The captain who grabbed me then examined my head, turning it roughly this way and that.

“No signs of injury. No fever either. I thought you might be talking nonsense from hitting your head or running a fever.”

“……”

“Are you… really alright? Why aren’t you being insolent as usual and instead saying thank you?”

“……Was I usually insolent? I apologize for that as well.”

It seemed that my 25-year-old self was even more unpleasant than I remembered.

Suddenly, I felt sorry for the captain and his subordinates.

Meanwhile, the captain sighed.

“Anyway, get some rest. We have to close Rift No. 4 in the Count’s territory in five days. If you’re a hindrance then, I won’t let it slide.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Hearing my response, the captain opened his mouth as if to say something more, but in the end, he just sighed.

After that, he immediately left the tent, and Karl also vacated his spot, following behind the captain.

Only after they had left could I finally take out a mirror and examine my face.

“……”

The silver-haired, purple-eyed woman reflected in the mirror was undoubtedly me.

It’s my face.

However, it looked much younger than my 30-year-old self who had died from drinking poison.

In other words, it meant I had indeed regressed.

But why?

I hadn’t done anything in particular when I died.

I hadn’t even wished to the gods to let me regress.

So it couldn’t be that a god had granted my wish…

As I was thinking that far, something suddenly occurred to me.

Mother’s heirloom.

Come to think of it, I had felt a strange power from mother’s heirloom.

Could it be because of that?

I hurriedly felt around my neck to find the necklace.

Fortunately, it was still hanging neatly around my neck.

Although I couldn’t feel anything now, I clearly remembered feeling a mysterious power from it before I died.

Was it really thanks to this that I was able to regress?

If that’s the case… if that’s really the case, then I had a responsibility.

A responsibility to lead this new life, given to me by my mother, more successfully.

“……”

I silently clutched the necklace tightly in my hand.

Then I offered a prayer to my mother, who must be somewhere in the heavens.

My kind mother.

My mother who gave her unworthy daughter a chance even after passing away.

I prayed that I would carve out a second life that was more honorable and more brilliant than anything else, if only to repay her love.

Perhaps because I had suddenly experienced something big, I couldn’t fall into a deep sleep.

I tossed and turned on the uncomfortable bed, and when I finally managed to fall asleep, I ended up having a strange dream.

In the dream, I was, oddly enough, the Empress.

Ernant spoke to me, his wife and the Empress.

“I like that you’re adequately stupid. You don’t bother me.”

Naturally feeling offended, I soon opened my mouth to confront him.

But at that moment, the walls of the imperial palace crumbled, and for some reason, the captain burst in.

Then the captain shouted at me.

“Yulia! What are you doing now! Hurry and defeat the monster!”

“Monster?”

“The monster next to you!”

Startled, I looked at Ernant sitting next to me.

For some reason, he had turned into a humanoid monster.

Well, dreams usually flow illogically like that, don’t they?

As the dreamer, I didn’t even think about why Ernant had suddenly turned into a monster, and instead drew my weapon.

A familiar sword in my hand.

With it, I stabbed the heart of the monster that had been Ernant.

Thud—

A vivid sound rang out, unusually clear for a dream, and after confirming through my senses that I had pierced the heart, I pulled out the sword.

Dark red blood sprayed in all directions.

As I was being hit by it, unable to avoid it, the captain who had approached me at some point praised me.

“You’ve taken care of it. Now that my brother is dead, I’m the Emperor.”

“What?”

That was the end of the absurd dream.

The moment I dumbly asked “What?”, I woke up from my sleep.

“……”

Even after waking up, I was immersed in the lingering impression of the dream for a while.

What could the meaning of that dream be?

Just a nonsense dream?

In any case, the ruler of the empire becoming a monster, and me becoming the Empress.

I could only hope that it wasn’t a prophetic dream.

“……”

At that point, I decided to stop my useless thoughts and go back to bed.

Although I had woken up early because of the dream, it was still dark outside.

So I forcibly closed my eyes and pulled the blanket over my head, intending to fall asleep again, but soon I had to get up again.

“Cold……”

My body felt strange.

A cold that penetrated to the bone and shivering muscles.

The symptoms of coming down with a cold were appearing.

