The Villain’s Ending

Sunset (23)

I nodded.

"Weren't we already friends?"

"......Ah, um. That's really nice to hear."

At that, Kyle smiled brightly, a truly beautiful smile.

"That's right. We meet and train, talk, go for walks. We were friends."

Even under the night sky, that smile was vivid.

Was it something that shone brightly even in the dark only to my eyes, or did it actually emit light?

I stared blankly at Kyle's smile, then opened my mouth.

Kyle made a face as if I was talking nonsense and asked back.

"With what?"

She seemed unaware of what expression she was making.

It figured she wouldn't know exactly how she looked to others.

Having lived as a man, after all.

"...No."

"So, is there anything you want to do with a friend?"

Kyle said in a voice that sounded slightly excited.

A hint of expectation was mixed in her voice.

"Want to do?"

"No, I mean. Um. I, well, wrote down in a notebook all sorts of things I wanted to do if I ever made a friend."

"I haven't really thought about anything in particular."

Kyle made a slightly disappointed expression.

The corners of her mouth drooped faintly downward.

"Have you ever been to the downtown area?"

".......The downtown area? As in, where coffee and desserts cost a day's wages..?"

I hesitated, wondering how to answer, but then the thought just popped out without thinking.

"Don't worry about it, Levina will pay for it anyway.

If she insists she won't, I'll just take it from her drawer, so don't think about the money."

"......Now I understand why the Edelgard Young head keeps calling you trash."

"......."

****

Even after Kyle revealed the truth to me, nothing really changed much.

After all, it would be strange to expect something just because a friend I'd known as a man turned out to be a woman. At least in that one regard, I considered myself lucky that my heart pounding when I saw Kyle hadn't been entirely misguided.

Though now that we're friends, there's no need to be conscious of that anymore.

Anyway, I was idling in my room, half-heartedly reading a book, when the door opened.

Lineta saw me through the gap as she opened the door, and her eyes widened slightly, as if a little surprised.

"……Young master?"

Lineta came into the room and was startled to see me lounging in a chair, reading a book.

She closed the door and took a few steps toward me.

"Last time too… you were like this here when you caused that huge fight with the mistress… no, with Lady Seraphina."

"……What's this 'mistress' business now? Did Seraphina tell you to call her that?"

Lineta didn't answer.

She just looked at me with a complicated expression.

"Seraphina isn't treating you too harshly, is she?"

"......Is that something you, of all people, should be asking, having handed me over?"

"It is my place to ask. You're a heretic, but I let you live."

Her gaze swept over my face, the chair, and the corners of the room in turn.

"For a heretic, she treats me quite kindly. At least more than the church does."

The church seems to enjoy burning people alive, so I wonder if that really counts as kindness.

Still, I've seen the two of them go into a room together before.

I didn't particularly want to think deeply about it.

"Enough talk. Go make me a cup of coffee."

Lineta let out a small sigh.

She walked over to the shelf and took out a cup from among the teacups.

And she began to brew coffee.

She lifted the kettle and poured water over the filter, but Lineta's body seemed frozen, her hand not moving at all.

Even as the water overflowed, she didn't stop pouring, just lightly trembling.

Black water spilled over the cup and onto the table.

The scent of coffee filled the room.

And soon, it began to flow and soak the floor.

Watching this, I didn't say much.

Lineta stared blankly down at the coffee cup, and when the coffee grounds rose above the paper filter and overflowed into the cup, she set the kettle aside, took out a new cup, placed a new paper filter and grounds on top, and poured hot water to brew coffee again.

This time, the water didn't overflow.

Even after brewing the coffee, she stared at the cup for a long time, then brought it to me and placed it in front of me.

The steaming black liquid.

I lifted the cup and lightly wet my lips.

A bitter taste lingered on the tip of my tongue.

Lineta watched me drink the coffee.

She stood there without a word.

The room was small.

Everything felt within arm's reach, characteristic of a servant's dormitory room.

In other words, it was cramped for two people.

Just enough for one person to barely live in.

Perhaps because Lineta was living there, it did feel a bit more lived-in.

It was quite different from before.

On the once-bare windowsill, a small potted plant sat, and a few old books were piled by the head of the bed.

The room was filled with a faint scent of coffee, the smell of freshly washed cloth, and a subtle trace of Lineta's presence.

