The Villain’s Ending

Chapter 126

Sunset (9)

For a while, I spent ordinary days attending classes.

Sometimes having lunch with Seraphina, or appeasing Levina who would come to my room and make a fuss.

Estelle didn't come looking for me, nor did I go looking for Estelle.

Anyway, after attending class and entering the room, a familiar back view came into sight.

She was standing by the window, looking outside.

"Lavin, I got something quite good this time, won't you drink it with me?"

Levina said, turning around.

On the table lay a wine bottle with an open cork, and two glasses.

"Alcohol again?""Alcohol again? Anyone hearing that would think I'm a drunkard like you."

Without replying, Levina picked up the bottle and began pouring it into a glass.

The sound of the red, transparent liquid filling the glass quietly echoed in the room.

"You are a drunkard. Always getting drunk and sleeping over here."

"At least I don't openly show such a side in front of others."

Levina neatly poured the alcohol into two glasses, then quickly finished the rest straight from the bottle.

She placed the empty bottle on the table.

"Because unlike you, I'm someone who needs to care about public perception."

"How splendid."

"Anyway, sit down, Lavin. I was bored waiting alone."

"Anyone would think this is your room."

Levina didn't reply, but offered me a glass.

I took the glass.

"......Until now, all the things I've done to you and all the words I've said. What do you think of them?"

Levina asked.

A smile was on her face, but her expression was somehow anxious.

"Should I tell you honestly?"

Levina hesitated.

She touched the rim of the glass with her finger and replied.

"No, I won't listen. It's much more comfortable to think as I please."

"It is comfortable."

"But not listening makes me anxious in its own way."

"You're anxious because your well-trained dog-bastard, who never even whimpered no matter how much you beat him, seems like he's going over to the church?"

"I can't say no. I wish you had just remained my Lavin."

"It wasn't easy."

Levina slowly pushed a glass towards me.

I took the glass, and looking down at the red liquid swirling within it, I said softly.

"I won't act like a dog underfoot. Not from now on. Still, I'll be by your side."

Then I raised my head and looked at Levina's face.

She wore a smile that seemed both on the verge of tears and happy.

"I didn't think you'd be able to say something like that."

"Instead, I'm going to set a condition."

"......What condition?"

"Your mother, please deal with her yourself."

"......Just because I acted a bit subservient to you, do you think the current junior family head of the Edelgard family looks like dog shit, Lavin?"

"Yeah, because it's a meaningless position."

"Of course, you'd say that so easily because it's a position you'll never get to sit in for eternity......"

I interrupted Levina and spoke.

"Never get to sit in it? I told you. Even if I sell everything to the church, they'd leave one position.

Wouldn't they? Especially if it's the Saintess."

"You, when did you meet that crazy bitch Estelle and what did you talk about?"

"Nothing special.

Just talked a bit about the heretics around the annex, and the apostates hiding here and there."

"Why do you act like a changed person all of a sudden, when you usually live like an idiot?"

"Well, I love you too, Sis. I want to protect you, you see."

Levina glared at me, then, hearing my words, her lips curled into a slight smile.

"......I'll let that slip you just made go. At least for today."

"It wasn't a slip, it was serious."

"......"

Levina didn't reply, but instantly drained the alcohol in her glass.

Then, seeing her stare blankly at me, I also emptied the alcohol in my glass.

The aroma was good, but the taste felt somehow strange.

My vision blurred slightly for a moment.

"Mother… I was going to deal with her myself soon, whether by locking her up somewhere or confining her to a suitable villa."

Levina's words sounded as if they were echoing.

Even though she was sitting right in front, it felt like she was whispering in my ear.

"I love you too, you see, I want to protect you."

Levina was smiling faintly.

With an expression that seemed immensely happy.

****

When I opened my eyes in the morning, I saw the ceiling I looked at every day.

I was lying on the familiar bed as always, so nothing seemed particularly different from usual.

However, there was one difficult point.

Levina was lying next to me, wearing only her underwear.

