The silence of the audience, which had been quiet as if by agreement, turned into a murmuring commotion in an instant. Like an exaggerated and contrived scene from a third-rate opera. I willingly pushed myself into that vulgar situation.

Only after the royal family arrived at the banquet hall did the atmosphere start to liven up. At first, I moved nervously with Ricardo, greeting people. However, after repeating the same words about forty times, I was completely exhausted.

Ricardo maintained a coldly expressionless face throughout, but he was perfectly polite to an extent that couldn’t be faulted. Every time I saw his aristocratic side, I felt a renewed sense of disconnect from his childhood.

Even in between greetings with people approaching with the same expression to congratulate our engagement, Ricardo glanced at my feet several times as if stealing looks. Each time I felt his gaze, I tightened my grip on his arm.

Sabrina was truly nowhere to be seen throughout the banquet, as if she had hidden in a place where people couldn’t see her. It was a bit suspicious that Julian had disappeared with her, but it seemed more difficult to accidentally find someone in this vast hall.

As the dance music officially began, the flow of people coming to greet us slowed. Taking advantage of this lull, I took a sip of wine to catch my breath when a servant approached Ricardo and whispered something secretly.

“I’ll have to leave your side for a moment… Take a rest.”

“I should. Do you happen to know where the least popular balcony is?”

He laughed lightly and gave a kind explanation.

“There’s no such thing. But there is a balcony with few people. If you go to the opposite end of the 3rd floor lounge where we were earlier, you’ll easily find it. Wait there. I’ll come to get you soon.”

“Alright.”

Although I answered confidently, like all directionally challenged people in the world, it was impossible to forge a new path to the destination.

As soon as Ricardo left my side, I moved with the intention of going to the lounge along the way we came, avoiding the gentlemen who came to ask for a dance. It was clearly a roundabout way to find the opposite side from there, but it was much better than getting lost.

After exiting through the door we had passed for entry and coming out to a long corridor, I felt like I could breathe a little easier.

As Ricardo said, the number of people decreased as I went towards the opposite side of the 3rd floor lounge.

If I was lucky, I might be able to enter without encountering anyone in front of the balcony. After receiving a glass of champagne from the last servant I encountered, I succeeded in entering without meeting anyone.

“Wow.”

An exclamation involuntarily escaped at the beautiful sight from the balcony.

Opposite where I was standing was a massive entrance in the shape of a dome. Beyond it, a slender, long conical minaret, like those seen in Lesothia’s temples, jutted abruptly towards the sky.

It was such a beautiful sight that I thought this must be what they meant when they said you can see the essence of Lesothian architecture in Dermayer’s buildings.

Befitting the tower called the lighthouse of the earth, the moon in the dark night sky hung as if painted at its tip.

The colonnades extending from the entrance dome connected to the building where I was. While the lounge faced the banquet hall, this balcony faced the back of the building.

In the center of the courtyard naturally formed by buildings surrounding all sides was a fountain of modest size. The foam pouring from the fountain sparkled beautifully in the moonlight without any special lighting.

“Now I feel like I can breathe.”

As I grabbed the balcony railing and took a long breath in and out, my chest rose and fell greatly, and my heels touched the ground completely. As I took another long breath in, I realized there was another presence in this space besides me.

Slowly turning my head while holding a full breath, I saw Walter Shaw Chaplin standing at the farthest end from where I was.

“Ah…”

Even in the dark balcony, his blue-green eyes emitted a dense light.

As our eyes met, laughter burst out from both of us.

“You really do appear suddenly everywhere. Quite befitting the heir of the Chaplin family.”

“That’s what I wanted to say as well.”

There was still a hint of laughter in his voice as he answered. Smiling in response, I lifted my skirt and curtsied.

“It seems I’m the uninvited guest this time, so I’ll take my leave. Though it’s a shame to leave this quiet balcony.”

