Not the Villainess, but the Maid

Chapter 40: It's Okay to Be Spoiled

As soon as she reached the mailbox, I quickly ran up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey···!”

She reflexively turned her head and met my gaze.

‘A paper bag···!?’

She was wearing a bag with small holes cut out for her eyes.

It seemed like she was determined not to let her face be seen, no matter what.

Startled by my sudden appearance, she dropped the letter she was holding and took off running.

“Wait!”

Judging by her black uniform, she was undoubtedly a noble.

I chased her desperately, but she kept slipping out of reach.

Afraid I might lose her, I quickly took off my shoe, grabbed it, and threw it with all my might.

“Take this!”

The shoe flew through the air and hit her squarely on the head with a sharp sound.

“Ah···!”

Perhaps due to the sudden impact, she tripped and fell spectacularly.

I didn’t miss the opportunity and pounced on her.

‘I’ll find out who she is no matter what···!’

I wrestled with her as she resisted desperately, pulling off the bag to reveal her hidden face.

“No, stop···!”

“…Huh?”

This person… I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before.

“You’re from the second year···?”

“···.”

Her face exposed, she lay on the ground with a resigned and bitter expression.

The next morning, the entire Free Activity Club went to the student council to confront the culprit.

When we revealed her identity, everyone was shocked.

“She’s the head of the Instrumental Performance Club···?”

It was a completely unexpected revelation.

The person sending the threatening letters was the club president of the Instrumental Performance Club.

Aside from a brief conversation on the club exploration day, she shouldn’t have had much interaction with Ruby.

The one who seemed the most bewildered was undoubtedly Citrine.

“A person who’s the head of a club sent seven threatening letters···?”

Citrine, her expression serious, turned to her and asked.

“···Why did you do it?”

The girl, looking aggrieved, pointed at Ruby and replied.

“It’s all her fault. I didn’t do anything wrong···.”

“…What did our lady do to you?”

I asked, baffled, and she replied, her voice rising.

“She probably doesn’t even remember, but I kept seeing her face at every competition I entered. It was infuriating···.”

‘A competition?’

As I looked at her with a puzzled expression, Ruby leaned in and whispered into my ear.

“···Amber, maybe she’s talking about piano recitals?”

Now that I thought about it, I had accompanied Ruby to countless recitals held in various places.

After taking first place in her first competition, Ruby’s skills continued to grow steadily.

As a result, it became natural for her to win every competition.

“Every time I participated, she was always there. She never missed a single one and always took first place!”

Winning a recital wasn’t just about receiving prize money; it was also a matter of elevating one’s family honor.

That’s why noble ladies poured their efforts into winning with everything they had.

“Everyone’s laughing at me inside···! Saying the head of the Instrumental Performance Club never won a single competition···!”

At last, I understood why she had drawn severed fingers on the letters.

Knowing she couldn’t beat Ruby with her own hands, she had expressed her resentment in that way.

“If it weren’t for her, all that glory would have been mine···.”

As she continued ranting irrationally at Ruby, I spoke up in her defense.

“How is it our lady’s fault that you didn’t win? She only took first place because of her skill.”

“Skill? You’re part of that filthy Sarka Family. You must have cheated somehow!”

For a moment, I thought I had misheard and asked again.

“What did you just say···?”

“You probably bribed the judges at every competition, didn’t you? It’s impossible otherwise. You must have used dirty money to hog all the victories!”

“···.”

It wasn’t uncommon for Ruby to face blind prejudice simply because she belonged to the Sarka Family.

Some people claimed the family’s success was built on the graves of countless others.

The student council room fell silent, and Citrine sighed deeply, looking as if she had a headache.

“That’s enough. Take her over there and wait quietly for your punishment.”

“···.”

Other student council members dragged her away, and Citrine, still looking troubled, said.

“Well···. I can’t believe something like this happened.”

I watched her being led away and asked.

“What’s going to happen to her now, President?”

“She’ll be sent to the class trial. Depending on the outcome, her punishment will be decided.”

A class trial.

At the Magic Academy, this system was used to judge students who committed crimes.

The number of participants in the trial depended on the severity of the offense.

Citrine continued explaining with a grim expression.

“If she gets expelled, she’s lucky. But as you know, for nobles, honor is more important than life. Most students who reach that point choose a different path.”

Instead of expulsion or disgrace, there was one final option.

That was to join the frontlines of defense.

“The frontlines… that’s where monsters swarm, right?”

“Swarm isn’t even the right word; they’re everywhere. But what can you do? They’d rather fight and die than tarnish their family name.”

