The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

TLed by NolepGuy

Chapter 72

It had already been a month since Hanna left the estate.

Hanna had adapted to life at the Academy.

She even sent a letter saying she wouldn’t return to the household anymore.

-It’s already December.

It feels like just yesterday I met you, Butler, but now the year is almost over.

The weather has gotten chilly. Have you taken out your winter clothes? I’m fine since I have my school uniform. The uniform made by the Imperial Family is warmer than I expected… Maybe you’d know if you tried it on? Haha…

I don’t think I’ll be able to visit during this winter vacation. I have personal matters to attend to.

It’s nothing dangerous, so don’t worry!

I’ll write to you again next time.

Thank you… always. Butler.

Oh, and! Please pass along my regards to the Young Miss!

───────────

Hanna sent a handwritten letter full of sincerity, saying it would be difficult to show her face during this winter vacation.

‘She says she has things to do…’

I didn’t know what it was, but it didn’t seem like she was planning to return to the household. Last time and this time, Hanna hadn’t mentioned the household even once.

Besides.

Malik had said so himself.

-I apologize for my disgraceful behavior.

-It’s fine. I had some unpleasant matters to deal with as well…

-Good to know.

-Do I seem like such a shameless person to you?

-You do.

-…

-Anyway, I’ve spoken to Father about the ownership of Tirbing. I roughly explained that I owed my life to Pascal when capturing him, so you can use it freely without any issues. And as for Hanna… she’s decided to leave the household.

-…I see.

-I plan to leave her on the family register. It’s Father’s will, and mine as well. Who knows, she might need the name of Histania someday.

-Well, that’s a matter Miss Hanna has resolved herself.

About a week after Hanna left for the Academy, Malik came to the estate in person.

He brought with him a pouch full of gold coins.

Stories about Hanna.

Stories about the Tirbing I had stolen.

They were valuable stories.

Rowen was reportedly deeply shocked. Not that it was my concern, but I couldn’t help but feel pleased that Rowen, who had tormented Hanna, was now suffering.

Before leaving, Malik offered me a small piece of advice.

-But why Tirbing of all things? There must have been plenty of other fine swords.

-It just looked like something I wanted to touch.

-Crazy bastard. Anyway, be careful not to lose your mind. Tirbing is a cursed sword.

Until the very end, he was a chic patron who worried about me. He claimed it was because dealing with me if I were possessed by the cursed sword would be a hassle, but I could vaguely sense the genuine concern in his words.

Truly, a patron.

I should serve him as my brother for the rest of my life.

Thus, the matters concerning Hanna and Tirbing came to a close. Now, all I could do was hope that Hanna’s wallet would grow fatter.

Thinking of the day Hanna would become a patron herself, I spread letter paper across the desk.

“I wish you success in your endeavors.”

I softly spoke to the young lady sitting at the desk.

“I. Wish. You. Success.”

The young lady, holding a pen, repeated my words as she wrote, then raised her head with a bored expression.

With a sullen expression, she put down her pen, seemingly dissatisfied with something.

“Hey, Ricardo. That line is so dull. Don’t you have something more exciting?”

The young lady, who worked in exchange for the fair payment of chocolate, retorted sharply to her employer’s suggestion.

She asked if there wasn’t a more sophisticated line, saying the current one sounded outdated.

Feeling wounded, I gave her a straightforward answer.

“There’s no helping it. Sometimes, the simplest lines are the best.”

“Boring. What if they fall asleep while reading the letter?”

“Letters aren’t meant to be read for entertainment.”

“Boring.”

The young lady yawned widely and stretched her stiff shoulders. It seemed her body was sore from writing for the first time in a while. I carefully approached her from behind and massaged her shoulders.

“If you write well, I’ll give you one more chocolate.”

“…Two.”

“Fine, two.”

The young lady chuckled, her mood visibly brightened.

“The letter’s content seems amusing. Using words people don’t say these days makes it sound like an old geezer wrote it…”

“It’s already too late for that.”

“…Tsk.”

She was a young lady with no talent for flattery.

Since my handwriting was hopeless, the young lady was writing the letter to Hanna on my behalf.

I had thought my handwriting would improve once my hand healed, but it remained consistently terrible, showing no signs of change.

It was still atrocious, so much so that, as Malik had said, one would need an ancient language interpreter to decipher it.

After a fleeting moment, the young lady, who had been passionately writing as if she might tear a hole in the letter paper, stretched her stiff body and spoke.

“I’m done.”

“Oh…”

Neat handwriting came into view.

Writing so uniform it looked as if it had been typed on a keyboard.

Her handwriting, which seemed to transcend the domain of talent and reach the realm of machinery, left me in awe.

“Are all nobles like this?”

“No. I’m just special.”

“As expected…!”

“It’s also because Ricardo writes filthily.”

“…I’ll settle for one chocolate.”

“Whyyy!!”

The young lady pushed her chest together in protest. I couldn’t help but entertain the reasonable suspicion that the size of one’s chest was proportional to their talent in handwriting.

Satisfied with the view, I took two chocolates from my pocket and placed them on the desk.

“Here’s your payment.”

“Hehe!”

Oblivious to my irreverent gaze, the young lady tucked the chocolates into her chest pocket.

Feeling pleased with today’s delightful spectacle, I smiled and sat across from her.

The weather had grown quite cold.

The chill was so biting that the fur clothes stored in the wardrobe for a year finally saw the light of day.

The wooden brazier in the room was doing its job diligently, filling the space with a cozy warmth.

I didn’t want to go out.

Neither did the young lady.

Nor did Gomtangi, with her thick fur.