“No, I…”

It was just as Walter put down the glass he was holding on the railing and seemed about to approach me. Suddenly, the balcony doors swung wide open and a group of women entered.

My eyes squeezed shut in dismay.

In the Dermayer Empire, a man and woman alone on a balcony could be good fodder for gossips.

Unable to give any pretext to the women who had entered like intruders, I gathered my skirt with all my might. Then I hid in a corner as best I could.

One, two, three, and four. There were as many as four lavishly adorned women.

‘Please…’

Walter, who noticed my attempt to hide, also stepped aside and we stood at opposite ends of the balcony. Through the gap created by the open door, I could see Walter’s troubled face.

At this point, I thought I should revise my assessment of him a little. In fact, he had no reason to avoid women so desperately, yet he crammed himself into the darkness as if he had encountered a beast about to bite his neck.

‘Maybe he really is as upright as the rumors say.’

I felt a little sorry for comparing him to Julian, who was said to be a great playboy, when he was trying his best to alleviate someone else’s embarrassment.

“Can one’s class really fall this low?”

Suddenly, a sharp woman’s voice echoed inside the balcony.

“That’s right. How could there be a woman of such low caliber?”

“She’s from the East, what more can we say?”

Ah, they’re talking about me. It was easy to realize without much effort.

This level of whispering had continued in the hall. The malicious criticism was even ingenious.

In between Ricardo’s brief greetings with others, the contextless personal attacks were directed solely at me.

I didn’t want to hear the women’s jealousy, envy, and somewhat sincere reproach, so I fled to the balcony, only to have to listen to their blatant backbiting about me.

And with someone else present.

“From what I saw, she has excellent beauty and a proper demeanor.”

Fortunately, one person in the group seemed to have a different opinion from them.

“Don’t talk nonsense. That dress and those accessories all came from the Duke’s family. How can you say a woman who looks only that good wearing such grand items is pretty?”

The voice of the one who had spoken kindly fell silent at the fierce anger of the women.

Time stretched on like eternity. Long and tedious, to the point where even focusing on the spire rising high in the distance and enjoying the exotic scenery of the courtyard was of no use.

Walter’s pitiful gaze visible through the door crack also added to the tedious time.

“Everyone knows that Young Master Rochester has the divine power. But for his fiancée to be the daughter of a fallen noble family from the East, not a saint?”

“That’s right, and she’s the daughter of the family that kidnapped the young master. To take such a woman as his fiancée. There must be a problem.”

“Can we really believe that she helped with his manifestation? She might even be a fraud. After all, the young master would have lost his childhood memories.”

It was a story I didn’t want to hear, but it wasn’t wrong either.

When I heard I was called the priming water for the return of the saint, I was even momentarily impressed by the poetic expression.

Rochester’s mistake, Ricardo’s blemish, an omen of national ruin.

The women thoroughly tore me apart, threw me to the ground, trampled on me, and not satisfied with that, they spat out vehemently before suddenly leaving the balcony as they had come.

In the wake of the typhoon, only ruins remained.

Walter slowly approached where I was. He could have just left.

“Are you alright?”

I smiled with my tattered face at the earnest question of the polite man.

“I’m fine.”

“Just because I heard…”

“You’re telling me not to feel miserable?”

He nodded in response.

“I… don’t feel miserable.”

It wasn’t an attempt to put on airs. I truly didn’t feel miserable. If it were Ricardo, he would quickly know that I was telling the truth. Walter, however, didn’t seem to believe me.

“Weren’t you hiding here to escape these terrible words?”

I’m human too, so it was natural to be angry at blind criticism and insults. I wanted to avoid such words to some extent. But I swear I wasn’t hiding.

“Hmm… No.”

What I experienced was merely a matter of pride, not a wound to my self-esteem.

Even though I had never had a proper memory of being loved by anyone.

“That level of talk can’t make me hide. I don’t get hurt by things I haven’t done wrong. I’m not a fraud.”

“Then why are you making that expression?”