Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

The abrupt visitor’s arrival made me whirl around in surprise.

“Who’s there?”

Donning round spectacles and her vibrant red hair pulled into a high bun, the woman wore a pristine white lab coat reminiscent of a medical professional.

Her sun-kissed complexion suggested she hailed from the southern regions.

“Larisha, no healing session today. The wolf has made a full recovery.”

“What? Is that even possible?!”

Ah, so this was the real Larisha – the 79th floor mage whose name Jen had impersonated earlier.

Perplexed by the absence of the massive wolf that had exuded such an overwhelming presence within the chamber, she surveyed her surroundings until her gaze finally landed upon Tharo, lounging contentedly at my feet.

“…Surely that puny puppy cannot be the same wolf?”

[Who are you to call me that puny?!]

“I see, I see. So that wolf was actually a familiar summon, and this young lady here healed it, did she? If she possesses such abilities, she must be Lady Laveria, who is causing an uproar in the Empire right now.”

Her astute deductions prompted me to unwittingly nod in affirmation.

“A pleasure to meet you, Lady Rayes. I am Larisha, a mage of the Mage Tower.”

“Larisha is the original water mage assigned to treat the wolf.”

“Oh, hello!”

Larisha’s handshake emanated a refreshing coolness.

A similar sensation to when I had grasped Jen’s hand – perhaps a characteristic trait of water mages.

Peering at me intently with mystical golden eyes, Larisha remarked:

“There is someone ardently searching for you at present.”

“Pardon?”

“I can sense lingering traces related to your person. The distinct impression of someone diligently scouring for your whereabouts.”

She smiled enigmatically, uttering an indecipherable, ‘Who, I wonder…’

Just as I sought to inquire further, the outer magic circle activated once more.

The arrivals were none other than the president and members of that club we had encountered earlier!

“Phew, it took some time to obtain clearance for the 79th floor.”

“I wonder where Jen and Larisha could be?”

“President! The cakes are conveying their location to be over there!”

These were individuals who conversed with pastries. Instinctively, I took a step back.

“Larisha, you say? I don’t recall seeing them today.”

“I may have borrowed your name briefly. The young miss is an unofficial visitor.”

“I see, that explains it. Very well, leave it to me to send them on their way.”

“Thanks, Sister!”

Her dependable and trustworthy demeanor prompted that familial honorific to slip out unconsciously.

A consummate mage – kind-hearted yet intellectually brilliant.

My narrow-minded preconceptions about mages were gradually shifting.

Smiling confidently, Larisha approached the mages rummaging through even the waste bins in their frantic search.

“Were you looking for me?”

“Could you be Larisha, by any chance?”

Although I had been wearing a deep hood earlier, they seemed utterly oblivious to our stark difference in stature.

“Larisha, if you would join our club, I could offer you the exclusive opportunity to utilize a dragon’s fifth fang, retrieved from the Fae Marshes of the Western Mountain Range, as a material component!”

“Oh, really now?”

Huh…?

I tilted my head quizzically at Larisha’s overtly eager tone.

“Just sign here! Become our comrade and join us in developing magic devices! You’ll be rolling in wealth!”

“Rolling in wealth!”

The members echoed the president’s words in unison.

Without the slightest hesitation, Larisha summoned a quill, elegantly inscribing her signature upon the membership form!

“…She’s a sucker.”

“That’s her nickname. ‘Sucker Larisha,’ though we simply call her ‘Sucker’ among ourselves.”

…Please don’t abbreviate it like that.

It seemed my expectations of mages had been misplaced after all. I regarded their eccentric gathering with a wry expression.

As Larisha merrily completed her registration, the president grasped her arm and remarked:

“Larisha, what about Jen? If you both join together, the benefits will be doubled!”

He was a true salesman.

Those words made Larisha’s eyes light up with intrigue.

“Double the benefits?! Just wait right here for a moment!”

Jen visibly recoiled as Larisha seemed intent on dragging him over to forcibly obtain his signature.

“We should escape while we can.”

The moment those words left his lips, we instantly relocated to the magic circle platform behind the president and his cohorts.

Spotting us, one of the members pointed and shouted:

“President! Over there!”

“Where?!”

But Larisha was swifter than the president.

Utterly sincere in her pursuit of double benefits, she immediately warped directly before us.

“Did you think I’d let you slip away?!”

“80th floor.”

Deftly uttering another floor number, Jen triggered the magic circle beneath us just as Larisha reached out towards our location.

“Jen, double the benefits, you know? The 80th floor, how stingy!”

Echoing those parting words, Kitty remarked:

[Just how many times has she been swindled like that?]

“Apparently, the singing statue she recently acquired by mortgaging her lab turned out to be mere cement coated in paint.”

[I told you! I witnessed that statue’s eyes rolling around!]

As the disorienting sensation faded, I opened my eyes to an entirely different setting.

“Um, where is this place?”

The ceiling soared even higher than the 79th floor we had departed.

According to the president’s earlier statement, accessing floors beyond one’s clearance required obtaining a special permit – yet Jen had relocated us without any such formalities.

This area resembled someone’s private quarters.

Gothic-style furnishings adorned the study, surrounded by numerous magic devices and experimental apparatus, each imbued with its own autonomous movement.

Tharo had already boarded a magically propelled miniature steam locomotive, circling the chamber while playfully taunting Kitty.

“These are the Tower Master’s quarters. It seems they are currently unoccupied.”

“Are we permitted to simply barge into the Tower Master’s domain like this?”

“Of course. This also serves as my personal research lab.”

Reassured by Jen’s words, I took a seat on the nearby sofa.

“Pardon the brief intrusion, but you performed splendidly in healing that wolf – purifying the Dark Forest’s miasmic contamination is no trivial feat.”

