Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

Even after absorbing Luka’s mark, nothing particular happened to me.

It was because I hadn’t absorbed the marks of the remaining two people yet.

Usually in novels, don’t they regress with all their memories?

It felt like I’d been hit on the back of the head.

Being reincarnated as a villainess was one thing, but to win regression without even activating a hidden mission?

“Why am I always the high difficulty one…”

“High difficulty?”

When I muttered and let out a deep sigh, Luka asked.

“No, it’s nothing.”

As I awkwardly made an excuse, voices were heard and the carriage stopped.

The imperial palace, which I was visiting again after a long time, had been decorated even more splendidly for the grand festival since I last saw it.

Despite the cold weather, rare and beautiful flowers were decorating various parts of the palace in green, though I don’t know where they were sourced from.

The ground was thickly covered with snow.

“Give me your hand.”

Luka not only held my hand but also supported my waist in case I might slip.

Anyone watching might call it overprotection, but it was natural for us.

Servants seeing this for the first time couldn’t hide their shock at Luka’s behavior.

It seemed Luka had a reputation as cold-blooded when I wasn’t around.

I understood, as the Luka they knew probably wasn’t much different from that rumor.

“How long are we going to walk like this?”

I said as we walked towards the hall.

“Oh, are you uncomfortable? Would you rather I carry you?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Nevermind, forget it.

Luka didn’t care about others’ gazes even as much as dust.

I gave up and stepped onto the threshold of the hall.

“Ah!”

At that moment, not seeing the step below, I lost my balance as my shoe slipped on the snow.

“Ria!”

“Huh, huh…”

Luka urgently caught my waist just before I fell.

Thanks to that, no impact reached me.

Instead…

‘Huh?’

Countless nobles were watching us through the wide open doors of the hall.

“Oh no…”

I muttered quietly, and Luka smiled pleasantly, saying it was fortunate.

“Are you okay?”

“Not… at all okay.”

I quickly stood up and pulled Luka’s arm as if nothing had happened.

“Crown Prince Arzenluka Blake de Greffin and Lady Laveria Jenne Rayes are entering!”

A servant with a still loud voice announced our entrance.

I wanted to ask that servant for tips on vocal cord management, but I couldn’t because hundreds of gazes were fixed on us.

The magnificence of William Palace with sunlight brightly shining through its huge windows was truly amazing.

Flags of the Greffin Empire could be seen hanging in various places.

The solemn atmosphere seemed closer to praying for victory in war than commemorating the new year.

Countless gazes followed as Luka and I walked.

Among them was Miller, who still seemed unable to recover from the shock earlier, and Drehan, who was holding his forehead.

‘The thought of explaining later is already giving me a headache.’

There’s nothing to explain other than Luka catching me when I almost fell, but it must have looked much more exaggerated to their eyes.

Something similar happened last time too, and the brothers who witnessed it declared a no-approach order for Luka for a while.

-May the glory of the Empire be with you, we behold Your Highness the Crown Prince.

-Lady Rayes, have you gotten better?

-Did you receive the medicinal herbs our family sent, hoho.

-I wish you a speedy recovery.

We briefly showed our faces to the imperial faction nobles approaching like a wave and walked to our designated seats.

There were particularly many people wishing me recovery because of the setting that I had gone to the west for recuperation after my condition suddenly worsened due to being attacked by black magic.

Since I was essentially no different from Luka’s designated partner, most of the imperial faction nobles were favorable towards me.

“Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress are entering!”

The servant shouted once more with a loud voice.

The Empress, who looked much healthier than when I last saw her, entered the hall with the Emperor.

The Empress’s complexion had visibly improved, but the Emperor escorted her extremely carefully as if she might fly away like a feather if he blew.

It’s not an illusion that Luka from earlier overlapped with that image.

‘They look completely different usually, but in aspects like this, it’s like father like son.’

When the imperial couple stood in front of the throne, all the nobles bowed their heads in respect.

The Emperor stepped forward and performed the New Year’s commemoration ceremony.

It involves sprinkling holy water brought from the deep lake of the temple onto the black lion statue symbolizing the Greffin Empire.

Three or four believers from the temple had come for this ceremony.

“The morning of the new year has dawned. I hereby announce the start of the New Year’s festival, praying for the eternal prosperity of the great Greffin Empire.”

I like that the Emperor doesn’t speak at length.

As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of horns was heard from all directions.

‘Come to think of it…’

Lady Jeria was not in the royal family’s seats.

The princes were greeting their guests, but their mother was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Lady Jeria?”

“I heard she’ll be recuperating in the palace for a while.”

