I Reject the villain’s ending.

Episode 17

‘You’re on my watch tonight.’

‘What? I didn’t hear you.’

‘I said, ’Watch my back tonight. Don’t you want to?’

‘…No.’

She had me.

She had me, naked and all, with nothing to hide.

‘Hmph. Saint, ah. No, please.’

I begged and struggled, tears streaming down my face, but my cruel master laughed as she dug her seductive red lips deep into my neck and chest.

‘You’re my dog, you’re mine, the only one I have.’

‘You?’

‘Yes. The only one.’

Her voice was so sweet and soothing as she soothed my sobbing body, and she looked so sweet and lonely that I couldn’t stop her.

I followed her meekly, unable to resist the giddy sensation that she was possessive and obsessed with me when the world seemed so ridiculous.

Then one day I asked her.

‘Do you care for me at all?’

She said nothing, just laughed at my question, heat blossoming all over her white body.

‘A cruel woman.

And I began to take that cruel woman to heart.

My heart fluttered again, and I couldn’t help myself, even though I knew she wouldn’t love me anyway.

Sierra lived a life of debauchery, harassing men to the point where I wondered if she was a saint.

Yet I was the only man she ever let into her bedroom, and this blank slate, never having been treated like that by anyone else, washed over her, over Sierra.

‘If she found out, would she abandon me?

The thought always tormented me, so I kept my distance and tried not to give her any more of my heart.

But the day she suddenly collapsed while drinking tea, I saw her cold body and pale, bloodless face and realized.

‘…My heart has already been taken by you.’

I realized in a terrible way that she had taken my whole heart until there were no more feelings left in my body.

The woman I loved was dead. The woman with my life is dead.

My owner was dead, and I hadn’t even said goodbye to her, not even a hint of emotion.

I spent days and days in tears, lying beside her in her coffin, eyes closed, like a loyal dog.

‘Sue, Guardian. It’s time to bury the saint…….’

Cautiously, Sue rampaged like a madman, pointing her Cipherun sword at anyone who approached the coffin.

‘Shut up! This is my master. Not yet, not yet.’

I couldn’t let her go.

So, just as I had done when I first followed her to the temple, I reared my claws and chased away anyone who approached the chamber with the instinctive ferocity of a wild animal.

Then, on the week anniversary of her death, the priests came in, saying it was time to let her go, and miraculously, Sierra opened her eyes.

All the life had drained from her, her porcelain cheeks were peachy, and her tightly closed lips parted slightly to let out a warm breath.

‘What the hell is this place, ugh, my head!’

‘……!’

‘Oh, hello, who are you, no. Wait. Are you him, Pink?’

Sierra said as she stood up from the coffin, the venom drained from her eyes.

That alone was a thrill, and I loved seeing her blink those catlike eyes again, a smile plastered on her stubborn face.

Her voice, her temperature, her heartbeat, everything told me she was alive, and I didn’t need anything else.

‘Saint, I’m glad you’re alive again.’

I stopped crying and bowed respectfully to greet her.

My master had returned. That was all it took.

A few layers of chains and a padlock on this hot, flailing, unmotivated heart of hers, and that’s it.

I don’t want more, because it’s enough that she lives and breathes by my side.

This is folding the heart. I keep it to myself. I’m shutting down my mind.

I don’t want to confuse her more than she already has.

‘I want to’

I’m afraid of rejection.

She’s all I have, and I’ve never let anything but her dominate my thoughts for even a minute.

She was my world.

‘Saint, no, Sierra.’

I should have closed my mind, but my heart was beating.

‘I’m trying not to let this overwhelmingly large heart show, so please don’t shake me first.

I’ll stay a pet dog, feeding on light emotions before I ask for more.

* * *

Twisting the neck of her lunch, which had been pierced by an arrow and died instantly, Mei pulled out a chopping board and knife.

Without hesitation, Mei slashed down on the fleshy bird’s neck, and with a blood-spattered face, spoke thoughtfully.

‘Now, Saintess. Just like Master Diane said, approach them first with a friendly smile.’

‘Hmph. But do you have to say that with a bloody knife?’

I craned my neck back in annoyance and turned my head away. Take it or leave it, Mei was adamant.

‘Smile gently, with a slight upturn of your lips, ask how they’re doing, and chat about your latest interests.’

‘Maid, don’t you think that if you approached him with a bloody knife and a smile and a friendly manner, he’d usually beg for his life?’

‘That’s what I’m saying.’

Eldrakis disagreed, sneaking past Mei and grabbing hold of Diane’s clothes, hiding behind him and poking her head out.

‘Mei, I don’t think that’s flirting, I think that’s blackmail.’

‘Huh? Is that so?’

‘Yeah. So let’s put that knife down and get back to thinking. We’ll figure out what to do – huh?’

As I ducked behind Diane to avoid the vicious Mei, someone grabbed my arm and yanked me to the side.