The frontlines.

In this game, it was where characters were sent if they reached a bad ending.

Unlike most visual novel bad endings that ended with a simple cutscene, [Chronicles of Magical Lily] continued.

Characters sent to the frontlines would fight monsters until they eventually died.

Naturally, there was no concept of victory in those battles.

Fighting monsters until their stamina ran out and dying in defeat was a simple yet brutal end.

Citrine, wearing a bitter expression, added a remark.

“Even if you manage to survive a battle, you’re usually left with severe aftereffects or lose a limb···. Well, you won’t be able to live a normal life in any case.”

I couldn’t dismiss her explanation, as the fate she described was the very ending Ruby met in the original story.

Toward the end of her first year, Ruby’s misdeeds were all exposed, and she was dragged into a class trial.

During that process, Clara, the villainess who had been following Ruby, and her group pinned all their crimes on Ruby and survived the trial unscathed.

Unable to tarnish her family’s name, Ruby ultimately chose the frontlines and met a gruesome end there.

That was the original ending for the villainess Ruby Sarka, as I knew it.

Having concluded the incident, Citrine pushed me on the back and spoke to us.

“You must all be exhausted, so go back now. We’ll take care of the rest.”

Though the resolution left a bitter taste, I did want to rest as she suggested.

Both Ruby and I were quite drained.

“···Let’s head back to the room, my lady.”

“···Alright.”

Back in the room, Ruby sat on the bed in a daze, not even bothering to change her clothes.

The shock must have been significant, as something similar had happened when she was thirteen.

It was the second time after the incident when her tea had been poisoned.

“My lady, are you alright?”

As I asked with concern, sitting beside her, Ruby finally turned to look at me.

“Yeah, I was just a little surprised.”

‘···That’s a lie.’

Pretending to be strong in front of me was one of her bad habits.

She wasn’t fine at all, her hands were trembling.

Noticing this, I gently placed my hand over hers and spoke.

“You don’t have to hide it in front of me, my lady.”

“···.”

“We’ve known each other for so long, haven’t we?”

Hesitating slightly, Ruby eventually rested her head against me.

“···To be honest, I wasn’t okay.”

How scared she must have been every time she received a letter.

The feeling that people hated her, even though she’d done nothing wrong.

She must have felt both frightened and sorrowful as a member of the Sarka Family.

From her trembling frame against me, I could feel her suppressed emotions.

“You know, I thought if I played well, everyone would look at me kindly. I truly believed that···.”

“···.”

I raised my hand and gently stroked her head.

“It’s not your fault, my lady.”

Like soothing a crying child, I lightly patted her delicate back.

“You just worked hard, that’s all.”

“···Really?”

“Yes. I’ve been watching over you all this time.”

There was no reason for her to be criticized just because of the Sarka Family’s reputation.

Her warmth passed through my clothes and reached me.

I continued to stroke her head, softly and lovingly.

‘It’s not your fault, Ruby.’

You deserve to be happy, my lovely and precious lady.

Clinging to my clothes, Ruby finally let out the tears she had been holding back.

She must have been struggling so much.

Pretending to be strong, walking her own path silently.

Understanding her hardship, I wished to be a source of support for Ruby.

Someone she could lean on whenever she was weary or troubled.

I kept stroking her head over and over.

Even as her beautiful black hair became disheveled, even as she said it was enough, I continued to stroke her.

“···.”

When I finally stopped, Ruby looked at me with tearful eyes.

“···Do it more.”

“···Alright.”

With a smile, I this time swept her side hair behind her ear.

Her reddened ear looked so endearing.

A pretty ear, filled with shyness.

“···More.”

She looked at me with a gaze that yearned for affection, like a child seeking love.

To meet her request, I naturally laid her down on my lap.

“You look like a baby, lying down like this.”

After saying this teasingly, I gently placed my hand on her forehead.

Her warmth was just the right amount of comforting.

Following the line of her forehead, I softly brushed her bangs aside and whispered in her ear.

“You’re such a spoiled child, my lady.”

Without a word, she buried her face into my stomach.

It was Ruby’s way of showing her embarrassment.

For a while, she continued to enjoy my touch.

At some point, I found myself fully absorbed in stroking her, cherishing every inch of her.

After a while, Ruby suddenly rose from my arms.

“Are you getting up already? You can stay longer.”

“···It’s unfair if I’m the only one receiving.”

“Pardon?”

“Lie down, Amber.”

She gently pushed me down, resting my head on her lap.

A soft, sweet scent, distinctively feminine, wafted over me.