Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

The idea that Senia was not only spreading rumors but might also be worsening my health didn’t seem very realistic.

I wasn’t sure if I should believe her brother Enoch either.

However, the fact was that Senia hadn’t denied those words.

‘Hadn’t she been healing me all this time?’

I always felt refreshed after Senia visited.

Although it was a cycle of feeling better for a few days and then deteriorating again, the temporary feeling of health made me unable to doubt her at all.

Even Enoch left the mansion following Senia, and I slumped down.

‘I’ve received treatment dozens of times.’

As a result, my condition had worsened considerably lately.

“How much time do I have left then?”

I couldn’t gauge it.

I could no longer be certain that I would die at twenty-one as in the original story.

And that day, I heard from my doctor that this week would be critical.

The evidence was insufficient, and the witness was the suspect’s brother.

There was no clear way to prove what Senia had done.

At least not while I was still alive.

That night, I couldn’t sleep and was lost in thought.

Faced with such a precarious situation, only futile thoughts came to mind.

“Why did I just comply and live like that?”

There must have been moments when I could have changed fate or the original story.

If I had just a little more courage and luck, wouldn’t this worst-case ending have been avoided?

In the end, I couldn’t deny that things had turned out as in the original story.

I had become a notorious villainess for evil deeds I hadn’t even committed, and I was facing death a little earlier than expected.

I once thought about challenging my unfulfilled painful dream from my past life again while watching Miller practicing with a sword outside the window.

‘For that, my legs shouldn’t have ended up like this in the first place.’

A sigh escaped me.

‘Would things have been different if I had escaped the orphanage with Luka first? No, there was no way to escape from Troy Orphanage…’

Was there really no way?

If I had looked carefully, wouldn’t there have been at least one place?

Regretful memories of the past came to mind one after another.

But there was nothing I could turn back.

The next day, fortunately, Luka came to see me.

I had wondered if I might not see him again.

“Cough! Cough, hah…”

A cough mixed with blood came before any greeting.

I habitually wiped my mouth with the handkerchief placed beside me and said:

“Did you return safely, Luka?”

Luka rushed over in one step to check my condition and handed me water to wet my throat.

Luka looked anxious to the point of being pitiful.

“Ria, I found it. This time I brought an ancient relic called the Elven Stone.”

It was as I had expected.

Moreover, the Elven Stone – I had read about that in a book when I was at Rayes Manor.

The green gem in Luka’s hand was an invaluable object, but even that couldn’t cure me.

I smiled faintly and said:

“Luka… I told you. Nothing works on me.”

Perhaps because I looked like someone who had already given up, Luka’s face crumpled.

He looked just like a child trying not to cry.

“Still, I won’t give up. Never…!”

Just as I was looking at Luka awkwardly, the doctor entered.

He approached, shrinking his body from the doorway as if he were a herbivore in front of a predator.

“Your Majesty, you’ve come.”

“Yes, how is Ria’s condition? She seems to have lost more color than last time.”

Luka noticed keenly even changes that others wouldn’t notice.

“Well…”

Luka rubbed his darkened eyes from lack of sleep and roughly unbuttoned his disheveled shirt.

“Why can’t you continue? Speak up, I said.”

“Your Majesty…”

“Tell me! Say Ria is fine! If not, I’ll kill you. I told you from the beginning, if you can’t save her, I’ll kill you!”

The current doctor was said to be the most capable among the doctors Luka had brought from across the country.

Yet I felt sorry for him receiving such treatment.

“Stop, Luka. Let go of the doctor.”

I said, looking at the doctor gasping for breath in Luka’s loosened grip.

“I’ll tell you. You can leave now.”

The doctor hurriedly left the room as if he had been given a chance to return from the threshold of the afterlife.

“…”

“You know, Luka. They say this week is critical for me.”

I tried my best to keep my voice from trembling as I spoke.

There was someone in front of me who would be more pained by this fact than I was.

“I’m scared, Luka. I’m so afraid because I don’t know when I’ll have to say goodbye to you.”

As I thought about the final moment approaching, an uncharacteristically sincere feeling burst out.

“Will you stay with me today? Like we used to at the orphanage.”

“Sister, Sister Ria. How can I live without you…”

We lay down on the bed, holding each other’s hands tightly and pressing our foreheads together, just as we always did in the cold but cozy storage room of Troy Orphanage.

As we reminisced about the past and recalled the good memories, night soon fell.

I thought I would be afraid of time passing, but like this, with you, I wasn’t afraid.

I fell asleep for a moment in Luka’s arms.

“Cough, cough!”

But the shallow sleep soon fled with a painful cough.

As I slowly opened my eyes, there was Luka sleeping in front of me.

Blood was flowing from my mouth.

Even though I tried to wipe it with a handkerchief as usual, it showed no signs of stopping, as if a dam had burst.

“…”

I finally gave up trying to wipe it and looked up at the ceiling.

I concluded that my second life would come to an end tonight.

Surprisingly, both my expression and my heart were calm.

But as I looked at Luka, who was holding my hand tightly, my eyes gradually reddened.

Between our clasped hands was the Elven Stone that Luka had brought after overcoming a difficult journey.

“Sob, hic… Hic…”

I didn’t want to wet the pillow for fear of Luka discovering my weak self from the night before when he woke up in the morning, but the tears I had been holding back finally burst forth.

“Hic, I don’t want to die like this.”

I grasped Luka’s hand tightly.

At the same time, the Elven Stone gradually warmed up, but there was no time to notice it.

“I regret it. My past life and this life… Sniff. Please, if you’re a stone that grants wishes, give me one more chance. A chance to turn back this twisted fate…!”

My desperate monologue echoed in the quiet room.

Then, the Elven Stone, which had shown no reaction all along, began to emit a bright light from between our clasped hands.

“This light…”

I slowly loosened my hand and lifted the Elven Stone.

This time, a fierce light burst from the stone, so strong I couldn’t open my eyes.

Soon, I heard the sound of the door opening urgently.

The one who opened the door was none other than Senia, and Enoch who had followed her again.

“Princess, what is this…!”

Along with the astonished voice, my consciousness sank deep below the surface.

* * *

I slowly opened my eyes.

“Hah…”

At the same time, tears fell in streams.

I saw a familiar ceiling.

Not the ceiling of my room in Korea, nor the room in the southern mansion where I had gone for recuperation, but the ceiling of my current room.

With the contact with Enoch, who was the final medium, I finally regained my memories.

The scenes that had appeared in my dreams before were also in my memories.

And…

“I could clearly understand who the ‘villain’ written on the stone tablet was.”

My head spun as I recalled the face that had looked at me coldly.

I wiped the tears gathered in my eyes and sat up in bed.

And instinctively, I looked for the cane around the bed.

Because without it, I couldn’t walk.

But there was nothing my hand could grasp.

“Ah, right. My two legs are fine.”

As I carefully took one step at a time on the floor, unlike in the dream, I could walk well without a cane.

“How long have I been lying down?”

Seeing that it was morning, I could tell that at least a day had passed since the day I had talked with Enoch.

Just then, the door suddenly burst open.

“Ria! Are you awake?”

It was Sister Serine.