Finally, it was the day before the banquet.

Ren and I visited the boutique to receive the dress.

“Hello.”

I greeted the employee with a bright face as I opened the door.

However, the employee ran into the back room with a terrified look on their face.

“Huh?”

Before I could grasp the situation, a middle-aged woman appeared.

The woman, who introduced herself as the owner of the boutique, soon uttered some perplexing words.

“……I’m sorry, but I don’t think we can give you the dress.”

“What? What do you mean……”

Ren and I just blinked at her.

“I’m sorry. I’ll refund the money you paid. Please leave.”

“Wait a moment! How can you do this so suddenly!”

The woman bit her lip hard and made a troubled expression. Her bowed head conveyed her apology.

“I’m sorry. That’s all I have to say.”

“No, wait!”

We tried to protest, but we ended up being chased out by the owner’s hands.

“What in the world is going on.”

I looked at Ren with a dumbfounded face. He seemed quite surprised too, but soon regained his composure.

“Lady Vivian, since the banquet is tomorrow, I think we should give up on the custom-made dress and go buy a ready-made one instead.”

“Ah, right. We should. I need to pull myself together.”

We hurriedly entered the boutique next door.

However, the smiling expressions of the employees upon seeing customers changed instantly when they saw my face.

“We’re sorry. We can’t sell anything to you. Please leave.”

We visited every boutique on the street. But nothing changed.

As if they had made an agreement, they urged me to leave as soon as they saw my face.

In the end, we were rejected at the last boutique as well.

“Do you think they were bribed?”

“Yes……There’s no one else who would do such a thing except those people.”

Although we didn’t hear a word about who bribed them, the culprits were obvious.

They’re the only ones who want me to suffer.

Was it not enough that they ruined the dress my mother left me?

I felt ashamed because of the childish behavior of those Viscount people.

‘Of all times, when Ren is here too……’

I forced a smile, pretending to be okay.

“Since I still have some time left to use my ability, should we go outside the capital? I think we can at least buy a ready-made dress.”

“Um, Lady Vivian. Actually, I have a good solution.”

“Huh? What is it?”

Ren whispered something in my ear.

I turned to look at him with wide eyes at the surprising story.

After that, we immediately returned to the hideout with Ren.

‘I came back trusting Ren’s words, but… will it be okay?’

I recalled what Ren had whispered in my ear on the street earlier.

I couldn’t help but be shocked at Ren, who looked embarrassed as he said that.

‘When on earth did he…?’

Ren had been incredibly busy these past few days.

It was because he took on all the work that I should have been doing originally.

He handed me books containing the knowledge needed for the banquet, telling me to study comfortably without thinking about work.

Since etiquette lessons were a thing of the distant past, I shamelessly followed his words.

‘Thanks to that, I was able to cram for the banquet etiquette, but… he even prepared a dress in that time?’

It must have been an amount of work that even several bodies wouldn’t be enough for, yet he still had the energy to do other things.

I couldn’t help but be amazed at Ren’s extraordinary stamina.

“But why did you prepare a dress? Did you expect this to happen?”

I blurted out the question that suddenly came to mind as we approached Ren’s room where the dress was prepared.

Ren scratched his cheek lightly with his finger and smiled as if embarrassed.

“No, absolutely not. I just… prepared it hoping that Lady Vivian wouldn’t be sad.”

“Hoping I wouldn’t be sad? What does that mean?”

I looked up at him with wide eyes, and Ren smiled gently.

“You’ll see when you look at it. More importantly, Lady Vivian.”

“Yes?”

“I’m too embarrassed to show it to you right away, so would it be okay if I cover your eyes for a moment?”

When I nodded, Ren stood behind me. Soon, his fair and unblemished white hands covered my eyes.

He opened his room door with his remaining hand.

I carefully stepped inside, matching his movements with small steps.

“I’ll show you now. One, two.”

As the hands covering my vision disappeared, bright light pierced my eyes.

I slowly opened my eyes, squinting at the sudden light.

Finally, my gaze fell on the dress inside the room.

“……”

A dress in a color that seemed to have captured the sky on a clear day.

The design revealed the shoulders cleanly, but the sleeves made of translucent fabric were long enough to cover the wrists.

Ribbons shaped like flowers were embedded here and there on the voluminous skirt, adding to its splendor.

It was a form all too familiar to my eyes.

I was at a loss for words at this unexpected sight.

Tears suddenly welled up, and I tried to hold them back.

But soon, a teardrop rolled down my cheek from my misty eyes.

“Ah… Ah.”

I thought I would never see it again.

The only gift my mother left behind. That dress I had committed to memory countless times.

That dress I had given up on when Leonie ruined it was now before my eyes, having regained its original beauty.

