I Became A Squirrel Seeking For The Villain Chapter 134 - END

The evening when dusk begins to fall.

 

I headed alone to the prison where Rivena was being held.

 

The prison was located in the basement of the palace and required a long descent down stairs.

 

In a corner of a shabby prison cell guarded by guards, Rivena sat helplessly with her face buried in her knees.

 

I watched her from afar for a while. I felt strange.

 

In some ways, she had been the opponent I had desperately pursued and feared for so long.

 

It couldn’t be helped. I had been her experimental subject for too long.

 

It was a fear that could not be helped because I had once been completely taken over.

 

But when I took a step back and looked at her, she was just an ordinary, powerless human being.

 

“Yurika?”

 

As if sensing my presence, Rivena raised her head from her lap and looked straight at me.

 

“Yeah. It’s me.”

 

I answered calmly. Our eyes met for a moment.

 

It was when I was about to slowly open my mouth.

 

“Save me, Yurika. Please save me. Leave me behind. Then I’ll do research for Medes. Okay? Even harder than at the temple.”

 

She crawled to me on her knees, grabbed the bars, looked at me with mad eyes, and screamed.

 

“I don’t even have children yet! I can’t even pass down this magnificent Artae bloodline to my children! Yurika, do you know how terrible this is? Huh? We’ve lost a great opportunity for humanity to leap forward!”

 

“Ha…”

 

I let out a sigh as I looked into her gleaming eyes.

 

This was the worst ending I had imagined.

 

“Save me, Yurika. Okay? I’ll do anything, really.….”

 

If she had at least maintained her dignity as a scientist until the end, I might not have felt this disgust.

 

“If you want, I’ll research a way for you to freely shift between squirrel and human. A perfect method—one that doesn’t require potions or Yohan!”

 

“Really?”

 

I looked at her with sunken eyes.

 

“Then you should change the way you address me first. Don’t you think?”

 

Rivena looked at me with a look of disapproval, sighed, and spoke quietly.

 

“…Yes, Young Lady.”

 

She pleaded, lying flatter on her stomach.

 

“Please grant me one more chance. Artae has always conducted research for the sake of Medes. You and I can continue that legacy together and bring greater prosperity to Medes than even Hyrad or the imperial family.”

 

“I see. But I don’t trust your loyalty.”

 

I crossed my arms and glared at her coldly.

 

“How about smashing your head against the stone floor? Show me your sincerity.”

 

“…….”

 

“I’ve always liked smart people. You can tell from the way I supported Runart until the very end. Why don’t you try your best?”

 

“Yes…”

 

Rivena took a deep breath and immediately began banging her head against the floor.

 

Soon, blood began to flow from her forehead.

 

“But you know, I was just your experimental squirrel. Can you really obey me?”

 

“I can.”

 

“Then as a sign of submission, can you lick my shoe?”

 

“…….”

 

“You were the one who put me on the test until the very end. Can’t you even endure this much of a test?”

 

After a moment’s hesitation, Rivena bent down and pressed her lips to my shoe.

 

Even that gave me goosebumps, so I immediately pulled back.

 

“I guess it won’t work.”

 

I spoke coolly.

 

“Have I lost my mind? To take you in, of all people?”

 

At my firm words, Rivena jerked her head up and glared at me with fury blazing in her eyes.

 

“You!”

 

She jumped up, grabbed the bars, and shouted.

 

“You dare to play with me?”

 

“Yeah. I played with you as I pleased.”

 

I answered calmly.

 

Perhaps having no reply to that, Rivena spat onto the prison floor.

 

“I shouldn’t have sent you to Duke Hyrad. That’s all I regret. If I had studied you a little more instead of giving you away as nothing special, you could have truly become my masterpiece.….”

 

I looked at her with a tired expression.

 

Now I realized it wasn’t Yohan or Theodore, but Rivena who truly considered me her property.

 

“I guess in your eyes I still look like a squirrel that can’t escape your grasp.”

 

I said calmly.

 

“But I’m not the same as you. You don’t even see me as human, but even now, I still see you as human.”

