Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

“Ria.”

“Ria…”

“For your information, I’m a year older, so it’s Big Sister Ria.”

It wasn’t that important in this world, but a Korean is a Korean wherever they go.

“Big Sister Ria.”

That day, Bron indeed didn’t look for Luka, and Luka didn’t bother to return to his room either.

We lay side by side in the dim storage room.

“If you’re cold, get the blanket under that shelf. There’s a pillow under it too.”

I said to Luka, who was shivering.

“Ria must come here often…”

Luka said, bringing the pillow and blanket as I told him.

Instead of calling me big sister, he used awkward honorifics to the benefactor who gave him bread.

He seemed to misunderstand that I was firmly on Bron’s bad side.

“It’s just my hideout. I like it here because it’s quiet.”

“Then will you come tomorrow too?”

“…I only come when I feel like it.”

I turned to face Luka and said.

“I’ll come. You must be tired, don’t worry and sleep.”

The question of whether I’d come tomorrow felt like he needed me.

It was the first time.

I had just acted out of concern for him starving without much thought.

After that day, my emptiness gradually disappeared.

Every lunchtime, Layola checked the number of children, so even Bron had no choice but to bring Luka out.

Luka, who ate his potato soup without leaving a drop, silently watched my back as I left after taking just one bite.

And when evening came, Bron invariably locked Luka in the storage room.

In the evening, I came to the storage room again and handed Luka my dinner.

“Ria should eat too.”

“I’m fine. I have no appetite.”

“You didn’t eat lunch either.”

“Don’t worry… Wh-What are you doing?”

Luka put half a piece of bread into my mouth, just as I had done to him yesterday.

“You look like you might collapse at any moment, you should eat even if you have no appetite.”

I said, chewing the piece of bread in my mouth.

“It feels like some kind of revenge for yesterday…”

Luka chuckled and didn’t deny it.

It was the first time I saw him smile.

Arzenluka, the male protagonist of [The Child Loved by Villains]. Perhaps for his dramatic love with Senia, he walks an incredibly thorny path.

Being captured here now was just the beginning.

He suffers from the Empress’s death and is tormented by curses even on the battlefield.

‘This little boy has to endure all that.’

When I stared at him intently, Luka tilted his head.

I felt that Luka and I were similar, just with different endings.

The relationship that started out of curiosity soon completely changed my dry daily life.

After that, I visited the storage room every evening to stay with Luka.

When Bron saw me coming out of the storage room with Luka in the morning and approached as if to confront me about helping Luka, he was afraid of my gloomy atmosphere like the child he was and ended up not saying a word.

Our conversations grew longer as the days passed.

“So you’re saying the children are practically imprisoned in this orphanage?”

“Yes, and you too.”

“…This is a crime. When I leave the orphanage, I’ll make sure everyone involved is punished.”

“How will you do that?”

At my words, Luka momentarily couldn’t continue, then soon said, ‘That’s true…’

“I felt like I could do something, but why? I don’t know.”

I chuckled at Luka’s confused look with lots of question marks.

He was unconsciously remembering his original status.

Luka looked at me and said.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen you laugh.”

I suddenly stopped laughing and opened my eyes wide at my image reflected in his red eyes.

It wasn’t that Luka had never seen me laugh before, but it was the first time he saw me laugh.

Literally, it was the first time in this life.

Both talking with someone for so long and laughing.

“Laugh often from now on. You look much more lively and better.”

“…”

The door to one’s heart doesn’t open wide in an instant.

But perhaps without noticing, both our hearts were slowly opening.

A small gap was created where we could smile only for each other.

I couldn’t forget that moment when our gazes met in the air.

Bron no longer bullied Luka.

He had lost interest.

We didn’t have to eat dinner in the storage room or sleep there anymore, but.

“Should I steal a heater for here?”

“Are you cold? Cover yourself with this blanket for now. I’ll steal one from the living room tomorrow.”

We sat in the storage room eating dinner we brought from the dining hall.

After eating, we would talk about trivial things and fall asleep.

Because it was comfortable with just the two of us.

And because it was fun.

For several months like that, we laughed, slept, and opened our hearts in our own hideout.

Later, too many things accumulated in the storage room so we couldn’t use it as a hideout anymore.

The orphanage children were amazed to see me getting along well with Luka like normal children.

It wasn’t surprising, considering they remembered me as someone who had no interaction with children, as if I didn’t know how to speak.

Time passed like that.

As seasons changed and years went by, I gained weight and became more lively, but on the other hand, anxiety crept in.

