Page 190 of The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

As time passed, the villainess and I were able to share more stories.

-Hey, jerkface!

-Oh, come on.

-No, they keep saying I’m a penniless beggar who doesn’t even have a butler.

-You’re not a beggar. You’re the one who kicked them out.

-No, I didn’t!

-Liar.

-No, I didn’t! I just said a few things, and then they started crying and ran away!

-That’s what kicking someone out is, you idiot.

-aaargh!

The villainess and I had become close enough to insult each other without hesitation.

I had thought it was just a passing relationship. I had thought there was no chance it would grow into anything more, but the threads of our connection had begun to intertwine.

Even though the relationship had started with one-sided obsession.

-Hey, jerkface! Let’s hang out again!

-No way.

As time went on, our conversations grew deeper, and we became more and more entangled in each other’s lives.

My initial indifference had turned into a hope that her future wouldn’t be as terrible as it was in the novel, and I found myself wishing that the events in the novel wouldn’t come to pass.

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-Why are you stealing my bread?

-hehehe. It’s tasty.

-You have plenty of good food. Why are you stealing mine, you pig?

-Yum... It’s even tastier when I steal it from you.

-You’re crazy.

-Don’t insult me!

-You can’t be insulted because you’re already so ugly.

-aaargh!

As time went on, I began to wait for the villainess.

When the clock on the distant spire struck noon and moved into the afternoon, I would amuse myself by thinking about the shadow of the villainess who didn’t come, and I would savor the anticipation, thinking, “Just one more hour.”

At first, I had thought of her as nothing more than a customer who paid well, but now I found myself waiting for her because her stories were so funny and her stubbornness was so endearing.

Today, she had gotten into a fight with that punk Young-ae and won. She had gotten a few bruises, but she had definitely landed more punches. The villainess’s funny stories had become a kind of hobby for me.

And then one day.

The villainess made me an offer.

She stubbornly insisted on making an offer that no one would make to an orphan in the slums: “Will you be my butler?”

-My butler. Say it. Butler.

-Butlah!

-aaargh! Do I have to be reborn?

-aaargh!

She was asking me to be her butler. It wasn’t an offer that should have been made to a beggar who lived on nothing but dust in the slums.

I knew it.

I knew how precious this offer was.

The ordinary kids didn’t know it, but I knew the weight of the Desmond name, and I knew how tempting the villainess’s offer was.

Even a child of a minor noble would covet the position of house steward in the Desmount family, so it was definitely not an opportunity that would come to a beggar living in the slums.

The villainess spoke as she exhaled roughly.

“With me, even world domination is possible.”

“Then what about me?”

“You’re my sidekick.”

“...?”

However, I refused her offer.

It was an enticing offer, but the weight of the information I possessed was not something that could be satisfied with the position of a house steward.

The weight of the villainess’s existence was heavy on the scale of a life that would collapse if it was even slightly disturbed, so I refused the tempting offer.

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because I feel like I’ll be ruined if I’m with you.”

“I’ll feed and clothe you! My family is loaded!”

“I feel like I’ll disappear because of you.”

“Why? Am I too pretty?”

“No, because you’re an idiot.”

“eeek! You’re dead.”

Even so, the villainess continued to make offers to me.

Even after a day, even after two days.

It seemed like she had taken a liking to me, and she kept making offers, but I refused the villainess’s offers.

Because if I just endured a little longer, I felt like I would be able to escape this place with Mikhail someday.

A year at the longest.

A month at the shortest.

The novel didn’t describe the reason why Mikhail left the slums, but it was a fact that the time was approaching.

Even today, after refusing the young lady’s offer, I looked up at the rainy sky and smiled bitterly.

“It’s raining.”

It was a rainy day.

-Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

Rain that could be sufficiently blocked with an umbrella was wetting the ground of the slums.

I took shelter from the rain under a roof and spoke as I watched the children gathering one by one.

“Is this everyone?”

“Yeah.”

Mikhail, who was standing next to me, answered me.

So this is everyone who showed up....

The streets of the slums were deserted. The area under the roof that had been so crowded that there was no room to stand was now completely empty, revealing its desolation.

The street was completely empty except for the three children, including me. I smiled wryly and awkwardly.

‘Now it’s really the end.’

We parted ways for many reasons.

Due to illness.

Due to being adopted by good parents.

Our parents, whose financial situation had improved, had come to find us again, so we were saying our farewells.

Today, we had gathered here again to say goodbye.

It was a farewell not born of a grim reason like death, but rather a meeting. I looked at Mikhail’s gloomy expression and smiled awkwardly.

“Let’s smile.”

“...”

“It’s the last time, let’s send you off with a smile. Right?”

Mikhail clenched his fists and hung his head. Whether it was because of the rain or his mood, Mikhail looked sullen, but he nodded with a deep sigh.

