“I didn’t know Daril’s younger sister was such a beautiful person. If I had known, I would have begged this guy to introduce me sooner.”

With even a cliché and cheesy comment. Kasha narrowed her brows and slightly nodded her head to acknowledge the greeting.

“What nonsense are you talking about? Don’t casually hit on her.”

“What do you mean hit on her? Are you already on sister defense mode? By the way, you. Don’t you need to go over there?”

“What? What’s going on?”

Kasha also perked up her ears, pretending not to listen.

“I’m talking about that Margaret Yonder lady you secretly admire. She seems to be in a bit of… trouble right now.”

“What? What are you saying? Tell me exactly.”

Margaret Yonder. At the unexpected appearance of that name, Kasha hesitated.

It was then. The musicians’ performance signaling the start of the dance song began.

Already?

Kasha’s eyebrows twitched.

No one had yet dragged Kasha onto the stage.

Moreover, what was this talk about Margaret Yonder just now?

Kasha listened more keenly to the conversation between the two.

“She was dragged to the center.”

The young Viscount Fenilton shrugged and pointed behind him.

“The center?”

Daril and Kasha turned their heads to look where he was pointing.

Loud music and high laughter, colorful dresses spinning round and round.

The center of the ballroom where numerous men and women were dancing in pairs.

Although it was blurry due to the movement of people passing by quickly, someone was clearly standing in the middle.

A pale sky blue dress. Brown hair.

“Miss Margaret!”

Daril cried out with a shudder.

Kasha almost cried out together.

Why on earth are you standing there, Margaret Yonder?

‘There.’

The pale sky blue dress and white hand that had been the only one to reach out among the people who had surrounded and mocked Kasha when she collapsed, as if watching a beast inside us, on this day before the regression.

Margaret Yonder, the owner of that white hand, was there. Becoming the beast inside the cage.

Odette glided gracefully across the ballroom, holding the hand of one of her followers, a handsome young marquis.

With each beat and step, her mood improved.

Especially when passing by Margaret Yonder, who was being pushed around in the center of the ballroom with her head bowed low.

Of course, it would have been more satisfying if that Kasha girl or whatever was in that place.

Bam bam.

The dance song ended with a dramatic gesture.

Hearing the applause and cheers filling the hall, Odette glanced at Margaret.

She was struggling to stumble off the stage.

‘How dare you.’

As Odette watched the scene with folded arms, her dance partner, the young marquis, astutely approached and pushed Margaret.

“Ouch!”

Margaret’s skirt flipped over as she fell ungracefully, revealing her bony legs and worn petticoat.

Pfft.

Odette slightly covered her rising lips with her folding fan.

‘How unsightly.’

It was just when Odette was thinking that with a much-improved mood.

“Miss Margaret!”

Someone’s resounding voice was heard through the crowd. And at the same time, a slender silhouette appeared in front of Margaret and extended a white hand.

Odette’s eyes narrowed when she saw the owner of that hand.

‘That again?’

Kasha Lyuschino.

That unlucky and unpleasant girl was extending her hand towards Margaret.

“Stand up.”

An awkward and lifeless voice.

But her hand was precisely directed at Margaret. Without a moment’s hesitation.

Margaret hesitated a little, then tremblingly took that hand.

At that moment, unable to contain her displeasure, Odette lowered the fan that had been covering her face. Then Kasha’s gaze met Odette’s head-on as she was helping Margaret up.

‘How dare you ruin my entertainment?’

The smile disappeared completely from Odette’s face.

“Miss Margaret.”

Just then, a large man who had pushed through the crowd called out to Margaret with a pale blue face. Daril Lyuschino of the Lyuschino Count family. He asked Margaret, panting:

“Are you alright? Who on earth dared to−”

“Brother.”

It was Kasha who calmed Daril as his voice rose in excitement.

“Miss Yonder seems to be very shocked… Please support her so she can rest.”

“Ah, yes. Right. Um, Miss Margaret. Would you take my arm? This way−”

Daril supported Margaret as instructed by Kasha, and the two slowly left the ballroom. Before leaving, Margaret made eye contact with Kasha for a little longer, then weakly lowered her head.

After they disappeared, only Odette and Kasha remained in the center of the ballroom.

Numerous eyes, including Odette’s followers, were watching them.

Odette felt her improved mood plummet straight to the basement.

It was just a small prank, but now it looked like she was the villain.

As Odette was contemplating how to pay back this dirty feeling, Kasha opened her mouth.

“You are truly consistent. You.”

“What did you say?”

Odette struggled to control her expression that was turning hostile.

Kasha, that woman’s expression. That worthless expression as if she could see right through Odette was infuriatingly irritating.

“There are… two types of rulers in this world.”

“What nonsense are you talking about now, my lady?”

