Page 185 of The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

The Miss had always been prone to catching colds.

-Miss, why did you go into the lake?

-Sob...

-Judging from the fact that you don’t seem to be feeling wronged, it doesn’t seem like you went in against your will, but rather of your own accord.

-Sniff...!

-I hope it’s not because you were annoyed by the butterflies fluttering around you...

-Hiccup...!

-I see.

During the time she had a runny nose, the Miss would catch colds for the most outrageous reasons.

-No! I’m a flower, and you’re avoiding me!

She fell into the lake because the butterflies were annoying her.

-That darn rabbit won’t eat the food I give it!

-That’s proper noble discrimination.

-Eek! I’ll feed it!

-Ah... Miss!

She threw herself into the lake and became Shim Cheong because the carp discriminated against humans and wouldn’t eat her food.

-Ricardo. I’m going to make a blanket out of snow.

-You’re being very creative with your nonsense.

-It’s not nonsense.

Sometimes, she would catch a cold because she opened the window on a snowy day and fell asleep, thinking the snow falling outside would make a good blanket. Because of such eccentric behavior, she often caught colds.

As she grew older, such behavior disappeared, but the Miss was still a sickly person who caught colds easily for various reasons.

*

Today, too, the Desmunt mansion was peaceful.

The Miss, who was sniffling from the tickling in her nose, had a sullen expression on her face, as if she was in a bad mood.

“Eek... Hiccup”

The Miss tried to hold back a sneeze.

Clenching her fists as if something was really bothering her, the Miss frowned as she tried to fight back the sneeze.

“Hiccup!”

I sat still and watched the Miss. Just to see how long she could hold out.

I couldn’t understand why the Miss was holding back the sneeze, since it was nothing bad, but sometimes it’s a butler’s virtue to support the Miss’s pointless endeavors. So I clenched my fists and cheered for the Miss to win.

“Hmph... Hmm.”

“Oh...!”

“Hmph... Huh.”

“O-ho...”

“Hwee-eek!”

The young lady, who was bobbing her head like a woodpecker, was not able to produce any significant results.

As it seemed like her stress would only increase her fever if this continued, I stopped cheering her on and told her to give up.

Sometimes, giving up can be a wise choice.

“Just give it up. Miss.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“It’s annoying to wipe my nose.”

As expected, there was a good reason for her every action. It was certainly unpleasant to have your face covered in mucus.

In order to solve the young lady’s problem, I quietly uttered an innovative suggestion.

“Would it be okay if I wiped it for you?”

“O-ho...”

The young lady nodded at my words.

In retrospect, it seemed that she realized she didn’t have to do the annoying task herself. The young lady opened her nostrils, surrendering to the blowing wind.

“Hee... Hi-eek Hiet-choo..”

She looked at me with a lost expression, wondering where the sneeze that had disappeared had gone.

“It didn’t come out.”

“It seems you missed the timing. Originally, a sneeze is a friend who is very shy, so if you reject it once, it won’t come back again.”

The young lady pouted her lips, looking forlornly at the tissue in her hand.

“That’s disappointing. I feel like all the energy in my body has been drained.”

“There’s nothing you can do about it.”

“eee-eek...”

I wiped the mucus flowing down the young lady’s nose with a handkerchief and placed the back of my hand on her forehead.

I could feel the young lady’s warm body temperature.

She definitely seemed to have a fever.

Her face was flushed.

And her mucus was flowing like water.

If this continued, it seemed like I could fry an egg on the young lady’s forehead, so I carefully placed my hand on her shoulder and said.

“Let’s go to sleep.”

The young lady shook her head stubbornly.

The young lady, who didn’t think to listen to reason when she was sick, looked at me and stubbornly stated her insistence.

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“I don’t want to go to sleep.”

I looked at the young lady with a bitter smile, as she usually loved to sleep so much.

“Why not? It seems like your fever is getting worse, shouldn’t you lie down and rest so that it goes down faster?”

“I promised to go out and play with Ricardo today. I’ll take some medicine and go out to play with Ricardo.”

“You can go next time.”

“But I want to go today...”

The young lady looked at me with pitiful eyes. The young lady, who seemed like she would collapse from sadness rather than a cold if she didn’t go out right away, let out a regretful sigh.

I placed my hand on the young lady’s forehead and replied in a gentle voice.

“Can’t we do it next time? It’s not my day today.”

“Today is the day.”

“What day?”

“The day I’m not bored.”

“Pfft. What’s that?”

“Ricardo is always busy these days. He doesn’t play with me anymore... What if he’s busy tomorrow too?”

“Starting today, I’m a man with plenty of time to spare.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

The lady asked again, her expression serious.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Then I understand.”

