Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

“Welcome, Kesil. And Damon has come too.”

Duke Rayes greeted his cousins who had come to the mansion.

Though they didn’t visit frequently, they had recently met at a gathering of all branch family members after the death of his uncle, the Marquis of Einhasil, due to succession issues.

The guests who had come as notified in the letter Drehan had delivered two days ago greeted the Duke of Rayes while presenting gifts.

“Kaine! It’s even more delightful to see you here at the Rayes mansion.”

“Thank you for such a warm welcome, Duke.”

Kesil and Damon were both sons of the Marquis of Einhasil.

The only difference was that one was legitimate and the other illegitimate.

In his will before his death, the Marquis of Einhasil had named Damon, his illegitimate son, as his successor instead of Kesil, his legitimate son.

Since it was unthinkable for an illegitimate child to inherit the historic title of Marquis of Einhasil, people thought the Marquis had made a mistake due to dementia, but the effect of a will written by the Marquis himself couldn’t be simply nullified.

The content could only be changed to allow Kesil to inherit the title instead of Damon if all 12 of the main branch representatives of Rayes agreed.

Even the relatives who had insisted on following the will’s content began to lean towards agreeing due to Kesil’s frequent persuasion, and now only Duke Rayes remained.

Although Kesil had prepared gifts and gold coins generously, remembering the wealth of the Rayes Duchy made them seem pitifully meager, so he had strained to bring even more.

‘If I can settle things with the Duke this time, I can put everything back the way it should be.’

Kesil gritted his teeth.

He glared at his half-brother beside him, who was greeting the Duke of Rayes with a carefree smile, as if he could tear him to pieces.

Kesil was someone who thought others should naturally look up to him because he had inherited noble elven blood.

This was determined from birth and shouldn’t change with time.

It was the fate and privilege of one to be envied.

Moreover, since Rayes had many followers from ancient times, Kesil’s sense of superiority grew day by day.

But now, from the common-born girl the Duke of Rayes had brought in to his own illegitimate half-brother.

Dirty blood was sullying his glory.

He vowed to clean up these vermin one by one that were tarnishing the nobility of the great Rayes, once he inherited the title of Marquis.

He believed this was the will of his ancestors.

Originally, elves were said to be arrogant to the point of piercing the heavens. Kesil thought as if he were the incarnation of an elf.

It would start with persuading Kaine, the head of Rayes before him, to inherit the title instead of the leech-like Damon.

Damon also thought the Marquis had mistakenly written his name in the will.

This was evident from his position as an illegitimate child.

He deeply respected the Marquis, so he wanted Kesil to inherit the title according to the Marquis’s original intention before he developed dementia.

Exploiting this, Kesil deliberately brought Damon along as he persuaded the branch family members.

If the person named as successor expressed such an intention himself, nine out of ten changed their minds and agreed to Kesil inheriting the title.

At that moment, Kesil’s eyes, masked with a kind face, fell upon a small figure.

She looked about fifteen, pretty-faced but with dirty silver hair.

He could immediately recognize who the girl was.

The beast that had rolled in and caused such a scandal that even the western branches of Rayes couldn’t show their faces for a while out of shame.

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

Saying she had ‘gained the name Laveria’ was tantamount to completely denying that child.

It contained the meaning, ‘How dare you steal that noble name?’

At Kesil’s words, Laveria’s face froze coldly.

She couldn’t possibly know what he meant by those words; was she simply shy?

Lord Kesil smiled even more sweetly at Laveria, putting on a show in front of the Duke of Rayes.

* * *

When I met the black eyes of the man called Kesil, I saw his eyes crinkle slightly for a moment.

From that fleeting expression, I could tell he didn’t look upon me favorably.

Mulling over the words he had said next, I realized they contained a rather unpleasant meaning.

“Come to think of it, both of you are meeting Laveria for the first time. Greet them, they are your uncles.”

“Hello. I’m Laveria Jenne Rayes.”

The visiting men seemed about ten years apart in age, but both had silver-white hair and similar faces that anyone would recognize as brothers.

However, one’s eyes looked at me quite unpleasantly, giving a bad first impression, while the other smiled genially and waved his hand, giving a not unpleasant impression.

“Let’s not stand here, come inside. We can discuss the Einhasil Marquisate in detail over dinner.”

* * *

“The Rayes territory is always prosperous. It’s nice to get away from the tiresome west for a while.”

“Is that so.”

At the dinner table prepared with two more places than usual, I could hardly swallow my food.

It was almost as bad as when I first met Drehan at this table.

