She put on a look of sincere regret.
“Yes, I have been very rude to His Highness all this time. It’s late, but I sincerely regret it.”
The Duchess quietly nodded her head. She still looked shocked, but luckily she didn’t seem to doubt her words. The way she looked at Eve changed a little.
‘Still, since the wedding is approaching, Eve seems to be trying to gain the favor of the Grand Duke in her own way.’
She seemed to think so.
“Still, if you leave it like this, you might get frostbite. If you like this…”
The Duchess pulled out her handkerchief with her worried eyes. It was a handkerchief embroidered with wisteria flowers on an ivory cloth.
“It is a handkerchief with a warming spell.”
“With magic?”
She didn’t need a handkerchief, but it was amazing that it had magic. Come to think of it, there were several practical magics like that in this world.
“If you hold it in your hand, it will warm up quickly.”
The face of the Duchess, who held out her handkerchief, was full of sincere concern. She didn’t try to please Eve for her daughter, as she did just a moment ago, but she seemed genuinely interested in her. It was probably because she gave her hard-earned flowers to the memory of the late Grand Duchess. Still, she was so kind to Eve… That lady seemed to be of a sweet and gentle disposition, befitting her generosity. She couldn’t believe that such a docile wife was the Grand Duke’s aunt.
“Thank you.”
She reached out to receive a handkerchief. While taking her handkerchief, the Duchess’s hand brushed lightly at the tips of her fingers. At that moment, the vision suddenly distorted and a completely different space appeared.
‘What, what is it?’
Her icy chill dissipated and warm warmth permeated her skin. The garden of the temple where she was standing just a moment ago disappeared completely. She was standing in an ornate and elegantly decorated hallway. Even though her vision was hazy as if she was dreaming, she felt the warm air vividly.
‘Where is this place?’
Then a maid appeared from the end of the hallway carrying her tray. Startled by the stranger’s appearance, she stepped back. But the maid seemed not to see her so she passed her and she opened the door next to her and went inside.
She also followed her like she was bewitched. When she opened the door, there was a small confinement room that looked like a waiting room. Passing through it and opening the door once more, she found a luxurious room that looked like a reception room or rest room. Inside was another maid who looked to be about middle age.
“I brought some medicine.”
“Okay.”
The young maid who had brought her tray set the bowl down on the table and went out.
‘Did she just say medicine?’
The maid who remained in the room took a small vial from her sleeve and poured a little white powder into the medicine bowl. She then turned her body to the other side where a door was.
“My lady, you should take your medicine and go to sleep.”
Then a brown-haired girl opened the door and came out. She was a young girl with a pale face who looked about 16 or 17 years old. She was thin and was wearing a white nightgown that covered her whole body. The girl came over to the table and took the medicine bowl.
Eve stretched out her hand in surprise.
‘Wait, there was something…’
That maid put something inside. But her hand went right through the girl’s body.
‘What, what?’
Without even time to stop, the girl gulped down the medicine from the bowl. And she went back to where she just came from.
Eve unconsciously followed her girl. The girl entered a cozy and luxurious bedroom, then lay down on the bed as if going to sleep. At this point, she figured out the situation.
‘I don’t know what this is, but it’s clear that it’s not real.’
If she put her hand on an object, it went right through the air. As the surroundings became hazy like a dream, time and space were distorted little by little. She saw the clock hanging on the wall moving quickly. Dozens of minutes passed in an instant.
The girl, who had been lying asleep in her bed, suddenly bent over her, clutching her near the heart. A moan of pain escaped her parched lips.
“Ugh… Cough Cough!”
Blood trickled from her mouth along with her dry cough.
Another maid opened the door and entered from outside, probably hearing a cough.
“Miss!”
The girl fell unconscious, covered in her own blood.
“Quickly call the madam!”
The girl twisted her body, frowning in pain.
‘What the hell is this?’
She couldn’t come to her senses as this horrific scene was unfolding before her eyes. After a while, someone came running to this place screaming outside.
