“…Your Highness?”

At first, she thought she had seen wrong, but upon closer inspection, it was indeed Glishakov.

“Ugh…”

Eve quickly approached to check his condition.

His brilliant golden hair was disheveled, revealing his face.

His face, drained of color and drenched in cold sweat, was contorted with pain.

He had always had transparent, pale skin, but now he was beyond pale—he was deathly white.

His condition was clearly not normal.

“Your Highness…! Just a moment. I’ll get a physician right away…”

As Eve rose to find someone, Glishakov grabbed her ankle.

“No… Don’t! You mustn’t… tell anyone…”

He looked so precarious, as if he might collapse at any moment.

“What… what should I do?”

She approached Glishakov calmly and asked.

Dripping with cold sweat, he barely lifted his head and continued with difficulty.

“Just… just hide me in a room. I’ll be fine… soon anyway…”

After struggling to keep his eyelids open a few times, he finally lost consciousness.

‘Oh no!’

She was in a situation where she could neither act nor leave.

For now, she decided to move him to a room as he had requested.

Eve forced her exhausted body to move and carried the collapsed prince to a nearby room.

‘This room should do.’

It was a vacant room that would remain empty until the servants came to clean it the next morning.

Eve, with her tired body, didn’t have the strength left to lift a man larger than herself onto the bed.

In the end, she carefully laid him on the floor.

Looking at the unconscious Glishakov’s expression, he appeared to be in pain.

She considered whether she should go to Medric now and inform him of the situation.

Feeling that she should at least provide first aid before leaving, she approached to check his condition.

‘It may be disrespectful, but it should be acceptable in this case. Please forgive me just this once.’

Eve ran her hands over the unconscious Glishakov’s body to check his condition.

His pulse was normal. There were no external wounds.

That meant…

‘His magical power must be tangled inside his body.’

She carefully placed both hands near his stomach and closed her eyes.

“Correct.”

The magical power inside Glishakov’s body was not just tangled—it was creating a vortex.

At this level, the pain would be so severe that he wouldn’t be able to get up for days.

A magician’s body is not only stronger than an ordinary person’s but also has a longer lifespan.

In Ptotr, even those without family backgrounds could receive titles and reach high positions if they became state magicians.

Magicians, who seemed to have no disadvantages, had one weakness: they became weaker than ordinary people during their awakening.

After this period passed, it would be nearly impossible for ordinary people to defeat a magician, which was why many external organizations targeted them during this time.

Because of this, magicians endured the tearing pain in their bodies and quietly awakened without telling anyone, not even family.

Eve looked at Glishakov, sprawled on the floor, unconscious and sweating profusely.

‘People of the Habsburg family are born with magical power in their bodies.’

From the wavelength of the swirling magical power inside him to his symptoms, everything matched perfectly.

Glishakov was currently undergoing his awakening, and because of this, he couldn’t tell anyone about his condition.

“This is troublesome…”

Eve was at a loss, facing the awakening of Ptotr’s only Crown Prince.

She placed her hand on her head and thought.

If Glishakov wasn’t simply ill but was in the middle of awakening, it would be difficult to inform Medric about the current situation.

“It would have been better if he had collapsed in front of his royal guards.”

Magicians didn’t even meet their families when awakening was imminent. He must have deliberately chosen a place in the mansion where no one would be.

‘Unfortunately, he ran into me.’

“Ugh…”

A groan escaped through Glishakov’s slightly parted lips.

They said it felt like flesh being torn apart.

“I heard awakening is that painful.”

It troubled her to leave him suffering like that.

Conscience aside, she didn’t know what might be said later if she just left. Rumors could spread that she had left the ailing Crown Prince to die.

Glishakov might also harbor resentment when he regained consciousness. No matter how she thought about it, leaving him as he was seemed dangerous.

She sighed involuntarily.

‘Alright, I’ll just provide first aid and then leave.’

If she helped ease his pain before leaving, who could blame her?

She had divine power, after all. Divine power, which repels magical power, could at least organize the tangled magical power in his body and reduce the pain.

