A very faint disappointment spread across the eyes of Marquis Lev, which had been full of anticipation.

But this was good enough.

If it hadn’t been for an excuse related to Yuan, he wouldn’t have even been able to bring this up to his nephew.

The very phrase ‘I’ll think about it’ held great significance.

It was evidence that Clard was finally envisioning a better future in his mind.

Marquis Lev watched Clard’s hands busily handling the work piled up before him for a long time, as if pushing away distracting thoughts.

Perhaps the blueprint of Rocksenhart, the commercial city that might be realized much earlier than Clard initially anticipated, was densely packed there.

No matter how hard one tries to deny, there are things that can never be hidden.

“My happiness is like that too.”

Marquis Lev lowered his face, overcome with emotion, to hide it.

“Feeding, clothing, and showing good things to my wife and children… After the Empress Dowager passed away, my happiness is solely that. The kind that Your Highness laughed at until just recently.”

Clard’s quill pen stopped momentarily, then moved quickly again.

“Looking back, there’s no greater happiness than that.”

“Here we go again. I’ll memorize this speech soon. Uncle, you sometimes talk as if I look quite happy.”

“At least you don’t look unhappy.”

“…”

“The very fact that you’re thinking about the future is deeply moving to me.”

Clard roughly put down the quill pen he had been moving busily.

Regardless of whether Mosan Lev was looking at him with tearful eyes or not.

He stared at the painkillers in front of him for a long time with his arms crossed, then tore open one packaged with cold water and swallowed it.

“…Since I can’t love, this is all I can do.”

Clard showed the marquis that twisted and dark smile of his.

He was tightly gripping the painkiller package in his large hand as if to crush it, even though he had already torn and swallowed one, and it wasn’t enough.

The news of a “Debutante at the Marquis’ Estate” that Marquis Lev dropped while leaving work to young maids who had been envying the grand debutante soon to be held at the Imperial Palace as if it were something that only existed in dreams, was no different from a bombshell.

“My lady. You must trust me completely?”

“Monica, you always put on such airs. You can’t even braid hair properly, yet you claim you’ll dress up the lady.”

“That’s menial work for you to do, Henna! High-caliber personnel like me only give orders. Right, Canaria?”

“You’re all thumbs. You almost missed curfew chatting at the dressmaker’s. The butler knows you’re trying to slack off using the lady as an excuse.”

The maids were in a heated argument in the reception room where dressmaker Michelle had been urgently called in. Yuan sat blankly among the noisy maids.

Even as Michelle and Monica seriously discussed hair ornaments and necklines while re-measuring the measurements taken not long ago, it still felt like a dream.

“I’m already married… Does a debutante have any meaning? More importantly, did His Majesty allow attending such a boisterous event?”

“Don’t worry, my lady. Marquis Lev said so himself. You’re going as an invited guest, so you just need to mingle among the girls and enjoy the atmosphere. He emphasized again not to feel burdened.”

Butler Gustav answered gently.

Pure white organza and apricot and light pink silk suitable for a debutante were draped around Yuan’s neck and shoulders in succession, then unfolded again.

The maids were more excited than Yuan. Henna, who had been glancing at the dazed Yuan, quickly approached and whispered.

“My lady. Since His Majesty is being so kind, just accept it gratefully. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event. You skipped the wedding ceremony, so this much is fine, right?”

Yuan barely managed to lift the corners of her mouth in a smile and slowly nodded. But as Henna’s gaze shifted to the fabric, her face clouded over again.

‘Does His Majesty really see Princess Apollini in me?’

If not, she couldn’t understand why he kept being nice to her without much interest.

No man holds a debutante for his married wife.

No, she didn’t know for sure, but there probably weren’t any.

The late Princess Apollini, who was said to be the same age as Yuan, would now be at the perfect age to be preparing as the protagonist of the Imperial Palace debutante.

‘You might be reminded of Princess Apollini when you see the lady.’
‘The two of you have a similar atmosphere. And you’re the same age.’

Henna’s bright face as she chose pearls to decorate the dress overlapped with that day.

Right. Whatever the reason.

What’s important is living together with him as family in this house.

‘If I think of him as an elder brother I’ve gained… That should do it.’

The heart that had suppressed Clard’s pain ached sharply.

Yuan barely managed a faint smile on her increasingly pale face and mingled among the maids fiddling with the fabric.

-Plop.

“My, my lady!”

“My lady! This handkerchief-”

A couple of bright red blood drops fell on the white organza.

“Huh?”

Yuan quickly caught the blood with her hand.

It was a sudden nosebleed.

“I knew you’ve been overworking yourself lately! I can’t bear this, really!”

Henna brought more things to wipe with quickly, looking upset.

Yuan smiled as if to reassure the maids, though she was surprised herself.

