The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

TLed by NolepGuy

Chapter 204

The Young Lady had an uncomfortable body.

She couldn’t walk on her own and couldn’t even go to the bathroom without someone else’s help.

She could fly through the sky with magic.

In this world, where abnormal physical strength could be achieved through training, the Young Lady was left with a body that had restrictions on movement.

This world was not kind to those with physical limitations.

Everyone was healthy and strong.

Even in old age, those who had trained sufficiently rarely experienced physical discomfort caused by aging.

Of course, compared to their youth, they might lack stamina or external attributes, but it didn’t hinder their mobility.

This was one of the things that surprised me the most when I came to this world. At the same time, I was appalled by how people with physical disabilities were treated.

The place I came from was one where consideration existed. It was a place filled with people who had physical limitations, unlike this world.

People with disabilities caused by aging, illness, or accidents, for instance.

It wasn’t that the people of this world lacked compassion. There were always those who extended a helping hand to a middle-aged man who had lost his leg during an adventure.

However, this world lacked the concept of welfare for people with disabilities. There was no effort to develop systems like the wheelchair the Young Lady used, rehabilitation systems, or policies for the disabled. Society openly revealed its intention to abandon them.

There were artificial arms, though. Perhaps because they could be modified into weapons, it was a world I couldn’t understand.

This world was harsh to those with disabilities. As a child, I thought it was a story unrelated to me and watched from a step back, but as an adult, I felt that unfairness more directly than anyone else.

After the inconvenience of disability came to the Young Lady, I began to feel bitter about the discrimination I had forgotten.

Even the smallest things were hard to obtain.

For example, hospital beds commonly used in my world were unavailable here.

In this world, where healing magic was a grand alternative, the concept of rest as treatment might exist, but there was a severe lack of consideration for those who couldn’t use mana. Moreover, the costs were unimaginably high.

I vaguely remember leaving a store with a bitter smile after seeing how expensive items made for nursing sick people were sold.

So, I began nursing the Young Lady through self-sufficiency.

I revived the experience of nursing an elderly woman I was acquainted with in a geriatric hospital in my previous life. It wasn’t a profession for me. I wasn’t smart enough to work in the medical profession, nor did I have the financial means.

It was crude improvisation skills I had picked up by watching over the shoulder of a nurse while caring for an elderly woman who often visited the orphanage.

At the time, I thought it would be a useless experience, but while nursing the Young Lady, I came to think of it as a valuable skill that proved useful in many ways.

You never know what life will bring.

The sick Young Lady was stubborn. She had always been strong-willed, but her stubbornness after becoming disabled refused to listen to anyone.

-…

She was depressed.

She was disappointed.

She lacked motivation.

The Young Lady maintained a stubborn silence to the point where I wished she would just get angry instead.

-Young Lady, you shouldn’t lie on one side for too long.

-Don’t mind me.

-…

When I tried to change her position to prevent pressure ulcers, a skin condition caused by lying in the same position for too long, she would snap, “Don’t touch me.”

When I tried to help her up after she fell from the bed, she would shake off my hand and coldly push me away, saying, “Don’t pity me. You think I’m pathetic, don’t you?”

I couldn’t understand the Young Lady.

I didn’t presume to think I could understand her sorrow, so I didn’t entertain such presumptuous thoughts.

So, I simply stayed by her side, silently offering my help.

Gradually, the Young Lady began to improve from my one-sided consideration. Compared to the early days when she had just lost her legs, she started talking more and even had days when she smiled. She was improving little by little.

Thankfully.

*

“Haaahm…”

After helping the Young Lady to the bathroom, I leaned against the wall, rubbing my sleepy eyes.

Perhaps because I had just used the Hand of Rehabilitation, the fatigue in my body felt excessively accumulated.

As I fought off the exhaustion that made me feel like I could fall asleep at any moment, I heard the Young Lady’s timid voice, tinged with shyness, cautiously calling out to me.

“Ricardo… Are you outside?”

The trembling voice of the Young Lady, who was afraid of the night.

I briefly closed my mouth and teased her.

“Ricardo…?”

“Eeeek… You can’t not be there. I’m scared of that Tissue Ghost story…”

“Eeeek…”

Smiling softly at the cowardly side of the Young Lady, who muttered in a tearful voice, I carefully opened my mouth.

