Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

“You’ve hidden so well, like a little rat! Just wait till I catch you. I’ll make you pay dearly for what you’ve done to me!”

It was a voice full of murderous intent.

He checked each prison cell through the open doors.

“Where on earth are you!”

And finally, as he entered where I was, he walked towards the closet I was hiding in.

“Oh- Are you hiding in here? I did call you a little rat, but did you really think you’d become one?”

I prepared myself mentally and held up the glass shard, ready to attack.

As the closet door slowly opened and Kesil’s face, looking very angry, came into view, it happened.

Boom!

A huge explosion sound came from the iron door.

Kesil, who was about to raise his fist upon discovering me, turned around in surprise.

“Wh-what- Aaargh!”

He couldn’t finish his words.

Thud!

Kesil was instantly thrown to the floor in front of my eyes.

“Lu-Luka?”

I doubted my eyes.

Is it really Luka?

“How did you get here…”

Luka’s pupils, who was breathing heavily, were greatly dilated and glowing coldly.

It was a chillingly fierce appearance.

The floor was stained with Kesil’s blood, and Luka was still breathing heavily in front of it, not yet calmed down.

“Huff, huff-“

“…Luka.”

He didn’t seem to hear my words.

Then he staggered and collapsed to the ground.

“Luka!”

I rushed out of the closet towards Luka.

His crimson eyes, which always seemed static, were trembling as if frightened.

“Ria, Ria…”

“Yes, I’m here.”

I said, stroking Luka’s face.

His heavy breathing filled the silent space.

His fine face had turned as white as a pear blossom.

Luka spoke with shallow breaths:

“Thinking that Ria must have been as scared as me- it feels like my heart is being torn apart.”

‘As scared as him? Is he talking about the moment until he came to find me? Or does Luka also have such memories…’

At that moment, a memory flashed through my mind.

When Luka was young, he had been locked in the storage room of the Eastern Palace for two whole days due to the mischief of his half-siblings.

Yes, in a place just like this, completely dark and confined.

For Luka, a space like this environment remained a trauma.

‘Yet… he ran here almost simultaneously with the sound of the door opening.’

It meant he didn’t hesitate for a moment to enter.

“Luka- Look at me. I’m safe. Thanks to you.”

“You must have been scared. The fear you didn’t have to feel because I was late…”

“You were late? No. You found me faster than anyone else.”

It was true. It was absurd for Luka to feel self-loathing now. He had found me very quickly, and in the end, saved me before anything bad happened.

Luka’s hands were trembling.

I hugged him with all my might. Because I thought it might calm both me and Luka down.

“Luka, listen to me. As you said, I was scared. This time, really…”

I thought I was going to die. I shouldn’t say such things.

“But Luka, who’s the person hugging you now?”

“…Ria.”

“Who’s the person hugging me now?”

At my question, Luka silently looked down at his own arms instinctively holding me.

Yes, we’ve confined each other in the safest embrace in the world.

That’s enough.

“Fear isn’t eternal. And thanks to you, I think I’ll be able to forget this fear soon.”

Luka hugged me tightly. As if trying to prevent anything from harming me.

It was an embrace filled with warm energy.

“We should leave this place first.”

It was already a place that triggered trauma for Luka, and from today on, it would feel terrible to me too.

Having regained his composure, Luka looked down at me with his crimson eyes that had regained focus.

It was a gaze that seemed to be examining my condition in detail.

Then, as if he realized that I was indeed completely safe as I said, he let out a low sigh.

It was a sigh that conveyed deep relief.

Luka took off the long cloak he was wearing and wrapped it around me.

And in that state, he carefully lifted me up as if handling something precious.

“Thank you-“

Of course, I couldn’t walk well with my trembling legs, so being carried like this was welcome.

As we left the tower, the bright sunlight dazzled my eyes.

The door was almost destroyed, its shape distorted.

Luka had broken the lock with aura and entered.

Seeing the lock and chains strewn on the ground reminded me of the damn person who put me in here.

“Luka, didn’t you see Marquis Zeld on the way? He’s the one who put me in here.”

“He’s now in the Duke’s hands.”

“With Dad?”

“As soon as we heard that Ria had disappeared, we searched the Marquisate area like catching mice, and found the Marquis trying to escape on a sailboat at the coast. It was definitely his doing, but when I saw that Ria wasn’t with him… it felt like the world was crumbling.”

