The moment the council meeting ended, I wanted to collapse.
Unfortunately, being Empress apparently came with expectations.
One of those expectations was remaining conscious.
I made it exactly three hallways before my legs gave out.
One second I was walking.
The next, the floor was rushing toward my face.
"Oh, come on—"
Everything tilted.
Strong hands caught me before I hit the marble.
"Your Majesty!"
Several voices erupted at once.
I blinked up at the palace guard who had grabbed me.
The scarred one.
The one who definitely knew something was wrong with me.
Or rather, wrong with Karina.
"I'm fine," I lied.
The guard looked unimpressed.
"Your Majesty nearly collapsed."
"Nearly collapsed is not the same as collapsed."
"You are currently being held upright."
I considered that.
"...fair point."
A few servants exchanged concerned looks.
Wonderful.
The Empress had apparently become the kingdom's newest public embarrassment.
The guard sighed.
"Please allow us to escort you back to your chambers."
"I can walk."
My knees immediately attempted mutiny.
His eyebrow twitched.
"Can you?"
"...not currently."
Five minutes later I was back in my room.
Humiliated.
Exhausted.
And deeply suspicious.
Because this wasn't normal.
I might have inherited someone else's body, but I knew enough about biology to know twenty-three-year-old women weren't supposed to feel like they were eighty.
The moment the door closed, I collapsed onto a couch.
"Okay."
I stared at the ceiling.
"We need to talk."
The system appeared instantly.
A translucent blue screen flickered into existence.
For once, it didn't immediately glitch.
[Second-Life System Active.]
"Good."
I pointed accusingly at it.
"Why am I falling apart?"
The screen paused.
Then another window opened.
Text scrolled across it.
A lot of text.
Far too much text.
Most of it looked like medical jargon.
I skimmed the first few lines.
Then stopped.
Then reread them.
Then wished I hadn't.
[Host Body Condition: Severe.]
[Nutritional Status: Critical.]
[Muscular Condition: Degraded.]
[Circulatory Function: Impaired.]
[Toxin Accumulation: Dangerous.]
My stomach dropped.
"Toxin accumulation?"
The screen flickered.
[Affirmative.]
I sat upright.
"Poison?"
[Probable.]
A cold chill crawled down my spine.
The room suddenly felt much larger.
Much quieter.
Much more dangerous.
"What do you mean probable?"
[Long-term toxin exposure detected.]
[Estimated duration: 4-6 years.]
I stared.
Four years?
Six years?
Had someone been poisoning Karina for years?
That wasn't attempted murder.
That was patience.
Planning.
Intent.
The realization settled heavily in my chest.
Karina hadn't simply gotten sick.
Someone had made her sick.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Over time.
The system continued.
[Physical degradation has reached advanced stages.]
[Without intervention, projected lifespan before host transfer: 3-5 months.]
I went very still.
Three months.
Maybe five.
Karina hadn't just been ill.
She had been dying.
And if I hadn't arrived when I did—
The thought made me shiver.
For a brief moment, I saw flashes of emotions that weren't mine.
Loneliness.
Fear.
Exhaustion.
A desperate determination to keep going despite everything.
Karina's emotions.
Residual memories.
Gone as quickly as they came.
I swallowed hard.
"Was she trying to find out who poisoned her?"
No response.
Instead:
[Insufficient Data.]
Of course.
The system knew everything except the things I actually wanted to know.
I groaned.
Then something unexpected happened.
Pain stabbed behind my eyes.
Sharp.
Sudden.
I grabbed the edge of the couch.
The room blurred.
A memory surfaced.
Not a full memory.
A fragment.
A single moment frozen in time.
A younger Karina sat at a desk covered in documents.
Candles burned low around her.
Dark circles shadowed her eyes.
She looked exhausted.
Across from her stood an older nobleman dressed in crimson robes.
His face was blurry.
Like the memory itself refused to reveal him.
But his voice came through clearly.
"Your Majesty must rest."
Karina laughed.
A brittle sound.
"I'll rest when the kingdom can afford it."
The noble's expression shifted.
