Chapter 9
“Please eat.”
A meal finally served late at night.
After the meal ended and the empty dishes were cleared away, I quietly handed her a teacup with tea leaves I had purchased from the market.
It was a moment of finally fulfilling my long-standing wish, which I couldn’t achieve the first time I served her.
Yet, despite this, she didn’t even touch the teacup with her fingertips and just stared at it with a sullen expression.
Isn’t it strange? She silently finished the meal I had just served her moments ago.
“Do you perhaps dislike tea…”
“Oh, no. It’s fine. I was just lost in thought.”
Jeremia, snapping out of her thoughts after I called her, hesitantly picked up the teacup.
She began speaking only after sipping the tea and letting a little time pass.
“Did you earn that money for my sake?”
Her question was asked with notable caution.
I responded with a bitter smile, pulling out the pouch I had been carrying and placing it on the table.
“I found a well-paying job. With funds like these, I should be able to prepare meals like today’s for a while.”
“Ah, are you planning to keep preparing meals like this in the future?”
“How could I provide anything less for the one I serve?”
Given how she devoured the food I prepared, it was clear that before my arrival, she likely hadn’t had proper meals.
Since one needs strength to accomplish anything, ensuring she was well-fed was a necessity.
Of course, making the meal even more lavish was a small indulgence of mine, as cooking was one of my skills.
“Well, uh…”
But despite my intentions, her expression remained uneasy.
“You didn’t… resort to crime or anything like that, did you?”
“Crime? Are you referring to me?”
“Well, I mean, it’s not just a small amount of money, and it’s not something you could easily earn through odd jobs… And, you’re a demon…”
“Heh, a demon, you say.”
What could be more disheartening than being distrusted simply for being a demon?
Placing a hand on my chest and maintaining the utmost courtesy, I answered her concerns.
“I am, first and foremost, a butler serving you, my lady. How could I possibly commit acts that would bring disgrace to my master?”
“…”
Jeremia looked at me silently, her lips slightly moving as if she wanted to say something, but those words ultimately remained unspoken, blocked by the teacup she lifted again.
And gulp, gulp. The tea she drank with the words she swallowed.
Watching her enjoy the tea I had prepared brought me quiet satisfaction as I sat opposite her and continued the conversation.
“This city seems to have a lot of incidents and accidents.”
It was the most prosperous city in the empire, but prosperity cast deep shadows.
Where people gather, wealth gathers, and with wealth comes competition, exacerbating income disparity and giving rise to slum-like districts that spread like roots between the city’s affluence.
The desperate struggle of the impoverished to pick up whatever scraps they could from the wealth circulating through the city… Such an environment ensured incidents and accidents were constant, leading the city to heavily invest in resolving them.
“Earning money by resolving such incidents could certainly be considered an honest way to make a living, don’t you think?”
Thus, I assured her that there was no need to worry about me resorting to anything unsavory.
Jeremia listened silently and carefully placed her empty teacup down before asking cautiously.
“What kind of incidents… did you resolve?”
Perhaps my words piqued her curiosity about the kind of cases I handled.
“Well, if I were to put it simply…”
Naturally, I had to answer the curiosity of my master, but it felt a bit awkward to reveal the details unfiltered.
To say that I apprehended a pervert stealing underwear from high-ranking individuals across the city… That wasn’t something one would casually mention to a proper young lady.
“I captured someone trying to exact petty revenge on the world.”
So I phrased it more tactfully, noticing her startled reaction.
This, too, was within my expectations. Facing her, I continued speaking.
“He was someone with dreams and passion. But the world mocked his efforts and discarded everything he had worked his entire life for. For such a person to develop a grudge against the world and harm others was, perhaps, a natural progression.”
It was a story I had encountered before.
And perhaps, for some, it could even be called their future.
“Yet, the world did not forgive him.”
The grip of her hand on the table gradually tightened, her emotions stirred by my words.
“They did not try to understand his circumstances, instead branding him a criminal and dragging him to the judgment seat.”
But I continued speaking because I knew her future.
I knew that the hatred of the one who had made a pact with a demon would grow uncontrollably, eventually spreading malice toward lovers who truly cherished each other.
“Revenge is like that.”
Such a path leads nowhere.
Even though I was a demon, I longed for nothing more than to live a quiet and ordinary life.
“No matter how justified your pain may seem, it remains a personal affliction. The world will never understand it, and at the end of the path lies nothing but ruin.”
“That’s…!”
Jeremia shouted as she listened to my heartfelt warning.
But her words trailed off, unable to fully express what she wanted to say.
Perhaps she had been provoked but couldn’t find the right words yet.
“My lady.”
I spoke to her gently.
“I do not think you are wrong.”
With utter sincerity.
I spoke honestly, expressing my genuine sympathy for her life, which had been denied and dictated by others.
“But the Jeremia I have seen is someone who can feel pain and fear just like anyone else.”
She wasn’t the villainess yet.
Not now, at least.
For now, she was a fragile young lady who trembled helplessly before a thug on the street.
It was evident that choosing the path of vengeance would only bring her misery, and I, out of pity, couldn’t help but wish to stop her.
“Whatever you decide to do, my lady, I hope you will take care of yourself first.”
I wished for her to understand.
Before pursuing revenge, the most important thing was to protect herself.
“Take care of myself…?”
But her voice carried frustration as she replied.
