The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

TLed by NolepGuy

Chapter 82

-Arrived.

Her past self began stepping into the dark space with a bright smile.

Watching that, Yuria started to feel overwhelmed with unease. Because she remembered what Hans had said.

-How do you think you survived in a dungeon when you don’t even learn offensive magic?

‘Right, how did I survive…?’

The deeper her past self walked into the darkness, the heavier Yuria’s head began to feel.

She couldn’t predict what would happen next. She couldn’t anticipate it, and she never imagined she would have walked into a place called the Altar of Greed, filled with the stench of blood, on her own.

The only thing she could rely on was the red-haired butler.

At the moment when the guilt she felt made her unable to lift her head, a man’s voice began to echo from behind her.

-What are you doing!

Ricardo, piercing through the darkness.

Seeing him, Yuria’s eyes began to well up with tears.

It was only then that Yuria realized how she had managed to get out. She now understood that if it hadn’t been for Ricardo, she would have died.

Ricardo had grabbed her past self’s wrist roughly back then.

Ricardo, panting heavily and sweating, let out a sigh of relief as he looked at her past self, who had empty eyes.

-Oh? It’s Ricardo.

Her past self spoke emotionlessly.

-The Ricardo I hate the most in the world.

Her past self, saying hurtful words to Ricardo without any emotion, maintained a calm expression.

With a face devoid of anger, hatred, or sorrow, her past self simply looked at Ricardo and spat out harsh words.

Ricardo, hearing the harsh words, responded with a casual smile.

-Does it make sense to hate the person you hate the most in the world? Anyway, let’s go back. This place is too dangerous.

-This place?

Tilting her head and looking around, her past self smiled faintly and spoke in a cold voice.

-This is my home.

-A house this big? You’ve succeeded, haven’t you?

-…I’m tired, so I’m going to rest.

Her past self tried to shake off Ricardo’s hand and step deeper into the darkness, but Ricardo’s firm grip wouldn’t let go.

Ricardo spoke to her in a gentle voice.

-How about staying out for the night? I’ll treat you to something delicious.

-No. I have to go back.

-Chocolate…! How about chocolate?

-Too sweet. I don’t like it.

-But the Young Lady seemed to like it…. Anyway, let’s go back. This place is dangerous.

-I said no…! No!

Her past self continued to resist, struggling repeatedly.

Screaming that she would go, her past self desperately tried to break free from Ricardo’s grip, resembling a child throwing a tantrum.

Yuria felt a chill run down her spine.

Mind control.

She had thought it had nothing to do with her, but seeing her unfocused eyes and darkened complexion, Yuria had no choice but to admit it.

She had caused a significant disturbance.

Hans was right.

Hans’s sarcastic remark about how her forgotten mistakes were severe wasn’t wrong at all.

She was grateful that Ricardo had caught her before it was too late. If he had been even a little later, she might have walked into the Altar of Greed on her own.

Yuria let out a sigh of relief and wiped the cold sweat she had been drenched in onto her school uniform.

Then she looked at Ricardo from the past.

A strange student who insisted on wearing a butler’s attire, claiming that demerit points couldn’t break a butler’s will. At the same time, a handsome man with striking features—Ricardo.

Yuria looked at Ricardo with complicated emotions.

‘I’m relieved.’

Yuria was now certain that the end of this nightmare-like memory was near.

-We need to leave quickly.

-I said no!

-Miss Yuria… Haa…

Ricardo seemed ready to drag her away by force. Ignoring the words of her struggling past self, Ricardo anxiously looked toward the exit.

At that moment, her past self shouted loudly at Ricardo.

-Let go of me! You hypocritical pretender!

-Who are you, a trash pretending to be kind, to hold onto me?

-Why? Are you going to say this is for my sake too?

Her past self was finally voicing the words she had been holding inside to Ricardo.

Yuria held her breath as she watched.

‘How could she say something like that…!’

She couldn’t imagine how Ricardo would react to such cold words. No matter how much of a Ricardo he was, hearing those words would surely hurt his feelings.

He had come all this way to save her.

There wasn’t a single person in the world who would be happy to be called trash. Lowering her head, Yuria cautiously raised it again to look at Ricardo.

-Puhaha! Is that what you’ve been thinking? I thought I’d die from guilt seeing you smile all the time.

As always, Ricardo smiled as he spoke to her past self.

-Why didn’t you say so earlier? Why keep it bottled up inside? Miss Yuria is right; I’m a bad person, so it doesn’t even hurt.

