I Want a Happy Ending Even as a Villainess

Chapter 13

I stepped in between the man and the woman just in time and grabbed the man’s wrist.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

In my words, the man called Tain shook off my grip. He seemed startled by my sudden appearance.

Tain glanced at me, then tried to speak calmly.

“I’m sorry to show such an unsightly scene.”

“You’re making such a scene, it’s impossible not to notice.”

“This is a matter between the two of us, so I think it would be best if you stayed out of it, miss.”

Tain spoke with barely concealed anger.

‘As if I’d walk away after seeing this.’

It was obvious what would happen if I left. He’d continue whatever he was doing, maybe even worse.

“Why don’t you just keep doing what you were doing?”

I glared at Tain, arms crossed tightly as if I wasn’t going to back down, and he did nothing but give me a confused look.

“If you can’t do it in front of others, you shouldn’t be doing it in private either.”

I said firmly, and Tain let out a short sigh.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”

Tain dropped his troubled look and smiled shamelessly.

“I was simply trying to correct my lover’s bad habits.”

I stood silently, wondering if I had heard him wrong. He continued, full of confidence. His next words were utter nonsense.

“If you’re in a relationship, you should help each other overcome flaws, shouldn’t you?”

He puffed out his chest and placed his hands on his hips.

“No man will like a woman who raises her voice and argues. I was just worried about my love’s future!”

He was so loud that my ears were ringing.

“Besides, my love is shy, and she rejects me in good times and bad, and she still does!”

Tain was confident, truly believing the woman was like that.

He kept spouting ridiculous reasons, and I looked at him with a deadpan stare. Yet, Tain didn’t budge.

‘What should I do?’

I had come to this party to behave myself, but did I really need to be polite to someone like this?

The answer was clear: ‘No.’

‘He’s not someone who will listen to reason…’

I discreetly moved the ring from my left hand to my right, making a tight fist.

‘This should be okay.’

I took a deep breath, channeling all the world’s anger into my fist.

Then, I swung my fist with all my strength, landing an uppercut on Tain’s chin. It wasn’t a skilled punch; it was more of a desperate swing.

“Ugh!”

With a scream, Tain fell backward.

‘Ouch! Did I break my fingers or something?!’

My hand hurt more than the person I hit. Still, seeing Tain sprawled out on the ground suggested the punch had some impact.

Tain quickly got up and glared at me, ready to hit me back.

“Oh my, sorry about that. But I really wanted to punch you.”

I covered my mouth with one hand and smiled shyly, acting nonchalant.

“A gentleman wouldn’t hit a delicate woman like me, right?”

In a sacred place, no one would dare act this way without knowing their opponent. But this was a noble’s banquet.

Judging by his youthful appearance, he seemed like a young noble without a title yet. He wasn’t royalty, so I had nothing to fear.

“My apologies for the late introduction. I’m Lilith from the Crescent Duchy.”

I curtsied gracefully, spreading my dress.

“And you are?”

I smiled as kindly as I could.

Hearing my name, Tain’s eyes widened. He scanned me up and down, matching what he knew with what he saw.

In no time, his face turned ghostly pale.

“I-I just remembered something urgent.”

Tain clumsily got up and scurried away, practically crawling on the floor.

The woman he left behind was still as pale as a sheet. I immediately ran after him and put my arm around his shoulders. We were about the same height, so it wasn’t hard to keep up with him.

“Hey, Tain, I’m really sorry about that punch.”

I spoke softly, looking down sadly, making Tain flinch and shiver.

“If you were hurt, would you mind coming to the Crescent Duchy?”

Then, I leaned in close to his ear, barely holding back a laugh.

“I think your head would look lovely mounted on my wall.”

I slowly traced my finger from his neck up to his chin. Tain’s pupils shook violently, like an earthquake.

He knew all too well that ‘the infamous Lilith’ would follow through with her threats.

I released his shoulder. He took off running, looking utterly pathetic.

‘Oh, right.’

I turned quickly to the remaining woman.

“Are you alright?”

“Ah… yes, thanks to you. Thank you.”

