The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

TLed by NolepGuy

Chapter 38

Late dawn.

Olivia, who had returned to her room on Ricardo’s back, couldn’t fall asleep easily.

Even when she propped her pillow high.

Even when she turned her body toward the window.

Even when she buried her forehead into the pillow and lay face down.

Sleep wouldn’t come, and her eyes remained wide open.

Olivia rested her chin on the pillow and muttered like an unemployed person.

“I’m tired… but I’m not sleepy.”

The scar she had seen earlier in Ricardo’s room kept flickering before her eyes. The grotesquely distorted skin and the blackened arm. It wasn’t something that could be easily forgotten just because she wanted to.

“It was so disgusting.”

Ricardo’s faint smile kept surfacing in her mind, leaving her feeling uneasy.

After all, sleep is supposed to come when both the body and mind are at peace, allowing for quality rest.

If this gloomy emotion continued, it seemed she would stay awake until the morning sun rose, unable to sleep a wink.

Olivia sighed.

With only a single lamp on the nightstand beside her bed casting light, Olivia, wearing a distressed expression, muttered softly.

“I was in a good mood for three days….”

Now, I feel gloomy.

*

Three days ago.

Olivia felt happy every time she looked at the calendar.

[☆September 21st☆]

*Foolish Butler’s Birthday!

*Think of a birthday gift!

*Plan a surprise!

She was excited about the birthday party for her foolish butler, who forgot his own birthday every year. It wasn’t a party with lots of people but a party just for the two of them. Since it was the first time she was celebrating her butler’s birthday after his injury, Olivia was thrilled.

Ricardo didn’t show much interest in his once-a-year birthday.

-Birthday? Oh, why bother with something so tedious? Just eating a bowl of seaweed soup is enough.

-Seaweed soup?

-It’s a soup made from sea plants.

-Sounds unappetizing.

Even last year and the year before, he only remembered it was his birthday right before the day ended, saying, “Oh right, today was my birthday,” and then went into the kitchen alone to eat seaweed soup.

She thought it would be the same this year too.

She wanted to show her foolish butler, who didn’t bother celebrating his own birthday but poured his soul into hers, how exciting and fun a birthday could be.

So Olivia prepared a surprise.

She had read about it in a book.

In the philosophy book [Father, You Shouldn’t Do This!].

Ricardo’s favorite book, filled with truths and insights about the world. He had said it was full of useful life lessons.

When she asked to read it together, he handed it over after coloring half the book with a black pen. But the content inside was genuinely the real deal.

Adultery and love rivalries.

How to slap someone with less pain.

And even how to deal with a flirting fox.

Ricardo’s favorite book, packed with life lessons.

On page 134.

It detailed how to create unforgettable memories.

-Father was hiding in my wardrobe.

She couldn’t know the backstory because Ricardo had blacked it out with a pen, but as a knowledgeable reader, she could roughly guess what came next.

The daughter-in-law must have loved the father-in-law’s surprise. Her face turned red every time he appeared.

Inspired by this, Olivia prepared a surprise party for Ricardo.

She worked hard for three days.

She wanted to give hints.

She wanted to ask if he knew what day September 21st was, and she wanted to test if he would like the gift she had prepared. But she barely held back.

It was obvious he’d catch on if she suddenly asked, “Do you like this?”

When she received the gift she had sent the maid to fetch, she couldn’t stop smiling. Forgetting Yuria’s words that his leg couldn’t be healed, she wholeheartedly prepared for Ricardo’s birthday.

The birthday came quickly.

While Ricardo went to practice swordsmanship, the maid pushed her on a tray.

The tray, unable to bear her feather-like weight, got dented, but she figured it was because it was cheap. She thought the butler would forgive her.

After much struggle, she arrived at the butler’s room, which was more shabby than expected.

Ricardo, who had converted a storage room for outdated dresses into his room. It was a poor condition with no heating and no soundproofing.

There were no decorations.

No luxury items in sight.

She felt a pang of sadness in the room, which seemed to exist solely for the purpose of hearing her voice.

A book lying open on the desk caught her eye.

A medical book, worn with use.

Next to it was a notebook filled with dense writing.

[On Neurology.

*Once severed, nerves are difficult to regenerate. Especially the central nervous system…]

This isn’t it.

I’ll have to look for another book.

[On Rehabilitation.

*Rehabilitation is a miracle. If done consistently, one can hope for a miracle someday…]

Should I try it weekly?

Just enough so the Young Lady doesn’t find it too hard.

A thick notebook, filled with barely legible writing, lay on the desk. Olivia clutched the wrapped gift tightly.

The butler, who had always avoided studying. Ricardo, who used to slam his forehead on the desk whenever he opened a book at the academy, now sat at this cramped desk studying. The thought made her heart uneasy.

I should’ve prepared a better gift.

Instead of a scarf or gloves from the marketplace, I should’ve gotten a tie from a tailor shop frequented by young noblemen…. Of course, the gold coins saved in her piggy bank weren’t nearly enough to buy even a small tie, but regret lingered, and Olivia crumpled the gift in her hands.

Time passed, the maid left for the day, and it was time for Ricardo to return to his room.

Olivia held her breath inside the wardrobe.

Creak. The sound of the opening door echoed as a sweat-drenched Ricardo entered the room.

“Ha… I’m exhausted.”

With a sigh, he placed the sword strapped to his waist next to the chair and began unbuttoning his shirt without hesitation.

Oblivious to her presence in the room, Ricardo revealed his bare skin, and Olivia clenched her fist tightly.