In the original story, Luka tried to escape the orphanage through a passage on the library floor but was caught by Layola and faced a life-threatening situation.

It was I who stepped up and helped him then.

As a price for that, Layola ruined my leg as if to say don’t even dream of escaping.

Luka was a unique existence to me.

If such a situation really came, I would willingly sacrifice my leg to help Luka without a moment’s hesitation.

But shouldn’t preventing such a thing from happening be the priority?

“Absolutely no escaping, Luka. If you get caught, you could really die.”

“…I won’t, Ria.”

“Yes, let’s promise. We can leave the orphanage if we endure just a little longer. For sure.”

Luka nodded.

And he didn’t break that promise.

However, the dreaded event was bound to happen in some way.

* * *

“Brother, Brother Luka!”

Luka was about to leave after carefully choosing a book to read with Ria at night in the library.

He heard a voice calling him.

Luka searched for the source of the voice and soon realized it was coming from under the floor.

Theo was calling him through a tiny gap in the library floor.

“What are you doing there? How did you get in?”

“I found a space down here and thought there was a passage, so I came in. But now this door won’t open again and I’ve been trapped for a while! Please get me out…”

When Theo spoke tearfully, Luka sighed and examined the floor to see if there was a gap he could open.

And he opened the floor through a gap he found.

That’s when it happened.

Layola, who was checking if the lights were off, appeared.

“Luka! You’re…”

Layola couldn’t see Theo under the floor, and instead only saw Luka who looked like he was about to attempt an escape.

“Are you trying to escape right now?!”

Layola started to get very angry.

“No…”

Luka looked down at Theo, who was trembling and curled up under the floor.

Certainly, it seemed Theo had attempted to escape.

But seeing as he had failed, it seemed the space below wasn’t a passage leading outside.

“I just saw a gap and opened it to see what it was. I’m absolutely not trying to escape.”

It was a promise with Ria, so he hadn’t even thought about it for a moment.

However, Layola became unusually agitated.

“Don’t lie! Do you think I’ll believe you?! I’ll have to teach you a lesson today!”

When Kablos confined Luka in the orphanage, he placed a curse on Layola.

It was a curse to frustrate Luka’s escape attempts even if it meant breaking his legs if there was the slightest sign of him trying to escape.

It was a kind of insurance.

He was none other than the missing Crown Prince, and his existence must not be revealed to the world.

“Aaargh! My body is so hot!”

Layola’s body started to grow like a demonic beast due to the curse.

Her eyes became bloodshot, and a demonic beast’s pattern glowed on her forehead.

There was no reason left in her, and only a puppet controlled by Kablos’s curse stood before them.

Luka instinctively realized the situation was not normal.

Below, Theo was curled up and crying, and in front was Layola transformed into a demonic beast.

It was difficult to face a high-level demonic beast with a small body without any weapons.

As he slowly backed away, the demonic beast attacked him mercilessly.

“Ugh…”

Intense pain enveloped his body.

Luka was thrown against the wall with a thud and slid down.

The demonic beast muttered ‘Legs, must crush the legs’ as if controlled by something, and walked towards the slumped Luka with heavy steps.

That’s when it happened.

“Miss Layola, please stop.”

Luka jerked his head up at the familiar voice coming from somewhere.

A girl’s voice, trembling but so upright and clear.

“Punish me instead. Luka is the child I’m in charge of, after all.”

Ria said this while spreading her arms to block between the demonic beast and Luka.

“Ria! Go back!”

Luka shouted with all his might, but Ria kept standing there.

“No, please…!”

Just as Luka was to Ria, Ria had also become an incredibly precious existence to Luka.

Ria turned to look at Luka, who was trying to come to her with his powerless body, and smiled faintly as if there was no other choice.

Like someone who had somewhat anticipated this situation.

The demonic beast approached Ria and roared threateningly.

“Get out of the way! Or I’ll crush your legs instead!”

“No!!”

Luka shouted.

The silver hair resembling bluish moonlight, the eyes holding the color of grass, the pink lips drawing an arc – they all pierced his mind.

‘It’s okay, Luka. Just close your eyes for a moment.’

Ria mouthed these words and soon fell to the floor in front of Luka from the demonic beast’s attack.

As if Kablos’s curse had fulfilled its purpose by taking Ria’s legs, Layola soon returned to her original form.

“…”

The sight of Ria collapsed on the floor was terribly surreal.

Luka approached Ria with his tattered body and carefully embraced her with trembling arms.

The thought that he might lose Ria like this caused a terrible pain in his chest.

A fear he had never experienced in his life clouded his vision.