‘There’s no reason to refuse when she asks me to serve her.’

I didn’t feel guilty about using her feelings. A demon wouldn’t have such a thing anyway.

Moreover, I was in a situation where I needed to use anything I could to survive.

Having never lived as a human before, suddenly having to live as one was a challenge from the start.

‘At least the social status is decent, and there’s a loyal subordinate who likes this body. It’s not bad for living. As long as I’m not discovered to be a demon… but that won’t happen since I don’t have a mana core anyway.’

Earlier, I was too shocked about becoming human for my mind to work properly, but upon careful reflection, this human empress seemed quite similar to me in personality.

It’s like everyone was used to hearing harsh words.

Even when I got angry, they weren’t afraid of me. Rather, they seemed to pity me.

‘Of course.’

What harm could I do with this fragile glass-like body? At most, my temper tantrums would only be pitiful.

In other words, I didn’t need to change my personality.

It’s not a bad situation if I can just live as I used to.

‘But I can’t live with this rag-like body. I need to somehow extend my lifespan and make it usable, or I’ll die soon.’

Fortunately, I had a method. Though I wasn’t sure if it would work…

“Hey, what’s my name?”

“Leonarda Nix. You are the Empress of the Nix Empire.”

“Leonarda…”

Lost in thought, I rolled the unfamiliar name around in my mouth. Then I answered sharply.

“I have no idea. I can’t remember. I must have forgotten everything due to the shock.”

I decided to be brazen about it.

Claiming memory loss due to the shock of falling from that high tower was a plausible explanation.

“So you’ll have to help me.”

I reached out and lifted the knight’s chin.

Heat rose from where our skin touched and seeped into me. That heat circled my heart once before being swallowed by my soul.

Regardless of the presence of a mana core, it was the power my soul possessed.

“You’ll do that for me, won’t you?”

I smiled as devilishly as possible.

There was no need to hear the answer.

* * *

Leonarda Nix.

Known as the Empress Nix, she was the marriage partner chosen for political purposes when the current Emperor ascended to the throne.

Her maiden name was Achilo.

The house of the lion that held the enemy’s heart in its mouth and stood in pools of blood.

A political powerhouse backed by the Eastern Noble Alliance, with connections to the capital’s noble circles and retired elder nobles who had shifted from politics to business. She was the eldest daughter of Duke Achilo.

Up to this point, Leonarda could have lived without fear of the world. Arrogantly and proudly, reigning over all humans.

But surprisingly, Leonarda was a powerless empress in name only.

There were two reasons for this.

First, the Emperor was in love with his childhood friend, the Holy Maiden. There was no room for Leonarda to intervene in their destined love.

Second, Leonarda had been so frail since childhood that she could barely even take walks.

Prickly and sensitive, yet deeply lonely, Leonarda frequently changed lovers.

At the same time, she harbored an unrequited love for the Emperor, and feeling hurt by his cold treatment, she often crossed the line by whining and clinging to Derek, her guard knight.

However, it was difficult to blame everything on Leonarda due to the reactions of those around her.

From when Leonarda was four years old, the court physician had been saying she had a short life expectancy. That she would struggle to live past thirty. This caused everyone around her to excessively pamper the precious young lady.

Even when Leonarda threw tantrums or was stubborn, Duke and Duchess Achilo never once scolded their daughter.

Once, when Leonarda threw a vase in anger, even the maid whose forehead was cut by it was more worried about the young lady fainting from excitement than about her own condition.

A precious, jewel-like doll that wouldn’t live long.

A tyrannical and capricious, yet fragile tyrant in need of care.

That was Leonarda.

Naturally, she couldn’t handle political affairs as an empress.

‘How could she command numerous officials when she falls ill with a fever after just a couple hours of walking in the garden?’

Of course, many nobles argued that it was wrong to make her empress, citing Leonarda’s health.

But the Emperor willingly brought this doll that could break at any moment into the palace.

He didn’t say a word even when the empress staffed her palace entirely with people from her family.

It was the result of their interests aligning.

The one the Emperor loved wasn’t even a commoner, but from a minority ethnic group. While she could be treated as a Holy Maiden, she could never become empress.

So Leonarda, who now had the Empress’s Palace, gave Derek the knight free access to her bedchamber, just as she had done at home.