I ruffled Mikhail’s hair and looked at the little boy running towards us from afar.

“Big bro!”

The little boy ran towards us, holding his parents’ hands. I reached out and hugged the boy who ran towards me without an umbrella, as if something urgent had come up.

“Brat!”

“Bro!”

“Yeah. Are you happy to see your mom?”

“Yup! It’s all thanks to you, bro!”

“What do you mean thanks to me?”

“You found our mom and dad!”

The boy, looking at me with a beaming smile, had a grin spread across his face.

I chuckled and put a small pouch filled with money into the boy’s pocket and patted him on the back.

“Go, listen to your mom.”

“Okay!”

“Don’t whine, and don’t be a picky eater.”

“I’ll do that!”

“Brat.”

I stroked the boy’s head and recalled our memories. I sent off those memories of laughing together, fighting off bullies, and comforting the boy when he missed his mother, wrapped up tightly in the paper called farewell.

“Take care.”

The parents standing behind the boy greeted me. The boy must have told them about me when he came. Embarrassing, to say the least.

I nodded awkwardly at the parents who continued to bow their heads at me.

I was glad they looked happy.

The child too.

And his parents.

They looked happy.

I didn’t know what the future held for them, but I waved at the departing child, hoping that their smiles would last.

‘Now there’s no reason to stay here anymore.’

Because on this street, there was only me, Mikhail, and one little boy. The reason to guard this street out of a sense of responsibility had disappeared.

Because Mikhail had a bright future ahead of him, and the little boy standing next to him already had a home.

Now, I was the only one left.

‘I have to do well.’

No matter what.

I looked at Mikhail, who was waving awkwardly, and said in a small voice.

“Shall we?”

“Don’t cry.”

“Don’t cry. Good things will happen to you too.”

“...No.”

Mikhail was weak to goodbyes.

Even to someone’s death.

Even to the footsteps of someone leaving.

He was a fool who cried easily.

In particular, the time when Mikhail’s tear glands would weaken the most was when he would meet his parents and bid farewell to a friend who was leaving, just like now.

Because he envied it.

Because he hated being left behind here, and envied the child who was leaving, Mikhail cried.

There was a time when he cried all day under the bridge, and a time when he threw a teddy bear on the floor and cried.

Mikhail looked depressed today as well.

I looked at Mikhail with an awkward smile. I always worry about how to comfort him at times like this.

I knew how he felt, but I didn’t know how to comfort him, so I found this situation difficult.

Mikhail looked at the floor with an even gloomier expression than usual. After standing there for a long time looking at the empty street, Mikhail grabbed one of the legs of the teddy bear he had always held onto and dragged it on the floor as he walked to the corner.

I playfully punched Mikhail on the shoulder and spoke ? Nоvеl?g?t ? (Official version) cheerfully. To cheer him up.

“Mikhail! You have to go today too!”

“...”

“Bridge... Aren’t you going?”

Mikhail didn’t answer.

He just stood there with a hardened expression, getting rained on. I awkwardly tried to pick up Mikhail’s teddy bear that was getting soaked in the muddy water.

No matter how hurt or upset he was, he always held onto his teddy bear.

The moment I clumsily tried to take the teddy bear that looked like it might fall out of Mikhail’s hand, Mikhail coldly avoided my touch.

As if he didn’t care about this stupid doll, Mikhail dropped it on the floor.

Then he stopped walking and said, passing me as I stood still.

“I’m not going.”

“What...?”

“I said I’m not going.”

“What...?”

I stood there like an idiot.

No matter how much time passed.

Even on the day when there was free food, Mikhail, who had always gone there, surprised me by saying he wasn’t going.

If he had overcome his sadness, I would have been happy, but the way Mikhail looked right now, he looked so sad that he might collapse at any moment.

I asked Mikhail in a foolish voice to think about it again.

“Why?”

Mikhail buried his head deep into the floor and spoke in a trembling voice.

“Why?”

Mikhail clenched his fists and shouted at me. In a resentful voice that was filled with anger. As if I was being unfair.

“Why are you asking why now?”

“Mikhail, you seem really upset right now. Calm down a little and...”

“Ha.”

Mikhail let out a bitter laugh and shrugged his shoulders.

“Would you want to leave if you were me?”

“...”

“You know the answer.”

“...”

“You’re pretending not to know?”

“hahahaha...”

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Mikhail ignored my awkward laugh and shouted.

“You know I’m not coming! So why do you keep asking me!”

“No...”

“Why! Why do you keep asking me! It’s so hard!”

He broke down.

The wound that Mikhail had been keeping hidden was slowly breaking open because of the relentless waves of sadness, and finally it burst.

I was used to hearing the cries of young children, but Mikhail’s bitter cries pained my heart.

Because he was my friend...

