I’m a villain, but I want to live a long life.

Chapter 12

“I’m a villain, but I want to live a long life”

I held out my hand to Martina, who was cowering on the floor.

She looked a little flustered, but soon hesitated and took my hand.

“Go, thank you.”

Martina said in a weak voice.

“I’m sorry about today. I’ll apologize to you.”

I shook my head.

“Why should you apologize, you’re the one with the bad temper.”

I said, looking in the direction where Rose had disappeared, and Martina hung her head.

“I know she’s not usually like that, but she’s had a bad day.”

I nodded, then paused.

“Wait, what did you just say?”

“Huh? She said something bad happened today.”

“No, before that.”

I stared at Martina, wide-eyed.

“Rosetine?”

Rose was a nickname, and her real name was Rosetine.

I clamped my hand over my mouth.

Rosetine Grimaldi.

That was her full name.

She was the only daughter of the Marquis de Grimaldi, one of dozens of children in the house.

What this meant was.

It means that the Marquis and his wife, Rosetine’s parents, were a pair of crazy people.

By my standards, the Marquis de Grimaldi and his wife were the evils of society, the scum of the earth. Not even recyclable.

‘They abuse their children because they have nothing better to do.’

As I recall, it wasn’t physical violence, but perhaps something more horrific.

I could tell what was going on in Rosetin’s home by the number of children being adopted.

I asked Martina, sitting across from me.

“How many children are in the mansion now?”

“Well, the Marquis brought in another four-year-old yesterday…… so there are probably two.”

I opened my mouth and put down my teacup, sipping slowly.

That’s probably the number of children currently staying at the mansion.

I didn’t know how many more if you counted the ones who had been abandoned or disappeared without a trace.

I don’t even have a dog or cat, and I don’t bring them in that irresponsibly.

My mouth watered.

‘Crazy people…….’

For the Marquis and Marquise of Grimaldi to adopt so many children were pure, filthy greed.

They must have said this to Rosetine this morning, too.

“Routine. You’re not good enough to get into the Academy, and this is why you keep adopting younger siblings. You mustn’t be a disgrace to the Grimaldi family.’

“Remember, Routine. If you are truly of the great Grimaldi blood, you should at least be better than your brothers.

I sighed deeply and turned to Martina.

“Do you think Rosetine has returned to the mansion?”

Martina shook her head.

“Normally, yes, but not today, because she’s having a party at the mansion…….”

“What party?”

“The kid who came in yesterday has developed elemental powers.”

“Wait, didn’t you just say he was four years old?”

“Uh, yeah. He doesn’t speak much yet.”

“And he manifested?”

Martina nodded. Manifestation usually occurs between the ages of ten and fifteen.

Occasionally, some children manifested a little earlier, but…….

At the age of four, and with an elemental power.

It was no wonder the Marquis and his wife, who were obsessed with powerful powers, were throwing a party.

“That’s what made you feel worse.

I remembered Rosetine’s shaking, blue-faced face.

“You’re making me feel like shit.

I remembered Rosaline because she had appeared in a novel.

It wasn’t a hopeful episode, of course, because the scene she appeared in was.

“It was Selenea’s execution.

Selenea is about to go to the gallows to kill Eria when she meets someone in the dungeon.

It was Rosetine.

Rosetine speaks to her through the rusted bars.

“Selenea, I never thought I’d see you here.”

And then she asked.

“Who did you kill to bring you here?”

When Selenea didn’t answer, Rosetine laughed and muttered to herself.

“I told you, you’d be an outcast. I knew it, I knew it all along, and now your throat is about to be cut, and who’s going to save you, huh?”

“……Please shut up, Rosetine.”

“No, Selenea, listen. Do you know what I did? I…… killed my brothers, and I killed my mother and father.”

“…….”

“I’ve thought about it hundreds and thousands of times. I’ve wondered why I’m so bad. I’ve wondered why I’m so incompetent. But now I know. I know that my best option, after all, was to kill everyone…….”

Rosetine shook the cage with her bloodied, callused hands and screamed.

“Selenea, how’s my power? Isn’t it great?! I finally have Grimaldi’s blood, so I’m not incompetent, I’m not incompetent now!”

