Three Years After Quitting as the Butler (2)
"Let go of me! Let go! You crazy, evil villainess!"
"How noisy. Gag that shit-for-brains."
At those words, the people surrounding the silver-haired woman surged forward. Mages in robes swarmed the crown prince—no, the man who had been crown prince until mere moments ago. They roughly shoved a rag into the mouth of the newly deposed 'former' crown prince.
Wait, even so, the guy had been the legitimate crown prince of this kingdom until five seconds ago. And they're stuffing what looks like a dirty mop into his mouth? Is that really allowed?
"Ugh, urk! Ugrrrgh."
The crown prince let out humiliating groans as the mages dragged him away. But a royal was still a royal. Even while being hauled off, he stretched both arms toward the nobles forced to their knees and screamed.
"Please, help me! Anyone! Aren't you all vassals of the empire? Save me! Is there no one?! Someone, please save me from this wicked villainess!"
No one answered.
THWACK!
The guard struck the prince hard enough on the back of the head to make a sound. He collapsed unconscious, and they grabbed him by the hair.
Drag. Drag. Drag. Drag.
They hauled the unconscious crown prince's long body across the banquet hall's red carpet and out of the room.
The imperial family's power had been weakening for a long time, reduced to getting pushed around by the nobility. Everyone already knew this was the age of magic. The nobles of the capital who had gathered to celebrate the crown prince's birthday felt the same. Not a single one of them would dare oppose the elite mages from the continent's strongest Magic Tower—especially not for an imperial family whose authority had weakened to the point of being absolute dogshit lately. Much less their leader, the unparalleled genius mage.
And so. The original male lead of this shitty romance fantasy novel, the [former] crown prince Kaisenn Rosenheim, was expelled from the imperial castle where he had grown up. To be burned at the stake in the public square.
...Wait a minute. In the original story, the crown prince was supposed to burn someone else at the stake today. That Emilia Lichtenstein. She had written a long scroll filled with evidence of how he had tormented her commoner-born saintess lover all this time and stood in the middle of the plaza reading it aloud.
[The villainess, Emilia, is hereby stripped of her ducal title and sentenced to burning at the stake.]
No matter what, burning a woman who had been his fiancée since childhood in the public square was pretty extreme. The guy really was something else. Especially since he framed the ducal house that had been his own backer with treason charges just so he could marry his new lover.
Anyway. The original male lead of this rofan and crown prince of the empire met his end on his own birthday. Only I know that this ending swapped his fate with the villainess he had betrayed in the original story.
After the crown prince's miserable and pathetic exit, a mage wearing a red robe emerged from the group of gloomy, robed figures. The bright red robe was the symbol of a fire mage. The lead mage in the blazing scarlet robe stopped, then threw off the long robe that had covered them from head to toe.
As the hood fell back, abundant platinum blonde hair cascaded down like a waterfall. The sight of it catching the sunlight and shining like golden threads was almost majestic. It was like stained glass in a medieval cathedral. Afternoon sunlight poured through the royal castle's massive windows, bathing the hair in radiance like a crown or halo. Silver-shining, almost pure white gold hair.
Have you ever seen hair that looks almost purely white blonde? That trait is passed down only to the direct bloodline of a single family in this kingdom—the Lichtenstein Ducal Family. That was the exact phrase used in this rofan novel whenever it described the villainess's dazzling appearance.
'Lichtenstein Ducal Lady, Emilia of Pure Silver.'
Character Description
Emilia! The ultimate villainess with an angelic face and a demonic personality. The villain whose role is to interfere with the protagonist couple's love and receive judgment.
Betrayed by the crown prince she had supported her entire life, she was burned at the stake in the plaza on his birthday. That became the trigger for her to awaken her previously unknown talent as a mage!
[ ...Emilia suddenly awakened her talent just before the flames could engulf her entire body! The vast magical power latent inside her exploded. The sudden magical wave caught even the royal guard completely off guard! A massive flame swept through all the high nobles and citizens who had gathered in the plaza to watch the villainess's end, and the aftermath finally spread beyond the square and destroyed the empire... ]
That was the shocking ending that had turned the website where the original novel was being serialized into ashes when the game launched. In the end, it went beyond the imperial capital, collapsed the empire, and destroyed an entire world.