It seemed that both animals and humans alike succumbed to laziness in the face of the cold.

What could I do while staying indoors?

I didn’t want to go out.

I didn’t want to waste time idly either.

I wanted to do something. I’d already made bath bombs last time, so that was out…

Maybe I could make dolls out of straw.

The thought of making cursed dolls to torment people I disliked with voodoo magic briefly crossed my mind, but given my lack of talent in magic and the young lady’s failed experience with dark magic, it seemed like a task too challenging for us. So I decided to give up on the idea.

‘Hmm…’

Had it been about ten minutes since I sat at the desk, lost in thought?

A good idea came to me, so I brought out a cardboard box from the estate’s storage.

A box covered in a thick layer of dust.

On the outside of the box was a drawing the Young Lady had made during her innocent days.

It depicted the Young Lady stepping on the head of a red-haired boy—a subtle revenge for all the fistfights she had lost to me in the past.

The Young Lady widened her eyes as she looked at the box.

“Oh… an ancient relic!”

“It’s from ten years ago.”

“That makes it an ancient relic.”

The Young Lady had a harsh way of evaluating memories.

Smiling faintly, I opened the box.

Though it gave off a musty smell, the contents inside had retained their original form.

Toys we used to play with as children.

Photo albums filled with memories of the past.

And—

“Found you.”

There was origami paper.

The Young Lady watched me curiously as I pulled the paper out of the box.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to do some paper folding.”

“That sounds boring.”

The Young Lady quickly lost interest.

With a nostalgic smile, I held out a white sheet of origami paper to her.

“It’ll be fun if we do it after such a long time.”

“I don’t think it’ll be fun.”

“If you find it fun, you’ll get a piece of chocolate.”

“That sounds fun!”

The Young Lady was quick to calculate.

Placing a cup of black tea on the desk, the Young Lady and I began folding paper.

The Young Lady created strange objects, while I carefully folded the paper, drawing on memories from my previous life.

A calm atmosphere settled over us.

Crackle. As the sound of firewood burning filled the room, we both focused on our tasks.

*

There’s a famous tale from my previous life.

If you fold a thousand paper cranes, your wish will come true…

With plenty of time on my hands now, I was folding paper cranes to enjoy my leisurely unemployed life.

They could serve as decorations.

And it was a simple pastime that allowed you to make small wishes.

When the paper in my hands finally took the shape of a crane, the Young Lady’s expression turned intrigued.

“How is it?”

The Young Lady furrowed her brows.

“What did you fold?”

“A crane.”

“…That’s a crane?”

The crumpled paper crane.

Perhaps because it had been so long since I last folded one, its shape was a bit awkward to call a crane.

The Young Lady spoke seriously.

“It looks like an orc.”

“It’s not. It’s a crane.”

“Firewood?”

“Please don’t disregard the soul of my art.”

“Hmm… no matter how I look at it, it’s not a crane.”

The Young Lady trampled on the dream of my paper crane, which had taken me thirty minutes to make.

“It looks like half-chewed gum.”

“Even gum can become a crane if you chew it enough.”

“That’s impossible.”

“…”

It seemed I had no talent for paper folding either, just like with writing.

The Young Lady picked up a red sheet of origami paper from the desk and furrowed her brows as she began to concentrate.

“I’ll show you.”

The Young Lady confidently started folding the red origami paper.

“Eeeek…”

She folded it in half.

“Eeeeeeek!!!”

Then folded it in half again.

“Eeeeeeeek!!!!!”

And folded it in half once more.

Watching her focused expression, I asked what exactly she was making.

“What are you making?”

“A paper crane.”

“…?”

“I did a great job, didn’t I?”

“…..?”

The Young Lady insisted that the rectangularly folded paper was a crane.

It was amusing.

Looking at her creation, which resembled a shrimp toast more than a crane, I asked her a question.

“Are you hungry?”

“…Yes.”

The Young Lady was honest about her feelings.

“Is there anything you’d like for dinner?”

“Meat.”

“Dismissed.”

“Then why did you ask?”

“…..”

It was my fault for asking when I already knew she’d say meat.

A thousand paper cranes.

They carried the warm superstition that your first love would come true.

What nonsense.

How childish.

I wasn’t living in such abundance that I could believe in such superstitions. If I spent the time folding a thousand cranes earning money and achieving success, that would be far more valuable than a thousand cranes.

It could be a way to appeal to a woman I cared about, though…

“Ricardo, you’re folding so diligently.”

The Young Lady spoke as she watched me, my face buried in the desk, focused on folding paper.

I smiled at her and said,

“They say if you fold a thousand paper cranes, your wish will come true.”

“A wish?”

“Yes. If you fold them neatly and beautifully, they’ll fly to the heavens and deliver your wish.”

“Who grants the wish?”

“Hmm… maybe a goddess?”

“…”

Deep in thought, the Young Lady nodded and picked up a new red origami paper from the desk.

“If it’s a goddess, she’s trustworthy.”

The Young Lady held a high opinion of the goddess. As expected of the Empire’s state religion, it carried a sacredness that could open the irreverent heart of even a faithless Young Lady.

As I placed the folded paper crane into the glass jar, I asked the Young Lady,

“What wish are you planning to make, Young Lady?”

“A Chocolate Palace.”

“That’s a wish I can make come true.”

I resolved to earn a lot of money.

The Young Lady, too, placed her crumpled paper crane into the glass jar and asked,

“What about you, Ricardo?”

“Me?”

Indeed.

What wish should I make?

Smiling foolishly, I folded a pure white origami paper.

“It’s a secret.”

It was a wish too embarrassing to say out loud.