The Villain’s Ending

Chapter 67

Delusion (6)

I escorted the sobbing Seraphina back to her dormitory.

She said nothing as she lay embraced in my arms.

She simply wept silently, like a child.

Her crying had stopped, but with red marks still around her eyes, Seraphina hesitated for a long time at the door.

"Lavin, do you want to come inside for a moment and have some tea?"

"It's fine."

I shook my head.

"I'll get going now."

As soon as I turned my back, she caught the hem of my clothes.It was a weak touch.

"The letter... I read it."

She said softly.

But I didn't remember anything about the content of the letter.

"Did you?"

"I'll make all the preparations for the park. Let's go together."

I deliberated for a moment.

I nodded.

"I'll really get going now."

I gently took her hand, which was clutching the hem of my clothes, and removed it.

Then I walked away.

After that day, time simply flowed on.

Lavin continued his daily routine as usual.

During the day, he attended lectures, and at night, he tried to fall asleep.

Occasionally, Levina would visit.

As "gifts," she would hand over a pile of incredibly expensive luxury items.

These were things like an intricately carved ebony pipe, exotic-smelling tobacco leaves, or potent liquor with an unknown brand label.

She would place them on the table without a word, sit for a while, and then leave.

Estelle welcomed Lavin as she always did.

To her, Lavin had become an indispensable person.

Though their time together hadn't been that long, at some point, he had become that person to her.

Lavin, roughly eating the apple Estelle handed him for dinner, pondered for a moment before speaking softly.

It was the story he had intended to bring up someday.

"Do you remember what happened in the forbidden library the other day?"

He asked, lying diagonally on a long pew, gazing at the ceiling.

"Ah, that. I remember."

Estelle replied, perched on the altar and swinging her legs.

Her voice was as light as usual.

"It was quite amusing watching those fools who deluded themselves into thinking they could control anything if they just summoned something, calling themselves devil worshippers."

"Thanks to you just watching, I, who was unluckily in the forbidden library that day, ended up taking the blame for it."

At Lavin's words, Estelle paused her actions for a moment.

She stopped the hand holding the apple and glanced at him with a somewhat awkward expression.

"Right, I vaguely heard something like that.

But then again, if it reached even me, your reputation must have already been scraping rock bottom anyway."

Instead of replying, Lavin took out a pipe from his pocket.

It was the one Levina had brought as a "gift" a few days prior.

He packed the tobacco leaves tightly, then took a small amount of powder he had separately acquired from a tiny box in his pocket and sprinkled it over them.

He struck a match and lit it.

A small orange flame flared up, then quickly caught onto the tobacco leaves.

Smoke rose from the pipe and was drawn into Lavin's mouth.

He slowly exhaled the smoke.

The hazy smoke briefly obscured his vision.

"It was indeed scraping rock bottom.

But thanks to that, I'm being expelled from the family, and though nothing's officially scheduled yet, I'll probably be broken off from the engagement soon too."

Lavin spoke as casually as if discussing everyday matters.

Like a conversation about the day's weather.

Estelle looked at Lavin, seemed about to say something, but then closed her mouth.

She didn't want to say anything unnecessary and incur Lavin's displeasure.

Lavin suddenly remembered a time when he had shared cheap cigarettes with Estelle.

Although he daily smoked cheap cigarettes that were just strong and tasteless, he didn't particularly like them.

But why had it felt so refreshing back then?

When he first became 'Lavin,' he tried to make the most of what he remembered.

And when his resolve began to waver somewhat, he tried his best to avoid the incidents happening here and there, and simply...

He just tried to live an ordinary life.

There was nothing he could do now besides pore over books, and he thought it would be better to simply get somewhat friendly with the main characters of the original story rather than sticking his neck out.

Even that much he couldn't do properly, so he ended up in this state, searching through magic-related books in the library and even forbidden magic in the forbidden library, trying to find a way to return.

At some point, even the desire to return had vanished.

Instead, his mind began to be filled with the thought of wanting to be loved by someone, without being hated.

To desire such a thing, living as 'Lavin,' might be selfish.

Would Estelle listen to him?

Would she do anything he asked?

Was she still seeing her younger sibling in him?

At least for now, she hadn't once brought up her younger sibling, nor did she seem to be seeing him as a substitute.

Unlike before.

Previously, Estelle had approached so closely that the distance was unfathomable, but this time, when I drew near, she would blush and shyly pull away a little.

Lavin decided to interpret this not as negative, but as positive.

He rose from his seat and approached Estelle, who was sitting on the altar.

He offered her the pipe he was smoking.

A faint wisp of smoke, like a thread, curled from the end of the pipe.

"Do you remember what I said last time about needing help?"

