“A-Aila did such a thing?”

“I managed to avoid it by being alert, but if I had been careless for a moment, something terrible would have happened.”

Jeffrey stared blankly at Tael, shocked.

“So don’t misunderstand that the woman likes you.”

Tael was confident.

“She’s already completely fallen for me.”

She was a woman who had shouted “the best” to Tael. A woman who liked Tael’s body so much that she wanted to offer it to others.

Tael shook his head as if there was no hope.

“She’s truly hopelessly fallen for me.”

–

Aila eventually fixed the entire wall by herself. Though her body was tired, she felt good and tossed her money pouch into the air, catching it with one hand.

“With this, we can manage for a while!”

She felt really good. She had received more money than usual for fixing the wall, so it seemed they could eat their fill tonight. Aila was about to head home when she paused.

“Ah, horse dung.”

She needed to take horse dung with her. Just then, a thought suddenly occurred to her.

“What would happen if I left him behind?”

Aila thought for a moment, then shook her head. Tael was an emperor. She couldn’t just leave him anywhere. Though he often made her forget he was an emperor by annoying her, he was still an emperor.

“Right, I need to take horse dung with me.”

With hard work, he could become a good worker. Since he was good at catching wild boars, it wouldn’t be bad to train him as a boar hunter.

It was also good that he chased away loan sharks well.

“Sigh, I can’t tell him he’s an emperor now after lying that he’s a slave and bringing him home.”

It was also good that the war had stopped while she kept Tael.

“I’m worried he might go around conquering places again if I take him back.”

Aila had almost become one of Tael’s victims.

“Right. As long as his memory doesn’t return, it’s fine.”

Emperor Targaniel was known for his cruelty and was frightening, but Tael was manageable. As long as his memory didn’t return, there would be no problem.

“Yes. Then there would be no problem with me having seen that… ‘thing.'”

Fortunately, Tael seemed to have forgotten about it.

After coming down from the mountain, Tael had never once mentioned Aila seeing his thing.

“What are you muttering about?”

Aila was startled by the sudden voice. Tael had somehow approached her side.

Aila was too surprised to question where he had been and immediately denied, afraid her lie would be discovered.

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

Tael looked at her suspiciously but soon withdrew his gaze and asked a different question.

“Aila.”

“?”

“Did you sell the woman’s portrait I drew for you?”

“I did.”

“To Jeffrey?”

“No. Some man bought it.”

“…A man.”

It seemed Jeffrey had secretly sent someone to buy it.

“Aila.”

“Yes?”

“Why do you work so hard to earn money?”

“Money? Well, obviously to buy bread, potatoes, medicine for Serna, good clothes for the kids, delicious food…”

Aila sniffled. She remembered the times when she had to pluck grass to make porridge after her parents died when she was young.

“And then to marry off Serna and Melia to good homes so they don’t live like this, and after that…”

Aila added:

“I’ll go too.”

Tael tensed momentarily.

“You and I are of different status, and your desires are twisted, so I need time to think…”

“To Jeffrey.”

“?”

“I want to go to Jeffrey.”

“……”

“Jeffrey only meets the prettiest girls from the best families in the village.”

Aila sniffed.

“Ugh. If he was going to be like that, why is he so nice to me? Why! Why care so much about someone who’s starving! What does it matter if I live or die! Although, thanks to Jeffrey, I did feed Serna and Melia…”

“You’re still misunderstanding.”

Tael became a bit displeased.

“So many people around me are caught in misunderstandings. It’s tiring to reveal the truth.”

“What nonsense are you spouting now?”

“You can’t possibly like Jeffrey. That’s impossible.”

Aila was puzzled. She already liked him, yet he was saying she couldn’t possibly like him.

“Why?”

“You like me. To be precise, my body. Since my personality is excellent, you probably unconsciously like me as a whole.”

“!”

“Surely you’re not saying you only like my body but your heart likes him? I don’t think you’re that shameless.”

Aila quickly looked around. Fortunately, no one was there. She gritted her molars and said:

“I told you it’s not like that.”

“You’re still misunderstanding even after I’ve told you the truth. Fine. If you really can’t come to your senses, let’s go to the forest again.”

