〈 Episode 18〉 Yandere Youngae 18 [EPISODE FINALE]

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"...."

When I looked at Noel, I was overcome with a strange feeling. Yes, it was...

"Identification.

Was I the only one who had been deceived? Her life manipulated from birth to inherit the power of a former Earl? And why did she choose me? Along with the resentment, her life had most likely been manipulated by her butler and others as well.

"Fuck...

The rain fell harshly, and the silence between the falling drops felt like a crowd holding its breath during a climax. I don't know what to say, whether to be grateful that I'll know the reason before I die, or to say something with this damned sympathy and identification I feel for her.

"Sob!

I burst into tears. Noelle and I are both just tears, and she takes a stance, holding her sword up to me.

"Fucking...beautiful.

The indigo glow from her sword enveloped her, and I couldn't help but think she looked pathetic.

"Sorry."

I muttered briefly. Just as I'm about to give up on a million resentments, a million pities, and a million unfortunate realities, she gently approaches me. If I am cut by that sword, I will be finished.

"I have no intention of doing what you want."

Tell her not to laugh. It's bad enough when you don't know you're being played in this mad play. Even if Noel is their greatest creation, their work of art. Even if the masterpiece is the only beautiful piece left. He'll survive the spitting of every audience member, even if they're all spitting on him. The best I can hope for is to get out of this damned stage play.

"Blame!

I fall down the cloud bridge, onto the roof of the mansion's lower level.

"Pakak!

My boots slam down on the stone tiles that adorn the upper roof of the mansion, sending several of them crashing to the ground.

"Pow!

The broken stone tiles fall to the floor and shatter. I start to run, ignoring the slight twinge in my knees as I cling to the impossibly high roof.

"...."

Noelle stares at me, and that's when I know she's going to catch me in a heartbeat.

"Blame!

A small female voice. I look up.

"Fuck!"

An indigo starlight sword comes down from above.

"Paaaaang!

Stone tiles shatter with a crash that pales in comparison to my fall. It was enough to make me understand that she had no intention of killing me.

'She wants to hear my story.

She wants to hear my excuses, my apologies, my pleas for survival, my last words. With a strange sense of sympathy, I understood Noelle now more than anyone.

"Thump!

From the roof halfway up the manor, Noel pointed his sword at me. The cool feel of the blade hovered over my neck, and if I didn't know what she was thinking, I'd be making excuses and begging for my life.

"Noelle!!!"

The best I could manage. I call her name, distracting her for a moment.

"Paat!

Shards of stone scatter around her. I quickly grabbed a handful of them as the tiles shattered. She hesitates a moment, but before she can check, I'm rolling off the roof.

"Quadruple!

My back, shoulders, and legs screamed as I hit the tiles. It was faster to fall than to run. Rain pelted down, the roof gently sliding off me, and I landed on the cloud bridge halfway down.

"Pow!

The impact was loud. My right arm and left leg must have been broken or cracked, at the very least.

"Huh...Huh..."

Noel is looking at me from the middle roof above. You could call her cowardly. She was wondering what I was talking about, and I was thinking of using it to get away.

"Kurrrrr!

The lightning began to strike again.

"Snap!

I stepped on a puddle of water. Slowly, my wobbly body carried me up to the manor's walls. For a moment, I stared at my reflection in the next puddle.

"This...looks...right.

What had I been dreaming, that everything I'd done to survive was a play, and I was just a glowing mouse who didn't know it was a play, or maybe I was a guinea pig for the wizards. A mouse that thought it had been living in the gutter, only to find itself trapped inside a giant glass wall, about to be discarded when the experiment was over.

"Ha...ha..."

I look out at the waves of the churning lake. The rain and wind are blowing hard, so... no swimming today.

"You'll die if you go."

A chilling voice from behind me, but in those words of concern for me, I recognized the person behind me now. Slowly, I turn and greet the person behind me.

"You got here pretty quick."

"...."