Concern.
Or perhaps irritation.
"Your health is deteriorating."
"I know."
"Then allow us to handle these matters."
"No."
Her answer came instantly.
Without hesitation.
Without weakness.
"I won't leave Avugon in someone else's hands."
The memory shattered.
I gasped.
The room returned.
My heart raced.
"What was that?"
[Memory Fragment Recovered.]
I blinked.
"Recovered?"
[Health and synchronization improvements may unlock additional memory fragments.]
That got my attention.
"You're telling me Karina's memories are locked behind recovery milestones?"
[Affirmative.]
For once, that sounded useful.
The more I learned about Karina, the better chance I had of surviving.
Because right now I was impersonating an empress with almost no information.
Which seemed like an excellent way to accidentally start a civil war.
A knock interrupted my thoughts.
Before I could answer, the door opened.
An elderly man entered.
White hair.
Neatly trimmed beard.
Expensive robes.
The royal physician, if I had to guess.
He carried a leather satchel stuffed with medical instruments.
The moment he saw me sitting upright, relief flooded his face.
"Your Majesty."
I offered a polite smile.
"Doctor."
A safe guess.
Thankfully, it was correct.
The physician bowed.
"I am grateful to see you awake."
Good.
One point for me.
Maybe I could survive this after all.
The physician approached carefully.
"Would Your Majesty permit an examination?"
I wanted to refuse.
Not because I had anything to hide.
Well.
Other than being a completely different person.
But because I hated doctors.
Unfortunately, being empress apparently didn't exempt me from medical care.
"Go ahead."
For the next several minutes, he checked my pulse, eyes, breathing, and whatever else medieval doctors checked.
The longer the examination lasted, the deeper his frown became.
That seemed concerning.
Finally, he stepped back.
"Interesting."
Never in human history had a doctor saying "interesting" resulted in good news.
I braced myself.
"What is it?"
The physician hesitated.
"As strange as this sounds, Your Majesty appears healthier than you did a week ago."
I blinked.
The system's recovery quest.
It was already working.
Apparently.
The physician looked baffled.
"Your pulse remains weak. Your muscles show signs of severe deterioration. Yet the internal instability that plagued you for years has lessened."
Years.
There it was again.
Years.
Not months.
Not weeks.
Years.
This poison had been destroying Karina for a very long time.
"Did you ever discover what caused it?" I asked carefully.
The physician froze.
Just for a moment.
But I noticed.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
"No."
Lie.
Or at least not the full truth.
I wasn't a detective.
But even I could see the hesitation.
The physician adjusted his spectacles.
"There were many theories."
"What kind of theories?"
"Stress."
Not convincing.
"Overwork."
Slightly better.
"Environmental factors."
There it was.
That sounded important.
The physician continued.
"Some believed the mining operations in the northern territories might be responsible."
Mines.
The word triggered something.
Another fragment.
Dark tunnels.
Workers coughing.
Strange silver-green veins in the rock.
Then it vanished.
I rubbed my temple.
The physician immediately noticed.
"Your Majesty?"
"Just a headache."
Which wasn't technically a lie.
The physician nodded.
"Rest will help."
Everyone kept telling me that.
Meanwhile an entire kingdom was apparently on fire.
Rest felt somewhat unrealistic.
As the physician packed his belongings, he paused.
"There is one more thing."
I looked up.
His expression had become serious.
"The court will notice."
A chill crept down my spine.
"What will they notice?"
"Your recovery."
The room suddenly felt colder.
The physician lowered his voice.
"For months, many believed the throne would soon become vacant."
Oh.
That sounded dangerous.
Very dangerous.
Because if people had spent months expecting Karina to die—
Then some of them might be disappointed she hadn't.
The physician bowed.
"I merely advise caution, Your Majesty."
Then he left.
Leaving me alone with that unsettling thought.
Somewhere in this palace, people had already begun preparing for Karina's death.
And now those plans had a problem.
Me.
The system chimed.
A much larger window appeared.
Bright gold.
Important-looking.