-…How indecent.

Momentarily forgetting her swelling emotions, Olivia covered her mouth and focused on the surprise party.

-He doesn’t know I’m here.

Foolish Ricardo.

When I jump out with a “Ta-da!” from the wardrobe, he’ll be so surprised.

“I want to tease him quickly. Quickly. Quickly!”

Ricardo slowly undressed. As he unbuttoned the front of his sweat-soaked shirt, his sharply defined abs came into view. Gulp. She swallowed hard.

Olivia’s face burned. She didn’t know where to look, and though she covered her eyes with her hands, her fingers were spread wide open.

“Ugh…!”

If he takes off his pants, that’ll be a problem.

I feel like I’m going to get a nosebleed.

Olivia, her face red as if it might explode, tensed up.

If he looks like he’s about to take off his pants, I’ll leave immediately.

Olivia peeked through her fingers, stealing glances at the butler’s body.

Ricardo unbuttoned the cuffs of his sleeves. Then, he began taking off his sweat-soaked shirt.

Gulp. She swallowed hard again.

This isn’t peeping; it’s for the surprise party, so Ricardo will understand, Olivia thought as she focused her gaze.

She was speechless as the white bandages slowly came into view, wrapping around Ricardo’s body.

‘Huh?’

There were bandages.

Bandages tightly wrapped around the body beneath the clothes.

This wasn’t a battlefield or anything.

Ricardo, with half of his body wrapped in white bandages, stood before her.

‘What is this?’

A wave of unease swept over her.

She felt that something was wrong.

The bandages covering half of his body seemed strange.

He had specifically mentioned his arm, so why were the bandages wrapped so extensively? It was odd.

‘Is it a tattoo? No, Ricardo said his tattoos were only on his arm.’

‘It’s probably nothing. He just wrapped the bandages to cover the tattoos.’

She desperately denied it.

Even though she actually knew what lay beyond the bandages, she was denying the truth to herself.

After seeing the Blue Window last time, she had a hunch. She thought she had mentally prepared herself.

She had even planned to ask and talk to Ricardo during his vacation.

‘Ricardo clearly said he wasn’t hurt.’

But it seemed her heart wasn’t ready yet.

Her hands trembled as she looked at Ricardo, who was unwrapping the bandages around his body.

As Ricardo unraveled the bandages in front of the mirror, the hidden wounds on his body slowly came into view.

Drip. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Ah… no!”

[Viewing Ricardo’s Hidden Secret. 1/1]

‘No…! Ricardo clearly. Clearly. He said so!’

She made meaningless whiny complaints.

She kept denying it, saying this couldn’t be happening, that the decaying right arm had nothing to do with her.

But the vividly visible Blue Window… that damned Blue Window caught her as she tried to run away.

‘This doesn’t make sense.’

Yuria’s words flashed through her mind.

-Huh? Didn’t you say the wound was caused by Dark Magic going on a rampage?

-That’s right.

-But why is it so clean…? This doesn’t make sense.

-It doesn’t make sense?

-Usually, when someone fails with Dark Magic, the Mana Circuit burns out, causing instant death, or the flesh slowly necrotizes, eating away at the body. But Olivia has no signs of necrosis, either externally or internally.

She suddenly remembered Yuria’s words as she looked at her with curious eyes.

-It’s a miracle. A miracle.

-The leg should have rotted away under normal circumstances.

-Judging by the fact that Divine Power doesn’t work on it, it’s definitely a wound caused by Dark Magic…

Starting from the chest, there were distorted scar marks resembling burn wounds. And the blackened right arm.

Time seemed to stop.

In those three seconds, dozens of thoughts raced through her mind, and her lips trembled uncontrollably.

So that’s what Ricardo meant when he said it was tree bark.

He was referring to how it resembled tree bark.

That arm. He was talking about that arm.

The blackened, cracked wound was what he called bark, wasn’t it?

Olivia trembled.

It would have been better if she hadn’t known.

It would have been better if she had remained shamelessly ignorant.

It was a terrible thought, but Olivia felt she couldn’t face Ricardo anymore.

She wished the wardrobe door wouldn’t open.

She wanted to run away.

She had never resented her unmoving legs as much as she did now.

The butler’s hand drew closer and closer.

Olivia spoke in her heart.

‘Don’t open it.’

‘Please don’t open it.’

‘Please… I’m not ready yet….’

But time didn’t wait for her fragile heart, and her eyes met the startled gaze of the butler.

“Ah… Young Lady?”

Ricardo, looking at her as if he were the one who had committed a crime, even though she was the guilty one.

The first words out of the flustered Ricardo’s mouth shattered her heart.

“Ah… I tripped, that’s all.”

At that moment, she thought.

‘I’m such trash.’

***

In the empty room, Olivia stared blankly at the Blue Window before her.

[Q. The Secret He’s Hiding has been completed.]

The day the master she had served for 13 years collapsed.

Ricardo was there.

No one knows what happened that day.

Except for one person.

Only her butler knows the truth of that day.

Ricardo has been trying to hide that day’s events for his entire life. The secret of that day, which he wanted to quietly bury without anyone knowing.

(!) Uncover the Secret of That Day.

1. Viewing Ricardo’s Hidden Secret. (1/1)

2. Touching Ricardo’s Hidden Secret. (1/1)

29th Side Story

[You can view ‘The Man’s Secret.’]

[Would you like to view it?]

Olivia nodded.

“I’ll view it.”