How the Villainous Consort Avoids His Death Ending

“I just sat here still, that is all…”

Tristan, who had landed lightly on the basement floor, easily picked up Ruellin with one arm. He firmly gripped the rope that had been lowered late with his other hand and looked up at the entrance.

The lantern light from above flickered over his face. The Grand Duke had a look that Valerian had never seen him show to anyone.

A face that was extremely gentle and earnest, as if he were holding a precious treasure in his arms.

The moment he saw that, despair slowly settled over his entire body. He realized only then that his plan had been shattered before it had even begun. Valerian’s knees buckled, and he collapsed onto the floor. The knights who had approached suddenly grabbed his arms and tied them up roughly.

Valerian’s head hung down powerlessly.

❖ ❖ ❖

In the end, Tristan held me close and began to climb up, relying on the rope with one arm.

What on earth is this person… From the moment he ordered them to lower the rope, it seems he did not mean for me to climb up myself, but rather that he would come to get me. I did not know why he had to go to such lengths when he could have just lowered a ladder.

However, the embrace holding me was so warm that I forgot what I was going to say and could only part my lips.

“…You did not need to come down yourself.”

That was the only thing I could manage to say after a long while. Tristan did not answer and tightened his grip on the arm holding me.

I could feel his familiar scent from his clothes. The cool and refreshing, sometimes even sweet, scent of Tristan’s skin.

We had only been apart for a short while, yet I felt as if I had missed him. I closed my eyes and buried my cheek against his chest, slowly inhaling and taking in his scent with my whole body.

As we climbed up slowly together like that, the creaking sound of the rope struck my ears. As we finally cleared the basement, I saw the knights surrounding Valerian, who was tied up.

Valerian’s face was already pale. A faint, lifeless smile lingered onto his lips.

I looked down at him for a moment.

The Grand Consort in the original story, Valerian Aubepin von Hezekia.

He was once the cause of my needless guilt, and the person who made me think that I should let Tristan go. However…

“…Take him away.”

When I said that quietly, the knights bowed their heads. Valerian was dragged away helplessly, without a word and without even being able to lift his head.

That was the end of it. The existence of the “real Grand Consort” that had occupied my mind for so long had finally vanished completely.

❖ ❖ ❖

So, to explain how this happened…

In the original story, it was not me, but the Grand Consort at the time, Valerian, who was trapped in a basement swarming with black rats. He had been betrayed by the fief’s residents who were after his jewelry and valuables.

Regardless of what the truth was, that was Valerian’s claim, and Tristan believed him.

By the time Tristan, who had set out to rescue the Grand Consort in crisis, escaped the basement, he had already been infected by the plague. The Grand Duke of Hezekia, who had led the knight order and won numerous naval battles since he was young, could not overcome a mere attack by a swarm of rats. Thus, without being able to do anything about it, his whole body festered and rotted away, and he closed his eyes in death after a few days.

It was a terrifyingly miserable end. It was also a memory that had plagued me for a long time.

The original story did not show Valerian’s whereabouts after Tristan’s death. So, in the past, I naturally assumed he had stepped down from the position of Grand Consort and lived a difficult life.

But from the moment Valerian appeared, or rather, from the moment I heard the news that a swarm of black rats was rampant, I could not shake the feeling that something was amiss.

The trigger for the plague brought on by the black rats appeared five years earlier than in the original story. Can this really be called a natural disaster? And was the Grand Consort of Tristan who arrived five years early along with the news of that plague truly the “real Grand Consort”?