Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

At my final words, the prince finally broke his arrogant pride and raised the white flag.

He seemed unaware of just how significant my position was, having only recently awakened as a healing mage.

“I won’t say anything, so please just go on your way.”

“Well, alright. It seems His Highness the Prince wishes to lie here longer and photosynthesize. Let’s go, Luka.”

Leaving behind the boy who couldn’t raise his head trembling on the ground from shame and humiliation, I took Luka’s hand and left.

When I thought we had gone far enough, Luka clasped both my hands in his.

“What’s wrong?”

But I soon knew the answer to my question.

It seems I had been unknowingly trembling the hands I held with Luka.

They contained anger, surprise, and even a measure of endurance.

I wasn’t as composed as I thought.

“In just a little while, I’ll make it so you reign from the highest position. So high that even a prince wouldn’t dare to covet you.”

Those words meant… that he would treat me as the Crown Prince’s closest confidant?

The position Laveria would have rightfully gained in the original story if she hadn’t done foolish things!

At that moment, I saw a huge rainbow appear behind Luka’s back.

After several days of rain, a vivid rainbow had finally appeared in the clear sky.

I spoke to Luka, who had turned around following my gaze and was now taking in the rainbow with his eyes:

“They say rainbows are symbols of promises. Don’t forget that.”

When I smiled playfully, Luka’s lips, which had been quite stiff until then, finally curved into a smile.

* * *

As Luka had said, the garden of the Crown Prince’s palace annex was more beautifully cultivated than any garden I had seen before.

Not only were unknown rare flowers planted in harmony, but even the pavilion over the lake built with white marble was like a painting.

As a place only Luka could enter, at this moment, this beautiful garden was solely our space.

The rainbow we had seen earlier was gradually fading.

“This garden wasn’t here originally, right? It’s newly made?”

He nodded. No wonder I had heard that this place was under construction and off-limits when I came to the palace last time.

As I was thinking that Luka unexpectedly had a hobby in gardening and smelling the fragrance of a nearby flower, something caught my eye.

“This is…”

Everything had been new and unfamiliar in this world I had suddenly fallen into.

Unfamiliar people, unfamiliar language, unfamiliar flowers.

Yet strangely, this flower alone existed in this world too.

Even its name was the same.

“It’s a sunflower.”

Tall sunflowers, reaching up to my eye level, were planted all around.

Flowers that instinctively raised their heads towards the sun that had finally appeared after a while, blindly loving the sun.

“Seeing this makes me so happy.”

It felt like meeting an old friend.

I heard Luka approaching.

“Luka, did you know? Each flower has its own meaning, and the meaning of sunflowers is…”

“‘Adoration and waiting for the one I love,’ wasn’t it?”

“…”

That was exactly right.

However, ‘flower language’ only existed in my previous life; this world didn’t particularly assign meanings to flowers.

Had I mentioned it to him before?

I started to get confused.

But otherwise, how could Luka know about flower language?

“That’s right, this flower blindly looks only at the sun, just like its name. But when did I ever tell you about this?”

“I don’t remember clearly either, but I think you did. Definitely in a dream…”

Dream? I tilted my head.

“Isn’t it paradoxical?”

Luka muttered, looking at the sunflowers.

“To be rooted in the ground yet love the sun floating in the sky.”

It was like waiting without any promise.

“Ria.”

“Yes?”

“I’ll wait like this flower too.”

For what? I opened my mouth to ask, then closed it.

It seemed like he was speaking with the thought of me leaving him someday in mind.

If so, I wanted to tell him not to worry.

I would make sure he could be happy without me before I left.

That was why I unconsciously nodded at that face smiling more freshly than the flowers.

* * *

We met the Empress after strolling in the garden a bit longer.

She was lying in bed, just like when I first met her.

She probably didn’t want to greet us in that state either, but it had become much harder for her to move her body, they said.

“I heard about what happened at the Grand Nobles’ Council the other day. Again, Gruben…”

The Empress spoke with a gloomy face.

It would never be forgotten. She must be carrying the guilt entirely, even though it wasn’t her fault.

“Marquis Gassen has become a death row inmate and will soon be publicly executed. Then he’ll never be able to insult you and the late Archduke again.”

The Empress nodded painfully, then immediately began coughing severely.

“Cough, cough! Cough, hah…”

“Mother! Here’s some water…”

Luka supported the Empress and handed her water and medicine.

The Empress said she had already taken more than the limit of medicine and only accepted the water, taking a breath after drinking.

‘It won’t be long.’

Her illness was called ‘Bruelle’.

It was an incurable disease with no known treatment, just like the illness I had.

I thought she had recovered enough energy to go on walks together until recently, but perhaps she had been forcing herself.

The Empress, trying to smile at Luka and me who were composing ourselves from the shock, said:

“I’ve prepared some refreshments over there. There are blueberry cookies that Ria liked last time, so eat as much as you’d like.”

The blueberry cookies tasted the same, as if baked according to the recipe the Empress used to make herself.

Yet I could tell they were made by someone else’s hands.

‘I can’t feel the warm sincerity.’

The Empress seemed to have remembered that I liked the cookies she baked herself last time and written down the recipe for the chef, but in my opinion, the ones she made herself were a million times more delicious.

Seeing her so withered and bedridden made my eyes sting.

I wished she would get up again and go on a picnic with me, packing sandwiches in a basket.

