The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

The words from Olivia’s mouth gripped Yuria’s heart.

“You don’t know anything.”

“You don’t know what Ricardo had to go through because of you. You don’t know how much that idiot took the blame just for your sake.”

Olivia looked at Yuria coldly, as if to say that the hatred Yuria harbored had no real cause.

“Do you know why Ricardo went to the Academy so early every morning?”

“Did you ever ask why Ricardo loitered in front of your shoe locker like a dog that needed to go to the bathroom?”

Olivia stared directly into Yuria’s eyes as she spoke. The emotions in her gaze conveyed a clear message: you are gravely mistaken.

“I get it. It’s frustrating, and it’s laughable hearing this from me. I know the situation was ripe for misunderstandings… all of it was my doing.”

“And even if I know that, what difference does it make?”

Olivia shrugged in response to Yuria’s sharp question.

“It doesn’t change anything.”

“…”

“I’m not here to make excuses. Even if I say the others egged me on or I got caught up in the moment, it’s all just a pathetic excuse.”

“Then why are you telling me this now? Are you asking me to hate you instead of Ricardo? Is that it, because it’s all your fault, I shouldn’t hate him that much?”

“Like I said. You don’t know anything.”

Olivia responded to Yuria’s question calmly. She put a finger to her lips, starting to unveil secrets Ricardo had told her to never reveal.

“The graffiti on the desk.”

“The thumbtacks in your shoe locker.”

“The rumors behind your back. You thought Ricardo was responsible for all of that, didn’t you?”

Yuria remained silent.

She simply pressed her lips tight and focused intently on what Olivia had to say.

“Yes, it makes sense. No matter how you twist it, if those things were attributed to Ricardo, the betrayal would feel immense.”

“But still…”

Olivia let out a small laugh.

“That idiot couldn’t do something like that.”

Recalling the fool who wouldn’t do anything he didn’t want to, Olivia lowered her head. Even just thinking about it, she knew that Ricardo was far too kind and soft-hearted. Р

“That fool couldn’t do something like that.”

“…”

“He’s the type to get involved in everything, the type to take the blame even if it wasn’t his fault. Publicly blaming himself for things he didn’t do. Sure, he’s from the slums, but even if you told me he was raised in a monastery, I’d believe it, wouldn’t you?”

At Olivia’s words, Yuria felt something inside her begin to fracture.

-Crack.

The crack was small at first, but something was breaking within her, something hidden in the rifts, stirring complicated emotions that threatened to surface.

With trembling eyes, Yuria asked.

“What exactly are you trying to say…?”

“Ricardo never harassed you.”

Olivia calmly inhaled, her gaze shifting to the moon. The disgustingly bright moon shining above seemed to remind her of someone, making her feel uneasy.

Ricardo had told her to keep it all a secret, but she had already spilled everything.

It had been the same back then too. That night when jealousy blinded her, ordering Ricardo to carry out unreasonable tasks—the moon had been just as bright that day.

-Don’t hang out with Yuria.

-No thanks.

-Do it. The others don’t like it when I talk to you.

-Am I popular, then? I kind of like the attention.

-Stop deflecting.

-Either way, I’m not doing it. If it bothers them, they can talk to me themselves.

Recalling how Ricardo had refused one of her commands, Olivia spoke softly.

-Haa.

“Did you really think that idiot would do everything I told him?”

She turned to Yuria.

“No. That fool couldn’t do it.”

After all, he had never even listened to her.

“That’s why Ricardo became an outcast.”

“He went out of his way to do everything the others despised. He ignored all of my orders, cleaned and tidied up your desk on his own, and that’s why he became an outcast.”

Olivia sighed deeply.

“There was a time when Ricardo started behaving a bit more coldly toward you, right?”

“…”

“And after that, your school life became just a bit easier.”

“…”

“Do you know why that happened?”

“…”

Stop. Don’t say it.

Olivia completely ignored the turmoil in Yuria’s heart, coldly delivering a harsh truth.

“Do you think people simply changed?”

Olivia shook her head.

“No. It was all because of Ricardo. He wanted to make sure you had friends, so he purposefully acted cold toward you to make you seem more pitiable. He became the bad guy.”

Please stop.

If you say more, I’ll break.

“No…”

“Isn’t it fun? The tragic heroine angle?”

“That’s not true…”

Stop shaking me like this.

After everything, I had finally decided. I had my reasons for hating Ricardo…

Please…

“Enough.”

“It’s pleasing to see commoners picking on other commoners, isn’t it? When someone worse than yourself comes along, it feels satisfying, doesn’t it?”

“I said stop!”

Olivia completely ignored Yuria’s plea, continuing relentlessly.

“It was all Ricardo’s doing.”

All for the sake of making things easier for you.

“He spent what little money he had on chocolates, putting them on the classroom desks for your classmates.”

All to make your image look better.

“He took the trash, the milk cartons, and the thumbtacks from your desk and placed them on his own.”

