The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

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The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

Chapter 26: From Brother to a Precious Person

A few days after Lady Iris returned, during lunchtime, a knight informed me that Sir Lewis had a visitor, so I headed over.

There, I found a beautiful girl with waist-length silver hair, wolf-like ears, and a tail.

“Um, may I ask who you are?”

“I am Fiera. I came to see El… I mean, Sir Lewis.”

(This must be Miss Fiera.)

Hearing the name Fiera reminded me that Sir Lewis and Lady Iris had talked about her a little while ago.

Miss Fiera showed me her permission slip to enter the mansion, which clearly was given to her by Sir Lewis from the Duke.

“I’ll take you to the parlor.”

I decided to guide Miss Fiera to the parlor and asked her to wait there while I rushed to wake up Sir Lewis.

When I found Sir Lewis, he lazily asked if it was already lunchtime, but when I informed him of the visitor, he sat up as if suddenly remembering something.

After getting ready, I guided Sir Lewis to the parlor.

As soon as he entered, he casually started chatting with Miss Fiera, then instructed me to step outside.

However, since he was engaged, it didn’t feel appropriate to leave him alone with another woman, so I allowed one knight to stay inside and was told to call the Duke and his wife.

I left the room and hurried to find them.

(Could it be that Sir Lewis is having an affair? Then, calling the Duke and Duchess might be for a future marriage?)

While pondering this, I explained the situation to the Duke and Duchess, who also appeared a bit flustered as they made their way to the parlor.

Upon entering the room, they immediately sat down on the sofa.

I prepared everyone’s tea and stepped back against the wall.

Sir Lewis quickly began discussing matters with Miss Fiera, but it turns out they weren’t dating; instead, they were just adventure companions.

However, I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of Sir Lewis being an adventurer.

After all, he mostly lounged around in the room or trained at the training grounds.

Then Sir Lewis shared that he had used dark magic to create a doppelgänger, stating that he would leave that behind when he went out as an adventurer.

(Whoa, amazing! It looks just like the real thing!)

The Duke and Duchess were also surprised by that revelation, but the real story seemed to start from here.

“I would like to ask for permission to go on a journey for a while.”

When Sir Lewis said this with an unusually serious expression, the room fell silent.

(A journey? What does that mean?)

“A journey?”

The Duke seemed to also struggle to comprehend the meaning, prompting Sir Lewis to explain his thoughts.

Where he intended to travel, his purpose—Sir Lewis answered the Duke’s questions without hesitation, showing just how serious he was.

“…I understand. I grant you permission.”

It seemed the Duke had grasped his feelings and allowed him to go on his journey.

The Duchess expressed her disagreement but ultimately accepted with a reluctant look after Sir Lewis gifted her a necklace that could reveal life or death.

Afterward, the Duke and Duchess left the room for their work, while Miss Fiera and Sir Lewis continued their conversation.

Apparently, Sir Lewis hadn’t mentioned his travel plans to Miss Fiera, resulting in a brief argument that was quickly resolved.

Then, Miss Fiera placed her tail across Sir Lewis’s lap, and he began to pet it.

(They look more like a couple than with Lady Iris. Are they really just friends?)

As I watched them with that question lingering in my mind, Sir Lewis gradually began to doze off and eventually fell asleep.

Noticing that he was asleep, Miss Fiera gently tugged his arm, letting his head rest on her thigh so as not to wake him.

That scene looked just like a couple in love, which made me involuntarily ask her,

“Are you two really not dating?”

While stroking Sir Lewis’s head gently, Miss Fiera glanced at me and then quickly returned her gaze to Sir Lewis.

“We’re not dating. I am slowly getting attracted to El, though.”

It seems that they truly aren’t dating, but it’s clear that she’s started to develop feelings for Sir Lewis.

“However, I think it would be difficult for you both to marry. Sir Lewis is already engaged, and the class difference between the Duke’s family and a commoner makes it hard too.”

“I know about Iris. I met her recently. As for the class difference, I think it should be fine.”

Miss Fiera said this and pulled out a beautiful brooch from her pocket.

“Is that from the beastman royal family…?”

“Yeah, but I’m the fifth child, and my mother’s rank is not very high, so I hardly have any power.”

The Kingdom of Kirishbein, home to beastmen, includes several different species living in their own villages and settlements.

However, the carnivorous beastmen with strong fighting instincts often seek conflict, leading to frequent disputes between villages.

But around twenty years ago, the current king, who was then an adventurer traveling the world, used the knowledge and strength he gained from his travels to defeat the leaders of each species and negotiated to create one nation.

It’s said that the king received loyalty and hopes for future development from each tribe and married multiple women as queens.

“The breed of beastman king is…”

“Yeah. The Silver Wolf tribe. My mother is also from the Silver Wolf tribe, and the two of them are childhood friends.”

