Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

What a bizarre dream!

As Garnett styled my hair, I gazed at my reflection in the mirror. The young Ria from the dream and my present self kept overlapping, leaving me utterly perplexed!

The thrill from that moment still lingered. To brazenly stand up to Layola transformed into a monster at such a tender age.

She even spared a reassuring smile for Luka, almost appearing unfazed. In fact, Ria looked even more frightening.

‘Could it have been from the original story? Why was it so vivid?’

It felt like a small pebble had been tossed into my second life, sending ripples outward.

“Garnett, did you say my brother Drehan arrived early this morning?”

It felt strange to casually call him ‘brother’ when the honorifics were unclear.

That man wouldn’t treat me as a sister anyway.

At my words, Garnett spoke as she brushed my long hair:

“Ah, yes. He will be formally introduced at breakfast, as he has yet to meet the Duke.”

“What kind of person is he?”

In the end, I settled on simply referring to him as ‘him.’

Garnett let out a contemplative ‘Hmm’ before continuing.

“The senior maids reminisced that the young master has ‘changed a lot’ since childhood. I didn’t share his younger days, so I wouldn’t know. But from what I recall, the young master is unnecessarily cold at every moment. He doesn’t seem to get close to anyone.”

What had the original story portrayed him as? He was a significant sub-male lead.

During the war, he had become close with Luka and provided various assistance when the Consort Jeria’s arrow targeted Senia.

He was also the one who found the antidote to save Senia when the villainess Laveria, under Jeria’s orders, laced her tea with poison.

Of course, to obtain that antidote, Drehan had directly interrogated Laveria herself.

He was so merciless that even her stubborn self had confessed everything.

Recalling that, it seemed I should try to win him over somehow for my own peace of mind.

It was quite ironic that the reason he came to love Senia was because of his younger sister.

According to Garnett, his personality had done a complete 180 after the moment he lost his mother and younger sister. Just a few warm words from Senia, momentarily allowing him to forget that painful memory, had melted part of his heart.

She alone had managed to crack open that narrowly guarded heart of his.

“What if he dislikes me?”

He definitely would. I was utterly convinced of it.

“Even so, the fact remains that you are ‘Laveria Jenne Rayes.’ Don’t worry too much… Now, off you go!”

Though the reflection Garnett had prepared looked doll-like in its beauty, my expression was sullen. It felt like being dragged before a notoriously strict superior.

No matter how hard I tried to lift the corners of my mouth into a smile, they immediately dropped back down.

* * *

Knock-knock-

“I’ll be going in.”

Upon entering, there truly was a new face seated at the chair to Dad’s right where I usually sat, eating a salmon salad.

He bore a striking resemblance to Dad, from his sharp features down to the corners of his mouth – they were identical.

Miller seemed to take after the late Duchess more, but Drehan was a spitting image of Dad.

Only his eyes were the same emerald green as mine.

Those exact same shimmering eyes left me with an unsettling feeling, unable to meet his gaze directly.

I tentatively took the seat next to Miller and stole sidelong glances at Drehan as I regarded the dishes before me.

‘He’s staring…!’

Had a fly landed on my forehead? His gaze was so piercing, it felt like he could bore holes.

As nonchalantly as if I had merely noticed some drifting dust, I averted my eyes.

Maybe he viewed me as an intruding pebble. He had likely already heard about me from Father.

“Drehan, greet your younger sister. It may be a bit awkward at first, but that will resolve itself in time.”

At Dad’s words, he finally opened his mouth.

“I had already heard about this at the Academy… but seeing it in person is more disconcerting than I expected.”

Drehan furrowed his brow deliberately. Taking advantage of his absence, they had gone so far as to give me Laveria’s name and register without his consent.

Having just graduated from the Academy and duly qualified as the next head of the family, he had ample reason to voice his dissatisfaction over matters proceeding without his approval.

Miller countered his words.

“But Brother, isn’t she clearly our sister Laveria? Why react like that?”

‘That’s just how you see it… This person is manaless, after all.’

Being manaless was apparently a great misfortune.

I was trying my utmost to be as magnanimous and understanding as possible.

Inwardly sighing, I took a bite of the delicious garlic shrimp bread before me and washed it down with cold water.

Then I faced Drehan directly, this time without avoiding his gaze, and greeted him with an upturned smile,

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Brother Drehan.”

