The Villain’s Ending

Chapter 28

Coloring (10)

The carriage rattled.

Cutting through the night air, it retraced the familiar path.

The scenery outside the window was shrouded in darkness, yet the landscapes I had seen while talking with Seraphina were clearly present in my mind's eye.

The bakery, the narrow path to the reservoir, the general store.

Even in the darkness, they remained as distinct afterimages.

When I returned to the academy, the dormitory was as silent as a grave.

It was a time when everyone was asleep.

I didn't head straight for my room.

Instead, I walked to a bench behind the empty dormitory.For some reason, the cold night air was welcome.

It felt like it was cooling down the hot something that filled my mind.

I took out the cigarette Estelle had given me from my pocket.

My fingertips were trembling ever so slightly.

I lit it.

The small sound of the match burning down.

A flame briefly flared up in the darkness, then quickly transferred to the tip of the cigarette.

I inhaled the smoke deeply.

A bitter taste coated my tongue.

It seeped deep into my lungs, along with the cold air.

There's no need to be gloomy over something like this, and Levina isn't even worth it.

I repeated that to myself.

Again and again.

As if reciting a spell.

Her last appearance came to mind.

A face stained with blood and tears.

'What could I have done?'

At the very least, she shouldn't have said that.

Because there was so much she could have done for 'Lavin'.

One cigarette.

Two cigarettes.

Cigarette smoke scattered into the night air.

I stared blankly at the smoke.

Estelle's face came to mind.

I chain-smoked.

Only after the ember of the last cigarette faded did I get up from my seat.

Under the bench, where there was no ashtray, a dozen cigarette butts were strewn about.

I picked up the butts and casually tossed them into the trash can in the center.

Returning to my room, I threw myself onto the bed without even changing my clothes.

Sleep didn't come.

For some reason, the world seemed to spin.

Even though I hadn't been drinking.

I stayed awake all night like that.

Until the darkness lifted, and a faint light seeped through the window crack.

The next day, I attended classes as usual.

The academy hadn't changed even a little from yesterday.

The air in the classroom was still stuffy, and the professor's voice was still boring.

But something had changed.

The atmosphere around me felt a little different.

People's gazes.

Open curiosity and contempt contained within them.

The whispers about being expelled from the family and the annulment of the engagement now reached my ears directly.

They no longer tried to hide it.

"I heard he's not an Edelgard anymore?"

"He broke off his engagement with Miss Seraphina, right?

Go on, tell him to his face you'll propose.

That idiot bastard won't be able to do anything now, will he?"

As if they wanted me to hear it.

Or rather, because it wouldn't matter even if I did.

After all, for a scoundrel who, strangely enough, always diligently attended classes, to have visited the mansion with Levina and Seraphina—

They must be thinking, 'He's finally been kicked out.'

Because now, I would no longer be an untouchable presence.

I let the sounds wash over me.

As if listening to a story that had nothing to do with me.

As I walked along, I ran into Seraphina in the hallway.

She was with her friends.

Laughing and chatting.

That sight was unfamiliar.

Her smiling face always felt unfamiliar.

But the moment she spotted me, the smile vanished from her face.

A frozen expression, familiar to me.

Wavering eyes.

After our eyes met briefly, I walked past her.

Because we were no longer in a relationship where we could acknowledge each other.

As I passed by, I felt her body flinch.

I didn't bother to look back.

"Seraphina, that's him, right? Lavin."

"Mm-hmm."

"Don't make that face because of trash like him.

You've had a hard time because of him. It's a good thing now."

Several voices came from behind me.

Seraphina didn't answer.

It wasn't a very important matter.

Because at the familiar time when the sun began to set, I always headed to the church.

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

Estelle was lounging on the long bench in front of the altar as usual.

However, something was different today.

She wasn't wearing her usual pristine white priest's robes.

Instead, pitch-black priest's robes.

Upon seeing me, she sprang to her feet, a smile gracing her face.

"You're here. I've been waiting for a long time."

She approached me.

She was barefoot.

She walked on the cold stone floor as if it were nothing.

Her footsteps made no sound.

"So, how was yesterday?

I heard bits and pieces, but you've been completely kicked out now, right?

Officially, I mean."

She asked, examining my face.

Her tone was playful, but her eyes were serious.

"It was just so-so. The dinner was, well, a bit tasteless."

I replied, dismissing it vaguely.

"Hmm. A tasteless dinner. That's the worst.

Was it because I wasn't there?"

Estelle nodded playfully.

Making sounds like, "Hmm. Hmm."

Then she took my hand and pulled me, seating me on the bench.

She also sat down tightly beside me.

I could feel her body heat.

"Still, you'll be fine.

The Saintess's favor is worth far more than you think."

She whispered.