Because we were friends who had been through a lot together.

My heart ached.

I understand.

I understand how Mikhail feels right now.

I was an orphan too, and I had experienced that endless waiting. I knew the feeling of looking forward to the door opening every day, only to be disappointed time and time again.

The feeling of not being able to see a bright future.

I knew better than anyone the thoughts that must have crossed his mind when he saw other orphans leaving—’Why me...?’ So I kept my lips sealed and listened to Mikhail’s cries.

“You’ll just pretend not to know and laugh behind my back! As if I’m really abandoned.”

“No, I won’t.”

“Don’t lie!”

I approached Mikhail with a bitter smile.

“It’s okay, today might be different.”

“Today is...! Today is...! Every time, you say today and make me wait!”

“Mikhail, just calm down for a moment...”

“Get away!”

Mikhail violently pushed my hand away and burst into tears.

“You’re disgusting...”!

Mikhail clenched his fists and glared at me.

“Waiting here is disgusting.”

“...”

“Being with a smelly person like you is disgusting...!”

“...”

“And eating that weird-smelling bread is disgusting!”

“So that’s how it was...”

I approached Mikhail with a sad smile.

I thought that there were many things I had missed because I was crazy. I thought that I should try a little harder.

So I carefully told Mikhail that I was sorry.

“I’m sorry.”

“...”

“I’m sorry that I haven’t been able to take care of you.”

Mikhail said with tears in his eyes.

He spat out the words he had inside him like a child’s tantrum, not thinking that those words could hurt someone.

He just wiped away his tears and said,

“I have a mother too... Unlike you, who doesn’t even know what her face looks like, my mother promised me that she would definitely come!”

‘...Huh?’

I shouldn’t be hurt...

I shouldn’t be hurt by such words...

Strangely, it felt like a small wound was forming on the clot hidden deep in my heart.

I clenched my fists and calmed my mind.

It’s nothing.

He’s young, so he can do that.

However, Mikhail continued to hurt my feelings.

“I hate it! I hate this. I hate being here, I hate being friends with a nagging kid like you!”

“...”

“I want to be friends with cool kids. I want to be friends with clean and tidy kids...!”

“...”

“Not with an ugly and smelly kid like you!”

Mikhail said hurtful things to me.

He said that all the effort I had put in so far was nothing, that he thought I was just someone who brought him food.

I shouldn’t take it this way, but I felt bad because my best efforts seemed so foolish and were being received so badly.

As an adult, I should have let it go lightly.

But somehow, Mikhail’s words, which had touched on a sore spot in my heart that I had forgotten about for a long time, didn’t go away easily.

I hung my head.

I thought that if I said anything, I would get even angrier.

“I hate this place and the fact that you like trivial things.”

“...You don’t know me.”

“You don’t know how I feel either. You’ve never lived with your mother like I have, and you’ve never heard a promise from your mother.”

“...”

“You’ve always been alone.”

“Stop it.”

“You’ve been alone from the beginning, so you don’t know how I feel.”

“I said stop it.”

I gritted my teeth and told Mikhail, but he had crossed the line I had drawn.

“You’re different from me!”

-Snap.

‘Ah.’

It’s over.

I caught the last thread of my sanity with impatience, but it eventually broke.

I don’t know anymore.

I let out a deep sigh and threw the Mikhail doll I had picked up on the floor. I thought this effort would be meaningless.

I said in a calm voice.

“Then do it yourself.”

“What...?”

I shouldn’t have said that.

“If you’re disgusted being with me like this, then do it yourself. So do it yourself.”

“No...”

“Why. Am I wrong?”

“That’s not it...”

“I did my best.”

“I gave you everything for free.”

“But what...?”

“Disgusting...?”

“Then figure it out yourself. Find the mother you’re looking for, cook your own food. Then your mother will come like you said.”

“It’s different for me.”

I left Mikhail.

I wonder if it was because I felt complicated thinking that what started with good intentions became poison to Mikhail, or if I was hurt by Mikhail’s words, but I left Mikhail and started wandering the streets alone.

And then.

“Hyung!”

“Why.”

“That cheeky kid! No, I think Mikhail’s mother has come!”

“What?”

I started looking for Mikhail frantically. Not fast though.

I don’t know why.

I know that what that kid said is a lie.

I can also see that the kid is a devil worshiper. I can see the conversation topics that the kid likes, but I kept running like an idiot.

I even know that Mikhail will meet his mother when he becomes an adult in the novel.

“Where is Mikhail?”

“The bridge.”

Even though I know the ending, I started running around the streets to find Mikhail for nothing.

Just to make Mikhail laugh.

That’s how I.

“Ugh...Ugh...”

Fell into a trap.

“You?”

“I was wrong....”

“This kid is looking for you.”

It was a rainy day.

A day with a very sad rain falling.