The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen chapter 82

82 – The Unqualified Person -6-

-We’ve arrived.

Her past self stepped into the dark space with a bright smile.

Yuria, watching her past self, started to be enveloped by anxiety. Because she remembered what Hans had said.

-How do you expect to survive in a dungeon, where you don’t even learn attack magic?

‘How did I survive…?’

As her past self walked deeper into the darkness, Yuria’s head gradually became heavier.

She had no idea what was going to happen next. She couldn’t even anticipate it, and she never thought that she would have walked to the altar of greed, filled with the stench of gore, on her own.

All that was left to expect was a redhead butler.

The very moment she felt too guilty to lift her head, she began to hear a man’s voice from behind.

-What are you doing!

Ricardo emerged, cutting through the darkness.

Upon seeing him, tears welled up in Yuria’s eyes.

Only then did Yuria realize how she had managed to survive. If it wasn’t for Ricardo, she would’ve been dead. Yuria only understood this now.

Ricardo roughly grabbed her past self’s wrist.

Looking at her past self with vacant eyes, while gasping for breath and sweating, Ricardo let out a sigh of relief.

-Oh? It’s Ricardo.

Her past self spoke emotionlessly.

-The Ricardo who I hate the most in this world.

With an expression betraying no emotion, I found myself spewing cruel words that would wound Ricardo, acting unaffected.

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An expression devoid of anger, hatred, or grievance; just staring at Ricardo and hurling verbal abuse, that was my former self.

Ricardo, having heard the tirade, simply laughed it off and responded, “Would I have to deal with the person I hate most in the world? Anyway, let’s head back. This place is too dangerous.”

“This place?”

As I looked around with a puzzled tilt of my head, I replied with a thin smile and a chilly voice, “It’s my home.”

“Such a spacious house, you’ve made it big.”

“…I’m just tired and want to rest.”

Though I attempted to shake off Ricardo’s grip and retreat into the deep darkness, his firm hold refused to let me go.

Ricardo spoke to me in a kind tone, “How about spending the night out? I’ll treat you to something delicious.”

“I don’t want to. I need to go back.”

“Chocolate…! How about chocolate?”

“It’s too sweet, I don’t like it.”

“But you used to like it… Anyway, let’s go back. It’s dangerous here.”

“I said no…! I don’t want to!”

I continued to wrestle myself away with persistent resistance.

Screaming that I would leave and desperately trying to pull away from Ricardo’s grasp, my former self behaved almost like a petulant child.

Yuria felt a chilling realization.

Mind control.

It was something she’d thought irrelevant to herself, but facing her unfocused gaze and her own darkened expression, Yuria couldn’t deny it.

She had caused a great nuisance.

Hans was right.

The taunting remarks from Hans about the severity of mistakes committed by her amnesiac self weren’t wrong at all.

Yuria was relieved that she was caught by Ricardo before it was too late; if she had delayed any further, she might have wandered into a place called “The Foundation of Greed” on her own will.

With a sigh of relief, Yuria wiped the cold sweat that had drenched her as she cleaned her uniform.

And then she looked back at the Ricardo of the past.

A strange student who insisted on wearing butler clothes, adamant that demerits could not break a butler’s will. At the same time, the handsome Ricardo with a tall stature and charming looks.

Yuria regarded him with a mix of complicated emotions.

“I’m relieved.”

Yulia was now certain that the end of her nightmare-like memories was at hand.

“We need to go quickly.”

“I don’t want to!”

“Ms. Yulia… Sigh…”

Ricardo was determined to take her by force if necessary. Ignoring the words of her struggling past self, he gazed anxiously at the exit.

In a moment, her past self yelled at Ricardo in a loud voice.

“Let me go! You despicable hypocrite!”

“How dare you, pretending to be good, lay your hands on anyone!”

“Why? Are you going to say this is for my sake too?”

These were the words her past self had kept bottled up inside, now unleashed on Ricardo.

Yulia swallowed hard as she watched.

“What if I say such a thing…!”

She couldn’t fathom how Ricardo would react to the cold words. She thought that even someone like Ricardo would be upset after hearing such things.

After he came all this way to rescue her.

No one would be happy to be called trash. With her head bowed, Yulia carefully lifted her gaze to look at Ricardo.

