Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

However, this backstory that didn’t appear in the original was only mentioned in the sub-male lead’s side stories. 

Little Duke Drehan, the eldest son of the Rayes family, who was the sub-male lead in the original story, finds an old book in the library of Duke Rayes. It was written by the first Duke of Rayes, and after that, it was a family record continued by his descendants of about five generations.

〈 The Elf’s blood is inherently poisonous to a girl’s body, so they usually have stillbirth during pregnancy, and even a child born with difficulty is highly likely to die at an early age. This is because dark elf blood awakens only in girls. Dark elves’ magic is so powerful that it is difficult to capture it within a human vessel. No cure has been found 〉

…That was the record of the first duke known to have lost his young sister. The contents written below were about the characteristics of princesses who were born in the 3rd and 5th ducal families.

〈 Unlike men, the princesses of Rayes are not born with pure white-silver hair, but instead, various hues manifest throughout the wavelength, unique to the dark silver hair of dark elves. —3rd Duke of Rayes 〉

〈 Like the previous princesses, she died around the age of twenty of a severe fever and red spots protruding from her skin after failing to control her body’s strength. —5th Duke of Rayes’ Records 〉

It was said that girls were precious in the ducal family, but in fact, princesses were cut off completely after the 5th generation. After finding out that the only princess born into the family after 500 years was Ravelia, and that the characteristics of the young girl known as the duke’s adopted daughter who had recently died confined in a castle were the same as the princesses in the records, Young Duke Drehan becomes mentally ill with guilt for his dead sister and disappears shortly thereafter.

That was the last scene of the sub-male lead’s side stories.

‘Isn’t the writer really crazy?’ …I think I thought something like that at that time. What a great pretext to get rid of the sub-male lead. And I couldn’t understand why additional information was added about Ravelia, who was already dead. The fact that she, who posed as a fake princess, was actually the blood-borne daughter of the most powerful elf, the dark elf.

But thanks to it, I knew how I should behave in the future in the duke’s family.

 

*      *      * 

 

Even now, due to the continuous pursuit of the princess of the duke’s family, everyone on the continent already knew the precious name of ‘Ravelia Jenn Rayes.’ Thus, I was able to wrap around Luka’s question about our destination.

“We’re going to the Rayes ducal household.”

“If it’s the Rayes Duchy, is it the empire’s founding family that Leah told me about?”

“That’s right. I stole the newspaper that Raiolla was reading, and I found out something very surprising,” I continued as if exposing a great secret. “The duke’s family is looking for the lost princess. Silver hair, green eyes, and she’s about fifteen years old.”

The darker hue in my hair color was a bit disappointing, but all the other features were pointing to me. If I hadn’t been locked up in the orphanage, I would have been dragged into the duke’s family by the bounty hunters already.

“If so, then, is Leah the Duke’s princess?”

I shook my head at Luka’s unexpectedly calm question.

“I can’t really assure you that, but it’s worth trying, right? Since we don’t have anywhere else to go right now.”

And there was something I had to solve first.

“Luka, I’ll find your memories.”

Now, Luka was under a double spell by Duke Kavlos, who kidnapped him. One was magic to seal memories, and the other was magic to turn him into a puppet. I don’t know about the latter that will be activated when he turns seventeen, but I knew a way to unlock the sealed memories. Compared to the puppet spell, the seal wasn’t black magic, so it was enough to break it by eating the ‘purification crystal.’ Though, Senia was a healing wizard, so she used her magic to restore his lost memories without any of that.

“My memories… How can I find them?”

“I saw an article written by a renowned wizard in Raiolla’s newspaper.”

Raiolla’s newspaper was truly an omnipotent excuse.

“There’s a way to bring back the memory of someone with memory loss. Eating something called ‘the purification crystal.'”

“Purification crystal?”

It was a truly rare thing. It had been found only five times in the world, and its value in the novel was described to be astronomical. And, as far as I know, one of the five places where the crystal was found was…

“Wait, don’t you hear a waterfall around?”

I listened to the sound of the rushing water that grew louder as we walked. Holding Luka’s hand through the trees, we reached a place with a large waterfall sparkling and pouring with a roaring sound.

‘Wow, it really existed!’

