The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

TLed by NolepGuy

Chapter 54

The path leading down to the dungeon for the exam.

Yuria and Mikhail, paired as a team of two, were advancing through the dark dungeon, illuminating their way with magic.

The walls were covered in moss, and traces of battles remained. It gave off an eerie feeling.

The professor had assured them that safety personnel were stationed throughout the dungeon, but the oppressive atmosphere of the dungeon was not easy to shake off.

Yuria hugged her shoulders against the chilling sensation as she moved deeper into the dungeon.

This exam was conducted with a focus on real combat, unlike previous ones.

The scoring system was designed so that inserting monster parts, like an orc’s ear, into the orb-shaped artifact distributed beforehand would increase their score. To achieve a high score, they had to subjugate numerous monsters, including high-ranking ones.

Lower-tier monsters like skeletons, which anyone could hunt, attracted many students but offered low scores. As a result, Mikhail and I were heading deeper into the dungeon to hunt more challenging monsters.

Yuria showed the artifact in her hand to Mikhail and asked.

“Did you take good care of the artifact?”

“Yeah. I put it safely in my pocket.”

Mikhail nodded.

The orb-shaped artifact played a crucial role.

Not only did it serve as a scoring tool, but it was also an emergency communication device to call for safety personnel.

It had to be kept safe.

Aiming to be the top of the class, Mikhail and Yuria continued descending into the deeper layers of the dungeon.

While descending the stairs leading to the deep layer.

Mikhail, walking beside her, quietly spoke up.

“Yuria.”

“Yeah?”

Mikhail hesitated for a moment.

After much deliberation, he finally opened his mouth to speak.

He hadn’t seemed in a good mood for the past week. Was it related to that?

Yuria felt slightly worried about what Mikhail was about to say.

Mikhail intensified the brightness of his [Light] magic and said.

“Actually, I met Ricardo a week ago.”

“What?”

Yuria froze.

A familiar name came out of Mikhail’s mouth.

A name he would never normally mention.

A name that wasn’t even casually spoken at the academy, yet Mikhail was saying it himself.

Surprised, Yuria looked at Mikhail, but his expression remained unchanged. As he silently descended the stairs, speaking as if it was no big deal, Yuria asked again.

“You met Ricardo?”

Mikhail nodded.

“Yeah. I ran into him while taking a walk at dawn.”

“You ran into him while walking?”

“Yeah, he was harassing people living in the slum in an alleyway.”

“An alleyway…?”

The mention of an alleyway made Yuria stop in her tracks.

Drip. A water drop formed from the moisture on the ceiling fell onto her face, but Yuria didn’t flinch.

Yuria fell into deep thought.

‘He said an alleyway, right?’

Alleyway.

Could he mean the place where I was almost dragged away by vagabonds…?

An odd thought crossed her mind.

Could Ricardo have gone to the alleyway because of me? The idea seemed absurd.

Yuria’s heart foolishly started pounding.

‘What’s wrong with me?’

Yuria placed her hand over her chest, where her heart was beating. The dungeon, with its cool breeze, suddenly felt strangely hot.

‘No, that can’t be it.’

Mikhail’s deep sigh snapped Yuria out of her thoughts.

“He’s still the same, that guy.”

Mikhail’s expression twisted in disgust.

His dislike for Ricardo was palpable.

“Still as savage and cruel as a mad dog.”

“…Really?”

Mikhail’s words barely registered in her mind.

‘No way… That’s ridiculous,’ she thought, but the idea consumed her.

She definitely disliked Ricardo.

Yet, strangely, thinking about him made her face flush.

If they met, she’d surely lash out and say hurtful things, but like a fool, she couldn’t stop thinking about him. The memories of that time drove her crazy.

When Ricardo saved her in the mountains.

-Close your eyes.

When he helped her in the alleyway.

-Don’t breathe; the air will get polluted.

Those moments kept resurfacing in her mind.

She still disliked him.

He had tormented her for no reason.

He was always around whenever trouble arose.

He even locked her in a wardrobe to torment her, yet she couldn’t stop thinking about him.

Mikhail glanced at Yuria’s face and spoke.

