“Just bear with it a little longer. It will be over soon.”

The women standing around let out groans at Ricardo’s actions.

I was fortunate to have not exclaimed in admiration like them. He was thoroughly a caring fiancé. It was quite bewildering yet not an unpleasant feeling.

As Ricardo had said to bear with it a little longer, just as I barely managed to empty a glass of wine, Count Enehas approached us again. He then naturally guided us to the location of the room where he and I would stay together.

To this, Ricardo simply nodded with a familiar attitude.

It was common for guests attending the banquet to stay in guest rooms. Although I knew this in my head, from that moment on, my trembling intensified without even attempting to hide it.

The thought that the moment had finally come overwhelmed me with tension first.

I tried hard to calm myself down.

In our childhood, the nights we slept together in the same room were too numerous to count.

Of course, even though Ricardo was now excessively tall, with unusually broad shoulders, and muscles on his back that revealed their presence with every movement, Ricardo was still Ricardo and I was still me.

The only thing that had changed was just our age, wasn’t it?

“Ha!”

To put it bluntly, Ricardo and I properly went through the initiation.

As the last dance song ended and the people who had been glancing at us disappeared one by one, we left Enehas’s splendid banquet hall.

To be precise, it wasn’t “we”, but I rode the Duchess’s carriage on my own, while Ricardo took the carriage he had come in, heading towards the Duke of Rochester’s mansion.

“So this is your answer to my question about what you want to do with me.”

The more I thought about it, the more incredulous I felt, letting out a hollow laugh. No, it’s not like I was expecting anything.

But wasn’t it Ricardo who first talked about receiving my night and whatnot? After making someone so nervous, to then drag his tired body back home at this dawn.

Did he not care at all about the coachmen who had been pulling carriages around all day?

Moreover, we had that… incident in the carriage returning to Count Enehas’s mansion?

‘Was I too hasty?’

For a moment such self-blame arose, but I didn’t particularly regret it. If I were to regret here as well, I felt I would feel too miserable.

Alone in the Duchess’s carriage, I lay down on the seat not long after boarding. It wasn’t behavior befitting a noble lady, but my hesitation was short-lived. There was no reason to keep up appearances when alone.

The interior of the large carriage was so spacious and cozy that I didn’t feel much discomfort even when stretching out my legs to lie down.

I thought I wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully after experiencing such tremendous events, but with the comfort provided by the soft carriage seats and the moving vehicle, I let go of everything and fell into a deep sleep.

In fact, the events I had experienced that day were enough to exhaust my mind.

Moreover, the relief that came from somehow fulfilling the Duchess’s order led me completely into a deep slumber.

When I opened my eyes, I was in my bedroom, and for a moment I suspected that Ricardo might have erased my memories in the meantime.

Otherwise, how could it make sense that I didn’t notice someone carrying me?

Still, the events of last night were so vivid that I could explain them minute by minute, so I had no choice but to attribute it to being tired enough to simply lose consciousness.

Waking up later than usual, I barely gathered my wits and tried to visit Bluehill around lunchtime. But soon I heard from Freddie that our entire family had been moved from the summer estate to the winter villa.

“If you have something to say, say it. Get rid of that stupid look on your face.”

Sabrina clicked her tongue, tsk, as she saw me sitting on her room’s bed with a blank face. Her carelessly thrown words finally pulled me out of my thoughts about last night.

“What is there to say.”

Grumbling unnecessarily, I flopped down on the bed and looked around her room. Whether the sharp-eyed Duchess had already perfectly grasped Sabrina’s tastes, she was still using what could only be called a flower bouquet of a bed.

“How do you like it here?”

“Need you ask? It’s too good. Have you seen the bathroom? It’s bigger than my room in Lesotia.”

And here I thought you once said you were happier when we lived together in a small house.

I shook my head and rolled over once on her bed. Then I propped my chin up and lay down, sinking back into thought. Suddenly, Ricardo’s face, wavering anxiously before my eyes, came to mind. Up to the moment he leaned his face towards me and swooped in close.

Just thinking about it made my mind dizzy, and I buried my face in the pillow.

“You’re something else.”

