Before the Villains’ Ending

5. The original female protagonist.

… This.

A tone filled with embarrassment leaked out from her lips.

“What did you say now?”

“Young Lady.”

Kastiel gently interrupted me and grabbed my shoulder. His grip was so strong that it almost felt like he was exerting all his strength. I lifted my head and finally realized the questioning gaze that seemed to squeeze the answer out of me.

“Ah, Ah.”

“If I tell you this all the time, if I abandon Beatrice and my lord, then…”

Even if I can’t go back, will you look back at me?

Those green eyes were already hardened with a certain determination. I asked:

“Can you?”

“Yes, I am willing to do so. Then… the ending you said will definitely change. That’s enough.”

Oh my god!

I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t get my expression right, and I couldn’t even think of coughing to avoid talking like a habit.

There were mixed feelings. When I saw a card that could distort the original, I buried my face in the knight’s shoulder, delighted and ignoring the obsession in his eyes. An unknown emotion fluttered like seawater and raised just one sentence.

I think I can change it

I hope the corners of my mouth are hidden, as I smile in a voice that whispers, ‘If you can’t leave, then so be it’.

Kastiel begged me over and over again, promising to do it. That was until Beatrice, with an expression weighed down by anger and anxiety, came to my room herself.

***

“… Sir Reload.”

She knocked on the door and called the knight’s name softly. He sighed and removed his body from me with a calm face, as if he had never done that before, and stood still looking down at me.

“Sir Reload?”

I smiled quietly. Perhaps it will be my job to open the door. The fact that I had to shoulder even the basic actions that a knight or maid should have done in the first place made me realize how much they were neglecting me.

Kastiel also saw this and lowered his head, saying he had no face. He hesitated, as if wondering if he should step forward and open the door, and I shook my head and opened the door myself.

“Good afternoon.”

She greeted me with considerable kindness. She didn’t bring the crown prince with her, and the influence she could have on me was minimal, so I didn’t have to struggle.

It wasn’t that he had no social circle experience, and this level of laughter was not included in the axis of pretension. Beatrice reluctantly replied, “Good afternoon,” and remained silent for several minutes.

The blue eyes are full of doubt, as they have been recently. Beatrice looked at Kastiel, not at me, in silence. Instead of a belated greeting, he bowed his head.

“I have something to tell you.”

It was the heroine’s first words. I shrugged as she looked at Kestiel with resentful eyes, not knowing whether she had anything to say to me or the knight, and sat on a shabby chair instead.

“…”

The room is surprisingly simple. It is said that only one chair was prepared. Beatrice tried her best to mend her distorted face from contempt. I replied in a tone of disinterest, comparing how poor the female lead’s facial expressions were compared to the villains.

“I see.”

“… I apologize for unintentionally interrupting the lady’s rest because I had something to ask. But really, Lady Eilish. I couldn’t stand it.

Beatrice chose her words with a more miserable twist on her face. I had to burst into laughter in the end because I was angry, or if I was anxious about something, or the rough trembling breathing was a spectacle. At the same time as my laughter, Beatrice poured out her words like a waterfall with her unique sadness.

“I trusted you, at least Margaret. Of course, I wouldn’t deny the fact that I suspected it, but I mean I didn’t have a single hope anyway. However…!”

However?

I narrowed my brows to express my blatant displeasure. As my sister did, coldly chanting.

“Should I say it’s an honor?”

What was the use of the heroine’s recognition now? Only my ears hurt. I averted my gaze and responded like an irresponsible nanny. Beatrice seemed to lose her temper at that lukewarm attitude, but soon regained the heroine’s unique tenacity and continued.

And it sounded like, like, you’re trying to coax me.

“…You haven’t had any contact with Calix until now. I know what the lady did after I came up to the capital. Assuming that you were weak, you gradually reduced your influence in the social world and did a lot of good deeds while neglecting Florencia’s actions… So I thought about it. You’re not a bad girl, you’re different. It’s just a strong sisterhood.”

Her eyes were flushed with tears.

“So tell me. Young lady, he has nothing to do with you. I mean, answer me that you’re not like Florencia.”

‘Is this it?’

The reason you came to me is just to complain about this?

“No, or… Is it really exactly what I thought? You pressed me to be suspicious! I should’ve known about it earlier. I should have been suspicious when you argued about the schedule of their executions. Even the lady, what on earth do you dislike so much that you interrupt me and His Highness? Do you hate me? Or do you love His Highness? Which one is it? How could you really do this with that villainess-”

“Stop.”

I turned to Kastiel for a moment, then looked away.

