Chapter 3
3. Found it, my ginseng!
“There’s no reason to refuse when she’s asking me to use her.”
I didn’t feel guilty about taking advantage of her emotions. How could a demon feel guilt?
Besides, right now, to survive, I would use anything and everything I could—it still wouldn’t be enough.
I had never lived as a human even once, and now suddenly I had to live as one. That alone was a challenge.
“At least my status is decent, and I have a loyal subordinate who likes this body. It’s not so bad for getting by. As long as I don’t get caught being a demon… but since I don’t have a magic core anyway, there’s no risk of being found out.”
Earlier, the shock of becoming human had made my mind sluggish, but now that I thought it over carefully, this human empress seemed to have a personality quite similar to mine.
What I mean is, she seemed used to being treated harshly.
And even when I got angry, she wasn’t afraid of me. If anything, she seemed pitying.
“Of course.”
What harm could a fragile, glass-like body like this possibly cause? At best, throwing a tantrum would only look pathetic.
That meant I didn’t have to change my personality.
I could just keep acting the way I always had—not a bad deal.
“But I can’t live in this rag of a body. If I don’t find a way to extend my lifespan and make it usable, I’ll die soon.”
Fortunately, I had a method. I didn’t know if it would work, but…
“Hey, what’s my name?”
“Leonarda Nyx. Empress of the Nyx Empire.”
“Leonarda…”
Lost in thought, I rolled the unfamiliar name around in my mouth. Then I answered briskly.
“Never heard of it. I don’t remember. I must have lost all my memories from the shock.”
I decided to be shameless about it.
Falling from that high tower made losing my memory due to shock a plausible excuse.
“So you’re going to have to help me.”
I reached out and lifted the knight’s chin.
Heat flared where our skin touched and seeped into me. That heat coiled around my heart once before being swallowed by my soul.
It was the power of my soul, regardless of whether I had a magic core or not.
“You will do that, won’t you?”
I smiled like the perfect demon.
I didn’t even need to hear his answer.
Leonarda Nyx.
Known as Empress Nyx, she was a political marriage arranged when the current emperor ascended the throne.
Her maiden name was Ahill.
The Lion’s family, who bite the hearts of their enemies and stand in pools of blood.
She was the eldest daughter of Duke Ahill, a political powerhouse backed by the Eastern Noble Alliance, controlling not only the capital’s aristocratic circles but also the elder nobles who had stepped back from politics and moved into the financial world.
From that perspective alone, Leonarda could have lived without fear of the world. Arrogant and proud, ruling over the heads of all humanity.
But surprisingly, Leonarda was an empress in name only, with no real power at all.
There were two reasons for this.
First, the emperor loved his childhood friend, the Saintess. There was no room for Leonarda to interfere in their destined love.
Second, Leonarda had been weak since childhood, unable to even take walks easily.
Cranky and sensitive, she also craved companionship deeply, so she frequently changed lovers.
At the same time, she had an unrequited love for the emperor, and each time she was met with his coldness, she believed she was the only one hurt, crossing the line by whining and clinging to her loyal knight, Derek.
But it was also difficult to blame everything on Leonarda, given the reactions of those around her.
Her personal physician had said since she was four years old that she would have a short lifespan. That she would likely not live past thirty. So everyone doted on the precious, jewel-like girl excessively.
Even when Leonarda threw tantrums or was stubborn, Duke and Duchess Ahill never once scolded her.
Once, Leonarda threw a vase in anger, and even the maid whose forehead was split open by it worried more about the young lady fainting from agitation than about her own injury.
A precious jewel doll who wouldn’t live long.
A tyrant who was violent and capricious but fragile and in need of care.
That was Leonarda.
Naturally, she could not handle political affairs as empress.
‘She gets a fever and collapses just from strolling in the garden for a couple of hours; how could she command a hall full of ministers?’
Of course, many nobles argued that citing Leonarda’s health meant it was wrong to make her empress.
But the emperor willingly brought the soon-to-shatter doll into the palace.
He didn’t say a word even when she staffed the Empress’s Palace exclusively with people she brought from her family home.
It was a result of mutual interests aligning.
The woman the emperor loved was not a commoner but a minority outcast, so while she could be treated as a Saintess, she could never become empress.
Thus, Leonarda, who gained her own palace, gave her knight Derek the authority to freely come and go from her bedroom, just as she had done at her family estate.
