The Villainess is Retiring

Chapter 8

[There are so many eyes on us here. I thought you wanted to pretend that you created the fire back at the manor.]

[I did, but...]

I slowly scanned the faces of the crying children. They were skinny and wearing shabby clothes made of thin fabric. Emma was right. Without a fire to keep them warm, they wouldn’t survive.

[Look at them. We have to help. I have a heart.]

To be honest, I’ve never been the type to go out of my way to do nice things for people. Volunteering or donating money? Who had time for that? I was too busy trying to make a living.

However, whenever there was a person who needed help right in front of me, I never had the heart to ignore them. But a lot of people probably feel the same way, so I’m just an ordinary person.

[Harry, I need fire.]

[Well, I mean, I do whatever my contractor wants.]

Harry answered in a somewhat happy voice, and a fire instantly lit up the fireplace.

“Aaah!”

Lionel screamed and plopped down on the floor. Emma was so startled that she started to hiccup. Soon enough, the cries of the children died down. As the black steel wood burned, the house started to get warm.

“Are you a magician?”

A boy asked cautiously as he stared at the fireplace.

While looking at Emma, I smiled and said, “Emma, do you remember the promise you made to me back at the manor?”

She hiccuped again and nodded.

To confirm, I asked her once again, “So what will you do about everything you saw and heard tonight?”

“I will forget everything.”

Bingo.

I smiled again as I got up from my seat. I needed to get back to the manor.

“Emma, you can come back after you’ve calmed the children down a bit.”

My words seemed to surprise her, and she stood.

“No, I’ll go back with you, my lady.”

“Emma, you do know that you’re not the only one who can talk around here, right?”

I was telling her to make sure the children didn’t talk about what just happened. Fortunately, she caught on quickly.

“Ah... How shortsighted of me. I’ll make sure they don’t say anything either.”

I nodded to her, then gestured to Lionel who was still stunned and sitting on the floor.

“Sir Lionel, you come with me.”

“Yes, my lady!”

He hurriedly stood and came to my side, leaving his sword where he had been sitting.

Is it really all right for someone like him to be a knight?

Just as I was thinking that, Harry let out a sigh.

[Master, can we just abandon him? I feel frustrated just looking at this man.]

* * *

Lionel was clumsy even on the way back to the estate. He was at least twice as bad as he was on the way to the poorhouse. Apparently, he was still quite shocked by the fire that could burn the black steel logs. I left Emma to take care of the children, so he was my responsibility.

“Sir Lionel.”

“Yes, my lady!”

“Everything you’ve seen and heard tonight...”

I let the sentence hang in the air as I watched his shoulders stiffen.

Visibly nervous, he answered solemnly, “I won’t tell anyone anything about tonight.”

“Good. If I ever hear people talking about what happened tonight, I’ll assume it was you who talked and...”

“And... what?”

“I will take your fingers.”

It was a ridiculous threat, but I thought it would be quite effective against the feeble knight. My prediction was right.

“Eek!”

Lionel gasped as he turned pale. It was clear that he fully believed the rumors to be true.

“I won’t tell anyone! I promise!”

“Good. I’m putting my faith in you.”

He nodded repeatedly as I pointed behind him.

“By the way, that sword on the ground... Don’t you recognize it? It looks very familiar to me.”

It was of course his sword. He turned around to look at it.

“Oh, yes. It looks very similar to mine. It’s not the kind of sword that one often sees on the side of the road... Wait! Is that mine?!”

As Lionel fumbled to secure it to his waist, Harry let out a deep sigh again and grimaced.

[Master, it’s not too late. Let’s abandon him.]

* * *

Emma was deep in thought as she stared at the fireplace.

“Everia Oberon.”

She had heard that name countless times. Since Airelle was part of the Oberon duchy, rumors circulated among the servants quite often around the manor. Most of the rumors were about Everia because hers were the most sensational.

When doing manual labor, scandalous rumors were the best for passing the time. One could hear about this and that, and swapping trashy stories with one another made the time fly.

There were many phrases to describe Everia. Of course, they were mostly negative.

“The witch who turned the capital upside down... The madwoman of House Oberon... The problem child even the duke had given up on...”

Emma had heard that Everia was violent, self-indulgent, and arrogant, so she lamented when she was assigned to be her personal maid. It was said that Everia cut out the tongues of her previous maids if they said anything wrong. How could she serve such an impudent person?

If the baron hadn’t told her that he would double her salary, she might have quit her job. However, the woman she met was a completely different person from the rumors.

I even stole her precious fire.

Instead of punishing Emma, Everia left the manor and shared her fire with others. The maid stretched out her hand toward the fire Everia had created. The warmth melted her frozen body.

“Emma?”

A girl started to approach her. It was the one who had fallen and knocked the lamp out of Everia’s hand.

“Who was that lady who was here?” the girl asked.

Emma smiled as she answered, “She’s the lady I serve at the manor. She’s also the person who bestowed a big blessing on you all today.”

“Then... Is she a good person?”

Emma thought for a moment. According to the rumors, Everia was not a nice person. She had done some bad things in the past, but the woman she had come to know was different.

“Yes. She’s a nice person. Don’t you think so too?”

“Yes! She created fire to warm us up, so I think she’s a nice person.”

“She is, right?”

“Yes, and she’s very pretty,” the girl said while blushing. She spoke a bit louder as she continued. “I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as her. She looks a bit scary, but she’s very pretty.”

“You’re right. My lady is very pretty, although she does look a bit scary.”

Emma agreed with the little girl, and without realizing it, she had begun to refer to Everia as “my lady” sincerely.

An Unwelcome Guest

The people of Airelle started acting kinder. People in the north were known to be blunt and hard to connect with, but they were noticeably friendlier toward me.

