I Became The Villain’s Master - Chapter 1.9

From the perspective of a three-year-old baby, Rory was a head taller than me, but he was still just a little one with small hands and rosy cheeks.

To bully such a young child. It’s unacceptable.

Gazing into the child’s clear eyes like mirrors, I made a promise.

To ensure those pretty eyes never shed tears. To protect him no matter what.

***

Just a few hours after making that promise……

“Kyaak!”

It happened in an instant.

I was with a maid named Banana after lunch.

She was a girl who always came on rotation at this time because Ann had to go eat.

Rory had also gone down to the servants’ dining room following Ann, and he was probably busy greeting other servants and familiarizing himself with the place.

Banana brushed my teeth and put me down for a nap.

I didn’t want to sleep, but this tiny, insignificant body quickly drifted off to dreamland after a few pats on the belly.

I must have slept for about an hour.

“Eek!”

A child’s shrill scream was heard.

I woke up startled, and Ann, who was already by my side, jumped up from her seat.

Without time to ask Ann anything, I immediately headed to Rory’s room.

“Hey, Rory! What’s wrong?!”

“Rory! What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Click, click. The door was firmly locked, and Ann and I frantically knocked on it.

“Hic…… Sob……”

There was no answer, only the sound of crying.

Sensing that something was seriously wrong, Ann went down to find the key.

“Rory. It’s me. Open the door, will you? Hmm?”

“No, don’t!”

“Why! Why not?! What’s going on?!”

“Ah, young miss. Don’t come in!”

“Rory! Open the door! Quickly-!”

The frightened child’s tearful voice only repeated that it couldn’t be done.

Bang bang bang!

I pounded on the door until my fists hurt.

“Rory!”

My heart was pounding.

The louder the child’s crying became, the hotter my insides burned as if engulfed in flames.

Ann, who had run up the stairs, said even the spare key was missing and brought some servants.

The servants broke the doorknob and opened the door.

Hiss hiss hiss-

Along with a chilling sound, bugs as big as an adult’s palm crawled out of the room all at once.

“Kyaaak!”

“Ugh!”

The servants screamed, stumbled backward, or fell, and the hallway instantly became chaotic.

Ann, with her strong sense of duty, managed to lift me up high amidst the chaos.

Following the parade of many-legged bugs, when a scorpion jumped out, a terrified servant quickly pulled the rope at the end of the corridor.

It was a rope that acted like an emergency bell.

Bugs bigger than my fist poured into the hallway, going down the stairs or climbing up the walls.

“Rory!”

Looking into the room, Rory was standing on the windowsill, hugging the curtain and trembling.

I called out to the child like a scream.

A knight who had run up the stairs entered the room, took Rory in his arms, and came out.

It was Sir Peanut, who was part of my three-shift guard.

It was supposed to be another knight’s shift now, but he was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he had boldly played hooky.

“Ann! Bring the young miss here!”

Sir Peanut, holding Rory with his right arm, stretched his left hand towards me.

I quickly clung to him.

Sir Peanut ran so fast it felt like the wind and took us to Marquis Hauser’s office.

Ann followed behind us.

“Merchen? What brings you here at this hour?”

The Marquis greeted me with round eyes, then hurriedly went outside after receiving a report from Sir Peanut.

A commotion arose to exterminate the bugs that had spread to every corner of the mansion.

Sir Peanut stayed by our side, and Ann prepared warm milk and cookies.

“Young miss. You must have been so scared, right?”

Ann asked, on the verge of tears.

She looked like she needed more comfort than I did.

I shook my head and firmly held Rory’s trembling hand.

“No, Rory was the most frightened.”

“I’m, I’m okay now……”

Though he had stopped crying, Rory was still panting.

In the novel, the details of what kind of bullying Rory endured weren’t specified.

There was just a brief description that he suffered severe bullying, which led to Rory developing trauma and his personality gradually becoming twisted.

So I couldn’t predict what would happen.

I had even said I’d starve to death if they laid a finger on Rory.

I had warned them not to touch him, even going as far as talking nonsense about him being a doll like some psycho.

Didn’t the rascals truly love Merchen?

Or did they underestimate the situation, thinking, ‘Such a small thing, he’ll only starve for a meal or two at most’?

Maybe they saw through my doll treatment dialogue as a soulless lie.

“……”

My vision darkened, and I bit my lip hard.

First, I need to find out what happened during the time I was asleep.

“Rory. Why were you alone in your room? I told you never to be alone and to come to my room.”

“……I’m sorry.”

The silver head, damp with sweat, bowed deeply.

“No! I’m not blaming you! I just want to hear the whole story.”

“Yes. But…… what does ‘whole story’ mean?”

Rory asked cautiously, looking embarrassed.

His face reddened slightly as if he was a bit ashamed of not knowing the word.

It’s natural not to know.

How many five-year-olds would know such a word?

“I want to know what happened.”

When I asked gently with warm eyes, he tried to calm his agitated feelings and began to tell the story.

A little while ago, Rory had gone down with Ann to have a meal and came back up.

Ann thought Rory might get bored while Merchen was taking a nap, so she told him to brush his teeth and rest in his room for a while, and Rory obediently went to the adjacent room.

He also wanted to take a closer look at the room that had been beautifully decorated just for him.

However, what greeted Rory when he opened the door were horrifying bugs.

Moreover, at that moment, someone pushed Rory into the room and locked the door.

The bugs rushed at Rory, and he screamed and fled, climbing onto the windowsill.

In the midst of this, he shouted not to come in, worried that I would be startled.

Rory shivered, hugging himself and curling up.

‘I want to hug him.’

I thought throughout the time I was turning pages, leaning against the train seat.

That someone was cheering for you.

That there was someone who empathized with and felt your loneliness.

If only I could hug you warmly just once and whisper…

If someone had peeked into my thoughts, they might have clicked their tongue, saying not to get too invested in a mere character from a novel.

But now, Rory Valliet is within arm’s reach.

I raised myself slightly and hugged his neck tightly.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, no. It’s not the young miss’s fault, it’s mine for not being careful… my fault, my fault…”

“What nonsense is that? How upsetting.”

“……”

Rory hesitated for a moment before hugging me back.

His breath trembled painfully on my shoulder.