“Our estate doesn’t have red or blue tissues, Young Lady.”

“Don’t joke around! You scared me for a second, thinking we didn’t have any.”

“I see. Next time, I’ll answer a little later.”

“Eeeek…! You’re dead when I come out.”

“Then I’ll run away?”

“Sorry.”

In a trembling voice, the Young Lady told me not to run away and, as if whining, asked me in a timid voice from beyond the door to stay there.

“Don’t go anywhere.”

“…”

“I’ll give you an allowance… okay?”

The corners of my mouth twitched. Her adorably whiny complaints were endearing. Thinking she might cry if I teased her again, I hummed a tune, imagining the Young Lady inside the bathroom.

“Three bears in one house.”

“…”

“A villainess bear. A butler bear. Just a bear.”

“Our house’s bear doesn’t listen to me.”

“…”

“I should just eat it.”

“Gomtangi would cry if she heard that.”

“Let her cry.”

The Young Lady seemed to have a lot pent up inside.

Smiling softly, I spoke to her.

“Anyway, don’t worry. I’ll be here since I need to use the bathroom too.”

“Is it urgent…?”

“I won’t run to the first-floor bathroom, so don’t worry.”

“Phew… Then, can you go in right after I come out?”

“Yes.”

As a skilled butler, it was my duty to respect the Lady’s feelings, so I answered with a small smile at her concern. She was still a girl at heart. Despite having spent over ten years together, her considerate gesture moved me quite a bit.

The Young Lady took longer than expected once she went into the bathroom.

She had to adjust her skirt and do everything herself with her uncomfortable body. Naturally, it took her more time than others.

In a way, I thought it was fortunate.

If she had refused to do anything on her own, that would have been more troubling. From the perspective of rehabilitation and mental health, I found her stubbornness admirable.

Usually, the Young Lady didn’t often say she needed to use the bathroom.

Because she had lost sensation in her lower body, she recognized the signals from her bladder later than others. When she did say she needed to go, I had to prepare her clothes.

-Ricardo…

-I think pink clothes would suit you today.

-…

-No matter how much I think about it, the sky blue dress doesn’t seem right.

-You’re right.

At first, I faced many difficulties because of things like this.

I wondered how to help her change clothes without causing her stress and how to prevent such accidents.

Over time, I became able to roughly predict when the Young Lady would need to use the bathroom, but the early days were truly challenging.

She was gradually improving, wasn’t she?

Both in my nursing skills for her.

And in the Young Lady’s brighter demeanor.

She had improved significantly compared to the beginning.

I believed that tomorrow would bring a brighter future than today. The Young Lady’s stubbornness hated staying in one place.

As a brief moment passed, a loud noise came from beyond the bathroom door.

I was carefully thinking of a line in my head to hand over the prepared clothes beyond the door.

‘How should I give them to her?’

It wouldn’t be proper as a butler to make the Young Lady ask for a change of clothes herself. I had to come up with a plausible line.

“Ahem.”

Maybe it was because of the time, but I couldn’t think of anything.

Coming up with a reason for needing to change clothes at dawn was far too difficult.

If it were summer, I could use the weather as an excuse to suggest it, but since it was spring, that wasn’t an option. Holding the Young Lady’s clothes tightly in my hands, I fell deep into thought.

Until the sound of water flowing came from beyond the door, I hadn’t been able to think of anything worthwhile.

‘I’ll just give them to her today.’

I was about to knock carefully on the door to the Young Lady without saying anything.

The Young Lady, who had grown accustomed to this, would understand the meaning without me having to speak.

With a bitter smile, I brought my fingers to the door, and at that moment, with a loud “bang,” the Young Lady’s brightly smiling face appeared before me.

The Young Lady was smiling.

“Hehe…”

Biting her lips and wearing a smile that seemed ready to burst, she puffed out her cheeks like a balloon.

Flustered, I tried to avert my gaze from the Young Lady, but seeing her fully dressed, a question mark popped up over my head.

“Huh?”

The Young Lady spoke brightly with a laugh.

“I don’t need to change clothes today!”

Hope began to appear.

A very small hope was shouting at me to let go of my little desire.