The Yandere villainess loves the useless engineer Chapter 104: Charles

The boy continued staring at from atop the wall for a few more seconds before suddenly jumping down.

I instinctively took a step backwards.

The wall was much taller than I was, yet he landed perfectly fine and imdiately brushed so dirt from his clothes as though jumping from walls was sothing he did every day.

Then he looked at curiously.

"Who are you?"

I froze slightly.

"Are you one of the servants’ children?"

My eyes widened.

Without thinking, I looked down at myself.

Normally I wore expensive dresses that imdiately showed everyone exactly who I was.

Every servant, noble and visitor could recognize instantly.

But this morning I had been too tired to change into one.

Instead I was wearing simple clothes.

The realization made my heart start beating faster.

He didn’t know who I was.

He didn’t know I was Lillith Nightbane.

He didn’t know I was the girl everyone avoided.

And if he didn’t know...

Maybe he wouldn’t treat like everyone else.

"My na is Emilia."

The lie left my mouth before I could stop it.

"I’m the daughter of one of the maids. I’m staying here for a while."

The boy imdiately accepted the answer.

"Oh."

Then he smiled.

"My na’s Charles."

I stared at him.

He was smiling.

Not forcing himself nor was he pretending.

I watched as a genuine smile left his face, the sight felt strangely foreign.

"N-Nice to et you..."

My voice ca out small and quiet.

Charles didn’t seem to notice or maybe he simply didn’t care.

Instead he asked another question.

"Do you want to play?"

For a mont I thought I had heard him wrong.

Play?

With ?

Nobody had ever asked that before.

Not once, I looked at him in complete disbelief.

"You..."

I hesitated.

"...you really want to play with ?"

Charles tilted his head.

"Why wouldn’t I?"

I didn’t know how to answer.

There were so many reasons as people always found one eventually.

Yet Charles simply looked confused by the question.

As though playing with was the most normal thing in the world.

Slowly, sothing warm spread through my chest.

A feeling I couldn’t quite describe.

Hope.

Tiny and fragile, but undeniably it was there inside .

"O-Okay."

Charles imdiately brightened.

"Great."

He pointed toward the outer wall.

"Let’s go outside."

I quickly shook my head.

"I can’t."

"Why?"

I looked away.

"I’m not allowed."

Charles frowned slightly before looking around the quiet section of the garden.

"Do people co here often?"

I followed his gaze.

This part of the garden was usually empty as servants stayed near the manor and the gardeners rarely ca this far out.

"Not really."

Charles imdiately grinned.

"Then we’ll just play here."

I blinked.

The answer was so simple.

Yet sohow it felt like the greatest thing anyone had ever said to .

Charles turned around and started walking deeper into the garden before looking back at .

"Co on, Emilia."

For a mont I simply stood there staring at him.

Then slowly...

A small smile appeared on my face.

One that felt unfamiliar to and one I hadn’t worn in a very long ti.

And before I even realized it, I had started following him.

For a few monts, neither of us moved.

I simply stood there looking at Charles while he looked back at with a smile that seed completely natural.

There was no nervousness in his expression, no hesitation, and no sign that he wanted to leave.

The longer I stood there, the more I began to realize that he genuinely wanted to spend ti with .

Eventually, Charles suddenly perked up as though he had just rembered sothing.

"Do you want to play tag?"

I blinked.

"Tag?"

Charles stared at .

"You don’t know what tag is?"

I slowly shook my head.

The confused look on his face deepened.

"How?"

I lowered my gaze slightly.

"I haven’t really talked to many people before."

The explanation wasn’t entirely a lie.

Then, rembering the story I had made up earlier, I quickly added.

"My mother moved around a lot for work, so I never really got to stay anywhere long enough."

Charles seed to accept that explanation surprisingly easily.

"Oh."

Then he scratched the back of his head.

"Well, it’s easy."

What followed was a very enthusiastic explanation that involved a lot of hand movents.

By the end of it, I vaguely understood that one person was supposed to chase another person and touch them, at which point their roles would switch.

It sounded simple enough.

At least until Charles suddenly poked my shoulder.

"You’re it!"

Then he imdiately turned around and sprinted away.

I stood there in complete confusion.

"What?"

Charles looked back over his shoulder.

"Co catch !"

—————————-

The next several hours passed in a blur.

At first I could barely keep up with him.

Every ti I thought I was close enough to touch him, he would dart away laughing before I could reach him.

