Before the Villains’ Ending

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3. A Comedy Story

She didn’t show many reactions to her father.

It was because the documents delivered by the servant, or more precisely, the errand boy disguised as the servant, were piled up like a mountain, so she did not feel the need to fix her gaze on the marquis.

‘Villainess or whatever, being the queen of business is the best.’

To become a villain, one needed that kind of background. As the younger sister of a villainess who enjoyed extravagance, the answer to the question was of course, ‘no’. She didn’t spend a lot, but the amount of money and connections earned through illegal and evil deeds was greater than what was earned honestly.

“What the hell is the problem!!”

Unable to overcome his nervousness, her father finally threw the lamp to the floor.

Since the direction was not facing her, she was able to wave her hands away from the series of depravity and get lost in her thoughts.

‘The medicine must have worked well.’

She might feel bad for not writing a note. But she still had to use the medicine.

The Marquess in front of her would be stopped by Lord Reload or Lord Heizen. So she passed the time pretending to be unconscious, not paying attention to what he was talking about. And, as expected, in the empty room before she knew it, she let go of her consciousness after laughing freely.

Her vision, which had been blackened and flickered, was restored. She was dreaming. The reason she could tell that it’s a dream was that the person staring at her right in front of her was a face she hadn’t seen in quite a while.

She called out to the figure that was gradually approaching her, crackling like a noise.

“Dad.”

“…my daughter.”

Giggle. The monstrous laughter trembled terribly. A certain kind of anticipation and fear mingled with guilt and swirled like smoke. She blinked as she was strangled beneath it. Her dad’s figure seemed to be getting blurry. It smelled of strong alcohol.

‘This’

Yes. It was the last memory before she possessed that body. She moaned helplessly as her oxygen was cut off and she felt oppressed. Her dad uttered a set line, just as she remembered. It seemed like a crazy person.

“Go tell your mother. I killed him. Huh? You have to go and deliver it to me, okay? Eun-ha.”

It gave her goosebumps. She flapped her limbs as if in a fit. Not because the pain of suffocation was vivid, but because she just thought that she was so desperate at that time.

Her dad was a murderer, and she was a bystander even then. At least, it seems that there was a reason and justification for the first murder. She remembered the words she said,

‘That person did something wrong.’

‘It’s okay, Dad. It’s okay.’

It’s for mom’s sake.

Twelve years old, she wondered if she was too young back then. There was no normal distinction between good and evil. Her dad continued to utter gibberish.

“Dad won’t live any longer. Huh? It’s cancer. And that’s why it’s fucking. Eunha, you have to tell her. Before I died, I had my revenge.”

That’s bullshit.

19-year-old her gritted my teeth and spat out.

“Don’t lie.”

As the oxygen was cut off, the blurred vision reproduced the memory as it was. Standing in front of a blurry figure in front of her eyes, she regretted it. If she had left that house long ago, if she hadn’t stood by. She…

Calix and Taylor came to mind. Yes. Their eyes were empty. Florencia, too, had eyes engulfed in sadness.

‘What about you, Dad?’

When she looked up at her father’s face again, those eyes

— Were they empty?

It was the feeling of sinking into the sea of memories. No, it would be more appropriate to say that it seems to be encroached on by the tidal waves. She couldn’t breathe properly.

She had no memory of what happened after she passed out from being strangled. Right after she lost consciousness like that, she became Margaret Eilish, not Jeong Eun-ha. She repeated that fact like brainwashing.

‘It’s all right, it’ll be alright.’

“When I open my eyes, I am Margaret Eilish.”

She will. She had to be. She wasn’t ready yet, and she didn’t want to wake up from the dream.

“— Gasp!”

… But when she opened her eyes again, what she saw in front of me.

“No.”

It was the ceiling of the house where ‘Jeong Eun-ha’ lived, not Margaret.

“This can’t be happening.”

She murmured as she struggled to keep her trembling body in check. She felt like she was going to vomit, so she covered her mouth and trembled like crazy. Yeah, it couldn’t be like that.

“It’s just an old memory.”

She didn’t want to go back to reality. Not yet.

***

“Young lady, Lady Eilish?”

Kastiel sighed and hurriedly opened the door. In the late afternoon sunlight, there was a sound like suppressing nausea.

“I knew it.”

He saw Margaret. She was frolicking like a ghost in a canopy-covered bed.

