Page 196 of The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

After the duel.

Mikhail was reflecting on his faults in the darkness.

-Stop it, senior.

He clenched his fists while thinking that if only he had swung his sword a little faster, the result would have been different.

It was a battle in which he had gained much.

Mikhail had nothing to lose in this battle, not even the achievement of explosive growth in a short amount of time or meeting the most excellent sword master in the Empire.

To Mikhail, this battle had no penalties to bear, so there was nothing to regret, to the point that he might have been the one who benefited the most from this battle, not Hannah.

However, Mikhail was cornering and pressuring himself in the darkness.

“Why did it happen? Why on earth...!”

“If I had focused from the beginning, I could have won easily. I wouldn’t have lost if I had avoided the minor attacks and remained calm.”

“Why... why...”

Mikhail felt wronged.

He wasn’t angry because he lost to his junior for a petty reason.

He was angry because he had failed to see the past that he hadn’t seen and to confirm whether the child was alive or not. He had lost because of his own shortcomings.

Mikhail was desperate.

He had desperately asked Ricardo to spare his friend named Lee Min-hyuk, even if it meant kneeling before him. He had said that he didn’t care what happened to his body, so please just let him win.

However, Ricardo had spoken coldly, not knowing his complex feelings.

-Don’t you understand? You can’t win with that body.

He knew better than anyone about the gap in their abilities.

He meant that Hannah was stronger than him. That’s why it was even more unfair. He had grown and worked just as hard as Hannah.

If only he hadn’t let his guard down, if only he had paid attention to the minor wounds, the outcome of the victory might have been different. He hated his incompetence so much.

“Please...”

Mikhail begged.

“Please give me one more chance.”

Mikhail begged him to give him the quest that he had failed to fulfill once more, saying that he would do anything if he just did that.

However, the quest did not appear before him. Right now, only a vast darkness was obscuring his vision. Mikhail was pacifying his bitter heart by patting his chest.

“Please...”

Mikhail’s darkness was long.

*

The late night magic faculty’s training hall.

“Damn it...!”

Ruin, who was alone in the training hall, cursed while looking at the target that wouldn’t fall.

“Why is this happening....”

The scarecrow target that had been hit by Ruin’s magic was cleanly holding its ground. Ruin created magic in his hands once more and shot it at the scarecrow, which only had some soot on it and was standing perfectly fine, but nothing changed.

“Damn it...! Damn it...! Damn it...!”

Darkness had been visiting Ruin ever since Hans had taken away his talent.

“Why isn’t it working?”

“Why on earth! Isn’t it working?”

“F*ck. It worked well before. Why is this happening?”

Now that the reason he was able to shine and the ability that seemed like it would never disappear had vanished. Ruin’s treatment was like that of a useless twig.

It was clear that he would soon be ranked at the bottom in the upcoming ranking battles if he continued like this.

He used to ignore those at the bottom, telling them that if they had no talent, they shouldn’t even try. But if he continued on like this, it was clear that he would receive the same scorn, mockery, and disdain that he had spewed.

“Dammit!”

Ruin threw the water bottle he had been drinking from on the floor. The water bottle broke with a loud crash. Ruin gritted his teeth as he watched the water spill out.

Everything was messed up.

His relationship with Yulia.

His own magic.

Nothing with his friends had been going well.

The sudden downfall was too much for Ruin to bear.

He had said that he would find a way to become the top, but knowing that it wouldn’t happen right away, he couldn’t bring himself to hope.

Until now, Ruin had thought of himself as someone great. He had thought that even without unique abilities, he could achieve greater results than others with his own brain and abilities.

“What a genius of the century. I can’t even use Fireball properly right now.”

Except for one person.

Ruin clenched his fists, lowered his head, and recalled a memory from the past.

-I’m going to beat you to a pulp today.

-Be quiet. You’re being noisy.

-Today, I’m going to defeat you and become the top...

-Shut up.

A black-haired magician.

A cruel woman who looked down on everyone was the first magician Ruin had ever thought he couldn’t defeat.

He could dream of catching up to the top in the future, but she was a genius the same age as him.

Ruin still remembered.

The sight of himself falling to the summon she had created. On that day, when only one of her arms had appeared, he had been unable to use any of his strength and had been defeated. He hadn’t been able to see her face properly.

Her talent had been overwhelming.

Her background.

Her total amount of magical power.

And her magical talent were all at a level that he couldn’t even imagine.

He never wanted to feel that way again, he didn’t want to feel that helplessness, but Ruin was resentful and frustrated at the thought that he would soon feel that same emotion again from someone he had ignored.

“Why is everyone picking on me?”

Ruin muttered as he faced the quiet night wind.