“Yuria, your face is red. Are you feeling unwell?”

“Ah… No! I’m fine.”

Yuria fanned her face with her hand to cool down.

‘I must be losing my mind…’

A brief silence followed.

The awkward name Ricardo had become the topic of conversation, making both of them respond awkwardly.

Mikhail spoke to her.

“Yuria, what do you think about Ricardo?”

Mikhail asked an odd question.

“Me?”

Startled, Yuria looked at Mikhail, but his steady gaze waited for her answer.

Without much thought, Yuria replied to Mikhail.

Though it felt uneasy, she still disliked Ricardo. Despite being grateful to him, the bitterness from what happened at the academy lingered deeply in her heart.

The feeling of being tormented by someone she trusted was indescribable.

With an awkward smile, Yuria told Mikhail.

“I absolutely hate him. More than anyone in the world.”

“That’s a relief.”

Mikhail’s stiff expression softened.

*

We continued walking toward the deeper layers of the dungeon.

Skeletons and ghouls.

We encountered undead monsters, but due to our advantageous compatibility, we dealt with them easily.

The artifact, which calculated scores, emitted a [Beep] as the score began to rise. Although we accumulated enough points to rank among the top, it was still far from sufficient.

Ruin and the Crown Prince’s Team were overwhelmingly strong.

The first-place team had made a bet to treat everyone to a meal at the academy, igniting Yuria’s competitive spirit.

The deeper we descended, the heavier the air felt against our skin. It was cold and oppressive.

Growls from monsters echoed around us, and the deeper we went, the more pronounced the battle scars on the walls became.

Deep gouges in the walls.

Dried bloodstains, now brown, were visible here and there.

Yuria hugged her shoulders, overwhelmed by an eerie feeling. Even with the artifact ensuring her safety, she couldn’t help but feel scared.

Still, the points were piling up…!

If things continued like this, first place was within reach.

She was confident she could win a scholarship from the academy.

Just as she was starting to feel good, imagining her bank account growing for the first time in a while—

“Please save me…!”

A man’s voice echoed from a corner of the dungeon.

Mikhail and Yuria stopped fighting the monsters and turned toward the source of the sound.

They shared the same thought. Let’s check it out.

We didn’t hesitate to head over, but Ricardo’s words from not long ago flashed through my mind.

-Don’t meddle unnecessarily.

Yuria shook her head to dispel the intrusive thought.

What was the point of remembering Ricardo’s words? He was a man who lied all the time. She knew that recalling his advice would only hurt her, yet her feet refused to move.

She felt uneasy. It seemed like something was off.

Most of Ricardo’s offhand warnings had been tied to frightening events.

“Let’s go.”

Mikhail spoke to me as I hesitated.

“…”

“Yuria?”

“Ah… Ah!”

Yuria shook off her thoughts and headed toward the direction of the voice. After passing through two alleyways… she saw a man lying next to the stairs leading to a deeper layer.

A long black coat.

A white shirt.

The man was collapsed on the ground, bleeding.

The floor was littered with signs of a fierce battle, and a dagger the size of a palm was embedded in his chest, alongside numerous stab wounds.

“Ah…?”

The clothes looked very familiar.

They were the same clothes worn by the man she had seen during her assignment with Ruin in the Hamel Mountain Range.

It was a cleric robe of the heretics.

Yuria’s hands trembled.

She didn’t know what to do.

Her heart screamed at her to save him.

But her instincts rejected the idea.

The thought that she shouldn’t heal this man made her heart race uncontrollably.

The man lying on the ground groaned in pain, urging her.

“Please save me… I can’t breathe…”

Gripping the dagger in his chest, the man let out a pained groan. The sight of him sweating coldly and struggling evoked a whirlwind of emotions.

The conflicting thoughts of needing to save him and not being able to froze her in place.

As I stood there stupidly, lost in thought, Mikhail grabbed my shoulders and shook me.

“Yuria! Snap out of it!”

“Huh? Ah, ah…”

“What are you doing?! Hurry up and use healing magic!”

-Don’t meddle unnecessarily.

Ricardo’s words from that time kept lingering in her mind.

