I Want a Happy Ending Even as a Villainess - Chapter 11

Chapter 11

“Haaaaa….”

I plopped down on a makeshift chair, holding a basket full of harvested vegetables. To save on costs, the orphanage had set up a magical greenhouse to grow its own produce. Unfortunately, today, I was assigned to work there. 

Lake rolled up his sleeves and helped me with the seemingly endless tasks, but I quickly found myself exhausted.

“You can eat these,” Lake said, offering me a handful of small fruits. I took them with both hands and popped one into my mouth. The juice burst with sweetness, and I felt a bit more refreshed as I continued to snack on them.

“This is a bit different from what I imagined. I thought playing with the kids would be the main job,” I grumbled, looking at the sweltering greenhouse and the never-ending rows of crops.

“If you’d prefer, I can ask the supervising priest to assign you more of that,” Lake suggested.

The idea was tempting, but I quickly shook my head. On second thought, with my current stamina, I’d be exhausted after just five minutes of playing with the kids.

“No, it’s fine,” I replied. 

Handling children seemed harder than manual labor. Still, I worried about the toll this kind of work would take on my body. Surely, the priest knew that an ordinary noble lady wouldn’t be accustomed to hard labor.

‘Is this their way of telling me to make use of the guard they assigned?’

If that was the temple’s intention, I was certainly following it. 

Feeling a bit guilty, I watched Lake, who was diligently picking vegetables on my behalf. Then I noticed something strange. Lake wasn’t wearing his usual silver armor today. Instead, he was dressed in a light gray coat and a rolled-up shirt, which looked like everyday clothes compared to his armor.

“You’re not wearing your knight’s armor today?”

“It’s my day off,” he replied calmly.

My eyes widened in surprise. 

“Is it okay for you to guard me on your day off?”

“Days off and guarding are separate matters.”

His response made me sigh.

Was he really coming to the temple just because of me, even on his day off? If I were Lake, I’d have definitely assigned someone else. But he hadn’t, and he didn’t seem to plan on it.

“When are your working days? I’ll only come then.”

“It’s fine.”

“No! It’s not fine with me.”

Despite my firm statement, Lake just smiled silently. He clearly had no intention of telling me.

This frustrating man. I narrowed my eyes and glared at him. Lake casually looked away, evading my question.

“There’s a ball at the Grandel estate in two days. Are you attending?” he asked, blatantly changing the subject. It was an obvious deflection, but I decided to go along with it.

“No.”

I almost told him the truth but decided against it since I wasn’t actually the Crescent duchess at the moment. Lake’s eyes subtly softened in response to my lie.

“It’s a shame. I thought of going along to introduce you to my younger sister.”

“Your younger sister?”

“She usually avoids parties, but for some reason, she’s decided to attend this one.”

“Well, I’m sure there will be other opportunities to meet.”

“I hope so.”

I briefly wondered if this event happened in the original, but it didn’t, because apparently the first time Lilith and Olivia met in the original was at a ball at the Imperial Palace.

Lilith was never one to miss a party, so she must have attended the Grandel family banquet in the origin, and given that, Olivia most likely changed her mind at the last minute and didn’t attend.

‘But lately, nothing has been going as planned.’

I had a feeling I would run into her if I attended.

‘Should I just skip it?’

The maids’ reactions were also suspicious. They weren’t outright discouraging me, so it wasn’t a major issue, but still.

‘I really don’t want to meet Olivia.’

The heroine was a strong character, always at the center of events.

‘Should I just walk away and leave the empire?’

The thought of running away kept tempting me.

“I’m not a priest, so I can’t use healing magic.”

Lost in my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed Lake coming closer. He knelt down to my eye level.

“But I can do this.”

A cool breeze blew over me, and the heat quickly dissipated. It wasn’t the greenhouse air that had cooled, but my body.

“How is it?” he asked, his eyes curving into a kind smile. It was almost as if flower petals were swirling around him in a hallucination.