All for the sake of looking after just you.

“And he came early every morning to check whether or not anything had happened to you.”

Olivia looked directly at Yuria and said,

“That fool could never do something like that.”

*

In a story that no one else knew,

A woman knelt in front of someone’s gravestone, shedding tears. A rusty black sword, firmly rooted in the ground, stood beside the gravestone, surrounded by a pile of white lilies.

“It’s my fault.”

The woman, with pink hair, pounded on her chest as she leaned against the gravestone, her hand caressing its surface.

“It’s because of me… that you…”

Her voice trembled with sorrow, but the gravestone offered no response to her desperate plea.

-Doubt.

If she could cast a curse upon herself from the past, she thought,

It would have been a curse to distrust. To tell herself not to trust so easily, for a deep trust can bring unbearable pain.

-I’m glad you weren’t hurt….

The kind of pain that no one could ever share, no one could ever relieve.

She sobbed, her tears staining the gravestone, longing for relief she no longer had the courage to wish for.

‘Doubt.’

She had hated him over something so trivial.

And at the same time, that hate had spurred her to draw nearer to him. Perhaps, if she had grown to hate him more, it wouldn’t have even started at all.

The woman continued to cry, wiping her tears on the gravestone, wailing through the night.

Praying desperately for one more chance.

***

A week passed, but Yuria’s mood hadn’t improved.

Even though her father had woken up.

Even though she had eaten delicious meals.

There wasn’t the slightest sign of improvement.

With a dark expression, Yuria kept her head down, avoiding everyone’s gaze.

Something was wrong.

The words Olivia had spoken kept nagging at her. Something about them didn’t sit right with her. All the bullying she had suffered—the fact that it had all felt orchestrated—had turned out to be an illusion.

She wanted to believe that Olivia was lying, but past memories, now resurfacing in her mind, were chipping away at Yuria’s doubts.

-What were you doing here?

-Well… it’s just…

She suddenly recalled the time when she had bumped into Ricardo at the shoe locker, and how startled he had looked.

-What are you doing?

-Huh? You’re early today.

She also remembered catching Ricardo scribbling on her desk one day, having arrived at the classroom earlier than usual. The memory looped in her mind like a slow rewind.

At that time, she had been furious.

All the signs pointed to Ricardo being in the wrong. From the ostracism by her classmates to the whispered insults from her so-called friends—all of that seemed like it was aimed at her. It made her hypersensitive. Made her afraid.

Because of that, she never had the chance to truly look at Ricardo. She never had the time to notice what he was doing or who he associated with.

She hadn’t known anything about him, even though she liked him.

And by now, it all seemed rather ridiculous.

Slowly, the puzzle inside her began to piece itself together.

Ever since the moment she started making friends in class, Ricardo had gradually begun to withdraw, keeping his distance.

As she gained more friends who invited her to lunch, she noticed Ricardo never appeared in the cafeteria. Now, she understood why.

She had thought he was avoiding her.

She had assumed Ricardo found her uncomfortable and didn’t want to share a meal with her.

But now, everything seemed like a contradiction.

Why had he been avoiding her?

Why did he torment her?

Why did he resent her?

Looking back now, Yuria realized that things might have turned out differently had Ricardo spoken up earlier, or even hinted at the truth, just a little…

-Are you happy with your life at the Academy now?

-I’d be happier if you weren’t around.

-I see. That’s good to hear.

‘Ah.’

Only now, Yuria began to truly understand the meaning behind Ricardo’s words the day he was expelled from the Academy. Unlike the others, he had bid a kind farewell to her.

Only now did she begin to grasp the fact that everything had been because of her.

Late at night, sitting next to her father’s sickbed, Yuria felt the warmth of a tear as it rolled down her cheek.

“What…?”

Tears flowed uncontrollably.

“Why am I…?”

It was because she had been such a fool.

She had doubted Ricardo.

And the hatred she had been holding onto until now had been misguided all along.

“

Even as she rubbed her eyes, the tears wouldn’t stop.

Through the drops of moonlit tears, Yuria realized that more than regret, she was crying because of the overwhelming guilt she now felt.

This wasn’t how things were supposed to turn out.

This wasn’t what she had wanted.

Swallowing her sadness, Yuria raised her head.

I should get some fresh air.

Maybe inhaling the chilly night air would relieve the tightness in her chest, even if only a little.

Not wanting her father to see her crying, Yuria covered her eyes with her hands and ran out onto the veranda.

-Squeak.

And then,

“What…?”

“Miss Yuria?”

She ran into the very last person she wanted to see at that moment.

“The wind is cold.”

The person who always worried about her had appeared in her most vulnerable moment.

At that moment.

-Clatter.

The shell Yuria had worked so hard to maintain began to crumble from within.

*

[■■■ ‘Yuria’s’ curse of ‘jealousy’ is beginning to stir.]

-The stopped needle of memory has started moving.

End of Chapter.