The Emperor’s expression showed he was even more unwilling to believe it than the women were.

Aila, completely unconcerned, grinned broadly and addressed the crowd.

“This man is my slave. I could even kiss him right here!”

“No! You two don’t match at all!”

Aila happily received their jeers and spread her palm wide.

“If you don’t like it, that’ll be 1 sili.”

“!”

“That wicked girl!”

The handsome Emperor’s followers shouted and threw 1 sili coins. Aila hummed a tune as she collected the money, leaving behind the Emperor who was still frozen in shock.

“Oh yeah, sweet as honey.”

–

The Emperor couldn’t recover from the shock all the way home, and even until the next day, he kept asking the same question.

“You’re my woman? Really, you? A woman who doesn’t even look like a woman is my woman?”

Aila contentedly stroked the money.

“Why does that matter? We made money.”

Aila opened her money pouch to show him.

“With this, we can even buy a little meat to eat!”

Aila was as excited as a child.

“We can have thick soup instead of thin soup! Two bowls each! And we can buy bread that’s a little less hard!”

“You sound like a pauper.”

“Haha! I am a pauper! So you too…”

She placed a broom in the Emperor’s hand. Aila’s smiling eyes were greedy with money fever.

“Need to work again, right?”

The Emperor was horrified and rejected reality.

“There’s no way I could be a slave in such a poor household. That’s impossible.”

Aila narrowed her eyes and spoke with malicious intimidation, as if she were saying something world-shattering.

“If it’s impossible, why are you here?”

“I’m too handsome for you to possess…”

“Listen, handsome slave. I’m going out to work, so clean up and prepare a meal.”

Aila made the scariest face she could.

“If you don’t, you’ll go hungry!”

After saying that, Aila left coldly, and the Emperor stood frozen in shock, holding the broom in one hand.

“She’s threatening to starve me again…? Me…? That vicious woman is threatening me…?”

He pressed his forehead and staggered momentarily, but quickly regained his composure.

“I have no choice. For now, I’ll live here until I remember who I am, then leave. And…”

He looked down at the broom.

“I can’t starve.”

Since his stomach was rioting with hunger, he pondered while holding the broom.

“But what is this used for?”

He held the broom upside down.

“Is it used for cooking?”

He flipped it over again.

“Do I stir food with this end?”

He smiled with satisfaction. He was proud of himself for knowing everything without being told. As he turned toward the kitchen to cook, he spotted a large wooden tub.

“It can’t be that difficult.”

He glared at the direction where Aila had disappeared.

“I’ll make her stop underestimating me.”

–

Aila, returning from work, was happily heading home with a mackerel in one hand and the Emperor’s newly scavenged clothes in the other.

Though the clothes were roughly obtained from rummaging through trash bins, that didn’t matter.

“There’s a slave in my house! Finally in my house too! Oh yeah! I’ve got a slave now! I don’t have to do all the work alone anymore!”

She had two younger siblings, but Serna was sick and Melia was young, so Aila had been doing everything by herself since childhood. Work, work, work from morning till late night.

There were never any days off. Housekeeping and earning money. It was all Aila’s responsibility.

“Now I can rest too! Oh yeah! A slave!”

Excited, Aila arrived at her house and accidentally dropped the mackerel on the ground.

She turned pale at the black smoke billowing from inside the house.

“Is it on fire?!”

Aila looked around, splashed water on herself, and was about to rush into the house.

“Serna! Melia!”

Just as she was about to enter, someone tightly hugged her legs. When Aila looked down, she saw a familiar face. It was Melia.

“Sis, why are you looking for me?”

“!”

Aila whimpered.

“Wh-where’s Serna?”

“Big sis Serna is over there.”

When Melia pointed to one side with a bright smile, Aila saw Serna leaning against the wall, coughing repeatedly.

“By the way, sis, is that guy a witch?”

“Huh?”

Melia lowered her voice and said seriously.

“He’s making something strange.”

“?”

“If you eat it, you’ll die.”

Just then, the door burst open and the Emperor, his face blackened, proudly emerged holding something.

