The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

TLed by NolepGuy

Chapter 219

Yuria had a disease she couldn’t tell others about.

It wasn’t an incurable disease or a terminal illness, but rather a disease of the heart that gnawed at her from within.

A disease that made her unable to trust promises.

This disease of the heart had tormented Yuria for a very long time. It was the reason Yuria had no choice but to be kind and always show a bright face to others.

The origin of this disease began in Yuria’s childhood, with a promise her mother had made. It wasn’t a grand, sorrowful tale filled with dramatic narrative. It was simply something that could happen to anyone.

That day, too, the North was cold and barren. To cure her mother’s mysterious and incurable illness, her father went out to work, and her mother lay bedridden.

-Mom, don’t be sick.

-Why would Mom be sick~?

-Sniff…! I’ll climb the mountain and gather herbs for you…

-Tsk! Yuria! Didn’t I tell you not to go up the mountain? I said there’s a scary wolf growling up there!

-But… Mom is hurting.

-Mom’s fine.

Her mother, who always said she was fine, would always hook her pinky and make a promise.

-Next spring, we’ll go flower viewing together with Dad.

-Okay…! It’s a promise.

-Yes. But only if Yuria becomes a good girl who listens to her mom! That way, Mom will get better too.

-Okay.

Her mother, who promised they’d go flower viewing once she recovered, saying, “Mom is strong, so it’s okay,” couldn’t keep that promise.

Her condition worsened.

The debts piled up.

Her father was absent from home.

Yuria clung to promises by hooking her pinky, holding onto hope. She believed that someday, those promises would be kept.

Was it innocence? Or was it because, in the barren North, her family was the only ones she could rely on? Her mother’s pinky promises weighed heavily on Yuria.

-Mom…?

Her mother had broken her promise.

Even as she lay in front of the stove filled with firewood, she had grown cold and stiff, unable to respond.

The one-sided vows made with pinky promises. The promise that she’d recover if Yuria became a good child. All of it was broken and trapped within a cold frame.

From that moment on, Yuria stopped believing in promises.

She couldn’t trust people, and she developed a disease of doubt that made her unable to believe in anyone.

Though she smiled outwardly, she cried inwardly. This disease slowly took root in young Yuria’s heart.

Like a fool.

Yuria tried to be a good daughter to her father. He had said it would make things easier for him. She thought her mother, who was in heaven, would also be happy to see her trying to be a good child.

-I’m sorry. This month’s interest is…!

But darkness always loomed.

Her father’s promise to spend her birthday with her if she studied hard, and the debtor’s promise to tell her where her father was if she didn’t look for him—none of those promises were kept.

So Yuria smiled.

Even if she couldn’t trust.

Even if promises weren’t kept.

She always smiled to soothe her sadness.

Because it was better that way. Even when it was hard, even when she was lonely, everyone liked her when she smiled. So she smiled and smiled again.

Yuria always wondered.

Am I a burden?

If I smile more, will the situation improve?

If I don’t hate others, will I be loved? She always carried such heavy thoughts on her shoulders.

-Hello, ma’am!

When she greeted people with a smile, food became more plentiful. The snacks they handed her, saying she was cute and good, while patting her head, tasted so delicious back then.

-Tsk tsk… How pitiful.

Behind her back, she always heard whispers calling her a pitiful child, but she didn’t shrink back in dejection.

Because she didn’t trust them either. There was no reason to be hurt.

Yuria was afraid of trusting others.

She knew it herself. She knew her story wasn’t a valid reason to doubt others. She was aware and tried to fix it. But the situations unfolding before her only hurt her heart more and ate away at her.

Because whenever she opened her heart, she was betrayed.

-Hey, Ricardo was talking behind your back.

-He only talks to you because you do his homework for him.

-Yuria~ Come play with us! Oh, but isn’t that too cute? Are you really going to buy it for us?!

In truth, I’m not such a bright person, nor am I a fool. The disease of the heart that had been festering inside me for so long had turned me into the fool I am today.

I want to be loved.

I want to be cherished.

I want to be seen as a good child. But that desire had turned me into a monster that could explode at any moment.

Even though my true feelings were different.

In fact, I want to curse.

I want to hate.

I want to whine and complain.

But obsessiveness didn’t easily allow it. Except for one person…. For one person, the disease of the heart disappeared.

-I will protect you.

-…

-It’s okay if you don’t trust me. It’s okay if you hate me. I’ll do as I please anyway.

-Why?

-Just because I want to.

I know. I know why my emotions are so erratic.

Especially with Ricardo, I know I act sharper toward him. But it wasn’t easy to fix.

I get angry easily.

-I trusted you.

I get disappointed on my own.

-Wherever Ricardo is, trouble always follows.

I knew that my baseless suspicions were worse when it came to Ricardo. Because until now, Ricardo had never broken a promise.

“Sigh.”

Sitting on a bench at The Northern Hospital, Yuria lowered her head, trying to clear her complicated thoughts.

Why did I do that?

Why did I speak coldly to Ricardo?

Every time, I regretted it afterward.

My thoughts deepened, and my heart grew anxious.

When I stood in front of Ricardo, when I saw him, someone I could rely on, I would recklessly whine and burst into tears.

When did it start to become like this?

Exhaling cold breaths, Yuria reflected on her mistakes from yesterday with a gloomy expression.

There was no answer.

How should I apologize this time? What words should I use to approach him? If only I had trusted him a little more, if only I hadn’t doubted and had approached him.

Perhaps if I had treated Ricardo the same way I treated others, the situation might have been different. Yuria lowered her head, chastising herself.

”

The private room in the hospital.

-Thud thud thud!

