Ray just sat there quietly, listening.

Comforted by his calm attitude, she felt increasingly comfortable continuing her story.

“But I became curious. I wanted to know why they abandoned me. Was there a reason why they had to leave me? What was that reason?” She paused, her throat growing tight with emotion. Closing her eyes for a second, keeping the tears in, she gathered herself before continuing. “I wanted to find them. I wanted to ask them why. I knew nothing about them, and I desperately wanted answers.

But I could not find out anything about them. The only thing that I have that connects me to them is this tattoo,” she said, rubbing the tattooed patch of skin on the back of her neck.

Her purple eyes, which had grown glossy, now gained back a little of their familiar spark. Breathing heavily, Ahel looked into Ray’s green eyes. She was about to continue, but the expression on Ray’s face made her pause.

His mouth hung a little open, and one of his eyebrows had shot up. His lips twisted into an unpleasant snarl. He quickly composed himself, his face once again natural. But Ahel had definitely seen the look of surprise that had crossed his face.

I told him my story, so why is he making that face? she wondered internally.

Ray’s voice pierced the silence as she contemplated what his excretion could have meant, “So you think you can find the people who abandoned you if you know more about that tattoo?”

“That’s right.”

The fleeting expression that had crossed his face a moment ago was back.

Ray slowly shook his head, saying, “All right. That makes sense.”

“Will you tell me what you know now?” Ahel asked, her voice filled with tension.

He stared at her quietly, squinting at her bright purple eyes.

“I’ll tell you what I know since that’s what I said I would do.”

She could not figure him out. From all that she knew of him, it didn’t make sense to her that he would keep his promise. Really? Is he really going to tell me everything that he knows about the tattoo on my neck?

Anticipation and suspicion mixed in her mind like sand and water on a beach.

She had had no interest in Lobel Empire before meeting him; any commoner who was trying to make a living would say the same. However, even Ahel knew that there were two modifiers attached to the Emperor.

Emperor Ray Lobel of the Lobel Empire – a mad tyrant who rose to the throne after brutally murdering the former emperor and his family during the war.

These two modifiers were so well-known that there wasn’t a single citizen of the Lobel Empire that didn’t know who they were.

A man like that is simply going to just tell me everything I want to know? With no strings attached? she thought to herself. Hadn’t she disappointed him at home? He had expected so much from her, and she had not been able to succeed.

Ray finally spoke, quieting the turmoil that Ahel was experiencing internally, saying, “Ahel, that tattoo is connected to someone I know very well.”

She was shocked. She never really believed that he would tell her anything at all. He had brought her here with the express purpose of talking to her about her tattoo. And he had actually provided her with information.

How could he know someone connected to the tattoo? Does he know my parents?

Terrified of the answer, she quickly opened her mouth and frantically asked, “Is it someone you know well, Your Majesty?”

“That’s right.”

“That p-person… Who is i-i-it?” she asked, stumbling over her words.

“That is all of the information I can give you today,” he replied coldly.

“What do you mean?”

Her curiosity had grown more and more. She felt like she was going to burst. But at his words, when he told her that he could or would not tell her more, broke something inside of her. A ringing noise filled her head.

“That is all of the information you can give me today…? What on earth does that mean, Your Majesty?” she asked, completely distraught now, but trying to contain her emotions.

“I am sorry, but if I give you information, you have to pay me something back; that is my rule. That’s how this works,” he said.

Ahel tilted her head to the side with a crooked smile on her face.

Ray’s voice had completely stunned her.

This means that he gave me the information because I listened to a suggestion he made? As she grasped Ray’s intention, she burst into disheartened laughter. She couldn’t help it, even though she knew the man in front of her was the Emperor.

He was a despicable man. She had always thought that there was some part of him that was better than this, but she was being proven wrong.

Ray is meticulous. And he has no problem taking advantage of people and their emotions.

Regaining her calmness, pulling herself together, she recalled what he had said a little while ago.

“This is all the information I can give you today.” Ray had obviously said that.

That means that there’s more he wants from me, right?

Ahel faced him as he smiled.

“I assume there is something else you want from me. Something that will ensure that you can wait a while before revealing all the information to me. You are going to make me do something for you, aren’t you, Your Majesty? A transaction.”