At this, Beatrice pursed her lips as she looked at the knight who had loved her, but the look of Kastiel responding with the expressionless expression he used to show to others at that desperate appearance was quite strange. Even Beatrice denied the situation with a face full of astonishment, so there was probably nothing more to say.

“…”

Sunshine eyes that people once praised quietly sank. I clicked my tongue and asked obnoxiously as if I didn’t deserve to hear what this immature girl was saying.

“Why do you think in such an extreme way?”

If I had to point out the advantage of being a bystander, it would be that there are these little fun things. As a supporting actor, finding differences in the original work that could not be changed and finding settings that were not in the original work were fun in their own way.

I laughed happily inwardly. Apart from the transition of the ending, this did not exist in the original novel. The heroine of absolute goodness was always a winner, she was confident, and she never got angry.

(Of course, she was afraid of the villains’ moves, but if it is resolved by a few kisses from the crown prince, it cannot be called fear.) I raised my head and asked.

“Are you afraid?”

“Then shall I say no? Those who have tormented and abused me so much for the sake of love? Which one is the Lady? Do you love His Highness? Or do you hate me? Or what!”

The voice gradually rose, then stopped in anger. I couldn’t elaborate on exactly what I was thinking while listening to that resentment. I just wanted to smile.

Even the victors were afraid. Yes, the perfect comedy didn’t exist. Since the ending had already been changed, perhaps it could be said that as a supporting actor, there were more things to contemplate.

Beatrice Mary Rosen was safe under any circumstances. It was her anxiety that decorated the climax, not the situation.

Except for the kidnapping by the villains at the very end, she had never suffered a single bodily injury. Because she was the main character.

But only before the ending.

“What exactly are you afraid of?”

Was she afraid Calix Hamel would haunt her again? Or was she worried about His Highness, the Crown Prince, who would suffer because of it? Or worry about her image being ruined? Anxiety that she would repeat the evil that my sister did?

I waited for a response, shooting back a series of words. She couldn’t bear to speak, and was convulsed and quietly struck by her brain.

“Calix can’t kill me on his own. Even if it sounds arrogant, I can’t help it. Because he loves me. There’s no way he would have voluntarily escaped from prison to bother me. Surely he cursed His Highness but said that as long as I was happy, there was nothing more he could do. That’s why I’m asking you. What did you talk about with him? Is this another ploy to harm me and His Highness? You must have said something similar to Florencia, right? Just say what you want. Don’t bother me anymore.”

I looked down at her from a distance and gently loosened the corners of my mouth.

Poor thing.

Eyes filled with contempt stared straight at me. I don’t know what she said to Calix just before he was imprisoned, but she probably said it with a pretty desperate look on her face. I didn’t expect you to interpret it this way.

Yes, definitely what Calix wanted was Beatrice. The heroine herself seemed to know that fact more clearly than I did, and was trying to find the whole cause of the prison break from ‘the villain’s sister, who was full of malice toward her.’

He said he couldn’t harm the one he loved. That’s why they conspired with the sister, who resembles the wicked woman, to harm the crown prince.

“I don’t understand.”

I didn’t know why she thought I must hate or like her utterly.

“We are strangers. As the young lady said, we haven’t had any contact since she came to the capital, so what the hell is going on between you and me, why are you acting like a child? I just hate to see the crown prince killing my sister and trying to get engaged at the same time. Don’t look for the cause of your problems in the surrounding relationships.”

She needed to grow up.

I rested my chin. The cowardly heroine in front of me was overlooking something really important. She was unfortunately speechless.

“Well, it seems that the young lady has already concluded that I am a wicked woman who resembles my sister. But then, let’s make one thing clear.”

My sister did not beg for cooperation from those around her.

“If you want to safely become the crown princess, get rid of the arrogance of thinking that you can judge others. Isn’t it about time you realize that blaming Calix’s escape from prison on my hostility is absurdly pathetic?”

Oh, it’s hard to talk for long. It’s like a fucking aristocratic way of speaking. Beatrice’s face as she looked into it while muttering such words was literally confusion itself. She questioned herself as if denying reality, trembling as she clenched her fists with all her strength, making her bones appear white.

“Then, how was Calix able to tell His Highness to release your probation? What did the lady say to him? Why the hell did he…?”

I raised my body that was leaning on the backrest. It’s not that hard to fully accept the twist in the ending, while Kestiel stands beside Beatrice and lets out an emotionless sigh.

The answer that leaked out of my mouth, which rose sharply, echoed through the room.

“Looks like he missed you a lot. I used to visit him every day, but, shockingly, it stopped thanks to someone.”