The woman’s appearance was strangely familiar.

Her big eyes sparkled like stars set in a green forest. Her golden embroidered dress and elegantly braided light brown hair were stunningly beautiful.

With her shyly closed lips, rosy cheeks, and captivating beauty, she was unmistakably gorgeous.

‘Olivia?!’

What was the heroine doing here?

A presence this overwhelming could only belong to her.

“If you’re alright, then I’ll be going now!”

I gave a light smile and turned toward the garden entrance. Olivia seemed like she wanted to say something to me, but I neatly ignored her and ran down the stairs.

‘What is going on? Seriously, what is this?!’

There was nothing about the heroine getting hit by a jerk in the original story! How did this happen?

I needed to get out of there quickly. I half-ran down the spiral staircase.

But there was one thing I hadn’t thought about.

In the novel, it was natural for the male lead to follow the heroine.

In the narrow stairway, I came face-to-face with a very familiar person coming up.

‘Knox.’

Even with the moonlight casting a blue glow behind him, his black hair didn’t shine at all, remaining as dark as death. His pitch-black eyes, locking onto mine, felt like they were pulling me into a swamp.

As soon as I saw him, I couldn’t breathe, and cold sweat broke out. Though it was clearly night, it felt like a blood-red sunset was filling the sky.

The wind brushing against my skin felt coarse like sand. I could almost hear a voice in my ear, screaming for me to be torn apart and killed. My head spun. My vision swam.

Without any change in his expression, he brushed past me. I barely managed to grab the railing and stop myself from falling forward.

My legs were shaking uncontrollably as I finally reached the bottom of the stairs. The second floor was still sparsely populated with people.

I frantically tried every door, turning the knobs to find one that was open. After several attempts, I found an open door, hurried inside, and slammed it shut behind me.

“Ugh.”

Feeling nauseous, I leaned against the wall, supporting myself with my left arm. My other hand clutched my throat so tightly that my nails dug into my skin. I felt like my head would fall off if I let go.

‘I didn’t even experience it directly, but…!’

It was overwhelming. Just seeing him for a few seconds brought back the harrowing memory of death that I had almost forgotten.

It was all because the damn god showed me the execution scene every time I restarted. The fear etched into my body was unbelievably potent.

“…What is it?”

A voice behind me snapped me out of my thoughts.

I turned around quickly, only to see black hair. I stumbled back in terror, crashing into the wall.

“Hey, you…”

The figure in front of me said something, but I couldn’t hear it. I felt like Knox had come to kill me, and my breathing grew rapidly.

“Calm down.”

Strong hands gripped my shoulders firmly. Through my blurred vision, a pair of red eyes came into focus. Only then did I regain my senses.

“…Calix?”

When I called his name, his eyes narrowed slightly as if to confirm that I was right.

For some reason, once I was sure it was Calix, tears started pouring from my eyes. I tried to stop them, but it was useless.

I just sobbed like that for a long, long time.

I entered the lounge. And out of all the lounges, Calix happened to be resting in this one.

Calix dragged a chair over to where he had been sitting and motioned for me to sit down. He hadn’t taken his eyes off me, possibly because I was still crying.

Leaning sideways against the chair’s backrest with a gloomy expression, I felt something poking my shoulder.

“Ahhh!”

I screamed as I turned to look. A black snake was slithering right in front of me.

“Get it away!”

“Why? It’s cute.”

“Put it away!”

“There’s no need to freak out…”

I shut my eyes and flailed my arms, making Calix awkwardly pull Estella back. But at least the tears stopped flowing.

After crying for so long, my head was pounding. Sniffling, I saw a handkerchief being offered in front of me. I took it and blew my nose, then crumpled it up in my hand.

‘…Is this really okay?’

As my mind cleared, the current situation began to sink in.

Setting aside the main characters and everything else, Calix and Lilith were mortal enemies. There had been a near-death incident in the imperial palace’s greenhouse.

So, was it really safe for me to be here so casually?

‘Is he pretending to help while waiting for a chance to kill me?’

A different kind of cold sweat began to trickle down my back.