I Became the Villainess in an Anticlimactic Novel - Chapter 26

“Hic!”

As Lecht’s ferocious gold eyes turned to Ryno’s direction, he hurriedly shook off my hand before hiding behind Tanma. Although he had a young face, he was built like a brown bear and wasn’t able to hide behind Tanma very well.

I approached Lecht, whose eyes seemed to tear apart Ryno at any moment now.

“What happened?” 

I intuitively felt as if Ryno would be in danger if I hadn’t done so. 

Lecht’s gaze shifted to me as I stood in front of him and asked him a question. I put on the prettiest smile I could muster to ensure the wellbeing of Ryno. Lecht’s expression softened noticeably, as if it had been eaten.

Turning his attention to me, he held out a bouquet of flowers. It was the roses that I had seen yesterday, now beautifully trimmed.

“Wow, what’s the occasion? Why the bouquet all of a sudden?”

I hugged the colourful bundle of roses in my arms. The faint scent of roses began to permeate the room.

“You said that bouquets shouldn’t need to have a reason for them to be given.”

“I did?”

I was about to ask him when I said that when I noticed the look in his eyes.

“Oh, the me from 100 years ago.”

Oh god. The me 100 years ago hadn’t even known shame. To think that I said, ‘Buy me a bouquet of flowers. Always. At any time.’. 

In any case, all these benefits were thanks to me from 100 years ago. I praised the past me.

“Have you had lunch yet?”

Lecht asked as I buried my face in the bouquet for a whiff.

“I haven’t eaten yet.”

“Then let’s have it together.”

“Okay!”

I handed the bouquet of roses to Solte and asked her to put it in a vase before following after Lecht. 

He then naturally grabbed my hand. His behaviour was so natural that I didn’t even sense any awkwardness. 

I only realised the situation after I had walked past a few guards and servants after thoughtlessly walking alongside him for a while. The servants burst into giggles after greeting us, while the guards saluted us with a satisfied smile that I couldn’t quite understand.

“By the way, Lecht. Why are we holding hands…?”

When I asked him while looking down at our interlocked hands with wide eyes, he explained calmly.

“Because you said we should hold hands when we walk together.”

No, did the me from 100 years ago say that as well?

“Otherwise I’d walk too fast and you’d get sad and scared when left behind by yourself.”

Wow. The me from 100 years ago must have been great at flirting. You’re telling me that you said all those things without feeling any shame at all?

“That… how long had we known each other for when I said that?”

No matter how aggressive I was, it must have been after we became a couple, right? We were at least a thing, right?

“Three days.”

“!”

I said something shameless like asking you to hold my hand, only after we had known each other for three days? You’re seriously incredible, me.

“It’s good.”

I held Lecht’s hand tighter as I expressed my respect and gratitude to the me from 100 years ago.

* * *

Lunch was more enjoyable than I expected. The food that came out suited my tastes perfectly, the dessert was the ice cream I especially wanted to eat, and Lecht was a friendly talking partner. 

Friendly… because although he never took the initiative to lead the conversation, he still answered all my questions well. However, I wasn’t complaining since I had a lot to talk about as well as questions I was curious about. Rather, I took advantage of the opportunity to ask him a lot of things I was curious about.

“So you’re saying Kelber looks like he only has one head to other humans?!”

“That’s right.”

“And the slugs pulling the carriages look just like horses?”

“Yeah.”

“No way…!”

I heard about a lot of things I was clueless about. In particular, he explained that the main reason he had followed me to the East was because I had recognised Kelber in his true form. 

He had wanted to ask me to go with him to the Temple of the Moon God for a while when we arrived at Chivan Village, which I had been planning to go to since the beginning. Although there was no need for that since Lydia appeared in the middle anyway.

“So I’m the only one who can take that holy object, right?”

“Yeah.”

