The Villainess Is Afraid of Thunder and Lightning (3)

Renoa grabbed Leon.

Unlike a normal master, Renoa usually didn't issue commands or assign work, but at this moment she was desperate.

She threatened him with a look that said, "If you don't listen to me, I'll use every means in the world to ruin you."

In the end, Leon brought over a chair and sat down beside the bed.

"I don't think you're that stupid, but just in case, I'll advise you: you'd better not do anything foolish."

"......"

"And after tonight, forget everything. Otherwise, I'll burn your brain."

Renoa lay in bed with her eyes closed.

Her voice was calm.

Every word she uttered was ruthless.

She was no different from usual.

Except that she had dragged the blanket up to her neck. Except that she flinched whenever thunder cracked from time to time.

Leon's eyes, looking at her, were cold.

'This kind of thing is... the villainess?'

She felt like a completely different person from the Renoa in his memories.

Just how afraid of thunder and lightning was she? At this point, it almost seemed like she'd died after being struck by lightning in her past life.

"Why did Bibi take a vacation on a day like this? Haah... She really has no sense for work, either. All she knows how to do is loaf around."

Renoa muttered nonstop, grumbling away. Whenever thunder boomed, she went quiet for a moment and then started chattering again.

Leon let her talk as much as she wanted, only half listening.

Then Renoa would peek out, squinting one eye to check whether Leon was still in his seat, and then close her eyes again.

Had about thirty minutes passed like that?

'Asleep?'

Renoa had gone quiet. He should be able to leave now. Thinking that, Leon was about to lift himself from the chair.

"I don't think I said you could go yet."

Renoa grabbed him in the blink of an eye.

Leon let out a sigh.

"Aren't you going to sleep?"

"Do you really think I could sleep in weather like this? And how do I know what you're going to do to me?"

"Even if I wanted to, I can't because of the contract."

"Sounds to me like you're saying you'd do it if you could."

Leon raised his fist sharply, then let it drop. If not for the master-servant contract, he'd have punched her already.

"Then I'll call a maid. It would probably be more comfortable for you to have a woman here than a man like me, my lady."

"There's no way those loose-lipped types wouldn't get excited and start blabbing if they saw this. You want me to call them? Are you insane?"

"......"

Is she a villainess, or a baby pretending to be one?

'Florencia wasn't wrong to smack her after all... I almost said that.'

In the end, Leon had no choice but to stay seated longer.

He decided he'd just give up on sleeping tonight. There was no training the day after the expedition anyway.

And so time drifted by again, endlessly.

"You...."

It was a voice breaking the silence. Renoa's voice, when she finally opened her mouth, was so small and faint it was swallowed by the sound of the rain.

"Why did you step in back then?"

"When?"

"When that old woman... no, when the duchess came. You stepped in on purpose, didn't you? What were you thinking?"

It was a question she had forced herself to ask calmly, but inside she'd been wondering about it for quite a while.

"I stepped in because I wanted to curry favor with the duchess? I thought it was a chance to get ahead."

"......"

Renoa stared at him fixedly. In her eyes, it seemed to say, 'Did you really step in for that reason?'

Unable to withstand that gaze, Leon scratched his head and spoke again.

"Well... it was kind of hard to watch. That girl getting hit like that."

"......"

"So I just gave it a shot. I was lucky. I thought I'd get hit a few times, but it turned out fine."

"......You meddler."

Renoa's voice was brusque as she said it. But unlike usual, there was no sharpness in it.

The uneasy feeling was similar to when Leon had given her a gift before.

'Because it was hard to watch that girl getting hit...'

Renoa quietly mulled over Leon's words.

At the very least, she'd assumed he'd stepped in because he was her master, or because of a knight's duty.

But the answer she got was an absurdly one-dimensional reason that could never pass muster in the House of Edelheid.

At the Edelheid ducal house, the words used to describe Renoa were extreme.

To the servants, she was a noble young lady beyond their reach; to the family, she was nothing more than a filthy illegitimate daughter.

There had never been a place anywhere for an ordinary girl who should be pitied and protected. Renoa had never expected one.

And yet.

A slave, the lowest of the low, treated a noble young lady like nothing more than an ordinary girl.

A gaze so unfamiliar, stripped of the shell and title that had bound Renoa.

'He's not just crazy.'

But for some reason, that brazen attitude pricked at some corner of her heart in a way that felt strangely intense.

-Flash! KWA-BOOM!

"Nngh..."

Thunder struck the mansion again. The wind and rain shook the windows violently.

"M-my lady?"

"Young Lady."

"Huh?"

"Call me Young Lady. How long are you going to keep calling me my lady?"

Leon thought it was basically the same thing, but since Renoa seemed to want that form of address, he obediently went along with it.

"Then, Young Lady. Are you planning to stay up all night tonight?"

