‘To meet that guy right after possessing this body.’

Niel Alpenhayer was the man who wanted to kill me more than anyone else.

I know well how terribly he thought of me.

Suddenly, I remembered the first time we met.

The handsome young duke, holding out a bouquet he had prepared as my fiancé.

I couldn’t help but sneer at the purple roses in his hand.

‘He likes eternal love, huh.’

Although the flower language of purple roses is eternal love, as someone who knew the original story, I could only scoff.

And sure enough.

As soon as Saint Yuria appeared, he requested to break off our engagement and openly continued his relationship with that woman.

I remember that cold, chilling gaze as he stood protectively in front of Yuria, shielding her from me.

‘I didn’t even do anything to harm Yuria, why did he hate me so much?’

Despite knowing the original story, despite trying not to give him even a speck of my heart, at that moment my chest felt strangely empty and sore.

Although he was only my fiancé in name, he had been escorting me for nearly 10 years.

‘Above all, he’s the man who contributed to my death.’

He was a man I never wanted to be involved with again.

No one would want to be involved again with someone who killed them. Even if that death was planned by their own hands.

But to run into him in a place like this of all places.

“Sister! Sister!”

Felitz shouted urgently as he chased after me.

“You just sent Tenes flying earlier, right? Does that mean you’re now the master of the underworld?”

“Don’t talk nonsense! I’m leaving this place!”

I moved quickly, leaving him behind.

The place I hurriedly arrived at was none other than that old house where I first opened my eyes.

This was no time for idle chatter.

Remembering Niel’s face as he smiled languidly at me and spoke politely, I felt a chill run down my spine.

Wasn’t he the man who spoke politely to everyone else, but only addressed me with cold contempt?

‘He probably didn’t recognize me anyway. I already died five years ago, and now my appearance has changed too…’

If he had recognized me, he wouldn’t have been able to fake such a kind tone and expression.

But still, the feeling of running into him was not pleasant at all, and I didn’t want to stay here a moment longer.

Originally, I had planned to squeeze a hefty settlement from Tenes before leaving this place, but…

‘Change of plans. Forget about severance pay or whatever, just get out of here quickly.’

I was quickly packing my things when I caught a glimpse of myself in the wall mirror.

Hair as black as ebony and red eyes. Languid, puppy-like eyes slightly drooping downwards. A delicate beauty with a small tear mole under the left eye came into view.

It was the first time I had seen my face since possessing this new body.

‘It looks familiar somehow… Huh…?’

At that moment, I froze and dropped the bag I was holding.

“This face…”

I touched the mirror in disbelief, but the face reflected in it remained unchanged.

It was a face I had long forgotten.

At the same time, it was a face I knew so well that I wondered how I could have forgotten it.

“This is me…?”

If the life of ‘Jella Shunaibel’, reborn as the villain in the novel, was my second life, then this was from even before that.

It was the face of Kim Ga-eul, my first life, who enjoyed reading web novels in South Korea.

Although the ruby-red eyes weren’t ‘Kim Ga-eul’s’, the overall impression and atmosphere of the features were undoubtedly mine.

“This can’t be. How…”

As I mumbled in a daze, I suddenly had a realization.

“No, wait. If you think about it, possessing someone doesn’t make sense either, right?”

Come to think of it, nothing had made sense from the moment I possessed someone.

I clapped my hands with a bright smile.

“Right, that could be possible too!”

Somehow feeling relieved, my hands became a bit lighter as I resumed packing.

***

After Niel left.

“Ow, ow…”

Groans of pain echoed in Tenes’s office.

Tenes was thinking about Jella Irene while applying an ice pack to the part of his face where Jella had hit him.

‘Damn it! Why was she hiding a face like that all this time?’

Jella Irene was a gloomy apothecary who had no close acquaintances.

The only person she interacted with was Felitz, who occasionally brought her jobs from the underworld.

Because no one had paid attention to the face of the gloomy apothecary who always wrapped her entire body tightly in a robe, none of her colleagues in the underworld knew Jella’s face.

Not even Tenes, the leader.

‘With a face like that, she could have made a fortune selling her looks instead of making weird poisons!’

But what impressed him wasn’t just Jella’s outstanding beauty.

One hit.

He was struck with one kick, and with that one hit, he was knocked down.

And not just anyone, but him, the great founder and leader of this underworld!

“Why on earth didn’t you stop that woman?”

“We didn’t expect her to suddenly do something like that…”

When he asked his subordinates, they answered nervously, glancing around.

“Tsk, tsk, you useless lot.”

Tenes clicked his tongue.

“So, what is Jella Irene doing now?”

“She’s packing her things. Says she’s leaving this place…”

“What? Already?”

Tenes, who had been groaning on the sofa, suddenly sat up.

“No, no, no, no, no!”

He ran towards Jella’s house at an astonishing speed.

Fortunately, his office wasn’t too far from Jella’s house, and he managed to find Jella just as she was leaving with her bags packed.

“Jella Irene!”

Jella, who was about to leave the house, turned to look at him.

“What?”

Tenes swallowed hard at her indifferent yet piercing gaze.

“Ah, no…! Uh, where are you going in such a hurry with your bags packed? Hahaha…”

Jella looked at Tenes with an annoyed expression and bluntly said one word.

“Move.”

“……”

Though she was shorter than him, her gaze seemed to look down on him, making Tenes’s body tremble slightly.

But he couldn’t back down.

“You must find a way to keep her here, Tenes. If you value your life.”

If it weren’t for Niel’s gentle yet threatening words directed at him, Tenes might have just stepped aside and pretended not to notice.

Niel Alpenhayer.

He was a gentle emperor loved by all the people of the empire, but Tenes remembered.

That day when Niel Alpenhayer, hiding his identity, came alone to the underworld and suddenly caused a bloodbath.

Sensing that he couldn’t win against him, Tenes immediately prostrated himself at Niel’s feet.

“P-please spare me! I-I’ll do anything you command…”

“Anything?”

At those words, Niel, who had been threatening to snap Tenes’s neck at any moment, stopped his actions.

“Then, is it possible to bring back the dead?”

“Th-that’s impossible. But I can kill living people instead…!”

“Useless.”

“Hiiiek! I-I’m sorry! If you just spare me, I’ll somehow try to bring back the dead…!”

“Are you insane? How do you plan to bring back the dead?”

Faced with that contemptuous gaze as if looking at a truly insane person, Tenes was at a loss for words and clung to him, crying.

“…Please spare me, sob sob. I’ll give you the entire underworld…”

In the end, Tenes managed to beg for his life by offering to hand over the entire underworld he had carefully nurtured.

From that moment on, Niel became the de facto owner of the underworld.

Niel, who had asked, ‘What use do I have for such a filthy organization?’, ended up utilizing the underworld quite effectively.

Tracking down nobles who committed illegal acts, finding merchants who evaded taxes and punishing them outside the law, secretly threatening ministers who opposed his will…

However, only Tenes knew about the emperor Niel’s connection to the underworld.

Even long-time members of the underworld were unaware of this fact.

Later, when Tenes asked Niel why he had come to the underworld that day and caused a bloodbath, Niel answered with the gentlest smile he had ever seen.

“I was in a foul mood. Like a dog.”

“…You did all that simply because you were in a bad mood?”

“I wanted to destroy something. But I couldn’t ruin this peaceful empire she had given me, could I? Just then, a report came in about a group causing malicious trouble in the capital.”

“……”

The day Tenes felt his life threatened was simply a day when Niel was in a foul mood, like a dog.

And Tenes sensed it.

If he let this woman go now, Niel’s mood would once again turn foul, like a dog.