The royal knights stared blankly at Prelia with stunned expressions.

“My goodness, waking up after a thousand days.”

“Report to His Highness the Grand Duke immediately!”

“Yes, Captain!”

After finally grasping the situation, the captain of the royal knights hurriedly sent several men to the palace.

Meanwhile, having regained her senses, Prelia gestured with her eyes for Jane to bring the pen and paper from the desk.

‘First, I need to send these royal knights away.’

Her throat was very painful after waking up after a thousand days.

The muscle strain was likely worse because she had shouted out of anger.

“Yes, Countess. Just a moment.”

Jane immediately understood Prelia’s glance and brought the items.

With trembling hands, Prelia painfully managed to scribble a few words on the paper.

Then she shifted her gaze to the butler.

“Yes, Countess.”

The butler took the paper from Prelia and approached the captain of the royal knights, holding it up to his face.

The captain’s previously smooth brow wrinkled sharply as he read the writing.

“Get out.”

That was what Prelia had written.

She had wanted to write more, but her hands were shaking too much to continue.

“Countess, I will report to His Highness the Grand Duke right away.”

The captain was about to leave with his subordinates, but then seemed to remember something and came back in.

“I’m glad you’ve returned safely, Countess Prelia Transk.”

He bowed respectfully, and his subordinates followed suit.

“Thank you.”

Prelia responded with dignity despite her cracked voice.

‘Water! Water!’

After all the royal knights had left, Prelia clutched her throat with both hands.

Speaking forcefully with her already painful throat caused a stabbing pain like glass shards.

“Miss! Here, drink this water!”

Jane hurriedly brought water from the sofa table.

After drinking a glass of water to soothe her burning throat, Prelia pointed to her heart with her fingertip.

‘What’s going on?’

Understanding Prelia’s question, the butler looked around the room to ensure they were alone before speaking.

“The fact that your heart has stopped is a secret from the outside world. Fortunately, since you were still breathing, we were able to prevent the royal physicians from examining your heart.”

According to the butler, Prelia’s childhood friend Pierson had brought her unconscious body to the county mansion.

By then, her heart had already stopped beating.

Since she was still breathing properly, the butler and Jane had desperately prevented the royal physicians from examining her heart.

‘What if I never woke up? I’ve never seen such reckless people.’

Prelia bit her lower lip gently.

The two of them had cared for her for a thousand days with her heart not beating, even after all support had been cut off.

“Miss, you’ll split your lip.”

Jane lightly touched Prelia’s lips and smiled broadly.

“For your coming-of-age ceremony, I had my fortune told on your behalf. The fortune said you would definitely wake up.”

It was customary for those celebrating their coming-of-age to visit gypsies for fortune-telling.

A thousand days ago, on the day Prelia died, Jane, unaware of what had happened, had gone to have tarot cards read on her behalf.

They had clung to that thin thread of hope until now.

“Rest a bit. I’ll bring you some soup.”

When Prelia looked up with emotion welling inside her, Jane rubbed her face with her palm and hurriedly left the room.

Meanwhile, the butler finished tidying the messy room and opened the windows for ventilation.

“Countess, everything will return to its rightful place now.”

The warm spring sunlight coming through the terrace window made the butler’s smile even brighter.

As Jane entered the room with steaming soup, Prelia cleared her throat and slowly opened her mouth.

“Thank you. For waiting.”

That was all she said.

But it was enough for them, as they moved around the room with reddened eyes.

“I was only doing my duty, Countess.”

The butler stood straight and answered first.

“It was only natural.”

Jane, who had been walking around holding the soup bowl, quickly composed herself and approached Prelia with the now-cooled soup.

‘I need to regain my strength quickly and make my heart beat again. If anyone discovers my heart isn’t beating, I could be burned at the stake as a witch.’

With this determination, Prelia finished a bowl of soup.

Then, Jane locked the terrace window and the door securely with a solemn expression before approaching.

“Miss, I just heard news. Yesterday, gypsies came to the commoners’ market. There’s a skilled fortune-teller there named Ominatio.”

“Is that so?”

Seeing Prelia’s interest, Jane leaned her upper body closer.

Jane’s usually round eyes had become quite sharp.

“This is the fortune-teller who predicted a thousand days ago that you would open your eyes again.”

At Jane’s words, Prelia looked back and forth between Jane and the butler.

Both nodded meaningfully without speaking.

“Tonight.”

“Yes, Countess. I’ll make preparations.”

At Prelia’s instruction, the butler left the room to prepare for tonight’s outing.

‘I need at least some strength to move at night.’

Prelia lay back down on the bed.

After receiving a massage from Jane to move her muscles, Prelia ate as much as possible for dinner.

‘Jane must have kept my body moving throughout those thousand days.’

Though she lacked strength, using her muscles wasn’t too difficult.

Now she could speak briefly without pain in her throat.

“Miss, I’ll help you prepare to leave.”

“Thank you, Jane.”

Later, with Jane’s help, she stood before a full-length mirror.

‘What is this pale, soft thing!’

Standing before the mirror, Prelia was shocked and grabbed both sides of the mirror.

‘My tanned skin! My six-pack! Where did they all go!’

In the mirror was not the sun-and-snow-tanned skin, but skin as white and smooth as flour dough, with visible veins.

“What’s a woman doing with a sword? Just come to me. Give me your title, and I’ll serve in the army in your place.”