Sotis he would deliberately slow down and wait for to get close, only to run off again the mont I stretched out my hand.

It was incredibly frustrating.

And yet...

I couldn’t stop smiling.

For what felt like the first ti in my entire life, I wasn’t thinking about the servants who avoided .

I wasn’t thinking about the whispers.

I wasn’t thinking about the empty dining room.

I wasn’t thinking about being alone.

Instead, I was running through the gardens while trying to catch a boy who seed to have endless amounts of energy.

Eventually my hair beca ssy.

My clothes beca dirty.

My legs hurt.

My breathing beca uneven.

And despite all of that, I didn’t want it to stop.

Every ti Charles laughed, I found myself laughing too.

The sound felt strange coming from my own mouth.

Almost unfamiliar.

I couldn’t rember ever laughing like this before.

Not once.

The realization struck midway through our ga.

For five years, I had gone through life without ever truly laughing.

Yet sohow a boy I had only known for a few hours had managed to make laugh dozens of tis.

The thought made my chest feel warm.

Unfortunately, all good things eventually ca to an end.

By the ti the sun began sinking toward the horizon, both of us were exhausted.

Charles dropped onto the grass while breathing heavily and I soon followed, sitting a short distance away while trying to catch my breath.

The sky above us had begun turning orange.

Long shadows stretched across the garden.

And for the first ti all afternoon, neither of us was running.

After a while, Charles slowly stood up and brushed himself off.

"I should probably go."

The words imdiately made my heart sink.

"Oh."

It was all I could think of saying.

Charles nodded.

"Yeah."

I hesitated before asking.

"Where are you going?"

He looked at strangely.

"Ho."

I lowered my eyes slightly.

"Where is your ho?"

Charles pointed beyond the wall.

"An orphanage."

The answer wasn’t what I had expected but upon seeing my confusion, Charles shrugged.

"My parents died a couple years ago."

He said it so casually that it took several seconds to process his words.

Both of his parents were gone.

Yet sohow...

Despite that loss...

Despite everything he had gone through...

He still looked happier than almost everyone I knew.

Before I could think of what to say, Charles had already started climbing the wall again.

"See you later, Emilia."

Panic imdiately flared inside my chest.

"W-Wait!"

Charles paused and looked down at .

I hesitated.

My hands clenched nervously and for a mont I was afraid to ask.

Afraid of the answer.

But eventually the words slipped out anyway.

"Can I see you again?"

Charles looked genuinely surprised by the question.

Then he smiled.

"Sure."

The answer ca so quickly that I almost didn’t believe it.

"I’ll co back tomorrow."

My eyes widened.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Charles laughed.

"Why wouldn’t I?"

Then, before I could say anything else, he climbed over the wall and disappeared from sight.

I remained standing there long after he had left.

The garden had beco quiet once more.

The evening wind gently moved through the trees while the last rays of sunlight disappeared beyond the horizon.

Yet sohow everything felt different.

The loneliness that normally accompanied everywhere felt smaller than before.

Not gone.

Just smaller.

Because for the first ti in my life, I had sothing that I had always believed was impossible.

A friend.

The thought alone was enough to make smile.

Even as I walked back through the manor with the servants that continued avoiding .

Nothing could ruin my mood.

That night, after climbing into bed, I spent hours staring at the ceiling.

Every ti I closed my eyes, I found myself thinking about tomorrow.

About the gas we might play.

About the things we might talk about.

About seeing Charles again.

Eventually exhaustion claid .

And with a smile still on my face, I drifted off to sleep while eagerly waiting for the next day to arrive.

——————————-

The next morning I woke up before the sun had even fully risen.

For a few monts I simply lay there staring at the ceiling before yesterday’s mories ca rushing back into my mind all at once.

Charles.

The gas we had played and the promise he made.

The fact that sobody had actually wanted to spend ti with .

The excitent that followed was unlike anything I had ever felt before.

I quickly got dressed, ate breakfast so quickly that several servants looked confused, and then imdiately headed toward the quiet section of the gardens where we had t yesterday.

When I arrived, nobody was there.

That was fine since I had arrived early.

So I waited.

At first I sat beneath a tree while occasionally glancing toward the wall.

Then I started pacing around the garden before I sat down eventually.

As ti slowly passed, my excitent gradually turned into nervousness.

What if he forgot?

What if he changed his mind?

What if he had gone ho yesterday and sobody had told him who I really was?

The thoughts beca increasingly difficult to ignore.

Hours passed.

