The Villain’s Ending

Chapter 88

Delusion (27)

Days passed since Kyle's death.

Today, too, I was reading a book, sipping tea while gazing at the flowers growing in the greenhouse.

Beyond the glass ceiling, the sky was a hazy grey.

After tracing the lines of text with my finger for a long while, Levina arrived.

She approached silently and stood across from me.

"You look awfully relaxed."

Her voice was steeped in fatigue.

In response, I picked up the teapot and poured tea into an empty cup.

I placed the steaming teacup on the empty seat in front of her.Levina, though furrowing her brows, sat down and took a sip of tea.

Then, setting down the cup, she spoke.

"You have to leave here, right now."

"As the Head of the Edelgard family, how can I leave?"

I replied, not taking my eyes off the book.

The words didn't register.

"Are you in your right mind?"

"Yeah, more or less."

At my words, Levina swept the teacup off the table with her hand.

Clang!

White porcelain shards scattered across the tiled floor.

Tea stained the ground.

"You never cared about being the Head of the family or anything like that!"

Levina shrieked.

Her voice echoed, bouncing off the conservatory's glass walls.

"It's common for one's mind to suddenly change at the last moment, isn't it?"

"Soon the Demons will come and kill every human here! You too! Me too!"

"Are you afraid?"

I put down my book and looked at her.

At that, Levina paused to catch her breath.

Then, she took another step closer.

"Why am I living like this right now?

I'm living like this all because of you."

Her voice trembled thinly.

"You, Seraphina, and Estelle, none of you are in your right minds."

"I never thought I'd hear that from you."

"An important person says they'll stay and die in this idiotic mansion for no reason, and instead of stopping them, you actually choose to stay with them? I just can't understand it."

Levina said, glaring at me.

I showed no particular reaction.

"We might be able to survive somehow.

We might just be able to survive if we escape to the ends of the earth."

Continuing her words, Levina let out a hollow laugh.

"Yes. I am afraid. Afraid that you might die."

I heard that and smiled faintly.

"That's a relief, then."

"What do you mean?"

"It might sound disgusting, but I feel like I've become an important person."

At that, Levina was speechless for a moment.

Silence hung in the air for a long time.

The servants quietly approached, cleared away the broken teacup and glass, and brought out fresh tea.

We said nothing until the servants finished clearing the broken items and left.

"At least to me, you were an important person."

Levina said, drinking the hot tea without letting it cool.

"Though I never intended to live like this, especially not after giving up the position of Head of the family."

She came closer to me.

She pushed me into a corner, one hand braced against the wall, the other stroking my cheek, leaning over me as if to trap me.

"You didn't need the position of Head of the family, did you?

You don't give a damn about the honor or duty of the Edelgard family."

Her breath touched my face.

"You know it if you keep watching.

Because you only do foolish things and choose to say idiotic words, even keeping me alive after snatching the position from me."

I tried to push her away, but Levina pulled me closer instead.

I lost my balance and tumbled onto her.

When I tried to get up, Levina pulled me back down again.

"Who would've known? I thought if you kept me alive, you might slowly open your heart to me after a few years, but the world had to end."

Every time she spoke, her breath brushed past me.

There was the bitter scent of the tea I had been drinking.

"I don't want to die like this. I don't want you to die like this either."

I felt a faint aura of a spell from her body.

"But if I'm going to die like this, I want to do what I want to do before I die."

Levina hugged me tightly and tried to forcibly kiss me.

When I turned my head to avoid it, she grabbed my face and kissed me anyway.

Just with her lips.

Her lips were neither as soft nor as warm as I'd imagined.

Instead, they felt slightly chapped and dry.

As if she didn't know what to do, she just gently pressed her lips against mine.

An awkward silence fell.

Perhaps feeling an obligation to do something more, she clumsily flickered her lips several times.

Her eyes were tightly shut, and I could feel her eyelashes trembling faintly.

She was utterly still, as if holding her breath or having forgotten how to breathe.