Sabrina clicked her tongue even more strongly than before, looking at me with eyes that said I was pathetic.

“What do you mean, something else? I just rolled over once on your bed, that’s all.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, do you think I don’t know you? Stop suffering silently and tell me what’s bothering you.”

“What do you mean, bothering me? Everything’s been resolved well. We’ve secured safety, even if it’s temporary. During that time, we need to find a way to live.”

Sabrina nodded at my words, then came over and perched on the bed where I was lying. She then gently stroked my head once. At times like this, I felt as if Sabrina was just like an elder sister to me.

“That’s right, half a year is longer than you might think. When have we ever lived looking forward to tomorrow anyway? We’ve always lived on thin ice, not knowing when we might die.”

It was sad, but her words were true. It was fortunate to be able to live a stable life for even half a year. And right in the heart of the Dermeier Islands at that.

“I’m going to treat this like I’m on vacation. When else would we get to enjoy such luxury? This is all thanks to the Young Duke of Rochester.”

“You’ve always lived like a traveler anyway.”

Sabrina chuckled at my words.

“That’s right, I’ve been flitting from one man to another like a moth to a flame. Unlike you.”

Even though she spoke lightly now, I knew that Sabrina had lived with a certain degree of desperation.

I was used to giving up such a life because I had never lived as a noble to begin with.

But Sabrina was different. She even had a decent fiancé from a good family, though it was just a casual promise made between adults.

However, after her family’s downfall, although she was still a noble, she couldn’t integrate into Lesotia’s social circles. So she dated freely without caring about others’ gazes. She couldn’t have her debutante or be invited to parties or tea times, but she would go to racetracks or watch fights with men.

I always scolded her, begging her not to do such useless things, but I always prepared dresses made of good fabric for Sabrina to wear each season.

“You’re right. I can’t remember any of the other guys, but I do miss Ethan from the Kimberly family and Zenok from the Schmitz family quite a bit.”

“Don’t you mean Zenok from the Kimberly family and Ethan from the Schmitz family?”

“Ah, is that so?”

Sabrina laughed heartily as if she had heard an amusing joke and then abruptly got up from the bed. She then touched each of the jewels bestowed by the Duchess one by one with her hands. As if they were her beloved babies.

“You told me not to owe you any more, but look how your eyes are sparkling.”

“Well, strictly speaking, it’s not a debt to you, is it?”

Crazy girl. She must have clearly heard my voice, but she wasn’t affected at all.

“Don’t make such a stupid face, just tell me what’s wrong. I may not be book smart, but I’m not insensitive.”

She held a green necklace that matched her eye color to her neck and moved back and forth in front of the mirror. At a glance, the jewel suited her very well.

Sabrina had bright green eyes that contrasted with her dark brown hair.

She had been a dazzling beauty since childhood, and that beauty ripened with each passing day. Sabrina always resembled a vibrant summer afternoon.

“Can you see this? This is the sapphire necklace the Duchess sent for you to wear when attending your engagement ceremony. If you knew how top-quality this is, you’d faint.”

“I don’t know much about jewels. What use would I have for such things?”

“Don’t talk nonsense. We don’t know where we’ll go after we leave this house in 6 months. So we should keep these jewels safe for now. Surely the Duchess won’t ask us to leave behind the things she gave us.”

“Ah…”

Only then did I realize that Sabrina was trying to figure out how to survive after leaving this house.

She had adamantly refused dresses that wouldn’t fetch much money if sold, accepting only one dress for my engagement ceremony and one for the imperial court banquet, but she readily accepted the jewels offered in place of dresses.

“You’re better than me.”

Come to think of it, Sabrina always adapted well wherever she went.

She seemed much smarter than me, who swayed whenever Ricardo shook me and stopped whenever he called.

“But an engagement, I can’t believe it even after hearing it. How can you two be so consistent? Whether you have memories or not.”

If there was anyone who knew the relationship between Ricardo and me best, it was undoubtedly Sabrina.

“Even when you were young, you two were like that. Not letting anyone else get even a little bit in between you.”

“Were we… like that?”

“You’re telling me.”

Casually replying, Sabrina tried on a new necklace with a reddish tint around her neck.

“But, Sabrina. About men…”