I wished she would go to the dressmaker’s with Rachel and me to get splendid clothes as glamorous as Lady Jeria’s, instead of that old-fashioned dress.

Why did the novel’s setting have to be ‘the Empress couldn’t be cured even by healing magic’?

Finally, when a tear dropped, Luka put his arm around my shoulder.

“Ria.”

“I’m angry at how useless I seem to be… What’s the point of awakening as a healing mage if it has no effect on the person I want to help most?”

No, a novice like me couldn’t possibly succeed where even Senia had failed in treating the Empress.

The Empress raised her hand and patted my knee.

“Ria, useless? Never say such a thing again. Thanks to Ria, I’m spending the happiest days of my life.”

Whenever I came to visit the palace, the Empress would chat with me like a friend, and on nice days, we would stroll in the garden together.

She treated me like a daughter.

“Come to think of it, I met Ria’s mother before. Ria’s warm heart must take after the Duchess’s nature.”

“You met the Duchess…?”

The Empress nodded. She looked at me with eyes lost in memories, as if recalling that day.

“We were both girls then. She spoke to me when I couldn’t get along with others, and looked at me with warm emerald eyes just like Ria’s.”

It was the first time I had heard about my mother.

Even in the Duchy, talk of the late Duchess was implicitly forbidden.

“The next time we met was when the pregnant Duchess came to the New Year’s banquet, expecting her youngest daughter.”

When I raised my head in surprise, the Empress smiled and said:

“That’s right, it was Laveria.”

-They said it’s a girl this time! I’m so happy I can’t sleep!

-Congratulations. With two sons already, I can understand that feeling. Have you decided on a name?

-It’s Laveria! In ancient language…

“She said it meant ‘fairy’s blessing.’ Seeing how well you’ve grown up, I think it was a perfectly fitting name.”

Warm golden eyes took me in.

* * *

After that, the Empress continued to tell me stories about the Duchess that no one else had ever told me.

She was one of the people who fully accepted me as the real Princess Rayes.

“Thank you for visiting me like this today.”

“I’ll come again next time.”

Please give me a next time. Until then, please stay healthy…

The Empress seemed to understand my feelings and reassured me that she would.

The Empress’s palace that Luka and I left was as quiet as always.

A person far removed from commotion.

But was she a flower meant to wither so quietly?

I decided to look for some way.

‘If I give up because it’s called incurable, that’s just abandoning hope.’

Because it wasn’t so different from my own situation, I didn’t want to let go so easily.

“Luka, was the Empress’s illness called ‘Bruelle’?”

Luka nodded at my words.

A disease where nerves gradually harden, making it difficult to eat, and eventually even the heart hardens.

The troubling point was that healing magic didn’t work on it.

That’s where I would start.

* * *

In the carriage returning from the palace to the Duchy, I fingered the ring that had come from Count Rivihit’s body.

“I need to find that man first.”

Troisen, the Empire’s greatest information guild.

It’s a world where information is money.

Through their information, rich people around the world cheer and wail.

They were similar to the Kablos in that they would do anything for money.

“But no murder, no kidnapping, and no threats or blackmail.”

Upholding justice was that man’s creed.

Even so, I couldn’t quite understand why he had lied to Senia, even if it was to retrieve the ring.

Putting aside the questionable points, I first thought about how to approach him.

I planned to put it into action as soon as day broke tomorrow.

Clip-clop, clip-clop-

Only the sound of hooves striking the ground invaded the silence inside the carriage.

* * *

Upon arriving at the Duchy, I first went to see Dad.

Recalling how he had waited endlessly by the window that time I came home late, I made sure to show my face like this every time since then.

Knock knock-

He opened the door at my knock.

His handsome face showing signs of fatigue and the mountain of documents visible behind him caught my eye.

But soon, a warm smile spread across his face as he confirmed it was me who had knocked.

“Did you have a good visit to the Imperial Palace?”

“Yes. I’ve returned safely, Dad.”

I smiled in response.

I felt a bit guilty saying ‘safely,’ but there was no point in bringing up the incident with the First Prince.

“There are dark circles under your eyes. Did you not sleep last night either?”

When I asked worriedly, he smiled awkwardly and said:

“I’m used to it now, so it’s fine. I take breaks in between, so it’s not something to worry about.”

But that means you didn’t sleep again after all.

Insomnia was Dad’s chronic ailment.

After the Duchess passed away, and to make matters worse, his youngest daughter was kidnapped, he reportedly couldn’t sleep every night due to tremendous stress.

‘That’s really painful.’

I know well, since that’s exactly how I was in my previous life.

Wanting to sleep but not being able to.

The anxiety of being the only one awake while everyone else slept peacefully at night.

Of course, now I sleep well, perhaps because my body has changed…

I looked with pity at his condition that seemed like he might collapse at any moment.

* * *

Darkness fell over the sky, and full night came to the Duchy.

I carefully opened the door and left my room.

Sister Serine had tucked me in and said good night, but there was a reason I was now tiptoeing down the stairs.

Heading towards Dad’s office on the second floor, I spoke towards the door in a voice smaller than a knock.

“Dad~ Are you still not asleep?”

But there was no response from inside.

Thinking my voice might have been too faint, like an ant’s, I was about to open my mouth again when-

Fling-

“Ria? You’re still up at this hour?”

As expected, a tired but handsome man in the midst of another all-nighter looked at me in surprise.

I smiled brightly and said:

“I can’t sleep either.”

I’ve come to put you to bed, Dad.