The villain's end

The whispers began long before the storm arrived.

In the city streets, merchants muttered about Mos’s ruthless temper. Servants in the panuwat estate—once loyal—now spoke in hushed tones of his growing paranoia. Every day, more people fell under his suspicion. Every day, another life was ruined in his desperate attempt to keep Banky bound to him.

But the world would not stay silent forever.

It was on a night thick with rain that fate delivered its judgment.

Banky sat alone in his chamber, staring at the faint glow of the oil lamp. His reflection shimmered faintly on the lacquered table—a young man with kind eyes, weighed down by chains invisible to all but himself.

His heart trembled with a decision he could no longer avoid.

“Jamie was right…” he whispered, clutching the sleeve of his robe. “If I stay by his side, I will vanish piece by piece until nothing remains of me.”

A soft knock came at the door.

“Banky,” Jamie’s voice called gently. “It’s time.”

He opened the door to see her, drenched from the rain, her eyes burning with urgency.

“Mos is spiraling,” Jamie said. “The ministers petition the court. His family is losing their influence. If you stay, you’ll be dragged down with him. You have to leave tonight.”

Banky’s chest clenched with guilt. Leave him? After all the years… after the vows he made…

But another voice inside him whispered cruelly: Stay, and you’ll never breathe again.

They had only made it to the courtyard when Mos appeared, his figure looming through the sheets of rain.

“Going somewhere?”

His voice was calm, but the calmness was more terrifying than rage. His eyes locked onto Banky, burning with betrayal.

“Mos—” Banky began, stepping forward, his robe heavy with water.

But Mos’s hand shot out, gripping his arm. “You think you can leave me? After everything? After I gave you my vow, my life, my soul?”

His voice cracked, desperation bleeding through. “Banky, you’re mine. You swore it with your silence. You looked at me and let me believe. You can’t—don’t you dare—turn your back now!”

Banky’s eyes stung with tears. “I never swore, Mos. You chained me with words I never spoke. This… this isn’t love.”

For the first time, Mos faltered. The rain washed down his face, mixing with something rawer than fury—grief, disbelief, fear.

“No…” His grip loosened, trembling. “No, you don’t mean that. You can’t mean that.”

Jamie stepped between them, her fan snapping shut with a sharp clap. “Enough, Mos. If you truly loved him, you’d set him free.”

The words struck like a blade. Mos staggered back, eyes wide, chest heaving.

“Free?” he repeated, almost laughing. “You want me to set him free? Do you know what happens when I let go? There will be nothing left. Without him… I am nothing.”

And in that single breath, the truth became clear to all three: Mos’s love was not love at all. It was a hunger, a void dressed in devotion.

---

The end came quickly.

The court turned against him. Allies abandoned him. His family name crumbled under scandal and ruin. And Mos, stripped of power and standing, was left with nothing but the hollow echo of his own vow.

On the night of his downfall, he returned to the garden where Banky once watered chrysanthemums. The flowers had withered, their fragile petals scattered by the wind.

Mos sank to his knees, rain soaking through his robes. He pressed his forehead to the cold earth.

“I only wanted you,” he whispered into the darkness. “Even if it destroyed me.”

And with those final words, the villain’s end was sealed.

His story—the first one—closed with chains of his own making.

But fate was not finished with him yet.

Because villains, too, are given second chances.

✨ End of Chapter 3.

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