40.

Rosetta felt the need to sort out her chaotic thoughts into several points.

First. She might possibly like Cardier. She couldn’t be certain, since it was a feeling she’d never experienced before… but still, thinking about someone once every ten seconds couldn’t be something she’d find utterly repulsive.

Second. Even if she did have feelings for Cardier, marriage was a completely different matter. This wasn’t about liking or disliking—it was simply something that must not happen. Rosetta wanted to regain her original body as soon as possible, and she had absolutely no intention of giving up her life as a pirate—the very way she had lived until now.

Third. Regardless of all other reasons, Lea’s body wasn’t entirely hers. She didn’t know when their souls might switch again, and even if they didn’t, she wasn’t sure she could live the rest of her life as Lea.

Living forever as Lady Valdemore, the Duchess of Montrosa… Rosetta briefly imagined that future, then scrunched up her face in disgust. Just thinking about it made her feel suffocated.

The more she thought about it, the more her feelings toward Cardier seemed different. People say love means enduring anything for your beloved? But what if the things she absolutely couldn’t compromise on were so fundamental? Then perhaps she didn’t love Cardier all that much after all…

“……My lady? My lady?”

“…….”

“Are you listening to me?”

Rosetta barely lifted her head in response to Anna’s persistent nagging.

“……Huh? What did you say to me?”

“I asked whether you’d like to stop by the dressmaker’s. Since you’re already out in the carriage, it might be good to finish the fitting for the coat you ordered last time.”

Rosetta shrugged her shoulders and silently gestured toward the carriage window with her chin. Through the window, six knights riding alongside the carriage were clearly visible. Anna followed Rosetta’s gesture with her eyes, then nodded in understanding.

Well, with that many guards tagging along, where could she possibly go?

Since the Duchess had heard about the previous incident of Rosetta sneaking out, the number of knights assigned to her had exactly tripled. The moment she stepped outside the estate, two knights would follow her; if she took a carriage, at least four would accompany her. Considering that ordinary noble ladies typically had only one guard, or at most two if their family was particularly strict—this number was excessively, overwhelmingly, and extremely excessive.

It would be fortunate if she didn’t become a laughingstock.

The knights didn’t restrict her actions directly, but neither did they leave her completely free. If she entered any building, they would thoroughly block both the front and back entrances. Under these circumstances, escaping was utterly impossible for the time being. Any regret about not having tamed her fiery temper earlier came far too late.

Having six knights riding alongside her carriage took up more than half of the Valencia Way, despite the road’s width. And this was already the social season, when carriage traffic had increased enormously. She couldn’t keep doing this every time she used the main road. Even without drawing attention like this, Rosetta was already the subject of countless scandals.

Rather than stirring up more gossip, she might as well take a less-maintained side road. Though not as well-paved as the main road, there would be no actual problems using it. The path was clean, without even a single pebble… and then suddenly, the carriage jolted violently. Rosetta nearly bounced out of her seat and awkwardly slammed her head.

“My lady. Are you alright?”

Just as she was about to curse, the window opened. It was the knight who had recently been assigned to guard her most closely. She barely managed to curl the corners of her lips into something resembling a smile.

“……What is it?”

“You’ll need to step out for a moment. The carriage wheel has gotten stuck in the mud.”

She let out a deep sigh. It had rained recently, yes… but even if they were only a few alleys away from the main Valencia Way, how on earth could a muddy path appear in the middle of the capital’s streets?

“Please watch your step.”

Rosetta stepped down from the carriage with the knight’s assistance. Although they had turned into an alley, the atmosphere of the street was indeed clearly different from the Valencia Way. Clean brick buildings were rarely seen; most structures were shabby, haphazardly patched together with wooden planks. Compared to the streets she’d seen in the capital, this area was among the worst, but compared to the port town of Laeca, it seemed rather decent.

The knight draped a thin, hooded robe over her shoulders and said,

“This isn’t a particularly safe neighborhood. Stay close to me. I’ll escort you as soon as we free the carriage wheel.”

One of the knights cautiously approached, interpreting her gaze. The other five knights and the driver were struggling to lift the carriage. Unfortunately, the carriage they had brought that day was the second largest one kept at the estate, so it wasn’t being resolved easily.

It was at the moment Rosetta shrugged her shoulders and turned her head.

“……?”

She cast her gaze toward a small group of onlookers clustered some dozen steps away, watching them. At first, she felt a strange sense of déjà vu—like unexpectedly meeting someone she knew well in an unlikely place.

But really, this wasn’t the eastern region; this was a back alley in the capital. The odds of meeting someone she knew here were as slim as finding the matching half of a broken seashell on a sandy beach.

Yet, dismissing it as mere imagination felt deeply unsettling. It was a pirate’s instinct. And Rosetta had always believed that instincts were signals sent by fate. She slowly scanned the onlookers again, mentally repeating each of their features one by one.

‘Brown hair, black hair, freckles, hooked nose, pale eyes like fog… pale eyes?’

An old woman with unnaturally white pupils, as if suffering from an eye disease. When the old woman’s eyes met Rosetta’s, she quickly pulled down the eye patch she had been wearing on her forehead. And at that instant, Rosetta felt a chilling shiver run down her spine.

There was no doubt. It was Calypso, the Sea Witch.

* * *

While Rosetta stood stunned, Calypso vanished into the crowd. Where had she gone? It seemed she had slipped into that alley over there. Damn it. She couldn’t see a thing. Rosetta stretched her neck and impatiently stomped her feet.

If she could, she would have dashed after Calypso immediately. But aside from Anna, she had no idea how to get rid of the knight standing right beside her. Damn it. What should she do?

That was when it happened.

“Huh? What’s going on here?”

A cracking sound, like something collapsing, came from the direction of the carriage. Even the knight who had never taken his eyes off her stretched his neck to look over. One of the men supporting the carriage shouted toward the knight, his face flushed red.

“Hey! Come over here and hold this thing!”

“But….”

“Can’t you hear me?”

The knight glanced anxiously at Rosetta, then hurried over to help the man. It was the perfect moment—Anna’s attention and that of all the onlookers were completely focused on the carriage.

She quietly pulled the hood over her head, slowly backed toward the crowd of onlookers, and the moment she was certain they weren’t paying attention to her, broke into a sprint.

‘Which way did she go?’

She ran along a narrow, musty-smelling alley. Her breath grew short almost immediately, perhaps due to the tight dress constricting her chest. She barely dragged her body, feeling like she might faint at any moment, all the way to the side street where Calypso had disappeared.

‘Was it this way?’

Rosetta leaned against the wall at the entrance of the side street, catching her breath. Fortunately, it seemed no one had noticed her disappearance yet, as there was no major commotion. The problem was… although Calypso had clearly gone this way, there wasn’t a single sign of life down the side street.

Her heart pounded fiercely—this wasn’t just from running. Calypso was a witch who could see souls and a master of all kinds of strange magical potions. In this age, where magic existed only as ancient relics, Calypso was practically the only person who could explain this bizarre phenomenon of soul-swapping.

But… Calypso was nowhere to be seen in the side street. Rosetta bit her lips hard. She bit them so obsessively that the skin on her lips began to peel and flake. She was certain she had gone this way. Or had she misjudged from the beginning? Just as she let out a breath of despair,

she spotted a staircase leading downward beneath a wall, partially hidden at an angle. She had just taken a step toward it when—

“……!”

A hand suddenly shot out from behind, brutally covering Rosetta’s mouth and nose.