The Villain’s Ending

Chapter 109

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After that, once my body had recovered somewhat, I stubbornly crawled out to the front lines.

Seraphina tried to stop me with a face that looked almost like she was about to cry, but it was no use.

Of course, there was no fighting at the front or anything like that.

When I naturally strapped a sword to my waist and tried to follow Seraphina, she glared at me with eyes that truly seemed ready to cut off my leg.

After all, if she could easily take off a wrist, there's no way she couldn't take off an ankle.

Sometimes, that is, very occasionally, when I sustained injuries that wouldn't be strange if I died soon, but didn't feel like I was going to die, that strange sensation I had felt in Lineta's village would revisit me.

A sensation as if I could somehow fight back against anyone who came.

A baseless confidence that no matter how the world unfolded, everything would go my way.

Now, far from throwing myself into danger to find those fragments, I was comfortably and safely mingling with noble lords from behind, though.If I think back to how often things went according to my wishes, it doesn't seem to have been very often.

And most of the time, things went wrong because of Seraphina, Estelle, or Levina.

Well, I know very well that grumbling without having properly accomplished anything is a pathetic sight, so I'm only thinking it to myself.

Anyway, thanks to Seraphina, I am in a safe place, far away, watching mages launch spells into the distance.

The view outside the window seemed like something from another world.

The streaks of light cutting across the sky looked like fireworks unrelated to me.

Drinking a cheap cup of coffee, I stared blankly only at the outside.

Even though I wasn't really imprisoned.

After requisitioning a civilian house near the battlefield, there was a bed, and the food was quite good... there was nothing really bad, but a certain restless feeling wouldn't disappear.

Or rather, it made me feel uneasy.

Killing a few demons was a meaningless act, and not many demons or heretics were captured as prisoners either.

Even if I tried to find something out, there was nothing helpful.

It seemed they were people who, like me, had humans from Earth in their heads, or rather, proud to explode and die 'honorably' before being captured.

I took out a dagger from my waist, placed the blade on my palm, and toyed with it this way and that.

The cold sensation of steel contrasted with the heat of my palm.

It was then.

A somewhat familiar-faced person, stepping through the open door into the room, spoke to me.

I wondered if I had opened the door for nothing.

He was someone who attended classes in the same place as me, and for a noble, he associated with Kyle quite often, but I didn't seem to know his name well.

I think he said something while we ate alone, but I wasn't at all interested.

His left arm was wrapped in bandages, and he was limping.

"As an illegitimate child with no rights, you must have no duties.

I don't know why you try to fight at the front as if your life isn't precious.

You don't even seem like someone obsessed with honor."

I shrugged without answering, and then drank my coffee.

The coffee was cold and tasteless.

It was like drinking muddy water.

"Do you know what Kyle is called among the soldiers these days?"

The young man said, approaching closer.

I took out the pistol from my waist and aimed it at him.

"I don't give a fuck, so just shut your mouth."

The young man's face turned pale, and he backed away.

I put the gun back into my pocket.

I naturally took out a cigarette from my pocket, clamped it in my mouth, and lit it.

I inhaled the smoke deeply, then slowly exhaled.

The hazy smoke dispersed in front of the young man's face.

He frowned slightly and walked out of the room.

Beyond the door where he had disappeared, distant explosions could still be heard.

The sound of the world collapsing.

Thus, every day I would lie in a not-so-comfortable bed and fall asleep, spending my days mostly eating.

In fact, most of the time I was reading the book Seraphina had given me, all day long.

Vague things like how to cast spells... and what it felt like.

****

And a few days later, Levina arrived, her face utterly exhausted.

Her armor was dented in various places, and dried bloodstains remained on her face.

Today, as always, I was smoking a cigarette.

Levina saw me, didn't say anything particular, and chuckled.

She approached me, snatched the cigarette from my hand, and put it in her own mouth.

Then, after sitting on my lap, she kissed me directly, forcing the smoke into my mouth.

The acrid smoke plunged deep into my lungs.

"Cough, hack...."

When I coughed and looked at Levina, she gave a shy smile.

"Yes, this is where you belong, stuck here."

She said, gently stroking my bangs.

Her fingers were cold and rough.

"While your sister was suffering like a dog outside, how was it, resting comfortably inside?"

I didn't answer and just stared blankly at Levina.

Her eyes were exhausted from fatigue, but there was a strange glint in them.

When I didn't say anything, Levina got up, looked down at me, and touched my cheek.

"Say something, won't you?

