Failed To Abandon the Villain - Chapter 16

Reinhardt.

She knew his name. She had always known it.

But Valetta had deliberately avoided saying it, wary of the implications. Saying his name might forge a bond—a connection she couldn’t afford.

She was terrified that like the Valetta in the novel, she might one day find herself falling for him. That her heart, like a stray seed, might take root and grow in secret. That she might end up loving him so deeply she would offer him everything, only to meet her inevitable end as his gruesome display piece.

“You’ll never know how miserable it felt, not being able to awaken, every time you bowed your head and knelt before that foolish father of yours because you couldn’t endure the hunger and pain anymore.”

“….”

Valetta lowered her head, humiliated.

The fact that Reinhardt remembered all those shameful moments so vividly made her want to bury her face in her hands and disappear. She truly, genuinely wanted to bash him over the head to erase those memories from his mind.

To Valetta, her actions back then had carried no deeper meaning.

Count Delight had a twisted fondness for seeing her kneel and grovel. He craved absolute submission. Knowing his time was limited—whether by death or by her inevitable escape through marriage—Valetta had seen no need to hold onto her pride.

Kneeling and apologizing usually put an end to things quickly, and Valetta had simply chosen the easiest way out.

“Master,” Reinhardt called, rising from his seat and circling the table to stand beside her.

“I’ll allow you to remain my one and only master, so stay by my side.”

He bent down, his face level with hers, and carefully cradled her cheek in his hand.

“What…?”

Leaning in so close their noses nearly touched, he whispered, “You, you refused every time I told you to run away.”

Valetta’s eyes widened. “What?”

Reinhardt’s eyes flickered with a bittersweet smile. “If you’d run, I would have suffered far worse.”

“…What?”

At her confused question, Reinhardt chuckled softly, an exhalation of breath like a deflating balloon. His tone was unhurried as he continued.

“Mages are born with an aura that is fundamentally different from that of normal humans. That difference unsettles and repulses humans.”

“…”

“That’s why newly born mages are instinctively hated—without any particular reason. Humans cannot accept what is different from themselves. And newborn mages are especially vulnerable.”

Reinhardt gently stroked Valetta’s cheek with his thumb as he spoke.

Valetta couldn’t respond, shocked to hear such a hidden truth. She hadn’t expected there to be such a backstory.

“But you weren’t like that,” Reinhardt said softly.

“I—!”

‘I was unsettled and afraid of you too!’ Valetta wanted to yell. But before she could speak, Reinhardt pressed his thumb lightly against her lower lip, silencing her.

“You always looked me in the eyes when we spoke. You listened to what I had to say. You didn’t recoil from my touch,” he murmured.

“That’s…”

“You didn’t call anyone by their name, and you didn’t leave room for anyone to get close. To you, I must have looked no different from the others.”

“…”

“You saw me as just another human being.”

His whisper lingered in her ears, and Valetta couldn’t bring herself to respond.

No one had ever met Reinhardt’s gaze head-on during a conversation. People coveted his striking appearance, his sweet voice, or the sense of superiority he exuded, treating him as a trophy or a tool.

Valetta had been the only one who hadn’t wanted anything from him. Even if her gaze was cold or filled with disdain, she never pushed him away when he clung to her.

“Why didn’t I run away?” Reinhardt said, as if echoing her earlier thoughts. “Because kneeling there, bowing my head, was the best choice I had.”

He leaned in so close that their foreheads almost touched. Valetta frowned, placing her hands lightly on his shoulders to push him away.

Reinhardt, with surprising obedience, backed off at her weak gesture but continued speaking.

“Because if I left, I wouldn’t have been able to claim you as mine.”

As he said it, his tongue darted out briefly to lick his lower lip, as though savoring the thought, his expression filled with an unsettling blend of longing and restraint.

“For a moment, I thought he was going to kiss me.”

What unsettled Valetta the most was that, without even realizing it, she had almost allowed it.

Was it his innocent-looking appearance? Or perhaps remnants of the original Valetta’s instincts lingering within her? She wasn’t sure.

“Of course…” Reinhardt trailed off, his voice soft yet loaded with meaning.

“I wanted to have you, my master.”

His smile was kind, but Valetta could only stare blankly at the pretty, yet utterly insane grin.

Does this lunatic even realize what he’s saying?

She exhaled heavily, feeling a sense of resignation.

“You wouldn’t want to become a spectacle, would you, my master?”

“A spectacle?”

“Even if your Spirit Magic stays hidden for now, do you know how many people would covet your Alchemy?”

“…”

“You’re so naïve, my master. Do you have any idea what that foolish father of yours was planning to do with you?”

Reinhardt’s hand reached out slowly, his fingers brushing against the inside of Valetta’s wrist. His second finger traced along the faint blue veins visible beneath her translucent skin.

“He planned to sell your blood…”

Valetta’s eyes widened in shock.

“…and soon, under the guise of ‘recuperation,’ he intended to lock you away in some distant countryside villa to bear the child of some unknown man.”

