The Villain’s Ending Chapter 32

Coloring (14)

The cold morning air brushed against my cheek.

Beyond the stained-glass windows of the high ceiling, dawn was faintly breaking.

I looked beside and saw Estelle sleeping, curled up.

The makeshift bed, made by pushing two long benches together, was too narrow for two adults. Inevitably, our bodies had to touch.

A few strands of her hair lay across my shirt.

Her soft, regular breathing could be heard.

I gently stroked her hair with my fingers for a mont, then slowly got up.

The benches creaked, but she didn't wake up.

I walked towards the altar.

I knelt down and pretended to pray, just as Estelle had done last night. As I pondered what to wish for, I even doubted whether my plea to be sent back was truly sincere anymore, so I didn't utter a word.

It's hazy. A moderately sized laptop, a large iced coffee, and , living there.

Perhaps living with Estelle had beco as comfortable as living in that place.

"You're awake."

"Ah, yeah."

"Did spending a night in church make you suddenly sprout faith you never had?"

She was looking at , her hair disheveled.

I didn't know when she had woken up, but she was neatly dressed in her priest's robes.

Her white priest's robes were bathed in the faint moonlight filtering through the stained-glass windows.

She looked like a ghost.

"Anyway, you don't have much ti left before you're kicked out of that room."

Her voice was quiet.

But it was enough to break the silence of the church.

"In that case, let's just live together here."

I didn't answer.

I simply looked at her.

"Don't you want to?"

she asked.

I shook my head.

I looked at her for a mont.

Her red eyes glowed strangely in the morning light.

"No, I like it. But you'll provide als, right?"

"Ah, if it's not enough, I'll just steal from the cathedral, so don't worry."

I had nowhere else to go anyway.

Since Levina had kicked out, the na Edelgard ant nothing to anymore.

My connection with Seraphina had already been severed long ago.

What difference does it make where I live?

And so, my peculiar cohabitation began.

It wasn't exactly sothing you'd call cohabitation.

Estelle's room was in the innermost part of the church's second floor.

The room was wider and cleaner than I expected.

But it felt sowhat empty.

An abstract drawing, as if scribbled by a child, hung on the wall.

The bookshelf contained more secular novels and poetry collections than theological texts.

Everything about it felt out of place for a Saintess's room.

She brought all my belongings from the room I used to stay in.

If Levina had known, she might have thrown a fit.

But she said nothing.

My space was a storeroom next to Estelle's room.

Perhaps Estelle had cleaned it, as there was a mix of old wood and faint incense slls.

With a moderately sized bed, a table, and drawers, it sowhat resembled a habitable space.

"Let's bring in a chair that's comfortable enough to lie down on."

"Honestly, long benches are uncomfortable."

She said, looking around the room.

She beca involved in my life with utmost naturalness, sotis like family, other tis like a lover.

Mornings always began the sa way.

The morning sunlight, filtering through the stained-glass windows, fell upon my eyelids.

Estelle would wake up first and wash, then I would.

Whether she used sothing with an apple scent when washing, the bathroom always slled of apples.

Every day, I went downstairs to the first floor and brewed coffee.

Sohow, I felt I could finally understand why Seraphina used to co every morning to clean and make coffee for .

It was the kind of feeling, perhaps, that one had to do sothing like this.

The old coffee beans I found in the church storeroom also had a rather nice aroma.

I poured coffee into two cups.

One as is, the other with plenty of sugar.

"Good morning."

Estelle ambled down, her face still heavy with sleep.

She sat down in front of and took the sugared coffee I offered.

"Thank you."

We drank our coffee in silence.

Outside the window, students heading to the academy could be seen passing by.

Their lively figures felt like a scene from another world.

"Ti for class."

Estelle said.

She drained her coffee in one gulp and stood up.

I also finished my coffee and followed her out.

As we stepped out of the church door, the cold morning air brushed against our cheeks.

We headed to the academy side by side.

It was always like that.

From so point on, we were always together.

Disregarding others' gazes.

At the academy, we were an odd presence.

The Saintess, revered by all, and a fallen noble, abandoned by his family.

It wasn't a particularly well-suited pair.

Students whispered every ti they saw us.

Their gazes felt sharp.

But I didn't care.

Estelle seed to feel the sa.

She even seed to enjoy such attention.

Sotis she would deliberately walk closer to , or even link arms.

Each ti, the whispers around us grew louder.

"How could the Saintess be with such trash..."

"Shhh, they'll hear you."

"I heard he was completely cast out of the Edelgard family..."

"Yeah, but why would the Saintess..."

Such words seeped into my ears every ti they passed.

Even if Estelle didn't, I let them slide.

When you've endured that kind of crap for years, you eventually get used to it.

At lunchti, we t again.

Sitting on a quiet garden bench, we had a simple al of bread and fruit.

When the al was over, Estelle asked as always.

"Cigarette, want one?"

Estelle asked.

As always, she didn't ask my preference; she just naturally pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

I nodded silently.

She put a cigarette to my lips and lit it for .

I took a deep drag.

Bitter smoke filled my lungs.

Between us, this kind of familiarity had taken root.

Without words, we knew what each other wanted.

It was comfortable, yet sohow peculiar.

A few days passed like that.

The sa mornings, the sa coffee, the sa walks, the sa cigarettes.