I buried my face deeper into her chest.

For some reason, it felt like she smelled of apples.

However, instead of apples, I also noticed another familiar scent.

"You know what?"

After a long while, that is, after I pulled my face away from her embrace, Estelle opened her mouth.

Her voice had lowered slightly.

"Aren't you curious why I'm being so good to you?"

"......What does that matter?"

I mumbled in reply.

"It matters. There's nothing more dangerous than kindness without a reason."

Estelle chuckled.

Then, she gently pushed me away a little and looked me straight in the eyes.

In her pupils, the candlelight flickered.

"But please, even if you're startled after hearing it, don't run away."

She said, playfully poking my shoulder with her finger.

"Remember when Levina, that person, told you I had a sibling?

I had a younger brother.

He was two years younger than me.

He probably would have been much more handsome than you if he had grown up.

Because he would have resembled me."

I was speechless for a moment.

She was still smiling, but I had the illusion that the life was draining from her eyes.

She rose from her seat and ambled towards the altar.

The sound of her bare feet touching the cold stone floor faintly echoed in the quiet church.

She picked up one of the candleholders placed on the altar and twirled it around.

Candle wax melted and dripped onto her fingers, but she paid no mind.

"I think I was twelve. He suddenly fell ill with something.

Even when I took him to priests, all I found were bastards demanding money, and while our family wasn't poor, we weren't particularly wealthy either.

Ah, I wasn't a Saintess back then. I was just an anonymous village girl."

She put the candleholder back in its place, and this time, fiddled with a dried flower branch decorating the altar.

The brittle petals crumbled and fell under her touch.

"A trivial story, right?

But back then, that was my whole world.

Every night I prayed.

'Please, just save my brother.'

That kind of obvious prayer."

She gathered the broken petals in her palm and blew them.

Dry flower dust scattered into the air.

Some settled on my hair.

"Anyway, you, well. You're a distinguished noble lord, aren't you?

Since you were a distinguished noble lord, you probably wouldn't know, but it's a pretty common and obvious story.

That child just, died like that. Holding my hand. Saying he was in pain. Saying he envied me for being alive."

She ran her finger over the empty altar.

As if wiping away invisible dust.

Then, she turned around and smiled sweetly at me.

I couldn't say anything.

I just listened to her story.

"You, you resemble that child."

Estelle walked back to me.

And squatted in front of me, looking up at my face.

Her finger gently brushed my cheek.

"You don't resemble him at all, yet strangely, you seem to.

Especially when you make that kind of expression."

Estelle moved slightly away from me, then picked up a wine bottle that had been placed on a long bench.

She uncorked it, and then simply picked up a wine glass that had been rolling around somewhere and roughly wiped it with her sleeve.

Red wine filled the glass.

Gulp, gulp.

The red wine went down her throat.

"Hnn... That's good."

A few drops spilled, dampening her black priest's robes.

But because the clothes were black, it wasn't very noticeable.

"Hey, do I disgust you?

Even if I seem disgusting and sordid, could you still keep doing this?

Eating dinner together every day, living together. Hmm?"

"Instead, I'll decide the dinner menu from now on.

You're the Saintess, so money isn't an issue, right?"

At my words, she burst out laughing.

She put down the glass, took a cigarette from my pocket, and put one in her mouth.

"You really don't resemble him after all."

She said, exhaling a long stream of cigarette smoke.

She laughed.

This time, she really seemed to be laughing happily.

"Want a peach? I got them from the cathedral this time."

She roughly extinguished the cigarette she was smoking against the altar, then retrieved two peaches from behind the altar and tossed one to me.

"They're from the Archbishop, that idiotic old man's room, but God will understand.

The Saintess is a bit hungry, after all."

Estelle uttered the words about God understanding, staring blankly at the altar's statue.

I caught it, somewhat flustered.

The soft fuzz on its surface tickled my palm.

A sweet aroma pierced my nose.

And for some reason, a faint fishy smell as well.

"I didn't know God was that generous."

"Well. If He's generous, then perhaps He is."

However, as Estelle handed me the peach, I noticed small red stains on her fingers and the surface of the peach.

They looked like dried blood.

Dark, crimson stains.

And that wasn't all.

Looking closely, there were also red blood spatters dotted on the sleeves and leg areas of her black priest's robes.

As if someone had played a prank with red paint.

If she had been wearing her usual white clothes, I would have noticed it immediately.

But because they were black, it wasn't very visible in the dim church, but up close, it was clear.

"What's that stain?"

When I asked, Estelle looked down at her clothes.

And then, as if it were nothing, she smiled sweetly.

"Oh, this? Don't worry, it's not my blood."

Her voice was incredibly nonchalant.

"I told you, I got them from that idiotic old man's room."