Villainess in Love

Chapter 7

* * *

Yunifer was trapped in a chamber of ice.

Initially, she had thought it was a room of mirrors, but quickly realized that was not the case. The frozen walls never gave way despite her pounding on them over and over again.

The frosty air made her skin prickle with goosebumps. Just as she was vowing revenge on the person who trapped her here, a flame burst into life in front of her eyes.

It was a small flame the size of Yunifer’s finger.

She reached toward it tentatively. Desperate for heat, Yunifer quickly gathered the flame up and drew it close to her chest. Surprisingly, it did not burn or hurt her at all. The flame merely gave off a steady warmth as it slowly grew in size.

The crackling flame continued to swell bigger and bigger. Suddenly, the little flame seemed to have grown big enough to swallow her up, but yet somehow she was not afraid.

Yunifer clapped her hands in joy.

“Come on... Get bigger! Bigger!”

“Haha,” laughed an unknown voice.

She could hear the sound of stifled laughter coming from somewhere. It felt like the voice was laughing at her, but as far as Yunifer could tell, she was alone in the room.

After having looked around for the voice, Yunifer realized that the source of the hushed laughter was actually the flame she had in her arms.

Yunifer tilted her head in confusion.

When she looked closely, she thought she could see a faint outline of a man’s face inside the red flame. He looked familiar.

If he was who she thought he was, he would probably be covering his lips with the back of his hand. His eyes would be half-moon shaped and his lips, upturned in a gentle smile.

“Ishid...”

Suddenly, the flame exploded in size and became a giant sun. The ice that was trapping Yunifer melted away into a giant puddle. The melting walls splattered her with droplets, but the water wasn’t cold at all. Rather, it ran down her neck, warming her entire body.

So warm. So comfortable.

Yunifer wondered how something so pleasantly hot could exist and opened her arms wide to try and hug the flame.

A pillar of fire rose from the sun in front of her and dove into her arms.

“Do you need more?” asked the unknown voice.

Before she could answer, a few more pillars extended out of the sun. The ropes of fire attached themselves to Yunifer, spreading a toasty warmth pleasantly over her skin.

It felt wonderful.

“Mmm... It’s so warm...”

“I’ll give you as much as you want. Just try to rest.”

Yes. I’ll get some re— Wait what?

Yunifer, who had been nodding along like an obedient child, paused and opened her eyes just enough to peek through her lashes. She could see a smooth neck with a masculine—and quite sexy—Adam’s apple before her.

When she tilted her head up, she could see a sharp jawline and further on up, a pair of smiling green eyes.

“Sleep a little longer.”

“Ishid...?”

Ishid’s face lit up when Yunifer whispered his name.

“Good afternoon.”

“Uh, good afternoon. Wait, what in the...”

Yunifer looked around at her surroundings. Aside from the beautiful face before her, everything she could see seemed quite ordinary.

She was in her own bedroom.

The only thing out of place in the room was Ishid himself.

The fireplace Rosie had been stoking all morning had gone cold.

“Oh that?” Ishid said, following Yunifer’s gaze. “I put it out. It was too hot to bear,” he confessed as he watched her continue to examine the room.

He probably couldn’t stand the roaring fireplace’s blistering heat in the middle of summer and put out the flames.

“You’re much warmer than me so it works out fine.” Yunifer said.

“Do you like me better than that fireplace?”

A hopeful look—full of expectation—spread across Ishid’s face; he was eager to know how he stacked up against the very average fireplace.

“If I had to compare, sure?”

Ishid smiled brightly once again. The beauty of the moment made Yunifer’s heart ache.

Yunifer turned her head in hopes of letting her heart take a break from all the suffering it had gone through that day.

Then, her brow furrowed as she realized something very important.

“Hey, but how did you get in here? This is my room...”

Ishid’s formerly bright smile faltered a little.

The window was too small for him to enter through, and she would have known if he had come in through the door as Rosie would have notified her that there was a guest.

“Through the fireplace…?” asked Yunifer.

There were a few conditions that had to be met, but she knew that Ishid could travel through flames. It was high-level fire magic that only a handful of people throughout history had been able to master. One of those people just so happened to be lying next to Yunifer.