She acted as if merely pressing her lips together was all there was to it.

It was clumsy beyond measure, so much so that I could hear the faint clinking of our teeth.

After a long, awkward kiss, Levina, perhaps noticing my subtle expression, startled, her face flushed, and she pulled away.

Her actions were exactly like someone who had only learned about romance from novels.

Levina looked at me and asked again.

"Are you really just going to die here?"

"Yes."

I replied curtly.

At that, Levina shed tears.

"I don't want to die like this.

If it came to this, I'd rather have died by your hand."

I left the weeping Levina and wiped my lips with my sleeve.

I got up from my seat and picked up the book that had fallen to the floor.

"I don't want to die either."

Saying that, I left the greenhouse.

I heard Levina's sobs behind me, but I didn't turn around.

****

Another day passed.

Estelle, lying in the same bed, was stirring in her sleep.

After watching Estelle beside me for a long time, I got up and walked away.

When I tried to wash myself, no water came out of the bathroom.

I thought about calling a servant, but it seemed pointless, so I just sighed.

I used a simple spell to fill a small cup with water, quickly washed my face, and then dressed.

Screams, chilling cries, and the sounds of something exploding occasionally drifted in from afar beyond the window.

I entered the office, kicked aside the overflowing documents that were underfoot, and sat almost reclining in the chair in the center of the room, propping my feet on the desk.

I also kicked away the documents piled on the desk, then took out a pipe from my pocket.

I packed tobacco leaves tightly into the pipe, lit the tobacco with fire from my fingertip, inhaled the smoke, and began to smoke the pipe.

All while watching a burning rock, flying from somewhere, fall near the mansion and roll around.

"You were here."

Estelle said, entering the office.

Her face showed she had just woken up.

"It'll all be over today or tomorrow, how do you feel?"

"Terrible."

I replied.

"Why? When you were the one asking us not to run away?"

"It's not that, it's just. I feel like I've only done foolish things this time."

Estelle leaned against the wall and looked at me.

She was smiling.

"No, I liked it. Being with you.

Was meeting me also a foolish thing?"

"No, that was one of the few good things I've done."

"Right. Even though our first meeting was quite problematic, we got along well in our own way, didn't we?"

Estelle picked up a piece of paper lying on the floor, glanced at it casually, then threw it behind her.

The paper fluttered to the floor.

"In ancient times, there was a religion that believed when you died, you would be reborn as something else."

Saying that, Estelle slowly approached me.

"If the god I believe in is a lie, then even if I'm reborn, I want to be your spouse.

And then, I want to have your children too."

Then she took the pipe and inhaled it all the way.

She didn't stop, even as she coughed.

Smoke billowed from her mouth.

"I'm sorry."

I said.

"Why are you saying sorry?"

At those words, I buried my face in Estelle's embrace and repeatedly apologized, my shoulders merely trembling slightly.

Estelle hugged me for a long time, then patted my back, and gently pushed me away.

"Oh, right. I told your ex-fiancée everything I did.

I thought she might slap me, but perhaps because I am a Saintess, she couldn't bring herself to do it."

Estelle placed the now ash-filled pipe back in my hand and stroked my cheek.

"As a sort of, well, what should I call it, a return favor, I suppose."

She took a slight breath, and pointed a finger toward the window, beyond which occasional flashes of light erupted.

"I'm going over there. I want you to live a little longer."

Beyond the window, smoke still billowed, and faint screams seemed to drift in.

"Until then, I've decided to leave you with your ex-fiancée."

Estelle said that, and then her lips began to tremble uncontrollably.

And somehow, her right hand, which was caressing my face, began to tremble.

As I thought about what I could do for her, at this point, it was only this.

I hugged her tightly and kissed her.

Slowly, embracing each other, forgetting even to breathe for a very long time.

Estelle, her cheeks flushed, gazed at me for a long time before leaving the office.

I felt an urge to follow her retreating figure as if mesmerized, but Seraphina, who was waiting right beside the door, blocked my way.