The Villain’s Ending

Sunset (18)

Ever since that day, Kyle would come to my room twice a week, and we'd spar lightly for about 30 minutes to an hour.

We couldn't do more than that.

After all, he'd grit his teeth, endure the blows, and eventually even faint.

Even though his foundation was much more solid than mine, he was so lacking that if steam burst in front of his face and obscured his vision, he'd panic and just wildly swing the knife he was holding, unable to do anything else.

The Kyle I knew was someone who would fight as if perfectly fine even if he couldn't see or had a leg cut off.

Still, he was a friend who would develop as much as he was pushed.

So, I guess I was thinking they were like the 'original protagonist' or whatever...

Because there would be no easier place to fill with my own things than an empty space.

Anyway, I found teaching someone to be quite manageable.

Because seeing growth, even if it wasn't my own task, was quite enjoyable.

I had deliberately avoided Levina after that night, I hadn't properly reconciled with Seraphina after getting beaten half to death, and Estelle was still busy hunting down heretics within the church, making her difficult to meet, but anyway, it would be better than last time.

"By the way, where did that master of yours go, leaving you behind?"

I parried Kyle's sword, then kicked him in the solar plexus.

He coughed and sputtered, falling to the ground.

"....Ugh, m-my master, huff. Because of what happened in the frontier......"

"I don't care. Get up, we have to keep going."

At those words, Kyle laboriously got up again, corrected his stance, and slowly rushed in.

And again, he was slammed to the ground, only to get up and repeat the process.

It wasn't that he wasn't falling for the same tricks, but he was reacting in his own way.

And so, today's training also ended relatively smoothly.

Though he was staggering as if he'd sprained his leg.

I supported the stumbling Kyle, and as I was taking him back to his room, Kyle spoke first.

This was while I was thinking that even with muscles, his body felt strangely soft.

"Um, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"Why are you helping me?"

While I pondered how to answer, Kyle continued speaking.

"I really didn't expect you'd just train me like this. The way I thought of you... you were the absolute worst, after all."

"What did you think I was?"

"A disgusting punk who doesn't even accept challenges properly, cheats on his fiancée, and goes around doing all sorts of repulsive and dirty things."

I tried to answer, "That's..." but my words trailed off, and I couldn't reply.

Because it didn't seem particularly wrong.

"Still, Sera, no. You told me not to call her Sera.

Anyway, Seraphina also said you've changed these days.

And it really seems so. We had the worst first impression, didn't we?"

"The worst."

"You were like the exact fucked-up noble I imagined brought to life."

"......"

"By the way, how's Lineta doing?"

"Didn't Seraphina tell you?"

"Why does Seraphina's story suddenly come up?"

I couldn't remember if I had told Seraphina that Lineta was from the same village as Kyle.

I thought I had mentioned it.

Thinking about it carefully again, I was certain I hadn't.

Indeed, her clothes had become so thick that no skin showed through, and seeing her flinch and tremble every time Seraphina said something, it seemed better not to mention it.

Because Seraphina doesn't hesitate to use violence if something goes wrong.

Whatever is inside Lineta, perhaps it's the kind that snaps back to its senses when hit.

It would surely be a better life to be beaten by Seraphina and brought back to reality whenever she seemed about to go mad and start munching on human flesh, rather than actually going mad and doing so.

"No, just. I was confused. She seems to be doing reasonably well."

Kyle looked at me and asked.

"Don't you have anything else to ask?"

"Ask what?"

"You know where I was born and how I grew up."

I knew where he was born, but not how he grew up.

And I didn't particularly want to know.

Still, for such words to be exchanged, it seemed we had become somewhat closer.

In a way, couldn't he be called a friend...?

Because I had never once made a same-sex friend living here.

I had forgotten how to make friends.

It may be because all the humans living in this world are uncivilized, violent, and completely empty-headed, so there is no way they could be friends with a walking embodiment of reason overflowing with intelligence like me, but also because finding someone on my level was practically impossible to begin with.

Even the guys I hung out with during my punk days were essentially vermin crawling beneath me.

Come to think of it, Kyle might truly be the first person I could call a friend.

Because all the women I've grown close to have only wanted to spend a night with me and crave my love.

A person who struggles to receive love also struggles to return it.

Anyway, becoming close to Kyle, whom I disliked and hated so much, allowed me to somewhat blur the memories of the past.

"Stop bringing up village stories. Do you want to get tied to heretics and burned?"

Kyle clamped his mouth shut and didn't answer.

"Lineta is doing perfectly fine, so don't worry about it. Just train."

"......If she's fine, can I meet her? She's not trapped in some dungeon or anything?"