“…Did that man confess willingly?”

“We only cut off one finger, but he seemed to be a coward and cried out confessing his crimes.”

“Huh, really.”

It was when Luka and I were exchanging conversation about how the situation had unfolded while leaving the forest.

“Ria!”

“Are you safe!”

Drehan and Miller came running towards us from afar.

Luka must have come faster than them using short-distance magic.

Meeting my brothers made me realize that I had really escaped safely from that place, and I couldn’t help but burst into tears of relief.

“Uu, huuung-“

Perhaps knowing that there was nothing here to harm me now.

For some reason, I didn’t hold back my sobs as I had done at the orphanage.

“Huung, brother Dre-han… brother Miller!”

Drehan stroked my head with a warm touch as I cried freely.

Although his hand was trembling due to the sudden misfortune, he didn’t stop stroking my head.

Miller muttered something beside him.

The first words were gratitude towards God, and the last words were anger towards Marquis Zeld, who had been identified as the culprit.

Then, taking me in his eyes again, he welled up with tears.

Luka headed towards the mansion, passing by Drehan and Miller who were having a miraculous reunion with a commotion.

With each step he took, my two brothers followed, so in the end, he just used short-distance magic to escape from them.

Soon we arrived at the backyard where I had encountered Marquis Zeld and lost consciousness.

Luka sat me down on a nearby bench and knelt on one knee in front of me.

Then he gently wiped away the tears that had flowed from my eyes.

“Hic, sniff.”

I sniffled, gathering the emotions that had exploded.

“Ria, I want to make a vow.”

“Sniff, wh-what?”

“I, Arzenluka Blake De Greffin, solemnly vow here and now to become a sword that protects only Ria.”

“Lu-Luka?”

A knight’s vow can only be made once in a lifetime.

If one makes another vow to someone other than the person they’ve already sworn to, it’s said that at that moment, their hand will break for defiling the sacred ritual, and they’ll never be able to hold a sword again.

Nevertheless, the reason many knights of the Empire make a knight’s vow is none other than ‘romance’.

The person who becomes the knight’s lord gains a knight who can serve no one but them for life, and the knight becomes connected to their lord through a vow that transcends belief, gaining a more mature chivalry.

Usually, one vows to protect only their promised marriage partner, but now…

“My lord, another name for the world. Please allow me to be bound to you by this sacred covenant.”

Luka didn’t make a knight’s vow to Senia in the original story.

Either he had already made one, or he wasn’t interested in romantic chivalry.

It must have been one of the two, but it wasn’t explicitly stated in the original work. It was only inferred that he probably made a knight’s vow as a form of atonement after Her Majesty the Empress passed away.

Luka looked up at me with eyes like the sun in a clear sky, seeming to have not a shred of doubt about his decision.

Is it to comfort me because I cried so much?

Or to alleviate the fear I felt?

I couldn’t understand why Luka was trying to make a knight’s vow to me, but I didn’t particularly want to refuse this.

It’s not like he’s going to offer it to Senia anyway, so.

“I-I allow it.”

I said with a tearful voice, looking at him with puffy eyes.

With my permission, Luka kissed the back of my hand.

His sword was summoned in the air, becoming the evidence of the covenant.

My Crimson Blade also tried to be summoned, but it was blocked by the seal that had put me in danger earlier.

Discovering this, Luka concluded the vow.

“With this, I, Arzenluka Blake De Greffin, covenant to become the knight of Laveria Jenne Rayes, my eternal lord.”

At the same time, the seal that had seeped into my wrist and prevented the summoning of the Crimson Blade broke with a crackling sound.

Then, instead of that shattered seal, a white pattern imbued with sacred energy seeped into its place and then disappeared.

A white pattern also seeped into Luka’s wrist.

“The vow is stronger than the seal, so it broke the seal that was placed.”

Luka said, stroking my wrist.

“Who would dare…”

“I have a suspicion.”

Luka, now my knight and sword, had a murderous glint in his eyes.

“Kablos.”

At the word I uttered, Luka’s eyes sank even darker.

“It seems this seal was engraved when I met Lady Senia at the festival last time. I don’t know if it was intended by the lady or if it was the Duke’s scheme.”