That’s what a male noble in the graduating class had said to Prelia when she was 11, after her father died.

By kingdom law, nobles inheriting titles had to serve in the military for at least one year.

But most nobles, believing intelligent women weren’t popular, didn’t even send their daughters to the academy and instead passed their titles to their sons-in-law.

“No need. I will inherit the title myself.”

There were many men like him who approached her with designs on her title.

Not wanting to lose to them, she had built up her six-pack abs over several years, which had now turned into soft belly fat.

‘How can I even hold a sword with this skinny body?’

Her once firm body, which she had struggled to build because her muscles didn’t develop as easily as others’, had become weak and frail.

“Miss, isn’t it pretty? I massaged you diligently.”

When she trembled while gripping the mirror, Jane seemed to think she was pleased.

Jane chuckled and began explaining how she had cared for Prelia’s body over the thousand days.

“I wiped you daily with rose petals and made sure you didn’t get more than 30 minutes of sunlight a day. And…”

Jane joked that she had done everything good for the skin except expensive milk massages.

“Miss, feel your hair too. It’s so soft. I applied oil every day.”

Jane spoke excitedly, but Prelia looked at her with a dumbfounded expression.

‘Jane, stop. You’re scaring me.’

Just imagine it: Jane wiping Prelia’s non-beating heart body with rose petals.

Prelia pulled Jane, who seemed ready to talk endlessly, to open the wardrobe.

“The clothes…”

The wardrobe contained only cotton nightgowns typically worn by commoners and one brown dress.

With even the territory seized by the royal family, there would have been no income.

Maintaining this mansion alone would have cost quite a bit, so they must have had to sell things little by little.

“I saved one dress for you.”

Jane, embarrassed by the empty wardrobe, pulled out a box she had hidden deep inside.

The box contained a blue dress that Prelia had custom-made to wear to her coming-of-age ceremony.

Though on her actual coming-of-age day, she had been wearing a military uniform in the snow.

“Why did you keep this?”

“I wanted to see the Countess wearing this dress. Please try it on.”

“Now?”

“Yes. It’s my lifelong wish.”

Jane started to wrinkle her nose and make her eyes watery again.

“Alright.”

Prelia put on the dress as quickly as possible.

“You look beautiful, Countess. I knew it would suit you.”

The dress matched her current pale skin perfectly.

“When I had this dress made, my skin was tanned though?”

“I saved shoes too.”

Ignoring Prelia’s question, Jane stuck her body into the wardrobe and pulled out blue shoes covered in cubic zirconia.

When Jane also tried to sneakily pull out a large white ribbon, Prelia shook her head for her to put it back.

‘La la la la la la la la la la.’

For some reason, Prelia felt like she should be humming this song with such adornments. She showed the outfit to the butler once, then hurriedly changed back into the plain brown dress.

* * *

About two hours later, as the sunset spread low across the sky, Keinen and his party appeared in the capital of Peltra Principality.

They crossed through the market frequented by commoners with familiarity and approached a gypsy fortune-teller’s tent located to one side.

“Everyone wait outside.”

Opening the door and entering, Keinen exchanged eye greetings with the fortune-teller, whose eyes were lined with fine wrinkles, then walked over and sat down in front of her.

“It’s been a long time, Your Highness.”

“Stop your wandering life and come to the imperial palace.”

His voice was extremely cold, but the fortune-teller could sense tenderness within his chilly demeanor.

“I’m an old person with wanderlust. I’d die of suffocation if confined to one place.”

“As always, you never listen.”

The fortune-teller’s eyes curved warmly as she looked at Keinen and remained that way.

Seemingly embarrassed by her affectionate gaze, Keinen looked elsewhere.

“Isn’t it more interesting if at least one person doesn’t obey Your Highness? Ah! Now there will be one more.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just that Your Highness won’t be bored.”

“How silly.”

“The vessel that will contain Your Highness’s magic has awakened.”

At the fortune-teller’s words, Keinen turned his gaze to her.

She nodded slightly and handed him a glass vial.

His eyebrows twitched subtly as he put the vial in his jacket pocket.

“Contact me anytime. I’m keeping a palace empty for you.”

Come with me.

He rolled these words around in his mouth without saying them aloud, then stood up as if he had nothing more to say.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Keinen imprinted the fortune-teller’s wrinkled face in his eyes once more before leaving the tent.

“Your Highness.”

The green-haired Viscount Vers Aren, who had been waiting, approached with a flushed face.

He seemed to have heard everything inside the tent.

“Is she truly the vessel? If so, I will do whatever it takes to bring her to you.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

Keinen spoke impassively to the almost excited Vers and simply handed him the glass vial.

“Your Highness, one word from you would solve everything.”

Vers pouted and grumbled.

Keinen made no further response and led his party into an alley.

“Oh, oh?”

Just then, from behind Keinen came the confused voice of the doorkeeper guarding the fortune-teller’s tent.

“I’ve come to see Ominatio.”

Following this came the sound of a robe hood being removed and a woman’s clear voice.

‘Prelia Transk.’

Keinen stopped in his tracks as he heard the owner of that voice entering the tent.

“Vers, take everyone and go ahead.”

“Do you have more to discuss with Ominatio?”

“Yes.”

“We’ll wait with the horses, Your Highness.”

Keinen watched as Vers led the others away, then turned back toward the fortune-teller’s tent.