Chapter 296 – #69 End, Revenge Hero BAD END (1)
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With Mona clinging to him with his arms wrapped around him, the Count left the bedroom and headed for the mansion’s lobby.
Whatever Emilia had done, she was currently able to reach the place she was aiming for by getting lost or wandering because her [Guide] Magic tool was disabled.
“Are you awake, Master?”
When she reached the lobby, she bowed her head and greeted Count Hilde, who was waiting there.
She took a quick look at Mona, and saw her communication magic tool in her hand.
Did he use that to call Hilde?
“Okay. … Didn’t she always take care of me by my side?”
“As the master’s maid, it was a natural thing for her to do. Rather, I’m sorry I couldn’t be by your side when you woke up.”
Hilde reproached herself and said.
There were dark circles around Hilde’s eyes when she said that, and she looked very emaciated.
Although she rarely expresses her emotions, the Count, who has been watching her all along, knows very well that her heart is never bold and her heart is tender.
“Master. Punish me.”
And, Hilde looked at the Count and said so.
Her expression contains many emotions.
It was remorse, it was sadness, it was regret, it was apology, it was pity.
“I swore allegiance to you, but I cheated on you and did what you did not want me to do.”
“I am a sinner.You deserve to be punished.”
Although she was the count’s faithful confidant, she tricked the count and taught Emilia the whole truth.
I knew very well that the Count did not want that, but I went against the Count’s will nonetheless.
Hilde hoped that the Count would not die.
Even if he had to die, he hated it so much that he would end up misunderstood and lonely.
And she knew very well that Hilde could not fill the Count’s loneliness.
That’s why, she listened to Mona’s proposal and was the only one who could do it… She told the hero Emilia everything about her.
“… Bee…”
“Please punish me, master. I will accept any punishment. If you die, I will die.”
“Then close your eyes, Hilde.”
Saying that, the Count raised one of his arms. His hands are wide open.
—Are you trying to slap me?
Hilde put her raised hand in her eyes for a moment, then she obediently closed her eyes as the Count commanded.
Will this be enough to take out the master’s anger?
It won’t be one or two. Ten… Twenty… No, even getting hit by a hundred is not enough.
Even if this life was sacrificed, atonement would surely be impossible.
‘The thing I’m most afraid of.’
‘Dear Master… I’m afraid of being hated…’
It’s scary that he doesn’t look at me anymore.
I am afraid that I will kick you out of this mansion and declare isolation so that I will never see you again.
Since she grew up and swore allegiance to the Count, she has never disobeyed him.
However, this time, since he committed an act that was close to deceiving him, the fear of punishment for his crime grew endlessly.
Hilde shook her shoulders at the sound of her hand cutting the wind.
Next moment.
Woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo woo
“Yeah, eeeee… !?”
Hilde’s cheek was pulled tight, and she let out a pitiful sound.
“Ohhh, is this soft?”
“Really? Really? I have to try it too~★”
The count’s hand pulling Hilde’s cheek.
Following the count, Mona also tugged at Hilde’s cheek.
“Ah, ah, ahayo (it hurts)…”
Suddenly, both cheeks were pulled, and Hilde’s pain stung her tears.
How much did she bother Hilde’s cheek like that? The Count and Mona barely freed her Hilde’s cheek.
“End with this. How dare you deceive me, you used the sealed [Cheek pinching punishment].”
“Ooh, uh…”
In front of her weeping Hilde, the Count moved his hand and pretended to pinch Hilde’s cheek again.
Then Hilde flinched and trembled, closed her eyes again, and stuck out her cheek.
The count laughed at Hilde’s appearance and stroked her hair instead of pinching her cheek.
“… I was foolish and made you suffer.”
“… No. I would say hardship——”
“Sorry. And thank you, Hilde.”
At the Count’s words, Hilde shut her mouth and lowered her head.
Then, she let the count stroke her hair as she did.
She is clearly an adult, but she seems like a normal child as her head is stroked by her count.
