For You, I Will Become a Villain Again

The garden of Kaintreche Castle was certainly beautiful.

Even for me, with my limited knowledge of landscaping, I could easily tell that this place was incredibly well-maintained, and that the gardeners had put in a considerable amount of effort.

“It’s beautiful. It’s on a completely different level from just looking at it from inside the room.”

“It’s a pity you haven’t been able to see this scenery in person.”

“Hehe, that’s why I’m just grateful to Riyad-gongja. I was able to come out for a walk, even if just for a little while, under the pretext of having a guest.”

She has a somewhat different atmosphere from the Sylvia I first met.

Back then, she didn’t seem to have any particular emotions, like a broken doll, but now she’s quite lively. I can really feel the vitality of a person.

It would be great if it meant that I wasn’t too late to meet her.

“Ah, Riyad-gongja. Do you happen to know the name of this flower?”

She, who had been hopping around the garden with light steps, reminiscent of a rabbit, eventually stopped and pointed to a certain flower.

It was a flower with pure white petals and only the edges painted in light pink. Fortunately, I remembered the name I had seen in a book, so I was able to answer.

“It’s probably called bougainvillea.”

“That’s an unusual name. And it’s very pretty. Doesn’t it look like someone playfully added paint on the skin of a white baby?”

“You have a unique way of making comparisons.”

“Is that so? I don’t have much of a way with words, so I don’t know if it was a fitting expression.”

She gave an awkward smile and stood up, but for me, that wasn’t really important.

Whether it’s a fitting expression or not, if you said what you felt, I think that alone is an appropriate sentence.

From this moment on, I hope you transform the things you newly see and feel into your own. That’s why I came here.

“By the way, Riyad-gongja, why are you standing so far away? Come a little closer.”

I was watching her look at the flowers from about two steps away, and Sylvia, with a somewhat sulky expression, waved her hand and pointed to the spot next to her.

Perhaps because I was a little flustered by the unexpected request, I took half a step back and waved my hand.

“Ah, no. I’m comfortable here. Please think of me as not being here and enjoy looking around.”

“Tch, don’t do that. In the first place, if the person who’s supposed to tell me about the flowers is standing so far away, I can’t fulfill my role.”

“Hmm…”

She’s right.

In the first place, if I can’t properly fulfill the role she suggested, today’s negotiation will be as good as nothing.

“…Then excuse me.”

In the end, I awkwardly approached her and folded my hands neatly, like a subordinate.

It seems that Sylvia, whom I knew, and Sylvia in this world are equally difficult to win against with words.

That’s a shame.

Still, I decided to express my gratitude for being able to watch the flower watching the flowers, a new life form of this era, up close, and kept silent.

“Riyad-gongja, Riyad-gongja.”

“Yes, is there any particular flower you’re curious about?”

Suddenly, Sylvia lowered her voice drastically and called me with a playful expression, like a child plotting something.

I have a bad feeling about this.

I remember that nothing good happened after Sylvia made this expression.

“The flowers here, would it be okay to steal a few?”

As if my hunch was right on the mark, she quickly looked around, covered her mouth with one hand as if whispering, and asked a truly unexpected question.

In the first place, she’s always had a bit of a dazed side, but to think she’d ask someone from another family whether it’s okay to pick flowers blooming in the garden of the family she belongs to.

“It’s difficult for me to answer that… But if I think about it generally, I don’t think it would be a problem. After all, the things in this castle are also technically the princess’s.”

I said that because I’m not an intellectual enough to argue about stale common sense like flowers being living things, not objects.

“Right? Right? Then just five stems…!”

Then Sylvia shook her fists excitedly, like a child who had received permission from their parents to play for a while.

Ttuk. Ttuk.

Afterwards, as she had said in advance, she picked exactly five stems of bougainvillea, held them carefully in both hands, and smiled more beautifully than any flower.

“It seems you liked that flower.”

My gaze was unconsciously drawn to that sight, and before I knew it, I was smiling along with her and talking to her.