Holding her hand tightly, Ricardo spoke in a gentle voice, with the familiar expression he had shown back in Hamel.

-Well, since I’m a bad person as you say, feel free to curse at me all you want.

-So… let’s leave.

Ricardo was making his usual excuses to the self who had poured out resentment toward him.

Yuria’s eyes trembled widely.

‘Huh…?’

Even after hearing such cold words, Ricardo’s kindness made Yuria’s heart race.

She had expected him to say something harsh, but his easy acceptance made her feel his warmth.

Overwhelmed with emotion, Yuria shouted.

‘Why are you doing this?’

‘Why…’

Yuria, overcome with a tickling sensation in her heart, rubbed her sniffing nose with her hand and focused on the scene in front of her.

Because it was almost over. She thought that if she endured just a little longer, she could go back, and when she did, she would apologize to Ricardo for this incident.

-Ah… This won’t do. It’s been a while since we’ve had a guest….

A voice of an old man came from behind them.

A weak, elderly voice.

It was undoubtedly a weak, elderly voice. But she couldn’t turn her head recklessly.

Because she felt like she would die if she did.

Yuria’s body trembled like an aspen tree under the unknown pressure.

‘Wh…who is it?’

From the back of the old man who passed by the terrified Yuria, she could see dark energy emanating like jet-black shadows.

The overwhelming strength made it hard to breathe.

Even though it wasn’t real, the fear she felt made Yuria tremble as she raised her head.

When the old man’s figure came into view, Yuria’s eyes began to tremble violently.

-Isn’t that right, youngsters?

White hair.

An old man leaning on a black cane.

With eyes slanted like a cat’s and golden irises, the old man was someone she had only seen in history books.

The old man smiled with crescent-shaped eyes and spoke.

-My name is Calypso. The old man once called the ‘Calamity of the Empire.’ Do you remember?

As soon as the old man finished speaking, with a ‘pop’ sound, the surroundings lit up brightly.

The ceiling and walls, drawn with complex spell formulas, began to reveal their original appearance to Yuria’s eyes, as if the Altar of Greed they had been standing in moments ago had been restored.

The ceiling, previously full of sword marks, was now spotless. Standing in the center, Calypso extended his hand with a fishy smile.

Golden eyes.

A face gaunt with exhaustion.

And the elderly figure clad in a black robe was the very image of the Dark Sorcerer who had once plunged the Empire into fear.

‘This can’t be happening.’

Calypso licked his lips with a fishy smile, murmuring about finally being able to leave.

Yuria felt a shiver run down her spine.

It was despair.

Though it was a vision, the overwhelming malice that pricked her entire body made her nerves stand on end. Unable to imagine what Ricardo must be feeling in that moment, Yuria spoke in a trembling voice.

‘We have to run away…’

Faced with a Dark Sorcerer of such an unfathomable level, Yuria instinctively shouted for them to run, but the Ricardo of the past simply sighed and muttered.

-Haah… This should’ve been dealt with by the heretics…

He spoke words that made no sense.

Ricardo, as if admonishing his past self, spoke to him with a calm tone.

-Miss Yuria, pull yourself together. When I count to three, you’re going to run over there. Got it?

-Don’t be afraid, okay?

-I’ll take care of everything. Just keep your eyes forward and run.

She saw her past self nodding with unfocused eyes.

And then.

Calypso, with a fishy smile, spoke to Ricardo.

-Hmm… A noble spirit of sacrifice, but… I hate things like that.

With those words.

With a squelching sound, red blood began to spill from Ricardo’s mouth.

-Ah…?

A dagger was embedded in Ricardo’s abdomen. A familiar dagger with a pink handle.

The self-defense dagger, gifted by her father and still strapped to her waist, was now lodged in Ricardo’s abdomen.

‘No… No, this can’t be…!’

‘Ah… Ahhh… This isn’t real, is it?’

‘It’s a lie… It has to be…! Why would I…!?’

Yuria covered her mouth with her hands.

-Miss Yuria, why…

-…

The one who had stabbed Ricardo was none other than.

Herself.

Her past self, who had driven the dagger in, was crying with an awkward smile. As tears dripped down, Yuria found herself unable to control her emotions.

‘No… No, this isn’t…’

At the sound of clapping and Calypso’s laughter,

her past self’s eyes began to regain focus.

Her past self, staring at the blood covering her hands, asked.

-Ri… Ricardo?

Ricardo, with red blood flowing, smiled the same way he had in Hamel and said.

-It’s nothing.

[Viewing has ended.]