Page 150 of The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

Outstanding strength stems from a robust physique.

No matter how confident one may be, if their body is a mess, it’s just arrogance. Despite being the strongest in worldview, I was diligently exercising today as well.

“What are you doing, Ricardo?”

“I’m exercising.”

Seeing me hanging from the door frame doing chin-ups, the lady looked puzzled and asked with a question mark over her head.

“Exercising...?”

For the lady, whose understanding of exercise was limited to chin-joint movements, she couldn’t grasp my intentions.

“Why are you doing it?”

“Just because.”

“Hmm...”

The lady wasn’t friendly with exercise.

Even a mere visit to the exercise room made her distance herself, saying, ‘Ugh... the smell of sweat.’ She was someone not accustomed to sweat.

As I continued to climb the door frame effortlessly, exhaling ‘phew’, and she lay on the bed yawning, she said in a bored, droopy voice.

“Ricardo. It feels like a frog hanging from the ceiling.”

“The expression is somewhat like that.”

“Right.”

It was indeed a fitting description.

Lacking exercise equipment in the mansion, I found myself unimpressive doing chin-ups on the doorstep even in my own eyes.

I resolved to create exercise equipment that could be used with the lady and focused on working out.

“321”

“322”

“423”

“Ricardo, the numbers suddenly went up.”

“It’s just a mood thing.”

The lady seemed more concerned about my health than I had thought.

To preserve the lady’s eye health, I stopped doing chin-ups and switched to push-ups.

As the count exceeded 400,

The lady’s wriggling figure, spurred on, flashed before my eyes.

“eeek!”

The lady flailing on the bed.

I smiled faintly, watching the lady exercise passionately.

“What are you doing?”

“Exercising.”

“That’s not exercising, it’s like chasing fresh mackerel, isn’t it?”

“eeek! Hweeek!”

“Seems like mackerel.”

Exhausted, the lady collapsed on the bed, breathing heavily.

“Ugh... Hwek... Hwaaak... I’m dying.”

It seemed that gravity was a heavy burden for the lady isolated from exercise.

Doing push-ups with knees on the ground, it was tough for the lady, who couldn’t move her legs, to lift her body relying solely on the strength of her upper body. I tried not to mock the lady’s efforts.

“Pfft...!”

I couldn’t help it.

Seeing the lady thrash on the bed was quite shocking.

“Pffft...”

“Don’t laugh!”

“Pffft... How can you find this funny?”

“eeek!”

As if retorting to my teasing, the lady puffed her cheeks and repeated the effort of blowing air into them forcefully.

“eeek!!! One!”

“Fail.”

“Hweee...”

Indeed, the lady was not on good terms with exercise.

After laughing for a while.

I brought my hand to my shirt and started to unbutton it smoothly. The fabric of the shirt was not conducive to sweating, and unbuttoning it when it was hot had become a habit for me.

For a moment, I forgot that there was a lady next to me and unconsciously undid the buttons of my shirt.

“Oh...”

The lady observing N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t this scene was shining with excitement and puffing her nose.

“Ricardo, you have a huge chest!”

“Ha! What is that! Such harassment!”

“Oh...”

Taken aback by the lady’s suggestive remarks, I wrapped my shirt around me and hunched my shoulders. The lady’s eyes, shining brightly and piercing through me, looked quite sinister.

It was as if, a switch had flipped in the innocent girl’s mind. The lady, who had never seen a man’s body up close, had a livelier look in her eyes than usual, and her ears were turning red.

The lady, with her eyes shining brightly, looked at my hand holding the shirt. With a profound gaze, she smiled mischievously and said,

“Show me!”

“What do you want to see!”

“The body!”

“No!”

Is it acceptable for a noble young lady to behave like this?

Blushing at the lady’s daring remarks, I lowered my head.

“It’s extremely inappropriate to say you want to see someone’s naked body!”

“Please! Show me!”

Once the switch was flipped in the lady, she showed no signs of backing down. Blowing air onto her cheeks, she reached out her hand to push away my hand holding the shirt. I blushed and fled at her fidgety gesture.

“Pervert!”

“No, no!”

“What do you mean no. You’re being suggestive!”

“Please! Then show me yours!”

“What? Uh... that’s...”

Looking at the lady’s determined face, I hesitated for a moment.

Her face, just once.

And her wicked mind, just once.

For a brief moment, a lewd thought crossed my mind, but after struggling to regain my composure in the battle with reason, I took a deep breath and regained my senses.

“No, I refuse!”

“Why! Show me!”

“No! Leave!”

The lady made a large circle with her hand and made a grandiose critique of my chest muscles. It was exaggerated, but she compared them to having two large rocks, and I brought my hand to my forehead at the lady’s metaphorical expression while she blew her nose in disdain.

“Later!”

“What does that matter to you!”

“Grand! Sturdy! I want to touch because they look strong!”

“No, you have never shown an interest before, why now!”

“Just because.”

The lady gave a simple answer, tilted her head, and I sighed, patting her forehead, concluding the incident.

