The Villain’s Ending

Chapter 27

Coloring (9)

The sofa in the drawing-room was excessively plush.

It felt as if my body was being sucked into it.

How long had I been like that?

My sense of time was faint.

The time in this mansion seemed to flow at a different pace than outside.

Because every time I looked around, 'Lavin's' memories showed me scenes that had happened within the mansion.

It wasn't a particularly pleasant experience.

Not long after, dinner time arrived.

Levina came to get me.The sound of her shoes walking down the corridor was as consistent as ever.

She didn't say anything.

I didn't say anything either.

We walked down the long corridor.

The portraits hanging on the wall seemed to look down at us.

Every single one had the same expressionless face as Levina.

The dining room was enormous.

The ceiling was very high, and a long table was placed in the center.

There were over ten chairs, but only three people.

At the innermost part of the table, at the head seat, sat only one man.

Levina's father, the Edelgard Family Head.

It was the face I had only seen in 'Lavin's' memories.

He looked older and thinner than in my memories.

Like a man reduced to a mere shadow.

He didn't lift his head even after seeing us enter.

"Sit."

He said.

His voice was hoarse.

"You sit too, Levina."

Father said.

Levina seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then quietly took her seat.

She had intended to lead me there and leave, so she seemed a little flustered.

A very subtle crack appeared in her perfectly composed expression.

Dinner began.

Servants carried dishes on silver platters.

Clatter.

Only the sound of knives and forks clinking against plates echoed through the enormous dining room.

I cut the steak.

Red juices seeped out.

No one spoke.

We simply ate.

Then, the esteemed Family Head coughed once and spoke.

"Your mother, she didn't like things like this."

Father said abruptly.

He picked up a piece of bread and dipped it in soup.

His hands were trembling slightly.

"She always ate only plain soup with bread and salad.

Saying expensive spices or steak slathered with something weren't to her taste.

Other nobles mocked her behind her back, calling it provincial.

But I liked it."

He said so and coughed.

Cough, cough.

It was a dry cough, resounding from deep within his chest.

He looked like nothing more than a living corpse, who wouldn't be surprising to die soon.

His gaunt body visibly jolted with each cough.

Levina furrowed her brow slightly when 'Lavin's' mother was mentioned, but she didn't say anything.

She merely looked down at her own plate.

Father looked at Levina like that.

His gaze held a sense of conflicted feelings.

It was a look of a loving daughter, and yet also like a look at someone who had taken his place.

Or perhaps it was just like looking into a mirror reflecting his own past.

"Lavin. Whether you're a scoundrel, or causing trouble, or spreading all sorts of scandals, as my child, I don't particularly consider it a blemish.

I don't know what the people around us think, but."

He glanced at Levina slightly and continued.

"But I wished you weren't a son."

The sound of a knife scraping the plate echoed sharply.

"Because my wife likely thought you could have taken Levina's place."

Though hidden by neat and tidy clothes, the man before me was so emaciated that his wrists felt skeletal.

"As a child, you were quite clever.

You learned to read quickly, and showed talent in swordsmanship.

Her anxiety might not have been a mere groundless fear.

I didn't kill my brother, but I drove him out.

Who knows where that blood went."

Father said so and looked at Levina, but Levina met his gaze without showing any reaction.

Then he let out a breath and continued speaking.

"So, when your mother died."

He coughed again.

This time, it was longer and more violent.

His gaunt shoulders trembled faintly.

"Even though I was deeply saddened, I felt somehow relieved.

Because there were so many people who hated her, it seemed as if living was more painful for her.

I didn't have any particular way to help her."

He spoke indifferently, as if talking about the weather.

As if he wasn't speaking of his own lover's death, but of an old dog's death next door.

"Will you graduate from school?"

He asked.

I raised my head and truly saw his face for the first time.

Sunken eyes, bloodless lips.

His eyes weren't looking at me.

They seemed to be looking somewhere behind me, into thin air.

"Yes."

"I hope you quit."

He said quietly.

"Because the more you know, and the more you possess, the more you will only remember what you've lost.

Living foolishly isn't so bad either.

In fact, it might even be happier."

A faint smile touched his lips.

A self-deprecating, yet somehow relieved smile.

"No one pays attention to an old living corpse who will soon die."

He gestured towards Levina with his chin.

"Lavin. From now on, you are just Lavin.

Levina decided that, and my wife decided that."

He staggered to his feet.

The chair scraped backward, making a loud noise.

The butler rushed over to support him.

He left the dining room.

He never looked back.

In the enormous dining room, only Levina and I remained.

We were silent for a long time.

"You heard that, right?"

Levina opened her mouth first.

Her voice was as usual.

But if listened to carefully, it was trembling ever so slightly.

"I heard. What do you want me to say?"

"Stop clinging to the academy pointlessly.

Father's words aren't wrong, are they?"

"What, exactly, do you want from me?"

"Nothing."

"......."

"Literally, I want you to do nothing.

I'll give you an annex, so live there.

