I Became the Villain of a Romance Fantasy

171 – Epilogue

I reached out to Noel, who was lying down, but she refused, saying she wanted to lie down a little longer. Noel’s gaze was now past me and turned to the sky, and there was a smile on her lips instead of silence. It would be painful to look up at the sky now that the sun was in the middle of the sky, but that would not apply to Noel.

After saying I understood, I walked out of the venue, leaving Noel behind.

Even as I was leaving the stage to the cheers of the audience, I felt strange.

Noel looked relieved as she spoke to me, but in the end, I took over her sigh. This faint sense of guilt created a heavy stone in my heart and weighed down my body. I can’t tell if it’s because of this that I have difficulty walking or if I really have lost my strength.

The duel with Noel was a duel that I could be satisfied with, regardless of the outcome. If I had lost, I would have been upset that I couldn’t keep my promise to Elena, but it was still a level that I could accept. It was a fight that wouldn’t have been strange for anyone to win. Since it was that kind of fight, the value of the victory I gained here was quite valuable.

But what I got was not just the sweetness of victory. By defeating Noel, I took over the worries and emotions she had. It wasn’t her fault. Noel didn’t want to talk to me until the end, and I was the one who answered her.

In the end, it was a good thing that he told Noel that. If he had left it like that, he would have left Noel with a burden of regret. Even if he had not declared that he would defeat Altair, this was an inevitable problem that had to be resolved at some point.

What makes me feel uneasy, even though I solved the problem, is that I had not thought of this problem until now, and that instead of the relief I should have gained from winning the battle with Altair, I got it. It was something I absolutely had to face, but I didn’t think it would be now. I was confused.

If only Altair had told me that, I could have just let it go. Of course, I don’t know Altair now, and that was a past I didn’t know about. But it was hard to let go of Noelle’s feelings. That’s because I knew her.

After hearing Noel’s confession, I was able to understand Altair’s actions and my head started spinning because of my past relationships that I didn’t know about. If it was because I didn’t know before, it’s because I know now. Why on earth did I have such tangled relationships in the previous episodes… I cursed at my past self for not resolving this in advance.

The reason I answered Noel like that again was to resolve it. It was an action not only for Noel but also for me. However, even so, the headache in my head did not go away, and all I received was the consolation that I had relieved Noel of his foolishness.

The throbbing in my head went away after I saw Elena coming out to greet me.

The reason I rejected Noel’s confession. Seeing her made me realize that my actions were not wrong, and the guilt that had settled in my chest burned away, bringing me the relief I should have shared with Noel.

I approached Elena with a tired face and leaned against her. In fact, I also wanted to lie down when Noel was lying down. Before my legs gave out, my body touched Elena’s, and Elena skillfully accepted me like this.

“are you okay?”

Elena’s worried gaze turns to me. Seeing her only looking at me and thinking only of me, I can’t help but smile. Elena must have seen what happened just now, but in Elena’s eyes right now, there’s nothing but worry about me.

I smiled at the question to let him know I was okay.

There were no other injuries except for the loss of strength in my body, so all I had to do was recover my strength. But the problem was that I didn’t have the strength to stand right away. I completely surrendered myself to Elena, even the slightest pretense of pride removed. Her embrace was soft and warm.

The faint scent of lavender tickling my nose made me feel like I could fall asleep. However, because of the place, I couldn’t just fall asleep. I just lay down to get some rest.

“I guess I shouldn’t just say things carelessly… I feel like I’ve already lost all my strength. What should I do?”

Elena smiled broadly at my groaning. Her eyes, which gently draw curves, were charming. It seemed that Elena was relieved that I was okay, not because she found the joke funny. I looked at Elena and raised the corners of my mouth as if I had been infected by her smile.

“Are you already talking weakly? I said I would win. Reinhardt seemed really excited, too. He seemed really excited to see Noel and Damian fight. I think this is the first time I’ve seen that unchanging man smile like that.”

“He is a human being, so he should understand me.”

Now that I think about it, Reinhardt was there. My head is starting to spin.

To be fair, Reinhardt should also fight Noel. He’s already exhausted from the back-to-back matches, and Reinhardt after Noel is a real hurdle. Even if he wins all of these, it’s still Elena who’s going to be in the end, so it’s really daunting to think about it.

But even though I was groaning like this, the smile never left my face.

What I said earlier was just a joke. To be honest, I’m not that worried about the remaining duels. In the first place, they’re duels to test the skills of friends. They’re not even about life or death, so these duels are like games in a way. The duel with Noel was difficult because I couldn’t do that, so now I have nothing to worry about.

Now, I can approach the Holy Spirit Festival with the same attitude I had when I first encountered it, as someone who enjoys the festival. This is probably the same for Elena and Noel.

When I tried to talk about the conversation I had with Noel, Elena shook her head and said that I didn’t have to talk about it. It seemed like Elena already knew. After all, since it was something that started in the past, it was natural that she would know more about it than I did, knowing the past.

As I ended things with Noel, Elena was one of the people who had moved away from the past. Although I had already received confirmation from myself, nothing was as certain as the result, and the relief I had seen on Noel’s face was also visible on her face.

It was ironically nice to know that what had made Elena anxious was Noel’s affection for me. After all, all her worries from the beginning to the end had been caused by me. That fact seemed to fill my confidence, which had been lacking because I was Damian and a villain.

Not knowing the past, I used to curse myself in the previous episode for making me end up like this, but this time, seeing Elena like this, I felt like praising her instead. Because I now know that the endless affection she gave me when we first met came from my past self.

Was it the freedom that came from relief? Suddenly, I became curious for the first time about the past that I had tried to avoid because the present was important. But even so, I couldn’t ask Elena about it. I had already promised to hear it after the Holy Spirit Festival.

I laughed at myself for wanting to ask questions after the situation had stabilized, even though I had promised to talk in a nice place. There was absolutely no reason to be hasty. But this time, I kept quiet, holding a little anticipation that I had never had before.

Whatever the reason, the fact remains that she loves me and I love her.

“Elena… my hair…”

“Huh? What is it?”

“…no.”

Since I was so healthy, I was able to recover some of my strength just by lying down for a while. Even so, I couldn’t get up from my seat because of Elena’s hand on my head.

Before I knew it, Elena’s hands were dancing on my head, but I let them go because she seemed to be enjoying it. I wasn’t brave enough to shake off the hands that were gently moving back and forth like putting a child to sleep and get up.

“Hehehe.”

“…..”

But when her hand started to play with my cheek, I gave up on being quiet. Maybe it was because I was completely exhausted and defenseless. When I showed her that I was relying on her, she got playful and started playing with my face here and there.

Normally, if the prank continues, I would fight back, but now that she was lying down like this, she seemed to be in her own world. I watched her quietly, then turned my head to the hand Elena had placed on her cheek, kissed it, and held it there for a long time.

The longer I kept my lips touching her, the more I felt the heat of the hand touching her rise. It would have been nice to just watch without doing anything, but I don’t know why I’m so mean to Elena. I glanced over and looked at Elena’s face, and just as I expected, her face was red.

That’s why Elena pinched my cheek hard, but it felt good.