Then one day, Estelle was busy from the morning, dressed in neat priest's robes different from her usual ones, her hair ticulously combed.

"Do you have sowhere you need to go?"

"Yeah, because of those damned old farts, I'll be back late tomorrow evening."

"I might not even be able to co back. Don't cry from loneliness just because I'm not here."

She said that and left the church alone.

I remained alone and cleared away the coffee cup she had left unfinished.

It was a sticky cup, with sugar dissolved in it.

That day, I was alone all day.

I went to the academy alone, attended classes alone, and ate lunch alone.

Everything felt awkward.

The fact that the seat beside was empty felt surprisingly prominent.

Even the students' whispers seed to sound sharper than usual.

After classes ended, I didn't return directly to the church.

I sat on an old bench near the academy's back gate and put a cigarette to my lips.

When Estelle wasn't around, I had to light it myself.

Sohow, I was clumsy at it.

The sun was setting.

The sky was dyed red, then slowly faded into darker, lighter hues.

It was then.

From behind, I heard soone call my na.

"Lavin."

It was a familiar voice, but one I didn't particularly want to hear.

I turned around.

Three people were standing there.

Standing with their backs to the setting sun, their faces weren't clearly visible.

However, it wasn't hard to know who they were.

The man on the left.

And the two people standing beside him.

Kyle, Seraphina, and that lady knight who witnessed when Perion was killed.

"Ah, Seraphina. Long ti no see. I missed you."

"But why bother coming with that friend, of all people? How annoying."

I casually stubbed out the cigarette in my hand on the ground.

It was a cigarette I hadn't even smoked halfway.

Kyle's face stiffened for a mont.

"Is that the only way you can talk?"

Kyle took a step forward and said.

"Do you know how worried Sera was about you?"

"She went to your room and found it empty, so she ca looking for you..."

"Don't call her Sera, you worm-like commoner."

A slip of the tongue.

I shouldn't be the kind of narrow-minded person who gets angry over such things.

Now, I'm just as lowly, a worm-like commoner myself.

The regrettable part is that Kyle will always be the kind of person who rises, while I'm the kind of person who only has further to fall.

As if he knew it well himself, instead of getting angry, he looked at with an almost pitiful gaze, as if I were a pathetic fool.

I have a revolver at my waist, but there'd be no point in taking it out.

"And it doesn't seem like you ca here out of concern."

She had her head bowed.

Her long hair obscured her face, making it impossible to read her expression.

Her shoulders were trembling, ever so slightly.

"Seraphina."

I called her na.

Her shoulders flinched and stiffened.

She slowly raised her head.

"You're the one who ca to find , so why don't you say sothing?"

With those words, our gazes t.

Her eyes were bloodshot.

"...Lavin, I ca here knowing everything."

"Knowing what?"

"That girl next to Kyle, you rember her face, don't you?"

"I don't know, it feels like I'm eting her for the first ti today."

I answered indifferently.

At that, the unnad lady knight's face flushed crimson.

"Lavin Edelgard, you really...!"

Kyle stopped her.

And looked at , saying.

"Lavin. By now, you must know why we ca."

His voice was a little lower and calr than before.

Thinking about it, if sothing truly fucked up had happened, Kyle wouldn't have co himself.

So high-and-mighty lords would have brought fearso soldiers to find .

They probably don't know much.

They wouldn't know it was Estelle who was upstairs.

If they had known, they wouldn't have co to find a fool like , who was cast out of his family and even had his engagent broken, first.

And of all days, it had to be on a day when Estelle wasn't around.

Therefore, a calm, composed, and rational conversation didn't seem like a good option.

"You all, especially Seraphina."

"No matter what I say, you're not going to believe anyway."

"It's the sa story as last ti."

I decided to shift the conversation away from the story of the night out with Estelle, vaguely gloss over it, and instead bring up sothing emotional to deflect.

"These days, I've been spending my nights offering prayers of repentance with the Saintess."

"Diligently and faithfully, without missing a single day."

I took another cigarette from my pocket and put it to my lips.

"Or else you'll point fingers at for things I didn't even do... Right."

"You've always been like that. You're the one who never changes."

"Now that we're even unengaged, what more do you want to do, Seraphina?"

I took a deep drag of smoke.

And slowly, exhaled.

"Do you even realize how rude it is to co looking for soone in the middle of the night, barely after breaking off your engagent, arm-in-arm with so pathetic stranger like a slut?"

Her face turned pale.

Kyle and the unnad friend also seed a little flustered as the conversation veered absurdly into a strange and sensitive direction that shouldn't be brought up carelessly.

"Now that you've managed to discard a worm like , do you just want to flaunt it right in front of my face?"

"No, if you're going to hook up with soone, why don't you snag so high-class young master, why a commoner again, of all people?"

"Is it because he's good in bed, or is that just your type?"

Kyle's eyebrows twitched.

He clenched his fist.

But Seraphina, trembling beside him, grabbed his arm.

With that, the original conversation was roughly buried under emotions, and I turned my back and returned to the church.

No one bothered to co over and stop .

I went up to the second floor, lingered in front of the church, then absentmindedly watched the three of them leave through the window, and found myself chuckling.

As expected, I didn't want to see Seraphina beside Kyle.