"You almost died," Nathaniel declares.

I stared at him, then blinked. Did he just say that I almost died? I didn't hear it wrong right?

"What?" was my lame response.

I probably still groggy from sleep or my brain was fried because of heat. Either way, isn't it too over the top to say that I was on the brink of death just because of a fever? A fever that came from extreme tiredness and not from sickness, you know. Or perhaps, Nathan was trying to pull a strange joke on me.

'Brother, you better think of something else.'

"You were in a coma for four days and a half. We couldn't wake you up no matter what we do," Nathaniel explains after he saw my expression or lack thereof. .

'A coma?!'

"C-coma?" I spluttered out.

My eyes roamed around, particularly to the other people, trying to see if they were also pulling my leg. But all of them either looked too serious, or too sad. Erin was still crying at the side, and so is Amy.

"Milady's body was so cold and appeared to be freezing. No one here could even touch milady with bare hands!" Mari added some more.

She had this look of extreme worry being plastered on her face. Looking at all of them, they all had tired bags underneath their eyes. A sign that they haven't had a good night's sleep yet, or proper rest. They all look exhausted.

I turned back to Nathan who was still holding my arm like he was afraid that I would keel over and die on him. He looks like he is assuring himself that I am still here, warm and breathing.

'Awww, brother...'

His hair looked crazy as well like he had brushed it with his hands multiple times, ruffling it. He also has bags under his eyes, but he still looked good anyway.

"How did that even happen..." I whispered and looked down at my hands.

I only ran around like some madwoman. How did it lead me to a comatose state? I can't remember I did anything else, honestly. We went to the hunt, killed that boar, then went home. Where in between did I do something for it to happen?

My eyes then caught sight of something dark and furry beside my legs, it was the fox I adopted from the hunt. It was sleeping soundly next to me, curled up into a ball. A small smile appeared on my lips and my hands reached over to touch it.

'Oh, Nathan had not thrown it out huh? I thought he would, considering that I was out and about.'

I then turned to them, "Is this why I was wrapped up from top to bottom?"

That explains everything then. Their excessive actions of swaddling me with blankets, and the fire thing. I thought they were all just being too dramatic.

"Milady, we were so scared because you were not breathing at all!" Erin suddenly butts in.

Apparently, she had stopped bawling her eyes now.

'Not breathing? Then aren't I dead at that point?'

What the heck. Nathan just told me I almost died, and then you would say this?

The doctor saw my bewildered state so he added a thorough version with it, to clear up my confusion.

"After the day of the hunt, the maidservants here attempted to wake the young miss up, but the young miss had a very high fever. We tried to bring it down during the whole night, and it did. But then the next day, the young miss was frozen like a block of ice. The young miss's heartbeat was faint, and appeared to not be breathing at all," he elaborated.

I was frozen for four days? But how? I still don't understand why...

"Everyone was panicking. Even the Marquis immediately went home after a message was sent," Mari voiced out.

'My father? Oh no, he is always the first one to worry when it comes to Nadia. I bet he was seriously distressed from it. I mean, he went crazy when the novel Nadia died, what's more when he had learned about my situation then?'

I chewed my lower lip and ruffled the fox's fur. It did not even make a move when I touched it. The fox was really deep into its sleep.

Nathaniel brushed a lock of my hair away from my face and sighed.

"So we tried everything to warm you up. We covered you with all the thick blankets the mansion has and turned the fireplace on," he then gestured to the front.

Amy was beside it, sniffling like how a child would.

"I was really scared, Nadia..." Kai suddenly voiced out.

I looked at him and he was already tearing up. Lost was beside him giving him glances as she played around the laces of her dress. I noticed how she gets all fidgety whenever Kai is in distress or emotional. Her mystery was still not clear to me, but I do know that she only acts out in accordance with Kai's mood. So I, therefore, concluded that the two children are connected somehow.

The doctor fixed his monocle again, a habit he has whenever he is thinking or worried about something.

He then sighed in resignation, "I tried to find anything about it from the books I have, but it was futile. Nothing was ever written about your predicament. This is the first time that I had ever encountered something like this," he mentioned.

I felt like Doctor Haudie had aged more just from these four and a half days. He must have truly worked his ass off just to find an explanation, and to cure me of course.

A frown marred my face as I tried to digest all of this information.

I was bedridden and fell into a coma, but for what reason? It doesn't make sense, no matter how I try to think about it. Was it because it is already winter? But that is... impossible, isn't it? Who would freeze just like that?

Then... what?

"If only I could have an access to the tower's archives, then I would have gotten the young miss' cured for far earlier," Doctor Haudie muttered as he wearily shakes his head.