“I had heard correctly after all…”

I inwardly chuckled and turned to look at Niel.

He was in a very awkward situation, dealing with numerous people alone. He seemed overwhelmed trying to stop the reporters who were taking pictures with magical devices.

‘Those crazy reporters. When I was the Emperor, they couldn’t even utter a word in front of me.’

However, unfortunately, I had no obligation to help Niel. We were in a relationship where I would just collect the ransom and part ways without looking back.

His knights, who must be hiding somewhere, will soon appear and calm the situation.

It might take a while to sort things out since so many people have gathered…

‘Not my problem. Let them handle it themselves and let’s just run.’

I ignored Niel and nodded toward Yupheon.

“Alright.”

“…!”

Yupheon’s face then brightened with a pleased smile as he reached out and firmly grasped my hand.

“You need to hold on tight and follow me, benefactor.”

Then he started running in the opposite direction, leading me through the crowd.

As I ran following his back, memories of the young days I spent with him suddenly flooded back.

Long ago, when we were much smaller than now, we were the troublemakers of the Great Temple, often running away to escape boring study hours.

Just like this, holding hands tightly, just like now.

We would roam around all day and return only at dusk, dirty and grinning.

His Holiness Johannes had to grab the back of his neck several times because of us.

Before I realized that I was the villain of this world with a limited lifespan. I ran through the streets with Yupheon, feeling dizzy from the memories of those young days when I was uniquely carefree and happy.

***

Only after running for quite a while and getting far from the street could we finally catch our breath.

Then, as our eyes met, Yupheon smiled brightly, just like he used to in our younger days.

“I took care of the nuisance. I did well, didn’t I, benefactor?”

As he spoke, narrowing his eyes as if asking for praise, I opened my eyes slightly with indifference.

“No, he’s not a nuisance, he’s my source of money.”

Come to think of it, wasn’t this guy the root cause of that commotion just now?

If Yupheon hadn’t broken Niel’s magic stone bracelet, people wouldn’t have crowded around.

Regardless of not wanting to encounter Niel, I had something I absolutely needed to get from him.

If anything, the one I was more reluctant to face was Yupheon, not Niel.

Regardless of whether he heard my words, Yupheon seemed lost in thought, muttering to himself as if in solitary contemplation.

“Ah, was such a small revenge not enough? I should have just cut off his head after all.”

Then he immediately smiled at me and said,

“This won’t do. Next time, I’ll bring you that nuisance’s head, benefactor.”

“Wh-What?”

I was horrified and immediately refused.

“Why would you bring such a thing? I absolutely don’t need it.”

Yupheon Arne bringing Niel Alpenhayer’s head.

I disliked both Niel’s head and Yupheon bringing it.

“Well, you’re right. That man’s head. It would be hideously ugly.”

Yupheon readily agreed with my disgusted reaction.

Then he smiled even more brightly than before and said,

“Unlike my pretty head.”

“I don’t need that either!”

“…!”

The man who had been smiling all along looked shocked at those words.

“Why? Why don’t you need it? It’s so pretty…”

Yupheon touched his face, wearing an expression of genuine incomprehension.

“It’s not pretty at all, it’s horrible, so don’t ever bring it up again!”

What would I do with Yupheon Arne’s head? It would just be ugly.

As I firmly put my foot down, his expression became a bit gloomy.

“…Then should I bring you Cail Aleret’s head?”

“Wh-What kind of horrible thing are you saying…!”

“I see, that one might be more to your taste, benefactor.”

Yupheon muttered in a bitter voice, curling up the corners of his mouth sardonically.

“Taste?!”

“You like it, don’t you? That kind of face that looks ascetic yet erotic.”

Ah, no! No, actually, yes!

‘How did he know?’

As Yupheon said, Cail Aleret’s face was indeed to my taste.

This was due to the unavoidable setting of the original work. Cail Aleret’s original setting was ‘Jella Shunaibel’s most beloved lover who could freely enter and leave her bedroom’.

Well, unlike in the original work, I had made him my bodyguard.

‘But I like his body more than his face! If you’re going to bring something, bring the whole body!’

Of course, being in a perfectly normal state of mind, instead of uttering such perverted words, I shook my head vigorously in denial.

“Not at all! …Not at all!”

Oops, I had gotten excited and unknowingly started speaking informally.

An ordinary pharmacist would never speak informally to the Pope.

So I quickly corrected myself, but Yupheon didn’t seem to particularly mind my informal speech.

However, he still seemed to be preoccupied with whose head I wanted the most.

“They say a strong denial is a strong affirmation…”

Yupheon looked at me with gloomy eyes.

“Imagining you being happy while looking at Cail Aleret’s head makes me feel very unpleasant. To the point where I want to kill that bastard.”