Which immediately made me nervous.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
MAIN QUEST UPDATED
SAVE THE KINGDOM OF AVUGON
Failure Consequences:
• Civil unrest
• Economic collapse
• Potential war
• Kingdom destruction
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Oh, good."
I rubbed my face.
"Only an entire kingdom depending on me."
The system ignored my sarcasm.
A second notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SUB QUEST UNLOCKED
THE DYING EMPRESS
Objective:
Restore Karina Goldbrace's health.
Current Health Rating: 14%
Target Health Rating: 75%
Rewards:
• Increased stamina
• Memory recovery
• Improved system synchronization
• Hidden rewards
Failure Penalty:
Death
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I stared.
Then stared harder.
"Fourteen percent?"
[Affirmative.]
"FOURTEEN?"
[Affirmative.]
"How am I alive?"
The screen paused.
Then:
[Technically, Karina was not.]
I grabbed the nearest pillow and threw it.
The pillow passed harmlessly through the holographic window.
The system remained annoyingly unaffected.
I hated it already.
A new list appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Health Recovery Requirements
✓ Proper nutrition
✓ Detoxification
✓ Medical evaluation
✓ Physical rehabilitation
✓ Sleep restoration
✓ Investigation of poison source
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I frowned.
The last item stood out.
"Investigation?"
[Continued toxin exposure will prevent recovery.]
My expression darkened.
Of course.
It didn't matter how much medicine I took if someone kept poisoning me.
Which meant one thing.
The poison source was still active.
Somewhere in the palace.
Possibly very close to me.
The realization made me glance toward the untouched tea sitting on a nearby table.
I slowly stood.
Walked over.
Stared at it.
Then stared harder.
"Can you tell me if that's poisoned?"
The system flashed.
[Analyzing.]
A loading bar appeared.
Twenty percent.
Forty.
Seventy.
Ninety.
I leaned forward.
Then—
[ERROR.]
[Food Analysis Module Unavailable.]
I closed my eyes.
Counted to five.
Counted to ten.
Considered murder.
Mostly directed at the system.
"You're useless."
[Feedback Recorded.]
"Stop recording feedback."
[Feedback About Feedback Recorded.]
I hated this thing.
Another knock came.
A young maid entered carrying lunch.
Fresh bread.
Vegetable soup.
Roasted carrots.
Cheese.
Tea.
More suspicious tea.
The maid curtsied.
"Your Majesty."
I smiled politely.
Inside, I was conducting a full criminal investigation.
The maid carefully arranged the food.
Then hesitated.
"Is something wrong?"
I looked at her.
Then at the food.
Then back at her.
Could she be poisoning me?
No.
Probably not.
Maybe.
I hated that "maybe" had entered the conversation.
"Nothing's wrong."
The maid visibly relaxed.
Good.
At least one of us was having a normal day.
After she left, I stared at the meal for nearly a full minute.
Then hunger won.
I picked up a spoon.
The soup smelled incredible.
I took a cautious bite.
Nothing exploded.
Promising.
A second bite followed.
Still alive.
Excellent progress.
Halfway through lunch, another notification appeared.
[Positive Nutritional Intake Detected.]
Health Increased: 14% → 15%
I froze.
The spoon stopped halfway to my mouth.
"Wait."
The system blinked.
"What?"
[Health Increased.]
"No, I saw that part."
I looked at the bowl.
Then at the system.
Then back at the bowl.
"Did eating soup literally improve my health?"
[Affirmative.]
I stared at the soup.
The soup stared back.
For the first time since arriving in this world, I felt a tiny spark of hope.
Maybe this wasn't impossible.
Maybe Karina's body could recover.
Maybe I wouldn't spend the rest of my new life collapsing in hallways.
Then another notification appeared.
[Warning.]
Trace toxins detected in the bloodstream.
Ongoing contamination source unknown.
My hope immediately died.
Right.
Someone was still poisoning me.
And somewhere inside this palace—
Someone wanted the Empress dead.
The question was why.
More importantly—
How long would it take them to realize their dying empress had suddenly stopped dying?
And what would they do when they found out?