If what I saw in the novel was accurate, the ‘purification crystal’ would be embedded in the cave inside that waterfall. In the original story, Senia is on her way to the orphanage to rescue Luka, but she gets lost in the forest and becomes hungry. It was then that she discovered this waterfall. To make matters worse, as the day darkened, the roar of wild beasts began to echo in the woods, so she hid in a cave behind the waterfall, where, as expected of the main character, she found the purification crystal. As a healing wizard, she immediately sensed a tremendous divine power emanating from a rock and absorbed it to regain her energy. The ‘purification crystal,’ which was used as a tool to improve the main character’s ability, was the only thing that could bring back Luka’s memory now.

The waterfall sparkled like stars embedded in the night sky. It looked as if the water fairy would pop out at any moment. The waterfall was spewing water from a high place, but it was easy to enter the cave because it was underneath. That’s why Senia was able to find it and hide inside. 

“What a fantastic coincidence. That Purification Crystal looks just like this one.”

Entering the cave with the waterfall pouring down, we had to speak louder to hear each other’s voices. Luka looked at the blue crystal in front of him with a marveled expression, thinking how an amazing coincidence it was. Even in the dark, the crystal emitted a blue glow. It was stuck in the wall of the cave. I grabbed it and pulled it out. However, if we say there was a problem…

“Isn’t it too big to eat…?”

I was at a loss by the size of the crystal that seemed like it would be your last farewell if you swallowed it. Senia was able to put her hand on the crystal and absorb its divine power, but that was only possible because she was a healing wizard.

‘For Luka to absorb it, he has no choice but to eat it…’ A human who cannot absorb the energy will eat it, and the crystal will melt within the body, infusing it with divine power. 

Right then, Luka spoke calmly behind me.

“You mean I only have to eat this?”

I was flustered as he took the crystal from my hand.

“Ye- yes, but it’s not swallowable–”

Crash-! What is that sound, you may ask? That was the sound of Luka hitting the crystal with a stone in his hand. With his powerful strength, the crystal turned into powder in an instant. He gathered the powdered crystal in his hand and swallowed it without hesitation.

“…What if I’m lying? Why are you being so reckless?”

I was worried. He trusts people so easily, I was afraid he might get in trouble later.

Luka, who had swallowed the crystal completely, looked at me and opened his mouth.

“I’ll do anything Leah says. Even if you told me to drink poison, I will.”

Looking into those eyes that trusted me infinitely, I felt suffocated for a moment.

It was dark inside the cave, but the ruby-like pupils that rarely lose their light looked straight at me. For a moment, the eyes I had met countless times at the orphanage felt somewhat unfamiliar. 

At that moment, Luka held himself against the wall next to him and shook his head as if dizzy. Eventually, he fell to his knees and I hurriedly approached him.

“Are you okay?!”

‘Are his memories coming back?’ His bright red pupils fluttered confusedly. Perhaps the memories of the past that were popping in his head now were not all good. If there were more bad memories rather than good ones… I put both arms around him. I embraced the child that no longer fit into my bosom. As if creeping into a long reminiscence, Luka closed his eyes and yielded to my warmth.

After countless minutes had passed, Luka finally opened his shut eyes.

“Leah, I’m fine now.”

I looked at his face when I heard his rasping voice in my ears.

“Did your memories come back…?”

At my question, he smiled and nodded.

“Were you happy in the past?”

This time he shook his head lightly. The hand holding mine trembled slightly, probably because he was still adjusting to the memories he had just absorbed.

“Luka, do you know where you need to go?”

“Yes. No one will be welcoming me, but there is definitely a place I need to go back to.”

No one will receive you. It wasn’t a pleasure going back to such a place. Luka smiled and patted my head as I lowered it. For some reason, my heart felt heavy.

“The place I have to go back to is where Leah is. Always. Even if we’re headed in different places.”

My lips trembled as I asked what I needed to ask.

“Then tell me now. Who are you actually?”

I was mentally prepared. Luka smiled awkwardly and opened his mouth.

“Agenluka Blake D’Griffin. The crown prince who has been abducted and went missing for the past two years. I was the one Leah told me about once.”

I once told Luka about the imperial family and told him about the missing Crown Prince. There was no record of the crown prince having an official portrait, thus, the newspaper’s description I saw only stated that he was a teenage boy with black hair and red eyes.

How would a normal person react to this situation?

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!”

I covered my mouth and slumped on the spot, still, I felt something was lacking, so I screamed once more.

“You- you are the crown prince?!”

This was enough.