I Reject the villain’s ending.

Episode 63.

The low, soft voice hadn’t changed, but it seemed different.

The arc of her lips, her long lashes, the way her eyelids perched on her eyebrows, the way her throat was dripping with rainwater.

‘It’s not enough to be your cute, obedient puppy, I’m growing greedy, I want more.’

The voice in my ear is so sweet, it makes me swoon.

I want to turn my head to hide my embarrassment, but his mauve gaze won’t let me.

Like a butterfly caught in a nectar-soaked flower, I can neither close my eyes nor look away.

Iros’s gaze slides down my forehead, eyes, cheeks, nose, and lips.

‘I won’t hide it from you anymore.’

‘…….’

‘I like you very much, Sierra. I only want you to look at me. Not that prince bastard, okay, Sierra?’

It’s a name I’ve heard many times before today, but the moment it comes out of Iros’s mouth is different.

I could hear the possessiveness in his voice.

‘Well, it’s not crown prince, it’s crown prince herald, although I did come out with something like, ‘crown prince bastard’.’

‘I believe in you, and I believe in your liquor, but I don’t believe in the night and the drink and the atmosphere and the crown prince, the bastard, he’s a cunt.’

‘He seemed to be. Certainly not normal.’

‘I told you that all men are wolves except for me, and you didn’t believe me, but now you do, Sierra.’

‘And you’re the one breaking my back?’

‘I don’t mind, you’re a saintly little puppy, and when you take it off, you take it off, and when you crawl, you crawl.’

Iros saying things like this and Nana heard my heart racing.

I wonder if we’re all drunk.

I wonder if it wasn’t rain falling from the sky, but alcohol, when Iros kneels in front of me.

‘You don’t have any shoes.’

‘Oh.’

‘You followed me out without shoes because of me? Because you were worried about me?’

Iros laughed, pleased and a little upset.

‘I didn’t have anything to do with the crown prince, and you ran off looking so hurt.’

I couldn’t help but follow suit.

I swallowed a sigh as I spoke, and Iros looked at my feet carefully.

‘Then what about what I saw?’

‘What did you see?’

‘The crown prince embracing the saint and kissing her.’

‘You know I wake up when anything touches my lips. But I didn’t wake up. I just blacked out for a second, and then I heard a noise, and that’s when I woke up.’

‘……?’

‘Why?’

Iros paused and looked up at me, puzzled.

‘So, the crown prince, for the show, single-handedly woke the sleeping saint, stood her up, and…….’

You mean he did a one-man show.

My expression became similar to Iros’.

He muttered, his voice laced with exhaustion and relief.

‘Thank God. You didn’t.’

‘I told you it wasn’t me, though you didn’t hear it because you ran out the door.’

‘Hahaha.’

I grunted, and Iros smirked as he took off my shoes and slipped them on for me.

I looked down at my shoe-eaten feet like a child wearing his dad’s shoes.

‘You can’t walk in them, they’re too big, you don’t have to.’

‘What dog would stand by and watch his owner walk around barefoot?’

‘What dog in the world would give up his shoes to his owner?’

‘This pretty puppy here does. Isn’t that nice? Give him a prize for being nice.’

‘Did you leave the prize with me? Don’t you think you’re being too bold?’

I said in disbelief, and Iros rolled his eyes affectionately.

‘I’m sure you’ll give me a prize, after all, I’m so cute and pretty.’

Iros knew me too well, and I kissed him lightly as he closed his eyes as if he couldn’t win.

I kissed him just right and was about to pull my lips away when Iros dug in deeper.

‘Ugh!’

They kissed deeply in the rain for a while, and when they broke apart, a silver thread dangled between their lips, snapping in the rain.

When he looked into Iros’s eyes, bleary-eyed, the tips of his lips tilted up into a smile for the first time since they’d arrived at the palace, he asked, his face filled with remembrance.

‘Why didn’t you push me away?’

‘…Because I liked it.’

‘The kiss or me?’

Man, he keeps swooping in like a fox when I let my guard down.

I take a moment to think of something to say, and when I’m done, I lower my head and open my mouth in a small voice, my earlobes reddening.

‘Maybe both……?’

I don’t have to look up to know that Iros is smiling at me from above my head.

I could feel his soft chuckle and the slight tremble in his body.

‘Don’t laugh, it’s embarrassing.’

‘I’m glad you like me too, now just look at me. Don’t go to the crown prince, he’s not going to let you go anyway.’

‘What, what……?’

Iros tilted his head, a slyly murderous grin on his face.

‘Because I won’t have time to look elsewhere when I’m constantly seducing you.’

‘…….’

Oh my god, my pinkie must have woken up.

The look in her eyes was genuine.

I was at a loss for words for a moment, then nodded.

‘Okay. Let’s try this. I don’t know if I’ll fall in love with you or if you’ll raise the white flag and shout surrender first.’

I paused, grabbed Iros by the collar, and yanked him upright.

He locked his piercing blue eyes with those demanding mauve ones and spoke menacingly.