"Why."

"If not, I think I might be able to help you a little."

"How?"

"Do you remember the sensory control you used on me once before, Young Lady? I've been handling mana a bit better lately, so I think I could dull the sound of the thunder and lightning."

Renoa knew that method, of course. It was a technique she'd already tried countless times before.

But controlling one's senses required an extremely high level of concentration.

For Renoa, whose reason froze whenever thunder struck and fear overwhelmed her, such delicate mana control was impossible.

"If you make even one mistake, it could affect your senses. And you're saying you'll control mine?"

"...I didn't hear that explanation when you did it to me. You went and did something that terrifying without saying a word?"

"Answer me."

"If you don't trust me, you can just stay up all night."

Leon replied irritably with a shrug.

If she were in her usual state, she'd have shut down that insolent attitude on the spot, but Renoa didn't even have the energy for that now.

The inner struggle dragged on.

-Rumble, KWA-BOOM!

A string of flashes. The booming thunder easily broke her stubborn resolve.

"......Just the sound."

Renoa agreed in a voice so small it seemed to crawl up from beneath the blanket she'd pulled to just below her nose.

"Just make the sound quieter. If you try anything funny, I'll really burn your brain."

"Yes, yes. Understood, Young Lady."

Leon answered casually and reached toward Renoa's face.

-Tap!

Renoa hurriedly slapped his hand away.

"What are you doing now?"

"To control mana, I need physical contact. You know that already."

"You want to put your hand on my face? Mine? A noble's? Did you maybe already pull your brain out before coming here? You and I are the same?"

"...Then where should I touch?"

Despite trembling like a coward at the sound of thunder, she still seemed determined to cling to the flimsy pride of nobility.

After thinking with a grave expression by herself, Renoa extended her hand out from under the blanket.

"......Your hand. Your hand is fine."

"Wasn't the hand off-limits?"

"Shut up. It's not like there's anywhere else. Stop talking nonsense and do it quickly."

"Yes, yes."

Leon let out a short sigh and placed his hand over Renoa's.

At that moment, Renoa flinched. The sensation of being touched was so unfamiliar and strange.

Even if Renoa was illegitimate, she was still a young lady. She had never once done any chores. She'd never gotten a single drop of water on her hands, and she'd never once dressed herself.

To such a Renoa, Leon's hand felt so rough it was hard to believe it was human.

The calluses embedded in every joint. A hand full of scars, utterly unlike his small, delicate appearance.

How much effort must he have put in for his hands to end up like this.

How desperately must he have struggled just to survive.

In that hideous texture, the path his life had taken was laid bare.

It was rough, but not unpleasant. The sensation spreading across the skin where their warm hands touched gave her a strange sense of relief.

"Then I'll begin. Please focus only on my voice."

Along with a low whisper blending into the sound of the rain, lukewarm mana gently painted over Renoa's senses.

The rain and wind pounding as if to shatter the windows, the violent thunder, all of it scattered into a muffled blur as though sunk deep underwater.

The fear she'd been forcing down vanished in an instant.

A silence cut off from the outside world.

In that stillness, only a single sound reached Renoa's ears.

"How is it? Is it a little more bearable?"

Leon's voice was indifferent, yet kind.

It rang out in soft, rounded tones, like raindrops falling on a still surface.

Warmth kept flowing in from their touching hands, and a strangely pleasant scent brushed past the tip of her nose.

A comforting body scent that somehow soothed her heart.

The noisy world receded, and Renoa's stiffly frozen shoulders slowly melted away.

Even the blanket she'd been gripping with her other hand gradually lost its tension.

As the intense strain let go, overwhelming relief and drowsiness washed over Renoa, and she fell asleep before she could even resist.

***

Regular, shallow breaths filled the room. Even with thunder and lightning cracking outside, not a single groan escaped her.

With soft breaths, Renoa's chest rose and fell at steady intervals. The color had returned to her bloodless lips as well.

Renoa slept soundly with a peaceful expression.

'She was making all that racket, and now she's sleeping like a log.'

She looks like a different person when she's quiet. Just looking at her sleeping face, it's kind of...

'Like a pretty devil.'

There was no way I could call her an angel after seeing so much, and a pretty devil was the best I could come up with.

'Should I sleep too?'

Just as Leon tried to pull his hand away.

-Squeeze.

Renoa, in her sleep, gripped his hand tightly. As if she still hadn't given him permission to leave.

'No way.'

He tried to gently pull his hand free, but the more he did, the tighter her grip became. If he used any more force, she'd clearly wake up.

Then she'd probably complain again.

In the end, there was nothing to do but wait quietly until morning came.

And then, the next morning.

"......Huh?"

Renoa found Leon sleeping face-down on the bed.

Her own hand was still tightly clasped around his.