Only then could I recall.

After nearly dying once at Rift No. 3, I had suffered from a severe cold.

At that time, I had been sick for almost a week straight, and because of that, I had been weak and caused trouble when attacking Rift No. 4.

As soon as I recalled the memory, I got up from the cot, furrowing my brow.

Regular fever reducers wouldn’t be enough, so I thought I should either drink a potion or get treatment from Karl.

A potion is a special liquid that can easily cure diseases when applied to wounds or ingested.

If I had one, it would quickly cure a cold like this.

However, as effective as they are, potions were quite expensive, and before my regression, I had foolishly only taken fever reducers, reluctant to use the expensive potions.

Since Karl had healing abilities, it would have been a little better if I had at least received his help, but I didn’t even do that.

I was embarrassed to let them know that I had been injured after showing such a pathetic sight when I entered the rift alone.

At that time, I wanted to look strong to both Karl and the captain. It was unnecessary pride.

Anyway, I had no such thoughts now.

This cold was caused by a monster’s cold attack and couldn’t be cured by mere fever reducers.

Let’s look for a potion first.

With that thought, I barely managed to raise my weak body and rummaged through my bag in the tent.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a single potion.

Should I borrow from someone else?

It seemed best to hurry and borrow one, as I needed to drink a potion quickly to nip the illness in the bud before it got worse.

I staggered out of the tent to borrow a potion from Karl.

However, I ultimately didn’t make it to Karl.

The reason was that I met an unexpected person outside the tent.

“Where are you going, looking so weak?”

It was Captain Martin.

For some reason, the captain who had been loitering outside approached me saying that.

Before I could stagger a few steps towards the captain, he was already in front of me.

He immediately grabbed my arm to support me as he came up so quickly.

“Didn’t I clearly tell the patient to rest?”

“I have a fever. I think I need to drink a potion.”

“Fever…? Certainly… you seemed fine earlier, but now that I look, you’re sweating a lot.”

The captain reached out his hand to my forehead.

While I had my eyes closed, he checked my temperature and muttered in a slightly serious voice.

“…It’s hot.”

“I’ll get better if I drink a potion. Karl probably has three or four bottles. He always carried plenty. If not, I was thinking of asking him to use his healing ability.”

“So you were on your way to meet Karl at this hour?”

“Yes. If you’ll allow me, I’d like to continue on my way.”

I had no intention of picking a fight with the captain.

I just wanted to quickly cut off the conversation so I could hurry and borrow a potion.

But was it because of my characteristically stiff way of speaking?

The captain slightly furrowed his straight brow after hearing my words.

“It doesn’t seem like a good choice to enter a tent full of men in that state at dawn.”

“What’s wrong with my state?”

“……”

The captain hesitated for a long time as if looking for something to say, then finally blurted out.

“It’s inappropriate. Your clothes are too thin and soaked with sweat.”

“Ah… I guess it’s not the weather to be walking around in thin clothes.”

“That’s not what I meant… no, never mind. Anyway, if you need a potion, follow me. I’ll give you one.”

I was slightly surprised by his unexpected offer.

Maybe in five years, but wasn’t the current captain disliking me?

Yet he readily offers me an expensive potion.

I felt a bit perplexed, but there was no need to refuse if he was offering.

Above all, I felt like I would collapse if I didn’t drink a potion right away.

I was able to quickly follow the captain to the large tent where he was staying.

My impression of seeing the inside of his tent after a long time was this:

It’s cozier than I thought.

Because he had such a sharp and cold demeanor, I thought the inside of the tent would be empty of furniture with only cold wind blowing through.

Contrary to my expectations, the inside of his tent was quite cozy and warm.

As I sat waiting on a suitable chair, he brought out a potion and held it out to me.

I received it and bowed my head politely.

“Thank you for lending me the potion. I’ll repay you later.”

“You’re talking about repaying such a small thing. Just drink it quickly.”

Following his urging, I opened the potion bottle.

Inside the bottle, about half the size of a palm, was a red liquid… the potion.

I poured about half of the liquid, which should contain healing abilities, into my mouth.

The captain, who was sitting nearby quietly watching me, slightly contorted his eyes and asked.

“Wouldn’t it be better to drink it all?”