Monday, 22 September 2025

Save the Villain [Chapter 39]

*****

The owner of the voice was wearing a black robe stained with blood.

He looked a little taller than me.

The person who approached was not a fully grown adult.

He was a boy not much older than me.

"...... Who, who are you?"

I didn't know how much magic the opponent had, and I had never used magic before, but I thought I should at least use defensive magic.

I heard a low chuckle, and the boy slid down the robe covering his face.

No way......

There was a boy, who was a bit young for a knight of the White Nights, but who was dazzlingly beautiful.

His luscious silver hair was slightly disheveled, and his purple eyes, filled with strong magical power, looked down at me with an indifferent gaze.

It reminded me of Ferze, who died on his own.

The atmosphere seemed a little different, though.

If Ferze had an accident and had a child, then maybe.....

"The Grand Duke's..... illegitimate child?!"

"...... Yeah, that's right..... Huh, What?"

I had forgotten that he was a virgin before marriage.

"Am I going to be a stepmother at this age?"

I felt dizzy and staggered.

The boy, who had raised one eyebrow and asked what that meant, quickly approached me.

Before I fell to the floor, the boy hugged me.

Before I knew it, I was in the boy's arms and our eyes met.

"Can't you even recognize your fiancé, Ciel Visenna?"

Fiancée?!

I scoffed at the boy who claimed to be the dead Grand Duke, as if I couldn't believe it.

Still held in the boy's arms like a princess.

"But Ferze is more than ten years older than me..?"

Before I could finish speaking, one of the boy's eyebrows rose.

He seemed to be dissatisfied with something.

"Not anymore, but there's still a bit of a difference, though..."

Instead of nodding my head at the boy's firm words, I just stared blankly up at him.

Even if you look closely, he looks like around Shurei's age.

Shurei is fifteen, so maybe that's why he's around that age.

"Ciel, if I can't lift your curse, I'Il just have to become younger. I tried taking more of the poison to make me younger, but the side effects were so severe that I had to wait."

Surely, did he really become so young because he drank poison? Is it really Ferze?

Even though I kept giving him disbelieving looks, the boy didn't look angry.

The boy, who had been thinking deeply for a moment, carefully put me down from his arms.

Then he put his hand in his pocket and took something out.

"No, assassination is not allowed."

I flinched, thinking it was a dagger, but then I heard a rustling sound.

The golden wrapping paper, slightly transparent, revealed the inside.

Anyone could tell it was a cookie.

No way.... Shwilin cookies?

The boy holding the cookie hardened his expression and approached me, who was frozen in place.

Without even a moment to stop him, he thrust the cookie into my hand.

"As promised, Ciel."

As expected, indifferent purple eyes were looking down at me.


*****


"Hey, who attacked again?"

Miray, who visited the Grandeur Castle in the Duke of Visenna's territory, could not hide her surprise.

Anyway, nothing passes quietly.

Miray's eyes lit up as she looked at the ruined exterior of the castle walls.

The Grandeur Castle was the second largest after the Imperial Castle and the Kask Castle in the Grand Duke's territory, but only the outer wall collapsed.

'The Duke, who finds simple matters troublesome, won't personally repair them.'

Still, it'll cost quite a bit to fix that.

She doesn't know who's going to do it, but it'll be pretty lucrative.

Miray walked towards the castle, carrying a wooden box.

Inside the box were bottles filled with a suspicious black liquid.

"Who the crazy guy is that ordered this Iiquid?"

She thinks that crazy guy is one of the three men of Visenna.

She decided to stop making headache-inducing guesses, since all she had to do was make money.

"Knock knock, the item you ordered has arrived."

When the door wouldn't open, Miray, who hada businesslike smile on her face, looked embarrassed.

No matter how many times she knock, the
assistant who should receive the item on her behalf does not appear.

She had no choice but to open the door on her own.

Creak... She carefully opened the door and there was an aide who had collapsed as if he had fainted.

"What, is he dead? I feel uneasy this...."

Miray looked at the fallen aide and shook his body slightly.

It wasn't as expected that he died.

There seemed to be no trace of blood, so it didn't seem like he was injured.