You could have just stayed with me in a safe place, but instead you crawled all the way here and just ate food. How was that?"

"Sometimes, I wonder if you do this because you want to be hit by me."

I said.

I approached her, and crushed the cigarette in Levina's hand with my fingers, extinguishing it.

The hot ember crushed between her fingers and mine.

There was a faint smell of burning flesh.

"I can't be a parent to you, sister. This is all I've ever seen and learned."

I continued speaking, and rather than hitting Levina's cheek, I lightly poked it.

Her skin was cold.

The more I spoke with my sister, the more Levina seemed to understand being hit by me as something akin to parental love or attention.

At least I want to believe I haven't gone this insane.

Because when I realize I'm always doing the exact same things Levina did, it makes me want to hang myself.

Levina grabbed my hand that was touching her cheek, and intertwined our fingers.

"I want to do this in front of others just like this.

What would their reaction be?

If your fiancée and the Saintess saw siblings clinging to each other like this."

I grabbed Levina by the neck and gently applied pressure.

"They'd probably try to strangle you to death."

Levina chuckled, gasping for air.

Because I had gripped her neck just enough for her to barely breathe.

"Not you, cough, not you?"

"Yeah. They'd certainly do that."

I felt somewhat sorry for Levina.

No matter what emotions she felt, what she saw, or what experiences she had, she had simply grown up like this.

As a person who could only think and act in this way.

And I was the same.

What had actually changed only after I blew my head off and died in front of Levina? Because no matter what I did, in the eyes of others, it probably didn't feel much different from what this woman was doing.

Even when Levina craved a kiss from me, and sometimes approached me, uttering loving words... Just as I always viewed Levina as just 'that kind of person'.

Now that Levina had come, Seraphina and Estelle would probably return soon.

I released the pressure on Levina's neck and said with a sigh.

"Perhaps we'll have to live like this our entire lives."

"You're already thinking that far ahead."

Levina said.

Her voice had regained its usual composure.

However, for some reason, the strange expression she'd worn since earlier, one I hadn't seen before, bothered me.

"Not for my entire life, but just like this... It's fine if you don't marry anyone and just die with me.

Instead, I'll die first.

At least then, you'll never forget me for the rest of your life."

Instead of answering, I left the room.

Levina followed me.

Her footsteps were strangely light.

Her voice, as she followed and spoke, was also somewhat excited.

"Is your sister's love too overwhelming for you? Hmm?"

"Yeah. It's so overwhelming that I feel like I'll be crushed by it."

After leaving the building, somehow breathing the stuffy air, I stretched, looking in the direction where shouts could still be heard from afar.

The sky was blue.

"By the way, when's Seraphina coming?"

"Well, it'll take a while. The Demons have retreated, but they left a lot of stragglers behind, so there's a lot to clear up, they say. Still, she'll probably come tomorrow."

Levina said, taking a short breath.

With a strangely subtle expression, too.

"Estelle will probably also come tomorrow."

She slowly walked around, then stopped right in front of me.

"Can't you go back now? Whether you marry Seraphina or Estelle, I'll truly bless and help you, so go back to the territory and live peacefully. In a place where sounds like these can't be heard."

"Lavin, you know you don't belong in a place like this. That day... ever since the day we went to the annex, you seem to have completely changed. Let's go back. Because I'm genuinely worried."

I looked at Levina and asked.

"If I go back, will nothing happen?"

"Right now, far from actually pushing back the Demons, we're slowly being pushed back, barely patching up the holes... Can we really live peacefully, as if nothing is happening?"

I continued.

"It's possible... it's not impossible... but then the end is too painful."

The feeling of watching someone go off to die is not pleasant.

I return if I die, but the people in front of me don't.

"So sister, die here with me, at the hands of the Demons.

For someone who killed her own mother with her hands and loves her younger brother, it's a decent end, isn't it? Dying while fighting for humanity, something like that."

"Then kiss me.

Even if these are things only found in erotic novels, tell me that even if you say harsh things to me, grumble, and act disgusted, it's actually because you haven't realized your true feelings.

Love me sincerely."

When I didn't answer, just smiling faintly, Levina slowly approached me.

And after staring blankly at me, she came closer and hugged me tightly when I didn't push her away.

For a long time.

Our lips lightly touched, then parted.

And it was the moment Levina approached again.

"Woah, what the fuck, now that you're out of women, you're having an affair with your own sister?!"

A familiar voice was heard.

I turned my head to see Estelle letting out a hollow laugh, as if utterly dumbfounded.

And Levina, who was in front of me, was also smiling.