Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

The day I hoped would never come finally arrived.

“Miss, you need to wake up. It’s an important day, and even if we start preparing now, there won’t be enough time!”

“Mmm…”

My eyes wouldn’t open well because I had tossed and turned all night.

I wished all of this was just a dream.

Yesterday, before leaving the banquet hall after making his vow to me before departure, Luka had said:

-Please come to see me off at the departure ceremony tomorrow. Only then will I be able to sleep tonight.

Red Greffin flags were fluttering high in the sky all over the Empire.

The Rayes mansion also raised the national flag and prayed for the Crown Prince’s victory.

“Haah… Sending that child to the battlefield, this is absurd.”

I buried my face in the bed again.

“Miss, I said you need to get up!”

* * *

Although I had wished every day that this moment wouldn’t come, I knew it was a fate I would eventually face.

The handkerchief in my hand now was also embroidered for today.

Before Luka left for the battlefield, I boarded a carriage heading to the imperial palace to see him off one last time.

I brought along the handkerchief I had started embroidering a few weeks ago and finally finished two days ago.

‘Senia will be there too.’

Although I wouldn’t meet her directly, she would undoubtedly be at the imperial palace.

‘She seemed to like Luka.’

While it felt unsettling to let Senia go with Luka, there was nothing else I could do.

If that feeling was even the reason she tried to kill me, it would make sense.

‘Now I understand why she reacted like that in the west back then.’

I decided not to reveal that fact to Luka for now.

For Luka, Senia was the only one who could break the curse threatening his life.

‘She might be harmful to me, but for Luka… she’s a necessary person. Since she likes Luka, she’ll definitely help when his life is in danger.’

That fact approached me in a very complex way.

I’m anxious. Afraid that Luka might become close to Senia during the war.

Even a lifelong vow couldn’t bind the heart.

However, despite my anxiety, I could only watch.

‘Yes, Arzenluka. For your sake.’

No other reason was needed…

I closed my eyes tightly.

When the carriage reached the imperial palace, I rose.

Soon the door opened, and the moment I grasped the outstretched hand, I realized it wasn’t the servant’s.

“Luka.”

He had come out to greet me.

The uniform with delicate gold embroidery suited him very well.

Seeing him wearing the crown he usually didn’t wear because it was uncomfortable made me smile slightly.

Though his body had grown, his mind was still childlike, yet too heavy a burden was placed on his shoulders.

“Sister Ria.”

I fell into Luka’s embrace just like that.

Luka also embraced me firmly.

“…”

It was an action that came out before any words.

Hugging tightly as if only the two of us were left in the world.

To fully convey the meaning that you are never alone, don’t forget that.

“Don’t get hurt even a hair. If you do, my heart will feel like it’s being torn apart.”

At those words, Luka’s hand on my back flinched.

How could he not get hurt, it was just my wish.

However…

“I’ll make sure never to cause Ria such pain.”

Luka spoke in my ear as if reciting a vow.

When I raised my head buried in his shoulder and faced him, I saw determination in his crimson eyes.

“…It’s good that you listen well.”

I smiled slightly and gave him a bright smile.

“Ahem!”

At that moment, someone’s cough was heard from the side.

‘Who coughed… Ah, it’s Sir Heild.’

I hadn’t looked around at all because I was focused only on Luka, but there were three or four more knights in armor, probably because it was right before departure.

They were all captain-level figures.

Essil Claire and Sir Heild, as well as others rumored to be excellent swordsmen.

‘The Emperor must have paid attention to the selection.’

He too must have predicted that this war wouldn’t be easy.

As I started to become aware of those around me, Luka turned back and said:

“Return to your units. I’ll be there soon.”

“Yes, my lord!”

They must have a strong concept of obeying orders, as they answered in unison and quickly disappeared even though no one was chasing them.

Luka looks infinitely gentle to my eyes, but is he not like that to his subordinates?

The brilliant lake sparkled like the Milky Way in the sunlight.

As a cold wind blew through the quiet garden where only the two of us remained, he tightened the shawl covering my shoulders.

“Ria, you haven’t forgotten my request, right?”

Luka’s voice speaking to me softly was trembling slightly.