I'll provide you with everything you like, from alcohol and cigarettes to all sorts of entertainment.

Oh, but if you bring in vulgar thugs or prostitutes, I'll kick you out, so be aware of that."

"Levina."

"Or, Father will pass away soon, so by then, no matter what Mother says, I might be able to give you a room in the main building.

I could even let you stay as a guest.

Since you can at least read and have received minimal education, you could stay in the family and..."

Without realizing it, I picked up the glass bowl containing salad placed next to me.

The cold sensation of the glass bowl was vivid.

And holding the bowl, I threw it just like that.

Crash!

The glass bowl flew in an arc and hit Levina squarely on the head.

With a shattering sound, glass shards and vegetable pieces scattered everywhere.

Red blood streamed down her head.

Mixed with dressing, it ran stickily down her cheek.

Levina sat there blankly, as if nothing had happened.

She didn't even think to wipe away the blood.

She merely stared at me.

In her own way, she continued to offer what she considered merciful proposals.

"You can stay like this and help with work.

After all, there aren't many people living in this vast mansion.

Even if you run into Mother, well, somehow..."

"Levina, just shut up."

Levina closed her mouth.

She took a slight breath, roughly wiped away the blood flowing down from her head, then looked down at her blood-stained hand and quietly continued speaking.

"What could I have done?"

Levina whispered.

She stood up.

And slowly approached me.

"How long are you going to keep calling me 'Levina,' 'you'?

I'm your sister. I'm your older sister.

Not Estelle, that crazy saintess, but I am your sister."

Her voice was damp and heavy, like water-soaked cotton.

"Do you know that crazy bitch is projecting her dead younger brother onto you?"

"I don't care."

At those words, Levina let out a hollow laugh.

She stood before me and grabbed me by the collar.

"What could I have done?

If your mother hadn't been just some lowly whore.

Yes. If you, if you weren't a half-blood bastard.

Things wouldn't have come to this."

Her voice slowly grew louder.

"If Father. If Father hadn't cared about you.

If he had just treated you like a servant, not his child.

If my mother hadn't hated you so much.

Everything, everything wouldn't have turned out like this!"

I stood up.

I didn't want Levina looking down at me.

The chair scraped backward, making a loud noise.

"So. So what did you do then?

Even when Lady Edelgard locked me in the closet as punishment, and the servants served me spoiled food in a dog bowl instead of proper meals for a while, and when I went to social gatherings, I became a laughingstock to everyone around you, you just kept your mouth shut.

So when I went down to some village to steal food, or lived on the streets as the leader of those thugs instead of entering the main building, all the stories that reached you were about some idiotic scoundrel.

To Seraphina, it was because I went astray, because I was strange, because I... Was I really such a fucking problem?"

"You should have endured it! Because you're the son of that damned whore!

The Belluz family was too good for you!

At least you shouldn't have acted like a thug out there, you worm-like...!"

Slap!

I slapped her cheek.

I didn't care whether she bled or not.

"Oh, how grand you are. Born a noble, yet so lucky to have such an idiotic woman as a mother, who lost her husband's heart to a commoner, huh?"

Levina continued speaking even as she was held and slapped.

"I protected you.

When Mother tried to kill you, I stopped her.

I was the one who said to just leave you alone instead.

That elders would never choose a scoundrel like that anyway!

Though you wouldn't know it."

At those words, my striking hand stopped.

My body somehow went limp.

"Why didn't you just let me die?"

"......."

She was speechless.

She merely trembled her lips.

"You, you were always like that.

Always, always ruining everything.

No matter what I tried to do for you, you kicked it all away.

How many times did I tell you to be discreet, to not go out and cause trouble and act like a ruffian, but you ignored it all and went around acting like a thug, using the Edelgard name despite being a bastard! Even after entering the academy, you constantly did idiotic things, dragging the family's reputation through the mud!"

Tears streamed from her eyes.

Blood and tears mixed and ran down her cheek.

"And what more could I have done there?

I was young, I couldn't have made Father, who was still perfectly sound, into a powerless old man, and there's no way I could have resisted Mother's influence, right!?"

When did the Levina I once found so terrifying start to look so pathetic?

Why on earth did I try to curry favor with such a person, wishing for her to look at me again?

Was it truly because I thought that if a scoundrel truly reformed and lived well, just like in a novel, the perceptions of those around me would change, and I'd be instantly re-evaluated?

"You just had to listen to me.

You just had to listen to me well.

That's all, and I could have done anything for you.

Whatever you wanted, I could have given you anything."

"Crazy bitch."

I shook off her hand.

And turned my back.

Leaving Levina, who was muttering blankly, behind, I left the dining room.

Ignoring the alarmed servants and the butler who tried to stop me, I walked down the corridor towards the main entrance of the mansion.

I boarded the waiting carriage.

I told them to take me back to the academy.

The coachman started to protest, but then met my gaze and set the carriage in motion.

Inside the rattling carriage, I looked out the window.

The places Seraphina had mentioned came into view one by one.

I didn't particularly want to see them.

I wanted to go back right now.