Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

She lay motionless in bed, appearing so embalmed that one would doubt whether she still drew breath.

Her silken, waist-length wheat-colored hair glistened in the sunlight streaming through the window, yet even those lacked vitality, resembling a doll’s synthetic hair.

When our eyes met those sunken yellow orbs gazing my way, I involuntarily inhaled – she had been a transcendent beauty.

Indeed, one could see how she was the mother of those two nationally treasured visages.

“Who…?”

It was only when that crystalline voice issued from her lips that I finally snapped to my senses, glancing around at the empty spaces on either side of me.

Luka and Rachel had yet to step inside the room, lingering hesitantly behind me.

I offered the wavering siblings a faint reassuring smile.

‘Wait there.’

Reading my wordless message, they obediently remained behind the door.

Taking a step forward, I respectfully greeted the Empress of the Greffin Empire with a curtsy.

“May the brilliant glory of the Great Greffin Empire be with you. I am honored to meet the full moon illuminating the Empire’s nights, Your Imperial Majesty.”

With an attendant’s assistance, she raised her torso halfway, reclining against a cushion.

“It has been quite some time since I received such grandiose greetings.”

“I am Laveria Jenne Rayes, the daughter of Duke Rayes.”

At my words, her eyes widened.

“Laveria, Jenne Rayes?”

The Empress seemed to recall something before realization dawned upon her face.

“The long-lost gemstone of the Rayes Duchy who disappeared at the tender age of three, if I’m not mistaken.”

The Empress wasn’t well-versed in information or gossip. Confined within the capital, there was no one to relay the myriad happenings from outside to her secluded existence.

For even her to recognize that name… it was still difficult to fathom the extent of the Duke Rayes’s frantic efforts to locate his missing daughter all those years ago.

I nodded and explained:

“The reason I have come to meet you today, Your Majesty, is to discuss my friends with you.”

She seemed to find an amusing conversational partner after so long, letting out a soft chuckle as she gently inquired:

“And who might these friends be?”

Her demeanor exuded the same warmth she had once been renowned for as the ‘Peerless Beauty with the Grace of a Saint from a Baron’s family.’

Bolstered by her kindness, I confidently continued.

“One is Arzenluka Blake De Greffin, and the other is Rachel Tios De Greffin, Your Majesty.”

Upon hearing those names, the Empress visibly froze before whipping her body urgently towards me, her voice rising in desperation:

“You met those children? Cough, cough!”

Perhaps overwhelmed by her sudden reaction, she erupted into a bout of harsh coughing fits.

As I moved closer in concern, the Empress raised her hand, signaling that she was alright.

“Those children… they vanished from the sight of this unworthy mother long ago. What conversation could you possibly have with someone like me?”

Her misty eyes seemed on the verge of shedding tears.

The waxen doll-like visage had regained a vibrant spark the moment I uttered her children’s names.

“As you likely know, Your Majesty, Luka has returned to the palace. And Rachel has come back home today as well.”

At my words, a solitary tear finally traced down her pallid cheek.

“They will never return to my side again. Neither I nor the children wish for that. The mistakes I have committed can never be washed away.”

Despite learning of Luka and Rachel’s whereabouts, the Empress showed no inclination to seek them out first, nor did she wait for them to come to her.

Seeing her resigned expression, I took a step closer.

“I came because I wished to ask why you feel that way.”

I recalled the words Luka had once spoken to Senia in the original story.

[My mother was someone I couldn’t hate, no matter how much I wanted to. While I couldn’t understand her with my mind, I came to comprehend her actions with my heart. Had I been able to find solace in her embrace, the desperation would have faded, for otherwise, the three of us wouldn’t have survived the capital.}

Mending profound rifts was never easy.

Even blood-bound familial ties were no exception.

However, as long as mutual devotion remained, it wasn’t an impossibility.

At my words, the Empress seemed to ponder briefly before closing her eyes and replying:

“It seems this will be a lengthy tale. Please, have a seat.”

I took a chair beside the Empress’s bed.

And I listened to her extended recounting.

Her story unfolded as vividly as if the events had transpired just yesterday, living out her days alone in this secluded palace, engulfed in unending regret over the past.

The Empress occasionally smiled wistfully while speaking of the siblings’ childhood, and at other times, buried her face in her hands, overwhelmed by self-reproach.

To my eyes, she still resembled a young girl, oblivious to concealing her emotions or guarding herself against outsiders, no matter how naive.

A purity ill-suited for this capital.

Just a few years prior, she had unleashed her unfettered obsession and demands upon her own children, driven by sheer terror.

“I would lash out, make demands, then the next day, wallow in remorse and apologize, repeating the cycle endlessly. With each passing moment, I slipped further into madness.”

Casting her gaze towards the window, she continued:

“Whenever those children were out of my sight, I truly felt imprisoned in utter darkness without a single ray of light.”

The Empress likely regretted most the time just before Luka’s official appointment as Crown Prince.

Even towards Luka, who had already exhausted every effort. Luka, who had surpassed all limits to be hailed as the Empire’s unparalleled Crown Prince candidate.