“Puhahahaha! So that’s what you’ve been thinking? I’m sorry for laughing all the time; I thought it might kill me.”

Ricardo, ever the same, wore a smile as he addressed his past self.

“You should have said that earlier. Why suffer in silence? You’re right, I am bad, so it doesn’t damage me at all.”

With a gentle voice, Ricardo held her hand firmly. The familiar expression he wore was one she had seen in the past in Hamel.

“Well, if Ms. Yulia thinks I’m a bad person, then feel free to scold me as much as you like.”

“Let’s… just go.”

Facing the self who had spewed out resentment, Ricardo offered a familiar excuse.

Yulia’s eyes widened in shock.

“What…?”

Despite the harsh words, Ricardo’s kindness made her heart pound. She had expected harsh words in return, yet his easy acceptance and tenderness touched her.

Overwhelmed with emotion, Yulia burst out.

“Why are you like this?”

“Why…”

With a heart that tickled unnervingly, Yuria struggled with a sudden welling of emotion, rubbing her runny nose with her hand while attempting to stay focused on the scene before her.

“It’s almost over. Just hold on a little longer, then I can go back,” she thought, grappling with the thick, heavy feeling that urged her to apologize to Ricardo once she returned.

“Ah… this isn’t right. After all, it’s been a while since we’ve had guests…”

The voice of an elderly man reached her from behind.

It was a feeble voice.

Clearly feeble, yet she could not carelessly turn her head.

It felt as though she’d die if she did.

An oppressive dread shook Yuria’s body like a winter shivering shrub.

“Wh… who’s there?”

The silhouette of the passing old man exuded an inky darkness, the kind of magical power one might glimpse in the depths of the pitch-black night – a force overwhelming in its dominance.

She was breathless with such potent intensity.

Though it was not tangible, the terror she felt made Yuria tremble as she lifted her head.

As the old man’s form came into view, Yuria’s eyes began to shake violently.

“Isn’t that right, young ones?”

The man had white hair.

He leaned on a black cane.

With cat-like slit pupils and golden eyes, he seemed like someone she had only encountered in history books.

The old man, wearing a crescent moon-shaped smile, said, “My name is Calyps. Known as ‘The Empire’s Calamity.’ Do you remember me?”

As the old man finished speaking, the surroundings suddenly lit up with a ‘pop.’

The ceiling and walls, inscribed with complex magical runes, came into view along with the altar of avarice – their original location now clear to Yuria’s eyes.

The ceiling, once marred with soot, now bore no traces, and in its center stood Calyps, who began extending a hand with a sneering smile.

Golden pupils.

A gaunt face turned sallow.

The figure of an elderly man dressed in black robes was the veritable image of the dark sorcerer who had once steeped the empire in terror.

“This can’t be,” she thought.

With a bitter smile, Calyps licked his lips, relishing the thought that he would finally be freed.

Yuria felt a shudder of dread.

It was despair.

Even as an apparition before her, she could sense a surging, spine-tingling malice infesting her entire being. Unable to fathom how Ricardo, who was also present, might feel, Yuria spoke with a shaky voice.

“We have to run…”

Yuria instinctively screamed for them to flee from the dark sorcerer of towering stature, yet Ricardo from the past was sighing, murmuring to himself.

“Haah… Such matters should normally be dealt with by the heretics…”

Muttering incomprehensible words.

Ricardo was coaxingly speaking to his former self, who had lost focus.

“Miss Yuria, pull yourself together. When I count to three, you’re going to run over there. Got it?”

“Don’t be scared, alright?”

“I’ll sort everything out. Just look ahead and run.”

His past self, with eyes unfocused, nodded in agreement.

And then.

Calyps sneered with a ghastly smile, addressing Ricardo.

“Hmm… Such a noble sacrifice… but I dislike such things.”

And with those words.

Thump. The sound was followed by a trickle of blood from Ricardo’s mouth.

“Huh…?”

There was a dagger stuck in Ricardo’s abdomen. A familiar dagger with a pink handle.

It was the dagger gifted by his father, the same self-defense dagger he curre

“Ricardo?”

Ricardo, blood streaming down his frame, managed a smile reminiscent of the one he had shown in Hamel as he spoke.

“It’s nothing.”

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