Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

I opened my sleepy eyes groggily.

Then I emerged from the blanket that was carefully tucked up to my neck, sat on the edge of the bed, and gave a small yawn.

It had been a long time since even I had slept so well.

I didn’t expect the artifact’s effect to apply to me too.

I searched around the bed and found the artifact that looked like a pocket watch at first glance, carefully putting it in my pocket.

I had to return it to Jen.

“Are you awake?”

Just then, I heard Dad’s voice in my ear.

He was reading a newspaper while drinking tea at the desk in the office beyond the bedroom door.

From his unstyled silver hair, healthy complexion, and eyes that no longer looked tired, I could tell he had slept well last night.

“Good morning!”

I greeted him with a bright smile.

He put down the newspaper he was reading, came over to me, and playfully messed up my silver hair with his large hand on my head.

“You were sleeping like the dead.”

As I grinned broadly, he bent his knee to meet my eye level and said, looking at me with deep azure eyes:

“It’s been a very long time since I’ve had such a refreshing morning.”

Dad smiled, tilting his head slightly.

“Thank you. I know it’s thanks to you. You used your healing power, didn’t you?”

“That’s right. But I was so flustered when you still couldn’t fall asleep.”

“Well, opportunities to hear your lullaby are rare.”

“Next time you can’t sleep, I’ll sing for you again!”

“Alright, you must be hungry. Let’s go have breakfast together.”

I walked with him down the corridor where delicious smells were wafting, indicating breakfast preparations were in full swing.

“Father, Ria? I see you’re together from the morning.”

Miller, who encountered us, spoke as if surprised.

Originally, Dad would start his day earlier than anyone else in the mansion since he didn’t sleep at all, while I would only wake up late in the morning.

Miller was wearing training clothes, seemingly about to go for sword training right after breakfast.

“Oh, looking closely, it seems Dad slept well for once!”

Miller’s eyes widened in disbelief as he saw Dad’s eyes, where the dark circles had completely disappeared.

“All this time, there were dark circles here so deep they almost touched the ground!”

“It wasn’t that bad, Miller, no matter how you look at it.”

Then Dad said to Miller, as if boasting:

“Thanks to Laveria singing me a lullaby, I had a good night’s sleep.”

“L-Lullaby… What’s going on, Ria?”

“It’s exactly as it sounds. Dad couldn’t sleep, so I sang my heart out.”

At my words, Miller said with a considerably flustered expression:

“Me! Sing for me too, Ria!”

His voice was truly full of disappointment.

Say something that makes sense. I remember hearing last time that Miller falls asleep within 10 seconds of closing his eyes.

In fact, the last time after sword training, Miller and I were resting on the grass in front of the training ground, and he fell asleep in less than a minute, giving me trouble trying to wake him up again.

If I sang him a lullaby, he would probably try to resist sleeping and only pretend to fall asleep after I sang up to the fourth verse, making my throat hoarse.

“I’m sorry, but Ria agreed to sing only for me, son.”

No, I never said such a thing.

Miller took the bait at Dad’s serious provocation.

“How can that be? I absolutely must sleep while listening to Ria’s lullaby too!”

Miller seemed to find the fact that I sang Dad to sleep more important than the fact that Dad had slept well for the first time in a million years.

The people in front of me now were known as the cold-blooded Rayes.

While I could somewhat acknowledge it for Dad and Drehan, surprisingly, Miller also rarely smiled outside the mansion.

Though he smiled brightly enough in front of me, when I once saw his face dealing with others outside, it was cold enough to surprise even me.

In fact, in terms of looks, he was the cold handsome type who resembled Dad the most.

And Dad, needless to say, was a person whose happy face, angry face, and surprised face all looked the same.

It was inwardly amusing to see these two look-alikes making such a fuss over nothing.

Moreover, one was a vigorous boy who fell asleep in 10 seconds, and the other, though he had suffered from insomnia until now, had become able to sleep well starting from last night.

In conclusion, neither of them really needed my lullaby.

“Sister! Sing Terry a lullaby tonight!”

Just then, a small little lady clung to my side.

“Terry, did you sleep well? Alright, I’ll sing you a lullaby tonight.”

I headed to the dining room, passing by the father and son who were looking with dumbfounded expressions at Terry clinging to me like a cicada on an old tree.

“See you later.”

The child who rightfully should hear my lullaby was here separately.

* * *

After breakfast, before going to sword training, I sat at the desk and picked up a quill pen.

The paper I was writing on had no pattern or markings anywhere to be found.

I had deliberately chosen it that way.

Also, I didn’t fill in even the most basic information about the sender and recipient.

The sentence was so concise it was questionable whether it could be called a letter.

[I want to buy your information.]

Even as I wrote, I consciously tried not to use my usual handwriting.

As a result, it seemed a bit obvious that I was trying to hide my handwriting, but that didn’t matter.

It was very difficult to even cross the threshold of Troisen, the Empire’s premier information guild.

Nobles crave information about power, and merchants want information about money.

