“How much did you embezzle to leave only this much?”

“I-I’m sorry, sis.”

Tenes, who had been severely beaten by me recently, timidly answered while avoiding my gaze.

As it turned out, Tenes had been monopolizing the money earned by the organization members.

‘I should have noticed when he was living alone in a three-story building while everyone else was living in those shabby, old houses.’

That’s not all. Some organization members, like Jella Irene, had taken out illegal loans from Tenes and were unable to repay them, working like slaves on low wages while their debts kept increasing.

Upon learning this, I seized the secret funds Tenes had been hoarding, paid the overdue wages to the organization members, and gave proper severance pay and compensation to those who had been forcibly kept in the underworld before letting them go.

After settling his main source of income, the illegal loans, by only reclaiming the principal, there wasn’t much money or personnel left.

Unintentionally, the underworld management game I had started was facing difficulties from the beginning.

I immediately vacated the hotel room and moved to Tenes’s three-story building.

I had beaten the detestable Tenes thoroughly and chased him away, but the next day he came back begging me to rehabilitate him too, so I specially accepted him as the underworld’s janitor and errand boy.

“This one, this one, and this one too.”

I said, pointing at several of the scattered documents on the desk.

“From now on, exclude the ones I’ve just pointed out.”

“Yes, sis!”

While the organization members responded in loud voices, only Tenes muttered in a gloomy voice.

“But those are the ones that bring in the most money…”

“Do you need another beating?”

“H-Heek. No, I don’t.”

After discarding all the villainous businesses, there was only one source of income left.

It was the business of buying and selling information.

‘Sneaking in to obtain information feels a bit illegal, but it’s still more wholesome than assassination, kidnapping, blackmail, or illegal loans…’

Since there weren’t many things these people could do, it seemed good to gradually grow based on the existing business of buying and selling information and expand into other areas.

“We’ll keep only the information business from the existing operations and discard everything else. But when gathering information, it’s forbidden to kill or harm innocent people.”

“Yes!”

“Then we’ll dismiss for today. Everyone go out and move your belongings.”

“Yes, sis!”

The organization members responded loudly and went outside.

Tenes’s three-story building was to be used as lodging and office space for the newly rehabilitated underworld organization members.

“Um, sis.”

At this moment, Tenes, who hadn’t left and was lingering around me, cautiously spoke up.

“So how are we going to make money now? It’ll be hard to feed the existing members with just the information business.”

“We’ll do something else that makes money.”

“If there was such a thing, I would have done it already.”

“Why do you care about that? Just clean well and run errands promptly.”

“I’m worried. This underworld that I’ve worked so hard to build is crumbling overnight… I mean, I need to eat too, so I hope what you’re doing succeeds.”

Seeing Tenes subtly changing his words while checking my reaction, I snorted and retorted.

“Then why don’t you go sell flowers in the square?”

“That’s barely enough to put food on the table.”

As Tenes timidly objected, one of my eyebrows rose menacingly.

“You knew that and still suggested I sell flowers?”

“No… that was because you said you didn’t want to make poison…”

Tenes rolled his eyes around, then lowered his voice and whispered slyly.

“Actually, I have a very good idea.”

“What is it?”

“We can become rich using your poison.”

“My poison?”

“We spray your poison on people to make them all addicted, then sell them the antidote!”

“You madman, that’s being a villain!”

In the end, Tenes got hit by me once more and crumpled into a corner.

Ignoring Tenes’s sniffling cries, I was deeply contemplating various directions for the underworld to take when…

Knock knock.

At the sound of knocking on the door, I raised my head to see one of the underworld organization members peeking in.

“Sister Jella, a guest has come to see you.”

Before those words were finished, a man I knew well entered.

“Hello, Miss Jella.”

It was Niel, looking a bit gaunt.

‘Come to think of it, he must have had a hard time cleaning up after what Yupheon did.’

Although the imperial knights eventually stepped in to handle the situation that day, an article about it appeared in the morning newspaper the next day.

It was a sensational article about the emperor enjoying a daytime date with a mysterious woman in the street, with Yupheon, who was also present, conspicuously absent from the story, as if he were invisible.

Even my back view, probably captured while fleeing with Yupheon, was included in the article.

It was chilling to think that if Yupheon hadn’t helped appropriately, my face might have been printed in the newspaper, entangling me in baseless rumors about being the emperor’s woman.

‘That absolutely cannot happen. I must protect my ordinary and modest life as an apothecary.’