In situations like this, I should have laid down steel plates first. In the original story, Ria had made a grave mistake in her first encounter with Drehan.

Enraged by his outright rejection of her, she had snapped at him to stop going on about his dead sister already.

Not realizing it was herself he spoke of. From that moment, she had become a pariah in the Ducal family.

The maids’ subtle torments had likely begun then as well.

While most maids treated me kindly now, if I had raged and insulted the deceased Duchess and missing Princess, they would have undoubtedly turned on me as well.

The servants of this household overflowed with affection for their master’s family.

At my underwhelming greeting, Drehan’s expression soured even further. The more he frowned, the wider my smile became.

Frowning too much would give him wrinkles sooner… On the contrary, they said smiling invites fortune.

As this tug-of-war unfolded, Dad intervened to stop us.

“Drehan, that’s enough. You must be tired from returning from the Academy, so it would be best to retire and rest first.”

Drehan shot me one last glowering look, as if displeased, before curtly bidding Dad farewell and leaving.

The frigid atmosphere only dissipated once the door closed behind him. Miller patted my head, asking if I had been tense, saying his brother was just a prickly one.

I turned to look at Dad.

“Will he be alright?”

“There’s no reason he wouldn’t be. Drehan will be unusually busy going forward, so you needn’t concern yourself too much. And that child will mainly reside in the annex building where he stayed with his mother, so your paths won’t cross often.”

The Duchess had cherished her memories frolicking with the children in that annex building, living there for a while before her passing. If Drehan resided there, our interactions would indeed be infrequent, as Dad said.

However, we would inevitably encounter each other frequently at mealtimes, no matter what.

My worries didn’t go away.

* * *

After the breakfast I ate and didn’t eat, as I headed back to my room along the stairs, I encountered an unexpected person.

It was Drehan, who seemed to have been waiting for me to emerge.

Hadn’t Dad just said our paths wouldn’t cross often?!

“Brother Drehan, you haven’t left yet?”

I asked affably, but his response was icy.

“On whose orders did you come here? I don’t know how those two were fooled, but did you really think you could take Laveria’s name while I was away?”

“‘Fooled,’ you say? That’s an odd way to put it. It was the Duke who apprehended me when I was about to head to the Imperial Palace with His Highness the Crown Prince.”

I had meant to say ‘Dad’ but instead called him ‘the Duke’ to avoid needlessly riling up Drehan. Finding myself in this situation where I had to tread carefully felt unpleasant, so I continued with the smile wiped from my face.

“It seems several conditions aligned – my age, appearance, and the fact that I had been left at the orphanage without parents. The truth is still unknown to me.”

At my words, Drehan scoffed.

“I’m sure. Just like all the other fake princesses have claimed. So you wanted the Rayes name that badly. Even deceiving Father and Miller.”

His twisted smile seemed to recall past events – when the fake princesses had swarmed, and their true identities were exposed one by one.

The endless wounds the three Rayes men must have endured were unimaginable.

I had initially intended to retaliate to some degree and distance myself from this interrogation-like situation, but… I changed my mind and spoke up.

“You also cannot provide any proof that I’m a fake, can you? Then you could at least consider the possibility that I might be the real Laveria.”

“Do you think that makes sense?”

Doubting me dozens of times, betrayed dozens of times. To such a person, I gave one final plea to consider it just once more.

My words neared a plea.

‘I’ve seen it all. You end up regretting it to death later on.’

He stared at me with a hardened expression. In the ensuing silence, just as Drehan was about to add another word, I opened my mouth first.

“As the young master said, I am unaware of the tragedy that befell Rayes. I only recently escaped from the orphanage after experiencing all sorts of hardships.”

Half was a lie, but the other half was true. I didn’t know of Rayes’ tragedy.

Could I claim to understand their sorrow and anguish merely described in brief within the novels, just because I had read them?

No, I couldn’t.

But I wanted to try understanding, to make an effort.

Regardless, they were another precious family I had gained in this life.

This time around, I will strive to guide all our lives towards a happy ending.

‘But there is one thing I can say.’

“We can make it work. Whenever that may be, please look back at me. And recognize me. I was sincerely facing you just now.”

I beamed at him, meeting his emerald green eyes that so resembled my own, vibrant like summer grass.