---

🖤 The Villainess Just Wants to Sleep

Chapter 17: The Bruise She Didn't Flinch From

> “She didn’t cry. That was the worst part.”

— Lysa Verain

---

The healer’s garden smelled of fresh rosemary and soft rain. Birds chirped quietly overhead.

Kaelaira sat on a stone bench, her hands folded neatly, posture as perfect as always. But something in her expression was… distant.

Lysa walked toward her, carrying a stack of magical tinctures — but stopped mid-step.

She dropped them.

> “Kaelaira…”

The right side of Kaelaira’s face was slightly swollen. A faded bruise bloomed like a violet shadow across her pale skin.

Lysa rushed over, panic in her voice.

> “Who did this to you?! What happened?!”

Kaelaira blinked, calm as ever.

> “It was nothing.”

“That is not nothing!” Lysa cried, reaching for her cheek with glowing fingers. Kaelaira flinched — not from pain, but habit.

Lysa froze.

> “Did… did someone hit you?”

Kaelaira didn’t answer right away. Instead, she looked at the ivy climbing the wall.

> “When I was five, I broke posture during a guest visit. My mother made me kneel on salted marble for six hours.”

> “When I was seven, I asked if I could have a second bowl of soup. I was told noble girls never beg.”

Lysa’s hands trembled.

Kaelaira turned to her and smiled — the practiced one.

> “So this?” she gestured gently to the bruise. “This is just… Tuesday.”

---

Lysa’s voice shook with fury.

> “You’re not furniture, Kaelaira. You’re not a thing to polish and pose.”

Kaelaira tilted her head. “But that’s all they see. And it’s safer to be a statue than a girl. Statues don’t bleed.”

---

Lysa touched her face softly, magic glowing golden and warm.

> “Then let me remind you how to be a girl again. Just for a moment. Just for today.”

Kaelaira closed her eyes.

The magic healed the bruise. But not the pain.

Still, something in her chest shifted.

Not fixed.

Not broken.

But… touched.

---

Later, when Lysa left to fetch herbs, Kaelaira remained sitting, silent.

She touched her cheek — now smooth again.

And whispered:

> “I’m not used to kindness.

But maybe…

I could learn.”

---

End of Chapter 17

---