In addition, I found out that the defensive cheat that I had been thinking of taking was a holy object and wasn’t something that could be taken unless I was the saintess in the first place. I didn’t even know that and had been planning to steal it on my way to fleeing the country.

Then, upon recalling my plan to flee the country, I looked at Lecht again. The reason I was going to flee the country was because the Demon King was going to destroy the Empire.

However, with the Demon King sitting right in front of me, no matter how I looked at it, Lecht didn’t seem to have any intention of invading the Empire. Although he was a man who could wilfully ignore the emperor, he didn’t seem like he would trample over others so recklessly.

“Lecht, about that rose.”

I decided to put my faith in Lecht, who I had met personally, instead of the future written in the novel.

“You said it’s endured for 100 years, right? Without withering nor breaking.”

Since I couldn’t ask him, ‘Are you planning on destroying the Empire?’, I thought up a question with the help of the description in the novel.

“Then… what would you do if it withered?”

Lecht’s hand, which was lifting the teacup, suddenly froze in its place. The cup was placed back onto the saucer with a ‘clack’ sound. The sound was louder than I expected.

“If the rose died, then that would mean your soul had ceased to exist.”

He explained, perhaps because he thought I didn’t understand.

“So that neither reincarnation nor revival is possible. Your existence has ceased to exist, both in this world, and anywhere else.”

Although it was a grave remark, I could spot a subtle wrinkle in his forehead.

“But the fact that the rose has withered…”

Anger flashed across Lecht’s face for an instance. And then it was soon quickly filled with a sense of forlornness.

He looked at me with empty eyes, like a person whose reason to live had disappeared and said.

“It would’ve meant that I had lost you.”

“…”

“If I lose you… I’d probably start by wiping out this continent that took you away from me.”

I felt chills starting from my tailbone climb up my spine and all the way to my skull.

“After that, this world, then every dimension that’s in existence… and finally God. I would eliminate them, one by one.” 

A quiet anger could be felt in Lecht’s voice. It was an anger directed towards this world that had ‘taken’ me away. But after a while, warmth soon filled his voice, as if the anger had never been there.

“But you’re in front of me right now. So I don’t really want to imagine that.”

He looked at me and whispered in a tone that seemed to be of complaint. But my tense shoulders didn’t loosen up easily.

‘So if it weren’t for me, you were actually thinking of wiping out the Empire?!’

If I hadn’t been transported into this novel. If I hadn’t coincidentally run into Kelber that day. Although all sorts of ‘if’ scenarios came to my mind, the biggest realisation I had was the importance of my existence in this world.

‘Then what’s going to happen if Lecht is disappointed that I’m different from the me 100 years ago…?’

Although I had simply thought, ‘I’ll just find out what I was like 100 years ago!’, I now started to worry about something completely different.

* * * 

For the sake of the wellbeing of the world, I urgently needed to find out about what I was like 100 years ago. Because I now knew that the weight on my shoulders was not just Lecht’s expectations, but also the destruction of the Empire route.

But it wasn’t as easy as I thought it’d be. And that was because Lecht wouldn’t leave me alone.

At the beginning, a bouquet of flowers was given everyday, making the room reek with the strong scent of flowers. There wasn’t even enough space on the table to put them anywhere.

“It’s better to look at fresh flowers. So it’s fine if you stop giving them to me.”

“Every garden you see outside the window belongs to you.”

Just because I had said it was a bit too much, he decided to give me a garden of several thousand pyeong1, rendering me speechless.

“Wait, now what else is this?!”

“I thought they would all look good on you, so I just bought one of every colour.”

Since he couldn’t give me flowers, as if his hands were just itching to buy them, he constantly bought me clothes, shoes, and accessories.

“It’s too much! Even my room is full!”

“As expected, just having one floor is too small.”

And then gave me a villa as a gift for my excuse of not having anywhere to put them.

“There’s nowhere for me to wear it anyway. Aren’t I just at home everyday?”

