Left alone in the bedroom after Cabelased’s departure, she was organizing her thoughts when Mikhail arrived.
“Jieselgrante, how was it? Did you talk well with Cabel?”
“Huh? …Yeah.”
Duke Amaterasu, who entered the bedroom shortly after, asked:
“Are you alright, Jieselgrante?”
Duke Amaterasu and the young duke looked at her with worried expressions.
They were concerned about Trinity’s, or more precisely, Jieselgrante’s body.
It felt too unfamiliar.
The fact that there were others who genuinely cared about her. Even if they weren’t her real family.
She pondered for a moment, choosing her words carefully before slowly opening her mouth.
“…Of course. You heard, didn’t you? The news that my illness has cleared up completely.”
“Yes, yes. We heard.”
Duke Amaterasu finally smiled slightly and nodded his head emphatically.
“It’s really fortunate. That you’re alive, Jieselgrante.”
A faint smile also appeared on Mikhail’s face as he let out a low sigh.
Their faces, which must have been deeply saddened by the news of their family member’s death, now showed deep relief and joy.
She looked back and forth between the two before lowering her gaze slightly and speaking.
“Um, I’d like to rest a bit…”
Duke Amaterasu nodded understandingly and turned around.
“Of course, in my joy… We’ll leave so you can rest comfortably.”
Mikhail, who had hesitated for a moment as if he had something to say, soon left the bedroom as well.
She glanced around the bedroom where Jieselgrante had lived until just recently.
Naturally, questions about the original owner of this body arose.
‘What happened to the real Jieselgrante?’
A daughter and sister thought to be dead had come back to life.
Whether it was really due to the doctor’s misdiagnosis was uncertain, but seeing their joyful faces made her feel somewhat uncomfortable in a corner of her heart.
That was probably because of the thought that the real Jieselgrante, their true family member, might actually be dead.
But the gloomy mood didn’t last long. She was in no position to worry about others right now.
Above all, it was time to care for her own well-being.
‘Did Jieselgrante’s body and mine switch?’
It seemed like a plausible guess.
‘I’ll know for sure when I go to the Imperial Palace.’
She tried to sit up abruptly in bed.
But contrary to the doctor’s miraculous claim that her illness had been cured, her body wouldn’t move easily.
Instead of forcing herself to get up from the bed, she leaned back against the headboard and closed her eyes.
‘Since I’m borrowing someone else’s body, I should use it well and return it.’
After closing her eyes for a moment, she was about to leave the bedroom when she suddenly stopped, recalling what Cabelased had said.
‘I wonder if that proposal he made to me then… is still valid.’
She had no idea what proposal Jieselgrante might have made to Cabelased.
‘A proposal one would make to someone they like…’
The first thing that came to mind was a marriage proposal. But soon she thought that might be going too far.
‘Even so…’
These days, there were quite a few proactive ladies who confessed to the men they admired first. Jieselgrante was apparently one of the most extreme among them.
While wondering if she would have proposed marriage when they weren’t even in a relationship where they had confirmed each other’s feelings, she wasn’t sure how to handle it if that really was the case.
Until just a moment ago, she hadn’t even thought that she had switched bodies with Jieselgrante.
So she had no choice but to give a somewhat ambiguous answer to Cabelased’s question.
‘If you’re willing to accept the proposal.’
At that time, Cabelased stood looking at her for a while. She also quietly looked back at him.
‘What is he thinking now?’
She wanted to know what was going on inside his mind. That way she could respond appropriately.
But it was impossible to read his thoughts.
His expressionless face showed no emotion, and she couldn’t find even a fragment of feeling in the gaze directed at her.
‘I’ll have occasion to visit the mansion again soon, so we’ll talk more then. Until then, take care.’
Cabelased, who had finished organizing his thoughts, said with a clean face.
And as if that concluded his business, he immediately turned and walked away from her.
She couldn’t take her eyes off his back until he had completely left the bedroom.
And in that brief moment, she was able to gather a few more clues about Cabelased than during the long time their gazes had been locked.
Broad shoulders that looked solid.
Such a splendid physique was hard to find even among seasoned knights.
A straight and upright posture that might appear somewhat stiff.
This was likely to be a habit ingrained in his body rather than something conscious.
His long legs took brisk strides, and there was no hint of hesitation.
The actual time they had locked gazes probably wasn’t that long. But for some reason, it felt longer.
“…”
After reflecting on her time with Cabelased for a while, she slowly got up.
And began to look around the bedroom.
Before regaining her original body, she needed to learn about Jieselgrante to avoid arousing suspicion.
[This is the timeline separator]As she rummaged through various parts of the bedroom looking for traces of Jieselgrante, she discovered a book.
Unlike the other books, however, this one had no title on its cover.