Kastiel panicked. It was because, despite knowing that Margaret’s illness was her acting, she burst out her cough in a cracked voice as if she felt a pain in her throat.

“Young lady.”

He wasn’t sure where Margaret’s eyes were looking. All he could hear was a voice that trembled like never before.

“Because the ending is still here.”

Kastiel hesitated for a moment. He thought he should ask her if she was okay. No, he thought he should make sure she was okay.

The Crown Prince and Beatrice ordered him to report if anything happened, but he had no intention of doing so in the first place. Moreover, Margaret in front of him was so unfamiliar that he easily forgot about his circumstances. There was a clear difference from the woman he had seen so far. The woman who always looked at the situation leisurely with a cynical attitude was trembling and muttering to herself. Moreover, the rapid breathing and gasping of her health, which made him questionable, clearly signaled that something was wrong.

Kastiel was conflicted, suppressing the urge to reach out and approach her. Even though she was receiving probation by order of the crown prince, Margaret was the successor of the Marquis family.

Calling names or removing the canopy were considered rude. He clenched his fists. It was clear that Margaret wouldn’t care about that at all, but now she was hostile to the crown prince.

‘We’re in trouble.’

Perhaps, if he decided, she could use his actions as an excuse to point out the rudeness of the royal family. If she complained about the aristocratic faction’s ill-treatment, it would hurt the current crown prince’s image quite a lot. Above all, the numerous funds Florencia handed over to Margaret and a kind of ‘business’ was sure to have a fatal effect on the crown prince as well.

Kestiel clicked his tongue a couple of times and took a few steps. Margaret was still unaware that someone had opened the door. Obviously, as a simple supervisor, he had to turn around like this. But Kestiel Reload couldn’t do that.

“Will I get out of here? Well, I didn’t even think I couldn’t go back.”

‘…going back?’

He couldn’t take that simple sentence lightly. He was not ignorant, he eventually took a few more steps. Margaret’s cough, which had been pouring out like suffocation, had subsided at some point.

Kastiel gripped the canopy silently. At some point, she was regaining her characteristic quietness. The vaguely visible figure covered by the translucent fabric swayed as if it would disappear at any moment.

He recalled the last words he had heard. The ending is still there…

Kastiel didn’t know exactly what those two words meant. However, when he reached the ‘ending’ she said, he intuitively felt that he would never see the Margaret he knew again. Kastiel shuddered at the sense of urgency.

“Damn it.”

He couldn’t deny it any longer. He realized that his blind love for Beatrice was no longer there. Including the fact that it has been slowly fading since ‘a certain starting point’. That’s why he accidentally removed the canopy he was holding. And called her by name, without the honorifics.

“Margaret.”

His voice was so full of desperation that even he was dumbfounded, and he earnestly called out to the woman who was still in her thoughts.

“Look at me, Margaret, come to your senses.”

Margaret slowly closed her lips. Kastiel violently pulled Margaret’s head and held her in his arms, just as the crown prince had once done to Beatrice.

She asked, closing her eyes at the knight’s cold touch. The languid, gentle, and monotonous tone had already returned to its usual tone.

“Sir, if I told you I needed your help, would you help?”

Kastiel hesitated to answer with a complicated expression. Margaret’s tone was dull and lacking in anticipation. He chose his words.

“Is it for the young lady or your sister?”

“Well, it’s more like a job for me. Maybe a job for you. You said you wanted to fill the void.”

Margaret mumbled in a timid voice.

“… Sir, do you still love Beatrice?”

“You might say you’re disappointed with my pure love, but no.”, he said. The answer, as neat as that of a knight, was immediate. After a short moment of silence, Margaret raised her head and looked at him.

“Then, please answer me one thing. Just tell me what you think. Be honest without lies, just like now.”

Kastiel nodded. It seems that there is a slight, yet weak, anticipation in her voice that was not there before.

“If I…”

“…”

“If, as His Highness wishes, I can’t stop Florencia from dying.”

“…”

“If you see Lady Rosen and the crown prince smiling and getting engaged in front of my sister burnt to ashes…”

She smiled sadly, her eyes like the dawn sky. Like the fading west before the morning, like that.

“Can I live as a person here?”

He asked in a hoarse voice after several minutes. Praying that Margaret wouldn’t notice that his clumsy embrace trembled subtly with anxiety.

“Is that the ‘ending’ you speak of?”

Margaret was still smiling. She answered as a faint voice.

“Yeah.”