I turned my head to see Iros with his back to the sun, his violet eyes a little cold, holding my arm.

‘What are you doing, Saint?’

I stiffened at his question and stared into his eyes.

His voice was angry, the lowest and hardest I’d ever heard.

And those intensely glowing purple eyes.

I couldn’t look away from those searing amethyst eyes.

‘Why are you angry?’

‘Who?’

‘You, Pink, you’re angry.’

Iros’ eyebrows arched at my question.

His gaze traveled to my right hand and the hem of Diane’s robe, then back to me.

‘It’s an illusion.’

‘I don’t think it’s an illusion.’

When I continued to deny it, Iros said with an angry, hard face, not letting go of my arm.

‘Why are you being so careless, Saint?’

‘I’m doing what?’

‘You shouldn’t be grabbing random men’s clothes and touching them so closely.’

I looked at him as if to ask, ‘Is this some kind of sophomoric nagging?’ but Iros was too serious.

‘I know you like muscular men, but as if that wasn’t bad enough, you’re going to touch my shield.’

‘You weren’t worried about me, you were worried about Diane?’

I was dumbfounded.

‘Pink, I like muscular men, but not muscles this big.’

‘Ah.’

Hearing Iros’ short exclamation of enlightenment, Diane stepped forward, flexing her arm muscles.

‘Saint, why are you blaspheming my muscles, Iros, why are you convinced of that again, my muscles are always the best.’

‘Look at that. What makes you think that’s my favorite?’

‘Mmm. I see.’

I glared at Iros, who was busy flaunting his muscles this way and that, and I lowered my head in disapproval.

‘Pink, when you’re looking for my taste, look in the mirror.’

‘Why?’

‘Because you are the standard of my taste.’

At that moment, Iros’s breath caught.

Her skin was white and flawless, even if it tended to flush a little when she was out in the sun, and her features were sharp.

His hair was the color of cotton candy, his eyes like glass, and his muscles were evenly defined, and just the right size.

He fits my ideal.

‘Me?’

Eros narrowed his eyes and pointed to himself.

‘You are. When I find a man I think is my type, I check how similar he is to you. I’m a women of firm tastes.’

She waxed eloquent about the appeal of a fit, white man with a pretty, gentle, puppy-dog face and just the right amount of muscle.

Iros, who was staring at me wide-eyed, listened to my explanation for a while and then let out a small laugh.

‘What is it, why are you laughing?’

‘I don’t know, I’m laughing.’

‘You silly boy, you don’t even know my tastes, you scolded me and treated me like shit, and now you’re laughing because you did something right?’

‘Hahaha.’

Iros’s mauve-clear eyes shone like half-moons, half-hidden by finely curved eyelids.

She smiled softly, the corners of her mouth lifting just enough to show a glimpse of her white teeth.

‘What, what, that smile.’

I stammered, forgetting to breathe as I stared mesmerized at the face, and heard a series of gasps behind me.

‘The Guardian… smiled.’

‘…She smiled?’

‘I think this is… the first time I’ve ever seen him look anything other than like he’s about to kill someone.’

I felt like nodding vigorously at the small sound from behind me.

She smiles so beautifully. It was like a peony blossoming in layers of colorful petals.

I wondered why she didn’t usually smile so broadly. This was a waste of face.

‘Guardians are paladins, they can’t even marry.

What a waste of genes. This look should be spread far and wide.

‘I’m drooling.’

‘Bitter. What a crazy look.’

‘What?’

Iros blinked innocently. Her long, dense lashes fluttered like butterflies.

‘Pink, I can tell by the way you’re smiling.’

‘What do you mean?’

I said seriously, and Iros tensed up and looked at me with small trembling eyes.

I put on probably the most serious face I’d ever seen in my life and said.

‘Beautiful people can do nothing wrong.’

‘……?’

Iros stared at me like this was some kind of nonsense, but I was serious.

‘I’m the one who did everything wrong.Is that why you are not making eye contact with me and avoiding me?

‘……?’

‘I must have done something wrong to cause you to avoid me, to not make eye contact with me, to avoid me, without me realizing it.’

‘That seems like a strange conclusion to me.’

‘Your beauty can do anything, so it’s all my fault.’

Mei, Eldrakis, and Diane nodded in agreement.

‘Judging by the way you looked when you just laughed, I have to admit that’s true.’

‘An annoying and silly argument, but strangely convincing. Might be worth researching.’

‘I have to admit, she’s beautiful, with that rare hair and eye color.’

‘…….’

Iros scanned us with the disdain of a gathering of idiots, then backed away, clutching the front of his robe tightly.

‘You’re all weird as a group.’

‘That’s because you’re so pretty.’

‘Why am I so pretty, I don’t understand. Let’s get ready for lunch, we need to move quickly so we can stay on schedule.’

With those words, Iros went to build a bonfire.

As he lit the dry branches, his earlobes were as red as the flames.

‘Shame on you.’