The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

TLed by NolepGuy

Chapter 171

The Young Lady’s room was peaceful as always.

On a lazy afternoon, with the warm spring breeze blowing, I entered the Young Lady’s room carrying some snacks and saw her sitting at her desk, deeply focused on something.

“Fold it to the left once.”

Muttering to herself while fiddling with a large piece of paper, the Young Lady nodded and moved her hands again.

“Again, to the left….”

The Young Lady pursed her lips in concentration. Thinking she was creating something profound, I held my breath and approached her slowly.

Was it that parcel from last time?

-Ricardo, if a parcel arrives, don’t open it.

-Why not?

-Just because. It’s my underwear.

I remembered resisting the temptation to open it when she mentioned it was underwear. It felt like just yesterday that I taught her how to order parcels through letters, and now, seeing her order one herself, I felt proud.

The Young Lady pressed down on the corrugated cardboard with her small, delicate fingers, fully engrossed.

Watching her focus on paper folding, I asked,

“Young Lady.”

“Mhm.”

Without even looking at me, she responded.

I waved my hand next to her and made a strange face, but I failed to draw the attention of the Young Lady, who was absorbed in her task.

Is this what they call being a workaholic?

While I admired her dedication, I couldn’t help but feel a bit sulky that she ignored the world’s most handsome butler standing right there.

Wearing a slightly dejected expression, I asked her why she was suddenly folding paper.

“What are you doing?”

“Folding a box.”

“Why are you suddenly folding a box?”

“Well…”

-Press.

Folding it in half and pressing it down firmly again, the Young Lady kept her lips tightly sealed.

As the corrugated cardboard began to take shape, her words grew fewer and fewer.

Reaching the limits of her concentration, she let out a puff of air and nodded, while I sighed at her refusal to answer my question.

“Young Lady!”

“Eek…!”

Startled by my loud call, the Young Lady flinched and looked at me. Her eyes welled up with tears, and her aggrieved expression made me smile as I spoke.

“Why are you folding a box?”

“Ah. Where did I leave off…?”

“Start again from ‘Well….'”

“Okay. Well….”

The Young Lady resumed folding the box as she spoke.

It seemed she was trying to employ the advanced technique of multitasking. Realizing I might not hear her reason for folding paper today, I took the cardboard box from her hands and held it behind my back.

“Oh…!?”

The Young Lady widened her eyes at the sudden disappearance of the cardboard. She stared at me, tilting her head as she asked,

“Ricardo, do you want to fold paper too?”

“No.”

“Join me. It’s fun.”

She handed me another piece of corrugated paper from the stack on her desk.

“I don’t think it’ll be fun.”

“…”

Hit by the truth, the Young Lady gave an awkward smile and said,

“No, it’s really fun! Look!”

She picked up a fresh piece of corrugated paper from the desk and started folding again. Watching her fold the box with an excited expression, I became certain.

“Ugh…”

The Young Lady wasn’t enjoying folding boxes; she wanted to lie down. Smiling faintly, I propped my chin on my hand and sat in front of her as I asked,

“So, why are you folding this?”

With a faint smile, the Young Lady replied,

“I’m doing a part-time job.”

“A part-time job?”

“Yeah. Folding pizza boxes.”

“Oh…”

Looking at the box she was folding, I thought to myself.

‘A box…?’

Calling it a box seemed a bit much. The piece, infused with a philosophical and artistic touch, looked more like a bizarre rendition of Medusa than a pizza box. I gave my honest opinion.

“I think you might get fired for this too.”

With a serious expression, the Young Lady nodded and replied,

“I think so too.”

As expected, the Young Lady was quick to self-reflect. She handed me another pile of corrugated paper from the mountain on her desk and said,

“Want to do it together?”

“No.”

“Why not!”

“Because it doesn’t seem fun.”

“Do it with me!”

“No.”

“Eeeek!”

Since that day, the Young Lady became deeply interested in side jobs. For some reason, whenever she saw a side job advertisement in the newspaper, she would immediately send a letter.

At first, I opposed it because I didn’t want her to struggle, but her stubborn insistence on earning money eventually wore me down.

