“Thanks to you, Sister, we’ve been able to start a new life. Actually, our mothers were very worried. They wanted us to stop doing illegal things……”

“That’s right, my father was happy too.”

Feeling unnecessarily embarrassed by their gratitude, I scratched my cheek and changed the subject.

“How did you all end up here?”

“We originally had nothing and knew nothing, but because we were from the Aketa region, no one would hire us as workers.”

“From the Aketa region? Why?”

I asked in surprise.

The Aketa region was where the Shunaibel Imperial Family’s villa, which I had often visited in my previous life, was located.

It was an ordinary area with no particular reason for discrimination, so why……

“When the current emperor rose up to defeat the tyrant Jella, only the Aketa region didn’t join the uprising.”

“Ah……”

“With nowhere to hire us, we ended up doing petty thievery to survive until we met Tenes, I mean, that bastard Tenes.”

“Well, even though all we did under Tenes was bad things. At least we didn’t starve.”

“There were also many like Felitz who borrowed money from Tenes and ended up being forced to work for the underworld.”

“So you’re all from the Aketa region?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re discriminated against because you didn’t rise up against the tyrant Jella?”

“That’s right, well.”

“……”

I felt solemn for a moment.

Jella, you committed so many sins in your previous life.

My determination to rehabilitate them deepened with an added sense of responsibility.

“So you really had no choice but to work under Tenes?”

“Who wants to do bad things if they can help it?”

“You, you guys used to only choose to do (beep–) and (beep–) and (beep—) things!”

They looked startled at my outburst.

“No, how could we do such terrible things?”

“Sister, you’re not human……”

“You villain……”

Their gaze towards me was as if they were looking at the most terrible villain in the world.

“Ah, no……! Felitz, you! You even bought poison from me!”

Unable to bear their gaze, I retorted while panting.

Besides what was regularly delivered to Tenes, Felitz had bought poison from me before.

‘I saw it all in Jella Irene’s ledger!’

Felitz tilted his head and then answered.

“Ah, that was to catch rats?”

“Rats?”

“Yes, there were too many rats last winter……”

I was dumbfounded by that answer.

“Wait, so you thought I was going to use that poison to harm people?”

Felitz, with his rough-looking face, made the most wronged expression with the most innocent voice.

I’m sorry, Felitz. I misunderstood you……

“Anyway, thanks to you, Sister, we don’t have to do the bad things Tenes tells us to do anymore. We’re only doing healthy and legal things now.”

“It’s all thanks to you, Sister. Thank you so much, Sister!”

“I’m your person now, Sister!”

“Me too, me too!”

The sight of burly men all calling me ‘Sister’ and rushing towards me wasn’t a particularly pleasant scene.

“Get away! I’m not going to be your sister or anything!”

However, as if they couldn’t hear my vehement rejection, they asked me with sparkling eyes.

“What’s your next goal, Sister?”

“Of course, killing Tenes and taking over as the king of the underworld……”

Wait, didn’t you just say you couldn’t harm people?

Is it okay to kill Tenes so easily?

I looked at them with blurry eyes, feeling absurd, but they just looked at me with admiring eyes.

Avoiding their burdensome gaze, I declared in a solemn voice.

“I don’t have any goals. I’m going to leave after rehabilitating you.”

“……!”

“……!”

“……!”

They gaped with betrayed looks on their faces.

“L-leave?”

“Are you abandoning us?”

“Abandon? Since when did we become close enough for me to abandon you!”

“How cold-hearted.”

“How cruel.”

“You have no blood or tears.”

I turned my head to the opposite side, pretending not to hear.

‘Huh?’

As I turned my head absent-mindedly, I tilted my face.

Over people’s faces, there was a uniformly excited and elated emotion.

It wasn’t just the joy from the festival, but a more thrilling excitement was visible.

‘What’s going on?’

At that moment, someone shouted loudly.

“They say Lord Cail has come to the capital!”

Uh, what……?

“They say he’s just entering this square street!”

Who did they say is coming this way now……?

***

I realized I had been possessed into a book from my previous life right after returning to the empire when I was eight years old.

I tried to escape the fate of a time-limited villain, but realized I couldn’t when I was twelve.

‘I have to create the same flow as the original work.’

The dragon parasitizing my heart prevented me from even killing myself.

There was only one person who could kill me.

Cail Aleret.

