Please Leave The Sickly Villainess Alone

That’s right! The laundry room had a structure that didn’t allow ventilation, so moisture constantly built up, requiring the walls to be repaired every year.

Even if the children plastered over it again and again for over 30 years, attempting repairs was futile.

If we peeled away just a bit more of the thickly coated wall plaster, surely there would be rotting wood underneath, succumbing to the damp environment.

Having reached that conclusion, I carefully released Luka’s hand I had been holding and immediately exited the small room.

“Sister Ria, is brother Luka okay?”

To the children crowding around me, I gently reassured them, ‘Fortunately, he seems alright,’ while pretending to supervise today’s chore leaders.

Yet my steps deliberately headed toward the laundry room.

Luckily, today was laundry day. Washing was scheduled only once weekly, and the laundry room was off-limits on non-designated days.

The laundry room door was…

Clack-

Locked for now.

Layola would lend the key to whichever child was on laundry duty that day, summoning them at any time.

Fifteen years ago, when Alex enjoyed playing hide-and-seek, this door surely hadn’t been locked.

It was likely after the escape incident that Layola, suspicious yet unconvinced, started locking the laundry room door.

Let’s see, today’s laundry duty was assigned to…

“Felix, Miss Layola hasn’t given you the laundry room key yet?”

I called out to Felix, who was playing stack the blocks with some friends.

He was on duty for today’s laundry.

“No, not yet sister Ria!”

Then I would have to wait a bit longer.

No, even if I waited, Felix would unlock the door in Layola’s presence, load the laundry, exit, and then re-lock it before her very eyes. What to do?

I racked my brain as I glanced at Terry, who was trailing me obediently as usual.

“Terry, what’s that thing you’re holding?”

I asked about the vaguely butterfly-shaped object she was clutching tightly.

“I found it in the trash room a while ago! It’s a bit old but still works, and makes noise too!”

“Noise?”

Terry pressed the protruding part of the battered plastic toy.

Surprisingly, the item that looked ready to break emitted a beeping sound amid crackling static.

It seemed to be some kind of child’s safety noise-making toy, likely a gift from parents.

“Terry, by any chance…”

I crouched down and whispered in her ear.

* * *

Miss Layola finally burst out of her room.

The children all quietly played as far from her as possible.

Only Felix waited by the laundry room door.

I hid behind the massive laundry bag placed in front of the laundry room entrance.

With a wall to my side, the other children couldn’t see me either.

Layola tossed Felix the key, and he deftly inserted it into the lock as if familiar with the routine.

As the door creaked open, the scent of laundry detergent began wafting out.

Beep-beep-beep

The intermittent beeping noise drew Layola’s gaze sharply toward the trash room.

‘Now!’

In that fleeting moment when even Felix glanced away, I flung myself into the open laundry room entrance.

“What was that?!”

I flinched at Layola’s furious voice.

Had she spotted me? Was I caught?

“Where is that garbage-like noise coming from?! I’ll catch whoever’s disturbing me!”

Clutching my pounding heart, I quietly hid under a pile of old blankets nearby.

“Felix, hurry and load the laundry, then come out!”

“Y-Yes, Miss Layola…”

Poor Felix lugged in the excessively heavy laundry bag, quickly stuffed the washing machine that magically operated on its own, and scurried back out.

Just as the door slammed shut again with a thud and the lock began to rattle, I jammed the wire I had brought into the keyhole.

Outside, Felix seemed perplexed that the key wouldn’t turn properly with the rattling noises, but at Layola’s barked order to go search for the culprit, he abandoned the unlocked door and handed her back the key.

No matter how thoroughly she searched the trash room, the only thing making noise on its own would be that safety beeper toy, likely inadvertently activated under piles of garbage.

Felix, press the button to turn it on the moment you unlock the door, and throw it into the trash heap. Then you go hide in the bathroom next to the room.

Terry would definitely be safe.

Left alone in the laundry room amid Layola’s hysteric shouts and the chugging of the magical washing machine, the time afforded me was at most an hour – until Felix returned to collect the laundry.

‘Alright, where should I start looking?’

Typically only the physically larger boys were assigned laundry duty, so apart from repairs, I never had a reason to enter the laundry room myself.

The spacious area was piled high with accumulated mounds of clothing, some quite dated.

Layola did occasionally retrieve and toss us any outfits that happened to fit our growing sizes from the heaps.

Peeking through the gaps, I spotted a few pieces I had worn as a young child.