Emma protected me and stayed by my side, and the other servants—who never really paid any attention to me in the past—became much nicer. Soon, everyone bowed to me with a friendly smile on their faces whenever I encountered them.

It was all thanks to Harry’s flame. Upon learning that I had taken fire to the poorhouse, the baron lifted the ban and distributed fire throughout the town. However, the flame still couldn’t be taken out of the territory. His surveillance area had extended from the manor to the entire region. As a result, the number of knights guarding the border doubled.

I don’t understand why the baron is keeping such a tight leash on it.

Since the fire could burn black steel wood, it was a strategically important commodity, so my only guess was that he wanted to keep it in Airelle. Thanks to the fire getting shared with the people, I received kindness from those I never would have expected it from. Whenever I recalled the conversation I had with the butler, I became so embarrassed that my head started throbbing.

“I can’t remember the last time I saw smoke rise from a chimney in town. It’s all thanks to you taking pity on the people of Airelle who were shivering in the cold, my lady.”

“Well, I didn’t start the fire for the people of Airelle. It was simply because I was freezing.”

“Yes, of course, my lady. I heard you say that many times. Don’t worry. Everyone knows what’s in your heart.”

“No. They have no idea.”

“What are you saying? I know it all too well. Do you know how special this fire is? It’s not the kind of thing that can be obtained by a selfish heart.”

“No. I’m selfish. I only care about myself. That’s the truth!”

“My, my! You’re so humble. No wonder you were able to create such an amazing fire. How benevolent you are.”

The butler had a faint smile as he said that to me.

“No, it’s not like that at all. And don’t smile at me like that!”

He and I seemed to have the same conversation several times, but changing the butler’s mind wasn’t easy. He was firm in his beliefs. After numerous attempts, I eventually gave up, and as a result, word of “Lady Everia’s deep love for Airelle”—which I didn’t even possess—spread throughout the territory thanks to the butler’s big mouth.

Thanks to that, everyone is kinder, and my life is much more comfortable than when I first came here.

It was an odd misunderstanding, but it didn’t matter. The misunderstanding would eventually become clear once people saw how selfish I really was. I was lazy, so I never even bothered to correct my image as a villain. I surely didn’t have the energy to clear up a misunderstanding of that sort.

I even tried to make that clear to the butler several times, so I had done my part. When he realized later that he was wrong, I could just tell him that I had warned him. I really had been trying to tell him.

For now, let’s just enjoy this delicious food.

To be honest, the culinary scene wasn’t very developed in the north. They preferred foods that were practical and convenient in the cold. They didn’t care about balancing flavors, textures, or colors. For people in the north, food was just something to fill their stomachs.

How frustrated I was when I first came to Airelle and saw the crude dishes on the table. Still, I hoped that it would taste better than it looked, but it actually tasted worse. I was hungry, so I forced myself to eat it, but I only ate just enough to not starve to death.

As the amount of food I consumed decreased, my weight went down too. The dress I had worn when I came to Airelle became baggy. Despite that, the chef paid no attention to me at first. He probably didn’t want to work hard for a picky lady from the capital who was dumped on him like abandoned luggage.

However, after I shared the fire, the chef became extremely kind and worked hard to satisfy the taste buds of a lady from a home in the royal capital with its well-developed culinary scene. The result of which was on the table in front of me at the moment.

Overwhelmed with emotion, I looked at the dishes before me. Pleasant smells rose from the table and filled my nostrils. There was warm, freshly baked bread with glazed, roasted turkey, a fresh salad, and hot mushroom soup. It was the same sort of food I had eaten in the royal capital.

However, before I even touched it, it began to disappear. Harry evidently must have been possessed by a starving ghost.

“Harry, can't you at least wait until I pick up my spoon?”

“You were just staring at the food! Do you know how much energy it takes to stay in dog form? Transfiguration is not my specialty, so it takes a lot out of me.”

He grumbled and took a bite of the roast turkey. Soon, nothing was left but the bones. It was as if I was watching a performance. My jaw dropped. The amount and speed of his food consumption was extraordinary.

“You don’t even touch the dog food the maids give you.”

“Would you eat dog food? Do you have any respect for my dignity as a demon?”

“I do, but you’re eating a lot!”

I had no idea how much an adult man usually ate, but I could tell that Harry was on a different level. If an ordinary man were to eat as much as him, the world would have run out of food already.

With such a big appetite, there was no way he could be satisfied with just eating my meal. In fact, whenever he was hungry, he secretly went into the kitchen to eat. Thanks to that, stories about ghosts eating the manor’s food began circulating among the kitchen staff.

You’ve been stealing food from the kitchen. Do you have to eat my food too?

Because Harry kept eating, I couldn’t even ask the maids to serve me during my meals. If they were to see a dog transform into a human and start cutting into the steak, they would faint. I had to send all of them away and eat alone each time.

On top of that, people thought I was a glutton. While looking down at the clean plates, I recalled how the maids commented in surprise about how there had been enough served to feed five people!

They were looking at me as if I was some kind of monster.

“Can you just sit quietly and watch me eat?” I pleaded.

“You can’t finish all the food they bring you anyway. Food shouldn’t go to waste.”

“Then eat after I’m done eating.”

“You’d get lonely eating by yourself.”

“Don’t pretend that you’re doing this out of concern for me. I know you’re only saying that because you want to eat.”

“Tsk, I guess that didn’t work.”

Harry grumbled and set the tableware down. He took my napkin, wiped his hands, and then put his hand on my shoulder.

“It’s because I’m frustrated. Since I have no way to relieve my stress, I’m stuffing myself with food.”

Harry pouted and stroked my long hair that cascaded down my shoulders.

“Would you like me to express my unfilled desires?”