If there was a place abandoned by both gods and humans, wouldn’t it be this place?

That temple where she encountered Leon.

Kasha walked alone on the marble floor stained with people’s blood.

“…This place is closed. Leave immediately.”

The holy knight warning her was in a terrible state.

Platinum blonde hair turned gray with dust. Eyes that had lost their luster. A helmet with the visor fallen off and rusty, dented pauldrons. Above all, the right arm severed below the shoulder.

But it wasn’t just his appearance that was broken.

“Ugh! Gah! Huff.”

During those few days she stayed at the temple, he would often get feverish and yell at her with reddened eyes.

“I told you… to leave… Ugh! Aren’t you afraid of me?”

“……”

“Do you want your body to be ravaged and defiled by a beast-like pervert? Is that your taste? Kekeke… ugh… cough.”

Though his eyes were burning with lust, drooling and spewing obscenities, he never touched Kasha.

He crawled around the marble floor like a dog, relieving himself alone under the statue of the god and loudly cursing the deity, but he never violated Kasha.

Kasha observed him with dark eyes from a corner. Until his heat ended.

He seemed to know as well. The fact that she was watching his appearance.

As he displayed his ugly, fallen state, he sometimes seemed to be in agony, sometimes ashamed. And at times when lust completely dominated his mind, he seemed to enjoy her gaze.

On the night of the full moon over the ruined temple.

The fallen holy knight and the crouching villainess spent a long night observing each other.

Finally, on the evening his heat ended, he lit a campfire with a haggard face. Kasha hesitated before going to sit beside him. Exhausted, he didn’t bother driving her away.

They sank into silence, staring at the campfire for a long time. It was Kasha who broke the silence again.

“Um. I, I’m the villainess… Kasha.”

Even after hearing her confession, he said nothing. In his amethyst eyes that were once called the jewels of the empire, only the firelight flickered instead of vitality.

“The one who… made you like this… is me.”

At her voice that seemed to crawl, he finally turned to look at her. Though his cheeks were sunken from weight loss, he was still beautiful.

“You’re saying you’re the villainess Kasha?”

Nod.

He scrutinized Kasha, who was nodding, for a long time. Then he smiled a dry smile like withered leaves.

“How ridiculous.”

And then he was silent again.

‘…He doesn’t believe me.’

Kasha realized. He couldn’t believe it. That such an insignificant-looking woman could be the villainess Kasha.

If he really thought she was, he might have drawn that rusty sword and pierced her neck right away.

He didn’t recognize her.

Not just now, but he didn’t remember their first meeting long ago either.

It’s natural. Their encounter was fleeting, and her presence was insignificant then as it is now.

But she remembers everything. She hasn’t forgotten a single thing.

That’s why she couldn’t leave this man alone, wandering like an abandoned beast in this forsaken temple.

For three days and nights, she kept talking to him, stumbling over her words, trying to find a way to help him somehow.

He who had kept his mouth shut tight finally started saying a word or two, and at some point spilled everything.

Why was that?

It was only later that I thought, but perhaps he was preparing for his death from that moment. The regret for a life that would soon fade may have opened his mouth.

Or maybe he was intrigued by the earnest eyes of a woman who wasn’t afraid of him, a holy knight cursed with lust, and kept talking to him for whatever reason.

The three days passed quickly, and finally, after hearing his whole story, Kasha said this:

“I’ll save you.”

He stared blankly at her, who somehow managed to speak a perfect sentence without stammering.

“Really. I, I know a way. I might be able to… break your curse. So, just…”

He interrupted her, still expressionless.

“No one can save another person’s life.”

“…But.”

“So go and save your own life first. I’m already ruined.”

At that very moment, violent footsteps invaded the quiet temple.

“Villainess Katiana Lyuschino, surrender to arrest by order of His Highness the Crown Prince!”

She was captured helplessly by the imperial army that burst into the temple.

“Is this woman really the villainess Kasha?”

Leon muttered in disbelief. But his eyes soon regained their dead look. As if even the fact that this insignificant woman was his enemy no longer held any meaning.

Looking at him like that, she spoke almost pleadingly.

“I, I’ll try to find a way somehow. So please, survive. Then…”

“Wait. That man looks familiar? Isn’t that Leon Aranias? The fallen holy knight wanted by the Holy Knight Order!”

At that moment, one of the imperial knights surrounding them recognized Leon, and hearing this, the knight commander’s face lit up.