In truth, this was unthinkable according to court etiquette, but since Derek was the only one who could calm the empress when she had a hysterical fit, everyone kept quiet about it…

‘…That’s the result of the information I’ve gathered and pieced together over the past few days.’

I glanced at that very guard knight standing restlessly by my side and sighed.

“Lord Noert. I told you not to treat me like someone about to die.”

“Your Majesty, how could you say such things?”

“I won’t do something stupid like jumping from the 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 already knew the other parts of my face were pretty, so there was no need to look. The important part was the left eye.

There, the number 20 was clearly engraved.

‘It’s fortunate I can read this.’

Over the past few days, I’ve been confirming what I ‘can do’ and what I ‘used to be able to do, but now can’t’.

As a result, I fortunately concluded that I could use two abilities of my soul even without mana.

The first of these was the ability to read lifespans.

‘It was only 15 days when I first saw it.’

That means the empty body would have suffered for another fortnight before even the physical body ceased breathing.

‘Luckily, I absorbed some yang energy from that knight and converted it to lifespan.’

Even so, it was only about 20 days.

‘I need to find more vigorous men somewhere.’

I needed to extend my small, precious lifespan to be able to take revenge or do anything else.

The second ability of my soul was to convert others’ yang energy into my own lifespan.

My older sisters also maintained their immortality in similar ways, but in my case, skin contact alone was enough.

The more intimate and deeper the contact, the better.

‘But if I suck too much too often, they’ll turn into skeletons and die.’

Derek Noert was a fairly useful knight, and in the current situation, he was a long-term piece I didn’t want to lose. At the very least, there was no one else in this Empress’s Palace with as much yang energy as Derek.

‘But if not Derek, the others are all too weak. They’d die groaning after just one bite.’

It’s frustrating. If men kept dying around the empress, I certainly couldn’t avoid rumors of being possessed by a demon.

‘There’s no need to create opportunities to face members of the clergy or Crusade in the current unstable situation.’

So the best option would be to keep several young men with abundant vitality nearby and drain their yang energy little by little.

‘Fortunately, as the empress, I should be able to manage that somehow. It seems my relationship with the emperor is bad anyway.’

Therefore, the order of tasks I needed to do now was as follows:

1. Gather several men with strong yang energy and keep them close.

2. Absorb their yang energy and convert it to lifespan to extend this life that’s not even worth a falling leaf.

3. 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 that arrived this morning.

‘February 28, 666.’

Five years had passed since the day I met my death at my husband’s hands.

Enrique should still be alive, so that’s good.

Living as the empress, I’m bound to encounter him someday.

‘If I just knew where he was, I could take cruel and vicious revenge.’

I gritted my teeth.

‘But if step 1 isn’t accomplished first, I won’t even be able to get near Enrique. My weakened soul might be burned to death by holy power.’

No matter how careless I was, Enrique possessed holy power strong enough to kill me. And he was skilled enough to conceal it without a trace.

Literally a human receiving God’s merciful love without reserve.

Recalling the pure, chilling holy power Enrique wielded, I shuddered with goosebumps.

Honestly, I couldn’t even gauge how much magic power I’d need to kill him.

‘I must be careful. If it’s discovered that I’ve possessed the body of Empress Nix, they’ll surely try to annihilate me for good this time.’

But just then,

“Your Majesty the Empress. That cunning Holy Maiden! She’s sent another man!”

The head maid of the Empress’s Palace, Madame Berthold, entered with a furious air.

Madame Berthold was the nanny who had served Leonarda since her family home, and in terms of loyalty, she was no less than Derek.

For such a Madame Berthold to be this angry, it couldn’t be good news for the empress. But to me, it was ear-pricking news.

“A man?”

“Yes! This time she’s sent someone claiming to be a doctor. It’s truly absurd…! It’s an intolerable attempt to tarnish Your Majesty’s reputation. Even strangling the Holy Maiden wouldn’t be enough to quell this anger!”

Ah, so.

Apparently, a doctor was sent for the empress, who was rumored to be bedridden with a severe cold…

‘And it happens to be young, sturdy men?’

I had to struggle to hide my rising smile.

Found it, my ginseng!