Though the practical application had filled me with trepidation initially, the moment I sensed the flow of mana manifesting, my healing magic had fortunately activated.

“I had resigned myself to possessing abysmally low mana affinity.”

Jen’s blunt retort prompted me to regard him with a perplexed expression.

If that were the case, how had I awakened as a mage and gained the capacity to wield healing mana?

“To only now be able to harness your mana reserves, no matter their potency, indicates an inherently low affinity. However…”

As Jen shed his cloak, aquamarine tresses cascaded freely.

“There are rare mages capable of regulating their mana affinity. The ability you seem to have grasped is likely that very skill.”

[I too sensed it. When you healed me, Master, your mana flow was undoubtedly being modulated.]

Gazing down at my hand contemplatively, I murmured, ‘I see…’

Jen affirmed:

“In any case, there can be no dispute regarding your status as a full-fledged healing mage now. Wherever you go, people will instinctively turn to you first in the presence of any injured. If you consistently lend your aid in such situations, your mana will steadily intensify as well.”

He was issuing me another cautionary reminder – one whose underlying reasons I understood all too well.

Even if such circumstances truly arose…

“Don’t worry, I’ll ensure they never do.”

Yet something else had been nagging at me since earlier.

“But what Larisha mentioned about someone searching for me, could she have meant the president?”

“Larisha’s ability cannot pinpoint specific individuals. But given the circumstances, the president would be the likeliest candidate… Wait, why is this vibrating?”

Jen retrieved a folded paper slip from his pocket.

Unfolding it revealed the note I had asked him to teleport into my room so Garnett wouldn’t worry about my absence from the estate.

“Then what was that teleportation earlier?!”

[I recall slipping a note for you into that same pocket, Master.]

“What note?”

[The one where I wrote that you were running away for a bit.]

“Kitty, it’s ‘going out,’ not ‘running away.’ How many times must I clarify this?”

[Ah yes, ‘going out’! I keep getting them mixed up.]

Chuckling awkwardly at the cat’s antics, I muttered under my breath:

“Then that note must be in my room now…”

“It’s possible Larisha sensed the presence of the Duchy’s members rather than the president.”

Clutching Jen’s arm as he mused aloud with a troubled expression, I exclaimed frantically:

“If word reached Dad and my brothers’ ears, we’re in deep trouble!”

Serious trouble indeed. Knowing their temperaments, they may have already deployed the Imperial Knights across the entire realm by now.

“Take me to my room immediately, Jen!”

“Yes, Miss.”

Returning to the estate hand-in-hand with Jen, an aura of tranquility pervaded as always.

“Phew… No one seems to be aware yet?”

Yes, Garnett likely assumed I had been engrossed in reading, and there was a high probability she hadn’t entered my room during the two-hour window of my absence.

I had begun to relax when Jen interjected:

“Miss, I should take my leave now. The story about the Magic Tower must remain a secret from the Duke! If our funding is severed, the Tower Master would be most displeased.”

“Jen, why the sudden urgency? You seem to be fleeing.”

“I’ll return another time. Bye!”

That mage was utterly untrustworthy, to be frank.

Turning to retrieve the note I had expected to find neatly placed upon my desk, I was dumbfounded to find… nothing.

“Huh? Where did it go?”

[What is it, Master?]

Smiling wryly, I replied:

“Ah, it must have been teleported onto my bed instead of the desk!”

[You’re in denial.]

Bang!

“This is undoubtedly a kidnapping! We must commence our investigation from here… Huh, Ria?!”

It was then that Miller barged through the door.

Clutched in his hand was a crumpled note.

And beyond the corridor, dozens of familiar faces awaited – my knight comrades, fully armed and armored, appearing ready to mount their steeds and charge into battle at any moment.

“Jen, that ruffians… What should I do?”

He had undoubtedly sensed their formidable presence and fled! Moreover, talking about the Magic Tower was also prohibited.

Forcing an awkward laugh, I cautiously scooped up the nearby Tharo.

“Sur…prise!”

* * *

“So you sensed a mana presence in the forest outside the estate, went to investigate, and somehow ended up contracting with this familiar summon… Is that the gist of it?”

I nodded in response to Drehan’s summary.

“A familiar summon. I had wondered what peculiar beast they were always accompanied by whenever I encountered those mages.”

While he seemed to accept that explanation, I knew the greatest hurdle still remained.

“Then what’s the meaning of this, Ria?”

Miller read the note’s contents aloud.

“‘I’m running away for a bit since the black plague dragon within me has awakened… Hehehe.'”

Wait, what was written after that?!

A black plague dragon?! That’s not what I meant at all!

“Haha, it was a spelling mistake… I meant to write ‘going out,’ but got the letters mixed up.”

Unable to blame Jen’s familiar for the blunder, I had effectively tarnished my own image instead.

[You were never the brightest to begin with, Master.]

Only mages could comprehend a familiar’s speech, so to my family, it merely sounded like indistinct whimpering.

“Then this black plague dragon is…”

“It awakened! The black plague dragon within me, in other words… my mana has finally manifested!”

Having stated as much, I hung my head in utter embarrassment. If only I could find a mouse hole to crawl into and hide!

“…I see! And here I was, completely oblivious.”

Miller awkwardly laughed, kindly preserving what little dignity I had left.

In contrast to his charitable feigned ignorance, Drehan didn’t let the matter slide so easily.

“In that case, I will henceforth address you as ‘Black Plague Dragon.'”

Nodding meekly in resignation at Drehan’s proclamation, I silently prayed for this inquisition to conclude, blinking back tears.

And from that day onwards, I truly became the Black Plague Dragon to Drehan.