When I asked Felitz, he said that since the new emperor’s ascension, guaranteeing freedom of the press, such incidents had become commonplace.

‘Freedom of the press? What is this, 21st century South Korea?’

Anyway, this unexpected incident must have been quite embarrassing for Niel.

“S-Since a guest has arrived, I’ll excuse myself!”

At this moment, Tenes, who had suddenly stood up from the corner, awkwardly shouted without even looking at my face.

‘What? Why isn’t he looking at my face? What’s with that awkward gaze?’

And before I could express my confusion, he quickly ran outside.

Thanks to that, I was left alone with Niel.

“Um, hello, Your Majesty?”

Although I had known his identity from the first time I saw him, he had been hiding his status from me until now, and it was revealed by that commotion…

‘This is the right way to address him, right?’

I could feel him flinch at my greeting.

Lost in thought, Niel frowned for a moment while stroking his chin, then promptly corrected the form of address.

“Please just call me El.”

“No, I can’t do that. We should use proper titles. You’re His Majesty the Emperor.”

Titles should be accurate.

The man before me shouldn’t be the emperor’s errand boy, but Niel Alpenhayer, Emperor of Alpenhayer.

‘That way I can get more for saving his life.’

Of course, one can’t put a price on human life based on status, but this is a monarchical country after all.

“Your Majesty.”

So I emphasized once again that he was the emperor by calling him “Your Majesty.”

It felt a bit strange.

Originally, in our relationship, the one called “Your Majesty” was me, not him…

“Why did Your Majesty… “

Suddenly, I remembered his resentful voice from long ago. After that day, he never called me “Your Majesty” again.

“You’re not trying to get more for saving my life, are you?”

At this moment, Niel hit the nail on the head with his question.

“Of course not.”

As I denied it while hiding my discomfort, he sighed and walked over to sit across from me.

“I’ve come to pay the price for my life that you mentioned before.”

“Oh, finally!”

In my excitement, an exclamation escaped my lips before I knew it.

I wanted to restrain myself, but the upturned corners of my mouth wouldn’t move as I wished.

Seeing me like this, Niel chuckled and took something out from his br*ast pocket.

“Huh…?”

What he handed me was a small jewelry box.

‘Not money, but jewels?’

Click.

As I opened the lid, a necklace with a red gem revealed itself.

“It’s a treasure of the Alpenhayer family.”

“This is…”

I knew this necklace.

It was the item that Niel gave to Yuria when proposing to her in the original story.

This was what his grandmother had given him to present to the woman he would fall in love with.

“W-Why are you giving this to me?”

“It’s more valuable than any amount of gold coins.”

Niel answered with a neat smile.

“As you’ve come to know, I am the Emperor of this empire, and this is a treasure bestowed by the Emperor.”

“Such a treasure is too much. Can’t you just give me money instead?”

“Well, actually, this was given to me by my late grandmother. She told me to give it to a benefactor I might meet someday. It’s only right that I give it to you, Miss Jella, who saved my life.”

A hollow laugh escaped me.

‘Wow, now he’s lying every time he opens his mouth?’

My definition of Niel Alpenhayer was gradually changing.

To think that this man, who always seemed to be the epitome of a proper, righteous, and noble male protagonist, would lie so easily.

‘It’s not like he’d gain anything by saying such things?’

His intentions were very suspicious, and anyway, this necklace was burdensome.

‘I’ll have to sell it.’

As I was thinking that while staring intently at the red gem attached to the necklace…

“By the way, this is a treasure that cannot be sold.”

“What? Why not?”

As I protested in an aggrieved voice, he explained with an elegant smile.

“All treasures of the Alpenhayer family are magically imprinted with their owner.”

“Magically imprinted with the owner?”

“Yes, if the item falls into the hands of someone who isn’t the owner, it loses its value.”

“What do you mean it loses its value?”

“It fades and eventually crumbles away.”

“Is there a way to change the owner?”

“Originally, it required the permission of the head of the Alpenhayer family. Now, I suppose it would require my permission as the head of the Imperial family.”

After finishing his explanation, Niel added annoyingly.

“Of course, I won’t give permission. This necklace is the price for my life that I’m giving to you, Miss Jella.”

“What? It’s an item that can’t even be turned into money!”

“It’s more valuable than money.”

I fumed in anger.

‘To hell with its value!’

I asked for the price of his life, and he gave me a piece of trash that I can’t even sell!

‘I should never have gotten involved with this guy in the first place! What a con artist! Worse than a villain!’