The Villain’s Ending

Sunset (22)

Footsteps could be heard.

The sound of dry wooden floorboards creaking.

The sound of someone walking along an old wooden corridor.

The sound was steady.

But it didn't get closer.

Click, click.

The floor vibrated faintly, and the vibration that rang out with each sound was definitely approaching.

But the sound didn't get closer.

It felt as if my sense of time was becoming numb.

It somehow seemed like a sound that suited the scent of old books from the forbidden section and the faint smell of mildew.

Then, suddenly, the sound stopped.

So abruptly it was somewhat startling.

Somehow, only a scent remained, as if something had passed by and left something behind.

Something like an artificial lemon scent.

"The book isn't everything. Just as being born into the world isn't everything, it all depends on how you live it."

The figure wasn't distinct, but somewhat hazy.

It was like a heat shimmer or a photograph that was out of focus.

There was a form, but it somehow felt transparent.

At the very least, it was certain that this was the person who had handed me the lemon candy.

"I had hoped for a peach flavor, rather than lemon. A cheap lilac scent wouldn't have been bad either."

A voice came through.

It didn't seem like the mouth was moving, yet a sound still rang out.

Even though it was right in front of me, it simply looked like a trace left behind by someone.

Still, I wasn't afraid.

Because it felt like a familiar person.

Even though nothing was clearly visible, and nothing was clearly audible.

"Lemon isn't bad in its own way, but the you I remember wasn't lemon.

Perhaps you lost too much. Maybe I, and you, wanted too much."

A hazy hand held out a piece of candy to me.

An ordinary piece of candy wrapped in rough paper.

When I didn't take the candy, it approached, opened my hand, placed the candy in my palm, and held my hand for a long time.

It somehow felt warm, yet there was no sensation at all.

Like the sunlight felt at sunset.

"You did your best in your own way. But you need to try harder this time. You have to find a worthwhile end."

With those words, the figure slowly began to scatter.

Like ink dissolving in water.

I reached out a hand, but I couldn't touch it.

What touched my fingertips were only floating dust that couldn't be felt and the cold, empty air.

And so it scattered before my eyes.

Just like a soul or a spirit.

****

They say I was holed up in the forbidden library for two days.

That's what I heard from Levina.

They say I was sitting blankly, piling up several books on the floor, leaning against the wall, sleeping. I don't remember.

It was a strange thing rather than a bizarre one, but I wasn't confused.

Perhaps when you've experienced dying and coming back to life, you get used to things like this.

Even after that day, ordinary daily life continued.

Seraphina talked with me again as if nothing had happened, and sometimes we spent time together on dates.

Kyle didn't come to see me.

I didn't go looking for her either, and she didn't come to find me.

Even when we happened to briefly pass each other in the hallway after class, she would just avoid my gaze and run off somewhere.

I felt as if a line had been drawn.

It wasn't a line I had drawn, but a line drawn by someone else, so I somehow felt the urge to erase it.

Finding it somehow frustrating, I stood in the hallway in front of my room and tried knocking on the door of the next room, but nothing came back.

My next-door room was always empty, and the female student with hair that shone white in the light and somehow looked gray in the darkness at least didn't seem to be in this building.

The semi-transparent window, which used to come to mind clearly just by thinking of it briefly, was now slowly becoming blurry and hard to see.

Only the candy I received back then still remains.

I still carry it around without even tearing open the rough paper wrapper.

I wonder if at least the future me becomes happy.

If so, is the me living this life, so loved, still lying in a coffin?

I, wanting my own happiness, was somehow jealous of the future me.

Do I believe that someday I will be happy?

I, right now. Unable to even tell Seraphina to marry me, unable to say let's have a child, unable to run away somewhere and live, I'm probably doomed to fight like a dog and die when the demons invade, just as they invade.

Am I just vaguely thinking I'll become happy?

Because everything seems to be working out well.

I couldn't get any of the lecture content into my head.

Even if I listened hard, it didn't mean much anyway.

Back then, I used to listen in class to get decent grades, so I could live with Seraphina in a quiet, out-of-the-way small town, a life that wasn't wealthy but wasn't lacking either. But I was the one who knew best in this world that even that didn't mean much.

Walking blankly down a quiet path where not many people were visible, I suddenly felt the presence of someone rushing at me threateningly from behind, so I turned around and threw the book I was holding.

......Kyle gets hit on the forehead by the book and falls flat on her backside.

"Gyaaack! Hah....That hurts so much."

Kyle, hit on the head by the thick book, made a tearful face and was rubbing her forehead.

".......Are you okay?"

"Ah, um. It's my fault for suddenly rushing at you."

"Why did you rush at me?"

"Well. You said, didn't you, that if we fought, we'd get closer.

I thought it would be easier if I said it after winning."