She had demanded the unreachable, akin to grasping the invisible sky itself.

With only one chance, she had pushed all the more.

“If only I hadn’t been so frail, I could have raised them without worry, like any other children… Still, I don’t envy Jeria.”

The Empress’s supposed jealousy and sense of inferiority, constantly sensationalized in the monthly magazines, had been gross fabrications.

“I merely lament my inability to become a shield, a firm support for my own children, as Jeria was for hers.”

My gaze fell upon the medicine bottles on the side table.

Noticing my line of sight, the Empress spoke:

“Medication I requested from the court physician when I could no longer control my own emotions.”

The very physician was actually an ally of Jeria’s faction, and those ’emotion stabilizing’ drugs the Empress trusted were hallucinogenic toxins designed to corrode her mental faculties – a truth too cruel to disclose.

“I cannot say if they were effective. It almost seems like I only escaped the nightmares and delusions after stopping my intake.”

Observing the withered Empress evoked a bittersweet pang within me.

Gently placing my small hand atop her parched one, I gazed up at her with doleful eyes. The Empress smiled faintly and spoke:

“A little lady worried about her friends has come searching for me, but alas, the rift between those children and I runs too deep. I wish I could kneel endlessly before them, begging forgiveness, but I am an unworthy mother without that right.”

Emboldened by her smile, I finally voiced the words I had hesitated to utter.

“Your Majesty, if you truly regret your actions, seek them out just once and beg for forgiveness. Leaving regrets will ensure they linger until your dying breath, haunting you incessantly here.”

I placed my hand over my chest, where I could feel my heartbeat pulsing.

So that her life, every moment her heart continued beating, wouldn’t be consumed by agonizing remorse.

I remembered the profound regret that had tormented the abandoned Luka in the novels upon the Empress’s passing.

Whenever he fell into such depths, Senia would console him, casting healing spells to alleviate the anguished memories.

How convenient magic was, capable of erasing even lingering traces of tormenting regrets from the mind.

But could it truly heal the scars within his heart as well?

Instead, I hoped the Empress would spend her remaining year atoning fully to her children, voicing all the words she had longed to express but never could.

And that she would realize how utterly insignificant everything in this dreadful palace was, compared to the radiance of those precious children.

“Do you still love Rachel and Luka?”

At some point, the Empress had dissolved into unrestrained weeping.

“More than anything else in this world…”

I nodded and rose from my seat.

“I must take my leave now, as there is somewhere else I need to be.”

“I see… May I ask one favor of you? If those children are willing, could you inquire if I may approach them first?”

I smiled meaningfully in response.

“Yes, I will convey your desire to speak with them. However, I can’t promise their choice itself.”

“Thank you truly, for listening to my lengthy tale…”

After offering the Empress a parting curtsy, I exited the chamber.

Outside the open door, Luka and Rachel sat leaning against the wall.

“As I mentioned, the choice is solely yours. No one can fault you, even if you refuse.”

I crouched before them and spoke:

“It’s alright, it was my selfish request. Luka, if you’re not ready to forgive her yet, take my hand, and let’s go back together.”

-Don’t you wish to see your family in the capital?

-Mother… I would like to have a proper conversation with her. Then I may know if I truly missed her.

-You need a conversation to understand?

-I want to try understanding her. She must have been just as childish as I was back then.

Momentarily hesitating at my outstretched hand, Luka ultimately smiled and bowed his head deeply.

“Unfortunately, despite Ria’s rare visit, I will have to pass on joining you.”

At his words, Rachel turned a stunned gaze towards Luka.

Taking my hand, Luka rose and pulled me into a tight embrace, whispering faintly into my ear.

“Thank you, for giving me another chance.”

Releasing me from his embrace, he said:

“First, let me escort Ria to where lord Drehan is waiting…”

“I’ll do that.”

Rachel, her eyes reddened as if on the verge of tears, interjected.

“I’ll safely return Ria, so you can go see Mother without worries.”

After a brief hesitation, Luka nodded in agreement when I gestured my assent. He then made his way through the partially obscured door leading inside.

Through the open doorway, the Empress’s figure looked utterly pitiful.

Collapsed with her head buried between her knees, sobbing, Luka approached her – she was still unaware of his presence.

“Mother.”

The Empress jolted in surprise, lifting her disheveled face towards him.

“I… have returned. Forgive my unconscionably late arrival.”

For the past two years, not knowing if he lived or died. The previous days after receiving news of his safe return to the palace.

And now, this moment.

Faced with the son she had only dreamed of beholding again, the Empress seemed to muster strength from some unknown reserve, abruptly rising from the bed to approach Luka in a few strides, voice trembling as she spoke:

“Thank you for coming back, my Prince… Uuhu…”

Witnessing this scene, I took hold of Rachel’s shoulder and said:

“Let’s go. Luka will undoubtedly handle this well.”

As if unable to believe what she had just seen, Rachel turned back several times before eventually leaving the Empress’s quarters alongside me.