The Villain’s Ending

Sunset (21)

Seraphina held me tight, then left the room.

Perhaps we had reconciled, if you could call it that.

If she'll let it slide as long as I hug her once a day and just press my lips to hers, it wasn't something I couldn't do.

Honestly, I want to hold a wedding with Seraphina in a grand place, then hole up in a quiet, secluded villa where no one else is around, go on aimless picnics here and there during the day, and spend the whole night wrapped in each other's arms, falling asleep.

Without even thinking about contraception, I just want to hold her tight and live freely.

It's not like I want to live this way either.

To be honest, even though I want to sleep with Seraphina, I'm too scared to.

She probably doesn't fully understand that I might go back again, so she'd try to have my child by any means necessary.

If a child were conceived now, and I raised it with all my love, then died and went back to the past, and had a child with Seraphina again... would it be the same child?

I want to forget about the Academy and everything else, and just hole up with Seraphina in some decent corner right now and live.

Then if a child somehow came along, I'd try to raise them so they could live happily, in my own way.

Since it would be me and Seraphina's child, their personality definitely wouldn't be that great.

I'd have to make sure to educate them properly from childhood so they don't end up with a knife in their back for bullying others.

So if I can just somehow defeat the demons.

If I can somehow escape from this repeating place.

Thinking such thoughts, I vaguely left the room and was standing blankly right in front of the door, when the door to the next room opened, as always, just a tiny crack.

Just enough for only a hand to come out, always locked.

"Ah, you've always been like this, but thanks to you, it was quite entertaining today too."

"......Entertaining?"

"It might be a bit rude to say, but what's more entertaining than a lovers' quarrel?"

"......"

When I didn't answer, the female student seemed to scratch the back of her head slightly.

A glimpse of gray hair hung over the door frame, then went back in.

"Still, are you managing to live somehow?"

"......If I'm living and having lovers' quarrels, I suppose that counts as managing."

"For someone saying that, you look quite sad."

"Because I am sad."

"You seem like someone stuck in a trench, with nothing getting better, a life that's the same, appearing to have made progress but ultimately nothing has changed, and you're unpleasantly spinning in place."

"What nonsense are you..."

"Want some?"

The female student from the next room said, pulling a piece of candy from her pocket.

And as always, she opened the wrapper, then dropped it.

I habitually caught the candy with the tip of my foot, then lightly kicked it up into my mouth.

She always does this.

Candy... no matter if it falls on the floor or not, I somehow end up picking it up and tossing it into my mouth.

Stopping whatever I was saying or thinking, just staring at the candy.

Normally, I'd go out of my way to avoid dirty food, at least unless it was a battlefield.

"......It's amazing that you caught that, but why didn't you just ask for a new one?"

As always, it was lemon flavor.

"It's delicious."

"By the way, are you really, as the rumors say, with the Student Council President...?"

"Shut up."

"Ah, um. My apologies! Still, you should get along with your family. You're each other's only family."

"......."

I should tell her not to cross the line, but my mouth won't open.

Maybe it's because I'm tired after what just happened with Seraphina.

"What flavor is it?"

Hearing that, I felt like the taste had changed a little.

"......Lemon flavor?"

"I guess you're still a lemon-like human after all."

The female student next door let out a somehow strange laugh.

She took out another piece of candy from her pocket, and this time opened the previously closed door just a little wider and extended her arm.

"It's gotten late, it's about time for bed. I hope you do well."

Somehow entranced, I approached and received the candy.

Then the door closed.

Before the door shut, I heard the hinge creak.

I thought it was heavy, but what was placed in my hand wasn't candy, but literally a lemon.

The coolness of the lemon touched my palm pleasantly.

At the mention of it being time for bed, I opened my room door, but I didn't walk inside.

It's heavy and gloomy.

The smell of cigarettes, or that unpleasant stench of alcohol turning to vinegar, isn't there, but somehow I didn't want to go back.

With the lemon resting in my palm, I thought such thoughts.

No matter who it was, even if it wasn't Seraphina, after hurting someone else, my heart would sink somewhere, and nothing I did would be enjoyable.

I stared at the lemon resting in my hand, crunched the lemon candy in my mouth, and then shut the door.

There's always a lump of anxiety around my chest.

No matter where I go, it follows me.

From some point on, I took it for granted that time was trapped, took it for granted that I would die... just like before, when I thought a piece of trash like me would be better off dead.

