“Jella……”

When will his master return?

The wait was becoming endlessly long.

Her dog was still waiting for her in the same place, but the heartless woman herself wasn’t coming.

This long wait without promise was enough to turn a good dog into a bad one.

When she returns, he should bite her.

Just a little painfully, so that she won’t think of leaving him behind again.

“……No.”

But he quickly changed his mind.

He didn’t want her to be in pain.

Instead of biting, let’s just pretend to bite.

He should show her how angry and upset he is.

She was bad.

She was bad for leaving me like that…… in the most terrible way in the world.

Still, I shouldn’t bite her.

Because he doesn’t want to see her in pain anymore.

Cail slowly got up.

The pink petals that were stuck to his body fluttered and fell to the floor.

He loosely draped over his body the robe that was neatly folded on the tray.

As he came out, his adjutant, who had been waiting in the corridor in a neat posture, approached.

“Lord Cail.”

As he glanced over, the adjutant bowed once in greeting and then spoke.

“It seems Pope Yupheon Arne is still lingering in the imperial capital even after the founding anniversary celebration has ended.”

“……”

“The priests of the Holy Nation are in an uproar as the Pope’s stay is expected to be prolonged. It’s particularly inconvenient as it’s the New Year with many events in the Grand Temple, but it seems the Pope has acted on his own.”

Cail, who had been listening to the report silently, frowned slightly and asked.

“Why is he…?”

Yupheon Arne terribly hated the Alpenhayer Empire that was born after Jella’s death.

Unless it was to tear Niel Alpenhayer to death, burn Niel Alpenhayer to death, or poison Niel Alpenhayer to death, there was no reason for him to come all the way to the empire and stick around.

‘Has he finally come to kill Niel Alpenhayer this time?’

For that impulsive man who doesn’t think things through, it wouldn’t be strange if he suddenly woke up one day and went to assassinate Niel Alpenhayer.

‘But whether that impulsive decision succeeds or fails, he wouldn’t want to stick around in the empire.’

It was suspicious, but he didn’t want to think about it more deeply.

“Any other news?”

“There’s a rumor circulating that Emperor Alpenhayer has a woman.”

“That’s a false rumor.”

Cail couldn’t help but chuckle.

He was the one who knew better than anyone how her fiancé had looked at her from the closest position to Jella in the past.

“It might not be entirely false as there’s even an article in the morning newspaper……”

The adjutant handed over a newspaper.

Cail, who was casually glancing over the article on the front page, paused.

“Wait, this is……”

A blurry photograph caught his attention.

It was just a hazy back view. Of course, it was difficult to identify who the woman was from that alone. But……

“……”

A scandal about Niel Alpenhayer, who had never been close to any woman since her death.

And Yupheon Arne, who hates the empire yet is sticking around there for some reason.

A thought suddenly crossed Cail’s mind, making his blue eyes shine sharply.

“……I think it’s better to check it myself.”

A low, deep voice flowed out from his tightly closed lips.

“Send someone to the capital. Tell them Cail Aleret is coming.”

***

The two-week founding anniversary celebration was nearing its end.

In three days, this festival will be over.

The streets were filled with people who looked happy everywhere.

Members of the underworld, including Felitz, were selling something at street stalls.

“Hehe. Good, good.”

I smiled contentedly as I watched their diligent appearance.

After having an intense discussion with the organization members recently, we decided to discard some of the worst businesses from the existing underworld and expand in a new direction.

What we carefully selected were the information business and the personal protection business.

Today, their mission is to guard a certain Count’s daughter who is planning to visit the city, while pretending to be merchants selling goods on the street.

It was the first request that came to the reformed underworld, entrusted by a doting Count who deeply cherishes and loves his daughter.

‘By the way, we can’t keep being called the underworld without a name in the shadows forever, it would be nice to give it a cool new name.’

But if I give them a name myself, I might unintentionally become attached to them.

