I May Be A Villainess, But I Won't Live My Life That Way - Chapter 99

Chapter 99

“Ricardo… Ricardo… Ricardo.”

I couldn’t say anything else. His name was the only thing that escaped my lips.

With trembling hands, I carefully lifted his head and rested it on my lap.

Only then did I see it—the arrow lodged in Ricardo’s chest.

“Ricardo.”

The moment I saw it, tears began to flow uncontrollably.

That arrow—it should have been in my chest, not his. The red blood staining my hands was supposed to be mine, not his.

The dull pain I had felt when I thought the arrow hit me was from Ricardo pushing me away with all his strength.

He had taken the arrow for me.

To save me.

“Bianca…”

His voice, so strained as he called my name, left me choking on my own sobs, unable to respond. I could only nod as tears fell.

When I saw his trembling hand reach out as if searching for something, I immediately grasped it. I couldn’t tell anymore whose hand was shaking—his or mine.

As our hands touched, Ricardo smiled faintly, a look of satisfaction on his face.

That smile—it pained me. The tenderness in it, a softness I had never seen before, tore at my heart, making more tears spring to my eyes.

“This time… I protected you.”

His whisper was so faint that it almost disappeared with the wind, but the relief in his words was strong, clear. Ricardo was at peace, knowing he had finally saved me.

“Bianca…”

“Yes, I’m here. I’m right here.”

I tightened my grip on his hand as I spoke, and his eyes, which had been fluttering closed, opened once more, quivering with effort.

“You… once asked me… if I could lay down my life for you…”

Watching him struggle to get out each word, I wanted to tell him to stop. I wanted to say he didn’t need to speak, not when it was clearly taking so much out of him.

But I couldn’t bring myself to say it. A part of me feared this might be his last time speaking, the last time I would hear his voice.

“I love you, Bianca… enough to lay down… my life.”

“This wasn’t how I wanted you to prove it!”

“I wasn’t… trying to prove anything… My body just… moved on its own… When I saw you were in danger… I couldn’t… help it.”

He looked up at me and furrowed his brow slightly.

“Are you crying, Bianca?”

The hand I wasn’t holding slowly reached for my face. When his fingers touched my cheek, I felt the coldness in them.

His hand, which had always been so warm, so full of life, was now cold.

More tears fell, streaming down my face.

“I never wanted to make you cry. I wanted you to be happy, to always smile…”

“Then get up! Please, get up right now!”

“Oh, Bianca…”

Every breath he took, every small sound he made, seemed so precious, so fragile that I wept harder.

I clung to the hope that his quiet breaths, his soft words, weren’t his last, tightening my grip on his hand even more.

“I love you.”

A whispered confession.

“I love you so much.”

A fading breath.

“Bianca.”

The most precious sound in the world.

“I love you too… more than my own life, I love you.”

Falling tears.

“I love you more than anything.”

Fading breaths.

“Ricardo.”

My dearest one.

“It’s Lord Winkaiser of the First Knight Order!”

“Gods! He’s badly hurt!”

“What are you standing around for? Go get help, now!”

The sudden voices of the people around snapped me out of my grief.

No, no, I can’t lose him! I can’t let him go like this!

“The book… The book!”

Grasping at the last shred of hope, I frantically searched for the book.

I looked around, but I couldn’t see it anywhere. It had to be here— I had been reading it moments before, so it had to be nearby.

Just as panic began to well up inside me, I spotted a corner of the book peeking out from under my dress.

“I-I found it!”

I hastily lifted the hem of my dress and snatched the book.

The bookmark was gone. Desperation rising, I began to flip through the pages with hands still stained in Ricardo’s blood.

“No, no, no, no.”

I turned page after page, tears blurring my vision as I flipped through the book.

“No!”

Finally, when I found the page I was looking for, I let out a scream.

As if driven by instinct, Bianca’s hand reached for the sky.

The bright blue sky, her pale white hand, and the vivid red blood.

