Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

After the dance of the dolls in the room finally quieted down, I sat on the red sofa prepared for guests.

Dolls brought teacups and a teapot before me.

The man with flaming red hair sitting across from me thanked the dolls as he poured herb tea into my cup.

He was a handsome young man with a face younger than I expected.

I had thought he would be around that age since he was said to be the Duke of Kablos’s brother and colleague, but it seems the Duke’s half-brother was born much later.

And sitting face to face like this, I realized I looked more suspicious based on appearances alone.

Compared to me with my cloak pulled down low, he was showing his face clearly and his upper body even more clearly.

Turning my gaze away from his careless muscular body, I looked directly at the man.

“Call me Carl, client.”

As I shook his warmly extended hand with my hand without rings, I said:

“Please just keep calling me ‘client’.”

“That seems too distant, so I’ll call you ‘customer’.”

What’s the difference…?

More importantly, quite some time had already passed just getting here.

If Ion woke up before I returned, he would cause a commotion by entering the dressmaker’s shop looking for me.

I fixed my blue hair that had come loose and was flowing out from under my cloak, and said:

“Carl, I’ve come to make a request to Troisen.”

“I know. From the moment you sent your request letter to me, everything became information. Including that silver fairy-like hair suiting you better than blue.”

I looked at him with a startled expression. His face was smiling nonchalantly as if he hadn’t just said anything.

Perhaps I had underestimated Troisen. From thinking I could blind the eyes of information with such deception.

But I’m here now in the role of a client. Even if he had figured out my identity, what information I sought here wouldn’t be revealed.

He valued mutual trust more preciously than life itself.

“Of course, I also know this isn’t the time for me to dig up information about you. Please tell me the content of your request.”

Carl roughly tied back his bothersome red hair that covered his nape, seemingly ready to listen to what I had to say in earnest.

Judging by his tanned skin, uncommon in the capital, he seemed to be from the southern region.

It was a characteristic that appeared when going a bit further south from the Tranze region, the Duchess’s hometown.

Meeting his bright yellow eyes, I said:

“I have two requests.”

At my words, Carl’s golden eyes widened slightly. Even the most prominent wealthy figures found it difficult to make more than one request before him.

His time and effort were so expensive that even the rich found it hard to pay for.

Yet, for a girl who looked barely fifteen to bring two requests at once was unexpected.

I held up one finger and said:

“First, I’d like you to look into a way to cure ‘Bruelle’, known as an incurable disease.”

“Bruelle, you say… It’s literally an incurable disease. To ask for a cure…”

Carl smiled faintly as he trailed off.

“So it’s not possible?”

At my question, he shook his head.

“The power of information is making the impossible possible. For instance, there are cases where even a curable disease is made to seem incurable to steal a brother’s title and become a grand noble.”

Saying this, Carl looked at me intently and said softly:

“A more remarkable person has come than I expected.”

He seemed to know that the person with Bruelle was the Empress.

Officially, it was only known that the Empress’s health was poor, and the exact name of the disease was top secret, but as expected of the Troisen guild master.

Pretending not to know, I spoke about the next request.

“Also, please investigate the kidnapping incident of Princess Rayes.”

“That…”

“Who kidnapped the young Princess and for what reason. That’s all I need to know.”

I was guessing it was the doing of Duke Kablos.

Even though I couldn’t be certain since it wasn’t mentioned in the novel.

After all, the Troy Orphanage where I was originally placed belonged to the Kablos Duchy.

However, that alone wasn’t enough to be certain.

The Kablos Duchy had established hundreds of orphanages across the country under the pretext of charity, and Troy Orphanage was just one of them.

Moreover, it wasn’t even under direct management, but an orphanage established through a vassal named Viscount Louiscone.

To ordinary people’s eyes, Duke Kablos seemed unrelated to Troy Orphanage hidden in the countryside.

However, since it was he who placed Luka in Troy Orphanage managed by Viscount Louiscone among hundreds of orphanages, I was guessing that the one behind kidnapping Princess Rayes and handing her over to the same orphanage was also Duke Kablos.