‘I’ll let them decide on their own after I leave. After all, I’m someone who will leave eventually.’

I was shaking my head to dismiss these thoughts when,

“But, Sister. Do we really have to sell this medicine too?”

Felitz approached me with a dubious expression and asked.

In his hand was the new medicine I had recently completed.

“Ah, that. I made it.”

“Yes, I know. That’s why I’m asking.”

At Felitz’s words, the other colleagues nearby all nodded in unison.

“You think I might have made poison?”

When I retorted with a pout, they nodded once more.

My eyes narrowed for a moment.

“Next time I make medicine, you’ll have to help me.”

“Gasp!”

“Eek!”

“Hup!”

At those words, everyone made strange noises and hurriedly laid out the medicine bottles on the display stand.

This medicine was an ordinary hangover cure to help people who got drunk during the festival. But now with a touch of my magic power.

Remembering the arduous process of making the medicine, I felt like I might cry.

Most of the Empire’s pharmacology had developed only towards treating diseases.

How many pharmacology books did I have to search through again and again to make a medicine to cure hangovers?

Moreover, Jella Irene’s body seemed to be under some kind of curse, as every medicine I made turned into poison.

The first hangover cure I made was a powerful poison that could even paralyze the hangover.

‘But the recipe wasn’t wrong. I didn’t use any ingredients that could become poison.’

After pondering, I finally chose the method of neutralizing the poison in the completed medicine by dropping my magic power one drop at a time.

I applied the same principle to the skin remedy I gave to Lady Clarence last time.

‘I managed to complete the medicine somehow, but it still feels unsettling. Am I really under a curse?’

But a curse that turns every medicine into poison, I’ve never heard of such a thing anywhere.

It would be more rational to judge that Jella Irene was terribly incompetent and incapable, rather than her body being cursed.

‘But this is the body I’m possessing! How can it be this incompetent?’

I had to swallow my tears because I simply couldn’t accept the fact that I was incompetent.

“Why don’t you find another job, Sister? Like selling flowers, for example……”

Felitz timidly asked if I couldn’t find something else to do instead of insisting on making medicine.

But I liked being Jella Irene, a commoner with the profession of an apothecary.

It’s better than being a tyrannical villain who would be dealt with by the protagonists, right?

‘It’s not that difficult if I just invest a drop of magic power each time.’

Above all, selling flowers didn’t make money.

You need to earn at least enough to live on to be called an ordinary commoner, even if it’s just a pittance.

Anyway, I was selling goods with the underworld guys, waiting for the Count’s daughter to appear in the square.

However, as time passed, the hangover cure I made didn’t sell at all.

To begin with, this was a place where the concept of drinking alcohol and medicine together didn’t exist.

Even the underworld guys asked, “A medicine to sober up? Why drink in the first place then?”

I tried to explain that it wasn’t to sober up but to alleviate hangovers, but they just couldn’t understand.

I tried to explain that it wasn’t to sober up but to alleviate hangovers, but they just couldn’t understand.

“I worked so hard to make this……”

Unlike me who was feeling a bit dejected, Felitz and his colleagues seemed relieved.

“Phew, thank goodness.”

“I was so worried that man just now would buy that medicine.”

After silently listening to their conversation, I asked.

“Why were you worried?”

“We decided to live honestly, didn’t we?”

“Are you saying selling my medicine is a bad thing?”

“Well, it’s a bit……”

“I can’t believe you have so little faith in me.”

I grumbled, pouting my lips.

“But, Sister.”

Felitz carefully spoke while glancing at me.

When I looked at him with a questioning gaze, not only Felitz but everyone else there hesitated, looking at each other.

“What?”

“Uh, well…… Thank you, Sister!”

“Th-Thank you, Sister!”

“Thank you, Sister!”

Then they all shouted in unison with loud voices and bowed to me.

“Uh, okay?”

Suddenly receiving thanks from burly men in the middle of the street, I could only blink my eyes in confusion.