Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

After fully enjoying the tranquil night atmosphere and returning, Dad’s office still showed no signs of its lights going out.

It couldn’t be helped when the room’s owner had no expectation of a good night’s sleep.

“I still can’t sleep, could you put me to bed?”

Making such an uncharacteristic request was all part of Plan B.

My eyes sparkled desperately as I looked at him.

I smiled slyly as I watched him say softly, ‘Alright then,’ unaware of my scheme.

It was time to use ‘that’.

There was a door in the office leading to his room.

Opening the doorknob and entering, I saw that the room, as large as the office, had only a single bed sitting forlornly.

The window was wide open, and cool night air blew in through the curtains.

Seeing how immaculately clean and tidy it was, without a speck of dust, as if no one lived there, it was clear this space wasn’t used often.

I could clearly see that the servants only swept and cleaned it daily.

I snuggled into the wide, soft bed.

“Are you really going to put me to sleep today, Dad?”

Though he nodded with a smile at me speaking with such expectant eyes, he seemed unsure of what to do.

Of course, who could put whom to sleep? Dad probably didn’t know how to sleep himself, let alone how to put someone else to sleep.

The only method he knew was to close his eyes as if fainting after staying awake far beyond human limits.

Looking at Dad lying next to me, I was reminded of when I used to lie down with Luka at the orphanage to try to sleep.

That guy also couldn’t sleep well, so I had to hold his hand.

I took Dad’s hand.

“Sing me a lullaby!”

At my request, he seemed a bit flustered at first, but having promised to put me to sleep, he soon seemed to be searching his memory for a tune.

Still, he had three children, so he should remember the song his beloved wife used to sing from the distant reaches of his memory.

“Close your eyes, and even if the night fairy comes to speak, sleep soundly. On the night when the morning star rises, the saint will come down and hug you warmly…”

As I watched him singing awkwardly in a low voice, I smiled brightly as if to give him confidence.

“As warm as the feather of a swan swimming in the lake… Oh, always…”

He trailed off, seemingly unable to remember the next verse.

I inwardly chuckled, thinking how unusually cute that was.

Then I searched my memory and continued the next verse.

“Tonight, the moonlight will illuminate the night sky. Don’t worry and close your eyes, child.”

This was the lullaby of this world that I first learned through Sister Serine at the orphanage.

Any child who had trouble sleeping, whether noble or common, would have heard this song so many times their ears might have grown calluses.

When I first came to the orphanage, I often tossed and turned, unable to sleep as I struggled to adapt to the new environment and unfamiliar people.

Each time, Sister Serine would pat me and sing this magical lullaby that quickly put me to sleep.

And as time passed and I became one of the older children at the orphanage, I sang it countless times for the young children who couldn’t sleep, just as Sister Serine had done for me.

It had been a long time since I last sang it.

Now I was the one singing a lullaby for Dad.

My lullaby was nicknamed the ‘sleeping pill’ at the orphanage.

It was as if my voice was coated with sleeping pills, making children fall asleep quickly when they heard it.

If I had been a professor giving lectures, I might have put all the students to sleep.

“Don’t be afraid of the night, don’t hide alone. I’ll be with you, so sleep well, sleep soundly.”

At the same time, colorless, odorless mana leaked from my hand holding the round artifact I had brought from my room earlier.

-Is there nothing that could help with insomnia? Or could I use my healing magic to cure it?

-Have you been having trouble sleeping lately, Miss?

Last time Jen visited, I asked him about ways to treat insomnia.

-Umm… No, not me, it’s for someone else.

I had no intention of telling Jen about Dad’s weakness.

There was no benefit in letting his chronic illness, known only to those in the Duchy, leak out.

-There’s no such magic tool yet. But insomnia can certainly be cured with healing magic. In that case, it might be better to cast magic on this artifact and use it.

Jen summoned a round artifact in the air and handed it to me.

-Cast magic on this?

-Since using too much of your magic strains your body, leak a small amount of healing magic into this amplifying artifact and amplify it.

After calculating and writing on a summoned paper with a pen, he concluded that it could amplify even a tiny amount of magic by 100 times.

-There was such a great item? I’ll buy more if there are any.

-Unfortunately, amplifying artifacts aren’t for sale. It’s a unique masterpiece left by the first Tower Master. It’s a treasure of the Magic Tower, so you’ll have to return it after using it, Miss.

-A treasure of the Magic Tower? Is it okay to lend me something so important?

-You’re a mage officially registered with the Magic Tower too, Miss. Of course you’re qualified.

The tiny amount of mana contained in the artifact should have been amplified steadily since then, becoming powerful enough to cure Dad’s chronic insomnia.

Not just for tonight, but for the future too.

My singing voice and the warm mana emanating from the artifact enveloped the dark bedroom, and soon Dad and I fell into a deep sleep…

‘…?’

Before my eyes, I saw azure eyes forcibly fighting against drooping eyelids.

“Dad… aren’t you sleepy?”

“Not at all. But if you keep singing, I might fall asleep eventually.”

This couldn’t be happening. He was an insomniac who hadn’t slept well for a long time, and the mana leaking from the artifact now was quite powerful.

