Prelia, Jane, and the butler entered the tent and approached Ominatio, who was sitting at the table.

Ominatio gently curved her eyes, which were full of traces of time, and gestured for Prelia to sit in a chair.

“Are you the famous Ominatio?”

Prelia sat in the chair placed in front of the table, while the butler and Jane stood behind her, alert like meerkats.

Prelia stared intently at the fortune-teller sitting across from her.

‘It’s fortunate she doesn’t speak our continental language. She won’t be able to reveal my secret to anyone.’

This fortune-teller supposedly only told fortunes through picture cards, and her predictions were said to be remarkably accurate.

‘This is my first time in a place like this. How fascinating! I wonder if there’s something that can show me my future husband’s face?’

Prelia looked around the tent, wondering if there was a crystal ball.

However, there were only paper cards on the table.

‘Can those cards tell me how to make my heart beat again?’

The twenty or so cards had no pictures drawn on them yet.

“Tell me how I can come back to life.”

Prelia glared at the cards before locking eyes with the fortune-teller and asking directly.

“Choose three cards from those in front of you,” the fortune-teller muttered in Eastern Continental language while smiling with her eyes.

‘Does she really not understand our continental language?’

Prelia had learned Eastern Continental language at the academy but pretended not to understand.

When Prelia remained still, the fortune-teller used her fingers to indicate that she should choose three cards.

‘I wonder which cards have good pictures?’

After careful consideration, Prelia chose the first card.

As soon as her hand touched it, a picture appeared on the card.

“A thorny path instead of gold.”

Prelia’s mouth turned sour at the image that perfectly expressed how she had missed becoming the third-generation heir of a South Korean conglomerate.

The picture on the card disappeared after a few minutes.

She picked up the second card.

“A woman holding a man’s heart. A strong, handsome man’s heart.”

As Prelia examined the second card’s image and made this joking comment, the fortune-teller’s eyebrows twitched momentarily.

Prelia observed the fortune-teller’s expression sharply.

The fortune-teller resumed her harmless smile, as if she couldn’t understand anything.

“My goodness, this!”

Surprised by the picture on the third card, Prelia briefly jerked her body before settling back calmly.

‘Don’t you dare look!’

When the fortune-teller tried to peek at the card in her hand out of curiosity, Prelia quickly covered it with both hands and examined the picture again.

‘One night with a man is the key! How outrageous!’

The card showed a man and woman intertwined like a key and lock.

‘Does the man need to possess magical power?’

Black energy emanating from the man’s heart was being drawn into the woman’s heart.

After observing the image in such detail that she could memorize it, Prelia placed the card face down and turned her head.

“Jane and butler, please wait outside first.”

Prelia instructed them to leave first and check if anyone was spying.

“Yes, Miss.”

‘Jane and the butler saw everything. How embarrassing.’

Though the tent wasn’t particularly hot, Jane and the butler’s ears were noticeably red as they headed toward the door.

The two standing behind her had seen the card’s image completely.

‘How passionate a night would I need to spend to make my stopped heart beat again? Should I give heart massages all night? Or all night…’

Prelia tried to calm her surprised and embarrassed feelings while mentally adjusting the intensity level.

From age 15 to 49.

‘What should I do! What should I do!’

While she was imagining breaking the bed, the fortune-teller reached for the card Prelia had drawn.

“No, this is a secret.”

Prelia pushed away the fortune-teller’s hand and rubbed the table, mixing her chosen cards with the others.

“No, if you mix them like this!”

The fortune-teller grabbed Prelia’s hand, but Prelia only stopped after thoroughly mixing the cards.

Then she placed a gold coin on the table.

“If you reveal today’s events, your tongue will not remain intact.”

The fortune-teller smiled silently and reached for the gold coin.

Prelia pressed down firmly on the coin and glared at the fortune-teller.

“Yes, Countess Transk.”

Prelia swallowed a laugh at the fortune-teller’s straightforward and innocent response.

Then she removed her hand from the coin.

‘I knew you understood my words from the moment your eyebrow twitched. It was in the newspapers too. The walking corpse has come back to life.’

She had noticed they knew her identity from the moment the doorkeeper was flustered upon seeing her.

“Countess, sometimes there are cards difficult to interpret. I’ll specially interpret them for you before the images disappear.”

The fortune-teller, now speaking freely, seemed ready to turn over all the cards.

She must have been quite curious about the picture on the third card Prelia had drawn.

She stabbed another card with her dagger before the fortune-teller could flip one over.

‘Difficult to interpret? With the number 365 and such a suggestive picture?’

No fool would fail to understand this.

‘It’s so obvious that I’m worried the butler and Jane might kidnap some man.’

Prelia lifted her dagger.

The fortune-teller’s smile finally disappeared and her face turned pale when she saw the card pierced by the dagger.

“Remember, no disclosure.”

Prelia inwardly smirked at the card image pierced by her dagger.

‘Oh, good shot.’

The card showed a woman struggling in a sea swarming with monsters.

Having completed her threat effectively, Prelia left the tent.

“Jane?”

The butler had gone somewhere, and only Jane was waiting for her.

Prelia slowly approached Jane.

“Miss.”

Jane massaged Prelia’s hands with her eyes downcast.

Seeing moisture in her eyes, it seemed she had been crying.

“Let’s go, Jane.”

Prelia pretended nothing was wrong, turned Jane by the shoulders, and headed toward the carriage.

