After returning from the evening banquet, Jenkis finished his review and suggested quickly sending letters to the nobles seeking cooperation and attendance for the harvest festival.

Natasha, who shut herself in her office as soon as the banquet ended, created a list and wrote letters to send to them.

With only three weeks left to plan the event, she had to ask for their understanding. Due to the tight schedule, she couldn’t visit them in person and had to fill an entire letter with just greetings.

The amount was so enormous! Her hands already felt numb and tingling, yet half of the letters still remained to be written.

Natasha stretched her interlocked hands forward. She lightly massaged her wrists and the back of her hands, soothing the painful areas. This helped enough for her to continue writing letters.

‘I think I prepared this hurriedly before as well…’

She recalled the situation last year when she hastily held a banquet after being sick for several days. Back then, she had also moved this urgently.

‘Well, this is what I intended from the start, so it’s fine.’

When she learned about Cayena’s situation through the emperor. And when she subsequently spent the death anniversary with Sieghart and his family.

Natasha’s mind was tainted to the point where it could not be called that of a living person. Even though she was going about her day, she didn’t feel alive.

Yes, rather than that, let’s erase the thoughts in her head. Let’s keep the body busy moving.

The woman who fled from misfortune acted as the duchess. Surprisingly, her heart calmed down.

Since observing the death anniversary of Sieghart and his parents, the voices that had been tormenting her disappeared. Thanks to that, she found the courage to carry on with daily life.

Occasionally, an inexplicable feeling towards Sieghart and a sense of betrayal towards Cayena would well up…

But by immersing herself in work like this, she would soon forget.

‘Even during this brief moment of rest, I’m having useless thoughts.’

Chuckling, Natasha picked up the letter paper again. She had to move quickly before her distracting thoughts snowballed.

As it was a regional festival, they contacted all the families in the north. Twenty-one out of twenty-five approved the cooperation proposal.

Three long-standing imperial faction families and two on the brink of bankruptcy declined, citing reasons like “We appreciate the offer, but circumstances prevent us from cooperating with the harvest festival.”

The remaining twenty-one actively helped with the harvest festival. From hiring servants to manage the annexes to decorations for the interiors, they took charge of everything. Thanks to them, the tight preparations became more manageable.

Public opinion closely watched the northern region’s actions.

This was because the harvest festival, which had been abolished to commemorate the great achievements of Letius, was revived after several years.

As the timing unfortunately overlapped, they had to give up one of the two.

Most of the region gave up the harvest festival to honor the imperial will, and subsequently, other regions followed suit and held victory celebration festivals.

After the harvest festival disappeared from the empire, farmers had substituted it with small village feasts to mark that year’s harvest.

It was regrettable not to be able to commemorate together the important moment of harvesting the god-given grains after enduring a year well.

For them, whose lives in the following year depended on the harvest amount, the great achievements of Letius didn’t really resonate much.

They were busy giving thanks for this year’s harvest and praying that next year’s harvest would also be peaceful.

Anyway, the actions of the Asthart ducal family impressed such farmers. With the positive public opinion, newspapers also highly praised this year’s harvest festival.

“Yes, place that over there. That side is slightly crooked, so please put it straight. Oh my, how could you place statue 2 and statue 3 in reverse order? Everything has meaning, so the order can’t be changed. Could you switch them back?”

Therefore, there couldn’t be any flaws in today’s harvest festival.

It was three hours before the start of the harvest festival. Sieghart was managing the auction hall where the nobles would conduct auctions, while Natasha was overseeing the prayer room.

“Yes, perfect!”

The ceiling and floor, windows and chairs, decorations and statues of the prayer room were meticulously polished and shining brightly. The chairs were arranged to maintain consistent spacing.

“Everyone has worked hard. Thanks to your efforts, we can start the harvest festival perfectly.”

After the fifth and final inspection, Natasha called out. Now it was truly finished.

There were two hours left until the start of the harvest festival.

Too much time had been taken up by checking the prayer room. Considering the time needed to prepare and go out to greet people, the schedule was somewhat tight.

As she was hurriedly walking to the powder room.

While passing through the corridor, she unexpectedly encountered a certain individual.

Sieghart was walking from the opposite direction.

She hadn’t had any private meetings with the man since that day.