“!”

“I’ll let you do what you couldn’t do last time.”

When Aila’s mouth fell open, Tael arrogantly sneered as if to say, ‘Is it that good?’

“?!”

“Then you’ll properly know what you like. I’ll make you realize it clearly. Ah, but this doesn’t mean I’ll date you, so don’t get too excited.”

Aila was so dumbfounded that she was speechless.

“Tonight, come to the forest where I bathed last time.”

Aila watched Tael walk away after leaving those words, her mouth hanging open.

“Why would I go there?!”

Absolutely not! If she deceived the emperor and did such a thing, she would certainly be executed.

“Yes. This is actually good. I’ll show him clearly today.”

If she didn’t go to the forest tonight, Tael would realize he was wrong.

“That I don’t have even the slightest interest in horse dung, not even as much as an ant’s toenail!”

–

A new group arrived at the mountain where Targaniel had disappeared. It was the group of the princess of Fideltaoa, a border country of Arniel.

A knight opened the carriage door.

“Princess, please come down… !”

The knight’s eyes widened.

“The Princess has disappeared!”

Not just the Emperor of Arniel, but now his fiancée had also gone missing on this mountain.

The Princess of Fideltaoa, Chefila, was secretly running away quickly. No matter how she thought about it, she didn’t want to do it.

“Why should I look for the Emperor?”

She gripped her flowing skirt with both hands and moved quickly.

“That man is so frightening.”

Chefila trembled even as she ran.

It was because she remembered the first time she saw Targaniel.

Before meeting Targaniel, Chefila had heard that he was quite a handsome man. She entered the Arniel palace with high expectations, but soon those expectations turned to fear.

When Targaniel, who was in the midst of a conquest war, entered the imperial palace wearing blood-soaked clothes, her body froze at the savage aura he exuded.

His tall stature, cold eyes, and arrogant gaze that looked down on her.

The blood caked on his armor and his seemingly insane eyes. Even his cruelty in k*lling a servant right in front of her.

Targaniel showed no consideration for Chefila. Rather, he looked at her savagely as if she were his next prey.

At that time, he stopped as he passed by Chefila and whispered:

“Fiancée?”

His low voice, which seemed to mock her, was chillingly cold.

“It would be better not to go against my mood.”

Chefila trembled at the thick smell of blood and his voice.

“I don’t know who I might kill.”

All of that still made her tremble.

Fideltaoa, a border country of Arniel, offered their daughter out of fear of Targaniel.

Fideltaoa was a large empire no less powerful than Arniel, so Chefila was engaged to Targaniel, but that day was the most frightening day for her.

Even on the day of the engagement ceremony, seeing him laughing joyfully while nobles lay fallen and bleeding, staining her pink dress red, Chefila thought to herself:

‘Emperor Targaniel is a crazy man. I must avoid him.’

Since that day, Chefila prayed daily that her marriage to him would be called off. The first night with him seemed like it would be the day of her death.

As if her prayers had been answered, Targaniel disappeared near this small village.

Chefila’s father ordered her, as his fiancée, to go and look for Targaniel herself. He was being cautious about Targaniel, who might be dead.

But Chefila had no intention of doing so.

“Why should I look for that man?! What if I really find him?! Who will take responsibility then!”

Chefila secretly came down from the mountain and slipped into the village. To the outskirts at the edge of the village. Here, even the soldiers wouldn’t easily find her.

Just as she was feeling relieved, Chefila realized she had come too far from the mountain. She felt like she might get lost, but she didn’t want to go back.

So she walked straight ahead aimlessly, and fortunately, she saw a person in the field. Though her clothes were shabby, she was an exceptionally beautiful woman.

‘She’s really pretty.’

Perhaps because she was smiling with an innocent face, she seemed somehow kind.

Chefila approached her with a smile but paused. The woman was muttering something while smiling.

“What is she saying…?”

She carefully approached from behind and listened.

‘Cursing…?’

The woman was cursing with a beautiful voice like a nightingale, as if singing.

She was cursing someone’s in-laws, neighbors, and even the neighbor’s dog, before apologizing to the dog. Saying it was innocent because it was cute.