Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

My eyes shook as if an earthquake had struck with each step Luka took towards me.

However, contrary to my worries, Luka knelt in front of me, leaned forward, and reached out his hand.

That careful touch seemed to soothe me, telling me not to worry about anything now.

“Luka.”

“Ria, are you alright where you were hurt earlier?”

My neck still bore the marks of Alex’s hand when he was controlled by the magic sword.

Luka gently touched that area and soon pressed his lips to it.

Like a dog to its injured owner.

“Lu-Luka!”

I grabbed Luka’s shoulders at that ticklish sensation.

“Why did you run away from me?”

Luka asked in a low voice, firmly wrapping his arms around me so I couldn’t escape anymore.

Face to face, close enough to feel each other’s breath, it was hard to open my mouth when looking into those beautiful red eyes.

“I-It wasn’t running away…”

From my perspective, it definitely wasn’t running away.

What kind of fugitive in the world would kindly inform of their destination and return date before taking off?

However, the problem was that the kind letter had disappeared without a trace on its way to Luka and the Rayes ducal family.

From Luka’s perspective, I must have seemed like a heartless lover who ran away after whispering words of love!

“That’s…!”

Luka soon blocked my mouth with his lips as I was about to make an awkward excuse.

“Mmph…”

The rough yet tender kiss lasted for a while.

I patted the arm firmly wrapped around my waist, indicating I was out of breath, as if he would never let me go again.

“Hah, haah…”

Luka noticed this and gave me a moment to catch my breath.

But it was only for a moment.

He kissed me again like a hungry beast.

I fully felt him and accepted the tantrum of the person I had missed.

“Haah, let’s hear your excuse later.”

Luka said, stroking my cheek as I caught my breath after the long kiss.

‘Wa-Wasn’t that punishment just now?’

The dizzying kiss that left me breathless seemed to be just the beginning.

He smiled, his tight lips relaxing at the sight of my eyes widening like a startled rabbit.

At that moment, perhaps noticing that the situation had calmed down, the King of Carven who had fled earlier reappeared.

He soon clicked his tongue and shook his head at the sight of the fallen Alex.

As if displeased with his son who had been controlled by the magic sword.

He must also be disappointed that the show they had prepared to strengthen royal authority had completely failed.

The king seemed to think the situation had been resolved because Alex’s body couldn’t withstand the magic sword and died.

After all, that was usually the fate of those whose bodies were subjugated by magic swords.

The people of Carven who couldn’t escape and were trapped in the arena all voiced their resentment when the king appeared.

“It’s the king who abandoned his people and ran away!”

“To think they would use such a dangerous magic sword!”

“Seeing how the royal family left as soon as Prince Alex went berserk, they must have known about this all along!”

The king, flustered by the sudden outburst of resentment, shouted:

“Sh-Shut your mouths! Where are the royal guards, why aren’t you arresting these rebellious seeds!”

Given how the situation had turned out, it seemed the king planned to capture everyone who witnessed this incident to prevent any word from leaking out.

The king, panting heavily, ordered the royal guards to capture everyone without exception.

“You worm of a king!”

“That one too, and that one over there! Especially that one who insulted me, make an example of him by crippling him!”

The king was screaming at the top of his lungs, pointing his finger here and there, when his gaze stopped at one point.

He soon looked at Luka, who was embracing me, as if doubting his own eyes, as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have seen here.

“The Emperor… of Greffin?”

The Carven king’s face soon turned to shock.

Luka, who had been looking down at my reddened neck, soon spoke in a voice colder than thin ice.

“The friendly relations with Carven are over.”

No one misunderstood what that one sentence meant.

“It seems the King of Carven found the friendly agreement with Greffin very amusing, didn’t you?”

Luka stood up and walked across the arena.

The Carven king, terrified, tried to run away just as he had when the magic sword went berserk.

However, all the passages were already under the control of Greffin Empire’s soldiers.

“What are these soldiers…! A-Are you saying you’ll wage war?!”

“Isn’t that what you wanted? When we traced the group that kept supplying resources to the Selon Kingdom during the war, the Carven royal family came up.”

Even when there wasn’t enough food for the people due to the national treasury crisis, the royal family had been diverting resources to supply the Selon Kingdom.

That was also the reason why the war had been prolonged.

Luka smiled coldly and slowly walked towards the Carven king.

“That alone is enough reason to overthrow this royal family, but for that person to have almost been hurt because of your shallow tricks…”

“Huurk…!”

The Carven king was terrified to the point of fainting at Luka’s sword pointed at his neck.

“You’ll have to pay with that miserable life of yours.”

“Pl-Please have mercy…! I promise this will never happen again!”

In the end, Luka’s sword left a deep wound on the king’s neck.

“Aaaagh!”

Despite the king’s desperate scream, all his knights were subdued by the Greffin army and couldn’t move an inch.

Luka coldly looked down at the king who seemed about to faint, and soon ordered Heild to bind the king.

The king clutched his bleeding neck and kept screaming.

The Carven royal guards who had been trying to capture the people in the arena were also subdued by the Greffin army.

From this moment on, the Carven royal family was as good as fallen.

It was the price for incurring the wrath of the man at the apex of a great Empire that the royal family wouldn’t dare to even attempt war against.

“Oh Emperor of Greffin! Please liberate us from this incompetent royal family!”

“Taxes keep rising every day, and the royal family has squandered the national treasury!”

“Please govern us with Greffin’s laws instead!”

The people of Carven began to shout one by one.

The corrupt royal family had revealed the extent of their ugliness today.

The disappointment and anger towards the royal family soon led to the endorsement of a new ruler.

Luka instructed his subordinate to ensure that injured people could receive treatment, then walked towards me.

He lightly lifted me up and made me lean against his chest.

“We should return to the castle where Ria was staying for treatment first.”

Although there were only light scratches apart from the hand marks on my neck, Luka moved with five water mages in tow.

“You even know about the castle I was staying in?”

“Yes, it’s the castle on the outskirts of the capital, isn’t it? Moreover, I know that you’re Jen, the wealthy person who bought the most expensive castle in the Carven Kingdom with cash.”

I felt a pang when Luka said this with a low laugh.

“Jen, red hair suits you incredibly well too, but…”

He kissed my hair.

At the same time, my hair that had been dyed red by Sister Serine’s magic returned to its original silver color.

“I missed this radiant silver hair to the point where it lingered before my eyes.”

My breath caught when he said that with his face that had become even more handsome.

I impulsively gave him a short kiss on the corner of his mouth.

“I, I missed you too.”

It might seem ridiculous to say this after running away, but it was sincere.

Luka stopped walking.

“Hm…?”

I looked at Luka, filled with some kind of unease.

D-Did I ignite something…?

My prediction was spot on.

Luka, taking me in with eyes full of heat, gave me a kiss far more intense than my short one.

I wonder if we’re doing all the kisses we’ll ever do in our lifetime today.

“Mmph…”

I happily accepted that kiss, glad that Luka was close enough to touch, close enough to feel his breath.

I could see Luka’s close aides turning their gazes in all directions with reddened faces and fake coughs, but I didn’t care.

It was a passionate reunion, as if only he and I existed here.