What I wanted to know was a reason convincing enough.

“So you’re not asking about the whereabouts of the real Princess Rayes, but for me to find out who kidnapped the Princess in the past?”

“That’s right.”

“For me to do what even the Duke of Rayes couldn’t…? And actually, he came to me in the past with that request, but I failed.”

As expected, Dad had also made a request to Troisen.

“Isn’t the power of information being able to succeed even in requests that failed before?”

I repeated what Carl had said earlier. Hearing my words, he smiled as if amused.

“And if this is the reward, you might be able to accomplish what even the Duke couldn’t.”

I held up the ring in front of Carl’s eyes as I spoke.

A ring decorated with a purple crystal emitting a faint light, surrounded by a golden rim.

He would know better what this really was.

He was the true owner of this ring that Count Rivihit had stolen.

Carl’s golden eyes filled with surprise as he looked at the ring emitting a mysterious light in my hand.

“That’s…!”

Since only Carl himself and Count Rivihit knew that this ring was originally his, I pretended not to know and said:

“It came into my possession somehow, and it turns out it’s a ring with an ancient mana stone embedded in it. I heard it’s priceless… Would it be a suitable payment?”

At my words, Carl looked blank for a moment before laughing heartily and saying:

“Haha, certainly, with that it would be a reward I’d covet.”

“I’d like you to put in maximum effort for the latter case which you’ve already failed once, but even if you don’t succeed with that, I’ll give you the ring if you complete the first request.”

Carl stared at the ring in my hand with burning eyes as if he would snatch it away right then.

Though his lips were smiling, his eyes weren’t smiling at all, showing how much he really needed this ring.

In fact, he could have taken the ring from me by force.

I could have summoned the Crimson Blade if necessary, but seeing him turn his gaze away from the ring, I felt there was no need.

As someone skilled in information, he might already know that I had manifested sword aura.

“I’ll do my best, customer.”

At his words, I finally stood up from my seat.

“I enjoyed the herb tea. I look forward to good news. Should I send a separate messenger?”

“Take this. It seems we’ll need a separate way to convey news. Surely you’re not planning to send the knight who’s in dreamland outside as a messenger?”

What Carl handed me was a communication device similar to the one I had received from Luka before.

I took it and walked to the door.

At the same time, the dolls that I thought had quieted down woke up and busily saw me off.

“Take care on your way.”

With those final words, I opened the door and stepped outside to find myself right in front of the dressmaker’s shop door.

The butler, whose eyes met mine through the windowed door, bowed his head deeply in greeting.

I went straight back to the carriage.

Seeing that the coachman guarding the carriage didn’t demand additional fees, it seemed I fortunately hadn’t exceeded one hour.

I carefully opened the carriage door where Ion would be sleeping.

And the moment I closed it again silently, Ion sprang up.

“Miss! I-I seem to have fallen asleep for a moment…?”

Unable to tell him it wasn’t just a moment but almost an hour, I smiled awkwardly and said:

“You must have been tired. I’ve finished my business, so let’s go back.”

* * *

When we returned to the mansion by carriage, I could see an unfamiliar carriage parked in the garden, as foreign as the outside carriage we had come in.

‘Did we have a visitor?’

“It’s the carriage of the Einhasil Marquisate.”

Ion, sitting in the front seat, said after seeing the crest on the carriage.

“The Einhasil Marquisate?”

At my question, Ion rattled off information about that family.

To summarize, they were a branch family of the Rayes, and were currently struggling with succession issues.

As expected, Ion was well-versed in such information, being from a noble family himself.

Come to think of it, Dad and Drehan had been absent more than once due to title issues with relatives.

“I wonder why they’ve come?”

My question didn’t last long. As we entered through the main gate, I made eye contact with silver-haired men greeting Dad.

The man who was clearly born of Rayes bloodline noticed my presence, curled his lips in a smile, and addressed me:

“So you’re the child who gained the name Laveria.”