The Villainess Whom I Had Served for 13 Years Has Fallen

Chapter 71: No kissing without my permission

Hanna's weeping continued until dawn.

*

It was a sunny morning.

I was standing in the kitchen, preparing breakfast for Hanna who would return to the Royal Academy in the afternoon.

The lady, with her half-asleep eyes, sat at the dining table, rubbing her sleepy eyes and asked me in a drowsy voice as I cooked.

"Ricardo. I conquered Chocolate Land today."

The lady had finally fulfilled her dream.

I asked her about the conclusion of her political story regarding Chocolate Land, wondering how she resolved the conflict with the Chocolate Land citizens in a way that they would accept, knowing the lady.

"Have you become a wise ruler?"

The lady nodded and said.

"Mhm. I ate them all."

"…?"

"They were delicious."

The lady said with a dreamy smile.

"My dream is world domination."

"Let's give up on that."

The lady threw the fork she was holding.

It's healthier for your mental health to give up on dreams that don't come true early on.

Out of pride for the current Royal lineage and wishing it a long existence, I placed a pot that I had made myself from the workshop upon the magical stone-powered gas range.

A black pot.

Although I had made it myself, the lady found it odd-looking and disliked it. She said it looked like a cursed teapot.

Having loved hot soup in my previous life, I was quite satisfied using it.

I planned to make a light meal this morning.

Not a stimulating dish like tteokbokki, but steamed eggs, a Korean dish, to soothe Hanna who had been through an emotional ordeal.

As someone possessing someone else's body, I couldn't let my pride prepare a mundane meal.

To uphold the dignity of a butler, I furrowed my brow and focused on my cooking.

"…Ricardo."

"Shh. I am concentrating on cooking."

"It's serious."

The lady gestured to her empty plate.

The lady, rushing me to fill her empty plate with food, spoke bluntly.

"Bread."

"You need to have rice."

"I'm hungry."

"Eating snacks before the meal prevents you from enjoying your meal."

The lady asked with a serious expression.

"What's for breakfast today…?"

Placing more importance on today's breakfast menu than future plans or the flow of politics, the lady inquired with a serious look.

Confidently, I responded to the lady.

"Steamed eggs with rice."

The lady clenched her fists around the fork. It seemed that she was looking forward to the steamed eggs after a long time. Although I was happy imagining her greasy stomach accepting the revolution of a different meal,

The lady, however, had a discontent look about her, not ready to welcome the revolution.

She expressed her discontent.

"The mother hen will be sad, so let's have meat instead."

"The mother hen's offspring have already crossed the point of no return, with the yolk and whites separated."

"…Ricardo."

The lady glanced sadly at the pot.

"The mother hen is crying."

"…"

"Don't you hear the mother hen ‘crowing' sadly? The grief of a mother searching for her son in the chicken coop… it saddens me."

The subject of meat always heightened the lady's sensitivity.

The lady put on a sullen face and spoke to me once more.

"Give the steamed eggs to the mother hen, and make meat for today's breakfast."

"Denied."

"Eeeek!! Meat! Meat! The mother hen is going to come and haunt Ricardo."

"The mother hen is destined to be dinner tonight, so you'll have to wait a bit longer before she can meet her children."

The lady raised a question mark over her head.

"Chicken?"

"Yes."

"She's gone to a good place then. The mother hen will be happy."

The lady nodded vigorously, mourning the Cockerel family who had served as her daily bread in her heart.

True coldness befitting the empire's greatest villainess.

After a moment, a scream came from the second floor.

-Kyaaaak!! Have you gone mad!!!

Hanna, who had just woken up, was kicking the blankets furiously, and the sound echoed down the stairs.

-Crazy… This is crazy… What are you going to do hugging me there… Ahhh! Crazy woman…!

The lady raised her head and said.

"Ricardo, she called me a crazy woman."

"It's not true."

"No, she said I'm mad."

"It sounds more like she's calling herself mad."

"Is that so…?"

To console the upset lady, I placed bread on her plate.

The lady bit into the bread with a moved expression.

"Yum."

The lady’s wounded heart was healed by a single piece of bread.

-Thud thud thud

The faint sound of footsteps could be heard from the stairs. The morning's embarrassed main character, Hanna, timidly made her appearance in the dining room, head hung low.

"Ah… Did you sleep well?"

The lady, with bread in her mouth, saw Hanna and said.

"Crybaby."

Whoosh…!

Hanna's ears turned bright red.

"Don't tease me."

"Crybaby. You cried a lot."

"…"

"You also stole my chocolate."

The lady still held a grudge about the chocolate snatched away from her last night.

Hanna, with her face flushed, sat down. She did not forget to bow slightly to me as I was cooking in the kitchen.

Sprinkling salt on the steamed eggs with the fervor of a chef, I turned around and greeted Hanna.

"Good morning."

"Yes… good morning… About last night, butler…"

"Yes, I slept well."

The lady interjected awkwardly into our conversation.

"Ricardo didn’t sleep a wink yesterday."

"…"

"He kept walking in and out of the room because he was worried… Hey! Don't cover my mouth!"

"It’s embarrassing."

"Eeek!!!"

Hanna couldn’t lift her head, overwhelmed by embarrassment.