Sieghart had been busy with training that needed to be completed before the harvest festival, and Natasha had been busy planning the harvest festival. Somehow, both of them had been living in seclusion in their respective offices.

“…”

He gradually slowed his pace and then stopped a few steps ahead. He seemed to be waiting for Natasha to approach.

Today had to be perfect. Now that the event chosen as an escape had grown so large, she had to fulfill her responsibility and end it successfully.

So, she had no choice but to ignore him and go on her way. Because the moment she spoke with him, the emotions she had been suppressing inside would surely burst forth.

Just as she was about to deliberately ignore Sieghart and go on her way.

Natasha’s hand, which had been holding her dress hem, was suddenly caught in mid-air, and soon after, it became subject to another’s hand.

Normally, Natasha would have sharply raised her eyebrows and glared at the rude person as if to say ‘What are you doing?’, but now she remained silent with patience.

She kept her head turned away to the end, her back to Sieghart.

What was unexpected was that Sieghart, who would have softly called Natasha’s name by now, also chose silence. His hand holding the woman’s just tightened a little more, but his lips showed no sign of opening.

A moment later, her hand was lifted slightly. A ticklish sensation gently descended on the back of her hand.

“May blessings be upon the glorious month of Asthart.”

His lips, which had lingered on the back of her hand, left a lingering mark and departed. Calm footsteps could be heard behind her back, ringing out at regular intervals. It was a delicate and meticulous movement, like an orchestra’s performance.

‘How foolish.’

As the man’s footsteps faded away, Natasha also began to walk. Hers were not so calm. Perhaps they were even frivolous.

‘I answered without realizing it.’

May blessings be upon you as well.

Natasha also answered inwardly to Sieghart’s greeting.

It wasn’t for the sake of courtesy. If she had been such a virtuous lady, she would have chosen human decency and recited a greeting.

The greeting given in her heart was the result of choosing reason. Knowing she shouldn’t greet the man, it was an embarrassed confession uttered inwardly out of longing.

‘Why?’

Natasha turned around, albeit very belatedly. There, red eyes were standing still. As if waiting for the woman’s mercy.

It was thirty minutes before the start of the harvest festival. Natasha, having finished her preparations, went outside to prepare for welcoming guests.

She neatly placed welcome gifts, expressing gratitude for attending the harvest festival, in a visible location.

In front of the main gate, flags of the Asthart ducal family and the twenty-one host families were erected. The flags fluttering in the gentle breeze were a pleasing sight.

Lastly, she lined up the guides in two rows.

Ten minutes before. People who had arrived early with excitement showed their faces. Natasha guided them in, as if telling them not to wait and enter early.

From five minutes before, more and more people began to appear, and when the exact time came, people flooded in like a swarm of ants.

Nobles who strictly kept to time also began to show up one by one around this time.

People thanked Natasha with smiling faces, expressing gratitude for hosting the harvest festival.

Although she felt embarrassed to receive love and trust unintentionally through a festival chosen to save face, perhaps because she had also devoted herself sincerely during the preparation period.

At some point, she too began to feel proud. Truly feeling that her efforts had been worthwhile.

Those going to the prayer room took yellow gifts, while nobles heading to the auction hall took red gifts. The guides, who had divided the groups by color, gradually guided them.

One hour after the start of the harvest festival. She believed most had arrived. After asking the guides to wait at the main gate for just thirty more minutes, Natasha also headed to the auction hall.

Sieghart, who had been greeting the host families at the back entrance, was already there. He welcomed her from the table marked with the “Asthart Ducal Family” nameplate.

Natasha exchanged eye greetings with him and then greeted the nobles seated at the tables. There were also grateful people who had visited from afar to attend the harvest festival.

Only after exchanging greetings with each of the cooperating families did she regain her freedom. Returning to her table, Natasha moistened her dry throat.

It seemed preparations here were also complete. The MC, neatly dressed in a tuxedo, stepped onto the platform to draw everyone’s attention.

“Ahem, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to all! Now, I shall introduce the person who will illuminate the glorious harvest festival. Viscount Leonardo has taken on the congratulatory address! Please welcome him with applause!”

The MC was currently the most famous actor in the empire. He opened the auction hall with his deep voice, which was one of his popular features.