The Villainess is Retiring

Chapter 7

The knight looked up at the sky with a bewildered expression when he heard my answer. It was the middle of the night, and the moon was still shining brightly. Clearly, this was not the right time for a walk.

“He’s been begging me to take him outside. Oh, you’ve heard, haven’t you? I have a dog now.”

Only then did the knight decide to look down. All day, the butler had been searching for Harry’s owner. The knight must have heard about him.

“Woof!”

Harry barked loudly when the knight’s gaze turned to him.

I can’t believe how real his bark sounds.

Harry didn't stop there. As he had been instructed, he pulled on the hem of my skirt.

“As you can see, I can’t get any sleep because he keeps pestering me.”

“But it’s late. If you leave him to me, I’ll take him for a walk and bring him back,” the knight said as he reached out to take Harry away.

Of course, Harry resisted.

“Grrr!”

Harry growled ferociously and was ready to bite the knight at any second. He withdrew his hand in surprise.

“Harry, behave.”

I pretended to scold him as I stroked his head. The knight's jaw dropped when he saw how calmly Harry was responding to my touch.

“He must have decided that I’m his new owner. He doesn’t listen to anyone but me. You won’t be able to take him on a walk.”

“But as I said, it's too late to go outside, and the baron said absolutely no fire could leave the manor.”

“So I can’t go out?”

“Correct, my lady.”

The knight’s voice was firm even though he seemed nervous. He looked weak, but he was quite resolute.

I have no choice. If I can’t get past him like this, then there’s only one way.

Using the villain’s special move, I stretched one leg out and stood askew. I didn’t forget to put a sullen expression on my face before crossing my arms. On top of that, I frowned until the frail-looking knight gasped.

“Good sir, are you really going to stand in my way? I am Everia Oberon.”

“N-no! How could I dare stand in your way?!”

“Then move. Now.”

“B-but I can’t do that...”

“Then are you going to stop me? Huh?”

“Eek!”

I glared at him as I grit my teeth. The knight turned pale and looked like he was about to faint.

“I-I’ll let you pass. Please, don’t cut off my fingers. My future as a knight depends on them!”

“Your fingers?”

My threats were working, but things were starting to go in a strange direction. I never said I’d cut off his fingers. Was that a new blackmailing trend? I stood there for a while in confusion.

Emma cautiously whispered to me, “There's a rumor that you cut off the fingers of people you don't like. That you stuff their fingers and keep them.”

“What's the point of stuffing a severed finger?”

“I've never stuffed a finger, so I don't know.”

“I don’t either because I’ve never done that!”

“Really? You never have?” Emma asked with wide eyes.

It looked like she believed the rumor was true as well.

“Well, now I know what people are saying about me.”

Rumors have a tendency of getting exaggerated as they pass from person to person. The rumor spread from the capital in the south to Airelle in the north, so I wonder how many people’s lips it had crossed in order to become so ridiculous.

Or perhaps I should have just been glad they weren’t saying I cut off fingers to grill for consumption.

I sighed as I waved my hand at the knight and said, “I’m not interested in your fingers, so don’t worry.”

“Th-then are you going to slit my throat?!”

“I’m even less interested in your neck! You just need to open the gate.”

”But you really can’t go out there, miss.”

The conversation went back to the beginning. It was so frustrating.

“I wanted to do this the nice way, but you’re leaving me no choice.”

I let out an exaggerated sigh as I said the order, “Harry, bite that knight's finger off.”

Harry, who had grown bored while watching the knight confronting me, suddenly perked up.

[Really? Can I really eat his fingers? If you’re going to let me do that, can I eat the rest of his limbs and head as well?]

[What do you think? I’m only trying to scare him, so just pretend to bite his finger.]

[Tch! How boring.]

Harry grumbled and approached the knight. He growled menacingly like he was about to bite his hand at any second. The knight freaked out.

“A-all right! I’ll open the gate!”

He whimpered and moved aside.

“I shouldn’t do this,” he muttered. “The commander is going to yell at me.”

I can see why you’re working as a gatekeeper at this late hour.

Clicking my tongue, I passed the knight and exited the estate grounds with Emma in tow.

“Where were you going to take the fire? Lead us there, Emma.”

“Yes, miss!”

Emma nodded her head in excitement as tears welled up in her eyes. Perhaps she was thrilled that we managed to leave the manor with the fire. She took the lead as Harry and I followed. However, before long I could hear another set of footsteps coming from behind us.

“Why are you following us?”

The knight I had just had a scuffle with was following us.

“It’s so late, miss. It seems dangerous for you and your maid to go out alone by yourselves.”

“So you want to escort us?”

"That's right. That is the duty of a knight.”

The knight puffed his chest out with pride. Of course, it wasn’t reassuring at all.

“I appreciate the thought.”

I pointed at the gate of the estate in the distance. We were far away from it, so it was barely visible.

“But weren’t you the only one guarding the gate?”

"Yes, I was.”

“Then since you followed us here, who’s going to guard the gate now?”

Not knowing what to say, the knight’s eyes darted from side to side. Once his pupils had moved back and forth several times, the blood drained from his face.

“Wh-what should I do, miss? There’s no one guarding the gate! The baron told me to guard it!”

“You should’ve thought about that before you started following me.”

Because Everia’s the villain, nothing could go right for me. Because he was just an extra, everything he did would be clumsy. There wasn’t much hope for either of us.

I feel a strange sense of kinship with him. Should I help him out a little?

I lightly patted the distraught man’s shoulder as I said, “Don’t cry. I’m sure nothing will happen.”

“Hic—Do you really think so?”

