I was about to unconsciously make an excuse but closed my mouth.

When I returned from the Holy Kingdom and got engaged to Niel, he was ten years old, and I was eight.

And when Niel requested to break off our engagement, he was twenty years old, which meant he had to remain in the position of my fiancé for a whole 10 years without being able to marry me.

As Emily said, it was very rare not to get married until that age when engaged from childhood.

It was because I unilaterally postponed our marriage, making various excuses.

When I was about sixteen, my uncle, who was the Emperor at the time, had set a fixed date for Niel and my wedding.

However, before the wedding could take place, I killed my uncle and purged the imperial family, which ultimately led to the wedding being postponed indefinitely.

‘In the original story, Niel and Jella got married much earlier.’

In fact, Niel Alpenhayer’s role in the original story was not Jella’s ex-fiancé but her ex-husband.

But I didn’t want to marry him.

‘As a reader of the original story, Niel’s biggest flaw was that he was a married man. And to make matters worse, he was the husband of the villainess Jella who tormented Yuria.’

Watching the narrative of Yupheon and Yuria that I had accidentally twisted, I realized that even if I intervened slightly in the original story, the main flow wouldn’t be distorted.

So, I slightly twisted Jella’s relationship with them for the sake of the protagonists’ happy ending.

I planned to keep postponing the marriage with Niel and eventually break off the engagement to hand him over nicely to Yuria.

‘Fortunately, as soon as Yuria appeared, Niel was the first to demand breaking off the engagement. Even risking his life.’

It was impossible to unilaterally break the imperial engagement. Moreover, the other party was the terrifying tyrant Jella Shunaibel!

The notorious tyrant who would chop off heads at the slightest displeasure!

Yet Niel begged for the engagement to be broken off, risking Jella’s displeasure, to protect his love for Yuria!

“Anyway!”

At this moment, Emily’s voice broke through my thoughts.

“They say Yuria comforted our Emperor who was hurt by the tyrant Jella.”

“Well, we don’t know for sure. It was the current Emperor who first requested to break off the engagement. So maybe the tyrant Jella also had her wounds from them…”

Of course, I had welcomed Niel’s request to break off the engagement with open arms, but I tried to make an ambiguous excuse for my past self.

“How sad he must have been after losing Yuria like that.”

But my excuse didn’t seem to convince Emily at all.

“Perhaps our Emperor still hasn’t forgotten Yuria. He probably never will for the rest of his life.”

Emily, who had been muttering in a somewhat sorrowful voice, suddenly raised her voice and declared:

“That’s why I’ve decided to give up on my feelings for the Emperor!”

‘Huh? But Niel likes Emily?’

Surprised by Emily’s sudden declaration, I opened my eyes wide.

“Wait a moment. Think about it again. You said you loved the Emperor deeply. Is your heart changing so easily?”

No, Niel really loves you!

To the extent of secretly commissioning the underworld while pretending to be the Emperor’s errand boy!

“Actually, Jella. I fell in love with someone new yesterday.”

“What?”

“Yesterday, when the Emperor suddenly disappeared and I thought my anticipated debut was ruined, Count Amets’s son reached out his hand to me.”

“Amets… who?”

“And at that moment, I felt it! The destiny between Count Amets’s son and me!”

Emily clasped her hands in a prayer-like gesture and launched into an impassioned speech about her fateful encounter with Count Amets’s son.

‘Emily, you fall in love so quickly…’

Although I had been supporting Niel’s new love, what could I do now that Emily, who was receiving his love, said she liked another man?

‘Tsk tsk, I told you to treat her well while you had the chance, Niel Alpenhayer. You left the lady at the ballroom, and now look what happened.’

I conveniently ignored the fact that I was the reason he left the ballroom, along with my conscience.

“It’s a secret from my father, but on the last day of the Founding Festival, I’m going to the square with Count Amets’s son. Ah, I’m already feeling nervous. It’s our first date, you know.”

It was while Emily was talking about Count Amets’s son.

Suddenly, something caught my eye through the glass window.

‘Huh…?’

I narrowed my eyes and stared out the window.

I caught a glimpse of faces I knew.

“Wait.”