Whenever I was cutting meat, I felt someone’s sharp gaze piercing my forehead, and when I looked up, it disappeared, only to repeat.

Even now, as I raised my head and pretended not to notice again, he had been glaring at me with eyes that went beyond contempt to murderous intent just moments ago.

Kesil clearly didn’t like me at all.

He also rebuked Damon, whom he had introduced as his brother, to the point of making listeners uncomfortable.

“This child is still lacking. Even last time when Father’s old friends visited, he committed the rudeness of not preparing return gifts…”

Speaking with such a kind face when the person was clearly present made even his criticism not sound like criticism.

As if casually mentioning small, trivial matters, he was badmouthing his half-brother.

Moreover, Damon himself laughed and said it was fortunate that his brother had given gifts to the guests separately.

Greatly pleased by this, Kesil then turned to Drehan, who was eating dinner in the seat next to me, and said:

“Drehan, you are the pride of Rayes. I heard you graduated top of your class from the Academy? If only my son could be half like you, I’d have no regrets.”

“Not at all. I was just lucky.”

“I heard Miller was promoted again in his knightly rank. To think such a renowned knight of the Empire was right before my eyes!”

“Thank you, Uncle.”

To the two brothers responding stiffly, Kesil kept speaking at every opportunity, prompting Dad to boast:

“Laveria hasn’t only awakened as a healing mage, but she also seems to have talent in swordsmanship, having manifested sword aura.”

Perhaps feeling a bit left out that he hadn’t bragged about his daughter, Dad spoke thus, to which Lord Kesil merely tossed out an:

“Ah, is that so?”

“Our Ria is amazing no matter how many times I hear it! My sister is the best.”

Seeing Miller and Drehan smile for the first time in a while when I was mentioned, Kesil looked considerably flustered, but soon pulled up his twisted lips and said:

“Haha, it’s nice to see such good sibling affection.”

Damon also added words of pure admiration:

“Indeed. A healing mage, what an honor for the family. Your grandfather, who was the previous Imperial healing mage, would be overjoyed.”

“Thank you both.”

At my quiet response, Kesil’s face twisted even more as he changed the subject.

He was about to bring up the real reason he had come to this mansion today.

“More importantly, I think we need to hear a decision today, Duke.”

Miller looked at Kesil irritably, as if bored.

“I have obtained the consent of all relatives, including Damon. Father was in a state of dementia where he couldn’t even distinguish between me and a servant before he passed away, so he must have confused the name to write in the will.”

“That’s right, Duke. I’m not fit to inherit the title of Marquis. Please do as Father originally intended.”

“While I too can’t be certain of Uncle’s true intentions, I thought the content written in the will should be respected.”

As Kesil was about to add something to Dad’s words, he spoke again.

“However, since the succession date is not far off, I will give you a definite answer by tomorrow. As it’s an urgent matter, I too know what the best option is, so don’t worry, both of you.”

Only then did Kesil and Damon’s faces brighten, and I silently swallowed my food.

For that snake-like person to inherit the title of Marquis, noblesse oblige is truly dead.

* * *

Eating dinner in front of Kesil, who stared at me with a goblin-like face, was an endless series of endurance.

‘I guess I was the only one who felt that suffocating gaze.’

I was on my way to find Terry, who would be playing with Tharo, passing by the window where darkness had fallen.

I had promised to sing her a lullaby yesterday, but having fallen asleep forgetting about it, I had promised to sleep with her today without fail.

‘Why do those two stick together all the time? It’s not common for a familiar to follow an ordinary human so well, does Terry have talent in magic?’

As I was walking with such thoughts, I found a notebook lying open on the ground in front of my feet.

Just as I reached out my hand to check what it was, someone kicked my hand away.

“Ah!”

As I clutched my stinging hand, a cold voice fell upon me.

“How dare you try to steal someone else’s property.”

Looking up, I saw none other than Kesil blocking my way.

He picked up the notebook that my hand had barely touched with a handkerchief and put it in his breast pocket.

As he was about to move on as if nothing had happened, I blocked his way.

A deep anger crept up from inside me.

To kick away my hand with his shoe and try to pass by without a word of apology?

“After kicking a child’s hand with your shoe, don’t you have anything to say?”

I hadn’t really expected an apology when I said this.

At my words, Kesil frowned and laughed, ‘Huh.’

“As expected of a lowborn. Didn’t you learn not to block a noble’s path?”

A voice colder than midwinter fell on my ears.

What the hell is this nonsense?