“Diane!”
The person running was a middle-aged woman in a light blue evening dress.
‘Duchess?’
She looked much paler than before, but she was definitely the Duchess he was talking to her in the temple a moment ago.
The Duchess hugged the girl with tears in her eyes. The skirt of her dress was wrinkled and her platinum hair, which was painstakingly twisted, was disheveled.
“Diane! Why… Why did this suddenly happen…!”
The Duchess wiped the blood from the girl’s face with her trembling hands.
‘Is this lady Diane?’
Was she Diane, the Duke’s only daughter and her best friend?
“Come on, call a doctor… Call the doctor!”
She cried, the Duchess, sobbing plaintively, looking around her. Then she saw the people around her. Several people were standing in front of the door, giving them worried looks. All were dressed in fancy evening dresses and ball gowns.
When she saw it, something immediately came to mind.
‘Is it prom day?’
Her thoughts couldn’t go any further. After that, everything went dark in an instant.
She was startled and hurriedly withdrew her hand. The surroundings were a winter garden where the sun was setting again. Along with the warm glow of the sunset, a cool chill permeated her skin.
The midnight vision that had just appeared had vanished without a trace and in front of her eyes was the Duchess, wearing a navy blue dress and her white blonde hair neatly braided. The moment she saw her, a flash of her realization came over her head.
‘I hope this is…’
The Duchess was taken aback by her strange reaction.
“Princess? Why are you like that?”
“…No, nothing.”
She accepted the handkerchief and smiled like it was nothing special. As soon as she put the soft handkerchief in her hand, the warmth penetrated her skin. It was like holding a hot pack with frozen hands. However, unlike the warmth in her hands, her head went cold.
‘Could I have seen Wisdom just now?’
It was a short fantasy, but it was a vivid illusion that felt like reality.
The foresight that was Eve’s unique ability. It was clear that it was a fragment of the future that he had glimpsed with that ability. It’s been 4 days since she woke up there, but that was the first time she had seen the future.
She looked at the hand holding the handkerchief. Her thin, white fingers wrapped around a soft handkerchief. Between her fingers, she could see crumpled wisteria flower embroidery.
‘This was the secret key.’
Eve’s foreknowledge was actually a medium of touch. To put it simply, foreknowledge appeared when her hands touched another person’s body.
Eve didn’t know about it until after her death. That was because wisdom appeared at any time in childhood. However, around the age of 10, the medium of wisdom changed. If she didn’t touch the opponent with her bare hands, her wisdom would not appear. And right there was the problem.
‘Eve… Because she was a patient with severe mysophobia.’
Eve, who abhorred dirty things, always wore gloves on her hands. Thanks to this, she never had a chance to touch other people with her bare hands. Besides, because Eve’s holy power was so weak, wisdom didn’t come out of nowhere every time she touched it with her hands.
When she thought about the future she wanted to see in particular, she had to touch the other person with her hands to find related wisdom. However, the frequency of the appearance of wisdom was so low that most of them did not appear even if they held onto the opponent for a long time. So, even if Eve had a chance to come into contact with another person with her bare hands, she would have passed without knowing it because her wisdom did not appear.
‘The content that appeared in the vision now is clear…’
The brown-haired girl in the prophecy was the daughter of the Duchess, Diane. All in all, she understood why the foreknowledge related to Diane came out. Probably because she kept thinking that Diane was sick and couldn’t attend the wedding. She even thought it would be nice for Diane to attend her wedding.
‘The maid put something fishy on her medicine. After eating it, Miss Diane woke up and vomited blood.’
It won’t be poison. Because it was never said that Diane died in the original story. In the original story, there was no mention that a maid fed Diane with suspicious powder. That would mean that her maid’s behavior went undetected and she simply moved on to her aggravation. Perhaps the powder was not a poison, but a medicine of the kind that aggravates the disease.
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Translator Note:
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