The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

Chapter 74: The Butler's Inadequate Birthday Gift (2)

The day after the first snowfall.

A heavy snow began to fall outside the window.

The snow that had fallen in a day covered the streets in white, and the mountain range that had been full of splendid autumn leaves was turning as white as shaved ice.

"Snowwwww!"

Olivia opened the window, reaching out to touch the snow.

Wrapped up in a blanket and grunting with effort, Olivia ignored the butler's advice about catching a cold and attempted to make contact with the snow.

"Ricardo, it's snowing a lot outside."

Olivia, with gleaming eyes, looked out the window and said.

She glanced at me, then used her finger to pick up some snow accumulated on the windowsill and brought it to her mouth.

"Ewww… it tastes bad."

She was petulantly complaining about the tasteless gift from nature.

"Eating it is unsanitary."

"I know."

"Then why are you eating it?"

"It looked tasty."

It was a reason that made perfect sense. I nodded at Olivia's logical explanation and watched the snow falling outside.

A heavy snowfall in Hamel.

Why did yesterday’s beautiful first snow seem like a disaster today? Just like the first snow I saw during my time at the training academy that first looked beautiful but turned into a nightmare the next day, the thought of having to clear the snow darkened my mood as a butler.

‘When will I ever finish shoveling it.'

I was a butler who found it all very bothersome.

Olivia, on the other hand, was fully enjoying winter, with the window wide open. She touched the snow that was being blown about by the wind and watched the snowflakes melt in her hand, a mischievous smile on her face.

"Oh…"

-Whoooosh!

"Ugh…"

A cold gust of wind blew in, and Olivia's face was suddenly hit with a blast of snow.

"Heek! It's cold…"

Covered in a mound of snow, Olivia froze on the spot.

"Etchuk! So cold."

Her fondness for the snow dropped rapidly in real-time. I closed the open window and began to nag her.

"Didn't I tell you that you shouldn't open the window because you'll catch a cold?"

"The wind hates me."

"It's because the lady is too pretty."

"Hmm…"

Olivia clutched the blanket and nodded.

It was yet another day when working felt utterly repulsive.

I wanted to lie in bed all day and do nothing, but my thin wallet ruthlessly pushed me from behind.

I had spent a lot of money yesterday.

And Olivia's birthday was approaching.

Overcoming the overwhelming feeling of annoyance weighing on my shoulders, I picked up the coat that was hung on the chair.

A black wool coat. It was a coat with its own set of memories, a gift given by Olivia 3 years ago for my birthday.

And it was also the most expensive piece of clothing I owned.

With the coat draped over my arm, Olivia cocked her head in question.

"Where are you going?"

"To find treasure."

"Treasure hunting? I want to as well."

"It's outside, you know?"

"…"

Olivia, initially excited by the interesting proposition of treasure hunting, shivered when she saw the brutal wind outside.

"I'll freeze to death if I go outside."

She quickly gave up on the idea of treasure hunting. She looked out the window and told me that it was cold outside, suggesting that I stay home and walk the path of unemployment with her.

"You struggle if you leave the house."

It was certainly a tempting offer, but I had to refuse since the treasure hidden in a cave could run away.

"I have something important to do. From tomorrow, I promise to be a passionate unemployed person."

"I'm not unemployed. I'm a security guard who protects the house."

Olivia was angered by my disregard for a job that she had passionately maintained without absence for two years.

She handed me warm Gomtang as if to appease her anger.

"Take him at least, he'll keep you warm."

-Gom?

Gomtang, who had gone from companion dog to hand warmer.

Gomtang, looking puzzled, licked Olivia’s hand.

"Etch… it tickles."

-Groooom.

"Stay still. Ricardo needs to take you."

-Groooooom…

Like Olivia, Gomtang also disliked the idea of going outside.

"Pha-ha… it’s okay. It’s just a quick errand. I won’t be needing help."

After returning Gomtang to Olivia’s embrace, I put on Tirbing, the black dagger that glistened at my waist.

Before leaving the room.

I turned my head to look at Olivia who was hugging Gomtang.

"Is there anything you’d like me to bring back?"

"Hmm… something warm."

"Then I will bring back green tea."

"That's not for eating."

Teasing Olivia was the most entertaining thing in the world.

Olivia waved her hand, cheering on the young butler to buy something delicious.

Her empty white wrist especially caught my eye.

‘I must buy her a gift.'

I felt I would regret it if I did not buy her something.

Gripping the doorknob tightly, I thought of the fate mentioned in the novel, and bowed to Olivia who was still waving.

"I'll be back soon."

"Okay. I'll be keeping the house safe."

“Yes.”

The door closed with a creaking sound, and soon enough, I was seen walking outside, facing the snowstorm through the window.

-Whooosh!

Snow accumulating on my head.

"Heeek!!! Ricardo is becoming a snowman!!"

At Olivia’s astonished voice, I smiled and proceeded towards my destination.

The destination was the hideout of an escape genius.

It was mentioned in the novel that whenever he managed to break out, he would hide in a retreat in the Hamel mountain range.

I silently hoped he had managed to escape.

‘Is he there, I wonder.'

It was about time for him to consider escaping.

After a long time, I felt a longing to see an insect.

***

In a dark and gloomy cave.

A man wearing prisoner's clothes shivered with cold, hugging his knees.

The man’s name was ‘Pascal'.

He was a villain who had slaughtered countless adventurers.

"Ugh… it’s so cold…"

Shivering with his gaunt body, Pascal looked like a prehistoric caveman as he tried to kindle a fire by striking stones together.

