Perhaps accustomed to hearing such compliments, the man only slightly narrowed one eye.

“Gasp!”

“Oh my!”

“How could this be.”

While he remained calm after hearing her answer, everyone around them was in an uproar, gasping for breath.

“Countess, according to your customs, if I receive only one token, I must become engaged to that person, correct?”

“Yes, but…”

At the man’s words, a sudden realization hit Prelia like a blow to the back of her head, sending chills throughout her body.

It was the signal. Her instinct warning her that she was in big trouble.

She felt an icy chill down her spine as she turned around.

‘Why on earth?’

All the women who had given tokens were looking at her with expressions of pity and contempt.

Only the Grand Duke sitting on the platform seemed delighted, his mouth stretched wide in a grin.

And this while he was selling off women young enough to be his daughters.

‘What? Did this guy only receive one token? Was I the first to give him one? Those shallow people!’

Well, she couldn’t really say much since she had given him her token based solely on his looks.

‘But at least I didn’t give it based on money or rank!’

It seemed that despite his outstanding appearance, the other women had given their tokens to other officers, probably assuming he was the lowest-ranked and poorest.

“Then since I’ve received only this one token, I shall take you with me.”

His deep, low voice drew Prelia’s blank gaze back to him.

As he uncrossed his legs and stood up, all the other officers sitting beside him rose from their seats as well.

‘Are the officers now getting up to make their selections?’

As he stood, Prelia’s head, which had been tilted downward until now, had to tilt upward.

‘This guy is quite tall.’

Even though she was tall for a woman and wearing high heels, he was a full span taller than the other knights, requiring her to tilt her head back considerably.

As he stood, a man with green hair who had been standing behind the officers came forward with a black cloak and helped him put it on.

‘What’s going on here?’

The green-haired attendant had his hair neatly slicked back with pomade and wore clothes adorned with jewels and family crests.

He was clearly nobility at a glance.

Moreover, unlike the other officers’ cloaks embroidered with silver dragons, the cloak of the man she had given her token to was embroidered with a golden dragon.

‘Am I doomed?’

She could tell from this moment that the man she had given her token to was neither low-ranking nor poor.

“Duke of Peltra, according to this principality’s customs, I shall be engaged to this woman. The other officers may proceed as well.”

He addressed the Grand Duke informally, as their country had been downgraded to a principality and absorbed into the empire.

‘I’m completely doomed.’

She could sense it from his piercing gaze as he spoke informally to her country’s Grand Duke.

“May I ask who you are, sir?”

Prelia abandoned her previous haughtiness and addressed him with semi-formal speech.

She already knew, but didn’t want to know.

She prayed fervently.

Please, anyone but the Crown Prince.

“Your fiancé, Keinen Serdenis.”

‘Phew… so he’s not the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince’s name would include the Aslan Empire.’

Prelia inwardly sighed with relief.

This man was just an arrogant, handsome fellow.

Just as she was calming her startled heart, the man’s lips moved again as if he had more to say.

“Aslan.”

‘D*mn it! Why does his name include Aslan? Why is his name so long?!’

“Keinen Serdenis Aslan. Crown Prince of the Aslan Empire.”

At his self-introduction, Prelia had to clench her molars tightly to avoid fainting.

* * *

One thousand and ten days ago, it was so cold that one’s feet would freeze solid if standing still.

Prelia stood in the middle of the battlefield on that freezing day.

“Survive on your own until reinforcements arrive! Don’t try to save others! Just stay alive!”

Facing the dark monsters covering the field of thick white snow, Prelia shouted to her subordinates while gripping her sword firmly.

Her unit, the Peltra Commoner Army, was formed by recruiting vagrants from the capital.

At 17, she was assigned to this unit immediately upon graduating from the academy and being commissioned as a second lieutenant.

“What can you do with such trash?”

“Captain, I will train them well.”

Although her superior clicked his tongue and discouraged her, calling it “a waste of effort,” she diligently trained her subordinates.

When they learned to read and handle swords properly, they all celebrated by drinking beer together.

After training them for a year until they could at least properly hold a sword, they faced an enormous number of monsters.

‘God, please have mercy on them.’

After witnessing her last subordinate fall with eyes wide with the fear of death, her own eyes closed.

She heard the monsters roaring loudly as if celebrating their victory, then suddenly all noise vanished as if sucked into a black hole, leaving complete silence.

“Prelia Transk.”

‘Who is it? Who’s calling me?’

In her fading consciousness, she heard someone calling her name.

It was a pleasant, resonant voice like the sound of valley waters during the lush summer in the mountains of Transk County.

She wanted to hear that pleasant voice again, but her consciousness was swept into perfect darkness and cold.

She was 18, just two days after becoming an adult.

* * *

-May everyone reincarnate in a good place. May they be born as nobles in their next life.

Having faced death, Prelia stayed in a place called South Korea and prayed for the souls of her subordinates.