She shouted desperately. Over and over again, saying the same thing.

Until the last moment, when she was dragged away by the executioner’s hands.

I bit my lower lip hard as I recalled the details of the novel. Martina looked at me with a puzzled expression.

After a moment’s hesitation, I jumped to my feet.

“I didn’t want to get involved with anyone.

I felt like I had no choice but to look for Rosetine.

Besides.

‘As far as I know, Rosetine’s abilities are nothing to write home about.

On the contrary, it was quite a beautiful ability to be treated as useless at Grimaldi Manor.

Rosetine could make flowers bloom in the dead of winter.

With a simple wave of her hand, new leaves sprouted from withered weeds and dying trees came to life.

Her power was called “blooming.”

* * *

Rosetine rubbed her cheeks roughly as she walked down the back path of Tigeris Manor. Her eyes were red and bloodshot.

‘Why are you so laid back, why!’

To the incompetent subject.

She hissed lowly.

‘Incompetents shouldn’t be so relaxed, lying on the grass and looking at the sky.

The world was not so easy. If you weren’t capable, you were an outcast.

But the Selenea of a moment ago was strange. No, maybe even crazy.

She was willing to cast herself out even if she didn’t have the ability. She was willing to kick herself out of her own home.

I could see the way she was spouting nonsense with confidence.

“I’m crazy, I’m crazy.”

How dare an incapacitated person speak against a manifesto, and how dare he reject his advice?

If you don’t have this ability, you can’t do anything. You become a useless human being.

…… I don’t even dare open my mouth.

Rosetine remembered her birthday, the year she turned fifteen.

The smiles on her parents’ faces when she had first manifested her powers, albeit ugly ones.

It was a smile she’d never seen on her face, always in front of her siblings.

From that day on, Rosetine could speak at home. She could put good food on her plate in restaurants, and she could wear pretty, expensive clothes.

But the best part of all was that the way her parents looked at her with disdain had changed.

Sure, they weren’t thrilled with her abilities.

But now they at least seemed to harbor hope for her.

‘You can improve your powers if you work hard. You can train to increase and manipulate your power, and then you can become a true Grimaldi!

She trained until her eyes glazed over and her ears went deaf.

Just to make my lousy abilities a little more plausible.

……But.

“You didn’t even manifest.

Unlike me, Selenea was confident in her lack of abilities. She even seemed somewhat happy.

She laughed when I told her that she and Duke Tigers were on bad terms and that she referred to the manor as ‘our home’ in a strange way.

And he never looked the Manifestor in the eye.

The routine couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but it was driving her mad.

It felt as if her chest was being burned by a fire.

She sagged back in her seat, helpless.

“Ian, from this day forward, you are Grimaldi’s hope. You will show everyone what you can do!

At her father’s words, she remembered her sister’s tiny, maple-leaf hands forming tiny droplets of water.

It was a gift that paled in comparison to my insignificant ability to create flowers and barely bloom.

“Ugh..”

A thin sob escaped from my tightly clenched teeth.

I didn’t know what to do next. I wasn’t sure I’d even make it to the academy.

No matter how hard I tried, I would never be loved. This way, forever, until I die.

Tears finally fell from her eyes as she felt a paralyzing fear overtake her.

And then it happened.

“What the hell, I didn’t get far.”

Rosetine looked up, squinting.

Selenea was staring down at her, her fine hair fluttering around her face.

“what.”

The words came out of her mouth weakly, despite the hostility in them.

She blinked back tears harshly and scrambled to her feet. There was no way she was going to stay cowering in front of that wretched Selenea.

But then she felt a wave of lightheadedness.

Rosetine stumbled, off-center, and Martina, who had appeared out of nowhere, rushed to her aid.

“Rose.!”

But Martina’s eyes were welling with tears, too.

Rosetine remembered what she had said earlier and coldly waved her hand away.

“Martina, are you not fast enough? Have you forgotten what I told you?”

Martina didn’t answer. She just stood there, eyes downcast, looking confused.

Then Selenea, who had been watching them from a little distance, spoke up.

“I don’t know what to say. He’s an orphan, and he’s asking me where I’m touching him.”

Routine and Martina turned, shocked.