The walls were entirely coated with layer upon layer of plaster, making it impossible to discern the original shape underneath.

‘Alex surely didn’t think an escape route would be in a place like this from the very start.’

In other words, it was likely by chance.

A hiding spot suitable for a seven-year-old boy playing hide-and-seek.

I went to the pillar next to the chugging magical washing machine and dug into the clothing pile there.

Sure enough, as I cleared it away, plaster-covered walls began emerging into view.

I started peeling off the layers of plaster one by one. Years of accumulated repairs made it a seemingly endless task.

“Ow, ouch!”

I deeply cut my finger on the seventh layer of plaster I had just ripped off.

Ah, it really stung. Ouch, but more importantly…

‘Luka will scold me again.’

Reflecting on my pitiful existence, chided by my younger brother figure, I resumed my efforts.

Unable to tear down this entire expansive wall, I had no choice but to keep digging intently wherever my instincts led.

If not here, I would have to wait until next week to peel away another area, but…

‘Hm?’

After removing a couple more layers, I faintly heard the sound of ‘wind’ whistling.

An entirely new sensation for me in this life apart from my earliest infancy, my quickening heartbeat drove my hands to move faster in response.

One, two, three, four, five layers… Haphazardly applied, each layer I tore off left scratches on my hands, but I couldn’t care less.

“I’m really going to get an earful for this… Huh? Wait a minute…”

I had finally found it – the passage Alex had escaped through!

A small hole emerged, just large enough for a child to crawl through.

The draft was blowing in from beyond that opening.

In that moment, the faintest whisper of a spring breeze seemed to stir within my heart. A longing for freedom I had forgotten flickered back to life.

More than anything, I wanted the other children who had become like family trapped in this orphanage to feel that same yearning.

These pure, innocent children who had committed no crime.

I couldn’t allow them to be raised into the villains of the future, imprisoned here by the greed of adults – even if it went against the flow of this novel’s world.

The laughter of children, that occasional wistful hint of desire for freedom mixed in. Their dreams of what they wished to do once outside, constantly questioning if they could truly live freely after turning fifteen.

‘No, when you turn fifteen, you’ll become underlings for the Duke Kablos’s crime syndicate.’ I could never bring myself to say those words in the past.

For a fleeting moment, my eyes grew misty. But I quickly refocused on the escape route before me.

I crawled into the passageway that could easily accommodate my small frame.

Not too far ahead, sunlight was streaming in, and glimpses of greenery began to appear.

‘The outside world, I actually found an exit…’

Cick-

‘Huh?’

That was the sound of a key being inserted into the lock.

Now that I thought about it, the washing machine’s noise had stopped too… I had become so engrossed in searching for the passage that I lost track of time.

‘Damn it!’

I hastily retreated and, before the door could open, collapsed the mountain of clothes piled beside me onto myself, burying my excavation site and myself under the clothing heap.

Creak-

The door swung open and Felix’s footsteps neared.

Dutifully performing his task, the child gathered the laundry into his bag and exited.

Then, as he moved to close the door again:

“Hold on!”

‘Miss Layola?’

Why had she stopped Felix from shutting the door?

“The clothes are in such disarray!”

When were they not-!

I wanted to yell back, but did she actually have standards? She kept harping about the excessive mess.

“Should I just get rid of all this junk today?”

At Layola’s words, the children let out dismayed groans.

Naturally, any cleaning duties fell entirely on them.

‘No, I can’t lose the only exit passage I’ve found by getting caught. Layola’s surveillance will only intensify further. And…’

The original story’s events flashed through my mind.

‘She might even break my legs. No, she definitely will!’

Buried under the clothes, my mind raced with all sorts of thoughts.

Even if the children kept my discovery a secret, I wouldn’t be safe under Layola’s watchful eye.

As I bit my lip and trembled, a voice rang out.

“I’ll do it next week.”

It was Luka!

“The kids are cleaning the trash room right now.”

So Layola’s earlier hysterics had extended to ordering a trash room cleaning.

“Hmm… I suppose that takes priority. Ugh! Can’t you brats move any faster?”

With those words, the door that had been left open slammed shut as if it were a lie.

And then:

Clank-

It was locked again.

‘Ah, she locked it?!’

I scrambled out from under the clothes and crept up to the door, gingerly trying the handle.

But the wire I had jammed in was now on the floor, and the door was firmly sealed shut.

Are you kidding me, I’m trapped in here for a whole week…?