I interrupted Emily and stood up from my seat.

“I suddenly have something to attend to, so I need to leave first.”

“Huh…?”

“If you need more medicine, I’ve left my contact information with the butler, so please reach out through that. I’ll be cheering for your date with Count Amets’s son. Well then, goodbye.”

I finished my tiny promotion for the new medicine to Emily, who was looking up at me blankly, and quickly left the place.

***

Behind the capital’s downtown area. In a quiet alley where few people pass by.

“Repeat after me. We will never do bad things again.”

“We will never… do bad things… ugh…”

Led by a frail yet firm female voice, the burly men’s cries echoed together.

“Tsk, your voices are too weak.”

“We will never! Do bad things! Again!”

“Again!”

“Again!”

Felitz and the members of the underworld organization, who had been sobbing, shouted with booming voices.

They had been caught red-handed by me while extorting money from merchants under the pretext of collecting space rent.

“You little punks.”

I glared at them with fierce eyes and muttered menacingly.

Felitz and his men flinched in surprise and raised their arms even higher.

“Um, but sis, can we lower our arms now?”

Felitz asked in an extremely polite voice.

“Didn’t I tell you to stop doing such villainous things and live honestly?”

I looked down at them with contempt as I asked.

“B-but we had no choice. It was all to make a living…”

“You torment and exploit other people who are living honestly just so you can make a living?”

“But if we don’t do that, we’ll starve to death…”

As Felitz muttered in a small voice, his colleagues who were being punished alongside him nodded in agreement.

“That’s right, we’re all just trying to survive…”

“I have a cunning wife and innocent children who depend on me…”

I snorted at their increasingly lengthy excuses.

These guys, who are now looking at me with pitiful eyes, were the same ones who were ruthlessly extorting space rent from honest merchants just an hour ago.

“Where do you get off acting pitiful? You villains.”

“In, in this world, what villain doesn’t have a story! We all have circumstances that can’t be heard without tears.”

“That’s right! Who knows, even that vicious tyrant Jella Shunaibel might have had her own circumstances!”

I paused. I was taken aback by the sudden mention of my old name.

“For all we know, Jella Shunaibel, whom everyone curses, might have been a hero who saved the world!”

“Yeah, yeah! Oh, you know, like in those plays often performed in theaters…”

“A true hero who pretended to be a villain and died to save the world!”

“So we should abandon the prejudice that all villains are bad people.”

“Of course, of course. Who wants to become a villain? Everyone becomes a villain because they have no choice…”

Felitz and his men chattered among themselves, agreeing with each other.

I stared at them with a blank expression. I know. All these words they’re saying now are just random chatter to avoid the situation of being caught doing bad things.

But, even if it’s just words they carelessly uttered to escape the situation…

‘It’s a first. People who considered Jella Shunaibel’s circumstances…’

I felt a bit strange. Even those who were once closest to me had so easily given me looks of contempt.

“…So, you’re saying that you do bad things because you have no choice?”

At my slightly softened voice, they nodded their heads vigorously.

“Yes, yes, that’s right!”

“Master Tenes made us do it.”

I looked at them quietly and thought.

‘This won’t do. Before I completely cut ties with these guys…’

Originally, I had planned to just collect the remaining ransom for the Emperor’s life this morning when I signed the real estate contract and then cut ties with these guys right away.

‘I need to rehabilitate these guys before I leave.’

Well, there’s no particularly grand reason.

It’s just that, even villains whom the whole world points fingers at have their circumstances. Not all villains wanted to become villains from the start. I know better than anyone that even villains need a chance not to become villains.

It was the moment when a very small change occurred in my plan to stay quietly and then cut ties with these guys and leave.

Let’s start the underworld rehabilitation project.

***

And a little distance away, there were two men secretly observing Jella.

“Jella. So cool. I think I’m falling for her again.”

The man muttering in a dreamy voice with a red flush on his languid face was Yupheon Arne.

“Indeed, she’s amazing. My fiancée, as always.”

The man murmuring with a gentle smile and a calm expression was Niel Alpenhayer.

The two men, who had been secretly observing Jella and muttering to themselves, suddenly became aware of each other’s presence and widened their eyes.