On slightly shaky legs, she stood on her fluffy carpet and tried to open the doors to her balcony. Rowena stepped out with a shawl Norina had wrapped around her before the maid had left the room.

The first thing she noticed was a guard stationed below her, as she weakly waved a hand at the man, acknowledging his existence, before going back to staring sternly into the distance.

They must have taken this situation very seriously. Of course they would, what did she expect? But that was the problem, she didn't expect anything to happen.

It was obviously a big deal if the daughter of the only Grand Duke of the Empire was involved in the attack of the people of the Empire. Well, not involved, maybe it was better to say that she was at least present at the scene?

And since she was injured, a little, they had to increase the security on her as well. It wouldn't look good if they didn't, right?

Leaning her upper body against the railing, she closed her eyes for a moment. Her mind remembered how the Mana Paths worked, she remembered how Mana felt. She knew things from the outset that ordinary beginners would have to learn first and understand second.

And even with Rowena's body, which was a great vessel, her core had expanded just enough to help her fend off a half-assed skeleton for about two minutes. She felt ashamed, even though she knew there was nothing she could do about her body not being what it used to be.

In fact, even when she was still Celia, her body went from "zero to hero" in a heartbeat after she accepted the contract with Pan right from the start. She hadn't done it because she wanted to then, but now that she could make the choice, she had caught herself trying to rely on powers that weren't her own.

Another sigh escaped her lips. The only good thing was that she had already expanded her body's ability to store Mana, so replenishing it wasn't the problem. She could heal herself quickly, just as she had from the first day she entered this novel world.

As she held up her hand and looked at it in the light of the evening sun, she remembered her dream. Shivers ran down her spine as sadness gripped her body as if it were her own. She tried to physically shake it off, but it must have looked like a dog ridding itself of a bucket's worth of water.

As she swallowed, her eyes burned and a tear formed in the corner. At the same time, she remembered the venom on Rowena's face as she stood before her, screaming at her. What did she ask again?

It was funny though. The first half of her dream was still fresh in her mind, as if it was a memory she had experienced herself when it happened, which made her realize that it wasn't a dream at all. But she could barely remember the second half.

The real Rowena had asked her something, but what was it?

Looking down at her hands once more, her eyes burned again and she deliberately looked away from the soldier standing guard so he wouldn't see her face. She didn't want anyone to see her or meet anyone at this moment, because she couldn't explain what had gotten her into this state.

She couldn't stop thinking about the emotions that had overwhelmed her in that "dream" that she was sure was actually a memory. The last memory, the last emotions the real Rowena had felt before falling asleep in that bathtub.

From the beginning, she had hesitated to judge her without knowing anything about her past, yet she had done so anyway. And not just the few times she realized she had gotten ahead of herself.

There was this cold way she had stuffed the real Rowena within her own subconscious as a person who had done all the things she had done out of malice and entitlement; out of jealousy and pain.

She hadn't said it out loud, no, she hadn't even consciously thought about it, because she was used to keeping some things "unthought", untouched in her mind, because there was always someone to share these open thoughts with.

'Sure, you can't completely stop thinking certain things, but sometimes you just refuse to make the connections for yourself.'

Without ever reflecting on it, she had accepted that Rowena had decided to stop eating because she felt bad; because she wanted attention and tried to force it.

But the reality was that she was a broken girl. When she felt her pain, even that tiny fraction of it, with little to no context, she could tell. She wanted to control at least one thing in her life, something no one could take away from her, and that was the body she was born in. If nothing else, she could control that.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

But what could have caused her to fall apart like that? It had to be more than just her mother dying and her father remarrying. It just didn't add up.

'I get it, that must have been terrible, but she could overcome that much, right? She had family left. Was there nothing else behind it?' Celia reasoned, trying to make sense of it all, but in the end realizing that with her limited knowledge, there was nothing for her to unravel.

The cold air around her arms made her pull the shawl tighter around her shoulders as she stared up at the slowly darkening sky. Heavy clouds would cover the beautiful stars tonight, making her feel even more hopeless.

'It's like a crumb fell into my hands and now I'm craving the cookie,' she thought, laughing as a tear finally rolled down her cheek and she lightly struck her forehead with her hand, "makes me I feel like shit."

"What does?" someone said out of nowhere.

