When the Guide Stopped Playing a Villainess, the Obsession Began - Chapter 1
I. Did not know
“Kill them! Kill them!”
“Execute that wicked mother and daughter!”
“Indeed!”
The cruel shouts of the people echoed everywhere as if in a single voice.
Though Lea had lost her hearing due to torture, she could not help but feel the tremendous vibrations rippling through the air.
Unable to walk properly, she was dragged along by the knights. She could see her mother struggling and resisting in front of her.
Lea coldly averted her gaze from her mother and hurriedly searched for someone.
Even through her blurry vision, she could immediately recognize the figure ascending the platform not far from the execution site.
His blond hair, backed by the brilliant sun like a halo, fluttered in the wind. One side of his face was hidden by a mask, but his gleaming red eyes burned intensely, as though soaked in blood.
His body, lean and composed of well-defined muscles, emanated the unshakable gaze of one who had overcome adversity, overwhelming everyone present.
Calix, who once begged Lea for guiding, had become a flawless emperor incomparable to anyone else.
“Heuu…”
Even now, she wanted to beg forgiveness for her wrongdoings, but she could not speak.
Her tongue had been cut off during the torture, so all that escaped her lips was a faint hiss of air.
Lea, her breath catching in a way that felt like she would pass out at any moment, fixed her gaze on him.
She regretted it.
No, she bitterly repented.
When she first saw him, she had mistaken the irregular pounding of her heart as anxiety.
Only now did she realize that it had been love at first sight.
But what use was that realization now? What she had done to him could never be undone…
She had mocked his affection, trampled on his abilities and efforts. She had deliberately withheld guiding, knowing full well he would suffer without it.
She had tried to confirm, through his pain, that she was the only Guide meant to be by his side.
She had wanted to be assured that he needed only her—and so she acted selfishly.
“Hhk…”
Even as her eyes burned with a searing pain, she tried not to cry.
It was then that her gaze caught a pure white figure standing beside Calix.
Lucy, a rabbit werebeast standing naturally next to the emperor, looked perfectly in place beside him, despite her visible beast ears.
Unlike Lea, who had desperately hidden her identity out of fear of his contempt.
Through the thrum of the air, she could feel the people cheering for them.
The citizens of the Cantabrian Empire, who once dismissed werebeasts, no longer scorned them. Instead, they now looked upon them with reverence, as though facing a noble being. Lea’s lips trembled at the sight.
That rabbit werebeast had accomplished so effortlessly what Lea herself could never do.
Lea, who had lived fiercely, harboring only malice, believing she could only survive by trampling over humans, could never return such a gentle smile.
But then, the gaze of Lucy, who had been warm to everyone, finally met Lea’s. Her lips, once relaxed, froze coldly for a brief moment.
Then one corner of her mouth lifted ever so slightly before falling again.
It was brief, but Lea saw it clearly.
It made her feel strange. Her pupils quivered violently as she realized something was amiss, something she had missed.
A wave of anxiety surged over her, and Lea writhed as if to rise from her place.
But crushed under a knight’s grip, she ended up looking even more miserable than before.
Snap!
Driven by an unnamed urgency, she became worried about him.
Barely slipping past the knight’s hand, Lea lifted her head, momentarily forgetting even her severed tongue, and mouthed something.
In that moment, Calix’s cold expression seemed to falter.
A strange expression flitted across his face, one that seemed both joyful and sorrowful.
Seeing his face, Lea felt her heart wrench.
She just wanted to be with him.
Not as enemies, not in hatred.
No, she wished she were the one he loved…
Just once.
Even just once.
She wanted to receive his warm gaze…
But she already knew that it was far too late.
Soon regaining his composure, he returned to his cold stare.
Back to that look of contempt he always gave her.
Lea felt as though her heart plummeted into an abyss. She finally shed tears.
Tears poured from her eyes like rain, the very same eyes that had been burning with pain.
Though his lips, once smiling, now subtly sank at the sight of her, Lea could no longer see it.
For the first time in her life, she cried like a child, feeling only the crushing weight of regret.
Only harsh, ragged breaths escaped her throat, making her look grotesque, but she cried as though vomiting everything she had kept in.
She regretted her past deeply—how she had tormented and oppressed him, unable to overcome her mother’s pressure.
She didn’t even wish for a loving gaze.
But his eyes, filled with contempt, made it feel as though all the moisture in her body had drained out.
Her body trembled in despair.
Even though she had regretted and reflected before, never had she done so as desperately as she did now.
“Cover the late Emperor’s eyes and behead that parasitic mother and daughter who leeched off the Cantabrian Empire!”
At Calix’s command, the crowd erupted in cheers so loud it made the ground tremble.
Just as when she arrived, Lea was dragged to the guillotine.
Even as her neck was forced onto the execution platform, she could not take her eyes off Calix.
His elegantly shaped lips were tightly pressed, even in the moment announcing her execution.
Even in the instant her head was severed from her neck and struck the ground.
Lea looked only at Calix.
She felt regret.
Even if it was his cold face, she wanted to take in more of it. She forced her eyes wide open.
She hadn’t known. That this feeling had been love.
She only realized now…
Just a little longer.
Just a little more…
“Ha, so in the end, this is how it…”
Even his faintly murmured words during her final struggle, she couldn’t hear them through to the end.
And so, Lea closed her eyes in resignation, swallowed by the darkness.
The world fell into the absence of light.
Samara
Very Good! Waiting for more!
SnowKang
Damn