It’s a place that receives so much help that it’s no exaggeration to say that ambitious wealthy people are constantly present.

As such, Troisen was extremely thorough with security and confidentiality.

The letter I just wrote was only the first gateway to meeting him.

After confirming the ink had dried, I opened the drawer to find a colorless envelope and neatly folded the letter into it.

Then I rang the bell next to the desk, and shortly after, Garnett knocked and entered the room.

Usually, letters are sent together with others through the butler, but this was different.

“Please deliver this letter to the fruit shop owner on 11th Avenue Leryu. The shopkeeper will immediately give you a reply to my letter, so please bring it back.”

This was the only way for a first-time customer like me to find out Troisen’s location. A fruit shop that always advertises on the last page of the monthly newspaper.

That was all I knew from reading the novel.

Since I couldn’t specify which of the dozens of monthly newspapers it was, I had to check all the monthly magazines one by one since the Count Rivihit incident to see if there was a fruit shop advertisement on the last page.

Moreover, the final ones narrowed down weren’t just one.

As I was contemplating between two newspapers that both had fruit shop advertisements on the last page, my eyes fell on a suspicious advertisement that, despite being a fruit ad, didn’t display appetizing photos of fruits but instead had a simple apple photo with a key shape drawn on it.

So I decided on the suspicious one first and asked Garnett to take the letter there.

Well, if it wasn’t the right one, it would be another shop, so it didn’t matter.

“I’m counting on you.”

I spoke in a whisper even though I knew only Garnett was listening.

It felt like I should act secretively since I was trying to meet the Empire’s premier information guild.

Garnett took my letter with an expression that seemed to say, ‘What are you up to now?’ as I made my highly suspicious request with my hand cupped around my mouth.

It was striking how Garnett had become accustomed to my suspicious behavior by now.

“Thank you!”

“It’s only what I should do. By the way, there’s that cake shop you like nearby, shall I buy a chiffon cake too?”

At those words, I nodded fervently.

On the day Garnett returned from her monthly vacation, she had bought cakes from a newly opened bakery in town, thinking of me and the children who liked sweets.

Why are all the desserts in this world so delicious?

And they all had their own uniqueness, so you never got tired of them.

The cake Garnett bought was like that too. Seeing me ask with an ecstatic expression, she smiled as if she had no choice and said:

“It’s not far, so I’ll be back soon. I’ll tell Serine to prepare your training clothes, so please wait a moment.”

“Alright.”

Only after Garnett left with the letter did I cautiously turn my gaze to the object strongly asserting its presence.

Woong- Woong-!

The ‘Crimson Blade’ that had never been unwrapped from that red cloth since I received it from Luka.

Usually quiet, it would occasionally cry out like this.

It was like a baby whining after waking up from sleep.

A resonating sword was quite rare.

Only swords that had gained wisdom through countless years of teachings could communicate with swordsmen.

In that sense, I couldn’t approach the sword that seemed to be speaking to me.

Doesn’t it seem like I’ve become a member of the magic devices development club talking to cakes!

And above all… I was scared.

Maybe because I had left it alone for so long, it sometimes seemed angry. On the day Luka gave it to me as a gift, it made a happy sound, but now…

Woong! Woo-woong! Woong!

To be honest, it sounded like it was cursing.

However, I couldn’t leave this famous sword alone forever just because I was scared, so I carefully approached the sword leaning against the wall.

Repeating in my mind hundreds of times that it was worth 100 gold coins.

And finally, when my pinky finger lightly touched the sword’s handle:

“What the!”

The moment my hand touched the sword, it clung to my hand as if grabbing me.

The cumbersome red cloth had fallen off at some point, and I could see its splendid appearance after a long time.

Woong- Woong-

What’s so good about a resonating sword anyway?

Countless questions filled my mind. To me, it was just a vibrating alarm that woke me up in the morning, nothing more, nothing less.

The moment I thought that, the part of the sword handle I was holding became extremely hot.

“Ah, hot! Okay, I’m sorry!”

I quickly apologized before it got hotter. It seemed that just as I resonated with the sword, the sword could also read my mind.

It was so angry at being treated like a vibrating alarm that the handle, which was already hard to let go of, was as hot as a fireball.

I let out a deep sigh of relief as I watched the sword cool down again with a prissy ‘woong-‘.

“Let go. I need to prepare for training.”

How is this any different from talking to a cake?

With deep questions, I placed the sword that finally let go of my hand at my words on the desk.

At that moment, Sister Serine entered the room with my training clothes.

“Oh my, are you finally going to train with that sword?”

“It keeps making noises. Even at this moment.”

At my words, Sister Serine said she couldn’t hear anything at all and helped me get dressed.

They said only a few among swordsmen could feel a sword’s resonance.

Just like how Luka had noticed the resonance between me and the Crimson Blade last time. And I was one of them too.

After changing into my training clothes, I put the Crimson Blade into its scabbard and headed to the training ground.

I intended to check the power of 100 gold coins.

‘If not, I’ll ask for a refund after all…’

“Ouch, hot!”

It was truly a sword with a fierce temper.