I let myself fly, falling nearly ten meters to the cloud bridge. My arms and legs are now broken, and my white shirt is stained red where I've torn it, as if I'd been sprayed with hair dye.

"Do you hate me...to death?"

It's raining heavily today. I stared at her silver hair in the maddening rain, as if jealous of the sunny weather so far. My throat would snap open at the slightest hint of emotion.

"You know what, you're the most beautiful person I've ever met."

I say in her ear the last words she wanted to hear. Yeah, this way, if I die, at least I'll leave my mark.

"And...you poor thing."

Slowly, I wrap my hands around her neck and pull her to me, kissing Noelle in this damn rain.

"Ha..."

White flesh, her violet eyes, and red lips. The pleading look in her eyes as she tried to hold on to the man who was leaving.

"Yeah.

There was no way to save her, but at least she'd tried, and that was enough.

"Blame!

With that, I stumble backwards, falling off the ramparts.

"Ah."

The moment we kissed, Noel must have plunged a dagger into my heart so gently I didn't even feel it. A trickle of blood rushes through my torn heart, and my eyes water.

[Tir.］

She had laughed so sweetly, and now she was crying for me on the ramparts. Was she doing it out of a sense of duty she had been forced to fulfill since birth, or was she, like me, the Count's poor darling who had lived her life in ignorance, like a mouse in a laboratory?

"I don't know.

Her thoughts were sympathetic and understandable, but also incomprehensible. 'I don't know,' she said, and I could understand her thoughts, but I couldn't understand them.

"I'm sorry.

And I felt...sorry that I couldn't be of any help to her.

"Pow!

With the sound of a large rock falling, my body plunges into the lake, and the water rushes in, swallowing me up, rushing over my nose, mouth, eyes, and torn flesh as my wounds burst open. Like a living thing, the lake tugs at me, pulls me in, pulls me to its edge. The rain stops pounding in my ears, and my eyes close silently, as if the light is slowly being shut out. Ah, I can rest. I need to get some sleep. Jeffers, tomorrow...let's get some rest. I'm sure you'll agree that I can't do this if I can't do it.

.

There was a quiet silence, and I felt like I was dreaming again. The hazy sensation was not the same as when I had fainted, but more like the stillness of the air after the play had ended and everyone had left.

"Dull, dull, dull!

I opened my eyes. I could see the sunlight, the leaves glistening with traces of rainwater in the sunny weather, and the wind blowing them away.

"...."

The smell of grass tickles my nostrils. I hear birds chirping around me, and I feel straw covering my body.

"Grass!

I rolled off the soaked, now nearly dry straw and sat up.

"Huh? You're awake?"

A man driving a colt, or rather, a man who was not driving a colt and holding the reins of a colt, but simply reading a book with an unknown cover in front of him. The unknown cover reminded me of Noel.

"Where am I...where am I?"

"Gee, I thought my first question was going to be, "Is this heaven?"

"What?"

"Wouldn't that question be asked in a fancy carriage with a beautiful woman like this?"

The luxurious carriage, now pulled by a rattling colt, was a cart. I put a straw bale on top of the cart and wonder what happened.

"Look. I'm not going to pretend, so you can ask me."

Her face was familiar.

"You must be a witch."

I remembered her coming to the manor about the ring, and how she'd blown the manor to dust.

"Yes, I am. If you want to know what happened to it, you can ask me."

"It won't be for free."

"Haha! What? You're so amazing, I almost want to take you to a witch society!"

I reached for my pierced heart, not knowing what to say.

"Oh, don't touch it, it was just stitched together in a hurry. It hasn't healed yet, and the slightest shock could cause it to squeeze and bleed out, and then we'd have to stop and reattach it and it'd be a pain in the ass."

"Why did you save me?"

The witch smirks.

"Don't you want revenge on all those people you've controlled?"

The witch believes in the devil, and she says that the devil sneaks up on people and tempts them. Looking around quickly, I realize that I'm on a mountain pass in an unknown, high mountain.

.

End of episode

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