“If we take his head too, His Highness the Crown Prince will give us a great reward. He’s dangerous, but if we attack all at once, we have a chance!”

“No…!”

Kasha turned pale. But Leon just stared blankly into space.

“One squad will escort the villainess now. The rest will deal with Leon Aranias.”

As she was being dragged away by the soldiers, Kasha saw Leon feebly parrying the knights’ swords with his one arm.

She could tell.

He would die there.

He had already decided so.

At that moment, a heartbroken cry burst from within Kasha.

“Don’t die, please don’t die, Leon…!”

Don’t die so meaninglessly. If you die like that, I feel like I won’t be able to think that I’m not a villainess even to myself anymore.

It feels like I’ve really become that terrible villainess people talk about.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

At the end of the brutal noise like hunting down a beast, the excited cheers of the knights were faintly heard.

They had succeeded in their beast hunt.

Kasha left, leaving Leon’s last moments behind.

And from there, she was escorted to Arkin’s Level 1 prison for vicious criminals in the capital.

Three months later.

It was Kasha’s twenty-first birthday.

The winter wind blew fiercely through the prison bars. Along with the sound of people chanting her name.

“Execute the villainess Kasha!”

“Kasha Lyuschino! Die! You villainess!”

“Bring back my poor child! You devil who deserves to be torn apart!”

The curses people hurled were now familiar, but the sorrow and pain in those voices still pierced deep into her heart no matter how many times she heard them. Kasha hunched over, dropping her head to where her frostbitten toes had fallen off.

The winter in prison was bitterly cold. The dress she had been wearing when arrested had already turned to rags, offering no protection from the cold. Her body was breaking down with frostbite all over. Her eyesight was also damaged, leaving her almost blind.

Cough. Cough.

As she coughed violently, feeling like her ribs would break, footsteps were heard.

Kasha reflexively curled up even smaller. Her breathing quickened involuntarily from fear.

Just hearing the guard’s footsteps made her teeth chatter.

No matter how many times she endured it, torture never became familiar. They came up with new tortures every day, demanding answers she couldn’t give.

‘Speak, you stubborn wench! What was your purpose in committing such atrocious acts?’

‘Who are your accomplices?’

‘You insufferably vicious bitch!’

Creak. Clang.

The prison bars opened. Someone entered and clicked their tongue, seemingly discovering her trembling.

“…Kasha. You look terrible.”

A familiar voice. She jerked her head up, but her nearly blind eyes saw nothing.

“S-Simon?”

A voice like an old woman’s, cracked from screaming during torture, flowed from her damaged vocal cords.

“Yes. It’s me, Kasha. Ha, even for a prisoner, this state is a bit… appalling.”

He clicked his tongue again. Kasha dragged her legs, numb from frostbite, towards him. Though she resented him for only appearing now, she was still glad to have hope of leaving this place.

“Simon. Has the situation… been cleared up now?”

“……”

“I, I never once… mentioned your name. No matter how much torture I endured… I didn’t say a word.”

“Good girl. As always.”

“So…”

Take me out of here. Please tell me that all this pain I endured alone is over now.

“But even if you had mentioned my name, it wouldn’t have changed much, Kasha.”

‘What?’

She couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying in a mocking voice.

“Kasha. The truth is, you did do it all, didn’t you? Right? Saying I ordered you or whatever, that’s just an excuse. Fundamentally, it was all you. You made those destructive magical tools, you separated the curse from the magic stones.”

“N-No! I, I really didn’t know those tools would be used like that, to kill people. If I had known, no matter how much you forced me, I would never… never have made them.”

Simon chuckled.

“That’s why you’re in this state. To think you really believed those magical tools would only be used for hunting beasts.”

His mockery stabbed Kasha’s heart. She continued speaking with a feeling of coughing up blood.

“Separating the curse from the magic stones, I didn’t do that for such a purpose either. You know that. How could you not only steal that, but use it for such an evil purpose! How could you do that to innocent people!”

Kasha cried out.

The anger and despair that had gnawed at her soul throughout her imprisonment finally burst forth. It was also a confession she hadn’t been able to tell anyone.

That she really didn’t know. If she had known her magical tools, those magic stones would be used like that, no matter what threats he made, she would never have followed his words.

How much she wanted to spill everything each time the guards pulled out her nails one by one, broke her joints, and pressed red-hot iron tongs to her thighs.

The only reason she couldn’t was…

“Y-You’re my husband, Simon.”