 

“What is that—”

 

“Receive lawful punishment. That’s all I ever asked for. You did things no human should ever do to me, but I will treat you according to the laws created by human society, to the very end.”

 

“Are you teaching me now?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

I looked straight into Rivena’s eyes and smiled.

 

“And stop obsessing over Artae’s bloodline. The world gained nothing good from your existence. Even if your child were born with that same mindset, they would only be miserable.”

 

Since the punishment had already been decided, this conversation might have seemed pointless.

 

But I had wanted, just once, to speak with Rivena as one human to another.

 

Because we’ve been hiding our true feelings from each other for so long.

 

“I will now live happily as an ordinary human, with the person I love—just as the family of Medes always wished. In the end, Artae was wrong. And that’s why the line ends with you.”

 

To the woman who had turned me into an experiment and brought me to this point, I delivered my final words with confidence.

 

So that I could be certain this was our ending.

 

For her—and for me.

 

Having said all I had to say, I turned around. There was no reason to stay here any longer.

 

Rivena shouted something loudly from behind, but it was too loud to hear.

 

All this time I’ve always been afraid of Rivena.

 

Because she was the one who made me into a squirrel and experimented on me all along.

 

Even after I became human, I had vaguely feared that someday I might fall under her control again.

 

But seeing her kneeling helplessly before me, trapped like this, made me feel completely freed.

 

I felt like I could live without thinking about her anymore.

 

“Goodbye.”

 

As I climbed the prison stairs, I wasn’t saying farewell to Rivena—but to my past self.

 

“To the version of me that was trapped in Rivena’s grasp.”

 

* * *

 

When I came out of prison, it was completely dark.

 

“Yurika!”

 

Nevertheless, outside the prison, there were many people I knew gathered.

 

I looked at each person with a bewildered expression.

 

“Yurika, are you all right? Nothing happened, did it?”

 

My mother, her face filled with worry.

 

“That woman didn’t say anything strange again, did she? You’re not feeling unsettled, are you?”

 

Jayden came up to me and checked my complexion.

 

“If she dared treat you disrespectfully, we can add that crime and move her execution forward.”

 

My father, who seems to have already written a thousand scenarios.

 

“Yurika, weren’t you scared of going alone? I should’ve gone with you…”

 

Mariel, who seemed to have been stamping her feet the whole time.

 

“Did she happen to conceal any drugs? If you feel unwell at all, please inform me immediately.”

 

Runart, who had even brought a large medical bag with him.

 

“We all came because we were worried you might feel shaken, Yurika. Everyone seemed equally worried.”

 

And Yohan, looking at me with warm eyes.

 

I could easily picture them—unable to stop me when I insisted on going alone, yet gathering together afterward, anxious about how I might feel.

 

“No, you all don’t have to come like this.….”

 

“We were still uneasy,”

 

Jayden said with a click of his tongue.

 

“That woman feels like the embodiment of your trauma.”

 

“We’re horrified enough ourselves—imagine how much worse it must be for you. Especially since you were in her grasp for so long.”

 

I didn’t deny what Jayden said.

 

It was true that I had been overly conscious of her presence all this time.

 

That was precisely why I had gone to see Rivena today—to break free from that lingering obsession.

 

“I’m fine.”

 

I smiled brightly at the people who had waited for me out of concern.

 

“I’m no longer in Rivena’s grasp. I’m with the people I love. When all of you care for me like this, what could I possibly be afraid of now?”

 

I was grateful that they all came to the palace prison together, so I hugged each and every one of them.

 

Then, standing beside Yohan, I smiled and said,

 

“From now on, only good things will happen. Like my sister’s wedding, or my wedding.…”

 

At those words, my father and Jayden staggered slightly, as if their knees had gone weak.

 

Of course, Mariel and Yohan simply smiled happily.

 

“Shall we go back now, then?”

 

I said with a grin.

 

“Because everything is over.”

 

At last, everything had truly come to an end.

 

But our happy days—those were only just beginning.

 

-END-