“I’ve had it hard too, so why can’t you just leave me alone?”

He continued to cast magic, pouring out his resentment into the wind. He wouldn’t stop whipping himself, forcing himself to find his former glory.

An hour, two ? Nоvеl?g?t ? (Official version) hours passed like that, and by the time Ruin’s magic was running low.

Ruin let out a hollow laugh as he looked at the collapsed scarecrow.

“Dammit.”

There was no answer.

Darkness was approaching Ruin.

A darkness that he couldn’t solve on his own was gradually eating away at Ruin.

*

At the same time.

Back in the Lady’s mansion, I sat across from the man who had been entrusted to my care, offering him tea with a pleasant smile.

“Please, have some.”

“This is holy water.”

“Just drink it and be quiet.”

Hans stared at the tea I had poured him with a look of reverence and began to pray.

“Thank you for providing me with my daily bread today.”

My face felt hot as I watched Hans pray with his hands clasped together, but I smiled at him, whom I had not seen in a while, and expressed my brief gratitude for his hard work.

Hans had been in charge of the mansion’s security while we were away.

“You’ve worked hard, Hans.”

“Isn’t it the duty of a believer to protect the temple?”

“Have you decided to go with the fanatic concept now?”

“I am not a fanatic. God may stand idly by, but the God I believe in grants me benefits.”

“Haah...”

I shook my head and closed my mouth.

If I continued to talk about this issue, I felt like my own mind would become strange. Thinking that it was more important to ask him what had happened in the meantime, I put down my teacup and carefully opened my mouth.

“Did you feed the bear stew rice properly?”

“Yes.”

“Did anyone come looking for me while I was away?”

“No.”

“That’s a relief.”

Nothing had happened in particular. I had been worried that a thief might have broken in while we were away, but it seemed that the villainess’ mansion was still unpopular.

Thanks to the Lady’s name, I was able to protect the mansion. As expected, the Lady was an existence that the world could not easily handle.

After talking about trivial things with Hans for a while, I asked him a small question.

“Is the academy brainwashing going well?”

“Yes?”

“Aren’t there others besides Hans? Pagans who have infiltrated the academy.”

Hans kept his mouth shut at the mention of the past. It must have been difficult for him to talk about his unclean past.

However, this was also part of the reason why I had made Hans my man, so I asked him with a small smile.

“No?”

“hahahaha... You really dont miss a thing. What on earth is your true identity...”

“Shh. Just tell me.”

“I understand.”

I nodded in satisfaction at the sight of Hans nodding his head in agreement and picked up my teacup.

Hans carefully spoke while caressing his teacup.

“The assimilation into the academy was not going well until I arrived. The security had become strict, and the students had a strong sense of faith.”

“That is certainly true. But you’re saying that it’s progressing?”

“Yes. Although I haven’t won over a single one yet.”

“Ahem...”

As someone who had read the novel, I knew.

How this story would unfold.

I only asked because I was curious, not because I wanted to hear the answer. The conversion of the pagans hadn’t progressed, after all.

That’s why something happened.

One of the archbishops who had infiltrated the academy was caught by the students.

It was a simple matter.

He had figured out the student’s weakness and tried to whisper treacherous words to him, but instead he got caught red-handed.

The incident happened just as the ranking battles were approaching, and since the archbishop had been caught in the act, there were no casualties.

Of course, there were many injuries.

I intended to leave this matter entirely to the main characters.

They needed to have the experience of dealing with a pagan without my interference, at least once. I intended to inflict a severe but slightly painful hardship on them.

Mikhail had grown.

And so had Yuriah, so they would be opponents who could push them to their limits. Of course, it would be impossible for them to win, but they would be able to win with the help of the Tower Master, just like in the novel. Ruin would also grow in the process.

Hans asked me a question cautiously as I sipped my tea with a small smile.

“Excuse me, may I ask you something?”

“Yes, you may ask me two things.”

“Aren’t you worried that Ruin might learn black magic? It would be dangerous if he did.”

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I smiled faintly and replied confidently to Hans’s words.

“He can’t.”

“What?”

“Ruin can’t learn black magic.”

“What do you... Didn’t you say last time that he wouldn’t learn it because he was too proud?”

I put down my empty teacup and brushed off Hans’s concerns.

“No, I just said that then. I’m telling you the fundamental reason now.”

I smiled as I put a sugar cube in Hans’s teacup.

“To begin with, Ruin’s body is incapable of learning black magic.”

I said with a bitter smile.

“Because I made it that way.”

After all, it’s important to eliminate any future problems when you’re taking something away.

Well, I wonder if he’ll be mentally shocked if he tries to use black magic.

He’ll try to fall, but even the fall will reject him...

I should only think about this far.