The Villainess in the Childcare Story Doesn’t Hide Her Personality - Chapter 88

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The journey back.
The setting sun scattered crimson light across the carriage.
Fabian Beiretz’s brilliant golden hair caught the red glow, gleaming vermillion.
‘A sigh escaped me.’
It had been an exhausting day.
The tea party with Estella, and then visiting Ariel while she was ill.
I knew it was improper to fall asleep in front of someone I wasn’t particularly close to, yet my eyes kept closing despite my best efforts.
The fatigue that had accumulated throughout the day crashed over me all at once.
‘Just one minute… I’ll rest for just one minute and then wake up.’
But one minute quickly became five, and five became thirty.
With each rhythmic sway of the moving carriage, my consciousness slowly sank deeper into slumber.
* * *
“…Vice Director?”
Fabian Beiretz called out in a low, bewildered voice to the sleeping Tessa Harrington.
Normally, just that single word would have made her immediately lift her gaze and look directly at him, but this time, there was no response.
‘She must be quite exhausted.’
He gazed at her quietly for a moment.
Tessa Harrington, who always sat with perfect composure and unwavering posture, now had her shoulders tilted slightly to one side, her hair cascading down across her cheek.
She was completely defenseless.
‘…’
His throat tightened.
“We’ve arrived, Mage Tower Master.”
Anxious that the coachman might notice him staring at her, Fabian Beiretz made an effort to wake Tessa.
“Vice Director, we’ve reached your residence.”
“…Yes, I see.”
Fabian Beiretz was taken aback.
Tessa was so deeply asleep that although she responded to his words, she could barely manage to sit up.
To think he would ever see the meticulous Vice Director of the Child Protection Bureau in such a state.
‘She must have accumulated quite a bit of fatigue.’
And the cause was likely himself.
‘…How pathetic.’
He had become Mage Tower Master, yet only through the assistance of an Imperial Bureaucracy official—someone barely different from a civilian—did he finally come to understand what the Mage Tower truly was.
Ever since learning the truth, Fabian Beiretz had been tormented every single day.
Self-reproach, anger, fear, self-loathing…
All these negative emotions converged and left him paralyzed.
And the destination of all these negative emotions was…
‘Don’t think about it.’
He descended from the carriage and instructed the coachman to wait, then climbed back in and knelt quietly before the sleeping figure.
“Vice Director.”
He called out once more in a soft voice, but Tessa gave no answer.
‘So she really had reached her limit.’
My already heavy heart sank even further.
Wasn’t this ultimately my fault for pushing her to such extremes?
It was the consequence of my own ignorance and incompetence—a burden she had to bear alone because I lacked the strength to shoulder it myself.
Fabian Beiretz reached out and gently touched Tessa’s shoulder, but she didn’t respond.
Even when he nudged her slightly with his fingertips, there was nothing.
‘There’s no other choice, then.’
Fabian Beiretz slipped his arms beneath her back and under her knees.
With a single breath, he lifted her, and Tessa’s body settled perfectly into his embrace.
Through his supporting palm, he could feel the delicate line of her shoulder blades.
In his other hand, beneath her knees, the contours of her thin frame pressed against him—there wasn’t a trace of softness anywhere.
This light, small person had accomplished so much.
‘Is she actually eating well and resting properly, as the Doctor said?’
If he had his way, he would confine her to the Beiretz Duchy Mansion and force her to maintain regular meals and sleep until she recovered.
Though she would probably hate that immensely.
He carefully ascended to the second floor. The door opened naturally, as if it had been waiting for its master.
In the process, Tessa’s head tilted gently against his shoulder, and a faint scent of soap tickled his nose.
Fabian Beiretz tried his best not to dwell on her presence as he laid her down on the bed that dominated most of the small room.
He gathered her coat and shoes that had fallen to the floor as he entered, then stepped out of the bedroom.
Or rather, he tried to step out.
…
But his feet simply wouldn’t move.
For days now, I had been falling into an endless abyss, questioning myself each time I woke: Did you truly deserve to save them? Did you truly have the right to be in that position?
These were questions that yielded no easy answers.
The deep abyss yawned wider and wider, like a living creature that fed on doubt.
Today had been the moment just before it swallowed me whole.
If it hadn’t been for Tessa Harrington…
‘That thing’ might have emerged.
Without even realizing it, Tessa Harrington had saved not only Fabian Beiretz but countless others.
Fabian Beiretz turned from the doorway and sat on the small sofa across from the bed, gazing at Tessa intently.
Just one minute.
She wouldn’t even notice if he watched for that long before leaving.
With that self-consolation,
one minute quickly became five, and five became thirty.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, the familiar ceiling of the house came into view.
‘When did I get back…?’
The last thing I remembered was dozing off and on inside the carriage.
‘I must have stumbled up here half-asleep…’
I blinked and turned my body—then froze completely.
Fabian Beiretz sat on the sofa, nodding off with his head drooping.
The golden hair that had blazed crimson in the carriage under the setting sun had now settled into its natural pale gold, and long lashes resting on closed eyelids lay delicately against his pallid skin.
A figure like transparent crystal craftsmanship sculpted from sunlight itself.
Who would believe that this person, appearing so fragile and vulnerable, could become a monster capable of snuffing out the lives of several people in an instant if he so chose?
“Mage Tower Master.”
I steadied myself and called out to him, but Fabian Beiretz didn’t stir.
“M-Mage Tower Master?”
Growing increasingly flustered as he didn’t wake despite my calls.
‘What do I do?’
It seemed he had fallen so deeply asleep that he’d brought me all the way home without waking.
It was certainly a thoughtful gesture, but what good was it if he himself had collapsed from exhaustion and wouldn’t wake?
I approached him to wake him up and placed my hand on his shoulder.
“Wake—”
I didn’t even have time to finish saying “wake up.”
In an instant, my body flipped and the world spun.
The bed sagged beneath my back as something invisible and heavy pressed down on my chest.
I tried to draw breath, but the air wouldn’t move, held fast as if frozen.
It was mana.
Fabian Beiretz’s eyes snapped open as he exhaled roughly.
Those usually gentle blue eyes gleamed with a sharp, icy edge.
“Who are you?”
…This is bad.
Staring at Fabian Beiretz, who didn’t recognize me at all, I finally understood.
Fabian Beiretz’s ‘monsterification’ was beginning and progressing far earlier than in the novel.
An instinctive warning sounded in my ears.
If I panic here, I could end up like those trainees back then!

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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