Whether we were passing by together or visiting a small flower shop, we had seen flowers together several times, but every time, she would just watch them as if they were pretty.

She had never once said that she wanted to pick the flowers or buy them, so if she’s even picking flowers grown in the garden for once, it probably means she liked them quite a bit.

“Yes, of course I liked them, but… It’s the first flower that Riyad-gongja told me the name of, after all. I was thinking of decorating my room with it as a souvenir.”

But it seems that it wasn’t just that she particularly liked the flower.

A souvenir.

You probably don’t know how happy it makes me that you express your memories with me as a souvenir.

The memories I’ve given you in the past wouldn’t be worth packaging as memories, even if I put it nicely.

No, even if I somehow package things like walking around the village and looking at the lake together as memories.

At least the last memory would have been the most terrible and unwanted experience in your life.

– Kai, Il….

“……!”

The moment my thoughts reached that point, I froze at the hallucination that suddenly came to my ears.

Another image is momentarily superimposed on Sylvia’s face, revealed above the small bouquet, like a hazy mist.

She’s lying helplessly on the wide flower field she said she wanted to visit so much, spitting out red blood from her mouth, and reaching out to me.

Would it not be too late if I grabbed that hand now?

With that thought in mind, I was about to reach out to grab her blood-soaked hand.

“…ja? Riyad-gongja?”

“Yes…?”

This time, my consciousness snapped back at the repeated sound of reality.

When I looked down, I saw Sylvia looking at me with a worried expression.

“You weren’t answering no matter how much I called you. You don’t look too good, are you okay?”

“Ah…”

As if that reality was saying to me, ‘It’s already too late,’ I unconsciously sighed and awkwardly retracted my outstretched hand.

“I’m sorry. I was thinking about something else for a moment…”

And then, with a poor excuse, I bit my lip tightly.

Yes, I know.

Even if someone doesn’t bother to tell me, I know better than anyone that it’s far too late to grab her hand.

No, it’s a hand I abandoned in the first place. How could I possibly have the right to grab it again?

But if I’m just pulling her out of the abyss of a predetermined future, there’s no need to grab her hand.

I just need to roll around in that abyss instead.

For that, there’s one more person I need to meet right away.

＊＊＊

After touring the garden with Sylvia, she said that her permitted outing time had passed and said goodbye.

It was a shame, but I had to be satisfied with this for today.

And the meeting that will follow from now on is also very important, so I have to be very careful.

“Hehe, it’s nice to meet you, Riyad-gongja. I heard you had a celebration recently? Congratulations.”

“It’s an honor to meet you, Sir Eleanor. It’s not really a celebration, but I’ve had some gains.”

When the man sitting across from me, a skinny and somewhat small man in his early 40s, greeted me in a rather frivolous tone, I stood up from my seat, bowed, and shook his hand.

This man is Creed Eleanor. Sylvia’s father and the head of the Eleanor family.

By the way, did the news that was only a few days old spread all the way here already?

I was surprised, but I thought it was a good thing.

Anyway, for my plan, it has to seem like I’ve achieved a considerable position within the family in the eyes of others.

“Some gains, you’re being modest. Your position as the next family head is practically confirmed.”

“It’s still a long way off. I haven’t shown you much so far… But fortunately, I think I’ve at least earned the right to stand at the starting line again.”

“Ha, ha. I see! But why did such a precious man come all the way here to see that child?”

After exchanging light greetings and small talk, as soon as the main topic came up, snake-like eyes looked at me and flicked their tongues as if measuring whether I was prey worth eating.

That’s a pretty unpleasant look.

It’s clear that he has the complete opposite personality of Sylvia, at least.

But that’s why I’m glad that I’ll feel less guilty even if I deceive him.

‘Sylvia, I’m sorry.’

Hoping that she would forgive me for saying these words, even if they were insincere, I apologized to Sylvia in my heart and then opened my mouth.

“Sir Eleanor, do you have any intention of selling your daughter to me? I’ll pay you handsomely.”