In the wooden tub, which was blacker than his face, a feces-colored porridge was bubbling with floating straw and black dust.

The house visible behind him appeared fine on the outside, but the inside was completely blackened.

“Eat.”

“?”

The Emperor was a bit shy.

“No need to thank me.”

Aila stared at the porridge, and her fists began to tremble.

“Are you trembling with emotion?”

The Emperor smiled smugly and said proudly.

“I’ll make more for you, so from now on, don’t disrespect me or hit me.”

Rumble-

With a strange noise, one side of the old roof crumbled down. The Emperor glanced at the collapsed house and shrugged.

“Your house is old. You should build a new one while you’re at it.”

Aila quietly picked up a stone that had fallen nearby. The Emperor frowned at this.

“How rude. Put that down.”

Despite his words, when Aila raised the stone high without backing down, the Emperor flinched and stepped back cautiously.

“What’s the problem?”

“You’re asking because you don’t know?”

“I did everything you told me to. I cooked and cleaned.”

“You call this cooking?! You try eating it!”

He answered proudly with an arrogant expression.

“I don’t eat such food. Are you trying to kill me?”

“What? Ha, what the… ! You house destroyer!”

“What do you expect me to do about your old house? This miserable house is not my fault. Blame yourself for being a beggar.”

A vein popped on Aila’s forehead.

As the dumbfounded Aila swung the stone, Melia hugged her sister’s legs tightly.

“Sis, no! Don’t kill the witch brother!”

Meanwhile, the Emperor fled behind the house.

“You filthy woman! I’ll repay this favor someday!”

–

After some time, the Emperor who had fled far away returned to the house but couldn’t bring himself to enter. He pressed himself against the wall and peeked inside.

“To think I lived like this.”

It was unbelievable.

“Taking orders from that foul-tempered woman.”

The reflection he saw in the mirror didn’t look like someone who should be a slave. But if he wasn’t a slave, he had no idea who he was.

After all, Aila was the only one who could tell him about himself. He sat down seriously and fell into thought.

“Am I really a slave? Could it be that I’ve forgotten how to cook because I lost my memory?”

“Finally, you understand correctly.”

Aila, who had been sneaking up on him, grabbed the Emperor’s ear firmly and pulled hard. The Emperor’s eyes widened as he shouted.

“How dare you grab my ear…!”

At those words, Aila flinched slightly, then asked as if testing him.

“Who are you then?”

“I’m…”

“…?”

“I’m…”

His eyes shook violently before he confidently blurted out.

“A handsome man!”

“?”

“If my beauty is damaged, you’ll lose the value of keeping me!”

“Ha.”

Aila dragged the Emperor by his ear.

“Ow! Ow! Have you forgotten why you keep me?!”

“…”

“Don’t you know how handsome my ears are?!”

Aila seemed deaf to any of the Emperor’s words.

“I’m the one who can even digest this worn-out teddy bear!”

The Emperor, seemingly frustrated, applied force to stop walking, then grabbed Aila’s face to make her look at his.

“Look at me.”

The tight clothes accentuated his good physique.

The pink teddy bear t-shirt was ridiculous, but once your gaze was captured by his body and twice by his face, even that teddy bear looked like a fierce grizzly from a high mountain range.

So Aila glared at him.

Fierce grizzly or whatever, anyone who invades another country deserves this fate!

“I saw.”

“Am I not dazzlingly handsome?”

“You’re not.”

“No. I am handsome. Every time I look in the mirror, I’m breathless.”

“…Is that so?”

“If you stop pulling my ear, I’ll specially give you a hug.”

Aila quietly removed his hands from her cheeks and hugged the Emperor. Surprised, the Emperor looked down at Aila in shock.

“Could it be you’ve already fallen for me? You’re too ugly to be my lover… Ow!”

Aila bit the Emperor’s chest hard. Her teeth, like crab pincers, wouldn’t let go of his chest.

“Let go! You ill-tempered wench!”

After leaving teeth marks on the Emperor’s chest like a fierce dog, Aila triumphantly pulled away. She gritted her teeth.

“Shut up and follow me.”