I took another sip of coffee.

Lineta was still looking at me.

Her eyes seemed dark.

"Do you know what happened to the village you lived in?"

"They're probably all dead."

Lineta answered.

Her voice was calm.

"You sound pretty calm about it."

"Because I can't die even if I want to."

"Why not? Why don't you just hang yourself?"

Like before.

Like when you left me all alone.

Was it Lineta standing right in front of me who left me behind, or was it the unnamed someone inside Lineta's body?

Lineta touched her neck.

Her slender fingers brushed against her pale throat.

"That seems like it would be horribly painful."

"Not painful, but wouldn't it be more pathetic?"

"Do you want me to die?"

Lineta asked.

"Who said I want anyone dead?"

"......Well, I am a heretic who snuck into the young master's mansion."

"I wouldn't tell someone to die over something like that. Just. If life is too hard, you could die. Because that might be an okay option too."

"I'm afraid of dying. So, I'll pass."

She wasn't afraid of death, given how well she left me alone back then.

I had entrusted her to Seraphina because I believed Seraphina would take good care of her, but also because I thought seeing the same thing happen again would leave me feeling gloomy for a whole month.

Maybe this is the right way to get close to her.

But the one who approached me when I couldn't find my way anywhere, the one who stayed by my side, the one who became my support, was only Lineta.

"I heard from Kyle."

"From my brother? He wouldn't have had anything to say."

"They say that one day, you suddenly changed, as if the person inside you had been replaced."

"......What is it you want to hear?"

"Where did the person who was originally inside go?"

"Well. What do you think?"

Lineta's eyes widened slightly.

Somehow, it was a familiar look.

The eyes I saw that night, the night I crushed Lineta with a stone, were not like that.

Maybe that's why Lineta from back at the mansion felt like the Lineta in front of me.

I put down my cup with a clatter and said quietly.

"Your hands are pretty. Kyle's hands are on the rougher side.

So rough it makes you think it wouldn't matter if he lost a fingernail or two."

At that, Lineta pressed her lips together tightly and then spoke in a slightly trembling voice.

"Brother Kyle doesn't know anything.

He never properly mingled with the villagers; he always avoided them."

"Still, since you're from the same village, he must know something, right?

Rather than locking a cute girl like you in a dungeon, I think it'd be better to strip you, and chat leisurely with you in front of a guy whose hands are all tattered."

"......What do you want?"

"Just kidding. Why would I do that to Kyle, my friend?"

Was protecting Kyle an act?

Or was she really trying to protect her?

Would a beast that only knows how to speak, one that picks and chooses every disgusting act imaginable, human sacrifice, cannibalism, really have something like that?

What kind of meat was the meat that was packed into the stew we ate together in the village?

It's not like eating people is particularly shocking or disgusting to me, but I'd rather not eat it.

With plenty of quality pork, beef, chicken, and lamb around, I'd like to ask why they had to go and eat humans.

No, come to think of it, it is a bit unpleasant.

Knowing that without her, there wouldn't be anyone with a personality so twisted they'd exchange a single word, she left first anyway, and that girl who said she didn't want to leave Levina and me together, was she lying?

Maybe not.

Otherwise, would she have ladled that much human meat into my mouth?

Though when I asked what the ingredients were, she never told me.

Anyway, she didn't tell me, but she didn't lie, did she?

"There was a girl I knew. Her dream was to save up a lot of money and go to the capital."

I cupped my hands slightly and let the words drop.

"To escape that boring corner of the countryside, walk the bustling streets of the city, and go to a cafe full of pretty desserts."

"......She must have been a girl similar to me."

"Let's go this weekend. Ah, I'm bringing Kyle too.

We need to see how ordinary people live happily and get all twisted up about it, don't we?"

Even if you suddenly went mad and attacked me, killing someone like Lineta would be easy.

So this much should be fine.

"I don't understand."

"What?"

"Why are you approaching me? I'm a heretic, aren't I?

I didn't grow up in a proper place like you people."

Hearing Lineta's words, spat out as if vomiting, I lowered my head slightly and answered quietly.

"......Think of it as a special allowance, or something like that."

For playing with a pitiful young master who had no friends.

Even if I said that, she wouldn't understand a bit.

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