The Villain’s Ending

Chapter 125

Sunset (8)

I told Estelle the village name, and everything I knew.

At least she would quickly deal with the heretics hiding inside the church.

Not just one or two people had died last time because of those bastards.

At least, this was all I could do right now.

Through Estelle, systematically clearing out the heretics I had memorized one by one, maintaining a distance from the pestering Levina without getting too far, and spending time with Seraphina.

Oh, right. I have to deal with the Duchess too.

That, well.

If I tell Levina to kill her, she’ll handle it herself.

Since she's the kind of person who believes everything she did to me as a child was truly out of love, if she loves me, she can surely do anything.When I first died, I remembered thinking I'd have no regrets if I could just live like this, but it seems I'm greedy after all.

Because I want not only myself but also those around me to be happy.

Honestly, I wish no one suffering was visible before my eyes.

Although there are people who find happiness or solace in watching others suffer, at least that doesn't seem to be me.

Anyway, do I have to vaguely spend time at the academy again?

Just waiting for the demons to approach.

Although there's virtually nothing I can step up and change due to my status as well as my age, that feeling of emptiness somehow doesn't disappear.

Feeling dazed, I thought I'd move my body a bit, so I came out to a suitably empty lot and saw a few people training with swords even late at night.

While sitting on a suitable chair watching them, perhaps feeling a gaze, someone turned around.

It was Kyle.

I thought he was coming towards where I was, but it turned out he had left his belongings nearby.

He wiped the sweat from his face with a towel that was placed next to him, then put on his outerwear, which was neatly folded despite the heat.

And then, he slowly began to drink the water from his canteen.

Kyle put down the emptied canteen, wiped the part his mouth touched roughly with the towel, and then closed the lid.

"If you have nothing to say, why don't you move aside.

You're a bit annoying.

We're not the type to have conversations, are we?"

"We're certainly not the type to have conversations."

"Then get lost."

"I have something to ask. Do you know Lineta?"

"......How do you know Lineta?"

"She works at my mansion, you see."

Kyle didn't reply to my words for a while, looking down at the floor.

And then, after a pause, he raised his head again.

"Not your mansion, but the Edelgard family mansion, surely. Didn't you get expelled from the family?"

"Seeing you believe that so readily, you must really have nothing in your head, huh?

After all, all you learned was how to swing a sword from some uneducated old man who knows nothing else, so all you ever did was swing blades, right?"

"Are you, a worm like you, insulting my master right now?"

There was an edge to Kyle's voice.

"That wasn't my intention, I just had one thing to ask."

He trains every day, and has experienced plenty of real-life-like situations, so his stamina and strength might be better than mine, but at least for now, he'd be an amateur.

Because he might have killed demons or possessed humans, but he wouldn't have committed murder in his right mind.

The atmosphere of Kyle, after he had burned down a village and returned, only to realize it was falsely accused as a heretic village, was not at least this kind of amiable feeling.

To the extent that even just exchanging words, you could feel a sharpness.

Even on the battlefield, we weren't that close.

Whether saving each other's lives or offering help, we were always distant.

Perhaps it's better to say we just thought of each other as "people who were there."

Because I never approached first, and Kyle never approached first either.

So, it should be okay to be a little aggressive now.

"You knew, didn't you?"

At my words, Kyle asked back with a slightly stiff face.

"Knew what?"

"Lineta, and the village."

"......I don't know what you're talking about."

But even as he spoke, he subtly averted his eyes.

Kyle couldn't meet my gaze.

He seems even worse at lying than Seraphina.

"You know, I'm the kind of low-class human who holds a grudge about being disgraced three years ago, even though I was the one who started the quarrel."

Saying so, I lightly nudged the canteen Kyle had put down with my hand, knocking it over.

I pulled a cigarette from my pocket and clamped it between my lips.

"Lineta seems quite close to you, you know.

Every time her fingernails were pulled out in the dungeon, she'd scream that she was innocent.

She'd shriek that she wasn't a heretic because she had a brother attending the academy."

Even with Lineta's story coming up, Kyle wore a somewhat lukewarm expression.

When they were together, they seemed quite close, you know.