“Why did you hit me!”

After being hit and rolling around on the bed, holding her forehead, the lady vented her frustration.

“I made a mistake.”

“Reckless!”

“I had no choice.”

“Fool!”

Her face flushed.

Indeed.

*

An evening when my face grew hot due to an unexpected event.

In the dark room, I was panting heavily.

“1001”

“1002”

Sweat dripped incessantly from my body as I did push-ups. Beads of sweat formed on my rugged back muscles, falling down my chin, while veins harshly protruded from my swelling biceps as if about to burst.

Doing push-ups with a plank position seemed to be more effective than I thought.

[Breaking the limit tests the limit of ‘strength.’]

“Phew...”

I pondered.

What I needed to do to become stronger.

It was a simple question to find the answer, but it required much contemplation to reach the correct answer.

I had to think about the story.

Considering the protagonist’s growth, absorbing Qi wasn’t as simple as it seemed.

The Qi I could obtain was limited to the Qi of the sect and the Qi from the side stories.

In reality, all I could do now was train diligently. It was the most certain and straightforward way, without relying on miracles.

But you know.

It felt like there might be a way to reach my goal faster. I kept thinking there must be a shortcut that could easily lead me there if I used some trickery.

A way to make the most of what I had and quickly boost my strength.

“Phew... 2301.”

I was sure it existed.

I could find the way not far from where I was.

[Breaking the limit]

This was the best trick I knew.

As the hot drops of sweat splattered on the floor.

“How long will you leave me like this?”

The familiar voice of a man came from the crystal ball on the bed.

The familiar voice of a man, bound by chains all over his body, unable to move, spoke to me with a long sigh.

I silently stood up and replied to the man.

“Until your answer pleases me?”

“...”

“Have you thought about my proposal?”

“...”

From Noble mtl dot com

“I’d appreciate a quick response.”

The person trapped in the Sejong Prison is Hans.

Trapped in the place known as the ‘Seal of Confinement’ among the heretic’s schemes, Hans was bowing his head.

He couldn’t lift his head due to shame, deeply bowing because of the proposal I presented.

I smiled at Hans.

“Make your choice quickly.”

Hans wasn’t a bad guy.

Of course, he was a bad guy for killing people to become stronger, but he was the kind of guy who killed those worth killing.

The moment Hans’ boundary of ‘morals’ truly began to crumble was after he killed Matapju with his own hands.

I knew the scene that briefly appeared like a flashback when Hans chose to sacrifice himself to protect Yuria and the main group.

-Still, I’m a bad guy.

The people Hans killed to awaken in dark magic were villains.

People killed in dungeons for money or soldiers who covered up wrongdoings for payment.

Of course, it wasn’t forgivable that this guy tried to deceive me, but he was someone who knew how to keep things in moderation.

I reached out my hand to Hans.

‘Become a spy for the heretics.’ Not to ask for such a bothersome task but to ask for something a bit more burdensome.

What I asked of him was a simpler and more straightforward issue than that.

Protect the lady.

To become stronger, you must defeat stronger opponents, but the threat of injury was a problem that must be endured.

Hans’ surrender wouldn’t be of much help to me, but he wasn’t weak. I thought he could be a card I could use as a last resort.

With his head bowed, Hans questioned me in a serious tone.

“What is in it for me?”

“Survival.”

“...Indeed, an offer I cannot refuse.”

“Is that so?”

Hans nodded with a resigned smile and emerged from the seal, starting to recite an incantation.

“What are you doing?”

“A magician’s contract.”

“You’re going to do that?”

“If you’re going to do something, do it right.”

A magician’s contract.

A forbidden magic among magicians.

It was an absolute magic that led to death if violated by the contract that put one’s life at stake, a lifelong agreement made when swearing loyalty to a master or serving a master.

To Hans, the very act of doing such a thing was like putting an unbreakable shackle around his own neck.

The wall began to fill with incantations containing the word ‘contract.’ As the wall filled with red letters, I murmured softly.

“Do I need to clean this up?”

“I’ll do it.”

“Alright then.”

The terms of the deal were simpler than expected.

“I, Hans, declare a magician’s contract to the contractor, Ricardo.”

The contents of the contract were about ‘Ricardo’ and ‘Olivia.’

If you cannot harm for any reason, a penalty for violating the contract that prohibits any mention of it.

“If the deal is broken, the contractor Hans’s heart will burst, resulting in death.”

I added one clause.

“Let’s settle it with the head, not the heart.”

“...”

“We must be certain.”

The deal was made.

Hans, with a disappointed expression, sat on the bed and said to me,

“So, what do I do now? Should I protect Olivia?”

“No. You do that when I ask. Let’s start with this.”

I took out a spellbook from my bosom, the key to handing over to Hans.

“Let’s align the balance first.”

And Hans.

“Brother.”

Became a faithful hound.

***

In the distant future,

Hans wiped his sweat while looking at the massive statue of Ricardo.

“This makes it 1301. To honor him...”

Ricardo looked at Hans.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”