Curious, she looked up and saw an elderly craftsman clapping in a corner.

“I commend you. I’ve seen plenty of royals and nobles showing mercy after catching the disease, but never someone who took precautions from the start.”

Prevention was not an unknown concept here.

However, the same budget allocated for existing cases was visibly more effective than investing in uncertain prevention, so postoutbreak measures were prioritized.

Therefore, the strategies of royals and nobles usually came into play only after an outbreak.

“Spending resources on unseen dangers, Your Majesty is both wise and compassionate.”

Others joined the craftsman in applause, and soon the sound filled the room.

“Ah, that wasn’t my intention…”

Unaccustomed to the attention, Ermedillin awkwardly rubbed her hands together.

Runi was jubilant, clapping the loudest.

And Pellio.

He never thought he’d be so moved by something that happened to someone else.

Right now, his heart swelled, almost to the point of tears.

The one concerned, Ermedillin, was only feeling awkward, but Pellio clenched his fist, struggling to hold back tears.

And in that moment, a sense of guilt towards his mother welled up from a dark corner of his heart.

He wanted to openly express joy, to clap loudly like Runi.

However, that sliver of guilt was enough to firmly tie Pellio’s hands.

Caught between guilt and elation, Pellio struggled to find his footing, while Ermedillin felt disoriented amidst the overwhelming applause.
Although she had possessed the empress’s body, Ermedillin had not deeply felt her position all this time.

She lived in the palace, wearing nice clothes, eating delicious food, and receiving the service of maids. However, being the villain, she had no significant influence, and besides surviving, she had no time to think about anything else.

Of course, she did feel compassion for the people groaning due to the epidemic, but she had not yet considered that she needed to actively do something about it.

She proposed this mask merely as an ordinary Korean citizen, and as someone who knew that the original owner of this body was the culprit, merely to get rid of her discomfort.

Her husband, the emperor, ignores her, and her father, a duke, is trying to kill her.

The maids treat her as an enemy, and most of the people treat her as a witch.

Until now, wherever she went, whoever she met, it had been difficult to feel that she had possessed a body with the status of empress.

Rooni and Pellio are just people she’s personally thankful for, so all the more reason.

But now, inside the humble shop Pellio had rented, which seemed to be a bar, Ermedillin felt for the first time that she was the empress of the Trebian Empire.

Due to her lack of awareness, she found the artisans’ applause embarrassing, and her face flushed.

And at the same time, her heart also started to flush with a hot undulation that is difficult to precisely define.

She had always lived a life of giving up.

She knew very well that there are things she couldn’t have or do, no matter how much she wished for them, because she was an orphan.

But not anymore.

She now has vast wealth and the powerful authority of an empress.

She may be a halfempress who doesn’t receive the emperor’s love, but she now has the power and wealth to turn her thoughts into reality.

“Yes. I can change. I can’t undo what this body did before, but I can try my best to make it right.”

Overcoming her embarrassment, she lifted her head, and saw someone sending applause with a bright smile, while someone else with a look of awe.

“Yes. My people. The people I have to protect.”

Let those who hate her previous self do so.

A person who has something to protect becomes strong.

Ermedillin slowly rose from her seat and looked around with a contented smile.

In this small shop, amidst artisans who made masks, in a place that couldn’t really be called glamorous, Ermedillin finally became a true empress.

On a quiet night, the area around the orphanage construction site was eerily calm.

Only a single guard on duty was lazily watching the perimeter; no one else was in sight.

There would be no need to establish an ironclad guard around an orphanage that has yet to be built.

Duke Franshuar cautiously approached the soldier from behind and cast a sleep curse.

He’ll be knocked out for about two hours.

The Duke took another look around, pulled out a short blade, and without hesitation slit his palm.

As a result, quite a lot of blood dripped onto the ground.

Looking at the land soaked with his blood, the Duke wore a hauntingly beautiful smile.

A smile that resembled Ermedillin’s, but was cold and sinister.

“Ah, again.”

Rooni, who had been napping next to Ermedillin, got up and soaked a towel in lukewarm water.

After wringing it out, she wiped the sweat on Ermedillin’s forehead and the tears streaming down her cheeks. Just then, another familiar word slipped out of Ermedillin’s mouth.

“Dis…like… guard…?”

‘Guard? What word is that? Why does she mumble this word while crying?’

Sometimes when Ferdant’s name comes up, she understands, thinking it might be because he’s her mother, but ‘guard’? She had no clue what that meant.
Lunie was intensely curious about the meaning of those words, but she felt she couldn’t ask. She sensed that if she dared to inquire about the truth, she would immediately be ordered to go back to her bedroom and sleep.

“Your Majesty the Empress, what dreams do you have that make you cry every night?”