The lady, who was looking at me with her innocent eyes, urged me to put her down quickly. I chuckled at the lady’s languid appearance, who seemed to think it was heartless to lie down by herself, and put my hand on her shoulder and carefully supported her weight.

“Going down.”

“Mhm.”

“3rd floor.”

“Oh...”

“2nd floor.”

“Oooooh...”

“1st floor. We have arrived.”

“Aren’t you going down to the basement?”

“The basement is still under construction.”

“hehehehe...”

Lying comfortably on the bed, the lady let out a cheerful moan with a pleasant smile.

“See. It’s comfortable.”

“Mhm. It is.”

“It would have been nice if I had laid down earlier and relaxed my body.”

“That’s right. You should have laid down earlier.”

The lady looked at me, her eyes sparkling.

At the lady’s hazy gaze that seemed to desire something, I smiled slightly and soaked a towel in ice water.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because Ricardo is ugly.”

“...”

“You look really ugly from down here.”

The corners of the lady’s mouth were twitching. I wanted to smack the lady’s forehead, who was looking at me ~Nоvеl??ght~ with an expression as if she was about to burst into laughter, but as a handsome butler, I couldn’t hit a patient, so I let out a small sigh and took out the towel I had left in the bucket and covered the lady’s face with it.

Of course, I spread it out wide.

-BAM.

“Heeek! It’s cold!”

“It can’t be helped. Life is cold by nature.”

“My life is warm!”

“Let’s stay cool today.”

“No...!”

I laughed for a long time at the struggling lady’s reaction, and then I took away the towel and calmly placed a cold towel on the lady’s forehead.

Now the lady finally made a comfortable expression.

I sat carefully at the lady’s bedside and focused on the errand that would come out of the lady’s mouth.

Of course, I had no intention of running an errand for chocolate.

I must have been staring blankly at the ceiling for a long time.

The lady, who had been pouting with a sullen expression, carefully opened her mouth and spoke to me.

“You know what, Ricardo.”

“Yes.”

The lady turned and looked at me.

Her sparkling eyes continued to gaze at me without saying anything, and I felt a great sense of burden.

The lady said to me with a pleasant smile.

“Tell me a funny story.”

“Would you like me to read you a fairy tale? I recently wrote a new one, and I think you’ll like it.”

“What genre is it?”

“It’s a sentimental, absurd, romantic story about how my father turned out to be homeless instead of rich.”

“Pfft... What is that?”

The lady laughed a little and shook her head.

“Something else besides that.”

“I don’t think I have anything else funny.”

“I want to hear something different today.”

“Hmm. What could it be?”

“Just tell me a funny story about Ricardo. Like something that happened outside.”

I stroked the lady’s hair and smiled gently.

“Shall I do that?”

A funny story.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure.

My life wasn’t one with many funny stories. Or rather, I should say that it was full of ups and downs. The story where I was the main character seemed like it would be kind of depressing.

Even if I were to tell a funny story, it would all be related to the lady, and I didn’t really have any stories to tell. And I didn’t think it would be good for the lady’s mood if I told her a story about Yuriana Mikhail.

I especially didn’t want to brag any more.

The lady, who had been watching me struggle for a long time, smiled a little and said to me.

“Why do you feel burdened?”

“I was wondering what kind of story would make you laugh. Isn’t it a butler’s virtue to give the patient a gift of laughter?”

“hehehehe. Just tell me anything. Anything that happened to Ricardo.”

“Hmm... I don’t think it will be funny.”

“It’s okay. Ricardo has a funny face, so don’t worry.”

“...Is that a compliment?”

“Yup.”

At the lady’s fervent urging, I reluctantly opened my mouth.

“When I was wandering the slums, I had a friend.”

“Ricardo had a friend?”

“I had many. I even acted as a leader of sorts.”

“That’s surprising. I thought you didn’t have any friends.”

“That hurts.”

“It’s okay. I don’t have any friends either.”

“That hurts even more.”

A story from my days in the slums.

Perhaps it was a story that only I knew.

I picked out only the funny stories and told them to the lady, omitting the sad parts.

– I don’t beg.

– Right. That’s why I gave Ricardo money.

– That’s right. That’s when you were my VIP customer.

– Yes.

– I got myself a good sucker...

– eeek!

– Just kidding.

The lady laughed.

I laughed too.

– So, there was this one time I made that friend beg.

– Uh-huh.

– He started crying. He was too embarrassed to do it. So do you know what I told him?

– What did you tell him?

– I told him to find a sucker.

– That was me?

– Yes.

– Oh...!

“Ricardo, you’re smart.”

“I know.”

There were many stories that the villainess would find amusing.

Provocative.

Realistic.

Human stories.

The lady liked those kinds of things.

Of course.

That is, if you only looked at the funny stories.

It was an old story.

The story of how I first met the lady.

A story involving Mikhail.

Very....

It was an old story.