Oh! My Empress

"Aren't you being reckless? You spent 5 Krislas without batting an eye and did not get anything in return at all! What were you thinking?" Ivan scolded Kim Su Won as they came out of the shop, leaving behind a matron that was still thanking this party that had appeared out of nowhere.

"What are you talking about elder brother? I did not lose my money, I invested it. I will be reaping the rewards in about half a year's time," Kim Su Won smiled, she was in a good mood.

"But you do not have anything to show for it! What if you go a week later and she refuses to acknowledge that you ever gave her the money or that agreement? Do you not know how greedy these people can get?" Ivan's voice was raising by the minute.

He had not thought that this girl would be so naïve. He should have known what uncle Isaac meant by her not knowing the real world. He should have stopped her! It would have been better just to buy the whole shop in those five Krislas. She probably would have saved the money there. Alex had the same questions.

Kim Su Won smirked. This fool, he had no idea how common man worked. She raised her hand and waved her index finger towards Ivan.

"Elder brother, you are needlessly accusing the common folks. They work hard in their lives and want to earn honest living. Do you know why the lady was so grateful to me?" she tilted her head, glancing towards all three people in the party. No one could reply to her.

"It was not because she would be earning more or she suddenly got so much money. It was because I gave her an avenue to live stress free. Once she is able to get rid of those counterfeit designs, her life would become much smoother. And that's my bargaining chip. She would not be refusing me at all. She just needs time to get the agreement verified," she spoke confidently.

The three people were completely dumbfounded. This kid had thought that far enough? And she was so convinced that the matron was not going to refuse her offer!

"Are you going to do the same at other stores you chose?" Ivan asked, finally calming down and realizing that there was solid reasoning for this girl to do what she was doing.

"Huh? Not really. This was a place with easy target. What could I do in a bakery? I have no knowledge about baking after all," Kim Su Won shrugged. She had just come out for fun and check where she could put her money in.

Furthermore, not all the shops would be in this part of town anyway. There was no use of a weapon shop bring here in the first place. She would need to travel to wealthier areas too.

After her successful dealing here, she decided to stroll around and see how people were living here. There were kids running around on the roads, without a care in the world. There were a lot of people walking or on bicycles and horse carriages were a rare sight.

There were fruits and vegetables markets on both sides of wider streets. In general, people were happy. But the state of the infrastructure was just not that great.

"You thief," suddenly she heard a loud voice in front of her and saw three kids running towards her. They had big oranges in their hands and a man was running behind them with a baton.

"Those kids stole my fruits. Please someone, catch them," the man was rather old so could not catch up to them. So he shouted for help. Actually, he was looking straight towards her and her party.

Kim Su Won signaled to Alex and he caught two kids while Anna stopped the only girl in the group.

"L-Let us go!" the kids struggled in the strong arms of Alex but in vain.

"T-Thank you young lady for catching them. These impudent kids have been a nuisance in the market for quite a while now. They are so fast on their feet though. We can punish them now," the man looked around for help but other vendors just did not bother coming forward.

"Aigoo… these poor kids do not have an adult to look after them. So what if they took a few oranges? Young miss, it's okay. We do not mind them taking a few of our fruits and vegetables. Not like we sell all our stock anyway. Only this old man cares about it," an old lady with a hunched back spoke loudly and every other person nodded.

"B-But…," the man felt embarrassed about being stubborn and no one taking his side in front of these wealthy looking people. It made him feel small. If these nobles were to scold him further, he would feel completely humiliated.

Kim Su Won swept a glance towards the whole crowd and then looked at the old man. The old man had hung his head in shame.

The kid took out a Krisla from her bag and handed it over to the man.

"I am sorry sir. Thank you for chasing these kids. Here is a compensation for all that these kids have stolen from you."

"N-No no, young miss. How can I take this much money? The fruits they have taken from me might not even count to a hundred Bets. I just don't want them to learn stealing," the old man replied, handing the money back to the kid.

"H-Hey! They have taken much more from me than the old man! Will you be paying us too?" the old lady who had spoken earlier suddenly had this bright light in her eyes as did everyone else.

Seeing the people suddenly becoming greedy, Kim Su Won burst out in laughter. She guffawed until everyone started staring at her weirdly. What was the deal of this kid?

"Why? I thought you guys were giving your fruits and vegetables away out of goodness of your heart?" Kim Su Won finally stopped laughing, wiping a tear off the corner of her eye. It was just so funny to see these people like these.

"W-We did and now we should get rewarded for that. This old man is the one who has been chasing the kids away. Why should he get money for being a bad person and not us?" a rather young lady with a kid on her waist spoke from behind. Everyone agreed to her.

"Hah! You know when a good deed is called a good deed? When you don't expect anything in return. And you guys are not helping these kids out, you are enabling their stealing behavior. Would it be alright if they start stealing money from your stalls tomorrow?" Kim Su Won started lecturing, yelling at the top of her lungs. Did it matter at the moment that she was a twelve year old kid and was arguing with may be a thirty year old lady?

No! The one thing she absolutely could not tolerate was adults taking advantage of the kids. She felt so furious inside, she wanted to put all of them in jail. These very adults would then curse these kids when they would start committing actual crimes without realizing their own part in that.

"You kids, do you have a family?" she turned around and asked the kids who were flailing in the arms of two strong people.

The three stopped right at the moment and waved their head left and right.

Ah! These were orphans!

"Sir, do you have a family?" she then turned to ask the old man who had been chasing after the kids.

"I have a wife but that's it," he replied.

"Then it's decided. I will take care of their expenses but I would like to appoint you as their caretaker. Would that be okay? I will of course pay you and your wife for your services separately" she asked the old man.

The major problem with raising the kids was finance. And of course, the effort to raise them to be good human beings. If they were ready to take care of the latter, she was very happy to provide the financial support. After all, in this life, her family was capable.

The whole crowd was shocked to hear something so ridiculous from the mouth of a kid.

The old man's eyes teared up. "We lost our kid to malnutrition and then we could not conceive later in fear of seeing another one go! We would be very grateful to take the kids in if we have financial means!"

"W-We don't want to go!" the kids protested. This old man was too stubborn and strict and he never treated them properly. How could they live with someone like that? They glared at Kim Su Won with hatred.

Kim Su Won stepped ahead and hit the heads of the three kids. "You people are too young to determine what is right and what is wrong for yourselves, okay? Listen to this elder sister. Do you want a roof, clothes and regular meals or not?"

The image of not going hungry and be able to sleep at night was too tempting for the kids. They stopped throwing the tantrum immediately.

"You are too young to make the decision too!" the people protested as well.

"If both the parties agree, I don't believe there is anything else to discuss. Sir, before you make the decision, please discuss with you wife too. You can take the kids with you but if your wife does not agree, please contact us at this address," she handed over a small map to her estate and gave them the name of her brother yet again.

People laughed at her thinking who in their right mind would ask for permission from their wife. But the old man agreed. He did not have any intention of leaving his business, so it would fall on her wife to raise the kids. He thanked the nobles for their generosity and took the kids with him to his humble home.

"Alex, please make sure these people are settled properly and no one bullies them," she said to Alex with an authority in her voice that made Alex want to complete the order immediately.. He went right ahead to get a shadow guard to look after the newly formed family.