The winter social season of Hiboe, the capital of the Yuzraeni Empire, had fallen into an untimely stillness.

Latching the window bolts shut in preparation for the coming winter was no different from years past, but the parties and outings that had been lively regardless of the season every year had all been cancelled without exception.

Rumors spread not only throughout the capital but to every corner of the Yuzraeni Empire that Duke Haimenwar, who had been all but certain to become the next emperor once the imperial wedding was held, had suddenly fallen ill and taken to his bed.

Princess Astrid, who had long been known as a madwoman and never appeared at official gatherings, was not seen for some time, but everyone simply assumed as much. However, when Duke Haimenwar, who had been tacitly recognized as the next emperor, abruptly cut off all contact with the outside world, rumors naturally spread that he had fallen ill.

In fact, from around the time the gates of the imperial palace had been firmly shut the previous summer up until now, the only people permitted to enter and exit were those connected to illness and healing, physicians, healers, priests, and mages.

“Master Caleb.”

Caleb, who had been standing before the bedchamber, looked up at the call of a servant. His expression was thoroughly unpleasant, as though he had just been reprimanded by Duke Haimenwar.

“What is it?”

“A mage has arrived.”

“Hello there.”

Tatiana stepped forward and greeted them before the servant could even make an introduction.

“My name is Tatiana Hennessy, and I possess a magical artifact equivalent to the 8th Circle.”

“A magical artifact?”

Not an 8th Circle mage herself, but someone who possessed an artifact equivalent to one.

When Caleb frowned as though he had heard utter nonsense, Tatiana gave a confident nod.

“Yes. I am the mage who holds the only means of saving His Grace Duke Haimenwar.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I am saying that I can cure His Grace Duke Haimenwar of the serious illness he has fallen into, using the power I possess.”

Caleb thought the young mage must be gravely mistaken about something.

Caleb pressed a hand to his throbbing head and asked.

“And just how would you manage that?”

“That is something I can only say in His Grace’s presence.”

“Don’t try any funny business. His Grace may be bringing in physicians and healers left and right, but do you really think I would bring someone of unclear qualifications before him?”

The Emperor was dead, and Astrid had fallen into a coma on top of that.

The next emperor, the de facto ruler of Yuzraeni, and the usurper of the Golden Hawk.

By now, nearly all the power within the imperial palace was as good as held in the grasp of Lindenel Haimenwar, the princess’s fiancé and the true authority of the Rakuin dynasty.

That is, if only the man those epithets, mixed with both reverence and ridicule, pointed to had not suddenly lost his mind.

“Dragging out time while a critically ill patient waits is a foolish thing to do. If they pass away, I cannot guarantee my answer will still hold.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I can make it as though his illness never existed. I cannot say any more than that.”

Caleb, who had been about to raise his voice at the young girl who dared to make demands with the name of House Haimenwar right before her, was forced to hold his tongue when a knight came rushing in.

“Master Caleb!”

“What is it?”

“His Grace has awakened. He is looking for a new physician.”

Caleb let out a pained groan and scrunched his face.

It had already been half a year of keeping Princess Astrid alive by the thinnest of threads.

The poison had been problem enough, but Astrid, who had also thrown herself from a window, was in a state so hopeless that even the finest physicians would shake their heads.

The flickering ember of her precarious life swayed as though it might go out at any moment, yet as long as his superior refused to accept that, she could not be allowed to pass on in peace.

These same days would repeat themselves until Astrid’s life was completely extinguished.

It had been that way just recently, too.

[What on earth is the problem? If you were to become engaged to the illegitimate child and take her as your wife, the throne would be yours immediately. What could possibly be lacking that you cling so stubbornly to the dying Princess Astrid?]

[……Be quiet.]

[Your Grace’s behavior right now is a contradiction!]

[Shut your mouth, Caleb.]

[Or could it be, did you have feelings for the princess after all?]

Upon hearing those words, he had left the room entirely, his face cold as ice.

No matter how one looked at it, Duke Haimenwar was failing to separate his personal feelings from his duties.

Had he grown attached to the princess over the long years of preparing for his revenge?

He could only hope that those petty lingering feelings would not ruin the ambitions that were so close to being realized.

With a weary expression, Caleb pressed a hand to his forehead and introduced Tatiana Hennessy to the knight.

“She is a new healing mage. Bring her before His Grace.”

Tatiana stiffened her lips in a tense line and left the room, following behind the knight.

Despite it being broad daylight, the interior of the castle gave off a cold and eerie atmosphere, and the silence felt unnaturally restrained.

Finding this strange, Tatiana walked on and entered the room the knight had led her to.

The interior of the desolate room, without a single ray of light, resembled a large coffin, and a large bed sitting plainly with no other furniture and a single chair only intensified that impression.

On the bed lay a woman as thin as a corpse, eyes closed.

‘What is this? Is she actually alive?’

Tatiana swallowed dryly and examined the woman’s appearance.

The black hair scattered across the pillow had lost its sheen and looked brittle and dry. Her frail, skeletal body and pallid complexion were pitifully heartbreaking.

And the man seated beside the woman wore an expression as blank as ice.

Before she could even admire his sculpted, cool-toned features, her gaze was drawn first to his rigidly frozen expression.

As though the woman lying in the bed had stripped him of every emotion he possessed, the man radiated a kind of lifelessness, though in an entirely different sense.

“Your Grace. This is the healing mage sent by Master Caleb.”

“……A mage.”

The man’s terribly low and ominous voice had a quality that made one shudder without even realizing it.

Tatiana swallowed dryly and gripped the strap of the bag she had slung diagonally across her chest.

That man was the famous Duke Lindenel Haimenwar.

She had never heard of the duke having a sister. So the woman lying there must be his fiancée, Princess Astrid Rakuin.

The mad princess who had lost all of her maternal relatives who were to serve as her support base at the hands of Duke Haimenwar, and had been reduced to a mere puppet of the duke.

Hers was a pitiable life, if one were to call it that, yet she was a woman who had been forgotten from people’s memories before long, overshadowed by the overwhelming presence of Duke Haimenwar.

‘But why is that woman the one lying there? Was it not the duke who was ill?’

It seemed the story about the duke being ill had been nothing but a false rumor after all.

Tatiana realized her miscalculation and bit her lip slightly, then quickly collected herself.

‘No, even so, there must be an important reason he is trying to save the princess. Not everything is ruined yet.’

Lindenel looked at Tatiana with indifferent eyes, then rose from the chair and revealed the princess lying in the bed.

His manner was careful in a way that was difficult to put into words.

And so Tatiana felt as though she, too, needed to be mindful of her every move.

“Can you wake her?”

“Um…… first, there is something I need to tell you.”

Tatiana suppressed her fear and replied as calmly as she could manage.

Getting this far by posing as a healing mage had gone well enough.

However, neither Tatiana nor her grandmother, who had been a great mage, had any connection to healing magic whatsoever.

She was nothing more than a novice mage who had only just begun her studies in magic, and so if she wanted to avoid being killed by that terrifying man, there was something she needed to make clear first.

“I believe I asked whether you could wake her.”

“Pardon? Wake her, you say?”

“I asked whether you can wake this woman.”

The man’s heavy and cold voice settled against her ears.

Tatiana swallowed dryly and opened her mouth with a trembling voice.

“What I am proposing is not healing, but the reversal of time.”

“What?”

“I can send…… His Grace…… no, I can send her back to before she fell ill.”