‘…What could be inside?’
Her hand, which had been quickly flipping through the pages, suddenly stopped.
The handwriting was neat and uniform, so at first she thought it was just a book published for the market.
But soon she realized that this was Jieselgrante’s diary.
What could be better than a diary for getting to know someone?
Delighted, she began to read Jieselgrante’s diary.
The fact that she was prying into someone else’s personal secrets pricked her conscience a bit, but as she read on, such thoughts were completely forgotten.
Because the contents of the diary were so intriguing.
‘Jieselgrante… didn’t write a novel, did she? If all this is true…’
The content was certainly interesting, but it seemed so far-fetched as to border on delusion.
In the diary, Jieselgrante claimed to have the ability to see the future. However, the more she used this ability, the more it ate away at her life force, and at first she didn’t know about this backlash.
So out of simple curiosity, she looked into the future. The near future, like what food would be on the dinner table tonight.
Gradually, her body began to deteriorate, and she started looking into the distant future. Hoping that her incurable disease would be completely cured and her health restored.
But contrary to such hopes, she sees a future where she lives an unhappy life and dies at a young age, and the person who takes her life is none other than Cabelased.
‘Then, is there any mention of the proposal that Jieselgrante made to Duke Cardia?’
With that thought, she sat down on the sofa in front of the large window and seriously read through the diary.
“…!”
Whether the contents of the diary were true or not, she finally felt she understood the series of events that Jieselgrante had set in motion.
‘So she needed Duke Cardia’s help to survive.’
Knock knock.
Just as she was thinking that, there was a knock at the door.
“Miss, I’ve brought your medicine.”
It was Lindsey’s voice.
Trinity quickly hid the diary and lay down on the bed, catching her breath.
Judging by how she was panting just from moving a little, it seemed true that Jieselgrante hadn’t set foot outside the bedroom for a long time.
“Haa… Come in.”
Soon Lindsey entered the bedroom.
Lindsey, who had set down the tray on the table by the window, then handed her a glass of water along with a round medicinal pill.
“Please take this.”
She reached out to take the medicine habitually, then paused for a moment.
“What kind of medicine was this again?”
“Oh Miss, you’re too much. It’s the energy tonic that the Duke personally went far away to get for you.”
She stared at the medicine handed to her by Lindsey and suddenly furrowed her brow at a thought.
‘Come to think of it, I don’t have a headache…’
Trinity usually lived with chronic migraines.
Because of that, she had developed the habit of taking medicine regularly at set times.
Before one of those thin blood vessels in her head started gnawing at her nerves.
But now it was different.
Although her body was weak enough to make her short of breath with just a little movement, at least there was no foggy haze in her head or stabbing pain.
‘Is it because my body has changed?’
Instead of taking the medicine of unknown identity, Trinity quickly changed the subject.
“By the way, Lindsey.”
“Yes, Miss.”
“I…”
Trinity opened her mouth and then closed it again.
Although they might have been a bit closer than the typical relationship between a maid and her mistress, she judged that Jieselgrante wouldn’t have confided everything to Lindsey.
After all, even Trinity had secrets she couldn’t share with the maids who served her most closely.
“Yes, please go on, Miss.”
Lindsey nodded, her expression ready to listen to whatever she had to say.
“Umm… Never mind. More importantly, Lindsey, has anything unusual happened at the Imperial Palace?”
“The Imperial Palace?”
Lindsey blinked rapidly as she thought.
‘The Miss is certainly acting strange today…’
But soon she dismissed it as unimportant.
‘Well, after what happened…’
Inwardly cursing the doctor who had declared Jieselgrante dead without properly examining her, Lindsey opened her mouth.
“Shall I look into it for you?”
“Yes, please.”
[This is the timeline separator]Because of the doctor’s earnest instructions that she should rest absolutely still just in case, Trinity lay properly in bed, staring at the ceiling patterns.
“Maybe it’s better to just stay in the room like this.”
It would be more troublesome if someone found out that Jieselgrante’s insides had changed while having a conversation.
And she definitely needed some time alone.
That way she could read the rest of Jieselgrante’s diary.
Just as she slowly got up from the bed to look for the hidden diary, it happened.
The sound of footsteps thumping in the corridor grew closer and closer, and then Lindsey’s voice was heard.
“Miss! It’s me, Lindsey!”
“What’s the matter?”
Lindsey, who had burst into the bedroom out of breath, exclaimed:
“The Imperial Princess! The First Imperial Princess has passed away!”
“…What?”
“Just now, a message came from the Imperial Palace!”
Although Lindsey continued speaking after that, her words didn’t register well in Trinity’s ears.
“I…”
Jieselgrante’s red lips parted slightly.
‘…died?’
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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