His gaze fell on the magic necklace sparkling around my neck.

“…I haven’t forgotten. I’ll never take it off, just like until now.”

It was the curse binding Luka, something that prevented the ancient magic that would make him lose the memory of his most precious person.

“Where’s your bracelet?”

I asked, lifting Luka’s hand.

The bracelet that was paired with my necklace wasn’t visible.

He smiled and unbuttoned his uniform.

‘…?!’

As he unbuttoned one by one with one hand, I couldn’t hide my flustered expression.

I even squeezed my eyes shut, and Luka said to me:

“Ria? Why are your eyes…”

“…What is it.”

When I opened my eyes slightly, what I saw was a necklace visible between the unbuttoned buttons.

“The bracelet might come loose while wielding a sword, so I transformed it into a necklace with reinforcement magic. Unless someone beheads me, it will never come off…”

“Don’t say such horrible things.”

I grabbed his collar and muttered quietly to words I would have usually responded to cheerfully.

Luka silently looked down at my fist that was trembling slightly.

“Ria.”

“Why… huh?”

Luka, who had wrapped my fist warmly with both hands, lowered his head and kissed my lips.

I felt his moist lips touching mine.

I soon closed my wide-open eyes.

Then Luka’s warmth was fully transmitted.

Luka’s heartbeat, his breath. All of it.

A moment later, I opened my closed eyes to his lips parting.

Luka was looking at me as if trying to memorize each detail of my face.

“I should return the favor for the comforting kiss.”

I handed Luka the embroidered handkerchief.

Luka, who received my handkerchief, saw the embroidered phrase and his eyes widened for a moment.

“Do you remember?”

On the night Luka first came to Troy Orphanage, the child couldn’t sleep all night.

In the end, seeing Luka reading a book by a small candle in bed, I approached him and said:

-Let’s read together, that book is more fun when read together.

After that, I sometimes asked Luka, who couldn’t sleep, to play roulette games, and sometimes to continue reading the book.

At that time, I also had trouble sleeping because I was worried about the original story.

On a night that would have been lonely alone, we weren’t lonely together.

On the last page of the book we read together, there was only one sentence written:

[And so the two were happy.]

-Wh-What? This is the end?!

I exclaimed in shock, muffling my voice so as not to wake the sleeping children.

Luka looked at me with my mouth wide open in disbelief and laughed softly.

It was the first day he smiled at me.

Though it was a fleeting moment, I thought that maybe even such a sloppy ending wasn’t so bad.

Because I could see Luka smile.

Had we become a little closer?

With that thought, I brought a pen with a bright smile.

Luka, who was looking at me with a questioning gaze, soon laughed out loud when he saw the sentence I wrote below the last sentence.

-Hahaha…

With a mischievous face, I looked at Luka and giggled.

We covered ourselves with blankets so as not to wake the other children and laughed for a while, our shoulders shaking.

[And the two became much happier, and there was no end to it.]

Since it’s better to be certain, I wrote that below the last sentence, as if driving in a nail.

“So you remembered this.”

“Of course. You, who always smiled slightly with a prim expression, laughed out loud for the first time after reading this sentence.”

The handkerchief I gave to Luka had that sentence embroidered on it.

And one more sentence was added below it.

“The names of those two people are Ria and Luka…”

Luka read it out loud.

“It will surely be like that, Luka. I’ll wait for your safe return.”

Luka reverently kissed my forehead and murmured:

“Surely, just as embroidered on this handkerchief…”

Standing in the place where a gust of wind had just passed, we smiled at each other as brightly as on that day at the orphanage.

* * *

Luka’s army left the castle amid the cheers of countless people.

The number of knights here now is enormous, and they say they’ll join another unit at the border.

It felt real that this was a great war.

And Senia was following far behind Luka.

She was wearing the pure white uniform of an imperial mage.

I tightly grasped the necklace connected to Luka hanging around my neck.

In contrast to sending him off with a smile, now the whole world seemed to ripple because of the tears obscuring my vision.

A tear finally dropped onto the red jewel of the necklace.

I couldn’t hold back anymore.

“Sob, sob…”

When Luka’s figure was no longer visible, I burst into tears that I had been holding back.

This place without you is already so dreadful.