-Eeeek! I’m going to earn money!

-Don’t I already earn it for you?

-No. I want to earn money too.

-Can’t I just earn twice as much?

-Ricardo, if you overwork, you’ll become a bad person. No.

-Why are you suddenly saying that? I’ve always been a bad person. I even extorted money today.

-…Now that you mention it, that’s true.

-Yes.

Since earning money on her own was a good thing, I decided to let her try side jobs to help her develop social skills.

By earning money herself, she would learn the value of it.

Whenever the Young Lady pointed to a side job advertisement in the newspaper and said, “This one!” I would nod, and she finally escaped unemployment.

And she made many mistakes along the way.

She got fired for turning a teddy bear into a female bear while attaching its eyes.

She burned with artistic passion while folding paper boxes, which ended up costing her money instead.

She gave up on embroidering handkerchiefs out of frustration, but seeing her continuously try something new made me nod in pride.

If Darbav were watching this, wouldn’t he be moved to tears? I wanted to take a photograph and send it to him, but since I didn’t have a camera, I held back.

And now, the Young Lady was sitting on her bed, working on a new side job.

Clumsily sewing a stuffed doll, she pouted her lips and spoke to me.

“Ricardo.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t grow your hair out.”

“My hair?”

Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I asked her,

“Why do you say that?”

“It’s ugly.”

“I’m so naturally handsome that any hairstyle suits me.”

“No. You look best the way you are now.”

Following her lead in making stuffed dolls, I smiled faintly and teased her.

“Then, Young Lady. Do I look handsome right now?”

At the question that came as naturally as fluttering petals in the spring breeze, the Young Lady hesitated for a moment before smiling brightly and answering.

“Yes. You’re handsome.”

Suddenly, my face flushed hot.

Noticing something strange, the Young Lady froze, holding the needle and the stuffed doll.

“Huh?”

The Young Lady, realizing too late that she had been tricked.

The question mark floating above her head stretched into an exclamation mark, and she quickly shook her head, correcting what she had said.

“No!”

“What do you mean, no?”

“I misspoke. Ricardo is ugly.”

“It’s too late. You’ve already fallen for my charm….”

“Eeeek!”

“Hehe!”

“Eeeeeeeek…”

Pouting her lips in dissatisfaction, the Young Lady let out a huff and then a long sigh.

“You’re not handsome, but you’re tolerable.”

At the Young Lady’s playful complaints, I chuckled softly and nodded.

“That’s good enough for me.”

Even that was enough to make me happy.

As a brief silence passed and the Young Lady’s stuffed doll was about to take its first steps into the world.

-Poke.

“Eeeeeeeek!!!!”

Pricked by the needle, the Young Lady let out a loud scream and declared her farewell to the stuffed doll.

“I’m done!”

This kind of daily life is what I enjoy.

*

A desolate atmosphere lingered over Histania.

Sitting in the dark office, Rowen sighed as he looked at the letter on the desk.

[Academy Short-term Professor Invitation]

Rowen fiddled with the letter with a grim expression, muttering to himself.

“A professor at the Academy…”

The Academy.

It was a place of memories from more than twenty years ago.

It was where he met his rival and fought, and where he first met the person he loved.

And through the connections he made there, he gained two daughters and a son.

To Rowen, the Academy was like the beginning of his life. It was the only place where he could breathe freely, away from his father’s demands for swordsmanship and the suffocating household.

“…”

Lost in the memories that swept through his mind after so long, Rowen let out a bitter smile.

‘Was it the same for Hanna?’

He didn’t think of himself as a good parent. To him, the household was more important than his children, and he had a duty to continue the legacy of the family, Histania.

To secure a better future, he had to raise a talented next head of the family, which meant sorting out the promising from the withering. Rowen acknowledged that he had been a distant father to his children.

Even so, the one stubborn belief that remained in Rowen’s heart was this: ‘I endured worse.’ A cowardly excuse.

That excuse was probably what led to his daughter’s death.

Rowen sat in the chair, lost in deep thought for a long time.

Should he go to the Academy?

Or, as always, should he respond with neglect?

One thing was certain—Rowen, at this moment.

Missed his youngest daughter.