"I've already, quite literally, cut off her limbs and locked her in the dungeon, and now I'm debating whether to tie you and that village together and send you off."

After lighting it lightly with a spell and inhaling the smoke, Kyle wore a slightly surprised expression.

However, now probably isn't the situation to ask how a cripple who couldn't even swing a sword, let alone use magic, managed to light it.

"What do you want?"

"Let's be friends."

"......What?"

"I was just messing with you a bit just now. Didn't you say you were a fool who couldn't properly fit in even in your village?"

Kyle's expression was slightly distorted, yet also bewildered.

"You know what? From the first time I saw you, I thought you were truly the shittiest noble of them all."

"Well, it can't be worse than the village you lived in, can it?"

Kyle hesitated to reply.

Even if he didn't know exactly what kind of village he lived in, the previous Lineta had told me he was always ostracized.

He must have vaguely known himself.

Though he probably didn't know it was a heretical village that practiced human sacrifice, not just a peculiar one.

Or perhaps he knew and kept quiet.

"Your master shouldn't have just brought you out of there; he should have burned that village to the ground.

Since he's so stupid to begin with, it's no wonder his disciple turned out like this......"

As I was speaking, Kyle gritted his teeth and threw a punch.

I slightly twisted my body to dodge, then punched Kyle in the jaw.

He didn't fall, of course, but Kyle looked at me with a somewhat dazed expression.

"...Since when?"

He seemed quite shocked.

"Who knows? You can't even beat me, who used to stumble around like an idiot every day, so you must have wasted your years."

So, this friend in front of me and I, we used to have a truly loyal relationship.

The normal me had good enough judgment to take this friend as my subordinate, and this friend was a human who followed me until his death.

And for that to come to this state just because I lost some memories, it's absurd.

In fact, I sometimes wonder if I'm just seeing things.

It seems I've lost so much.

Even at a glance, it looks like I've lost an enormous amount, but because I've forgotten what I lost, I don't know how much I've lost.

I don't know anything, so I don't even know how much I should suffer.

"Or maybe your master or teacher was an idiot."

Perhaps because Kyle is simple and stupid, at those words, he charged again like a dog.

Still, he didn't seem angry enough to draw the sword at his waist.

In the past, when I was cooped up in the mansion doing nothing after marrying Estelle, he had an aura as if he would immediately cut off my neck, hang it, and put Levina forward, you know.

I deflected his punches or, if he tackled me, pushed him back with appropriate force, warming up my body.

In the past, such brawls, let alone just sparring, felt utterly overwhelming, but now, I somehow feel Kyle's strength is weaker than expected.

After all, my jaw had just been twisted by Kyle's punch, but it wasn't enough to knock him out.

His strength is similar to mine, despite me exercising but being heavily steeped in alcohol and tobacco.

Or maybe I'm just deluding myself, fighting someone whose stamina is completely drained from just having trained.

After brawling for a while, sure enough, an opening appeared.

After punching Kyle in the ribs a few times, I tripped him while simultaneously slapping his cheek, knocking him down.

The fallen Kyle let out a hollow laugh.

"You want to be friends, doing this?"

"Yeah. Didn't I say that at the banquet before?"

At those words, Kyle made a face as if he was racking his brain again.

If nothing else, my head seems much better than his.

"Are you doing this because of Sera?"

"Don't call her Sera.

Because when I say you're uneducated, I'm not mocking you; I'm being serious."

Kyle heard those words and shut his mouth.

"Back then, you said you couldn't associate with a low-class, vulgar human like me because I wasn't in your league."

I, having been punched by Kyle, picked up the cigarette butt that had fallen to the floor.

And then, I spoke softly.

"I'll save your childhood friend, so let's be friends."

Kyle made an expression difficult to describe.

Like Seraphina, he gnawed at his lower lip for a long time, staring at me, then stood up and said softly.

"What exactly do you mean by 'let's be friends'?"

"Well. You'll have to figure that out yourself."

My stomach and jaw, where Kyle had hit me, ached quite sharply.

Still, he's a foolish friend, so if we brawl a bit, we might get a little closer.

Without exchanging more words, I left Kyle and returned to my room, thinking I should go find Estelle tomorrow and ask her to treat me.