Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

The place I was reborn into was a world that could have come straight out of a fantasy novel. A strict medieval class society with royalty and nobility, and even the existence of magic, elves, and dragons.

At least according to the books sister Serine read to us, though there was no way to verify if it was actually true.

Once admitted to this orphanage, none of the children could leave.

The only window was a single high one near the ceiling.

However, based on what Eike and Theo, who came to the orphanage at relatively older ages, said, most of it seemed to be factual.

“I even saw His Majesty the Emperor when I was selling flowers in the capital!”

Whenever Theo shared stories of what he had seen and heard in the capital, all the orphanage children would gather around, their eyes sparkling as they listened raptly to his tales, unsure if they were truth or fiction.

“But how did you know it was His Majesty the Emperor?”

At sister Serine’s words, Theo spoke confidently.

“He was wearing a cloak embroidered with the Greffin imperial crest. So it had to be His Majesty!”

Sister Serine responded with a pitying look.

“Anyone can wear a cloak with the imperial crest, even knights.”

“Ah, is that so? I guess there are too many Emperors around.”

Letting out an exasperated sigh at Theo’s words, sister Serine glanced down at me lying on her lap.

‘Greffin? That also sounds familiar somewhere…’

As if reading my mind, sister Serine took out an old golden button from her pocket to show me.

“Ria hasn’t seen the imperial crest yet, has she? This emblem engraved on the button symbolizes the Empire.”

As she said she had found it on the street long ago, I stared at her, a chilling premonition creeping up on me suddenly.

The twin black lions within the red emblem on the button reminded me vividly of the descriptions of the Crown Prince from the novels I had read until my death.

The lions’ eyes inlaid with gemstones were a haunting crimson red.

The classic fantasy trope of black hair and red eyes only appearing among royalty flashed through my mind. If my memory served right, the name of that imperial family was…

‘Greffin.’

Oh shit, something was going horribly wrong here.

Retracing my memories, before coming to this world, I had simply been reading a web novel as usual on my bus ride home when I got into an accident.

It seemed I lost consciousness amid the agony even before the pain could register, only to open my eyes as a small child!

While frequently encountering concepts like ‘reincarnation’ and ‘spirit possession’ in novels, the real experience was completely different. For several weeks, I rationalized it as merely an extremely lucid dream.

A lucid dream, was it? I thought that sort of phenomenon I had overheard about somewhere could perhaps explain this situation… But it dragged on endlessly.

It was just too long, so I gave up waiting to wake up from this supposed dream! I had to accept this as reality instead.

For a while, I even harbored hopes that maybe I had become the beautiful female lead of some romance novel.

Not to speak ill of myself, but my looks were quite passing, at least.

Despite my upturned cat-like eyes appearing somewhat forlorn, even as a child my facial features hinted at a dazzlingly bright future.

My pinkish silver hair and vibrant emerald eyes made me reasonably doubt that my unknown parents in this world were ordinary folk.

However, any such hopes were utterly dashed over the ensuing few months at the Troy Orphanage.

Miss Layola constantly shrieked orders, leaving the children in tears. It truly felt like I had been reborn into a hopeless, hellish existence.

But the Greffin Empire?

That was the setting for the very novel ‘The Child Beloved by Villains’ that I had been reading right up until my death.

My heart started pounding rapidly at the realization. Sister Serine, noticing my sudden shift, looked me over concernedly, but I had no spare attention to respond.

‘Ria…! That’s where I heard that name before! It was the childhood nickname of the villainous Laveria before she was adopted into a Duke’s household!’

‘The Child Beloved by Villains’ was a novel solely for the sake of the female lead Senia from start to finish.

‘Senia’ was the youngest daughter of the nefarious Duke Kablos’s family who ruled the dark underbelly of the Greffin Empire. Despite her villainous bloodline, she was an angelically kind soul who worried her family from a young age with her incompatible disposition.