A sight unbelievable even as I saw it. There was so much I wanted to say, but my throat was choked up.

I barely managed to clear my trembling throat and tightly hugged Ren, who had somehow come to my side.

“Thank you… Thank you so much, Ren.”

Instead of answering, he hugged me back and slowly stroked my head.

I couldn’t see his expression as my face was buried in his chest.

Nevertheless, I felt like a gentle and warm smile would be on his lips.

After that, Vivian continued to sniffle and cry for a while, still embraced by Ren.

It was only when Ren’s chest was already soaked with her tears and snot that she finally calmed down.

Seeing his thoroughly wet clothes, Vivian rolled her eyes in embarrassment.

“Um… sorry.”

“Hm? What are you referring to?”

Ren tilted his head sideways as if he truly didn’t understand.

“……That.”

Vivian pointed at Ren’s chest, still unable to meet his eyes.

Ren’s gaze followed her finger and finally reached his own chest. His eyes widened for a moment.

“Could it be because the clothes are wet? Oh, Lady Vivian. It doesn’t matter at all. It’s fine.”

“If you say so, that’s a relief… but it must be dirty.”

“It’s not dirty. More importantly, just a moment.”

He took out a handkerchief from his pocket and gently wiped away the tears that remained around Vivian’s eyes.

“I’m worried your face might swell up tomorrow at this rate.”

“That’s alright. I’ll wash my face well with cold water and sleep. But how on earth did you fix that? When you were so busy. Did you have it mended somewhere?”

“I just fixed it bit by bit in my spare time. Actually, I didn’t know if I could fix it before the banquet, but I barely finished this morning.”

Vivian lowered the corners of her mouth as if she couldn’t believe it, but Ren’s words were true.

In the past few days when Vivian was holed up studying etiquette, he had been spending time in a frenzy.

Or to be more precise, it was his shadow that had been busy.

During that time, Ren had torn his shadow into dozens of pieces and made them do all sorts of tasks.

From household chores like cooking, laundry, or cleaning, to managing the confined target, and even fixing Vivian’s dress.

It wasn’t an easy task as he had to control each divided shadow, but he finally managed it.

Among them, the most difficult was fixing Vivian’s dress.

Although Ren had mastered everything from knitting to sewing since becoming Vivian’s subordinate, it was his first time mending a dress.

It was a task that required expertise, and being inexperienced, he made frequent mistakes along the way.

Without his shadow, he would never have succeeded.

“Can a dress return to its original state just by fixing it in spare time? I don’t think that’s possible… And where did you get the fabric?”

“Well, actually, I talked about this with the employee on the day we went to buy Lady Vivian’s dress.”

Vivian traced her memories at those words.

Come to think of it, Ren didn’t come out of the boutique for a long time, and she had waited for quite a while with Melphis.

‘Could it be then….’

To think he had been planning to fix it since then. Her heart swelled with gratitude to the point of aching.

“I thought about entrusting it to a professional, but they said it would take a long time. And I thought it would be better if I did it myself in case someone tried to play a trick. Fortunately, it worked out.”

Although he spoke nonchalantly, Vivian couldn’t even begin to grasp how much effort Ren had put in for her sake.

“Are your hands okay? Didn’t you prick yourself with needles and such?”

“My hands?”

At the sudden question, Ren seemed flustered and hid both hands behind his back.

“What’s this, you did get hurt a lot, didn’t you.”

“Ah, no, not at all.”

He said it wasn’t so, but hiding his hands like that. It was obvious he was lying. Vivian immediately tried to examine his hands.

Meanwhile, Ren’s head was full of different thoughts.

He secretly moved his shadow to prick several places on his fingers without Vivian noticing.

As crimson blood flowed from the holes, the shadow crudely opened its mouth and ate away the blood.

Having finished the secret operation in no time, he pretended to give in to her insistence and held out his hands.

“……I knew it. Look at this. So much for not getting hurt.”

Vivian’s face instantly crumpled, and she pouted her lips.

‘To think he mended that dress for me while getting hurt like this….’

Looking closely at the wounds, they seemed to be not fully healed, as if they had been made recently.

‘How deep must he have pricked himself for them to still be healing….’

Her heart became complicated with feelings of indebtedness and guilt. Vivian held Ren’s hand tightly, on the verge of tears.

“It’s really fine. These heal quickly.”

“But still……”

“If you insist, then let’s go on an outing together next time.”

“An outing?”

“Yes, the weather has been cool and pleasant lately.”

Vivian nodded her head vigorously up and down.

There was no reason not to do at least that much for Ren, who had sacrificed so much for her.

Watching Vivian, who had been completely fooled without even dreaming of his dark intentions, Ren gently raised the corners of his mouth.