"The Edelgard family doesn't have a separate dungeon."

Kyle looked at me as if asking me not to equivocate and to give a clear answer.

"I'll bring her next weekend."

"......Thank you."

Kyle thanked me with a smile I'd never seen before.

As he bowed his head slightly, his black hair brushed past his uniquely sparkling eyes, and a genuinely satisfied smile, not forced, played on his lips.

A face that anyone would smile contentedly at.

Seeing Kyle's expression like that, my mind momentarily went blank.

Could it be that, as Levina said, I was truly a homosexual?

Why was my heart pounding?

Should I run to my room right now, open the drawer, and blow my brains out with a revolver?

The feeling of one's sexual identity wavering was not a pleasant experience, so I soon erased such thoughts from my mind.

After confirming that the stumbling Kyle had entered his room, I walked down the corridor for a long time before returning to my own room.

And when I opened the door, a familiar back came into view.

"......Why are you here?"

"Where does my dearest brother wander off to so often at night these days?"

Levina said.

She was dressed in neat clothes, perched on my bed, drinking alcohol poured into a rather clean glass.

"None of your business."

"None of my business indeed. Though I didn't expect you'd be training in the middle of the night with that commoner you disliked so much."

She slightly lifted her body from her seat, bit into a piece of cracker on the table, and asked.

"Have you decided you want to join a knight order or something?"

"There's no way they'd accept me there."

"If I insist, something will work out."

"Forget it. By the way, what about the Duchess?"

"......Were you serious?"

"Or was it just empty words?"

I approached Levina.

And I lightly took the glass Levina was holding, drained it in one go, and placed it on the table.

"Anyway, why did you come?"

"......Because I missed you. I thought you'd come, but you haven't shown your face once, how dare you. After doing such things to me."

"What things?"

Levina stammered, unable to answer.

"It's not like that. You came here because you're horny and want to do it. And to your fucking younger brother, too. Isn't that right?"

I pushed Levina onto the bed, then climbed on top of the blushing Levina.

"......No. I just, I just wanted to be with you... Mph! Ugh!"

I shoved my fingers into Levina's mouth and rummaged around for a long time before pulling them out.

Levina looked at me with dazed eyes, then parted her lips, her cheeks flushed, and closed her eyes.

I placed my left hand on Levina's neck, raised my right hand high, and slapped Levina's cheek with all my might.

"You said you just wanted to be with me, so why did you tell Seraphina?

And what's with even bragging about it...?"

Levina gently caressed her slapped right cheek, then smiled faintly and said.

"Well, you did things to me that you wouldn't even do to the girl you love, so I had to let her know that you love me the most, didn't I?"

"I'm going crazy."

Saying that, I got up from the bed and sat leaning against the chair.

And I roughly poured the alcohol Levina brought into a glass, emptying it continuously.

While taking out a cigarette from my pocket and lighting it.

"You didn't get pregnant, did you?"

"......Unfortunately, I didn't. I even held my hands tightly and prayed while sleeping."

"That's a relief. If you had, I would have killed."

"......The child? Even so, I didn't think my brother would be that much of a piece of trash."

"No. Me, before I saw its face."

Before the child was born, I would have blown my brains out, or jumped off the building, and started over again.

"Anyway, the Duchess is still alive, and you're still the Young head, right?"

"So?"

"......It won't matter if I try things a little differently this time, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing."

Levina smiled, got off the bed, and approached me.

And she snatched the alcohol bottle, took a mouthful, then kissed me and fed me the alcohol.

"You asked why I came, didn't you?"

After I swallowed the alcohol, Levina caressed my face, then lightly patted my cheek and said.

"We agreed to be close, didn't we? So why haven't you visited once? After spending such a night with me?"

I considered just acting crazy and tackling Levina to shut her up, but I didn't move.

"Or did something happen with that commoner at night? You're quite famous for being a homosexual......"

Levina's words were cut off.

Unconsciously, I got up from my seat, pushed Levina, and then lay down beside her on the bed. To prevent this crazy person, who had a somewhat expectant look on her face, from opening her mouth, I turned her back to me and pressed my arm against her neck from behind.

Then Levina, whose carotid artery was being pressed, coughed and spluttered, making a commotion, until her body finally went limp.

A short while later, I looked at Levina, who was sleeping peacefully, making a soft "piyu..." sound, and realized.

There's no way I could be like that.

No way I could be.

I even slept with my sister, so there's no way I could be a homosexual.

It was just that I was a little excited because it was the first friend I'd ever made.

When the demons invade, being friendly will only help, there's no downside.

That's it.

I wasn't thrilled because I saw Kyle smiling faintly at me; I was thrilled because I made a friend.

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