In terms of court etiquette, it was absurd, but since no one but Derek could calm Leonarda down once she became hysterical, everyone turned a blind eye…
‘…That’s the result of the information I’ve gathered over the past few days.’
I glanced at the very same knight standing restlessly by my side and sighed.
“Sir Noert. I told you, you don’t have to treat me like I’m about to drop dead any second.”
“Your Majesty, how can you say such a thing?”
“I won’t do something as stupid as jumping off a tower again.”
When I mentioned the ‘tower,’ Derek’s face turned pale.
Leaving him to his thoughts, I stared intently at the hand mirror in front of me.
I knew the rest of my face was pretty, so I didn’t need to look. The important part was my left eye.
There, the number 20 was clearly engraved.
‘At least I can read this.’
Over the past few days, I had meticulously checked what I ‘could do’ and what I ‘used to be able to do but no longer could.’
As a result, I thankfully concluded that I could use two abilities of my soul without magic.
The first was the ability to read lifespans.
‘When I first saw it, it was only 15 days.’
Meaning the body, empty of its soul, would have lingered for another half-month before its breath ceased.
‘Fortunately, I absorbed some vital energy from that knight and converted it into lifespan.’
But even then, it was only about 20 days.
‘I need to find more vigorous men.’
Only by extending my precious, meager lifespan could I get revenge or do anything else.
The second ability of my soul was converting the vital energy of others into my own lifespan.
The other sisters above me similarly maintained immortality, but in my case, simple skin contact sufficed.
More intimately, deeper contact would be even better.
‘But if I drain them too often or too much, they’ll turn into skeletons and die.’
Derek Noert was a fairly useful knight, a chess piece I didn’t want to lose in this situation. At least within this Empress’s Palace, no one else possessed vital energy as strong as his.
‘But if I target others instead of Derek… they’re all too weak. Even one bite would leave them ailing and dying.’
This was a headache. If men kept dying around the Empress, rumors of demonic possession would inevitably spread.
‘In this unstable situation, I don’t need to deliberately cause a confrontation with a priest or a Crusader.’
So the best course was to keep several vigorous young men by my side and siphon off their vital energy little by little.
‘Fortunately, I’m the Empress, so I should be able to manage that somehow. And it just so happens that the relationship between this body and the emperor is bad.’
Therefore, the order of things I needed to do now was as follows:
Find and keep several strong-vitality men by my side.
Absorb their vital energy, convert it into lifespan, and extend this pitiful life that’s worse than a rolling dead leaf.
In the meantime, find out about Enrique and take revenge!
This was the only good thing about becoming human.
Revenge.
I tapped the date on the newsletter I had received this morning.
‘February 28th, Year 666.’
Five years had passed since the day I died at my husband’s hands.
Enrique would still be alive. Good.
As I live as the Empress, I’m bound to encounter him someday.
‘Once I know where he is, I’ll take my revenge—cruel and brutal.’
I ground my teeth.
‘But if I don’t accomplish step one first, I won’t even be able to get near Enrique. My weakened soul might burn to ash from his holy power.’
Even though I had been careless, Enrique possessed holy power strong enough to kill me. And he was skilled enough in its manipulation to conceal it without a trace.
A human who had received the merciful love of God in abundance.
Remembering the pure, chilling holy power Enrique had wielded, I shuddered, goosebumps rising on my skin.
Honestly, I couldn’t even begin to guess how much magical power would be needed to kill him.
‘I have to be careful. If they find out I’ve possessed Empress Nyx’s body, they’ll make sure to completely annihilate me this time.’
And then it happened.
“Your Majesty the Empress! That deceitful Saintess! She’s sent another man!”
The head lady-in-waiting of the Empress’s Palace, Lady Bertholdt, stormed in, seething with anger.
Lady Bertholdt was the nanny who had served Leonarda since the family estate, and her loyalty rivaled Derek’s.
If Lady Bertholdt was this angry, it certainly wasn’t good news for the Empress. But to me, it was music to my ears.
“A man?”
“Yes! This time, she sent someone pretending to be a physician. I’m absolutely speechless…! Trying to tarnish Your Majesty’s reputation—it’s preposterous. Even strangling that Saintess wouldn’t quell my anger!”
Ah, I see.
So, for the Empress who was publicly rumored to be down with a fever, they sent a physician…
‘And it just so happens that those physicians are young, sturdy men?’
I had to struggle to suppress the grin tugging at the corners of my mouth.
Found it, my ginseng!