Normally, she wouldn’t have hesitated to heal, but today, Ricardo’s voice felt unusually vivid.

Yuria spoke in a trembling voice.

“But… he’s a heretic.”

Mikhail answered urgently.

“Even if he’s a heretic, we still have to save him!”

Seeing me frozen and unable to do anything, Mikhail sighed as if he had no choice and began pouring a potion over the man’s wounds while supporting his shoulder.

The healing potion, two of which were provided to each person by the academy.

It was an expensive potion, more than sufficient for emergency treatment.

Mikhail supported the man.

It seemed he was planning to abandon the exam and head to the upper levels.

As he hoisted the man onto his shoulder and tried to stand—

A chilling voice whispered into Mikhail’s ear.

“Yes, you should save me.”

-Thud.

The man drove the dagger embedded in his chest into Mikhail’s abdomen. Once. Twice. Three times.

With a choking sound, Mikhail’s pupils trembled.

The man snatched the potion from Mikhail’s pocket and poured it over his chest wound.

The wound began to heal.

The torn flesh mended rapidly thanks to the potion.

Letting out a deep breath, the man straightened his back and, with a grotesque smile, spoke to the bleeding Mikhail.

“Wow~ I really thought I was going to die. But I survived, thanks to you. Truly, thank you, Saints…!”

Dragging his legs, Mikhail clutched the dagger in his abdomen and staggered backward. He tried to retreat, but the deeply embedded dagger caused him to collapse to his knees.

Yuria ran to the fallen Mikhail.

“Mikhail!!”

Mikhail spoke to Yuria.

“Run, Yuria…”

Yuria began pouring healing magic into Mikhail’s abdomen. As the bright green light enveloped Mikhail’s body, his breathing stabilized.

A sigh of relief escaped her lips, but—

“A healer, huh.”

The man standing behind her reached out his hand.

A blood-soaked hand began to block her vision. The consuming fear made the man’s hand appear enormous, like that of a giant, and the sticky blood dripped onto her face.

“Ah… Ah…!”

Yuria was paralyzed with fear, unable to do anything. She just stood there like a fool, unable to speak, as the man reached for her.

“Stop it!”

Mikhail shouted.

Drawing his sword, Mikhail swung it at the heretic.

Though he struck decisively, a dull sound rang out, and Mikhail slumped forward.

“Perfect. I was in need of a healer, and this works out nicely.”

The man looked at her with a twisted smile.

“Let’s not say no. I’d hate to have to cut off those pretty fingers.”

Uttering those chilling words, the heretic dragged her deeper into the dungeon.

With trembling hands, I shattered the artifact hidden in my possession.

The orb that summoned the Knights’ Order.

However,

“Aaaah!”

On the stairs leading to the deep layer, knights lay collapsed, gasping for breath and bleeding. Beneath the feet of one knight, who was telling her to run, an escape scroll lay torn and useless.

Yuria’s body trembled like an aspen tree.

What should I do…

What should I do…

What should I do…

She felt utterly hopeless.

There was no way to escape.

And the thought of what horrifying things might happen made her vision go dark.

“Let go!!”

Yuria struggled.

“Let me goooo!!”

She struggled to break free from the rough grip of the man dragging her, but he raised his hand high to threaten Yuria.

“Shut up?”

Whoosh.

Just as the man’s hand was about to strike Yuria…

“Hey, you hopeless fools.”

A familiar voice rang out.

A voice that shouldn’t be heard in the Deep Layer Dungeon echoed as if it had been waiting.

“Because of you…!”

The man was crying.

Like a child who couldn’t achieve his dream, he clenched his fists tightly and spoke to us, hidden in the darkness.

“I couldn’t even take a bath with the Young Lady…”

Fwoosh. As a red shimmering energy spread, the man’s face began to blur.

A man with red hair.

It was Ricardo.

Ricardo looked at us and said.

“If it weren’t for the reward, I wouldn’t have come… Damn it…”

*

[Save Yuria.]

Reward: Dark Magic Resistance Lv. 4, Rehabilitative Touch [B]

It was a quest that couldn’t be refused.