An ordinary person would have fallen asleep immediately, but he was resisting!

The reason being…

“Won’t you keep singing?”

He said that even as he was drowning in sleepiness.

“L-Lying under the starry night sky-“

And so I sang the lullaby up to the third verse.

“Now you must sleep, child. The song is ending, so please sleep, child-“

The lyricist of this lullaby must have written it with the thought of pleading if there was a child who wouldn’t sleep even after three verses.

Dad, who had been listening to my lullaby with wide eyes until then, finally closed his eyelids, unable to resist the wave of drowsiness as I began the first note of the fourth verse.

After confirming his noble face sleeping peacefully like a child, I inwardly sighed in relief.

It was a monstrous endurance. And the purpose was simply to hear more of my singing.

Watching Dad sleep with even breaths, I too closed my eyes to the oncoming drowsiness.

The mana that had been pouring out of the artifact was now almost depleted.

I hoped good dreams would descend on him, at least for tonight.

The warmth felt through our clasped hands was very comforting.

My child, grow up strong and be happier than anyone else.

A gentle voice brushed past my ear as I fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

Drehan was walking down the darkened corridor.

Usually, it was rare for him to be awake at this hour.

However, today he had been unable to sleep well due to his changed sleep pattern after returning from a recent business trip to the provinces, so he was processing documents that needed to be checked as the young master until dawn.

In the midst of this, he found a letter that should have gone to the Duke among the papers, and after confirming that the deadline for replying was tight, he decided to deliver it personally despite the late hour.

As far as he knew, the Duke hardly slept, to the point of questioning if he was human.

Of course, he knew it wasn’t by choice.

Because of work, to check approvals, to make the family prosperous.

These were just side effects of the Duke’s severe insomnia.

There was a frightening rumor that if the Duke didn’t have such a monstrous body, he might have died from overwork long ago, so Drehan was very worried about him in one way.

Thinking that he would be working until dawn again tonight, unable to sleep, Drehan carefully knocked on the office door.

However, even after some time passed, there was no voice from inside.

Wondering if he hadn’t heard, Drehan quietly turned the doorknob and entered the office.

Inside, there lingered the scents of bitter coffee and sweet cocoa.

And Drehan’s eyes fell on the empty office chair.

Had he gone somewhere without turning off the lights?

As he was thinking this and about to sit on the sofa in front to wait, he noticed something.

The bedroom door of the office, which was used so rarely it was almost forgotten, was wide open.

As far as he remembered, even when the Duke took short naps, he would recline his chair, so it was very rare for that room door to be open.

However, just in case, he quietly checked inside the room, concealing his presence…

Drehan couldn’t believe his eyes.

Well, Drehan had never seen his father sleep so peacefully since losing his wife.

‘All this time, even when I gave him herbs and teas good for insomnia, they had no effect at all…’

Then Drehan’s eyes fell on a small figure hidden next to the Duke.

The precious jewel of the Rayes, sleeping soundly like a doll.

Seeing this, Drehan immediately smiled.

‘So that’s how it happened, that child…’

Drehan blew out the candle on the table with a puff and quietly moved his steps to leave the room so as not to wake the two.

A night of rest had finally come to the Duke’s office after a long time.

Wishing for good dreams for the father and sister sleeping with even breaths on the large bed, looking so alike, Drehan placed the letter he had brought on the Duke’s desk and left.

[Lord Kesil says he will visit soon.]

It was an announcement of a visit from one of the Rayes’ branch family members.

* * *

On a night when everyone was sleeping deeply, there was one person unable to sleep, consumed by anger.

Kesil, the legitimate son and publicly acknowledged heir of the Einhasil Marquisate, a branch of the Rayes that held real power in the west, was drinking strong alcohol all night.

He had no choice but to do so because of what had happened.

Before the Marquis died, he had named Kesil’s half-brother, Damon, as the next heir in his will, not Kesil.

The Marquis had dementia before he died, and people thought he had confused his children’s names.

Most of the relatives’ consent to change the contents of the will had already been obtained.

Except for one person, Duke Rayes!

He must have gone mad after bringing in that commoner Duchess into the Rayes family.

The Duke was supporting Damon’s succession, saying they should respect the contents of the will.

Because of this, the succession issue that could have been resolved quickly remained unconfirmed even after several months had passed.

For a mere illegitimate child to inherit the title of Marquis, it couldn’t be unless he was determined to make such an impossible thing happen.

It made him sick to think of the dirty blood he hated flourishing in the Rayes family.

In the eyes of Kesil, a severe purist, both the Princess Rayes who had awakened as a healing mage and Damon who had graduated second in his class from the Imperial Academy were ultimately just lowborn.

As he drained his last glass cleanly, he thought he should settle things when he visited the Rayes mansion soon.

“I can’t let the opportunity I created be taken away. If I had known this would happen, I should have gotten a new will when he was dying in front of me.”

Late regret was of no use.

However, he thought he could turn everything around if he just waited a few days and met Duke Rayes.

In the end, he would be the one to inherit the title of Marquis. When that happened, he would get rid of all the dirty blood of the Rayes that had been passed down from previous generations.

His lips curled up in a sneer.