Wondering if something happened after drinking yesterday, I approached Levina and felt around her neck and body, smelling her, but her body was clean as expected.

Aside from her hands intertwined with mine, there seemed to be no part of our bodies touching.

"Phew......"

Levina, sleeping with soft breathing.

There seemed to be no trace of her clothes being removed.

It seemed like, quite literally, we had only held hands and slept in the same bed, under the same blanket.

Though I don't know what kind of fucking shit was put in that alcohol.

And of all times, that's when a knock was heard.

I don't know why someone had to come at this particular moment, but I had to go out and check.

Because Seraphina, if I didn't open the door, would just use a spell to open the firmly closed door, then say it was open and wait inside.

When I went out and opened the door, Estelle was standing there.

Estelle was wearing ordinary casual clothes, holding a small basket in her hand.

"......I don't think we're close enough to drop by at this hour."

"What nonsense are you talking about? It's broad daylight."

Estelle smiled slightly, then said.

"You just woke up, didn't you?"

I didn't particularly reply.

"Anyway, a guest has come, aren't you going to let me in?"

I subtly glanced into the room.

Would it be awkward for fully grown siblings to have spent the night in the same room, or not?

"I even came in casual clothes on purpose so you wouldn't be troubled, you know."

I sighed and let Estelle into the room.

Estelle entered the room, looked around, and her gaze stopped on Levina lying on the bed.

"Your relationship, wasn't it bad?"

"Stories circulating among people and reality are often quite different, aren't they?"

I offered Estelle some suitable cookies and a cup of heavily steeped tea, telling her to sit anywhere she pleased.

"She's not someone who wouldn't wake up; how much did she drink?"

Estelle looked at Levina, who was still sleeping soundly, with a slightly awkward expression.

"By the way, you said you were expelled from the family. But you're staying in the same room like this?"

"Indeed."

"I was going to say that if you were going to be expelled anyway, why not come to the church instead, but seeing you sleeping in the same room, it seems there's no need to say such a thing."

"Why did you come?"

At those words, Estelle placed the small basket on the table.

"Open it."

When I opened the basket, piles of gold coins and several gems were rolling around.

"It's not from the church, but a small token of my sincerity."

"I'm not short on money."

"I know, it's just. That's why it's a small token of sincerity."

Still, money was money.

I picked up the basket and put it in the slightly larger compartment under the drawer where the gun was.

Clink.

Gold coins and beautifully cut gems rolled around, making a sound.

Perhaps it was noisy, as Levina stirred, then buried her face in the pillow again and tried to sleep.

"All the priests you told me about, in that church stuck in a rural village I've never even heard the name of, were all heretics."

Estelle said in a small voice.

"I told you they were."

"Anyway, I feel like I should repay you in some way. I thought getting closer to the Saintess would be better than money."

"Are you asking for a date or something?"

"Yeah, what should I say. It's like I've met you before, you see.

Not just passing by somewhere."

Estelle said so, then stood up, took my hand, and began to pull me somewhere.

Without even closing the door.

After passing through the corridor and exiting the building, we left the academy and walked down the street.

During that time, neither of us said anything.

Because we're strangers who've only just met, and walking alone like this now should feel awkward.

But Estelle was walking down the street with a somewhat excited expression.

With an expression so excited that I couldn't even ask where we were going.

After walking for a long time like that, Estelle stopped in the middle of the plaza.

The voices of merchants doing business, the sounds of people walking around and shopping, the sound of a clown performing tricks for money... the plaza was chaotic with countless sounds and smells mingling, but the only thing clearly visible there was Estelle.

"Though I don't know when it was, I was definitely hugging you here."

We, standing in the middle of the plaza, felt unnatural.

"Though you were horribly disfigured, burned to a crisp, it was definitely you."

And she tightly grabbed my shoulders.

"I called your name, she said."

"......"

Estelle wore an inexplicable expression, somehow sad yet not knowing why she was sad.

We were strangers, yet not strangers.

I remember everything, but Estelle only remembered the moments of my death.

She looked incredibly distressed.

Because she had lost something, but had forgotten what she had lost.