Aeli blinked her eyes rapidly, recalling what had just happened a beat later.

The child must have been tired, as she fell asleep as soon as they arrived at the ducal residence.

Aeli had told her to at least change clothes if she couldn’t wash up, but when there was no sign of her waking up, Lutis eventually ordered the maids to change the child’s clothes.

‘After that, I was going to stay by her side until dawn as usual, but….’

Aeli glanced at Lutis checking on the sleeping child, assuming he would now head to the bedroom to retire for the night.

It made sense, as unlike the child who had arrived in the capital and slept for a while, Lutis hadn’t slept a wink since leaving the territory.

However, contrary to Aeli’s expectations, Lutis simply changed into more comfortable attire and returned to keep watch over the child.

Finding themselves standing guard on either side of the bed where the child lay, Aeli stared at Lutis and spoke.

[Aren’t you going to sleep?] […I’m not particularly tired.] [But if you don’t sleep now, you’ll be staying up for two nights.]

If he really wanted to, he could just lie down next to Adi and sleep together, Aeli suggested. Lutis hesitated before slowly asking.

He was asking if Aeli herself wasn’t going to sleep.

At that, Aeli rolled her eyes for a moment. Come to think of it, she hadn’t informed Lutis of the fact that she hadn’t slept once since becoming a ghost.

Even after he became able to see her, it was either watching the child fall asleep first while Lutis dozed off alone, or staying up all night together.

‘We both didn’t sleep, but unlike me, he’s not a Sword Master and doesn’t exercise, so….’

She thought he would be more physically exhausted.

…Though it didn’t make sense to attach words like stamina to a ghost in the first place.

Anyway, it wasn’t unreasonable for him to have that misconception, so Aeli pondered.

She was well aware that every time Lutis was made to feel the reality of her being dead, his face would contort as if wounded.

Should she tell the truth to someone like that or not?

It was in that moment of contemplation.

[…?]

Startled by the sudden blurring of her vision, Aeli raised her hand and rubbed her eyes a couple of times.

This was a first, so while she found it strange, she was more taken aback by Lutis’ wide-eyed look of shock across from her.

She had just blacked out in that state and then regained consciousness.

“….”

…This was the situation.

Aeli shuddered involuntarily and raised her upper body.

She grasped the coffin with one hand and supported herself with the other in the remaining space inside the coffin where she lay.

Fresh flowers were crushed under her palm, causing Aeli to slightly furrow her brows at the sensation.

‘…Am I out of my mind?’

The scene before her eyes was no different from the underground chamber she had seen before going down to Rattlebrook.

Moreover, the coffin she had just grabbed when sitting up, the white flowers surrounding it, and the red corsage pinned near her chest.

“Based on the circumstances, it seems I’ve really entered my body….”

Alarmed by her own voice echoing in the wide space, Aeli flinched even after speaking herself.

When she was a ghost, her voice never reverberated in the space, whether she whispered softly or shouted loudly.

Having lived like this for over twenty years, the act of speaking out loud felt quite unfamiliar after just a few months, causing Aeli to make a disgruntled face.

She didn’t understand this situation at all.

“Hmm….”

Letting out a small hum, Aeli slowly moved her body to take her legs out of the coffin.

She was about to remove her hand that was supporting her and look around.

Thud!

“…?”

The moment her feet touched the ground, Aeli blankly blinked at her lowered field of vision.

A cool sensation was rising from her lower body in contact with the cold underground floor.

However, it took Aeli a long while to realize that she was currently feeling cold, causing her to shiver.

In the first place, this dark and chilly underground chamber was located in an inconspicuous part of the ducal residence.

Perhaps out of concern for the decay of the corpse, the internal temperature was always maintained at a cool level, making the air frigid.

Come to think of it, the first sensation she felt upon regaining consciousness was indeed coolness, but….

‘It’s been so long since I felt such a sensation.’

The problem was that it took some time for her to mentally grasp that this was a feeling of being cold.

Only after mustering strength in her legs and grasping the coffin with both hands did Aeli manage to stand up.

It was surprising that she could move like this for someone who had been lying still for over four years.

…Putting aside the fact that her condition was remarkably better than expected, it would be nice if only her body wasn’t so terribly weak.

Just a while ago, she was light enough to keep up with horses and running without falling behind, but now she could barely take a step.

“Ha….”

She was so exhausted that she wanted to collapse right away.

However, unable to do so, Aeli took slow steps.

Her movements were still as precarious as a newborn animal without something to hold onto, but even this was fortunate in her current state.

Staggering and moving her body half-unconsciously, Aeli stopped in front of the underground chamber’s exit door.