“You’re right. I should have listened to you better, Henna.”

“I told you to sleep in in the morning, and not to suffer by squeezing onto the water cart-”

The reason Yuan went to the small chapel every day was ostensibly to get some fresh air and pray, but the reality was different.

The pain she absorbed every night for Clard’s clean face was considerable.

Unable to burst out the remaining pain noisily in her room, Yuan had no choice but to head to the deserted chapel cemetery early in the morning.

Under the pretext of tending to Oliver’s grave, she burst out screams there along with the residual pain in her body.

She had aimed for the gap before all the maids went to fetch water and the priests came out to the chapel.

“You must be really tired. You’re trying to help with the merchant guild work, and now you’re preparing for the debutante. Are you feeling a bit unsettled?”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

Yuan affirmed Henna’s worried question.

Canaria and Monica, who had been watching silently, suggested accordingly.

“How about visiting the marquis’ estate cemetery? You always felt better after going there, didn’t you? It’s been a while since you went, too.”

“That’s a good idea. While you’re at it, you should look around the jewelry shops in the marquis’ estate. If we separate you from Miss Hille, you might actually stop working for a bit!”

Yuan slowly nodded at the maids’ insistence.

“It is time I went. Thank you for your concern, Henna. And Canaria and Monica too.”

Count Gerret Peliesse found the week-long carriage journey extremely difficult.

Due to lying down in the comfortable four-wheeled carriage and trying to rest at every village they passed, a journey that could have taken 3-4 days at most was being endlessly delayed.

Completely ignoring the irritated eyes of the secret agent Guyotel, Count Peliesse glared intensely at the signs attached to the largest trading company in each village.

Thus arriving near the Lev marquis family cemetery.

Count Peliesse, who lacked the courage to boldly enter by carriage all the way to the place located on a low hill for no particular reason, deliberately placed an unmarked hired carriage at the path leading up to the cemetery and began observing from inside to see if anyone was coming or going.

“If it’s twice a month, that means once every two weeks. We came at a good time. It should be soon.”

The count, who had started off enthusiastically staking out for the first few days while commuting from a nearby village inn, wore a tired face on the third day and looked out the window with rotten fish-like eyes.

Since only the family and relatives would come to the marquis family cemetery, there wasn’t even an ant passing by outside no matter how much he looked.

As his body became uncomfortable, the count began to consider the rash idea of perhaps having Guyotel, who was in the driver’s seat, kidnap Yuan instead of meeting her directly – when suddenly, the sound of horse hooves violently shaking the earth startled him. He pulled his hat down low and peeked through the gap in the window.

“!”

A golden four-wheeled carriage clearly visible even from afar. Not only that, but sparkling with jewels embedded at the top of each protruding ornament…

“Bo, Boloniko?”

First Prince Boloniko Yufris.

The person Gerret Peliesse absolutely must not encounter right now was coming to this remote cemetery.

The black carriage that left the mansion early in the morning entered the marquis’ estate around lunchtime.

When Yuan entered the cemetery holding a bouquet of wildflowers she had woven herself, an unexpected visitor was already there.

“May eternal glory be upon the great Yufris.”

“Ah, sister-in-law-”

It was First Prince Boloniko, whom she had briefly met at the wedding anniversary party before.

Boloniko, the First Prince, who received a bouquet of chrysanthemums from a bluish-skinned attendant, greeted her warmly as if they had been close before.

He was standing in front of the nameless tombstone of her sister, Louise Peliesse.

“I was just looking around, wondering about the story behind this nameless tombstone here. And you, sister-in-law?”

“…I came to pay respects at the late Emperor and Empress’s graves, Your Highness.”

“Doing what even the son doesn’t do…”

First Prince Boloniko furrowed his brows as if impressed, and placed the chrysanthemum bouquet in front of Louise’s tombstone.

Yuan felt her palms grow clammy as she clenched her fists tightly, waiting for him to finish his brief tribute.

“You must feel very stifled.”

Soon, Boloniko’s voice, with his eyes closed, coiled around her ears like a snake.

“At such a young age. With such a monster. An unwanted marriage. No matter how much you try to forget reality by doing other things, don’t you despair at the unchanging reality?”

“?”

“Boloniko has a good proposal for you, sister-in-law.”

First Prince Boloniko’s sharp, high nose bridge faced forward. Then his bright blue eyes darkened as they turned towards her.

“How about taking Boloniko’s hand and coming out into the bright world?”

“…What do you mean by-”

“It means become Boloniko’s person.”

Boloniko’s person.

‘Has he been referring to himself in the third person this whole time?’

Yuan did not lose sight of the blue gaze that seemed to look down on lower beings, with a mixture of wariness and bewilderment in her eyes.