Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

Laveria Jenne Rayes – that name was both a deep wound and an indelible scar for Duke Rayes’s household.

For the Rayes family, where only three princesses had ever been born due to the rarity of females, she was the forbidden treasure the Duchess had exchanged her life to deliver.

Named ‘Laveria’ – an ancient word meaning ‘blessing of the fairy’ – she was considered a miracle child. Before her passing, the Duchess had entrusted her beloved husband and two sons to protect this treasure.

The incident occurred three years after the Duchess breathed her last following the birth of her youngest daughter.

Having lost the wife he had loved his entire life, the profound sorrow that struck the three Rayes men – who, unlike other nobles, had raised their daughter with affection – was compounded by another tragedy.

In the estate they considered the safest place, their three-year-old princess was abducted in an unprecedented crime.

The one who vanished with the young daughter was the nursemaid the Duchess had trusted since childhood – no one could have foreseen her as the culprit.

Within a day, the Rayes household was utterly devastated. The Duke mobilized all forces and intelligence nationwide to search for his missing youngest, but five years later, he was ordered by the Emperor to regain his senses, forcing the fruitless efforts to cease.

The Rayes estate, which had barely regained its vitality three years after the Duchess’s passing, plunged into a horrific nightmare once more.

Still unable to forget his daughter, the Duke eventually received a lead through the family’s shadow guild ten years later – about a silver-haired girl residing in a deep forest orphanage. He immediately set out to retrieve her.

Silver hair was a trait of the elven subspecies from across the sea on the Trel continent, commonly referred to as elves. The founding Duke Rayes was said to have carried their bloodline.

Hence, silver hair was exceptionally rare and became compelling evidence of membership in the Rayes lineage.

Utterly drained from the twelve-year search, the Duke clung to that slender hope upon arriving at the orphanage. But the girl he encountered looked like a withered husk, relying on a cane with crippled legs.

The fabled pure silver hair was marred by streaks of pink, dull like dust had coated it.

Of all the rumored ‘silver-haired girls’ brought from across the nation, her hair least resembled true silver locks.

The distinctive Rayes trait was an unblemished, brilliant white that even distant branches never lost despite bloodline dilution. So the Count could not be certain this girl was his missing daughter.

Yet he couldn’t bear to leave her behind at the orphanage.

For her vibrant emerald eyes, though dimmed, reminded him uncannily of his late wife.

[Please, take good care of Laveria. She’s our only youngest daughter…]

Recalling his wife’s pained smile brought an overwhelming guilt, forcing him to accept this girl as his missing daughter, fake or not.

Despite the Rayes family’s kindness toward the girl granted Laveria’s name, she frequently threw tantrums, perhaps due to the trauma from the orphanage.

Initially determined to persevere, the three men grew increasingly exhausted over time, and the estate that had briefly shown signs of recovering sank into even deeper malaise than before she had arrived.

[Father, for the first time, there is something I desire. If he who was originally mine returns to me, could I not play the part of that daughter you so longed for?]

The shocking request came from the girl who had previously regarded the Duke with utter disdain, shortly after the return of the missing Crown Prince.

Incredibly, at the orphanage the Duke had visited, the amnesiac Crown Prince had been residing alongside her.

It seemed Laveria had formed a deep bond with him there, desiring the Crown Prince while seeking to eliminate the girl Senia who had aided his rescue.

Though the Duke stated threatening Senia, the princess from the Kablos Duchy, was utterly unacceptable, he instead did his utmost to promote Ria as a potential bride for the Crown Prince.

For a nameless adoptee of unknown origins, fated to rely on a cane her whole life, and merely blessed with a pretty face – according to vicious rumors about Laveria – to be considered as a candidate was no simple matter even for a Duke.

It was only made possible by widespread gossip claiming she had the Crown Prince wrapped around her finger as his benefactor. However, first due to her commoner status, and second, the Crown Prince’s love for Senia, Laveria’s unattainable dream ultimately came to an end.

‘Laveria Jenne Rayes’ then descended into madness, resorting to every scheme to drive a wedge between the Crown Prince and Senia.

Her actions eventually escalated to threatening Senia’s life, leading to her exile at a remote Duke’s territory estate. There, she perished at a young age from a mysterious, rare illness.

* * *

However, a postscript untold in the original work was mentioned in the final sub-male lead side story.

The eldest son of the Duke Rayes’s household and the sub-male lead, prince Drehan, discovered an ancient text in the family study. It was authored by the founding Duke Rayes and had additional entries by roughly five subsequent generations of descendants – a record of the family lineage.