“Ah…”

I couldn’t help but let out a soft exclamation. Honestly, this appearance and setting were unfair. Truly!

“It’s great, really.”

Had he been keeping a close eye on me while we worked? What a considerate person.

So considerate it was driving me crazy. He’s not even the lead character in the original story, giving me false hope.

‘It would have been better if he weren’t Olivia’s brother.’

These kind gestures were just his nature, meaningless to him, which was all the more frustrating.

* * *

After finishing my volunteer work, I parted ways with Lake and walked to the open space in front of the temple. It was a bit early for the carriage to arrive. With some time to spare, I thought of exploring the temple again.

Then I noticed a handsome man standing by the iron gate, frowning slightly. When we met in the morning, he was wearing a robe, but now his black uniform was fully visible, a suspicious outfit.

“What are you doing here?”

Recognizing him, I greeted him brightly. He relaxed his expression and replied.

“I was waiting.”

“For me?”

He didn’t nod, but it was clear he meant yes.

Was he here to keep me quiet about him being a priest? I recalled how he had cut off Lake’s explanation earlier.

How would he silence me… Could it be? My mind raced with all sorts of thoughts.

“Are you coming to the library today?”

Ah, so it was about that. I let out a small laugh, feeling a bit deflated.

“What if I say no?”

“That won’t happen.”

I was only joking, but his response was serious and firm. Was he planning to drag me there if necessary? The thought scared me a little as I slowly approached him.

“Don’t you need a carriage?”

Instead of answering, he stared down at me. His eyes were clear as the sky, but they were cold and dry, and I felt as if they were condemning me to stare into them.

“Excuse me.”

His large, gloved hand covered my eyes, instantly making my ears feel stuffy. My hair fluttered in the breeze, settling back down quickly.

When his hand fell away, the first thing I saw clearly was the entrance to the library.

“Huh?”

In that brief moment of admiration for the magic that brought me here, I couldn’t help but express my wonder mixed with questions.

It was the same location as before, but the atmosphere was drastically different.

“It’s changed a lot, hasn’t it?”

Where the previous library had a subdued, almost dark ambiance, now it felt fresh and bright. The lighting was brighter, and the scent of flowers from various vases filled the air. The overall arrangement had changed, and the books gleamed as if they were relatively new.

“Are there usually people here?”

“No.”

He replied as he sat at the counter. It seemed like a perfect place to drink tea and read books, so it was a shame there were no people.

“So if you don’t come, I’ll soon be out of business, won’t I?”

“So, you want me to keep coming?”

He shamelessly nodded. I looked at him skeptically for a few seconds before quickly averting my gaze.

It wasn’t that I disliked books, and being close to the temple, the person in front of me didn’t seem to have such a difficult personality.

Most of all, if he really was a priest, it would mean I had another connection with the people at the temple. In any case, there seemed to be no reason to refuse.

“But, um…”

I hesitated before continuing.

“Do you prefer being called a librarian or a priest?”

He introduced himself as a librarian, but Lake called him a priest. It felt ambiguous to decide which title to use for the man in front of me.

“Can you call me by my name?”

“Oh, okay.”

“My name is Saint.”

Although it was a name I’d never heard before, it felt strangely familiar, which made me momentarily flustered.

“Oh, uh, okay… I see.”

I racked my brain for the next thing to say.

“I’m Edeline. Can I look around the library now?”

“Of course.”

Hurriedly finishing the conversation, I headed towards the shelves where books were displayed. I randomly picked up a thick book and flipped through the pages.

I pretended to concentrate on the book, but nothing on the pages registered in my mind. It was just an action to avoid arousing suspicion from him.

Saint. It was a name that I couldn’t help but recognize, even if I tried not to.

He was one of the characters in the original story, an assassin who carried out Lilith’s commands, killing countless people.

‘Am I being deceived…?’

It was a reasonable suspicion.