Rumor has it that the beastman king cherishes his wives and children greatly, especially doting on his childhood friend from the same Silver Wolf tribe.

However, rank in the beastmen tribe is determined by the order of childbirth, meaning that if Miss Fiera is fifth, her mother also holds that rank.

(That means there’s no class barrier here!)

If she’s a foreign princess, then it becomes possible for Miss Fiera to end up with Sir Lewis.

In our empire, it’s customary for distinguished individuals to marry multiple wives to preserve the bloodline.

(So now it’s really up to them. But it seems that Sir Lewis isn’t interested at all.)

“Does Sir Lewis know about that?”

“No, he doesn’t. El, including me, seems uninterested in others.”

Certainly, as Miss Fiera said, Sir Lewis does seem to draw a line between himself and others.

It feels almost as though he’s viewing the world from the outside, like he’s reading a story, and he doesn’t dive deeply into relationships.

After that, we remained silent, passing the time until Sir Lewis woke up.

That night, since it was dark outside, Miss Fiera decided to stay over.

Apparently, the Duchess hurriedly prepared a dress for Miss Fiera, making her look incredibly beautiful.

Though Miss Fiera seemed unsure about table manners, she managed to eat comfortably thanks to Sir Lewis’s considerate help.

Miss Fiera is a princess, but the customs and manners between beastmen and humans differ, so she probably didn’t know what to do.

Moreover, since Miss Fiera is still young, she may have become an adventurer before learning manners from other nations.

Afterward, dinner wrapped up smoothly with no issues, and Sir Lewis exited the dining room with Miss Fiera.

The next morning, my mother asked me to run an errand in town, so I left the mansion before waking up Sir Lewis.

Upon arriving in town, I walked through the streets to buy the requested ingredients, but with it being winter and still early morning, there weren’t many people around.

As I crossed in front of an alley, a hand suddenly shot out from it and grabbed my arm.

“W-what is this?!”

As the hand pulled hard, I was muffled by a drug-soaked cloth over my mouth and nose, losing consciousness.

The next time I awoke, I found myself trapped in a place resembling a jail cell.

Looking around, although I didn’t know how long I had been there, I saw several others who appeared to have been brought in like me.

“Did you get captured too?”

The one who spoke to me was a young woman in her mid-twenties.

It seemed that all of us there were women, while the men were imprisoned somewhere else.

“Where on earth is this? Why was I brought here?”

“I don’t know the location. It seems we are being offered as sacrificial offerings to break some sort of seal.”

Hearing the word “sacrifice,” I couldn’t help but tremble in fear.

Seeing me like that, the woman hugged me gently, and the others offered me words of comfort.

I lost track of how long it had been, but suddenly the outside grew noisy.

Loud crashing sounds echoed, and chunks of stone began falling from the ceiling.

As we huddled together in fear, after a while, the wall crumbled, revealing light from the other side.

A person stepped through, but due to the brightness, I couldn’t see their face properly.

They stopped in front of a cell where men were imprisoned, then broke the lock with a sword.

One by one, those who had been trapped inside began to emerge, and one of them used the key hanging on the wall to unlock our jail cell.

(I don’t know who they are, but we’ve been saved!)

Thinking this, I moved toward the person who helped us and saw a boy around my height with beautifully cared-for silver hair that reached his back, standing with one arm raised.

“Sir Lewis?”

“Hmm?”

Yes, that boy was my lord whom I had served, the one I had grown up together with since we were young.

“Miria? What are you doing here?”

Sir Lewis looked genuinely confused as he asked, so I explained the circumstances of how I ended up there.

“I see.”

After listening to my story, Sir Lewis responded nonchalantly, but I suddenly remembered something important.

“M-More importantly, Sir Lewis! Your arm!”

“Hmm? Oh, don’t worry about it. There’s a magic seal placed in this basement, so I can’t heal it. I’ll take care of it once we get out of here.”

“But you’re in pain! W-what should I do?!”

I had learned a lot as a maid, but I had never dealt with a severe injury like losing an arm.

So, as I flailed about not knowing what to do, Sir Lewis confirmed that everyone was out of the cell and began to leave this place.

“W-wait for me!”

As I hurried to chase after Sir Lewis, the others followed suit, and we all safely made it outside.

From that day on, my heart began to race whenever I saw Sir Lewis.

It seems that on that day, being saved by Sir Lewis made me realize that what I once saw as a brotherly bond had effortlessly turned into something more as I witnessed his strength and stature.

However, I believe that’s nothing unusual. After all, seeing the usually lazy Sir Lewis suddenly adopt a serious expression is bound to make my heart thump.

But I am a commoner, and Sir Lewis is nobility. This love of mine will likely never come to fruition, yet I’ve resolutely decided to serve Sir Lewis until I die.