Thanks to my connections, I finished a simple statement and was admitted to a good hospital, where I lay peacefully in bed, enjoying the leisure.

‘How long has it been since I last lay in a hospital bed?’

I couldn’t remember how long it had been since I’d been hospitalized. Other than being admitted after getting hit by a car in my previous life, I don’t think I’d ever been hospitalized. Breathing in the familiar hospital smell after so long, I leisurely passed the time.

-Thud thud thud!

Except for one thing.

The young lady noisily running around.

“Eeeek! Ricardo!”

The young lady, who seemed to have reverted to her childhood both in age and energy, couldn’t sit still. Wearing teddy bear slippers, she darted around, peeking her face out from the railing of the hospital bed and exclaiming, “Whoa! Ricardo’s dead!” before running off to sound the “air raid alarm.”

-Eeeek!!! Air Raid Alarm!

Truly, the Young Lady, having reverted to her younger self, acted as if nothing in the world could stop her.

I let out a chuckle and grabbed the Young Lady, who was about to dash into the hospital corridor. At this rate, the rare moment of healing we were enjoying might be ruined. Holding the now smaller Young Lady’s head, I smiled faintly and said,

“Cough, cough. Young Lady, could you bring me some water?”

“Water?”

“Yes.”

“Ricardo can feed himself.”

“…I’m a patient, though?”

I pointed at my hospital gown with my finger as I spoke.

Explaining that I was a patient and asking if she couldn’t take care of me, the Young Lady opened her eyes faintly, nodded, and smiled brightly.

“Alright then. But don’t die.”

“I won’t.”

“Okay.”

-Thud, thud, thud!

She really was an adorable Young Lady.

So adorable, in fact, that it was a shame she had only temporarily shrunk. Her chubby cheeks, her cute pronunciation—when she was younger, I never thought of her as cute, but now I did.

I let out an empty laugh and shook my head.

‘Still, it’s not like I’m into little girls.’

My preferences were clear. I couldn’t give up the Young Lady’s treasure pouch. A Young Lady without her treasure pouch was nothing more than an empty shell.

Trusting her words that she’d return to normal in about a day, I allowed myself to relax.

I was also in a good mood, seeing the Young Lady able to walk, even if only temporarily.

It wouldn’t be permanent.

Her body’s regression had allowed her damaged nerves to recover. To be precise, it was more accurate to say her body had returned to its past state.

Once her dark mana returned, the Young Lady’s legs would go back to how they were before. Though it was a bit disappointing, both the Young Lady and I had decided not to dwell on it. For now, we just wanted to enjoy the happiness of the moment.

Hearing the loud sound of the Young Lady’s footsteps as she ran back into the hospital room, I smiled faintly.

“Ricardo!”

Balancing a water cup on her head, the Young Lady came running, flaring her nostrils. Somehow, everything she did was irresistibly cute.

Her expression was stoic.

But her flushed red cheeks and her shoulders rising and falling made her seem like a coy little villainess, which made me laugh.

The Young Lady thrust the water cup she had balanced on her head toward me and said,

“Here’s your water.”

Looking at the water, now half gone from her running, I let out an empty laugh.

“Young Lady.”

“Yes?”

“There’s no water.”

“No way. I filled it to the brim.”

“No, there isn’t.”

“No, I definitely… huh?”

Staring at the empty water cup, the Young Lady looked at me with bewildered eyes, as if to ask, ‘Why is it empty?’

“Right?”

“Yes.”

“Would you like to go get more?”

“No. That’s too bothersome.”

I carefully took the Young Lady’s water cup and began drying her wet hair.

“Weeee…!”

As I dried her soft hair, she tightly shut her eyes and shook her head side to side, groaning, “Stop it…!” in protest.

How much time had passed?

Outside the window, the moon began to rise.

The full moon started to fill the northern sky.

Sitting together on the hospital bed, the Young Lady and I gazed out the window, pointing at the stars in the sky with dazed expressions.

“Wow. It’s so pretty.”

“It really is. These are the same stars you can see in Hamel, but they feel more special here.”

“Exactly.”

The sky, filled with the Milky Way, began to softly hum a lullaby.

Sitting with the Young Lady nestled between my legs, I succumbed to the drowsiness creeping over me, pulling her close and lying down on the bed.

“Eeeek!”

The squirming Young Lady, seemingly uncomfortable, began wriggling to escape my embrace. I buried my nose in the crown of her head and spoke in a drowsy voice.

“Lullaby….”

“Eeeek, don’t put me to sleep!”

“Lullaby….”

“I’m a proper lady…!”

“Right now, you’re a little girl, so it’s fine.”

“…Is that so?”

Picking her nose, the Young Lady nodded in agreement and soon relaxed in my arms, falling asleep.

Her steady breathing could be heard.

-Snore!

Though her breathing wasn’t exactly steady, to be honest.

Closing my eyes, I surrendered to the sleepiness washing over me. Thinking that I should go to bed early tonight, I allowed myself to relax for the first time in a while.

*

-Knock, knock.

A knock came from outside the hospital room.

-…

The hospital room remained silent.

Outside the door, Yuria bit her lip and lowered her head. Hugging the fruit basket in her arms tightly, she stood silently outside the unresponsive door for quite some time.

About twenty minutes passed.

Deciding to at least leave the basket in the hospital room, Yuria carefully opened the door.

-Creak.

“Excuse me….”

“…”

Yuria froze, holding her breath as she saw the silhouette of a woman through the open door.

A woman crossing her arms and staring at her.

Sitting in a chair with wheels, Olivia gazed at Yuria with calm eyes.

“Come out.”

“…”

Having returned to her original body, Olivia wheeled herself out of the hospital room.