Upon reflection, going outside in this state made no sense.

Wasn’t there something a dead person absolutely couldn’t do, no, shouldn’t do?

‘…Does resurrection make sense?’

Aeli briefly imagined what would happen if she were to open the door and head out right now.

First of all, no one would be unsurprised to see a person who had died over four years ago walking out, well, not in good shape, but still… trudging along.

‘…It would be fortunate if they were only surprised. I’ve never seen an undead in real life, but if I were mistaken for one and either exterminated by knights or captured and experimented on….’

She should be grateful for that, shouldn’t she?

In the worst case, she would have to worry about the ducal family being executed together, branded as a product of black magic.

“….”

Aeli slowly removed her hand from the doorknob she had been holding.

The consequences that could be imagined if it was discovered that her corpse was preserved by maintenance magic, or if it was discovered that she had come back to life….

Either way, it would lead to execution, but the circumstances were slightly different.

In the former case, she would disappear from the empire’s history, and in the latter case….

‘Branded as having dealings with strange things, I would contribute to expanding the scope of the Imperial Academy’s history exams.’

Both were terrible, but the latter was a bit more terrible.

“For now, I, I should stay here.”

Aeli unknowingly took a few steps back.

Thud!

Then, her legs gave out again, and she sat on the cold floor.

Her situation was so pitiful that Aeli sighed, making a gesture as if washing her face.

“If it was going to be like this, you should have let me enter when I overlapped last time. Why suddenly now….”

At first, she was too startled to have any particular thoughts, but now it was different.

Once she grasped the situation to some extent, Aeli couldn’t help but feel conflicted.

What was the reason she had tried so hard to enter her own body or someone else’s?

[Adi… Adi can’t….]

She was indeed someone who shouldn’t be here.

It was natural, as if she were discovered, many people’s lives would be in jeopardy.

…That’s why she had intended to get rid of her body.

“Ugh.”

It was only natural to be perplexed when it suddenly turned out like this, even if she had prepared herself mentally.

Aeli, who had focused solely on getting rid of her body, hesitated when the time actually came.

The first thing that bothered her was whether she would return to being a soul if she died again in this body.

Secondly, she wasn’t confident that this time her body would return to the earth according to the laws of nature.

Lastly, the face of the child who had cried before leaving for the territory, promising not to disappear again without a word, and the face of Lutis, whom she had been facing until just now….

“….”

It concerned her.

Even if being mentally unprepared was secondary, if she couldn’t remain as a soul again, the last thing she would see would be the child’s sleeping face and Lutis looking at it together when they returned in the carriage.

Was it really okay to do that?

As Aeli surveyed her surroundings, biting her lips, she noticed a few swords decorating the walls.

“…Why are there swords in a place like this?”

Blinking rapidly in surprise for a moment, Aeli soon recalled that this place was originally a secret passage used in emergencies.

It wouldn’t be strange to have one or two weapons prepared, as there might be situations where they had to flee in a hurry and couldn’t grab any.

Aeli approached the wall where the swords were hung with slow steps and picked up a longsword that looked relatively light.

It was quite heavy, but apart from the very small dagger that seemed to be for self-defense, this was the next lightest-looking sword.

‘At best, it’s about the size of a butter knife. Even if I stabbed with that, it would only hurt and not seem to have an impact on life….’

Moreover, Aeli had no way of knowing where the vital points of a human were located.

Aeli slowly drew the sword. When she carefully brought her hand to the tip of the blade, a stinging sensation and a faint drop of blood formed.

Judging from this, it seemed to have been maintained to prevent the blade from dulling.

Since no one could have entered this place, Aeli thought the person who had been maintaining the swords must have been Lutis, and she lowered her gaze.

“….”

She knew that if not now, such an opportunity would not come again for her, whose movement would be restricted.

She wouldn’t be able to leave on her own until Lutis came here, so she might starve to death, but….

It didn’t seem like he would forget about this place for that long.

Then, shouldn’t she at least try first?

Even if there were some questionable points about acting hastily, wouldn’t it be better to go quietly alone than to be discovered and have everyone die?

Aeli slowly gripped the sword handle in reverse. Whether it was due to the weight or fear, the hand holding the sword trembled.

‘It, it will hurt…?’

Of course it would hurt. The peak of pain she had experienced in her lifetime was when she gave birth to the child, so she prayed it wouldn’t exceed that.

Raising her head to make her neck visible, she gulped and swallowed.

Bang!

“….”

“….”

At that moment, her eyes met Lutis’, who had roughly opened the door and entered.