The sun climbed higher into the sky.

Yet Charles still hadn’t appeared.

I found myself sitting beside the sa flowerbed where I had first seen the ladybugs yesterday.

My gaze remained fixed on the wall.

A heavy feeling slowly settled inside my chest.

Maybe he wasn’t coming.

Maybe yesterday had just been a lucky coincidence.

Maybe he had realized that spending ti with wasn’t worth it.

That would make sense.

Everyone else eventually ca to that conclusion.

My fingers tightened around the edge of my dress.

I should’ve known better than to get my hopes up.

People always left eventually.

They always—

A shadow suddenly passed over .

Before I could react, sobody landed nearby with a loud thud.

I jumped so violently that I nearly fell over.

"Wah!"

A familiar laugh imdiately followed.

Charles was standing there.

The mont I saw him, every horrible thought that had been building inside my head vanished.

"You should’ve seen your face."

Charles was laughing so hard that he had to hold his stomach.

anwhile I was still trying to recover from the shock.

"You scared ..."

The complaint ca out much weaker than I intended.

Charles grinned.

"Sorry."

Judging by his expression, he wasn’t sorry at all.

Only then did I notice the object tucked beneath his arm.

It was a ball.

A simple leather ball that looked old and slightly worn.

Charles noticed staring.

"I brought sothing."

He proudly held it up.

"Do you want to play catch?"

I blinked.

"Catch?"

His grin imdiately disappeared.

"No way."

I lowered my head slightly.

"I don’t know what catch is."

Charles stared at for several seconds.

Then he pointed at .

"You seriously don’t know catch?"

I shook my head.

For so reason this seed to shock him even more than not knowing tag.

After a mont he simply sighed dramatically.

"Emilia."

His tone sounded oddly serious.

"Your childhood is tragic."

I wasn’t entirely sure what that ant.

Thankfully, catch turned out to be much easier to learn than tag.

At least according to Charles.

After spending several minutes explaining the rules, he walked a short distance away and gently tossed the ball toward .

I failed to catch it.

The ball bounced off my hands and rolled into a bush.

Charles laughed.

The second attempt wasn’t much better.

Neither was the third.

Or the fourth.

At one point the ball sohow ended up hitting directly in the forehead.

Charles laughed so hard that he nearly fell over.

Normally I would’ve felt embarrassed.

Instead I found myself laughing too.

Even if I wasn’t very good at it, the ga was still fun.

Eventually I managed to catch the ball properly.

The look of genuine surprise on Charles’s face made oddly proud of myself.

"See?"

He said.

"I knew you could do it."

Those simple words made happier than they probably should have.

The rest of the day passed far quicker than the one before.

As we played, we talked about all kinds of things.

Most of the ti Charles was the one doing the talking.

He told about the orphanage.

About the other children who lived there and the city below the manor.

About the gas they played and the places they explored.

Listening to him felt like hearing stories from another world.

A world far larger than the walls of Nightbane Manor.

Occasionally he would ask questions as well.

I had to be careful with my answers.

Every lie made feel slightly guilty.

Yet I was terrified that telling him the truth would make him disappear.

So whenever he asked about my family, I continued pretending to be Emilia.

The daughter of a maid, a girl nobody knew.

And for once...

It felt nice.

Because Charles wasn’t talking to the future Duchess of Nightbane.

He wasn’t talking to the cursed child, the girl everyone feared.

He was talking to .

Or at least the version of I wished I could be.

By the ti the sun began setting, we were both exhausted again.

We sat beneath a tree while watching the sky gradually turn orange.

The ball rested between us on the grass.

Neither of us had the energy to keep playing.

Eventually Charles stood up and stretched.

"I should go."

The words still made sad.

But not as much as yesterday.

Because this ti I knew he would co back.

At least I hoped he would.

Before climbing the wall, Charles turned around.

"Sa ti tomorrow?"

I imdiately nodded.

"Tomorrow."

He smiled and climbed onto the wall.

Just before disappearing, he looked back one last ti.

"See you tomorrow, Emilia."

I watched him jump down the other side.

Then disappear from sight.

Yet unlike yesterday, I wasn’t left feeling lonely afterwards.

Instead I found myself smiling all the way back to the manor.

Tomorrow.

For the first ti in my life, I had sothing to look forward to.

And as I lay in bed that night staring at the ceiling, my thoughts weren’t filled with loneliness or sadness.

They were filled with curiosity.

I wondered what ga Charles would bring tomorrow.