Chapter 2: Waking Up Three Years Ago.

“Sara?”

“Ah, thank goodness you’ve woken up! You’ve been asleep for three whole days.”

I try to raise my body, but no strength enters my limbs at all.
Lying flat in bed, I timidly call out to her.

With moist eyes, Sara gazes down at me, unable to conceal her joy.
She looks far more lively than before—almost youthful, in fact.
Still, the way her brows droop worriedly as she murmurs, “Your complexion is still quite poor,” is one of those expressions she shows only from time to time.

On the road to the convent, Sara’s face had been deathly pale.

Sara, three years older than me, had been in my service ever since I turned ten.
She was the person who understood me best.
Given how far my misdeeds had gone—to the point of having my engagement annulled—gentle Sara must have suffered deeply, unable to stop me no matter how much she wished to.

“Three days asleep? Why……”

“You suddenly came down with a high fever and collapsed.
Today was supposed to be your enrollment ceremony, Miss.
It’s truly regrettable that it turned out like this.”

Sara’s face truly shows deep sorrow and regret.

As for me, I still can’t fully grasp the situation.
Confusion swirls inside me, yet her earlier words snag in my mind.

What did Sara just say?

Enrollment ceremony…?

“Um… the enrollment ceremony… you don’t mean Torsowa Magic Academy, do you?”

“Yes, it’s the enrollment ceremony for Torsowa Magic Academy.”

The moment Sara answers, my whole body locks up.
My vision bleaches to monochrome.
Her quiet, disappointed voice drifts from far away:
“I was really looking forward to seeing you in your lovely uniform today…”

That can’t be possible.

Because I absolutely attended the enrollment ceremony.
Three years ago, at fifteen, as the Crown Prince’s fiancée—and as the new student with the highest magical power—I even delivered the representative greeting.

No, wait. Come to think of it, I do remember catching an unusual cold a few days before the ceremony.

But I’m certain that after sleeping just one day, I recovered the next.

So what does it mean that I’ve been asleep for three days and only just woken up?
And if what Sara is saying is true… does that mean I’m currently three years in the past?

In a rush I tug open the front of the nightgown I’m wearing and check the scar on my chest.

────It’s not there.

The skin I expose is pure, snowy white—not a single mark.

No. That can’t be right.
Because that pain was so vicious, so tearing.

Even now, the mere memory sends cold sweat pouring down my back.

Is this some kind, convenient dream?

Did God, before sending me to the other side, grant me one fleeting moment of peace?

And the moment He chose to give me… was three years ago—back when I harbored not a shred of anxiety, when I never once doubted that a radiant future lay ahead?

I was so lost in bewilderment that I didn’t even notice Sara leaving the room, murmuring,
“I’ll go call Madam and the doctor.”