The Villain's Ending is Only Death Chapter 44
Renaud suddenly rubbed his ear as if he were bored.
"I thought you'd at least be able to mimic Yvonne since you were brought in as a replacement."
I had begged with all my sincerity.
"Is this what it's like, just sitting here listening to the sound of a chimpanzee shooting a crossbow? Bringing in a rootless slave brat and further tarnishing an already poor reputation."
The response was always disdain and neglect.
"How long do I have to keep seeing the likes of you swaggering around the mansion?"
Renaud's lips curled up in a mocking smile, and someone's face overlapped with his.
- Why do I have to come all the way to this house and see a beggar brat running around?
A voice like an auditory hallucination echoed in my ears.
I never once had the courage to say, "I don't want to see your face," for fear of being kicked out.
But why did it bring back the memory of the incident I had barely managed to suppress?
"Have you ever treated me as a replacement?"
The words slipped out of my mouth as if 'the chimpanzee shooting a crossbow' had flipped my switch.
Renaud, who had never pretended to listen to my apologies, growled at my question.
"So, how much better should I treat a rootless beggar brat you picked up and made a lady? As well as a princess? Or perhaps, like a queen?"
"Sure. Treat me like that just once."
"Maybe you know, if I feel good, I might even mimic your missing brother."
I clenched my teeth and sneered, my face a mess as I laughed.
In contrast, Renaud's sneer gradually faded.
I could feel the temperature in the room drop sharply.
What had been just a minor quarrel a moment ago now made Renaud look as if he could tear me apart at any moment.
The guy called me with a deep, low voice. And then.
The worst-case scenario I had feared finally came to pass.
"Watch your mouth. How dare you…"
"Why? Because my mouth is loose, I talk?"
"Do you think you're the only one who can hate me?"
The image of 12-year-old Penelope appeared before my eyes.
Even though I knew I shouldn't, I couldn't stop myself.
"I'm the same. If I had known the noble family would starve me, I wouldn't have come even if the Duke had asked me to."
"How did I do it? It's nothing special. I just acted like a rootless beggar brat, just like you did to me."
Renaud warned me menacingly.
My affection level dropped again.
The guy seemed both furious and flustered. After all, it was always their privilege to sneer and mock with disdain.
When Penelope got angry, she would charge in with a scream, so my current state must have been surprising.
Perhaps he was shocked by my sudden change, given how I had always tried to avoid upsetting him and apologized obediently.
Either way, it was all just exhausting.
"I couldn't even hold my mother's funeral because I had no money, and I went hungry for days. One day, your father called me his daughter and asked me to come with him."
"Have you ever tasted rainwater collected next to a decaying corpse?"
The 12-year-old Penelope in my mind gradually turned into 14-year-old me.
"Have you ever eaten the leftovers of someone else's meal, cold and tasteless, or food that tastes like garbage, just to survive? Never, right?"
"Why did you wish your brother would never come back?"
Renaud's affection level dropped sharply. If I didn't want to die, I should have shut up and knelt down.
"Because I was afraid of going back to that time."
But instead of begging for forgiveness, I chose to reveal the fear, terror, and desperation I had hidden so desperately.
Because Penelope would have done the same.
She would have prayed to God that the real lady would never return.
"I prayed that someone would drop their food today, so I could go back to that beggar's life, staring at the streets all day."
Renaud called me with a choked voice.
My silent scream was over. I panted heavily and looked at him.
The fear that my affection level would drop and I would die had vanished.
Even if I died right now, I wouldn't regret it.
For the foolish and stupid Penelope who grew up with misplaced anger and hatred. And…
I was about to just wait quietly for the end.
Suddenly, a light flashed above the guy's head.
Renaud's face was stiff, and he struggled to continue.
It was understandable. The life stories of those at the bottom were something he had never heard or seen.
After a long pause, he finally managed to say one word.
"…I didn't know you had such a hard time."
The situation had suddenly reversed.
Just like I had been sweating and carefully choosing my words a moment ago, it was now Renaud who was at a loss.
"You think I, whom you usually despise, was incredibly cunning and tricked the Duke of Eckhart to take your brother's place."
I looked at him with cold eyes and sneered.
"When you accused me of being a necklace thief, I was a 12-year-old commoner who couldn't even read properly."
Renaud's mouth, which had opened to respond, closed in disbelief.
I could see his pale pupils gradually fill with shock, but it didn't feel satisfying at all.
A loud explosion echoed across the sky from beyond Renaud's back, through the open window.
While we were having this meaningless confrontation, the sky outside had turned dark, the sunset long gone.
The fireworks had started.
With the beautiful sight of colorful fireworks painting the black sky behind us, we silently faced each other.
With each explosion, the colored light shadows flickered and disappeared on Renaud's face.
Was it because of that? His expression, as he looked at me, seemed a bit wavered.
At that moment, the pink hair above his head flashed again.
My affection level had risen significantly. A white window appeared in front of me almost simultaneously.
〈SYSTEM〉 [Renaud] and [Watching the Festival] quest completed!
〈SYSTEM〉 Do you want to receive the reward?
I smiled bitterly at the quest window that appeared out of nowhere in a situation where it shouldn't have.
'So, as long as the quest conditions are met, it's a success, regardless of the affection level.'
Still, the fact that I had to press [Yes] in this situation made me shudder.
〈SYSTEM〉 You have received [Renaud]'s [Affection +3%] and a [Crossbow] as a reward.
Seeing the immediate increase in affection, I felt the fire of my earlier defiance slowly dying out.
Unlike me, the fireworks outside the window were still in full swing.
"…Even if I'm kicked out of this house, I'll just go back to being a poor commoner. Isn't that strange?"
I muttered to myself, my voice barely audible over the loud fireworks.
"You always make me feel worse than a slave."
Renaud's face, which had been wavering, completely twisted at my words.
Perhaps it was from this moment that I started imagining my life after leaving the noble family.
I looked at him with dry, lifeless eyes for a moment before turning away.
Renaud called out to me urgently, trying to grab me.
But I didn't even look back as I left the attic.
As I descended the dark stone stairs alone, I alternated between thinking about the increased affection level and the impulsive conversation we had just had.
It was a generous result, considering I had defied him with the resolve to die.
Of course, the past of Penelope that I had revealed was all a brilliant lie.
'How could I know her past, which didn't even appear in the game?'
Eating rainwater next to a corpse, eating cold leftovers.
Those miserable and sordid stories were all just assumptions of what 'she must have been like.'
The [Additional Reward] from the completion of the 'Watching the Festival with Renaud' quest was received a while later.