The Villain’s Ending

Sunset (29)

Somehow, the longer I live, the more tangled my surroundings feel.

If you ask if nothing has improved, I'd say no, but at the same time, I wouldn't say anything has changed dramatically.

My efforts to save at least the people around me after beating back the demons now involve kicking away the ladders so other humans can't climb up.

For the mansion of a corrupt local lord who dared not even properly supply food to soldiers and was even siphoning it off, it looked surprisingly modest.

A modest size, enough for only two or three servants at most.

I slowly opened the unlocked door and stepped inside.

Two fairly old-looking servants approached, then showed wary expressions upon seeing a stranger.

"...We weren't told any guests were coming today, who might you be?"

They seemed to guess our identities, their faces stiffening and their lips pressed shut.

Lineta, whose pupils seemed to have elongated vertically, looked as if she was about to pounce, so I smacked her head once and moved towards the second floor of the mansion.

Lineta also clutched her smacked head, whined softly, and slowly followed behind.

We wandered through the few rooms there were, and when we entered a room that clearly looked like a study or office, a middle-aged man with a splendid mustache was holding his head and scribbling on paper.

As soon as we entered, he tried to say something, but as I nodded, Lineta approached, lightly subdued the lord, stuffed a piece of paper that had just been on the desk into his mouth, and began tormenting him with a wide grin.

While watching Lineta amuse herself by burning the nobleman's mustache with a match in the office, I rummaged through the documents on the desk.

"D-do you think you'll get away with this?! I don't know who you are, but to suddenly break in without warning and insult me like this...!"

Lineta made the 'esteemed' person spit out the crumpled paper stuffed in his mouth, then slapped his cheek to cut him off.

Indeed, every time he tried to open his mouth, she slapped his cheek.

It almost seemed as if she was letting out pent-up stress.

"Stop hitting him, what if he dies?"

"...Even so, he's an adult male, would he really die from just this much, young master?"

"Before I tell Seraphina."

"......."

Lineta stared blankly at me, then put out the fire still clinging to the man's mustache and stood up.

I handed Lineta a few pieces of paper I'd found in the office, with some lines roughly underlined with a stray pen.

"Go back and hand these to Levina."

Lineta took the papers without a word and walked out of the room.

And once Lineta had left, perhaps seeing me alone as quite easy to deal with, the lord brushed his disheveled appearance and opened his mouth again.

"...I know why you came, but was it necessary to go this far?"

"I didn't do it."

"If you take even that, there will be no living humans left around here."

The man glared at me, speaking in a growl.

"What can be done? It's better to starve to death than to be eaten alive by demons."

He glared at me, then dry-washed his face and looked down at the empty desk.

I didn't particularly look at his expression.

Over two days, every single grain of food in the granary was brought to the barracks.

About a month later, a nameless lord somewhere was said to have led starving peasants in a rebellion.

I don't know what happened.

Because Kyle, who had returned from the suppression, didn't say anything.

She just glanced at me once, then didn't utter a single word.

I probably lost a friend.

Even though I had a name picked out for her.

She seemed to be expecting something rather elegant, so I had intended to give her a grand name like Noelene or Liora.

Since she wouldn't know the origin anyway, I was going to tell her two or three and ask her to choose a pretty one.

Whatever it was, it would be better than Kyle.

I suppose I wasted my effort thinking so hard.

At least she wouldn't try to kill me by thrusting a blade, so I decided to be grateful for that much.

She was my only friend, but losing just one friend wasn't a situation to become gloomy over.

It was a little sad, though.

****

Time passes faster than expected.

Surprisingly, in this life, there was no need to be happy with flour and sugar roughly clumped together and calling it a cake.

Because there was enough food, not abundant enough to actually make and eat cake, but not lacking either.

And the demons, every single one that came, were easily repelled.

In fact, it seemed that as long as I didn't fight with Kyle, everything was naturally supposed to go this well.

However, these days, not only could I not have a proper conversation with Kyle, but I couldn't even acknowledge her when I saw her face.

Because even if I waved, she wouldn't acknowledge me.

Should I be grateful that at least she doesn't glare or curse at me when she leaves?

There was no problem, after all.

Anyway, since there was no problem with Kyle, a problem arose elsewhere.

