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 ti when everyone was asleep.

I didn't head straight for my room.

Instead, I walked to a bench behind the empty dormitory.

For so reason, the cold night air was welco.

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

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

My fingertips were trembling ever so slightly.

I lit it.

The small sound of the match burning down.

A fla 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 sothing 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 ca 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 ca 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 co.

For so reason, the world seed 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 sothing had changed.

The atmosphere around felt a little different.

People's gazes.

Open curiosity and contempt contained within them.

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

They no longer tried to hide it.

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

"He broke off his engagent 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 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 .

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

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 mont she spotted , the smile vanished from her face.

A frozen expression, familiar to .

Wavering eyes.

After our eyes t 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 ti because of him. It's a good thing now."

Several voices ca from behind .

Seraphina didn't answer.

It wasn't a very important matter.

Because at the familiar ti 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 .

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

However, sothing was different today.

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

Instead, pitch-black priest's robes.

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

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

She approached .

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 an."

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 , seating on the bench.

She also sat down tightly beside .

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 so reason, it felt like she slled 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 away a little and looked 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.

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

I had a younger brother.

He was two years younger than .

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

Because he would have resembled ."

I was speechless for a mont.

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 lted and dripped onto her fingers, but she paid no mind.

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

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 ti, 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.

So 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 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 .

I couldn't say anything.

I just listened to her story.

"You, you resemble that child."

Estelle walked back to .

And squatted in front of , 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 , 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 sowhere 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 nu 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 ti, she really seed to be laughing happily.

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

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

"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, sowhat flustered.

The soft fuzz on its surface tickled my palm.

A sweet aroma pierced my nose.

And for so reason, a faint fishy sll as well.

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

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

However, as Estelle handed 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 soone had played a prank with red paint.

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

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."