After wandering here and there with nowhere to go, she ended up at a rural girls’ high school.

In fact, she rather liked this place, which was completely different from the academy filled only with boys, except for her.

-Teacher, where is my book?

Without a book of her own, she borrowed her seatmate’s book every day.

“There’s one milk left. I should use it to wash my face.”

-Using that expensive milk on your skin! You should give it to me instead!

She didn’t mind that her friends didn’t save milk for her.

She laughed while looking at handsome idol photos together and comforted her seatmate who was sobbing over poor test scores.

When they all went on a school trip, she held tightly to the teacher’s arm, trying not to get lost.

“My arm has been so sore yesterday and today.”

“Teacher Kim, aren’t you pushing yourself too hard lately? Take it easy. The students’ grades are their responsibility.”

“There are no academies in the countryside. If I work a little harder and help them get even one more question right on the college entrance exam, it’s worth it.”

She massaged the shoulders of her kind homeroom teacher and safely completed the school trip.

Even here, the college entrance exam “battle” was held on a cold day.

-That’s not it. Think again carefully.

‘Ah! That’s right!’

She helped revive the memory of her seatmate who had shared books with her for three years, and they successfully completed the college entrance exam.

This was how she remained as a red-haired v*rgin ghost in South Korea, waiting for reincarnation.

On the thousandth day since her death, her soul finally began to transform into light.

* * *

Prelia stood at the back of a long line in the waiting area for reincarnation.

“Miss, it’s warm today. Let me give you a sunbath.”

-Jane?

When the line had shortened by half, a familiar and dear voice flowed in.

-So you’re letting me hear the voice of someone I miss before I reincarnate.

Prelia tried to soothe her longing with a gentle smile.

Jane was the butler’s daughter, the same age as her.

With her mother passing away early and having no siblings, Prelia’s father had arranged for Jane to live with her so she wouldn’t be lonely.

Since her father, who was a soldier, also died fighting monsters, Prelia became a countess while still attending the academy.

Even after she became a countess, Jane would often call her “Miss,” comforting her loneliness after losing both parents at an early age.

“Jane, the royal family is demanding that we vacate this mansion now.”

The door opened, and the butler’s gloomy voice followed.

“Then, what about the Countess…?”

“If worst comes to worst, I’ll buy a small cottage to serve her, so don’t worry.”

The butler seemed to be comforting Jane as she sniffled.

They must still be unable to accept her death and were grieving.

-The living must go on living. Forget about me now and live for your own happiness.

Prelia spoke words they couldn’t hear.

With no heir to continue the line, the royal family would have reclaimed all the county’s assets.

-Soul Prelia Transk. You will be reincarnated as the granddaughter of the Seo Ji-hoon family in South Korea.

At that moment, when the angel in charge of reincarnation loudly called Prelia’s name, the souls created an uproar.

This was because the Seo Ji-hoon family she would be reincarnated into was the number one conglomerate in South Korea.

-Wow! The Seo Ji-hoon family!

-Soul Prelia, let’s be friends when we meet later!

-You must remember me! Promise!

Souls from other lines flew over like dust bunnies.

They linked their little fingers with Prelia’s, which was transparent and couldn’t actually be touched.

Prelia shook her pinky finger up and down.

-Men? Love? When I’m reincarnated, I’ll buy it all with money!

She would fully enjoy all the things she couldn’t experience in her previous life due to the war with monsters!

Prelia made this pledge as she moved one step forward toward reincarnation, amid the envy of countless souls.

“Open the door! We’ve come to execute the royal command!”

Suddenly, royal knights could be heard pounding heavily on the front door of the county mansion.

It seemed the greedy king had hurriedly sent knights, fearing Jane and the butler might smuggle out even a single piece of furniture.

-Soul Prelia Transk, prepare for reincarnation.

As the royal knights’ military boots could be heard messily trampling around the county mansion, a wormhole for reincarnation appeared before her eyes.

“Aack!”

“Jane!”

Simultaneously, she heard Jane’s scream and the butler’s urgent cry, as if a royal knight had pushed Jane.

-These bastards! How dare they!

Prelia was so furious that she glared with wide eyes and screamed.

-Soul Prelia Transk!

The angel seemed to be calling her name urgently, but after that, she fell back into darkness.

“Miss?”

“Countess? Countess!”

In the darkness, she heard Jane and the butler running toward her, then felt them embracing her tightly.

‘Jane? Butler?’

Prelia’s vision gradually returned.

Jane and the butler reflected in her blue eyes were crying.

‘What’s happening?’

Prelia blinked her eyes slowly.

“Miss, can you see me?”

“Countess! I knew you would come back! I knew you would open your eyes again!”

Jane and the butler’s tears were hotter than the monsters’ blood that had soaked her hands.

‘Did I come back?’

She had reincarnated.

‘But… my heart isn’t beating…’

Not as a conglomerate’s granddaughter, but back into her original body—already dead, with a heart that no longer beat.