“It was an emergency so I had to use magic,” whispered Ishid, his voice strained.

He seemed to be begging for forgiveness in advance.

Yunifer’s eyes widened. She could not believe his confession.

Thus she asked again, “So, are you telling me that you broke into my home?”

You, Ishid Lucrenze, out of all people, breaking into someone’s home?

What surprised Yunifer wasn’t the break-in itself; what shocked her was that it was Ishid, the goody two-shoes hero protagonist, who had done the breaking in.

“I tried to ask if it was all right a couple of times through the fireplace, but you never replied. I was worried that maybe you were too sick to speak, and I couldn’t leave you whimpering alone in the throes of sickn—. I’m very sorry. I’m making excuses,” Ishid sighed. “Yes, I broke into your room.”

He looked rather distraught at his sudden realization. In fact, he now looked more surprised than Yunifer had when she had opened her eyes to find him next to her.

“Ah.”

A moment later, he buried his head into his hands.

She is going to hate me. His distress was written all over his face.

Yunifer lifted her eyes and looked into Ishid’s face. Through his fingers, she could see his eyes brimming with tears.

His green eyes—the same shade as the letter he’d sent her—had darkened slightly with regret and his black hair hung over his face and bent neck. She couldn’t help but notice that Ishid’s hair remained jet black in the sunlight, unlike most people whose black hair would turn dark brown outside.

Most people had Ishid’s same hair color in the area Yunifer was from, but she had never seen a man that looked as good as he did with it. He was breathtaking.

Yunifer placed her hands on her chest and pressed her palms inwards.

Her heart was pounding—with each thump, her chest tightened and ached more.

No! Stop! I am going to have a heart attack! Someone, please stop him.

Heat was rising to her face, even though she had been shivering from the cold just a few moments ago.

Putting his hand gently on her shoulder, Ishid said, “You have my deepest apologies.”

He looked once more at Yunifer, who was staring blankly at her palms. Thinking that she was still angry, Ishid removed his hand from her shoulder.

His long eyelashes lowering, Ishid smiled sadly.

“If you would like me to leave, I will,” the melancholy in his voice audible.

“...”

Ishid took Yunifer’s startled and dumbfounded silence as a request for him to leave and turned to go.

As soon as he left her side, the loss of his heat made Yunifer feel oddly bereft—and cold.

Pulling himself into a standing position, he looked down at Yunifer. His expression forlorn as his eyes shined with tears.

If he started crying, Yunifer was sure that would be the end of her.

Cause of death: The tears of a beautiful man.

Who made Ishid so sad! Who is to blame?!

The realization hit her the moment Ishid had fully left the bed.

“Wait, it’s me! This is all my fault!”

Yunifer forgot that she was sick for a moment and reached out, desperately trying to grab Ishid’s hand before he could leave.

“I-I heard you—. Ugh!” A coughing fit interrupted her hoarse words.

Yunifer tried to shout anyway, afraid that he would really leave. Her swollen throat burned from the strain.

Panting and exhausted, Yunifer wrapped her hand around Ishid’s wrist and sat on the bed with her head leaning on his outstretched forearm.

Ishid looked down at her questioningly.

After a moment of silence, Ishid sat down next to her.

“Is there something you want to say to me? I have all the time in the world.”

Ishid grabbed the cup Yunifer had carelessly dropped on her bed earlier. He looked around for a water jug but the only water in the room was within Yunifer.

Rubbing her neck gingerly with one hand, Yunifer lifted a finger and a stream of water poured into the cup.

Ishid watched the falling water and warmed it up before handing the cup to her. The water felt hot on Yunifer’s lips, but not so hot that it scalded her. She knew that Ishid would never give her something that would burn her.

Having become used to the water's perfect temperature, Yunifer smiled softly before she suddenly spoke.

“Let’s say that you heard a scream for help as you were walking through a residential area. It was impossible to ignore, so you figured out where it came from and looked in through the window,” she said.

“You could see a person lying unconscious on the floor inside the house. You push open a window and climb in to save the person. If you hadn’t made that decision, something worse might have happened to them. Would you think that was wrong? To altruistically help someone in need?”

Ishid seemed to understand Yunifer’s meaning, despite her strange wording.

