The Villain’s Ending

Chapter 25

Coloring (7)

A week passed.

Time flowed on like that.

Some days slowly, some days quickly.

But looking back, it seemed to always flow at the same pace.

As if an old record player were spinning, following its predetermined grooves.

Every day after classes, I headed to the church.

Without fail, as the sun began to set.

Estelle was always there.

Whether she was praying, sleeping,Or simply killing time, it was hard to tell.

We ate dinner together.

Sitting side by side on the long bench in the middle of the church.

Soft bread and fragrant fruit Estelle had procured from somewhere, and a rather expensive-looking wine.

I didn't know if it was used for communion, but the bread, at least, was oddly tasteless.

She always chattered about something.

Like the story of a certain noble who burst into tears during confession.

Or the tale of a cat at the monastery giving birth to five kittens.

Most of them were trivial, easily forgotten stories.

I mostly let them wash over me.

I simply tilted my wine glass, listening to her voice like background music.

"Are you leaving soon?"

Estelle asked.

She was dipping the last piece of bread in wine and putting it into her mouth.

"I need to sleep."

"Right, you need to sleep. If you don't sleep late into the night, you won't grow tall. Though you seem to be fully grown already."

She chuckled playfully.

"Anyway, haven't you been kicked out of your room yet? That's a place only those smart idiots and high-and-mighty nobles use."

"I haven't been kicked out yet.

If they kick me out, I'll either live on the streets or just move out."

Something will work out.

It'll be better than dying.

"Hmm. If you get kicked out, stay here.

I can get at least one bed here."

"......."

I was about to ask why she was so kind to me, like last time, but then I closed my mouth.

Because she might not want to live with someone who had revealed their true feelings.

"Thank you."

I replied briefly.

At my words, Estelle's pale face flushed.

Even under the faint candlelight, that reddish tinge was vivid.

She gave a soft smile and said quietly,

"Ah. Yes, it's nothing. As an older sister, of course... No. Goodbye. See you tomorrow."

She awkwardly ended her sentence, then turned her head to look at the altar.

I stood up and walked towards the church door.

I felt her gaze on my back.

Neither warm nor cold.

Just a gaze that was simply there.

And so, as usual, after spending the evening with Estelle, I made my way back to my room.

Seraphina was waiting for me.

At the door of my room.

As if she had been standing there for a long time.

The faint hallway light vaguely illuminated her silhouette.

"......What are you doing here?"

"I have something to talk about. You weren't in your room, so I waited."

Her voice was low and quiet.

It echoed faintly in the empty corridor.

I noticed the door was slightly ajar.

Light was seeping out from inside.

Even if a thief entered, there was nothing to steal, but I felt a strange sense of unease.

After all, it wasn't particularly pleasant for a fiancée, who came for a broken engagement, to open the door as she pleased.

"If it's about the broken engagement, isn't there no need to come yourself? Wasn't it already decided anyway?"

I said, leaning against the door.

I had no desire to approach her.

There had always been an invisible wall between us.

Now, an actual door merely stood in place of that wall.

"I heard that usually, the parties involved and people from both families meet to make arrangements. It seems unavoidable. It's not something that can end with just a single word from the two of us saying it's over."

She said, averting her gaze.

She was looking down at the worn-out patterns on the hallway floor.

"That's the first I've heard of it."

"After all, we're probably the only two people who've been engaged since childhood and are now breaking it off."

A faint, bitter smile touched her lips.

"The carriage is ready. I'll come pick you up tomorrow, after lunch."

"Alright."

I nodded, then tried to close the open door.

I grabbed the doorknob and pulled it inward.

There was nothing more to say.

The conversation was always going nowhere.

It was at that moment, as I was about to close the door.

Crunch.

Seraphina reflexively reached out her hand into the gap of the door.

A dull thud echoed.

Her slender fingers were directly crushed between the closing door and the doorframe.

Her white fingers instantly turned reddish and bent at an awkward angle.

I paused my movement for a moment.

The vivid sensation of the door crushing something was transmitted to my fingertips.

Her face subtly contorted in pain.

She couldn't even let out a moan.

She merely bit her lip.

"Are you okay?"

The words came out on their own.

Instead of answering, she quickly withdrew her hand and hid it behind her back.

Like a child who had been scolded.

"I'm fine."

It was a very small, but trembling voice.

A voice that made it all too clear it was a lie.

".......Right."

I answered indifferently and closed the door just like that.

I didn't ask why she grabbed the door.

Even if I asked, there was no way I'd get a proper answer.

Click.

The door closed, and the sound of the lock engaging was heard.

I stood leaning against the door for a moment.

My heart was beating slowly.

No sound was heard from beyond the door.

I couldn't tell if she had left, or if she was still standing there.

It didn't matter.

I walked to the bed and threw myself onto it.

With a creaking sound, the mattress received my body.

I was tired.