Ever callous regarding blood ties, the ruthless Duke and his son – the so-called villains – were nevertheless endlessly tamed by Senia’s adorable charms.

In the midst of this, the female lead learns of the heinous crimes committed by her father and brother in their villainy, and while investigating, she encounters and helps the male lead Luka, who had been imprisoned in an orphanage.

With Senia’s aid, Luka, one year younger than her, escapes the orphanage – his true identity being the missing Crown Prince from years prior.

Grateful for her help, Luka comes to develop feelings for Senia. As adults, despite the obstruction of the Duke Kablos and his son, Luka marries Senia.

Such a straightforward plot might have failed to elevate this novel to a masterpiece.

As with any story, an axis of evil was bound to appear.

Some call them sweet potatoes, with a faction arguing their presence is what makes novels thrilling.

The oft-cited MSG, the villainous potatoes who get readers’ pulses racing, kept appearing continuously.

And that was me – Laveria.

‘This is getting scary, Author… How does that potato even pop out of the closet on Senia and Luka’s sacred first night together…?’

‘Just how much will Luka come to regret falling for Laveria’s fake illnesses later? They say the prime example of a regrettable man, but I’ll trust it for now.’

‘Is she terminally ill or just faking it? Seems all an act to me.’

As Luka’s fellow orphanage mate from childhood, ‘Laveria’ suffered injuries to both legs taking punishment meant for him when their escape attempt was caught by Layola.

She was then swiftly adopted away from the orphanage by Duke Rayes’s family ahead of Luka, favored for her silver hair.

In truth, once the lost Crown Prince Luka reclaimed his rightful place with Senia’s help, Laveria directed her loneliness at being treated as a replacement youngest daughter by Duke Rayes into an unhealthy obsession with him.

Unable to abandon Laveria, the guilt-ridden Luka would rush to her side despite being with Senia, earning sneers from readers at such scenes. Some even eagerly anticipated his eventual transformation into a regrettable man.

Later, the author indeed indulged those hopes by forcing Luka to choose between Senia and Laveria, with him picking the former – after which Laveria descends into insanity as her tragic ending.

While reading it, I had cursed that potato villainess making me want to boil hundreds of them, but to think I would become her…

Of all roles, to be reborn as that ill-fated, pitiful villainess who lived consumed by resentment towards the beloved female lead spoiled by the villains in her youth, only to die at the mere age of twenty from an incurable illness – it was a cruel destiny that brought tears to my eyes.

“Oh my, Ria’s suddenly started crying…!”

“Give her this cookie, sister Serine. Ria must be hungry.”

I wasn’t hungry, my life had simply become arduous from the very start.

I sniffled while munching on the proffered cookie they gave me.

* * *

Though the novel’s plot may have been thus, I had not the slightest intention of living it out as written.

For a few days after realizing the truth, I did mope around worrying sister Serine. But once I realized that nothing would change from fretting, I diligently ate the basic potato meals to grow up healthily.

Before I knew it, I had become one of the older children at twelve years old in this orphanage.

It had already been five years since sister Serine had left the orphanage herself. I knew the novel’s storyline of her being sold into the dark world of the Duke Kablos’s family.

Over my decade living here, I watched so many children leave.

Whenever those who had nurtured and cared for me departed due to age differences, my chest ached.

I must have vowed dozens of times to eventually rescue them all.

“Sister Ria, Henia woke up and is crying.”

Taking Terry’s hand clutching my skirt, I went to the children’s room and held and sang a lullaby to the crying child,

Just as sister Serine had once done for me.

Even so, thoughts of the original novel’s imminent events never left my mind.

‘Since I’m thirteen now, Luka should be around twelve. He’ll be coming here soon too.’

Senia would be the same age as me, likely taming the Kablos villains around this time.

Sure enough, Miss Layola, who hadn’t brought in any new children since Kalik two months prior, brought in a young boy.

It was a week after I had secretly read the newspaper she throwed in the trash reporting the breaking news of the Crown Prince’s disappearance.