[The elven bloodline is innately poisonous to female bodies, typically resulting in miscarriage during pregnancy. Any daughters born face high odds of early death. This is due to the dark elven heritage only manifesting in females. The dark elven magic is too potent for human vessels to contain. No cure has been discovered.]

…Up to this point was the record of the founding Duke, who was said to have lost a young sister.

The entries below detailed the characteristics of daughters born into the 3rd and 5th Duke generations.

[Unlike their brothers, the Rayes daughters are not born with pure white silver hair. Instead, they manifest dark elf silver hair with multihued sheens depending on their unique wavelengths. – 3rd Duke Rayes’s record.

As with previous daughters, she couldn’t control the power within and developed red spots accompanied by severe fevers, passing away around twenty years of age. – 5th Duke Rayes’s record]

Having only heard females were precious in the family, prince Drehan learned the line had completely died out in daughters after the 5th generation. And that the first daughter born in over 500 years was Laveria – the supposed adopted daughter reported to have recently perished of a rare illness while exiled, whose features precisely matched those of the recorded Rayes daughters.

Overwhelmed by guilt over his deceased ‘sister,’ prince Drehan descended into madness himself before disappearing without a trace not long after.

That was the final scene of the sub-male lead’s side story.

‘Was the author insane or what?’

That was likely my initial thought at the time.

Just how badly did they need to dispose of the sub-male lead? And why add that supplementary background for the already dead Laveria? It made no sense.

For the fake daughter Laveria who had appeared to be an obvious impostor to actually be the true-born child carrying the blood of the most powerful dark elves…

But thanks to that, I knew how I should proceed within the Duke’s household.

* * *

By now, with the Duke’s relentless pursuit of his missing daughter, everyone across the continent was familiar with the precious name ‘Laveria Jenne Rayes.’

So when Luka asked about our destination, I could ambiguously reply:

“We’re going to Duke Rayes’s estate.”

“Duke Rayes’s household, as in the founding noble you told me about for the Empire?”

“Yes. I read something astonishing in the newspaper Layola was looking at.”

I continued as if revealing a tremendous secret.

“The Duke is searching for his missing daughter. Silver hair, emerald eyes, around fifteen years old.”

Apart from my darker hair shade, all the other traits pointed directly to me. Had I not been trapped in the orphanage, bounty hunters would have likely dragged me to the Duke’s estate long ago.

“So does that mean Ria is the Duke’s daughter?”

Nodding at Luka’s unusually composed response, I replied:

“Can’t say for certain, but it’s worth a shot since we have nowhere else to go right now.”

And there was something that needed resolving along the way.

“Luka, I’ll help you regain your memories.”

Currently, Luka was doubly enchanted by Duke Kablos who had kidnapped him.

One spell sealed his memories, the other was a form of possession magic.

While I didn’t know about the remaining spell that would activate at seventeen, I did know how to undo the memory seal.

Compared to the latter, the memory seal didn’t utilize particularly potent black magic, so consuming a ‘Purification Crystal’ could break it.

Senia, being a healing mage, had restored Luka’s memories with her own magic instead.

“How can I… regain my memories?”

“The newspaper Layola reads had an article contributed by a renowned mage.”

Layola’s newspaper truly was an all-purpose excuse material.

“It mentioned a way to restore memories lost to amnesia – by ingesting a ‘Purification Crystal’.”

“A Purification Crystal?”

That was an exceedingly rare item in the story.

It was described as having only been discovered five times in the world, with an astronomical value.

And as far as I knew, one of those five locations was right…

“Wait, don’t you hear the sound of a waterfall?”

I pricked my ears at the growing roar of rushing water with each step.

Taking Luka’s hand, we pushed through the foliage to find a massive waterfall gushing forth with a thunderous rumble, the mist sparkling brilliantly.

‘Wow, so it really existed!’

If the novel’s descriptions were accurate, the ‘Purification Crystal’ should be embedded within a cave behind this waterfall.

In the original story, Senia lost her way in these woods while traveling to rescue Luka from the orphanage and grew famished.

It was then that she discovered this waterfall.

To make matters worse, night fell and the cries of beasts began echoing through the forest, so she took shelter in the cave behind the waterfall. As befitting the protagonist, she stumbled upon the Purification Crystal there.

As a healing mage, she immediately sensed the tremendous holy power emanating from the stone and absorbed it to regain her energy.

That ‘Purification Crystal,’ which served as a tool to enhance the protagonist’s abilities, was now the only means to restore Luka’s memories.