Her eyes, the same blue as the sky, began to lose their vitality slowly.

But the book—remained unchanged.

“Why! Why didn’t it change? The situation changed! That’s what you do, isn’t it?”

A desperate scream rang out in my ears.

It wasn’t a dignified or composed voice. There was no elegance to it—only pure instinct.

“Hurry up and change! Rewrite the story, you murderer!”

Even calling it a scream felt inadequate. It was more like the shrieking of a mad ghost.

“Kill me! Kill me instead! You were supposed to take me!”

That voice—was mine.

I clutched the book like a madwoman, screaming at it, unable to control my emotions as I pounded the ground with my fists, eventually breaking down in sobs.

“Please… Please…”

At last, I began to beg.

I begged the book, which had never listened to me, had never once answered.

“Give him back. Take me instead. I was the one you wanted all along.”

Tears flowed endlessly.

A faint breeze brushed my cheek, and I felt the cold, wet sting of my tear-soaked skin.

The thought that Ricardo might never feel this wind again only made me cry harder.

Flutter.

The wind turned the pages of the book. It stopped on the final page.

The conclusion of a story I could no longer recognize.

“I don’t care.”

Whether I lived or died, the ending no longer mattered to me.

Without him, nothing mattered anymore.

“Ricardo, I love you… I love you so much.”

I closed my eyes, angry that the book remained unchanged, heartbroken that I could no longer rewrite the story. Tears fell once again.

They landed on the book.

“…!”

Slowly, the tears began to seep into the pages. And as if in response to them, the book began to glow faintly.

“The… the book…”

It was changing.

The faint light started from where my tears had fallen and spread outward, covering the entire page in an instant.

The light eventually engulfed the whole book.

It was so bright that I could no longer see the black letters on the pages.

“Please…”

As the radiant glow began to fade, the black letters started to reappear.

But it wasn’t just the letters. The cover itself was changing, and I knew exactly what that meant.

When parts of the story changed, the book would glow faintly. When the changes were significant, the light grew stronger.

And when the entire cover changed, it meant that the story had changed drastically—like when Maria and Ricardo’s love story turned into Maria’s tale of vengeance.

“Please!”

Swallowing my tears, I flipped the book over. The once dull cover was now brilliant, like a jewel rising from ashes, and shining anew.

When the book finally stopped glowing, the cover was a bright, clear blue.

Just like today’s sky.

Around the edges, there was intricate gold embossing, and even the title had changed.

“A True Love Story…”

I traced the new title, written in pure white, as the book glowed once more, as if pleased with itself.

The light fluttered from the book like a butterfly and made its way toward Ricardo.

“No! No!”

I had seen enough of this book’s cruelty to know what it could do. Fearing what it might do to him, I dropped the book and threw myself between the light and Ricardo.

“Ricardo!”

I shielded him with my body, but the light didn’t care. It passed through me—or perhaps it weaved its way around me—and slowly sank into Ricardo’s skin.

“Ah… Ah…”

I thought it was the end. I had given up.

But then, Ricardo’s eyelids twitched.

“Ricardo?”

He responded to my call by slowly opening his eyes.

“Bianca.”

He said my name.

The voice I thought I’d never hear again called my name.

“Are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?”

Though I had thought I’d cried every tear, fresh ones welled up when I saw him open his eyes and look at me.

“I’m not sure. I feel… strange.”

He blinked as if unsure how to describe the unfamiliar sensation.

“But I remember the last thing you said to me.”

He smiled, but this time, it wasn’t the pained smile from before.

It was a smile that seemed to say, ‘

This isn’t the end. This is just the beginning.’

“Could you say it to me again? I think if I hear it once more, I’ll really be okay.”

“Ricardo!”

I threw myself into his arms.

His warmth, his breath, his heartbeat—all of it was there, touching me.

“I love you, more than myself.”

“I love you, too, more than myself.”

A story of true love, more precious than life itself.