More mentally than physically.

How much time had passed?

Thirty minutes, or an hour.

By the time I grew accustomed to the darkness in the room, my sense of time had dulled.

Suddenly, it occurred to me that I should let Estelle know I couldn't have dinner with her tomorrow.

A promise was a promise.

I got up and headed back to the door.

Without thinking, I grabbed the doorknob and turned it.

Thud.

The moment I opened the door, there was a sound of something hitting and falling over.

It was Seraphina.

It seemed she had been leaning against the door.

Sitting on the floor, she looked up at me with startled eyes.

Her flustered expression was evident through her disheveled hair.

"You were standing here the whole time?"

She tried to quickly get up, but her legs gave out, and she stumbled.

She stopped trying to stand and sat back down again.

In the process, the hand she had been hiding behind her back was revealed.

My eyes fell on her fingers.

It wasn't just the fingers that had been crushed by the door.

The skin around the fingernails of all ten fingers was swollen and red.

Looking closely, faint teeth marks were even visible.

It was her old habit of biting her nails whenever she felt anxious.

Her habit of biting her lower lip when anxious seemed unchanged, as her lips were chapped in places and covered with scabs.

Her fingertips were worn and uneven.

"No. It's not that, it's just that I felt like the door shouldn't close......."

She spoke incoherently.

Her eyes darted around anxiously, like someone who didn't know where to look.

The floor, the stains on the wall.

They couldn't settle anywhere, just wandered.

"Ah, no. Anyway, where are you going?"

She hurriedly changed the subject.

"The church."

She stumbled after me.

Past the corridor, down to the stairs leading to the first floor.

Her footsteps seemed precarious.

"What church at this hour?

You're just, just trying to avoid me, aren't you?"

Her voice was tinged with faint resentment.

It was as if she thought I was lying.

"Lavin, just a moment. Even if it's just for a moment, please stop."

I stopped walking and looked back.

We stood facing each other in the empty space of the dormitory's first-floor lobby.

In the quiet of the night, only our breathing could be heard.

"You want me to stop, what do you want to talk about?"

"......Anything."

"You want to talk about that forbidden library again, like last time?

Or how you didn't even want the letter, and gifts were just disgusting?

Or should I repeat how you never associated with those rascals in the first place?"

"I, how could I...."

Seraphina, who would usually have uttered, 'How can I trust you?', only moved her lips slightly before closing her mouth.

Her eyes wavered.

We fell silent again.

The hurtful words exchanged between us dissipated into the air, yet their afterimages remained, pressing down on us.

She seemed to want to hold on.

But she knew that whatever she said, it wouldn't reach me.

But I, too, didn't want to keep resigning myself and letting things just happen.

I still disliked having everything I had done until now dismissed as trash.

"If you're going to hold on this desperately, can't we stop the broken engagement?"

My voice trembled without my knowing.

"Sometime, when the time is right, we can get married, and just live together in some secluded place.

Honestly, that much would be enough. No need to go back......."

Were the words I uttered sincere?

Or were they merely words to test her?

Even I couldn't tell.

I just thought that right now, I had to say this.

That perhaps this might be the last chance.

Seraphina said nothing.

Her lips moved, but no sound came out.

Her family, her father, and Levina's face must have flashed through her mind.

All of those things were a noose tightening around her.

We stood there like that for a very long time.

In the empty lobby, beneath the somehow dim lights.

Facing each other, unable to say a word.

That silence stood in for all answers.

As I started to turn, Seraphina parted her lips slightly and reached out her hand, but in the end, she didn't grab me.

Her hand fell limply through the air.

I ultimately left her there and headed to the church.

The night air was cold.

The chill seeping deep into my lungs actually cleared my mind.

As I opened the church door, the familiar scent of wine and candle wax greeted me.

Estelle was sitting in front of the altar.

Upon seeing me, she smiled brightly.

As if she had known I would return.

"You came back? Did you leave something behind?"

"I don't think I can have dinner with you tomorrow."

I said concisely.

"I have something to take care of."

"Hmm."

Estelle stared intently at me.

Her red eyes seemed to see through everything, even in the darkness.

"Really? Alright. Then I'll see you the day after tomorrow."

She said it nonchalantly.

But she stood up and approached me.

"But you."

She stood before me and examined my face.

Eyebrows, eyes, nose, lips.

Slowly, meticulously.

"You look strange."

After saying that, she suddenly hugged me tight.

Without any warning.

A soft, warm sensation, a faint fruit scent, enveloped me.

There was no time to be surprised.

She didn't ask anything.

She merely patted my back gently, slowly.

It was a touch like comforting a child.

"Whatever it is, it'll be alright."

She whispered.

Her warm breath touched my ear.

The scent of wine somehow felt peculiar.

"And what if something goes wrong?

I'll comfort you here."

Instead of answering, I buried my face in her shoulder and closed my eyes.