Diana shook her head, wondering if she should have filed a lawsuit from the beginning instead of waiting for 3 years.

She belatedly recalled that Nelly was the original heir and had even proposed a contract marriage to Cedar Granite.

‘Anyway, my sister is of no help at all.’

Thinking of Nelly, only her dull and disheveled golden hair came to mind.

Diana twirled her own luscious hair with her finger and pouted her plump lips.

“Indeed. Come to think of it, it’s been a while since I’ve heard news of my sister. Well, since Lord Cedar doesn’t care about her either, she might even be dead.”

Cedar Granite was a very gruff man.

He wasn’t the type to check daily whether a woman in a catatonic state at home was really dead or alive.

‘Should I go see her face once?’

If she was really dead, there were procedures to follow.

It wouldn’t look good if her only sister didn’t know that her elder sister was on the verge of death.

Diana lightly lifted her chin, pointed at the desk, and ordered the maid.

“I should send a letter requesting permission to visit the Granite family. Please prepare pen and paper.”

“Yes, young lady.”

The maid hurriedly tidied up the desk. After writing the letter in an elegant handwriting, the maid waited and held out an envelope.

After melting wax to seal it, she handed the envelope back to the maid.

As the maid was about to leave with it, she hesitated and spoke.

“…But what if she’s really dead and her ghost appears?”

Diana blinked, momentarily unable to comprehend what she meant, then a beat later realized she was talking about strange noises coming from Nelly’s room and burst into laughter.

“Where in the world are there ghosts?”

“There really were continuous strange sounds. Sounds that I can’t even describe.”

“Hmm.”

Seeing how much of a fuss she was making, there must be something to it.

‘Even if my sister is dead, I’ll just think she’s dead and be done with it. She’s not the type to come back for revenge. It wasn’t my fault she fell into a catatonic state in the first place. It’s because she was lacking as a magician.’

Thinking of Nelly made her irritated again.

Diana frowned and got up from her seat.

Noticing Diana’s bad mood, the maid quickly bowed her head and left the room.

Diana lay down on the bed.

‘Finally becoming a magician, yet still being of no help at all. If you’re going to research magic, you should research something that makes money, not some strange field with a name I’ve never even heard of.’

A sister who was useless except when bragging to friends. A stupid and naive sister.

‘Still, it’s thanks to her that we can receive the inheritance from our distant ancestor.’

Thinking of the inheritance made her feel better again. Diana stretched out and said.

“Ah, I want to receive the inheritance quickly. I want to become a millionaire heiress too.”

Whatever the inheritance is, she should sell it quickly and turn it into money.

With that, she’d buy a big house, purchase next season’s dresses……

As she was lost in pleasant fantasies, her eyes gradually closed and she fell asleep.

When Diana opened her eyes again, it was deep into the night.

‘I’m thirsty.’

It was so late at night that no one would come even if she rang the bell.

Diana, who had woken up thirsty, groped around with drowsy eyes. But the pitcher near the bed on the side table was empty.

‘There’s no water either. I’ll have to scold them all.’

To think even such a basic thing wasn’t taken care of. Diana put down the pitcher with a huff.

She wanted to just go back to sleep out of annoyance, but today she was unusually thirsty.

‘Well, it’s not bad to move directly once in a while.’

Unusually, Diana decided to be generous and got up from her seat.

The mansion, where everyone was asleep, was as quiet as if submerged in darkness.

Holding a small lamp, walking briskly felt like taking a stroll.

‘Where was the water again?’

Just as she was turning the corner of the hallway to find the kitchen, a strange sound echoed in her ears.

-Su… ni…

“Gasp!”

Diana was so startled she almost dropped the lamp. She trembled and whirled her body left and right.

“Wh-what is this sound?”

She belatedly recalled what the maid had said in the room earlier.

“Huh!”

Could it really be that Nelly’s ghost had come?

As she stepped back, pale-faced, she suddenly felt a hard wall against her back.

That firmness actually calmed her down. Diana shook her head.

“No. No. There are no such things as ghosts in this world. I must be hearing things. Or someone must be playing a trick to scare me.”

The crackling sound disappeared at some point.

Diana swallowed hard. The small side room connecting to the stairs at the corner of the corridor was Nelly’s room.

‘Whoever it is, I’ll catch them and teach them a lesson.’

Diana moved her steps stealthily, holding the lamp. Then, grasping the doorknob, she counted one, two, three.

“Who’s there!”

She flung the door open wide, but there was no answer.

Crouching low, Diana looked around, swinging the lamp.