“No, I wouldn’t be happy seeing such a thing. Absolutely not.”

“But if I’m going to behead him anyway, I’d have to kill him, so this would be a justifiable act…”

“Hey, will you listen to me for a moment…?”

“Yes, if it’s for your happiness, benefactor… Cail Aleret’s head…”

“…..”

Watching him mutter ominously to himself without listening to me at all, I came to one conclusion.

Yupheon Arne is crazy!

He has gone mad due to Yuria’s death!

‘I… I think I know this development.’

The male lead goes insane after the female lead’s death…

‘I’ve seen this a lot before my possession.’

The mad male lead’s mad obsession, mad frenzy…

‘But why am I, who’s not even the female lead, dealing with this madman’s madness?’

It was too cruel that I, the villain, not the protagonist, was paying the price for Yuria’s disappearance.

I was about to leave, leaving Yupheon muttering to himself like a madman.

“Where are you going, benefactor?”

Yupheon grabbed me suddenly.

Damn, I could have escaped…

“Don’t call me benefactor.”

“Then what should I call you?”

“Just don’t call me anything.”

“How can I do that? You’re my benefactor.”

I snorted at his persistent flirting, calling me ‘benefactor’.

“If I’m your benefactor for holding your hand once, I guess you’d offer me a country if I held it twice.”

“…!”

At my sarcastic mutter, his eyes sparkled like a puppy’s.

“Will you hold my hand twice?”

“I won’t. I absolutely won’t.”

“But, benefactor.”

“I told you I’m not your benefactor.”

“Then can I call you whatever I want?”

“Yes, anything but benefactor.”

“Really?”

“Ah, fine!”

As I replied irritably, Yupheon’s eyes curved into crescents.

At that moment when I was dazed by his bewitching eye-smile, forgetting even my annoyance.

“Alright, pretty one.”

“…!”

A chill ran down my spine instantly.

“W-What?”

“You said I could call you whatever I want.”

Goodness, how could that once-docile Yupheon Arne say such a flirtatious line…!

‘Ah… His original keyword was ‘promiscuous man’.’

I suddenly remembered his original setting in the source material.

But surely, in my memory, unlike the original, he was a devout clergyman who had never even met a woman.

It seemed his character had changed completely, beyond just his mental state becoming strange.

‘Did he go mad because Yuria didn’t return even after I died?’

I looked at him with pitying eyes.

***

The cold-hearted Jella left, saying she had nothing to say to him.

Yupheon chuckled, remembering how Jella had recoiled when he called her ‘pretty one’.

Originally, that line was hers.

“Hello, pretty one. Why are you crying? “

The young princess reached out her hand to him when he was sobbing in the underground punishment room during their first meeting.

In truth, he wasn’t pretty at all back then.

At least, that’s what Yupheon thought of himself.

But because he liked hearing her call him pretty, he didn’t know how much effort he’d put in to appear pretty to her.

He tried to be her pretty doll, with a pretty face, pretty words, and pretty actions.

It would have been a perfect relationship if it weren’t for Cail Aleret.

That displeasing slave brat that Jella had picked up from somewhere.

Even when he first saw Niel Alpenhayer, her fiancé, he didn’t think much of it.

No matter how much he was called the empire’s best catch and Shunaibel’s fiancé, he wasn’t Jella’s type.

Having grown up together, Yupheon and Jella knew almost everything about each other.

But that Cail Aleret that Jella had picked up was clearly her type, no matter how you looked at it.

Was Jella keeping him by her side because she liked his face?

Regrettably, ‘face’ was something he couldn’t do anything about.

So Yupheon had tried to kill Cail Aleret several times but failed every time.

Very, very regrettably…

“Yes, it’s truly regrettable. If it weren’t for that bastard, Jella wouldn’t have died.”

Suddenly, Yupheon’s expression hardened as he muttered in an ominous voice.

He had found her again with great difficulty.

This time, he would surely eliminate anyone who could harm her before they could.

Be it Niel Alpenhayer, Cail Aleret, or anyone else. If they posed even the slightest threat to her.

Even Yupheon Arne himself. If he became a threat to her, he would kill even himself.

Yupheon’s thoughts extended without hesitation.

Long ago, in the face of her death, Yupheon Arne had become a man who no longer hesitated.

***

A few days later.

I was sitting at Tenes’s desk, checking the ledgers and businesses that had been conducted in the underworld.

As I was examining the documents, a deep sigh escaped my lips.

For an underworld organization that supposedly dominated Yetrisha’s harem district, it lacked both money and foundation. This was all because of Tenes.

“Wow, you trash.”

My contemptuous gaze involuntarily turned towards Tenes, who was polishing a vase in the corner.