“For my whole life… I was taught to live for the man I’d eventually marry. I believed it was the right thing to do, so I lived according to what others told me to do…”
Her breaths grew shallow, and her body began to tremble.
Tears welled up in her eyes, and her voice, thick with emotion, grew louder.
“Yet, despite all my desperate efforts, that man gave his heart to another woman, discarded me without a second thought, and my family called me useless and cast me out here!!”
The raw sorrow in her emotions was palpable just from facing her.
“That alone creates a narrative justifying why she had no choice but to fall into darkness.”
“And now, there’s no one left.”
At the end of it all, in the empty void left behind, she cried sorrowfully and demanded understanding from anyone who would listen.
“There’s no one by my side. There’s no one to guide me anymore. There’s no one to affirm me anymore!”
Please, if you understand me, take revenge for me.
Plan for me, someone who doesn’t even have a proper scheme yet, and illuminate the path I need to take.
“But still, it feels too unfair to let it end like this! So, if I don’t at least try…”
“You said there’s no one left?”
Yes, to her, I was a guide.
A being to properly lead her uncontrollable vengeance…
Even if I were a selfish and greedy existence, she relied on me to show her the way.
“Lady Jeremia.”
Recognizing this, I resolved to show her the path she needed to take.
“Could you look around you for a moment?”
Before she reached her eventual destination…
I wanted to teach her where she first needed to tread.
“What’s behind you?”
“…Nothing.”
Because the path she had walked until now had been completely denied.
“What’s beside you?”
“Nothing, either.”
Because as a result, there was nothing left by her side.
“Then who is in front of you?”
At this moment, I was standing in front of her.
And she was facing me.
“…You.”
“Yes, it’s me.”
Teaching her that truth, I smiled gently at her.
“You said there was no one, but here I am standing before you.”
Without a shred of pretense, I spoke honestly.
The guide she had chosen, who was once nothing but emptiness, was now standing by her side and would walk with her on the journey she was about to undertake.
“Of course, I am a demon. Selfish and greedy, just as you perceive demons to be. You likely summoned me because you wanted my malice to be directed at the world.”
While the start may have been born from vague resentment seeking form,
I would teach her that the result didn’t have to be malice aimed at the world or her own destruction.
“But precisely because I’m such a selfish being, I hold a more desperate desire than anyone else for the things I want to achieve. And that desire has been fulfilled through your summoning of me.”
Hoping earnestly that the predestined bad ending would be twisted into a better outcome through our meeting.
“Just by standing before you like this, my wish is being fulfilled.”
Placing my hand over my chest, I expressed my wishes to her.
“So let me make this clear here and now.”
Further, I vowed in this very moment.
“As much as you support me, I will support you.”
That as long as she didn’t abandon me, I too would never abandon her.
“Wherever you walk, I will prioritize you above all else, always thinking of you and putting you first.”
As long as she needed me, I would strive to meet her expectations.
“Whatever path you choose to tread in the future…”
Since we had met by chance and were now walking forward together.
I resolved that the journey ahead would be one where both of us could find satisfaction.
“Even if the whole world turns against you, I will remain by your side until the very end.”
Hearing my heartfelt whisper, she merely stayed silent, listening intently.
Time flowed.
The candlelight illuminating the dining room flickered precariously, and the moonlight creeping through the window eventually reached its peak in the night sky.
“…It’s getting late.”
Though no clear answer had come yet, I thought it was okay for now.
As long as she didn’t abandon me, there would be plenty of time to improve our relationship going forward.
“Leave the cleaning to me and go get some rest.”
“…Alright.”
Jeremia hesitated before responding and then stepped away.
As she paused at the entrance to the dining room, she turned back to look at me, her voice trembling slightly.
“Um…”
In a very cautious and anxious voice.
“…Can I see you tomorrow?”
But within it, I could sense a faint glimmer of hope.
The villainess, who believed herself abandoned by the world, was looking to me for a future.
“Yes, I will see you tomorrow.”
Hoping earnestly that it would indeed happen, I offered her a gentle smile, which made her blush before she quietly left.
Perhaps the sorrow in her heart had not yet subsided.
Thinking that such behavior was quite fitting for a lady, I chuckled softly as I gathered the remaining dishes.
“Would this be what it feels like to have a younger sister?”
Come to think of it, I had four sisters when I was human.
At the time, I lamented constantly being ordered around, but during such moments, I sometimes thought about how nice it would have been to have a younger sister.
“Well, surely, taking care of someone is far better than being bossed around.”
Yes, even I began to feel a modest sense of expectation regarding my relationship with her.
Hoping that all the efforts I would make from now on would resonate with her, I tidied up the mansion in the stillness of the night.
***
And the next morning.
While I was sweeping the empty yard of the mansion, someone opened the front gate and began walking in briskly.
Who could it be? Was it a newspaper delivery?
“Are you a servant of this mansion?”
The man was dressed impeccably, but his face bore a clear expression of displeasure.
Putting on a friendly face, I answered him.
“I am Sebastian, newly hired as a servant for this mansion. Do you have business with the lady of the house?”
“Yes, I am Vincent, a knight of the Andersen family. I have a letter to deliver to Lady Jeremia.”
The letter he raised bore a high-quality seal, indicating that his visit was no ordinary matter.
“Is the lady of the house here?”
“…Allow me to guide you. This way.”
It doesn’t feel particularly pleasant.
With that thought, I led the knight from the main house to Jeremia, keeping my guard up.
—
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