‘With magicians having disappeared 500 years ago, finding a man with magical power won’t be easy.’

There were rumors that Swordmasters might possess magical power.

But this was just hearsay, nothing definite.

“Miss, this way.”

Jane seemed to have composed her upset feelings and led Prelia with a bright face to a secluded place.

There, the butler had already moved the carriage and raised his hand toward the two of them.

“Please get in quickly, Miss. We’ve prepared something.”

“What?”

Urged by Jane, Prelia hurriedly opened the carriage door and then tightly closed her eyes.

‘Oh my, this is insane!’

The butler had already entered the carriage and sat on the opposite side.

With a broad smile, he pointed to the heart of a man who was sitting next to him as if unconscious.

The man had a black cloth over his head and was leaning the back of his head against the carriage backrest.

His wrists were even tightly bound behind his back.

“Please come in quickly, Miss.”

Jane pushed Prelia into the carriage, worried someone might see, and seated her opposite the man.

“What are you doing!”

Prelia also lowered her voice to scold the two, fearing someone might hear.

“He’s a mercenary, they say. No girlfriend, no wife.”

The butler informed her that the background check was complete, ignoring how Prelia was holding her throbbing forehead.

“Miss, oh, his muscles are so firm, his heart must be strong too.”

Jane went further by opening the man’s jacket from both sides.

She seemed particularly satisfied with his chest muscles, which looked ready to tear through his shirt.

“I’ll unbutton his shirt for you.”

Jane said with obvious personal interest as she touched the buttons of his shirt.

“If we’re caught, we’re all dead!”

Prelia burst out angrily but quickly covered her mouth with both hands.

She perked up her ears to check for any signs outside the carriage, but there was no unusual sound.

Fortunately, it seemed no one had heard them.

Prelia got out of the carriage, and the butler hurriedly followed.

“Butler! What is the meaning of this?”

When Prelia sternly questioned him in a low voice, the butler glared at the chest of the man with the black cloth over his head.

Then he spoke in a voice only Prelia could hear.

“To think such a curse-like fate has befallen you, Countess. Having to seduce a beautiful and strong man within 365 days to obtain his heart.”

Prelia hesitated momentarily at the butler’s interpretation, which differed slightly from her own.

Meanwhile, inside the carriage, Jane had unbuttoned several buttons of the man’s shirt, revealing a glimpse of a black tattoo on his left chest.

The butler glanced at the man’s sword and continued in a low voice.

“He must be a Swordmaster. Or at least exceptionally skilled. That’s why he carries such a fine sword.”

The butler pointed to the sword the man possessed.

Beyond its elaborate craftsmanship, it overflowed with aura, clearly no ordinary sword.

“Countess, don’t worry about us. We’ll keep watch, you just do what needs to be done.”

After speaking with a meaningful look, the butler put Prelia back into the carriage.

Then he pulled Jane, who was staring intently at the man’s chest, out of the carriage.

*

Keinen had been observing Prelia through the gaps in the black cloth since the moment she entered the carriage.

‘Prelia Transk. She looks better than expected after lying down for a thousand days.’

Actually, when the butler had approached him several tens of minutes earlier, he had turned to leave.

“Excuse me, what do you do? You have an excellent physique.”

The butler had eyed his body up and down with lecherous eyes while glancing at the tent.

“I’m a wandering mercenary. Highly skilled.”

Keinen had straightened his body and met the butler’s eyes.

Seeing the butler’s gaze, which seemed ready to strip him n*ked and throw him into someone’s bed, he had even unsheathed the imperial sword Lunates and twirled it once.

If Vers Aren, his advisor and friend, had seen this, he would have scolded him, but he wasn’t around right now, so he would never know.

“Do you have a wife or lover?”

Sensing that the butler would immediately look for another man if he had a woman, Keinen had shrugged his shoulders.

“No.”

With that one word, the deal with the butler had been swiftly concluded.

“Just pretend to be kidnapped and unconscious. Never remove the cloth from your face.”

Those were the conditions the butler had set while placing a gold coin in his hand as a down payment.

“Hold hands once with the lady in the carriage, and if she likes you, we’ll hire you as an official escort knight.”

The butler had added this generous offer.

And then he had tied the rope so tightly that it nearly left marks on his wrists.

‘Prelia Transk.’

Keinen stared at Prelia’s blue eyes through the black cloth.

*

Meanwhile, when Prelia was left alone with Keinen in the carriage, she lightly stepped on his foot.

“I know you’re not unconscious.”

She reached out to remove the cloth from his head but withdrew her hand.

There was no need for them to remember this embarrassing situation.

‘Jane and the butler, who couldn’t properly kill even an ant, couldn’t have knocked someone unconscious.’

If they had hit him, they would have done so gently enough not to leave a bump.

To begin with, it was impossible for the two of them to kidnap a mercenary.

‘This mercenary probably just went along with them because he found their actions amusing.’

As if agreeing with her thoughts, a snickering sound came from under the black cloth.

“Really? Weren’t you kidnapping me to pounce on me? Ah, I see you prefer the bed to the carriage.”

Before Prelia could realize she thought his voice was quite nice, Keinen broke the rope binding his wrists.

Then he grabbed her hand and pulled her into his arms.

“What are you doing!”

“I’m fine with the carriage. Let’s start in the carriage and continue in bed.”