Flinching, her brain short-circuited for a moment and her heart skipped a beat. But she had to calm down and get herself together.

As she cleared her throat without looking at the intruder, her pulse slowed again. "Did we forget to knock again?"

Recognizing the voice after a second, she hastily wiped her cheeks before turning to see hair the same shade of lavender as her own.

"Well, you didn't honor your word, so I don't have to honor mine."

To be exact, neither of them had ever given their word on anything, he simply had his high pride to vouch for whatever he decided to do.

'And I just said I don't want to meet anyone though.' Well, she didn't really "say" it. "Anyway, it's of no concern to you, young master Colin."

His brow twitched faintly at her words, though his sister had already turned back to the sky and didn't notice. "Is that why your nose sounds so stuffy?"

He heard her drop a few obscenities as well, but he wasn't going to hold her accountable for her behavior when she was alone like this. It wasn't the time, even Colin could tell that she wasn't in the right state of mind.

And this time, not in the way she was in the past, when all she exuded was putrid hate and animosity toward absolutely everything that lived and breathed her way. It also wasn't what he had come here to do.

"I didn't come here to fight, I just came to see if you were doing well." It wasn't as if they'd had the best of relations in recent years, but she was still his little sister.

When he had received the news of the attack on Eisenwacht, he had steeled himself for the worst. Not many guards were stationed, none of them had Mana control, and one was sent to alert them.

But when the guard who informed them mentioned that it sounded like Rowena was somehow involved, he couldn't think clearly. She hadn't triggered his sensors, but he hadn't refreshed them either. He felt bad about what he'd done and thought about leaving her alone, so he went about his business and left the chateau for a while.

He couldn't even begin to imagine the consequences of that decision, which had proven to be terrible. He was all the more shocked when he finally arrived at the remote blacksmith's village, only to find that no lives had been lost. Only one person had been injured.

One person, besides his little sister, that is. They had picked her up, drenched in water, looking like a corpse. Whatever he had envisioned with the few words of information he had received, this wasn't it.

"She protected me," an older woman had said as she cried for his sister who hadn't been able to get along with anyone for more than half a decade, "please, you have to save her."

Of course he would. She was a Grand Duke's daughter. She was his sister. She would get the best treatment in the Empire if she needed it.

But he couldn't say any of those things at that moment, his lips had felt as if they had turned blue - as blue as hers. He'd never felt so lost as he had when he'd seen their mother dying without being able to do anything about it because they didn't know the cause of her illness.

But in this case, he, the future High Priest, could have done something. He could have made it so that she didn't get hurt, but since he wasn't there, she turned out like this. No matter how many hurtful things were said between them, when he saw her lying there, all he could think of was the little girl sitting on his lap as he read her stories of distant kingdoms and heroes with mighty swords.

"Are you a hero, big brother?" she had asked him with the childlike innocence she hadn't kept for very long in her early childhood. Her big eyes had sparkled as she waited for his answer.

"Me? First brother and father are, not me."

"Really? Then you are my hero." He remembered her bright smile with those words.

'No, I'm not,' he thought, staring at the back that hadn't grown much since that time, 'although I wanted to be.'

At the same time, there was nothing they did that ever managed to please her. And it had inflicted enough pain for him to be unable to simply roll over and forget either.

"Is there anything else you need?" Her stern words jolted him out of his daydream and made him fake a cough.

"Yes. I need to know what happened in the village, since you were the only one who witnessed the events in their entirety. I also need to know how you got to the village and why you were there," he made himself clear, "but first there is someone who insisted on meeting you when I returned after hearing of your awakening. They are waiting in your drawing room."

Now that he was in charge of the situation, he had to thoroughly investigate what had happened. She wasn't just a victim - and he had to find out what kind of attack it was, since it had been hard enough to dissuade his father from coming to them immediately.

The Grand Duke had a lot of other responsibilities regarding the Granbell Mountain Range.

"All right." Rowena opted for a short answer, not acknowledging the interrogation that would surely follow her meeting with her mysterious guest.

They walked out and down the hallway, not saying a word until Colin opened a door to let her in, and she walked in, not knowing what to expect, just blinking in surprise.

"You two, why are you here?" she said, as blunt as ever.

"We came here to thank you," Iris said as she alternated her gaze between her husband, Rowena, and the young master behind Rowena, "We would also like to have a little chat with you, if that would be possible."