In the original work, he was originally the pretty bedroom slave that the tyrant Jella Shunaibel brought from the slave market.

The undisputed favorite lover of the dissolute empress.

There were two reasons why he could kill Jella Shunaibel.

First, because he was the only one who could enter her bedroom even after she went berserk and went mad.

Second, as the successor of the Hersha clan who inherited the blood of the ancient dragon, he could read the dragon’s energy and accurately stab her heart.

Therefore, in the original work, the saint Yuria chose Cail Aleret as the owner of the holy sword to kill the berserk Jella.

Cail, who had been Jella’s bedroom slave for a long time and didn’t dare think of betraying her, finally joined in eliminating Jella after being persuaded by the saint.

‘I need to find Cail and keep him by my side.’

Cail was not only the person who eliminated Jella, but also the one who first discovered Yuria, the female protagonist of the original work, and brought her to the imperial palace.

Therefore, he was one of the most important characters for the progression of the original work.

I set out to find Cail Aleret to follow the flow of the original work.

Unfortunately, the first meeting between the villain and the male protagonist, who wasn’t even the female lead, wasn’t described in detail, so I had to search all the slave markets and black markets in the empire to find places where Cail might be.

And when I finally found him after years had passed.

He was in a terribly miserable state.

If I had read the original work a little more carefully, could I have saved him earlier?

“I’m sorry, I only found you now.”

I was so upset that I couldn’t save him earlier.

However, my apologetic feelings didn’t seem to be properly conveyed.

Despite my apology, he just blinked his eyes and stared at me blankly.

Of course, I had no intention of keeping him as a slave or a lover.

However, as if that was what he was supposed to do, Cail unexpectedly pulled down his clothes in front of me.

“Cail……?”

Then, kneeling down at my feet modestly, he said in a low voice.

“I will serve you.”

It was a low and deep voice that gave me goosebumps.

The n*ked man carefully reached out and grasped my feet.

“……?”

Something warm and soft touched the tips of my toes.

It took a moment to realize what it was.

Chu, chu, chu……

I was frozen in shock at the sight of him reverently kissing my toes.

He parted his red lips and took my big toe into his mouth, rolling it suggestively.

‘Kyaaaaaah!’

For a moment, I almost screamed, forgetting the dignity of an emperor in my surprise.

“Stop, right now.”

I said in a deliberately solemn voice, my face bright red.

At that, he stopped in that position, still holding my ankle.

He looked up at me carefully, but perhaps because he was looking up from below, it felt a bit provocative.

Whether it was because of the atmosphere or that handsome face, just making eye contact made my heart pound.

Cail Aleret’s face was so much to my taste. The n*ked body under that handsome face was also stimulatingly too much to my taste.

‘No. Don’t be fooled. This is all because of the original work’s setting.’

In the original work, even when ‘Jella Shunaibel’ lost her mind due to her magic power going berserk, she still cherished and favored only Cail Aleret, allowing him to enter and exit her bedroom freely.

That was necessary for Cail to be able to stab Jella’s heart.

So, the reason my heart keeps fluttering strangely when I see that face must be all the original work’s device to use Cail to stab Jella’s heart.

‘If it’s not that, there’s no explanation for why my heart is pounding like this, right?’

Yes, this is all because of the original work’s setting.

Thinking that way, my fluttering heart gradually calmed down.

“Move away.”

He flinched and moved away from me.

Then he clasped his hands together and lowered his eyes. As if, waiting for punishment.

The man who had been about to devour me just moments ago suddenly turned into a wet puppy, only watching my reactions.

“……I failed to satisfy you. I’m sorry.”

Satisfy? What satisfaction?

“It’s my first time, so I was inadequate……”

First time? What’s your first time?

No, more than that, you weren’t inadequate at all, you were extremely skilled, you know?

I bit my lip hard to swallow the words that kept trying to burst out of my mouth.

Did he think my expression meant I was angry?

“If you give me another chance……”

In the words he carefully uttered, I could feel a faint trembling anxiety.

The anxiety that if he couldn’t satisfy me, if he was driven out of here, he might have to return to that terrible place.

Suppressing the somehow upsetting feeling, I looked over his body.

The wounds all over his body must be traces of the abuse he received at the slave market.

The Jella in the original work also kept him as a slave and occasionally punished him, but……

“You don’t need to satisfy me.”

I told him in a clear voice.

“I didn’t bring you here to keep you as a slave.”