Odette retorted sharply, but Kasha ignored her.

“There are respectable rulers who… everyone naturally follows even if they do nothing, and… there are rulers who need to… constantly step on those around them to… confirm their position.”

Kasha was now looking at each of Odette’s followers one by one.

“Who can guarantee… that their turn to be stepped on… will never come?”

Even though she was speaking with such clumsy diction and stumbling, no one laughed at her. All the young people filling the ballroom were listening to her words.

The followers were wavering. At Kasha Lyuschino’s words.

Odette quickly stepped forward to change the atmosphere.

“Ah ah. Lady Lyuschino. You speak so slowly by nature that it’s difficult to grasp what you’re trying to say. How pitiful.”

At Odette’s mockery, a few let out weak laughs in agreement.

Slightly annoyed by the surrounding reaction, but not losing her composure, Odette continued speaking.

“The music has been stopped for too long. We should start the next dance soon.”

Gesturing towards the band, Odette said, openly mocking Kasha:

“Oh my. It seems you haven’t found a partner yet?”

At Odette’s signal, all the noble youths surrounding them took a step back from Kasha. A round circle formed around Kasha again.

Kasha became perfectly alone once more.

‘In the past, I would have turned pale and looked for a way to escape in this situation.’

Kasha thought.

It was quite strange. The fact that their gazes, tinged with pity or contempt, no longer hurt her at all.

‘You cannot hurt me. Only I myself can hurt me.’

She was once someone who walked into death herself due to ignorance and innocence.

But now she is no longer foolish or naive.

That’s why she faced them more confidently than anyone else, standing alone.

Seeing Kasha’s expression, cracks began to form on Odette’s self-assured face.

It was at that very moment.

Thud thud.

Unusually loud and clear footsteps were heard.

Kasha’s calm gaze wavered a little. At the same time, a platinum-haired man who overwhelmed the atmosphere of the crowd slowly revealed himself.

Leon Aranias.

Looking at him shining alone, Kasha was overwhelmed with emotion, surprising even herself.

Unlike at the temple before the regression, Leon’s two arms hidden under the dazzlingly white holy knight uniform were still intact. His eyes, which had been vacant and hollow, were now beautiful like jewels.

Above all, she was just happy and glad to see him alive, almost smiling.

Leon was the only person in her short life with whom she had felt a sense of shared suffering, and his powerless death had left an indelible wound on her.

‘Seeing you now, I realize. I’ve been unknowingly waiting for this moment so much.’

Kasha muttered a confession he couldn’t hear alone.

A person who left a huge scar in her heart despite meeting only twice in her life.

This time, would she be able to untangle the tangled thread of fate with him?

Kasha waited for him to approach, listening to the sound of her pounding heart.

But she wasn’t the only one waiting for him.

Odette had been waiting for him all along since the ball began. Seeing him finally appear, Odette was overjoyed.

Quickly adjusting her clothes, she signaled to her partner standing firmly beside her. The partner retreated a few steps with a dejected face, but without resistance.

Meanwhile, Leon boldly stepped into the center of the ballroom. Odette, Kasha, and Leon stood facing each other, distanced like the vertices of a triangle.

An awkward tension hung between the three.

Odette mistakenly thought it was the tension between Leon and herself. She put on the most seductive smile she could muster and opened her mouth to speak to him.

However, by a very narrow margin, Leon’s voice rang out first.

“Do you not have a partner?”

Towards Kasha Lyuschino, not Odette.

Doubting her own eyes and ears, Odette’s eyes widened.

“…Yes.”

After a beat, Kasha responded to his question.

It was as if time had stopped between the two. The people surrounding them felt completely like bystanders.

Odette bit her lip until it bled, unable to understand this situation at all.

‘I had a bad feeling about that girl from the moment I first saw her.’

Above all, what irritated Odette the most was Kasha’s expression.

In this miraculous situation where Leon Aranias had asked her to dance, Kasha dared to wear a calm expression.

As if she knew this would happen.

Odette began to tremble with anger.

Because at her party, the man who should obviously be hers had extended his hand to another woman.

And to Kasha Lyuschino, of all people, an inferior creature.

“Then shall we dance together?”

Ignoring Odette’s fury that had reached its peak, Leon asked again in a low voice.

A calm and cold voice. Without a hint of personal interest mixed in.

Those who heard it realized.

That Leon was now warning people.

To those who abandoned the dignity that nobles should maintain and oppressed the weak.

Some people blushed, finally coming to their senses at that warning.

However, for Odette, it had the opposite effect.

She became even more enraged. At the fact that she had become the perpetrator in front of Leon.

Odette’s mask fell off completely. With an expression that even she felt was fierce and hostile, she glared directly at Kasha.

“That,”

Kasha slowly opened her mouth again.

“I don’t want to.”