Iros rolled his eyes at my ambition and laughed.

‘Don’t worry, Sierra. You’re the only one I’ll ever love until I die anyway.’

‘Why?’

‘Because half-humans and half-horses are congenitally bound to love only one person.’

‘What? No, why?’

I chewed my tongue in confusion at Iros’s words. My mind was clearer than ever as a dull pain spread through me and tears welled up in my eyes.

I hesitated for a moment, then opened my mouth.

‘I heard you went to the archives. Did you find out you’re not human?’

‘Yes. I didn’t think the Saint would lie to me, but she did a good job. You knew I was half-human, half-horse, from the beginning. Right?’

‘…….’

I looked him up and down at Iros’s question, and he didn’t seem offended or confused.

Puzzled, maybe, but not in the worst way.

‘Why are you so calm? I thought you were going to run away, or at the very least, try to kill me.’

‘I’m not.’

‘What?’

‘Because I know it was for my good that you lied to me. You told me not to let anyone else know I was a holy power misfit. It’s our secret.’

‘…….’

‘It was to protect me from the people of the temple, and I know it.’

It was to protect you from the priests, who would have gone berserk the moment you set foot in the temple and killed you to ashes, not to mention demons and warlocks.

Iros is innocent and has not harmed or killed anyone., be slain in the same way.

I saved him because I couldn’t give up the warmth of his constant presence in the bleak temple.

Even though I’m a saint and he’s a half-elf, half-horse. We both knew that if we were found out, we would be furious.

‘I found this in the old texts,’ I said, ’a half-elf is imprinted on the soul of the person they love the moment their eyes meet.’

‘Imprint?’

I echoed, confused, and Iros smiled prettily, cupping his hands together to shield the rain from my head.

‘Yes, an imprint. So that you can only love that person forever, and no one else.’

How very romantic… not.

‘So you’re saying it wasn’t my brainwashing that made you fall in love with me?’

‘The moment I first saw you in the alley, the first time our eyes met, I imprinted you as a saint, and that’s why my eyes kept going and my heart kept racing and I wanted to be next to you.’

‘Ah…….’

‘That’s why I loved you from the beginning, and that’s why I hate you for not loving me and for not loving me, and then when our eyes meet again, I love you so much, I can’t help it.’

I wonder if the half-human-half-demon isn’t a human-demon hybrid, but a new breed of puppy.

He’s decided to stop hiding his emotions, and his normally calm face is no longer the same.

Instead, her pink tail spun like a propeller and her ears perked up like a hallucination.

A large pink dog, too fond of its owner to be contained, sends me a sparkling glare.

‘Isn’t this the girl who ran out crying when she saw me with the crown prince a while ago……?’

I blurted out, and Iros’s eyes turned and he growled.

I wasn’t kidding, he growled.

‘Growl.’

‘My child is a werewolf half-breed, not a dog, why does he keep growling, ugh!’

‘Are you going to keep saying that in front of me?’

‘Hey! That hurts!’

Iros clawed at my neck and collarbone in frustration.

He bites so hard it hurts even more than when he bit my tongue. Is he bleeding?

I screamed out in surrender, tears pooling in the corners of my eyes.

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it’s wrong, stop biting me!’

‘I don’t want to. You knew I liked you, and yet you’re stuck with the crown prince, you mean-spirited bastard.’

‘Oh, Iros, you little shit! Damn it. Get up!’

‘I’m not being mean, I’m only using pretty words, now.’

‘Ugh.’

I covered my lips to muffle the swearing.

This is what 9 years of saintly parenting skills……!

I stood there for a long time, wondering what I was doing until I was baptized with a kiss from Iros, and then I surrendered and laughed.

Just then, I heard someone coughing incoherently behind me. It was Leo, a member of the Crown Prince’s Black Knights.

‘Hmph.’

‘……?’

Why does he has such a sour, puffy, bloody face? Where did he get into a fight?

Leo rolled his eyes and spoke up.

‘Uh, now that the lovemaking is over, I’d like to escort you both back to the temple, if that’s okay with you?’

‘Wait. Since when have you been there-’

‘Since the two of you were flirting… no, don’t worry, I was staring at that, distant mountain.’

‘…Where is the mountain here?’

‘Well, it’s out there somewhere. Yes.’

‘……’

Yikes, I’m going to die of shame!

Come to think of it, we’re in the middle of an imperial palace,
I look around and see that the maids and servants who were watching have scurried off to do something else.

They didn’t seem surprised or embarrassed, so I was relieved they hadn’t heard the story about the half-man-half-horse.

By the way.

‘Damn.’

I did not doubt that by moening, rumours would be flying around the imperial palace that the saint and her guardian had filmed a romance in the garden, making out with the master and the shit dog.

How am I going to carry my face in the future?

‘Oh, yes. Don’t come to the palace from now on.

Swallowing back her tears, she turned to Leo with a face as enlightened as a monk practicing the Tao.

‘Come on……. Please send me home.’