The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen chapter 74

74 – The Poor Butler’s Birthday Gift -2-

The day after the first snowfall.

A snowstorm began outside the window.

The snow that fell overnight covered the streets in white, and the mountain range that was once filled with vibrant autumn leaves was turning white like ice.

“Looook!!”

The young lady opened the window and reached out her hand to touch the snow.

Wrapped tightly in a blanket, the shivering young lady ignored the butler’s warning about catching a cold and tried to make contact with the snow.

“Ricardo, the snow is really heavy outside.”

The young lady said, looking at the snowy scene with sparkling eyes.

After glancing at me, she flicked the accumulated snow on the window frame with her finger and brought it to her mouth.

“Eww… it tastes bad.”

The young lady complained about the taste of the natural gift.

“It’ll upset your stomach if you eat it.”

“I know.”

“But why do you eat it?”

“It looks delicious.”

It was a perfectly understandable reason. I nodded my head in agreement with the young lady’s rational explanation and looked at the snow falling outside the window.

Falling snowflakes in Hamel.

The first snow I saw yesterday was beautiful, but why does it look like a disaster today? Just like the first snow I saw at the training camp, it was beautiful at first but seemed like a disaster the next day, the butler became gloomy at the thought of having to clear it all.

“When will it all be cleared away?”

What a bothersome butler.

The young lady opened the window wide and enjoyed the winter. She touched the snowflakes drifting in the wind and carefully watched the snow melting in her hand, wearing a mischievous smile like a troublemaker.

“Oh…”

-Whirrr!

“Um…”

As the cold wind blew strongly, a gust of snow wind hit the young lady’s face.

“Heeet. It’s cold…”

The young lady, with her eyes filled with cold snow, froze in place.

“Eatchuk! Ugh, it’s freezing.”

The young lady, whose fondness for snow plummeted in real-time, stood frozen as I closed the open window and lectured her.

“They say you shouldn’t open the window because you might catch a cold.”

“The wind doesn’t like me.”

“It’s because you’re too beautiful.”

“Ung…”

Hugging the blanket tightly, the young lady nodded.

It was a day when working was detestable.

I wanted to lie down in bed and laze around, but my empty wallet was shamelessly pushing the butler’s back.

I had spent a lot of money yesterday.

And the young lady’s birthday was approaching.

After enduring the annoying weight on my shoulders, I picked up the coat hanging on the chair.

A black wool coat. It was a coat full of memories, a birthday present from the young lady three years ago.

It was also the most expensive among the clothes I owned.

The young lady raised a question mark on her head as she saw me put on the coat.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going treasure hunting.”

“Treasure hunting? I want to do it too.”

“Outside?”

“…”

Excited about the intriguing idea of treasure hunting, the young lady, upon seeing the harsh wind outside, shivered, her shoulders trembling.

“I’ll freeze if I go out.”

The young lady gave up on treasure hunting neatly. Looking outside, she said she’d rather walk the unemployed path with me from the warmth of the house, suggesting that going outside meant suffering.

“It’s tough to go out.”

It was a tempting proposal, but I reluctantly declined the lady’s offer, afraid that the treasure hiding in the cave might escape.

“There is something I must do. Starting tomorrow, I will become an enthusiastic unemployed person.”

“I’m not unemployed. I’m a house guard.”

She was a lady who became angry at me for ignoring a job that I had been passionately committed to for two years.

The lady extended a warm bowl of bear soup and said, “Take this, it will keep you warm.”

-Bear?

The bear soup that became a hand warmer from a companion dog.

The bear soup looked puzzled and licked the lady’s hand.

“Uh… tickles.”

-Gooo.

“Stay still. Ricardo has to take it.”

-Gooo…

Like the lady, the bear soup also disliked going outside.

“Phew… It’s okay. It’s a task that will be over soon, so I don’t think I need it.”

I turned the bear soup back to the lady’s arms and arranged the black boots with a sparkling buckle on my waistband.

Before leaving the room.

I turned my head and looked at the lady, who was hugging the bear soup.

“Do you want to eat something?”

“Well… something warm.”

“Then I’ll buy you green tea.”

“That’s not meant for humans to eat.”

Teasing the lady was the most amusing thing in the world.

The lady waved her hand. She cheered on the young pastor to buy something delicious.

The empty white wrist of the lady caught my attention.

‘I must give her a present..’

It felt like there would be lingering regrets if I didn’t.

Grasping the doorknob and thinking about the character mentioned in the novel, I bowed my head to the lady who was waving her hand.

“I’ll be back.”

“Yeah. Take care of the house.”

“Yes.”

With a creaking sound, the door closed, and soon I could see myself walking into the wind and snow through the window.

-Whoosh.

The sight of snow piling up on my head.

“Heeek!!! Ricardo becomes a snowman!!”

Smiling at the astonished voice of the lady, I continued towards my destination.

The destination is where the genius of escape, Hamel, resides.

In the novel, it was mentioned that if one successfully escapes, they hide in a hideout in the Azhet Mountains.

In my heart, I was silently wishing for his successful escape.

“Could it be true?”

Now it is slowly becoming time to escape.

I, who longed to see bugs after a long time.

***

Inside a dark cave.

A man wearing prisoner’s clothing was trembling in the cold, hugging his knees.

The man’s name is ‘Pascal.’

He was a villain who had massacred numerous adventurers.

“Uaaa… It’s cold…”

Trembling with a pitiful body, Pascal struck a stone to start a fire, giving the appearance of a caveman in the Stone Age.