So I ended up thinking that Seraphina's feelings, the feeling of loving someone, and even when someone confesses their feelings to me... it's all meaningless.

It felt like the emotion of being loved, and the excitement gained from loving, would never return.

I knocked on the door of the next room.

It doesn't open.

I knocked lightly once more.

I can't feel any sign of anyone inside.

What did the female student from the next room, who gave me the lemon candy, look like?

White hair, and a somehow sleepy, languid voice.

But even though the room's light was on, her face somehow wasn't clearly visible.

Come to think of it, a familiar voice, a voice I seemed to have heard often when I was young.

And one that only showed me things I didn't want to see...

[6/?]

[Currently collected rewards: Lingering Trace, Afterimage, Traces, Fragmented Soul, Lingering Shadow, Twilight]

I stared at the semi-transparent window floating in the air, then moved my steps toward the archives area.

As if entranced, not paying attention to anything.

Even though it was dawn, I could still see the guards standing guard in front of the forbidden section.

Since it hadn't been long since the incident in the forbidden archives, as soon as they saw my face, they looked ready to scream at any moment, and grabbed the hilts of the swords at their waists.

Both of them seemed to know my face.

Though there would be few people at this Academy who don't know my face.

"Young master. Trying to throw your weight around with your status won't work on us like it does on the others.

Don't think about pulling any more stunts and back off... Huh?"

Still, with a light spell, I splashed water on one's face, then kicked the other one in the head.

And for a long time, I stared at the human who had fallen on his backside with water on his face, and since he didn't seem to have any intention of getting up, I walked into the forbidden section.

Only one particular book was distinctly wrapped in magic.

I reached out toward the lemon-yellow color, clear like a lemon, and pulled out the book.

There was no title.

Had the book I snuck into the forbidden section and read before also had no title?

I couldn't remember the title at all.

Even as I recalled that the probability was exceedingly low, I was convinced that this was the same book I had opened and read back then.

Of all days, that day, the day when a monster burst out of the forbidden area while I was reading that book, a student died, everything collapsed as if predetermined, no one believed me, and it felt like everyone just wanted me dead... that day, and the prison-like days where even after dying, I would come back again, had all started after I read this book.

With my left hand, I tightly gripped the lemon I had received earlier, and with my right hand, I pulled out the book.

Then, somehow, I felt a familiar sensation.

The old dust floating in the air as soon as I entered the restricted section, and the uniquely cold floor, also felt somehow enjoyable.

I hadn't wanted to come to the restricted section.

Because the beginning, the start of my suffering, the things that led to me and Seraphina ending up like this, a life that seemed to be getting a little better, and the repeating end, all seemed to have started here.

When I came here last time, I didn't feel this way, but the heavy air now felt somehow comfortable.

I found a decent spot, sat down, and placed the book on my knees.

With one hand still holding the lemon.

I turned the cover and looked at the first page.

Levina was looking down at me, bleeding from the head.

I turn the page.

Seraphina is holding me, hanging in the room.

I turn the page.

Estelle is holding me, looking relatively intact for someone who burned to death.

I turn the page.

Levina is holding me, my clothes and hair undisturbed, but my body twisted unnaturally.

I turn the page.

Lineta is looking at me, my head clutched tightly in her arms, my neck not attached, yet still sitting upright.

I turn the page.

I saw Seraphina, showing no expression at all, staring at my rotten body and head.

I turn the page.

This time, I wasn't there.

Seraphina, Levina, Estelle, Lineta, and Kyle are wearing wedding dresses.

I wondered if Kyle might look a bit awkward, but it suited her better than I thought.

And, holding bouquets in the church, they stood beside a coffin.

Whether it was a funeral or a wedding, I couldn't tell.

All their faces were expressionless.

At least, they didn't look happy.

I turn the page.

It was a blank page, nothing at all.

A semi-transparent window rises in the air.

[I hope you remember. If possible, I hope you are happy.]

From the blank page that had been empty, something seemed to burst out.

Just like... Levina, who exploded after eating a demonic stone.

I placed the lemon back in my palm and squeezed it.

The pleasant coolness I felt earlier was gone.

Every time I turned the page, the paper scattered like dust.

In my hand was the lemon.

At first, it was cold.

But as I turned the pages, the cold slowly melted away between my fingers.

The air in the room, my breath, were now all lukewarm.

The lemon melted away.

And soon, the book became soggy and then crumbled.

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