Before the Villains’ Ending

Sir Heizen is a good person. That was an undeniable fact. But he couldn’t afford to protect his love story with my sister.

The emotional wounds she had received and the fear of dying wouldn’t fade easily.

It would be too much for most people to hide away their pain in the name of affection.

Perhaps, for this reason, Florencia had generally refused to let him visit. Maybe he wouldn’t see much benefit to this if he waited for hours in front of the prison.

So while giving painkillers or sleeping pills to the prisoners, I often brought him snacks.

Most of them were rejected, but that wasn’t a problem. There must have been some people who were thankful for the snacks Sir Heizen refused to eat as he worried about Florencia.

“You’re persistent. What do you come to see every day?”

“I come to see the lord. Please eat.”

For example, the man standing right in front of you right now.

Kestiel Lerod. He was the only one who never committed a misdeed until Beatrice had become engaged to the Crown Prince.

This man with such a pure heart that couldn’t be left behind, even compared to Sir Heizen, maintained that young love to this very day and took on the task of monitoring the rest of the villains.

Purely for Beatrice’s safety and happiness.

Similar to Sir Heizen, he did not hide his innocence. He would rather be taken advantage of. What are knights?

Whenever he received a box of freshly baked herb cookies and a small sandwich, he had an indescribable face, every time I visited the prison.

“My lady, aren’t you afraid of them?”

He asked. I shook my head because it was an unusual question. Normally, people should say, “That’s right.” But the question today was longer than usual.

And it was outside the scope of expectations. “I know that the lady visits other people besides her sister. What do you feel for them?”

“… I spent a lot of gold coins.”

Damn. I need to correct the idea that guards are always helpful.

I muttered to myself and clicked my tongue. There was no such wastefulness.

Most of the money was spent on bribes to maintain dignity, but damn it.

“Well, anyway.”

I shook my hands lightly, raised my head, and smiled lazily.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, they’ve forgotten the meaning of life. You’ll think it’s meaningless if I do anything.”

I’m sure you understand. Briefly, I considered whether I should nod when he asked if he was pitiful.

Then, the answer that came out, in the end, was almost a negative.

“I don’t know what you think of other people’s lives, but I just want to see their faces. I’m a little busy visiting, just for the sake of pity.”

Oh, and by the way, it seems like I want my older sister to think she wants to live.

The conversation ended with that. As I looked down while I spoke, I saw Kestiel’s unique green eyes trembling as if he had been stabbed someplace.

It was none of my business – whether it was disillusionment, with me wanting the villainess to live, or his own circumstances – so I did not look deeply into his eyes.

Dozens of seconds later, he hurriedly put on a look and said exactly what I was trying to say.

“But my lady, Florencia…”

“She’s my sister.”

Kestiel was obviously the righteous sort. Sir Heizen, too. That’s why there’s always a little bit of discomfort in the way they look at Florencia and me.

Anyway, she’s a villain. Because villains are surrounded by blood.

Whether it was love or curiosity, the emotions they expressed were always mixed with a hint of distrust.

I didn’t like that.

There was no need to show that sense of righteousness in front of me. I am not asking for freedom.

I also knew that wishing for my sister’s release was unreasonable. There was a possibility that it would be considered treasonous, simply denying the attempted regicide. That would be quite the unrealistic stroke of luck.

However.

“You misunderstand something. Florencia is my family. No one wants their family to die.”

At one time, I had offered Florencia a different path. It was because I didn’t want her to become the villain like in the original.

Of course, she didn’t listen.

Yes, she was literally mad about the crown prince. I could do nothing but rebuke myself for being complacent when considering the depths of obsession and love.

She truly meant it. I wasn’t truly her sister, and I didn’t have the will to rip it off at my expense.

So, the alternative that I offered was buried under the flow of my memories.

Now, I know it’s unreasonable to indulge.

But as family, I think I can buy time to solve some problems. I think it’s alright to make that much effort.

Kestiel hesitated.

“But the Marquis of Eilish…”

“Sir. I said I don’t want to talk about people who aren’t ‘human’.”

It was an unyielding expression that my father was not even a man.

He looked at my hollow eyes with a strange gaze, and then he bowed his head.

“Are you going home?”

Soon, that voice threw out an unexpected question. I shook my head, looking at the carriage awaiting me in the distance.

“I’m going to the Imperial Palace.”

Lord Lerod glanced at the same place as I did for a short time. And what he said next was absurdly impulsive.

“I will go with you. Please let me accompany you.”

I had to raise my head with a puzzled expression.

“…Yes?”