Estelle gazed at the pipe Lavin offered her for a long time.

Then, with a slight blush, she hesitantly put it to her lips.

She took a deep drag.

She coughed lightly, then soon broke into a shy smile.

Seeing her like that, Lavin decided he was certain.

That Estelle harbored feelings for him.

Whether it was true or not.

"I remember. Anyway, smoking this makes me smile without realizing it. What in the world did you do?"

She asked playfully.

"What does it matter what I did?"

"If I don't like it, the church might punish you."

To Estelle, it was probably just a light joke.

But the moment those words brushed past his ears, a memory of having been burned to death flashed through Lavin's mind.

His wrist, futilely severed by Seraphina before his death.

The slow, agonizing burn as he was tied to a pillar.

Estelle, nowhere to be seen during that time.

Even though he knew she couldn't possibly be at fault, he somehow felt dizzy.

Lavin snatched the pipe from Estelle's mouth.

And then, just like that, he threw himself upon her.

"Now that I think about it, you were always the beginning."

Lavin pressed down on her shoulders and said softly.

"I don't resent you, but you were still the beginning, you know.

The reason I live like this."

Their legs became slightly entangled, and their bodies were pressed very close together.

Estelle could have easily pushed Lavin away, or even thrown him off, but she merely twitched her body slightly, offering no significant resistance.

"...Th-this seems a bit inappropriate, so could you please get off me for a moment?"

Estelle wiggled her body slightly, but she only blushed, offering no strong resistance.

When Lavin didn't react, she spoke in a slightly clearer voice.

"G-get off me! Lavin, you, r-really, I'll kick you out of here, you know?"

Lavin let out a hollow laugh at Estelle's words, which sounded almost like a tantrum.

"Estelle. To begin with, besides me, you have no one to talk to, no one to converse with, no one you feel any affection for, do you?"

"Is that why you're acting so self-assured?"

Estelle said, sounding sarcastic.

"Well, I guess you'd know all about this, seeing as you've always had plenty of women around."

"........."

"If you really don't get off me, then from now on, I mean, well. I won't meet you for a while."

Estelle's words trailed off as she averted her gaze.

It was a threat utterly devoid of sincerity.

Lavin gently stroked her face.

Then, caressing her hair, he said softly.

"Really?"

At his words, Estelle shyly bit her lower lip.

"You're someone who can't be happy without me. Because your very nature is just... like that.

You said it yourself. Who would like you?

Who else besides me would like Estelle, not the Saintess?"

Lavin whispered into her ear.

She seemed to overlap with the Estelle of a previous regression, but she didn't look significantly different.

"There's no way you can get along perfectly fine without me. After all, these days, you have no one but me."

"Lavin......"

"Whether I use dark magic, turn out to be a devil worshipper, was truly the one who killed someone in the forbidden library, am truly a delinquent bastard, or a heretic. What can you do about it now?"

Lavin grabbed her chin and made her look him straight in the eyes.

"Estelle, you can't be without me, can you? For some reason, whenever you see me, your heart aches, and you feel a fondness and affection, don't you?"

Lavin spoke with a certainty that lacked conviction.

Pushing aside the thought that he might be wrong, and with the mindset that if things really went awry, he could just resort to his last method.

"........."

Her heart ached terribly every time she heard Lavin's words.

From the first time they met, until now, and that it would continue to be so in the future - Estelle was somehow unconsciously accepting this.

Nevertheless, everything he said was true.

Even if his words were wrong, since Lavin had said them, they were at least true for Estelle.

She wanted Lavin not to hate Estelle. Not the esteemed Saintess, but Estelle.

Lavin moved his face closer to the nape of Estelle's neck and lightly brought his lips to it.

"Uh, hnn."

Estelle held her breath and shivered, her shoulders hunching as if ticklish.

"You're the only one who can help me. And you're the only one I have."

Lavin somehow felt like a male prostitute himself, yet he recalled being called 'Satan's whore who seduced the Saintess' in the past.

His left hand slowly traced the smooth waistline of her priestess robe, then stopped its movement just below her chest, near her shoulder.

Then, a smile playing on his lips, he moved even closer until their lips were almost touching, and whispered softly to Estelle.

"There's someone I want dead. If that person dies, I'll do anything for you."

Upon hearing those words, Estelle remained gaping blankly for a long time.

Then, she exhaled, then inhaled again, and asked back.

Her cheeks flushed, her eyes slightly unfocused, as she looked at Lavin.

"......Even a kiss?"

Lavin did not reply to her question.

He removed the hand he had placed on her shoulder and slowly rose from his seat.

Feeling inexplicably uncomfortable, he tidied his clothes.

Then, looking down at Estelle, who was still lying there with a flushed face, he replied.

"Yes."