“You must be bored. Do you prefer going to plays, or concerts?”

He interpreted my words of having nowhere to go as me saying I was bored, so he called for various theatre and orchestral groups.

‘I don’t even have any time to find out about me from 100 years ago…!’

I didn’t have much time to think without him there, so I racked my brains for a bit and ended up saying…

“Demonic creatures are so fascinating! I’d like to spend some time with Kelber!”

It was absolutely ridiculous. But…

“In any case, I’ve made a demonic creature zoo for you. Did you want to take a look?”

He wrapped up my flimsy excuse beautifully. His affection was like an unstoppable tsunami.

i’ll take him if u don’t want him ara GHDSLKJ

Even though I tried to find out about myself from 100 years ago to set a course of action so as not to disappoint him. I had even thought to seduce Lecht if the me from then and now were just too different! But I didn’t even have time to come up with such a plan, let alone find out more about me from 100 years ago!!

With a heavy heart, I chose the most extreme method that I had left for my last resort. 

* * *

“…So why did you say we were doing this again?”

Ryno, who was squatting in the bushes at the back of the building with me, asked. 

“…I thought that this way, Lecht would leave me alone.”

I avoided his gaze since it sounded like a childish solution, even to me. Fortunately for me, however, Ryno didn’t seem to be someone who thought of complications like that and would back me unconditionally if it was regarding me.

“Are you avoiding His Majesty?”

“Well… yes, something like that.”

“What has His Majesty done to wrong you, Your Majesty?!”

Wait, how did you come to that conclusion…?

“Huu, I knew it. I knew His Majesty would make a mistake someday.”

He shook his head with a look of ‘today’s the day’.

“Go ahead. What has Our Majesty done? Huu, I’m already getting the feeling that it’s not the usual big problem.”

“No, he didn’t do anything wrong. I’m just trying to avoid him because of some circumstances…”

“What? It can’t be!”

When I spoke truthfully, Ryno let out a big gasp before coming to an absurd conclusion again.”

“So His Majesty is suppressing you, Your Majesty!”

Bro. Why are your conclusions always so extreme?

“You always say that people’s freedom shouldn’t be restricted recklessly, yet you yourself don’t actually put it into practice either?! I’m so disappointed in His Majesty!”

“It’s not about suppressing my freedom…”

“Don’t worry, Your Majesty. I’ll risk my life to help you escape.”

I licked my lips as I watched Ryno’s eyes blaze with determination. How is he always so resolute?

As I was thinking about how to pacify this situation, I decided to just change the subject altogether.

“Why is Ryno so good to me?”

I sat down on the handkerchief that Ryno had laid on the ground and asked him with my chin cupped in my hand.

“Because Your Majesty is my life’s saviour.”

To prevent me from getting cold, Ryno only chose warm winds, letting it flow to me and replied.

“Also, Your Majesty is the one who gave me my name.”

With a smile that seemed to look happy, I asked back.

“Your name? Ryno?”

“Yes.”

“The me from 100 years ago was quite…”

You even had a bad sense in naming. You can’t just name them ‘Ryno’, no matter how much they resembled a rhino or how determined they were. That’s just too much.

“…Special.”

To say my sense in names was lame was the same as saying his name was lame, so I simply twisted my words.

“I think so too! When you first gave me that name, I wondered if you were crazy.”

“Ahaha…”

Although his honesty might have sounded rude, I laughed awkwardly, knowing that he hadn’t meant any harm as he added.

“Your Majesty is the only person in this world who could see me, who grew up at a garbage dump and was covered in rubbish filth, and say that you’d call me ‘Ryno’, since I’d become an invincible2 guy!”

“Oh.”

However, I let out a sigh when I heard the true meaning of the name, which was completely different from what I expected.

[1] unit of measurement, approx 3.3m2

[2] ryno’s name is actually 무소 (muso) and invincible is 무소불능 so it’s actually a bit of wordplay.