When she was young, her family was destroyed due to an ugly conspiracy and almost sold as a slave to a horny noble somewhere.
Earl Meln, who saved her and filled her with everything.
To her, Earl Meln was both her lover and a second father.
And maybe that’s the case with the Count as well.
I don’t know the exact feelings she has for Hilde, but something similar to them must be something like her ‘love for her daughter’.
After Mona joined in and stroked Hilde’s hair and tousled her hair, the Count removed her hand from her Hilde’s hair.
“You look tired, Hilde, you should go and rest.”
“… Now that the master is awake, I, the maid of honor, cannot rest.”
“Rest anyway. It is an order.”
“… Yes.”
Hilde pouted her lips like a child.
But surely, after staying up all night for almost two days and still not sleeping for several hours, she rushed to run, and now she was weighed down by a heavy feeling of fatigue.
Hilde calmly judged her own condition and decided to follow her count’s orders.
But before that, there is something to be said.
“Master, if there is no urgent matter right now, I recommend that you go to the master’s greenhouse.”
“The reason is?”
“There is someone waiting for you, Master. He, like me, has not slept for days and has been waiting for his master.”
“… I get it.”
At the Count’s low reply, Hilde bowed her head one last time and left.
* ***
In the Count’s mansion, there is a garden he is proud of.
Collecting and researching rare plants in the world is almost his only hobby.
On the continent, there is still a strange 『Darkness』 Covering many places, and many areas and the animals and plants that lived there are drying up or deteriorating due to it.
Among the dogs, there were also very, very rare things that the Count had managed to collect one step ahead of him, so now in this garden and greenhouse of the Count, there were also rare plants that were the only ones left in the world and had the same value as gold.
In such his greenhouse, in that garden, the count enters.
The ceiling is made of expensive glass, and because it is enchanted, it is always kept clean without a speck of dust.
Thanks to this, despite being indoors, I was able to get a full glimpse of the beautiful night sky through the transparent glass.
A starry night.
The light of the large full moon is pouring in, and it is sitting in the greenhouse garden illuminated by subtle magic tools…
Inside such a garden where light and light harmonize to create a fantastic sight.
Deep inside, Emilia was standing in front of the desk where she and Emilia often spent time before.
Standing under the soft magic tool lamp, she slowly turned around, perhaps feeling the count’s presence.
“… You’re awake, Count.”
“Okay. … I can’t believe it, I didn’t know that I would be able to see you again today.”
What he says is probably the story before the ceremony took place.
With the resurrection of the demon king, he must have intended to sacrifice himself and disappear from the world.
“Emilia, why are you here at this late hour?”
“… Well. It’s just that I can’t sleep well. Somehow, it seemed that you would wake up today.”
“Come to think of it, I felt good in a strange place.”
“I don’t feel good about myself.”
If he really had a good feeling, he would have known in advance the danger that would come upon him on the day he hid in the count’s mansion.
Is this also because he is a [Hero]?
After all, Emilia only feels good about others.
Certainly, Emilia doesn’t feel dissatisfied with that fact.
The conversation ends there.
Silence began to flow between the two.
Whether they both have nothing to say, or whether they are looking for something to say.
Or, even if they do not speak separately, are they communicating their thoughts?
In a pleasant silence, the two look around the greenhouse and capture the sight with their eyes.
The light from the magic tool lanterns and the silver moonlight coming down from the sky harmonize, creating a truly beautiful sight.
It mingled with the shallow darkness, and it made it possible to easily bring out various things in the minds of the two.
Like being drunk, with that light… I felt like I was intoxicated by the sight of this beautiful garden.
“… Count, you brought me here often. I felt like I knew it was a place you really liked.”
“Well, yes, but… In the end, what I did here… It was like that.”
“What, why are you talking so vaguely? Not like you.”
Emilia chuckled.
It was because Count Meln rarely showed hesitation.
Every time I showed a childish selfish appearance as if I couldn’t see anything different, but now that I’m showing that way, I somehow laughed.