As we kept winning against the demons, the higher-ups seemed to have gone mad and now ordered us to charge towards them.

To be precise, His Esteemed Imperial Majesty announced that he would bestow the land as a territory to whoever first reclaimed it.

A land with not a single person, yet he grandly made a show of it.

This situation only arose because we hadn't encountered a single high-ranking demon until now.

So, we had to abandon everything and advance, even though we couldn't endure it even with proper preparation.

Giving up the well-built city walls, the diligently dug ditches, and even the barely connected supply lines.

I tried to tell Levina that it seemed utterly insane and we should hold out instead of going, but it was meaningless.

Because the brainless knight sirs had excitedly started rushing ahead first.

And the equally brainless noble sirs, excited at the thought of being called heroes in the future, also rushed out enthusiastically.

So we followed.

It wasn't a very pleasant feeling, though.

We rode forward along the broken, overgrown path where no people passed.

For several days.

"There's nothing here, could we have really repelled all of them?"

"I wish that were true."

"If it's all over, shall we go back and hold the ceremony?"

At her words, I smiled and said.

"Yeah. Let's do that, at the church... or no, if you don't like the church, shall we do it at the mansion?"

"...I don't like the Edelgard household."

"But I don't think we can do it at the Beluze household either."

"I've reconciled with my father, so maybe it can work out! I even used the money I'd saved to rebuild his house."

"...When?"

"About half a year before the demons invaded, I think. No, I told you, didn't I? You didn't listen."

"I guess I was just tired."

"You probably just smiled and shrugged it off, I guess."

"Sorry."

"Hehe, no worries. By the way, I really want to try on that white dress soon."

Seraphina seemed to be in a good mood these days.

Perhaps because I wasn't talking to Kyle, and Levina and Estelle were always busy and couldn't properly socialize.

It wasn't that I had nothing to do, but most of the demons that had invaded so far were foolish and weak, with only an unnecessarily large number of them.

Thanks to that, the time I spent with Seraphina seemed to be much longer than when we were at the Academy.

"Do you remember what I said before?"

"What did you say?"

"That you'd be with me forever, until death."

"We're together now, aren't we?"

"From today until we go back, let's sleep together at night. No, say you'll sleep with me."

"...Alright."

My eyes met Seraphina's, and I abandoned my thought of refusing, nodding my head.

Then she smiled brightly.

After that, Seraphina and I continued to chat about various things as we walked.

As if we were on a picnic after a long time.

As we proceeded for a long time, the sun began to set slowly, as it often did.

Suddenly, a death rattle could be heard from far away.

And then, the sound slowly grew closer.

The faint screams from afar instantly multiplied into dozens, hundreds.

The vanguard knights, or whoever they were, suddenly had horses and people lifted into the air, only to drop straight down.

Though unseen, they probably died from the fall.

CRUNCH!

The sound of something being crushed, the screech of metal tearing, and a squelching rupture mixed together, assaulting my ears.

The horses' pained cries pierced the sky.

"......Ah."

Seraphina stared blankly at the scene, her mouth agape.

And she couldn't close it.

Rather than feeling sadness at the people dying in front of us, her irritation at the impossibility of returning seemed much greater.

Anyway, for now, we had to move forward.

As I turned my horse's head sideways and spurred it, I saw fallen knights being trampled directly by hooves.

The sight of them being crushed beyond recognition was sickening.

From somewhere, a severed neck spurted blood like a fountain in the wind, and for a moment, the headless torso rode forward on its horse before losing balance and falling weakly.

The knights, plunged into chaos, floundered.

Some began to flee, turning their backs, and some bravely charged forward, but the outcome was the same.

Their bodies were pierced by black spears flying through the air, and their limbs were severed by invisible blades.

Fountains of blood erupted everywhere.

The metallic stench, mixed with dust, sickeningly stung my nose.

The ground rumbled.

The air settled heavily.

The noble scions, who until just moments ago had been filled with dreams of becoming heroes, were busy howling and fleeing.

Something began to descend upon the heads of those who crawled with broken legs after being trampled by horses, who sat terrified, or who ran backward, turning their backs, desperate to survive.

Before long, they were all crushed like insects and died.

"...We're screwed."

And as if she didn't even want to see my face, Kyle, who was at the front, was crawling on the ground, having lost her left leg, swinging her sword.

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