-I really tried hard, why does no one acknowledge it… waaah… how much effort I put in…

-Am I not acknowledging it?

-…Because the butler keeps doing that, I… get the wrong idea…. Waaah….

-Don't cry. The lady dislikes it when you cry.

-…Ricardo is mine…

-Waaah…

I thought it must be hard even for me to look her in the face. She cried her heart out in my arms; perhaps it would have been stranger to look at each other nonchalantly after that.

Knowing Hanna's embarrassment, I offered a strained smile as I placed the steaming steamed eggs on the table without saying anything more.

Why are you so sad?

I held back questions about why she had cried, instead hoping with a small smile that she would enjoy the carefully prepared meal.

"It's a risotto made with eggs. I hope it's to your taste."

A blushing Hanna carefully scooped up some steamed eggs with a spoon. Swallowing hard at the sight of the perfectly made yellow eggs, she gingerly brought it to her lips, cringing at the heat but soon opened her eyes wide, adjusting to the unfamiliar dish.

"It's delicious."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"Really…"

Hanna lowered her head while looking at the spoon.

"It’s delicious…"

An emotional Hanna bowed her head.

Sensitive Hanna.

Just as she was about to quietly leave her seat, the lady, who had been watching Hanna intently, disrupted the moment.

"Crybaby."

"I'm not going to cry!"

"Liar."

"…Even the young lady is a crybaby."

"I'm an iron-blooded lady without tears."

The lady said smugly, yet her tears started welling up when she saw my bandage-free right arm.

"Ooooh…"

"Why are you trying to cry, lady?"

"Just feeling sad."

It was a sensitive lady indeed.

Time passed and the afternoon came when Hanna was to leave the mansion.

Standing in front of the gate, Hanna looked back with a face full of reluctance towards me and the lady. And.

-Grrrrm…

Gomtang was watching.

Hanna looked at Gomtang with trembling eyes, whispering as if she had seen an entity that shouldn’t belong in the mansion and inaudible to Gomtang.

"Is it a pet?"

"Yes. I picked it up in the Hamel mountains."

"The Hamel mountains? What kind of dog do you find in the mountains… Isn’t that… a bear?"

I answered Hanna's question firmly.

"It's a dog."

"It looks like a bear no matter how you look at it."

"It's a dog."

Gomtang seemed to like Hanna, rubbing its top against her leg.

Feeling the fluffy head of Gomtang against her calf, Hanna had a complicated expression.

Twitching her shoulder and looking scared for a moment, she also had an expression showing her desire to touch the silky fur.

Seeing the more relaxed expression on Hanna’s face compared to yesterday, I felt a bit more at ease and cautiously handed her a paper bag that I had hidden behind my back.

"I tried making some cookies."

Hanna stood still.

Visibly moved by the unexpected gift, she stared silently at the paper bag in her hands.

I teased the hesitating Hanna.

"Your hand might fall off."

"But I haven't given you anything…"

I shook my head and responded.

"You can give it later."

Succeed and pay back.

There's no such thing as a free lunch in this world. Imagining Hanna's future as a successful prosecutor and a generous patron, I smiled affectionately.

"I believe in you, Miss Hanna."

Hanna, with a blushing face, carefully accepted the paper bag. Gripping the handle firmly as though she would never let go, Hanna looked at me with moist eyes and said.

"I will definitely repay you later. I’ll succeed so notably that you can't refuse."

‘I have a feeling that the message came across differently…'

The young lady, sitting in a chair, also gave a small wave and greeted Hanna.

"Take care, crybaby."

"I'm not a crybaby."

Just as I was about to turn around and head back to the mansion, she shouted at me with a loud voice.

"Butler!"

Hanna ran towards me.

Wondering if she left something behind, I stood still, but Hanna was still hurrying over.

‘What’s going on?'

With her eyes tightly shut, Hanna ran up and stopped in front of me, raising herself on her tiptoes with her fists clenched.

"Did you leave something behi… huh?"

‘Peck' – The cool touch of lips against my cheek. Soft sensation. Was this heaven?

Startled, I stood there dumbfounded.

Touching the spot on my face where lips had been, in a daze. Hanna, with a mischievous smile, looked at me.

"This… This is just a goodbye kiss, so don’t get the wrong idea."

My face was suddenly burning hot.

"Yes…"

The young lady gripped the chocolate firmly.

"Eeek!!! Get out!"

The young lady was very angry.

***

Hanna left, and darkness crept over the silent mansion.

The young lady was looking at me, lying beneath her thighs with a serious expression.

Flaring nostrils.

A furrowed brow.

I asked the young lady.

"What are you doing?"

She answered seriously.

"Disinfection."

The young lady was rubbing a handkerchief over my cheek where Hanna’s lips had passed.

My cheek was red-hot.

Not from the handkerchief rubbing but because my body is not so weak.

It was the shadow cast from the young lady's chest that made my face turn red.

It was a splendid view.

Far better than the autumn leaves I'd seen in the Hamel.

The young lady spoke sullenly.

"No more kisses from now on."

"There's no such rule."

"It was created today."

The young lady seemed possessive.

"Ricardo is mine…!"

I responded to the young lady with a smile.

"I am aware."

I liked the young lady just as she was.