It's just that the area under its eyes is darker than the panda she has seen before.

"Is it simply accumulated fatigue? Anyway, His highness the Duke.... Please give him some work to do."

She touched it lightly, and it was still breathing faintly.

Miray sighed in relief and placed fourteen vials of poison on the desk.

The payment has already been made, all she has to do is deliver the item.

"What's this, an invitation? Oh, I see you're planning a banquet for Lady Ciel."

Looking closely, it was different from a regular invitation.

The huge pile of gold paper next to it seemed to be an invitation, and the black paper on the right seemed to be a blacklist.

There were the names of the Emperor, the Grand Master of the Imperial Knights, Hart Isnel, and finally, Grand Duke Ferze Yekart.


*****


At that moment, I realized.

That arrogant gaze from birth.

That was something only Grand Duke Ferze who born into the royal family, could possess.

"Wow, these are real shwilin cookies!"

It was never about my soul being sold for cookies.

The vigilance that had been built like the walls of a high spire began to melt away.

"You didn't put any poison, did you?"

Ferze was watching with his arms crossed, intent on seeing how far I would go.

As I looked more closely at the cookies, I noticed a hint of disappointment.

"Give it to me."

"Oh, no, I was just saying that!"

"Okay."

Ferze was very resolute.

The silver-haired boy took a cookie from my hand, took a bite, and then handed it back to me.

"Okay, it's not poisoned, so eat it."

The cheeks of those handing over the cookies were slightly red.

I guess he thought I was being disrespectful because he suspected I was poisoned.

He froms angry, what should I do?

"I'll eat well...."

As soon as I took a bite of the cookie, I knew it was a real shwilin cookie.

There are many fakes of these rare and
expensive cookies, but my innate sense of
taste told me that these were the real deal.

I was slowly eating the cookie, then I raised my head and asked Ferze.

"Want to eat?"

"Okay, you eat it."

Then I will eat well without any complaints.

I looked at Ferze, who had turned into a
boy while eating cookies.

How much younger have you become?

I glanced at Ferze, whose mood had changed for some reason.

"Why did you become so difficult?"

Although he was a little different from the scary Grand Duke I knew before, even though he was young, Ferze was still Ferze.

The gaze of the head of the Yekart family, who leads the Knights of the White Night, remained the same.

The silver threads that shone in the moonlight were disheveled, as if he had run, and his slightly closed lips gave off a strange aura, even for a boy.

The sharp, fierce eyes remained the same, but if they had been like a wolf before, they now felt like a seductive cat.

Maybe it's because he has gotten younger, but his cheeks seem a bit flushed.

And come to think of it, his earlobes are also a bit red.

Or is it because he is getting older that he can't control his anger?

It might be because he came running when the weather wasn't even hot.

"You said you don't like it when there's an age difference of more than ten years?"

"When did I ever say that...?"

That's really strange. He told me to wait first, saying it was against imperial law.

I only found out about it through a letter sent by Ferze, and I never said no.

"You called me a thief who looked down on children."

"When did I–?"

I want to speak informally, but I can't lower my voice.

I raised my voice slightly as I looked at the boy who looked three inches taller than me.

"You call me trash."

"Huh, me?"

Oh my god, what a piece of trash! Who the hell said that!

I was so surprised that I asked with my mouth open.

Unless you have multiple lives, you are trash to the imperial family!

It was a matter that could be punished for insulting the honor of the royal family.

Because under imperial law, defamation can be committed even if it is not verbal but written in a letter.

Given Ferze's personality, he would have just brushed it off as a bother, thinking, What kind of rude person is that?

Looking at it now, it doesn't seem like it was just passed over.

Seeing Ferze biting his lips, he seemed both resentful and a little hurt.

Oh, of course it was a wound to his pride, not his heart.

"Ciel Visenna, have you forgotten? At the end of every letter, you wrote, Goodbye, Trash."

"No, I don't. I want to live a long life."

Besides, it was a bit much to call it trash.

Before we became children, I was seventeen and Ferze was twenty, so the three-year age difference wasn't enough to be called a thief.






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