"For someone who said that, you've been pretending not to see me even when our eyes met."

"......I didn't know how to make up.

I've never really made a proper friend before."

"Make up?"

"Yeah, make up. I did something wrong.

I didn't say what I needed to say until now.

Even though you haven't hidden anything from me, whom you've only known for a short while."

Saying that, Kyle smiled brightly again.

The same bright, happy-looking smile she had shown me before.

"And you're the first friend I've ever made."

"That... who was it. Jena, who always followed you around? And Seraphina?"

"Seraphina is more like... um, a comrade I can trust with my back?.......And right now, for a while, I'm scared to be close to her.

And Jena. How should I put it, it's complicated. She feels more like a benefactor than a friend......"

Kyle said, fidgeting with her fingers.

"......Does what you and Seraphina said that day bother you?"

She spoke while slightly averting her gaze to the floor, not leaving her lips alone.

"It would be a lie to say it doesn't bother me."

"Weren't you curious about what Seraphina meant that day?"

I'm not particularly curious.

No one would be curious about something they already know.

Still, if the person who calls me a friend, who speaks to me like this, does so, I should be curious even if I'm not.

After all, the person in front of me, the one I teased every day for not being properly educated, and sometimes called stupid, who would pout her lips and not answer properly... How should I put it. I don't know if I can still call her a friend.

Anyway, I seemed to still think of Kyle as a man.

"......."

"......."

".......By the way, this is incredibly awkward. How do you even make up?"

Kyle said, scratching her cheek lightly with her index finger.

".......I don't know how to make up with a friend either."

At my answer, she quickly made a disappointed expression.

Kyle let out a breath as if the air had been let out of her, and then continued speaking.

"I am a liar, just like Seraphina said.

I live lying to everyone around me without feeling guilty, and I trick them as if it's only natural."

Saying that, Kyle started walking ahead as if telling me to follow.

I followed behind her.

Kyle and I began walking along the quiet paths of the Academy.

"You know what village I used to live in, right?"

"The village you lived in with Lineta?"

At that, Kyle nodded her head.

"The people of that village were strange. They were full of people who laughed at others' misfortunes and boasted about their own."

Kyle stopped walking.

And she blankly stared at the floor.

"Lineta wasn't that kind of kid either, but strangely, after a moonless night passed, she became the same kind of person who laughed at others' misfortunes and boasted about her own."

And then, looking down at the floor, she started walking again.

I slowly followed beside her.

And then I slowly took off my top.

Kyle, who was wearing a double layer, took off her top and fanned herself with her hand as she looked back at me.

White cloth tightly binding her body was wrapped around her chest.

"......I'm not that surprised."

"It wasn't that hard to figure out."

"......Since when?"

"It would be stranger if I didn't know, after you exchanged words like that with Seraphina."

"......Yeah."

Kyle began to put her top back on, fussing with it.

"Anyway, my parents made me wear this.

From when I was little, I always had to wear this in the village."

"Your parents did?"

"Yeah. I was born as a boy.

Whether that's true or not.

I don't know the details, but even for the sake of the village."

Seeing her struggling to put on her clothes, I went over and helped her put them on.

"So my name is the common Kyle, my hair is always short, and I... worked hard to build muscle too, but I got caught."

Kyle said, her face flushed, looking down at the floor as she began to button up.

"Anyway, I think my parents hated that village.

Even though they learned the same things and lived the same way in the place they were born and raised, they must have hated it a lot.

The villagers were fools."

Then a suitable bench caught my eye.

Kyle shuffled her feet over and sat down on the bench first.

"Not in the sense of being stupid, but fools always think everyone other than themselves is a fool."

I sat down next to her on the bench as well.

"My parents weren't fools. They weren't ordinary.

And not being ordinary was... kind of bad.

At night, it feels like memories are rotting away."

Keeping a bit of distance. Enough distance for one more person to sit.

"At night. The villagers suddenly held a feast.

It happened sometimes, but my parents always stopped me, so I'd never been to a feast.

But it wasn't as bad as I thought.

That day, the people who always ignored me, calling me the son of weirdos, were kind to me, laughed with me, talked to me, and fed me a lot of delicious food."

Kyle turned her head slightly to glance at me, then sat a little closer.

"Ah. The stew and bread Lineta gave me were really delicious.

So, I wish my memory would rot a bit.

I don't want to remember what it tasted like."

Her voice began to tremble slightly.

"Is that... a bit long-winded?"

I didn't answer, just nodded.

It was a bit long.

It was also getting a bit late.

Then Kyle smiled again.

"I think it's okay if my relationship with Seraphina gets a little worse.

I've never properly made a friend in my life.

And my mom, and my dad, said that when you make a real friend, you shouldn't lie."

Looking at me.

"Would you be my friend?"

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!