As Reinhardt’s fingertip followed the vein up her arm, she shivered. Whether it was his touch or the horrifying revelations about Count Delight, she couldn’t tell.

“To that end, he even listed you discreetly for auction—something you probably didn’t even notice.”

His fingers traveled up to her neck, where his thumb began to move in slow circles against her skin.

“If you married someone like the Crown Prince, he planned to force you to keep making potions endlessly, splitting the profits with some greedy swine in the royal palace.”

Reinhardt’s sharp thumbnail pressed against her neck with just enough pressure to make her skin crawl. It wasn’t painful, but it was unnerving.

Valetta found herself staring at his moving lips, momentarily frozen by the barrage of horrifying truths.

“You didn’t know any of this, did you?”

“…You’re insane,” she muttered, the words slipping out without thought.

She had always known Count Delight was a greedy man, but the depth of his depravity—planning to exploit his own child in such monstrous ways—left her chilled to the bone.

“And you can’t imagine how much I wanted to snap their necks,” Reinhardt said, his voice low and brimming with controlled rage.

Reinhardt’s once-detached demeanor had completely shattered, his face contorting with unrestrained fury. The usually hollow, false light in his crimson eyes was now replaced by a cold, seething rage that burned with an intensity akin to blue flames.

Valetta, startled, found herself staring at him. She had never seen such raw emotion from Reinhardt before. He had always masked himself with a false smile, maintaining a gentle facade—even if his eyes rarely joined in that smile.

“What do you mean, my father wanted me to have a child? I was engaged to the Crown Prince,” she said, her voice edged with disbelief.

“He must have received quite the offer. It seems he intended to delay your wedding under the pretense of a year-long recovery and send you elsewhere for that purpose,” Reinhardt replied casually.

“…Did my father really plan that?”

“Yes,” Reinhardt confirmed. “To him, you were a goose that laid golden eggs—a noblewoman with the talent of a high-level alchemist. Of course he wanted to exploit you for as much as he could.”

“That’s sickening,” Valetta muttered, narrowing her eyes. Though the Count was already dead, the revelation made his death seem far from tragic. She sighed heavily.

“So, because the outside world is dangerous, you want me locked up in here?”

“If you frame it that way, yes,” Reinhardt replied, smiling brightly as though he were discussing something trivial.

“I refuse,” Valetta snapped.

Her firm rejection seemed to amuse Reinhardt. “How do I know what you’ll do to me?” she added, her voice sharp with suspicion. To her, Reinhardt was no less dangerous than the world outside.

Reinhardt shrugged, unbothered by her pointed words. With a sigh, he plopped back down into the chair opposite her, resting his chin in his hand as he gazed at her.

“I wouldn’t harm you, my master. If I intended to, I’d have done so already,” he said calmly, his tone disturbingly casual despite the grim content of his words.

Valetta frowned at the unsettling remark but stayed silent.

“If you promise not to run, I’ll let you out of this room,” Reinhardt offered.

“Fine,” Valetta replied shortly.

“…You’re saying you won’t run away?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s such an obvious lie,” Reinhardt said with a chuckle. It was blatantly clear to anyone that she was lying just to get out of the room. Her determination to escape the Mage’s Tower at the first opportunity was written all over her, and she didn’t even bother to hide it.

Reinhardt’s lips curved into a bitter smile as he watched her bold expression. She had never been someone who moved according to others’ expectations, and clearly, that hadn’t changed.

Opening his palm, Reinhardt summoned a delicate bracelet into existence. It was a thin silver ring, plain and unadorned, without even a single gemstone. Its simplicity made it look more like a utilitarian tool than an accessory.

“Put this on,” Reinhardt said, holding it out to her. “If you wear this, you’ll be able to leave this room anytime you want.”

“Let me guess—it’ll drag me back here if I try to escape?” Valetta asked, her tone dripping with disdain as she glared at him.

Reinhardt shrugged casually and shook his head. “Of course not. Unlike those greedy pigs, I don’t lack the ability to keep my promises.”

“Ah. Sure,” Valetta replied dryly, unimpressed by his confidence. His foul mouth was baffling. How had this man ever managed to convincingly act like a sweet, obedient slave?

“You can leave whenever you want. But the only ones who can let you back in are me or that guard dog from earlier.”

“Ah.”

Valetta realized what he was implying: the bracelet would grant her freedom to leave, but only they could grant her reentry. Still, the promise of getting out of this suffocating, wide-open, embarrassingly bare room was too tempting to resist.

Reluctantly, she took the bracelet from Reinhardt and fastened it onto her wrist.

“Once you’re wearing that, just call my name, and I’ll come to you wherever you are,” Reinhardt added with a serene smile.

“What? Doesn’t this let me come and go between this room and outside on my own?” Valetta asked, her face filled with disbelief.

At her indignant expression, Reinhardt’s eyes curved into crescent moons as he grinned, clearly entertained.

“My foolish master,” he began, his voice dripping with mockery, “what an absurdly naive thought.”

“…”

Ah, I really just want to punch him once. Valetta thought, her face twisting into a grimace.