The Yandere villainess loves the useless engineer

Chapter 104: Charles

The boy continued staring at me 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 immediately brushed some dirt from his clothes as though jumping from walls was something he did every day.

Then he looked at me 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 immediately showed everyone exactly who I was.

Every servant, noble and visitor could recognize me 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 me like everyone else.

"My name 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 immediately accepted the answer.

"Oh."

Then he smiled.

"My name’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 meet you..."

My voice came 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 moment I thought I had heard him wrong.

Play?

With me?

Nobody had ever asked me that before.

Not once, I looked at him in complete disbelief.

"You..."

I hesitated.

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

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 me was the most normal thing in the world.

Slowly, something warm spread through my chest.

A feeling I couldn’t quite describe.

Hope.

Tiny and fragile, but undeniably it was there inside me.

"O-Okay."

Charles immediately 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 come here often?"

I followed his gaze.

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

"Not really."

Charles immediately grinned.

"Then we’ll just play here."

I blinked.

The answer was so simple.

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

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

"Come on, Emilia."

For a moment I simply stood there staring at him.

Then slowly...

A small smile appeared on my face.

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

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

For a few moments, neither of us moved.

I simply stood there looking at Charles while he looked back at me with a smile that seemed 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 time with me.

Eventually, Charles suddenly perked up as though he had just remembered something.

"Do you want to play tag?"

I blinked.

"Tag?"

Charles stared at me.

"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, remembering 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 seemed 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 movements.

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 immediately turned around and sprinted away.

I stood there in complete confusion.

"What?"

Charles looked back over his shoulder.

"Come catch me!"

—————————-

The next several hours passed in a blur.

At first I could barely keep up with him.

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

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

It was incredibly frustrating.

And yet...

I couldn’t stop smiling.

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

I wasn’t thinking about the whispers.

I wasn’t thinking about the empty dining room.

I wasn’t thinking about being alone. freёwebnovel.com

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

Eventually my hair became messy.

My clothes became dirty.

My legs hurt.

My breathing became uneven.

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

Every time Charles laughed, I found myself laughing too.

The sound felt strange coming from my own mouth.

Almost unfamiliar.

I couldn’t remember ever laughing like this before.

Not once.

The realization struck me midway through our game.

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

Yet somehow a boy I had only known for a few hours had managed to make me laugh dozens of times.

The thought made my chest feel warm.

Unfortunately, all good things eventually came to an end.

By the time 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 time all afternoon, neither of us was running.

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

"I should probably go."

The words immediately 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 me strangely.

"Home."

I lowered my eyes slightly.

"Where is your home?"

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 me several seconds to process his words.

Both of his parents were gone.

Yet somehow...

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 immediately flared inside my chest.

"W-Wait!"

Charles paused and looked down at me.

I hesitated.

My hands clenched nervously and for a moment 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 came so quickly that I almost didn’t believe it.

"I’ll come back tomorrow."

My eyes widened.

"Really?"

"Yeah." fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

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 become quiet once more.

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

Yet somehow everything felt different.

The loneliness that normally accompanied me everywhere felt smaller than before.

Not gone.

Just smaller.

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

A friend.

The thought alone was enough to make me smile.

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

Nothing could ruin my mood.

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

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

About the games we might play.

About the things we might talk about.

About seeing Charles again.

Eventually exhaustion claimed me.

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 moments I simply lay there staring at the ceiling before yesterday’s memories came rushing back into my mind all at once.

Charles.

The games we had played and the promise he made.

The fact that somebody had actually wanted to spend time with me.

The excitement 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 immediately headed toward the quiet section of the gardens where we had met 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 time slowly passed, my excitement gradually turned into nervousness.

What if he forgot?

What if he changed his mind?

What if he had gone home yesterday and somebody had told him who I really was?

The thoughts became 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 same 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 time with me wasn’t worth it.

That would make sense.

Everyone else eventually came 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 me.

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

I jumped so violently that I nearly fell over.

"Wah!"

A familiar laugh immediately followed.

Charles was standing there.

The moment 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.

Meanwhile I was still trying to recover from the shock.

"You scared me..."

The complaint came 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 me staring.

"I brought something."

He proudly held it up.

"Do you want to play catch?"

I blinked.

"Catch?"

His grin immediately disappeared.

"No way."

I lowered my head slightly.

"I don’t know what catch is."

Charles stared at me for several seconds.

Then he pointed at me.

"You seriously don’t know catch?"

I shook my head.

For some reason this seemed to shock him even more than me not knowing tag.

After a moment he simply sighed dramatically.

"Emilia."

His tone sounded oddly serious.

"Your childhood is tragic."

I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant.

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 me.

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 somehow ended up hitting me 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 game was still fun.

Eventually I managed to catch the ball properly.

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

"See?"

He said.

"I knew you could do it."

Those simple words made me 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 time Charles was the one doing the talking.

He told me about the orphanage.

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

About the games 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 me questions as well.

I had to be careful with my answers.

Every lie made me 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 me.

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

By the time 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 me sad.

But not as much as yesterday.

Because this time I knew he would come back.

At least I hoped he would.

Before climbing the wall, Charles turned around.

"Same time tomorrow?"

I immediately nodded.

"Tomorrow."

He smiled and climbed onto the wall.

Just before disappearing, he looked back one last time.

"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 time in my life, I had something 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 game Charles would bring tomorrow.