Recuperation for someone who seemed unlikely to even catch a cold, let alone suffer from minor illnesses?

Did she fall ill from stress because her position narrowed after the Empress became healthy?

“Ria, you were here.”

“Empress, Rachel!”

“Are you okay from almost falling earlier? Arzenluka, you didn’t let go on purpose, did you?”

“Do I look like that kind of person to you, sister?”

“I thought you might be trying to make your mark firmly before going to war.”

“Even without such methods, there are many other ways, so sister doesn’t need to worry.”

“Am I worried about you? I’m worried about Ria. What other ways, what are you plotting now?”

The Empress walked through the bickering siblings and grasped my hand.

“You’re dazzlingly beautiful, Ria. Congratulations on turning sixteen.”

The faintly smiling Empress had some worry on her face, perhaps because she now had to send Luka to the battlefield.

I silently hugged her once to convey a brief comfort.

Soon, as music announcing the start of the dance began to play, the Empress smiled and pushed Luka’s and my backs.

“Off you go, you two.”

“Ria, step on that guy’s feet completely!”

“Princess, don’t keep Sir Heild waiting either.”

“Your Majesty, I didn’t wait. If I dance with the Princess, my feet turn black and blue with bruises the next day and I can’t even train…”

“Let’s go, Heild.”

“No!”

I smiled as I walked with Luka, seeing the two bickering.

Then I grasped Luka’s hand and walked to the center of the hall to start moving to the rhythm.

However, there was a problem.

“I’m… confused.”

Having been absent from social circles for a while since my debutante, I couldn’t remember the dance well.

At this rate, I felt like I would completely step on Luka’s feet, just as Rachel did to Heild.

‘What confidence did I have to come to the center of the hall…!’

Coming without thinking was the problem.

My body didn’t remember, and my mind went blank.

“Pfft…”

At my clumsy steps, some young ladies in the crowd snickered among themselves.

‘Th-Those…!’

They were undoubtedly gossiping about commoners or something again.

That’s when Luka led me and said:

“Ria, look at me like back then.”

I had been looking down at the floor, extremely nervous at my debutante too, just like now.

However, when I faced Luka closely and matched his breath at his lead, I was able to naturally enjoy the music and dance.

‘…Amazing.’

It was the same now.

I had been taking precarious steps as if about to trample Luka’s fine shoes, but now that I was looking at him instead of the floor, I could move stably.

After some time passed, I even regained composure.

The young ladies who had been snickering were now quiet and looking elsewhere.

Soon, as the performance ended, applause poured down.

“Finally over…”

The dance was an unexpected ordeal.

‘Good job, myself. You did it despite being clumsy.’

I wanted to pat my own head for admirably finishing it safely.

“Huh? That’s…”

On the way back to my seat, exhausted like that, I saw Ensia, whom I had been frequently corresponding with lately, heading towards the reception room.

“Luka, I’ll go to the reception room for a moment.”

I left my seat to thank her for her great help in developing the high-end magical heaters for nobles and merchants.

“Where did she go…”

I left the hall and set out to find Ensia.

Leaving the noisy hall, it even felt eerily quiet.

I was walking through the vast William Palace looking for where the reception room was.

“We behold the Saintess.”

‘Saintess?’

I lowered my posture and listened to the voices coming from somewhere.

The voices were coming from beyond the pillar I was passing by.

Peeking slightly, I saw it was sound leaking from a room with the door open.

Inside, believers wearing white priestly robes were lowering themselves deeply in front of Senia.

I found it strange that the believers, who hadn’t treated even the Emperor like this, were revering Senia as if worshipping her.

‘Come to think of it, they said the temple considers healing mages as saints.’

I thought that must be the reason.

As I watched the situation like that, I soon witnessed something that made me doubt my eyes.

“Ugh…”

Senia stomped on the hand of a believer who was prostrated with her pointed heel.

She stomped so hard that soon a sound like bones breaking was heard.

Nevertheless, the believer seemed unable to dare defy Senia and was enduring the painful groan.

“How dare you think of showing your face to me? I’m barely holding back from throwing you as food for the demonic beasts in the mansion!!”

“Th-That, Saintess! We didn’t imagine the Crown Prince would intervene…!”

“Don’t try to use him as an excuse!”

I, who only knew Senia as mature and dignified, was shocked to see her berating the believer like a nasty girl of that age.

‘Moreover, the Crown Prince intervened…?’

It seemed Senia’s plan had gone awry because of that.

“I doubt the loyalty of your ‘Sole Saintess Faction’ too. Two suns have risen in the sky, yet you’re just stupidly watching!”