Clothes that became ragged while escaping.

His hair that he couldn’t cut while in prison was sticking out, with a glossy sheen flowing…

Thunk…

The sound of a hit with a flint echoed in the cave.

“If it wasn’t for that brat, I wouldn’t have to go through this ordeal.”

The red-haired inspector who disturbed himself while focusing on art on the Hamel Mountains.

Pascal resented him.

That brat who ignored his art.

And now, the brat who made it impossible for him to see his reflection, Pascal despised him to the point of trembling.

Since that day, Pascal couldn’t see his reflection in the mirror.

-A bad omen.

-Insect Exhibition.

-Wow… How can a human face look like that…?

When looking in the mirror, he thought of a cicada.

It was shocking to hear that he, who was also afraid of cockroaches, resembled an insect. But what was most frightening was Pascal admitting to himself every time he looked in the mirror that he did resemble it.

Reflecting in the puddle in the cave, Pascal shook his head, vehemently denying.

“No, I’m handsome. The ugly one is that guy, not me.”

Pascal vowed revenge and struck the flint.

“Just wait and see. I’ll get revenge one day.”

With a determination to avenge the misfortunes he suffered because of that guy, Pascal diligently repeated striking the flint as a pledge.

“I’ll kill him.”

In a gruesome manner.

“I’ll get revenge.”

Pascal cursed with all sorts of curses in his heart, promising to return double the misfortune he had suffered because of that guy.

When the boiling emotions reached their peak, with a ‘pop’ sound, the dry branches began to catch fire.

Feeling the warm heat in his hands, Pascal hurriedly began to put the prepared firewood into the embers.

“…Look, I can do it too.”

Pascal, feeling good, said.

“Sob..”

Small tears flowed from Pascal’s eyes. Shedding tears bravely, Pascal’s emotions swelled up.

“Yeah… I can start over from the beginning.”

Because he had black magic.

Black magic that could control people.

It was powerful enough for scouts from the heretic group to come looking for him.

When the offer first came, he refused for the sake of free art. But now, it wasn’t the time to reject cold or hot water.

The moment he joined the heretic group and vowed to seek blood revenge.

-Shuffle.

Footsteps were heard at the end of the cave. Pascal quickly grasped the dagger in his hand.

‘Hmm… Is it a pursuer? Even though I meticulously erased the traces.’

Thinking that a pursuer with considerable skill followed despite erasing traces as much as possible, Pascal swallowed his saliva.

It could be an adventurer.

Or it could be a pursuer.

Maybe it’s closer to the latter.

Maybe it’s a good thing.

It might be an opportunity to replenish the power of the depleted darkness.

The way people replenish the darkness used in dark magic was different for each person.

Some consumed emotions.

Some paid with memories.

It was true that the famous imperial dark mage had many constraints because he used his body parts as a price for dark magic.

But the effects were equally explosive.

His method involved killing.

It was the most universal and common way of replenishing the power of darkness.

Pascal, who saw the burning firewood with a faint look in his eyes, thought of the looming danger as an opportunity.

“It will be extinguished, right…?”

Although Pascal, who didn’t want to let go of the firewood he obtained through hard work, he had to make a decision as the approaching footsteps got closer.

“Damn it…!”

Pascal tightly closed his eyes and extinguished the firewood with the soles of his bare feet.

As the scorching sensation burned onto the soles of his feet, it seemed like a groan would escape him.

“Endure… Endure it…”

Pascal sealed his mouth and endured with the spirit of art.

-Plop… Plop…

-He might be here.

The intruder’s voice echoed through the walls of the cave.

A young man’s voice.

Probably in his twenties.

He felt confident in surprise attacks.

Pascal, who hadn’t just been playing around in prison, began to infuse the cherished power of darkness into his dagger.

The dagger shimmered black.

-Sss… He might be here.

As the murmuring man’s voice got closer, Pascal straightened his bent leg and threw himself towards the black shadow.

“It’s over.”

Pascal launched a surprise attack at an unexpected and perfect timing, catching the enemy off guard. Pascal felt a chill running down his spine. It was such a perfect surprise that he couldn’t help but think. The situation worked in his favor, and he succeeded in the perfect ambush, feeling exhilarated as his intense desire sparkled. Pascal smirked with his characteristic wicked smile.

“hehehehe… You’re in for a misfortune…”

Pascal slowly lifted his head, wanting to see the despair in the man’s eyes. He wanted to see the eyes drenched in blood and soaked in fear. With a smirk full of malice, Pascal stared at the man in front of him.

And Pascal’s face soaked with terror.

“Huh…?”

A man with red hair.

He was the man Pascal most wanted to meet if he succeeded in escaping, but now he was the man Pascal least wanted to meet, gripping a dagger with a determined expression using only two fingers.

Just two fingers.

The man checked if his clothes were scratched and let out a sigh of relief before speaking.

“Oh~ Long time no see!”

The man who sent Pascal to prison shook hands with a bright laugh.

“I thought you’d become a bug, but you’re still alive and kicking?”

Pascal shouted at the man.

“No…!!!!”

“Why is it only happening to me!!!”

The man chuckled softly.

“Because going to the insect exposition would be a waste of money…”

Pascal threw himself forward.

He would use all the remaining dark magic to escape, even if he had to overcome the pain in his heart that made him feel like his soul was being torn apart, he would punch Ricardo.

“Gut Punch…!”

But in the face of the mocking smirk, Pascal bit back his tears.

“F*ck!”

He promised himself that he wouldn’t get involved with this guy anymore, revenge or not.