The Empress's Hidden Backer: The 10,000x
The smell of poverty was a scent I had known since the moment I opened my eyes in this world. I wasn't just a boy born to Fedric and Miraz Vance; I was a soul from Earth, reborn into a land where the strong ate the weak and money was the only shield against the monsters lurking in the "Dungeon" popularly known as the Monsters Den.
My parents were good people, but they were poor. When I was just a toddler, they brought home a girl named Ela. Her parents had died in a tragic accident, and being their closest friends, my parents took her in without a second thought.
"This is your sister, Theon," my father, Fedric, had said, his voice rough from working the mana-mines. "Look after her."
I looked at the five-year-old girl. She looked back at me with a fierce, protective gaze that never wavered for the next twenty years.
The Day the Stars Went Out
The turning point of our lives happened five years ago. I had been struck by a rare, creeping poison during a trip near the outskirts of the Dungeon. It wasn't a curse on my soul, but a physical toxin that turned my veins black and made every breath feel like swallowing broken glass.
The cure was a specialized serum that cost fifty thousand dollars. For a family living in the shadow of the Monsters Den, it was an impossible sum.
I remember lying in the dim light of our shack, listening to Ela argue with a representative from the Royal Nurturing Academy. She had won a full scholarship—a path to becoming a superstar cultivator and business leader.
"I'm selling it," Ela's voice was cold and flat.
"Miss Vance, you can't be serious," the man replied. "This scholarship is worth millions in future earnings. You are giving up your entire life for a boy who might not even survive the night."
"He is my life," Ela snapped. "Take the scholarship. Give me the fifty thousand dollars for the medicine. Now, before I change my mind and decide to take the money from your cold, dead hands instead."
She saved me. But in doing so, she became a "commoner" again. She spent the next five years working grueling jobs, her beauty hidden behind a mask of exhaustion, all to pay off the remaining debts of my recovery.
The Twentieth Year
It was my twentieth birthday. I sat at the small kitchen table, watching Ela get ready for another double shift at a local trading firm. She was twenty-three now, a woman of grace and sharp intelligence, yet she wore shoes with holes in the soles.
"Stop brooding, Theon," Ela said, reaching over to ruffle my hair. "It's your birthday. I bought a small cake. It's in the cupboard. Don't wait up for me; the manager wants the inventory reports finished by midnight."
"Ela, you've been working for sixteen hours," I said, my voice thick with guilt. "Why do you keep doing this? You could have been a star. You should have been a star."
She paused at the door, her silhouette framed by the morning sun. She looked back at me, and for a second, the mask of the "sister" slipped, revealing a look of such deep, aching devotion that it made my heart skip.
"I'd rather be a worker in a shack with you than a star in a palace without you," she whispered. "Happy birthday, little brother."
As the door closed, a sharp chime rang in my ears.
[Ding! System Initialization Complete.]
[Scanning World Logic... Supernatural Elements Detected.]
[Scanning Target: Ela Vance.]
A screen of light flickered into existence before my eyes.
Name: Ela Vance
Loyalty: MAX
Love Level: MAX
Status: Willing to die for Host. Desires Host's happiness above all else.
[Notification: 'The Great Sacrifice' detected. You have received the 10,000x Cashback Perk!]
[Notice: Every dollar you spend on yourself or others will be returned 10,000 times over to your System Wallet.]
[New Feature: Destiny Points. Change the path of a person or a nation to buy God-tier skills.]
I stared at the "MAX" next to her Love Level. On Earth, I would have called it sisterly affection. But the System didn't use simple words. It showed me the truth: Ela didn't just love me as a sibling. She loved me with every fiber of her being.
I looked at the lone five-dollar bill she had left on the table for my lunch.
"If I spend this five dollars," I muttered, my voice trembling, "I get fifty thousand back?"
The math was simple. If I spent a hundred, I'd have a million. If I spent a thousand, I'd have ten million.
I stood up, the old chair scraping against the floor. Ela had sold her future to buy my life. Now, I was going to use this System to buy her the world. She wanted to be a star? I would make her an Empress. And I would be the shadow behind her, the husband and the backer that no one dared to cross.
"First thing's first," I growled, looking toward the city where her greedy manager lived. "I'm going to go spend some money."
Would you like me to continue with the scene where Theon goes to Ela's workplace to "spend" his first credits and humiliate her boss?