The final black curtain of this novel's world.
It was none other than the villainess I had raised with my own two hands.
Emilia Lichtenstein.
After retiring from my positions as butler, escort warrior, secretary, and chief attendant, the young lady I was seeing for the first time in a full three years...
...had become several times more beautiful than when I last saw her.
Her face had lost its baby fat and become even more refined and slender. Skin so white it looked transparent. She had always looked pale like an albino, but after holing herself up in the Magic Tower doing nothing but magic research, she seemed to have grown even paler.
'My lady, you need to exercise! Don't you know stamina is the foundation of magic power?!'
'Ugh, how annoying! Stop nagging when you're just a butler!'
She never listened no matter how much I nagged her back then. But after I left, it seems she actually took my advice and started exercising. She had always been tall and thin—I used to tease her that she looked like a bundle of firewood.
'I can't say that anymore.'
The figure revealed after she removed her robe made the passage of three years feel very real. The curves that couldn't be hidden even by the stiff uniform clearly showed that its owner had crossed the line from girl to woman. Yet even though she wore the dark red robe to hide the lingering traces of youthful innocence, her beauty refused to be concealed. The perfectly tailored uniform that clung to her body, the red leather boots resembling a cape, the golden epaulets on her shoulders, and the cloak fluttering behind her—it was a perfect picture, perfectly matched with her burning ruby-like red eyes.
Those blazing red eyes were fixed solely on one man: the one with hair grown out to his shoulders and tied back, holding a wine glass in one hand. Her former butler.
Me.
Click. Click. Click.
The soldiers lined up in the banquet hall parted like the Red Sea with every step she took, clearing a path. The only sound echoing through the vast hall was the click of her military boots as she walked straight toward me.
Soon Emilia Lichtenstein stood before me.
"It's been a while."
"Eh? Ehh? Who are you?"
I played dumb. I desperately tried to act like I didn't recognize her. My lady, it's already been several years since we last saw each other! I'm betting everything on the slim hope that you might have forgotten my face in that time!
And...
...I failed. Because Emilia's face crumpled the moment I spoke.
Seeing that expression, I finally understood the rumors about the villainess from the original story.
[Emilia Lichtenstein captures people to maintain her beauty. In the basement of Lichtenstein Castle, the slaves she captured are hanging. Every day Emilia drains their blood while they're still alive and bathes in it... That is the secret behind how the Ducal Lady maintains her dazzling white skin.]
'If eyes could kill...'
Her face looked like she wanted to slit my throat and drain my blood right this second! No wonder she was branded a witch and burned at the stake in the original story. Just look at that face. She really is the very picture of a villainess.
Emilia, who had been glaring at me with gritted teeth as if she was furious, finally spat out,
"...Your insolent personality hasn't changed at all."
She spun around with a sharp swish, squaring her shoulders powerfully.
'Phew, I'm alive. I really thought my neck was about to get cut.'
She had definitely said she would kill me if I ever caught her eye again. So... does that mean I can go home now?
I was slowly backing away from behind the turned-away Emilia when she extended one hand backward toward the soldiers and commanded,
"We've caught the runaway dog. Return to the castle."
"Y-yes?! Whose decision is that?!! Huhhhh?!!"
Ignoring my protest completely, she turned to the tall mage beside her.
"Make sure he absolutely cannot escape."
"By your command!"
Wait, escape? I'm just trying to go back to my own house. The small, precious house I bought with the fortune I saved up over these past few years!
The male mage who had saluted with one hand to his forehead gave me a meaningful look. His eyes burned with fierce determination to carry out the order without fail.
And then.
Clank.
Silver metal was fastened around both my wrists.
...Wait, are those handcuffs?
"My lady! My lady?! Lady Emilia?! This is a joke, right?!! What did I even do wrong? Hey?!"
"You insolent bastard! Shut your mouth! How dare you speak to the Tower Master like that!"
I was dragged away by the swarm of robed mages, shouting desperately at the top of my lungs, but Emilia simply strode forward without answering.
The villainess I had abandoned had returned as a traitor. No—as the new ruler of this country.
After three years.
...Truthfully, all of this had started because my little sister was a fucking degenerate otaku bitch.