It was a small room with only a bed and a nightstand for furniture, so there was nowhere for a person to hide.

What caught Diana’s eye was that very nightstand.

“Oh? Is that?”

On the nightstand was a small orb that Nelly had preciously brought back when she returned from the academy.

Realizing there was nothing dangerous, Diana approached the orb with her lamp.

A faint rainbow light leaked from the orb, slightly smaller than a fist.

‘I thought it was just an ordinary orb, but it’s glowing?’

Was this a magical item too? It was then that Diana looked at the orb with curious eyes.

Crackle―

“Oh my, you startled me!”

The sound that had surprised Diana earlier flowed out of the orb again.

After crackling a few more times, a voice that could finally be understood flowed from the orb.

-You finally answer. Can you hear my voice, Nelly?

“Th…”

The person beyond the orb was speaking to her. Diana’s eyes shook busily.

While she was hesitating whether to answer or not, another voice flowed from the orb.

-I thought you had just woken up now.

“Gasp!”

At that moment, Diana unknowingly swung her hand.

Crash―

The orb fell to the floor and shattered into pieces the moment it was hit by her hand.

Diana looked down at the mirror, breathing heavily. Cold sweat trickled down.

“Huff, huff.”

Breathing roughly, Diana looked down at the broken orb. The orb flickered a few times and then suddenly lost its light.

Only then did Diana come to her senses and approached the broken orb, tapping on the largest piece.

The shattered piece, of course, gave no answer.

“Wh-who woke up? Wait. I should have listened more.”

Diana rubbed her face, blaming herself for hastily breaking the orb. Her beautiful eyes shone with a sharp light.

“They definitely called my sister’s name.”

Diana chewed on her lip.

The existence of her sister, whom she had considered as good as dead, began to bother her again like a splinter.

Since receiving Cedar’s permission, my range of movement expanded from the second floor of the mansion to the garden.

But that doesn’t mean anything special happened.

‘Indeed, touching soil is no ordinary task!’

I was extremely weak in terms of physical strength, and the garden was vast.

‘I never knew a shovel could be this heavy. I never knew soil could be this hard.’

Just as the first thing I did after being allocated my room by Cedar was to draw magic circles, in the garden, I drew magic circles first as well.

I drew everything good that I knew of – things that help plants grow, facilitate mana circulation, and so on.

After that, I dug shallow trenches to divide the land into sections while thinking about what to plant.

It was literally preparatory work, not even something that could be called labor.

And then I was bedridden with body aches for three days.

“Ugh.”

My whole body was aching, and I had such a high fever that I could barely see.

Tears kept streaming down endlessly.

‘What is happening to me.’

Labor is truly difficult.

I thought I had lived a harsh life, doing all sorts of slave-like work to become a magician, but as soon as I actually moved my body, I was immediately knocked down.

‘No, it’s not just because of the labor.’

Even when I was at the academy, I wasn’t particularly healthy, but I wasn’t this weak either.

Perhaps due to the prolonged catatonic state, if my body was just trash before, now it had become completely unrecyclable waste.

‘How pitiful.’

It’s sad enough that the method I chose to survive was to put myself in a catatonic state, but to think that it also depleted my physical strength to this extent.

As I alternated between sobbing and falling asleep from exhaustion, unfamiliar voices echoed in my ears.

“This person… Cedar…”

“Why…”

“…Sigh… So…”

The voices, devoid of any goodwill, were simply annoying.

‘So noisy.’

If I had the strength, I would have screamed at them to get out immediately. But I didn’t even have the strength to open my eyes.

Realizing this about myself, I became sorrowful again and sobbed quietly.

How much time passed like that?

It was a very quiet night. Perhaps due to the scent of the sleep candle that seemed to have been lit on purpose to help me sleep deeply, I opened my eyes instead.

The sleep candle was an herb I had handled several times at the academy.

As if by reflex, the moment I smelled it, my sleepiness disappeared completely.

“…!”

As I opened my eyes wide, there was the face of a man who looked somewhat tired in front of me.

Dark eye circles, eyes slightly slanted at the ends, jet-black hair that seemed to melt into the night.

When our eyes met, he also seemed surprised and froze with his eyes wide open.

I moved my lips. I knew this handsome man.

“…Cedar.”

Cedar Granite.

My husband.

Though it was a very small and faint voice, it seemed to reach Cedar’s ears sufficiently, as his eyes curved gently.

His large palm covered my eyes.

“Sleep more.”

That hand was hard and cool. I closed my eyes slowly.

I fell asleep without even dreaming.