His long eyelashes cast his irises into shadow, the green color darkening even more.

“You may think that I’ve done nothing wrong, but I don’t see it that way. My actions were self-serving, not altruistic in the slightest. If I had seen anyone else, I wouldn’t have helped them.”

Yunifer sighed quietly to herself. He had frustratingly high moral standards.

But there is Plan B.

Yunifer grabbed Ishid’s hand with hers and gave him a broad smile.

“Then let’s just say that you didn’t break in.”

“What do you mean?” Ishid asked, puzzled.

“You entered with my permission. You can stay as long as you want. Satisfied now?”

Ishid’s eyes shook like the sails of a ship caught in the middle of a storm. They trembled in a sea of tears, capturing the smiling Yunifer in its watery mirror. He pressed his eyes shut as if he could not bear to look at her any longer and he glanced down.

“...”

Ishid balled his hands into fists at his sides, almost as if he were suppressing rage. His palms burned from his fingernails digging into them.

The man who usually carried himself as if he owned the world looked as fragile as glass.

If there was ever anyone who could be described as perfection, it would be him, but in this moment he looked rather more like a puppy in need of a hug.

Yunifer grabbed his shoulders with both of her hands. Her messy brown hair tied in a careless ponytail swung freely.

Yunifer’s mana, twinkling like brilliant stars from a dusky blue sky, sunk into Ishid.

“It’s refreshing, isn’t it?”

Ishid frowned slightly the moment he felt the pulsing mana. His palms no longer burned from his fingernails.

Yunifer was performing mana purification on him, something that only mages of opposite classes could do to each other.

The process was completely different from just simply letting mana out. With mana purification, a mage had to open up and let all the mana flood out from deep within their heart. It was usually only done between mages who were very close with one another.

It wasn’t a particularly difficult bit of magic, but it did require a large amount of mana and thus was not something a sick person should be doing.

Ishid hesitated, not knowing how to feel about the situation.

“It felt good, right?”

Yunifer forced her icy cheeks into a smile.

Ishid bit his lip before answering.

“Yes...”

Yunifer’s eyes closed in satisfaction. It was Ishid who had received the mana purification, but she felt just as good as he did.

Despite the waves of cold that had washed over her, she hadn’t grimaced once.

“It’s going to feel good for me too,” pointed out Yunifer.

“What do you mean?” Ishid asked, puzzled.

“You do know how to do it, right? I would like something in return. A reward, if you will.”

Yunifer tapped her shoulders with her hands, a teasing smile playing across her face.

When Ishid refused to move, Yunifer opened one eye and urged Ishid to make up his mind.

“What are you waiting for? Come on.”

Provoked, Ishid suddenly stood upright.

He dragged his feet like a dog on a leash and stood in front of Yunifer. The two large hands lightly brushed Yunifer’s shoulders for a moment before pulling away.

Yunifer raised her eyebrows at Ishid’s sudden retreat.

“Do you not want to do it?” asked Yunifer.

She hadn’t meant to push him.

She shrugged her shoulders as if to say that it didn’t matter if he refused.

“I do.”

“Then why did you stop?”

Ishid saw her shoulders droop and thought about what he should do.

She was much smaller than him physically. The fact always made him extra careful when he was near her but today she seemed even tinier than before.

“This is my first time trying mana purification, so I’m not sure how much mana I should use,” said Ishid in a small voice.

“Just follow your instincts. That’s what I did and it was my first time too.”

Yunifer twisted her feet, a bit frustrated by how long it was taking Ishid to decide what he wanted to do. She lightly grazed his calf with her bare foot.

“What if I hurt you?” he asked quietly.

Yunifer’s eyes shuddered slightly at the dark voice.

She cleared her throat nervously and raised her face to chastise him.

“What do you mean ‘hurt me’? There’s nothing to worry about. After all, I’m the opposite class of you so the danger should be neutralized. It’s not like it’s attack magic anyway. Have you ever known anyone to get hurt from mana purification?”

“No, I haven’t.” replied Ishid reluctantly.

“Then that should ease your worries. Anything else holding you back?”

“No.”

“So then let’s get on with it.”

Yunifer lifted Ishid’s hands herself and placed them on her shoulders.