“Are you not going to see His Highness?”

Kestiel looked as if that would be a problem.

But why? It was a subtle sensation from his stare, but there was no reason for him to accompany me to the palace.

“Anyway, do you wonder why I am going there?”

“I know what you want to say to him.”

I stared at the back of the man who was a step ahead of me towards the carriage with confusion.

What do you know? What are you gonna do with me? No, more than that, what do I have to do with myself?

Among numerous questions, a theory came to mind, and I asked in a gentle voice as if I was a casual passerby.

“Are you going to interrupt?”

His footsteps stopped. I looked at this righteous knight and asked a question.

“Do I bother you that much to stop my plan?”

Kestiel did not say yes or no. I watched his brown hair swaying in the wind, with the green eyes beneath it.

So it was easy to realize. Oh, you’re conflicted.

“That’s not true.”

He said so.

I wasn’t so naive as to believe it, and I wasn’t timid enough to throw away possible cards, so I quietly overtook him towards the carriage.

“Get in.”

That permission to accompany me fell as sharp and dry as thorns. Kestiel didn’t decline, but he didn’t hide his expression of suspicion.

How funny, I closed my eyes thinking.

“If you can’t read what’s inside, just do what you want. It’s more important than planning ahead.”

This was Florencia’s advice that I once heard. I leaned back inside the shaky carriage, burying what I felt behind me.

The difference between Sir Heizen and Sir Lerod lay in their personality. Both of them hated the same thing, which was injustice, but I must say that Kestiel Lerod is colder than Sir Heizen?

The fact that he showed such exaggerated respect in front of me, in the first place, could be seen as amazing. Unlike Lord Heizen, who was polite to everyone and cautioned that the weak must be protected, he was kind to almost everyone excluding Beatrice and the imperial family that he served. I say this all because my sister called him a jerk.

Kestiel’s characteristic was that he remained straightforward if you met the standards he set, but otherwise kept a subtle and ambiguous attitude.

Even towards the crown prince, whom he promised his loyalty. So have most people criticized Kestiel’s personality.

‘My lord… First of all, I’m sending you a message. He’s definitely the boss I’d like to serve. But I haven’t found the person I want to protect yet.

One day, he told me that he didn’t seem to have met a person he ‘wanted to protect’ yet.

That presence was confirmed to be Beatrice in the story, but that was also why he volunteered to be the general prison warden, ignoring the fact that he eventually failed to win her love. Somehow, he was still insisting that he had not yet met anyone he wanted to protect.

The changes from the original, due to my intervention, were scarcely revealed in these trivial words.

The carriage continued to shake as I tried to speak about the Emperor and the Crown Prince. Along with the topic of Beatrice, I rolled the words around in my mouth but came up short of something to say.

When you must ask for something, it’s important not to panic, but to have a convincing and clear tone.

‘Well, actually, it’s not gonna be easy.’

Anyway, it’s a villain. But a grace period should be possible. At least, that’s what I hoped for.

Then the story ends. The situation where the villains were executed and the male and female leads fall in love was strange in a lot of ways.

As Margaret, I didn’t alter much of the story as it progressed, and most things flowed in the current that the written word dictated. So this felt even stranger. Should I say I don’t feel it?

‘What comes after it’s all over?’ I asked myself. The Marquis of Eilish escaped ruin, but what next?

I don’t think the aristocrats who faced death row would once again enjoy past glory. Even if business went well, wealth and honor weren’t the same, and nobles usually valued the latter more.

In addition, it was necessary to worry about the fact that my father, the Marquis, is not dead.

Aside from me, the marquis’s family saved their lives by admitting that they were unaware of the villainess’s disgrace. Among them, it was our father who changed his attitude especially fast.

To survive, they made up excuses that they couldn’t help it and took the lead to throw stones at my sister, saying she was a villainess. How should I treat them, in the future?

“- lady.”

What will happen to me if the story ends like this?

When I reincarnated into life in this book, I didn’t expect to continue my life here until I died.

No, perhaps I thought that I never died in the world outside of this book, in the first place.

Kestiel’s voice gradually faded away.

Amidst a disturbing flurry of various thoughts, I asked myself as if I were alone.

Did he really kill me?

 

Editor’s Note: What do you think of Sir Heizen and Sir Lerod? I think the original fate of Sir Heizen and Florencia Eilish is pretty sad. As for Margaret, what do you think of her motivations and reservations with changing the plot in the past? Do you think it’s the right thing to do? I couldn’t say I agree with her reasoning if it meant putting my family at stake, but this just makes her an interesting character.