pronunciation blurred, I said, sticking out my lips, facing the lady’s threatening gaze.

“Well… it’s well drawn.”

“Really?”

“Yes. The goblin and…”

‘Ah… I made a mistake.’

The lady furrowed her brows.

“It’s not a goblin…”

Disappointed, the lady lowered her head gloomily.

I offered words of comfort to the lady.

“I’m glad you don’t have great ambitions in art, miss.”

The lady threw a pen.

The warm sunlight entered my eyes.

Today, once again, in the sunny yard of the mansion.

The lady came out after a long time and took a seat.

Worried about what would happen if I got hurt during sword practice, she insisted on being my medical officer and carefully examined my body.

I vigorously swung the sword in front of her. I thought it would be nice to show off some fancy swordsmanship since I had the opportunity.

Swoosh. The sound of the wind cutting through the air in the mansion’s yard.

As I demonstrated my sword skills, leaving traces in the empty space, the lady widened her eyes and applauded.

“Oh…!”

I wiped my sweat and made artificial breathing sounds like the protagonist in a novel.

“How is it?”

The lady looked at me with an indifferent expression, focusing on my right arm instead of the swordsmanship.

I thought she would like it when she heard the applause, but she just clapped without much enthusiasm.

The lady spoke to me.

“No meteor or anything like that?”

“No.”

“No laser beams?”

“Impossible.”

“Not impressive.”

The lady touched a nerve of a man’s pride. She looked at me with a bored expression, drumming her fingers on her stomach.

“Can’t you split a mountain or slice through the sky like that?”

“Swordmasters can’t do that either.”

The lady gave me a stern look.

“Can Ricardo do it?”

“Well, that’s…”

Challenged by the lady’s provocations that touched my pride in many ways, I felt a switch flip.

The lady said, “Ugh, not impressive,” once more, and then leaned back in her chair, showing a nonchalant posture.

“I’m hungry.”

The lady was really getting on my nerves.

I can’t take it anymore.

Even if I faint, I must hear the sound of “Oh…! Impressive” from the lady. If this continues, I will surely remain in the lady’s memory as a butler who handles a kitchen knife well.

I raised my sword, Oler.

[The breakthrough (L) tests the limits of Oler.]

When the lady saw the sword shining with a red light like the sun, her eyes sparkled.

“Do you see it?”

“Oh…”

The lady showed an interesting reaction. At the moment when she was about to gather Oler closer to the sword.

“Oh…”

“Oh…”

Familiar voices of a man and a woman were heard.

Two people with bright brown hair.

They were uninvited guests.

I put down my sword and stood at the entrance, looking at the two men and women who were quietly watching over me.

“Miss Hana?”

The Histania siblings were standing at the entrance of the mansion, getting along well.

Hana, with a bandage wrapped around her sword, smiled at me.

“It’s me, Master.”

It had been a long time since I saw a guest.

“I came because I was hungry.”