It wasn’t something she couldn’t do, and it would be the most satisfactory treatment for Glishakov in his current state.

Of course, since magical power and divine power have opposite affinities, even a small mistake could lead to disaster.

‘It’s okay. I can do this.’

Reassuring herself that she could do it, she took a deep breath and looked at him.

‘His face is distorted.’

Given his already delicate appearance, his cold-sweating, pain-contorted face looked precarious.

His golden hair, disheveled with sweat, shook finely like shattering jewels whenever he moved.

Looking at his face, a small anxiety sprouted in her heart.

Handling divine power was easy for Eve, but that was before her family was exterminated. Since then, she had used divine power as if it were being exploited, causing both her control and absolute amount of divine power to decrease.

‘Besides, I haven’t properly used divine power since escaping from Count Renox’s mansion.’

She had refrained from using divine power for a while due to its diminished state.

Even now, she wanted to go to Medric immediately and inform him of the situation, but…

“Haa… haa…”

Seeing his suffering face made it difficult to do so.

Knowing that using just a little divine power would prevent him from experiencing such intense pain, she couldn’t stop herself from taking this risky action.

“Alright. I just need to recall my memories and do it. It will be fine.”

Eve had been sharp-minded since childhood, never falling behind in divine power, studies, or anything else. Hadn’t she just perfectly handled her society debut? A strange courage welled up inside her.

After hesitating for a while, Eve placed both hands on his stomach again.

She closed her eyes and sensed the magical power flowing inside his body. She could feel several strands of magic in his dark interior.

Magic, when actually seen, can look like threads, taking on various colors depending on its nature.

Among them, a thick, rough, black thread was causing several other threads to bunch together.

‘That’s it.’

Unrefined magical power was causing the magic in his body to tangle.

‘I just need to cut that thread of magic.’

The rough, thick black thread of magic only forms during awakening.

Since it was unrefined magic, cutting or tearing it wouldn’t significantly affect the flow of other magic in the body.

Even knowing this, her hands strangely trembled.

‘It’s okay. I need to tear that to allow the magic to flow properly. Don’t be nervous.’

Eve steadied her trembling hands by clasping them together, then gradually injected divine power from her hands into his body.

With heightened concentration, she carefully cut through the rough magic thread in his body with her divine power.

‘I mustn’t touch anything else.’

Cold sweat formed on her forehead and trickled down her cheek, dropping from her chin.

She hadn’t used divine power this delicately in a long time, making this the most physically taxing effort she’d made recently.

‘Please.’

After cutting the rough magic thread halfway, the end part dangled, still attached.

Eve’s tightly closed eyelashes trembled.

‘Just a little more.’

The magic thread teased her, seeming like it might break at any moment.

Plop.

It finally snapped.

“I did it!”

Eve opened her eyes wide and quickly checked Glishakov’s complexion. Seeing him sleeping with a much more peaceful expression than before, she felt her tension release.

Thud.

She collapsed on the floor and inwardly cheered.

“I did it…”

Despite her inner joy, she felt completely drained, as if she had used up all her energy.

A sense of achievement at her success and satisfaction at having saved someone’s life washed over her at once.

Looking at the peacefully sleeping Glishakov, a lump of emotion rose in her chest.

“Awakening…”

In fact, this was only the second time in Eve’s life that she had witnessed a magician’s awakening.

The pain during awakening is so intense and the body becomes so weak that many magicians lose their lives, unable to endure it.

‘If they borrowed the power of someone with divine abilities, they could reduce the pain and avoid losing their lives.’

But magicians, who valued pride more than life itself, were unlikely to adopt this method.

It saddened her that they refused to bend a little, which would make the process less painful and safer.

“What time is it now?”

She looked around urgently, but since this was an unused room, there was no clock to be found.

Eve checked Glishakov’s complexion once more before standing up.

‘I hope I won’t be punished for using divine power on a magician.’

Perhaps they would behead her for witnessing his awakening…

Eve shook her head.

‘Surely not.’

They wouldn’t do that to someone who had helped.

Eve quickly left the room, careful not to be seen.