“If you get in trouble, just tell the baron I threatened you. Then they can’t blame you.”

“But you didn’t do that.”

“You’re afraid of being scolded, aren’t you? No one can say anything against me here, so just blame me. I’m giving you permission to do that because you came here to protect me.”

“M-my lady!”

The knight had stopped crying for a moment, but his tears began to flow again.

“I said I’ll help you. Why are you crying?”

“I’m just so touched. If I get kicked out of the duke’s army and no longer need my fingers, I’ll give them to you. You can have all ten of them, my lady!”

“Oh my gosh. I’m really not interested in your fingers! Stop crying and escort us properly now. You said that was what you came here to do.”

I took a handkerchief from my pocket and handed it to the knight. He took it and wiped away his tears.

“Yes, my lady. I’ll do my best to protect you!” he shouted with his face covered in tears and mucus.

After seeing that, I didn’t feel any safer at all.

* * *

The knight introduced himself as Lionel Dilf. He said he was the youngest member of House Oberon’s Frost Guard. To be precise, of the fifth order deployed to the north. He really did his best to escort us, and it was apparent that he was trying very hard. The problem was that trying was all he could do.

[What is he doing?]

Harry, who was walking beside me, looked at Lionel and clicked his tongue.

[Everything he does is awkward. You’d do a better job protecting him, not the other way around.]

I didn’t know anything about swordsmanship, but even I could tell something was off. As he walked, he tripped over rocks, stumbled, and dropped the sword hanging from his waist multiple times.

[A human made of paper would be stronger than that.]

After Harry gave his scathing appraisal, we arrived at our destination. We passed through many dark alleys before reaching a small poorhouse.

“This is where I spent my childhood.”

Emma smiled shyly and glanced at the lamp in my hand.

“Adults can handle the cold, but I’m worried about the children here.”

When she went inside, a small space came into view. Naturally, the fireplace wasn’t lit.

“Emma?”

A girl stood when she saw Emma enter with a light in her hand. The children were all huddled together in one place and wrapped in thin pieces of fabric. Perhaps they were trying to survive the long, cold night by sharing each other's body heat.

Even so, that wasn’t nearly enough. If Emma hadn't brought the fire, I was certain some of them would have frozen to death. After all, children are more susceptible to the cold.

“Emma!”

“Emma?!”

One by one, they all started to recognize my maid. Children in shabby clothes flocked to her, and she affectionately patted their heads.

“Were you all freezing? Hang in there. I’ll light the fireplace right now.”

“You can’t. We don’t have any firewood.”

Emma lifted up a black steel log.

“What do you mean? We’ve got some right here.”

There was in fact lots of black steel wood in the territory. Emma had collected logs on the way there, and she already had an armful. The children snorted at her response.

“Aw, come on. That’s black steel wood. It doesn’t burn.”

“Well, I brought fire here that burns it. Just trust me.”

Emma stroked the children's heads before walking over to the fireplace. As she stuffed it with black steel logs, their attention turned to me, Harry, and Lionel. Among us, Harry was the most popular.

“Wow, a dog!”

“Puppy!”

The children screamed and ran toward Harry. They hugged, petted, and kissed him nonstop.

[Ugh, what the heck?! What are they doing?! I can’t breathe!]

Lionel was also surrounded by children and was having a hard time.

“What’s this? A sword?”

“D-don’t touch it! It’s dangerous!”

“Why are you carrying a dangerous thing with you?”

“Because I’m a knight.”

“No way. You’re lying. You don’t look like a knight!”

“I don’t look like a knight to you either?”

Unlike the two of them who were buried under children, I was rather free. It was like an invisible barrier was around me. They must have been afraid to come closer because of my villainous face. As I walked toward the fireplace with the lamp, the children cleared a path with smiles on their faces. However, right then...

“Aaah!”

A girl who was rushing to get out of my way stumbled and fell. If she had only fallen over, it would have been a small incident. Unfortunately, she knocked the lamp out of my hand so that it flew high up into the air then crashed on the floor. The feeble flame of the candle went out upon collision.

Emma, who had so diligently filled the fireplace with the logs, immediately froze.

“The fire... The mysterious fire...”

The fallen girl was in tears as she watched Emma repeat those words under her breath like a broken record. The child couldn’t understand exactly what had happened, but she appeared to sense that she had done something terribly wrong.

“What should we do now, miss? We worked so hard to bring that fire from the manor. We worked so hard...”

Emma plopped down in front of the fireplace as tears suddenly streamed down her face.

“Fire... We need fire to keep the children warm.”

“Um, Emma... I’m sorry. It’s all my fault, huh?”

The girl who fell quickly got up and tried to comfort Emma but that only made her cry harder. Even so, she hugged the girl as she began to bawl.

Then, in an instant, her tears seemed to spread to all the children. First, the girl Emma was holding started to cry, then the boy next to her, then the girl next to her... Until soon the sound of crying children filled the whole house.

As I watched over a dozen children crying in unison, I let out an empty chuckle.

This is insane. Why has everyone I’ve met today cried? Am I destined to be a babysitter?

I stood in front of Emma and stroked her cheek since she was crying the loudest.

I needed to soothe the person who caused everyone else to cry, so I said, "Stop crying. Your crying is causing the children to cry too.”

“But the fire... The kids will... freeze to death!”

There was no sign of her stopping, so there was only one way to put an end to that noisy situation.

I have no choice.

I signaled Harry with a wink. After barely managing to free himself from the children, the battered-looking dog-demon staggered to my side. I bent down to smooth out his fur, then glanced over at the fireplace stuffed with black steel wood.

[Harry, I need your fire again. Just like last time.]