Cherishing This Everyday Life
I love this kind of daily life. Today, too, the young lady's mansion was peaceful.
"What comes next... uh, what was it?"
Because of the young lady's scolding about being hungry, I was in the kitchen, apron tied on, cooking away.
"It's been a while, so I'm a bit rusty."
Tonight's dinner menu was a little special. A food that didn't exist in this world. A dish you had to eat on New Year's. Though it was well past New Year's, I'd chosen it to create that festive mood.
Bustling around the kitchen, I heated oil in the frying pan and traced the recipe scribbled in my notebook with my finger as I read aloud.
"Separate the egg whites from the yolks, slice the rice cakes diagonally and soak them..."
Cooking alone meant I fumbled a lot. Even as a pro butler who cooked all the time, making unfamiliar dishes was tough.
Tonight's dinner was tteokguk—rice cake soup. Back in my previous life, it was something I ate every New Year's, and it was one of the young lady's favorite foods. Of course, it had to have way more meat than rice cakes.
As I turned off the flame while making the tteokguk, I sank into thought. Because of that ominous hallucination I'd seen earlier.
Seeing the young lady's adorable side had calmed me down a bit, but it wasn't enough to fully shake off the unease.
The vision of the young lady falling into corruption. The status window, which had only ever shown stories in text before, had given me my first real vision—and it filled me with a terror I'd never felt before.
In the hallucination titled The True Meaning of Vitality, I was dying.
The more I used vitality, the shorter my lifespan got, my face losing its glow. Yet there I was, the idiot me, pushing my body to the limit with vitality, smiling as I watched the young lady gradually improve.
Seeing myself from a third-person view was more profound than I'd imagined. Maybe because I had such a handsome face. Even as I got all skin and bones, I was vainly thinking I still looked good, stirring up complicated feelings.
How can there be such a moron?
At the same time, I understood that guy's heart. Because I, too, smiled watching the young lady regain her energy.
-Eeeeeek...!
-She finally took a step. Young lady.
-Eeeeeek! I can walk more!
-As expected of the world's greatest villainess!
-Don't curse me!
-It's a compliment... oh, it's not? Sorry.
I was grinning as I watched the young lady's legs slowly improve. Laughably so.
As her legs got better, I got worse—but both the real me and the visionary me were thrilled, thinking, Thank goodness, with no hint of regret on our faces.
Her trembling legs taking one step at a time made me so happy.
The troubled thoughts, the fear of what vitality really was—they all washed away like they'd never been there, seeing her cheerful, laughing face.
A bittersweet pang hit one corner of my heart, knowing I wouldn't get to see her like this for long. But watching her wiggle her moving toes and beam with joy? That feeling vanished like it had never existed.
Really. Even I think I'm an idiot.
The me in the vision seemed to vaguely grasp what vitality was. He'd sense it intuitively—what it meant.
Gazing emptily out the window with hollow eyes, or blankly smiling at the young lady—he looked truly happy.
Really.
Time passed like that, until the moment she could walk fully on her own power.
-Thud crash...!
I witnessed the scene I feared most.
The young lady, hugging me tight with a satisfied smile on my grinning face, sobbing sadly.
-Ricardo...?
Up to there, it was okay. The strong young lady would get right back up. That was the young lady I believed in, the strength I'd always seen in her. So I gave a bittersweet smile watching her cry.
She's crying for me, after all.
But even after a long time, she didn't leave my side. She stayed right there.
A day passed. Two days. She stood frozen in place, calling my name.
-...
Three days later, when she finally accepted my death...
I realized my assumption that she'd get over it quickly was wrong.
-Aren't you tired?
-...
-Right? Ricardo.
Her halted tears made me sense something was deeply wrong.
Her tears. The dark magic bursting from her—it surpassed my wildest thoughts.
-Rumble rumble...
It was mana I'd never felt before. Darker and denser than Rowen's—maybe even incomparable to the apostles from the novel's latter half—the residue of black magic poured from her.
-I'll save you.
Her trembling voice, thick with sticky resentment, made me realize the ending I imagined wasn't the best.
This isn't a happy ending.
I had no idea what would happen next, what she'd do. A dummy like me couldn't know.
The novel had nothing like this, no info on the young lady using black magic.
That's why it terrified me more, filling me with immense dread.
At the same time, it gave me a new goal.
I reconsidered what I'd given up on.
Whipping myself for lowering my own limits, avoiding higher heights—I set my sights higher.
Sword Master. Let's start there.
Aim higher, reach those dizzying peaks, I thought.
That would be the best I could do.
Why hadn't I realized? There were better ways.
If there's no path, possessed souls make one—that's what we do.
Giving up didn't suit me. Thanking my future self for showing me the worst, I corrected my foolish past thinking.
I'm a greedy guy.
Enjoying more, claiming the happiness I missed—it's my right. So I could say it:
Let's run toward a happy ending.
As I steeled my resolve and snapped back to reality, a familiar voice came from behind.
"Ricaaaardo! Meat! Meat! Meat!"
I smiled at the young lady sitting at the dining table, thinking to myself,
Happiness is right here—where would I run to?
I replied lightly to her whining.
"Don't you feel sorry for the cows that became dinner?"
"Ricardo. The world is cruel by nature."
"I see. Then, to teach you the importance of health, I'll put only half the usual meat."
"Eeeeek! Demon!"
"Demon? Where would you find a butler as kind as me?"
"Nowhere!"
The young lady grumbled and picked up her fork, her violent intent clear—if I resisted more, it'd fly my way. Smiling at her, I said,
"Meat is the main culprit behind obesity."
"I didn't gain weight!"
"Liar."
"Eeeeek!!!"
The fork came flying with a whoosh.
Her skill had improved a lot—faster and more accurate than before. But it was still way too slow to hit me.
I tilted my head and dodged, then—
-Crackle.
With a small smile, I sparked a tiny static charge on my finger and flicked it at her forehead.
"Ack!"
Her hair frizzed up from the sharp zap. Flustered, she looked at me.
"Hieek...!"
"What's wrong?"
"Something went zap."
"That's the signal you've met your fated partner."
"Really?"
"You believe that?"
"Eeeeek! Don't tease me!"
Teasing the young lady really is the most fun thing in the world.
*
The young lady glared at me with a sulky expression.
"What was that earlier?"
"What do you mean?"
"That. The zap. Wasn't it you, Ricardo?"
Her expression was all over the place as she held out her empty tteokguk bowl. Pushing an empty bowl while asking about magic was hilarious. Normally, you'd ask seriously, but the young lady couldn't hold back her curiosity about that static shock.
I whistled innocently.
"Wasn't me."
"Liar."
"How can you be sure?"
She irritably patted down her frizzy hair.
"You smiled."
"I didn't smile."
"Don't lie. I saw it."
Maybe people who use magic for violence really know it best. The villainess who'd abused magic had sharper instincts than I thought. Whether because she had the author-certified greatest talent, she was snapping irritably, her scholarly fire ignited, eyes fixed on the ladle as she spoke to me.
I wiggled the ladle up and down, watching her.
"Ugh..."
A little meat, and her eyes trembled with a frown. A lot of meat, and they sparkled as she went, "Ooh...!"
Her face was more focused on the meat filling her empty bowl than on magic. Smiling faintly, I said,
"It's a secret."
"Eeeeek!"
I handed her a bowl loaded with meat.
"Yay!"
Yeah. I really love this daily life.
So.
I need to get stronger.