Clothes that were turned to rags during the escape. The hair, unable to be cut while in prison, was now clumped together, lacking any semblance of sheen.

Click…

The sound of striking flint reverberated loudly within the cave.

"If it weren't for that damn kid, I wouldn't have had to suffer this indignity."

He resented the red-haired swordsman who had disturbed him while he was concentrating on his art in the mountains of Hamel.

Pascal was filled with loathing for him.

The brat who had belittled his art.

And the same brat who had now made it impossible for him to look at himself in a mirror; Pascal despised him to the point of trembling.

After that day, Pascal could no longer face his own reflection.

-Praying mantis.

-Insect Expo.

-Wow… how can a human face even look like that…?

Whenever he saw a mirror, it reminded him of a praying mantis.

It was shocking to hear that he, someone who was afraid of even cockroaches, resembled an insect. But what Pascal feared the most was himself, accepting his resemblance to insects everytime he saw a mirror.

When he saw his face reflected in a puddle within the cave, Pascal shook his head with firm denial.

"No, that's not true. I am handsome. The ugly one is that guy. Not me."

Pascal vowed revenge as he struck the flint.

Let's see. He repeated the action, intensively striking the flint with a promise to himself that he would have his revenge one day.

"I'll kill him."

Brutally.

"I'll have my revenge."

Pascal, filled with a desire to pay back twice the humiliation he had suffered due to that guy, hurled all kinds of curses inwardly.

Just as his boiling emotions reached their peak, with a ‘pop,' dry branches began to catch fire.

Feeling the warmth on his hands, Pascal hurriedly added the kindling he had prepared to the embers.

"…See, I can do it too."

It was a moment that uplifted Pascal's spirits.

*Sob*…

A tear trickled down Pascal's eye. Overwhelmed with pathetic sobs, a powerful surge of emotions welled up within him.

"Yes… I can just start all over again."

Because he possessed black magic.

Black magic that could control people.

Powerful black magic that was strong enough to get him scouted by a heretic cult.

He had initially turned down the offer all for the sake of freedom in his art, but now, he wasn’t in a position to be choosey.

The moment he resolved to join the heretics and take his bloody revenge.

-Thud.

Footsteps came from the far end of the cave. Pascal quickly gripped a dagger in his hand.

"Damn it… Could it be a pursuer, even though I meticulously erased my tracks?"

Despite his best efforts to erase his tracks and prevent a pursuer from following, Pascal swallowed hard, thinking that a capable tracker had managed to follow him.

He might be an adventurer.

Or a pursuer.

Probably the latter.

It could actually be fortunate.

It might be an opportunity to replenish his depleted dark magic.

The means of replenishing dark magic used in black magic was unique to each person.

Some replenished it through the consumption of emotions.

Some did it at the cost of memories.

A renowned black mage from the empire practiced his magic at the cost of body parts, which indeed came with many restrictions.

But the power of such spells was comparably explosive.

Pascal's method was murder.

The most widespread and common way to replenish dark magic.

Pascal, who saw danger as an opportunity, gazed longingly at the fire he had just ignited.

‘Should I put it out…?'

Pascal was reluctant to part with the hard-won fire, but the approaching footsteps made him reach a decision.

"Damn it…!"

Pascal clenched his eyes shut and snuffed out the fire with the soles of his bare feet.

A burning sensation spread rapidly across the soles, and he nearly groaned in pain.

‘Endure it… Just endure…'

With his mouth covered, he bore the pain with the spirit of art.

-Thud… Thud…

-He should be around here somewhere.

The intruder's voice echoed off the cave walls.

A young man's voice.

Maybe in his twenties.

If he does well, he could win.

He was confident in his ability to stage an ambush.

Having not just idled away in prison, Pascal began infusing his cherished dark magic into the dagger.

The dagger shimmered black.

-Sssssh… Should be right here.

As the mumbling man's voice drew closer, Pascal abruptly straightened his bent legs and hurled himself towards the dark shadow.

‘It's done.'

Pascal ambushed at the perfect, unsuspecting moment.

He felt a chill.

He had thought it to be the perfect ambush.

The situation had aligned, his desperation had shone brightly, and believing in the success of such a flawless surprise attack, Pascal grinned with a thrill unlike any other.

"Kehehe… unlucky for you…"

Pascal slowly raised his head.

Wanting to see eyes stricken with despair.

Eyes bleeding fear, Pascal sneered bitterly as he looked upon the face of the man before him.

Then fear drenched Pascal's features.

"Uh… what?"

The man with the red hair.

The man he had most wanted to encounter after escaping, but now was the last person he wanted to see, was holding the dagger filled with Pascal's all-out strike, expressionless.

With only two fingers.

The man checked his clothes for any scratches, then exhaled a sigh of relief and spoke.

"Wow~ Long time no see!"

The man who had sent him to prison was waving his hand with a bright smile.

"I thought you might have turned into a cocoon, but look at you, still alive and well?"

Pascal, staring at the man, exclaimed.

"No…!!!!"

"Why does it always have to be me!!!"

The man laughed softly.

"It would be such a waste to go to an Insect Expo…"

Pascal lunged.

Resolved to escape using every last bit of his dark magic, enduring the pain he felt in his heart, he threw a punch at Ricardo but.

"Mantis Fist…!"

Pascal's eyes welled up with tears seeing the mocking visage.

‘F*ck…'

Pascal vowed then and there, regardless of revenge or anything else, to avoid any further association with this man in the future.