As the two sat at the table, food began to appear as if it had been waiting.

“I’m still startled. It’s just a signature on paper, so I wonder if I’ve really become a noble lady…”

“I suppose, but a lot will change after we get engaged. Some of the sudden changes may be burdensome to you. If anything is hard, tell me anytime.”

At the gentle Duke’s words, Lina fiddled with her hot soup.

“Yes, I understand.”

“And about our engagement ceremony, I think it would be better to have it after finishing the work we are currently handling.”

The Duke’s words made Lina recall the missing person flyers that had been plastered around the square not long ago.

“Is it because of the disappearances happening in the capital now?”

“Yes, the situation is not good. So, I may not be able to come back to the mansion until the day after tomorrow.”

“It’s fine with me, so don’t overdo it.”

Lina, smiling at the Duke, looked out the window.

‘Come to think of it, it’s tomorrow. The day when the full moon rises.’

She had almost forgotten again.

Before meeting Valige, there were many days when she was looking forward to this day. Now, she no longer waited for the day to become beautiful.

‘Perhaps it’s more comfortable not to change.’

She felt her body already becoming sulky at the thought of being confined to her room all day again. But it was fortunate that the Duke would be away from the mansion all day tomorrow. She was sure of that.

(This is a time marker.)

“Sigh[Dash].”

Time passed, and Lina, now transformed, lay down on the bed and sighed.

“Why do I feel so stuffy today?”

And she wanted the lemon tart from Delif that she had eaten with Mei yesterday.

But since her body had already changed, she couldn’t ask Mei to buy it for her.

‘The weather is so nice…’

Lina, hesitating for a moment, seemed to have made up her mind.

“Then, shall I go and buy just the tart……?”

It was noon now, and lunch hadn’t been long, so Mei wouldn’t come to look for her again.

“Just in case.”

Preparing for any situation, she put a pillow inside the blanket, locked the door, and flipped her robe on.

“This should be enough. I’ll be back in an hour or two anyway.”

With that thought, Lina used magic to sneak out of the mansion. Before she knew it, she had reached the square where the dessert shop was, and her steps became lighter.

“There sure are a lot of people today.”

Perhaps because the weather was nice, everyone had come outside, and the square seemed to have more people than when she had come yesterday.
Pushing through the throng of people and heading towards a distant store, she collided with a man she hadn’t seen coming in front of her.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

Lina hurriedly apologized and looked at the man in front of her.

“Huh?”

The man seemed not to care about the collision and was only in a hurry to go on his way. At this, Lina tilted her head, and just as she was about to head back to the dessert store,

“This is…….”

A glove lay abandoned on the ground, as if the man had dropped it.

“It looks like that man dropped it…….”

She thought about simply ignoring it and moving on, but she couldn’t ignore the glove that had fallen when they bumped into each other.

For that reason, Lina, who had picked up the glove dropped by the man, looked back.

Due to the people, the man she’d bumped into, presumed to be him, was still in sight.

“Excuse me! You dropped your glove!”

She shouted with all her might to call him, but the man seemed not to hear her voice, perhaps because of the surrounding noise.

Eventually, to return the glove, she began to run in the direction the man had disappeared.

“Where did he suddenly disappear to?”

Was it because the man’s pace was too fast?

Lina, who had followed him all the way to a secluded alley, was now looking around for the suddenly vanished man.

“…… Soon…… soon…….”

Voices of people talking came from not far away.

“Is it there?”

Following the faint sound of conversation, she entered the narrow alleyway, and there was the man she had been anxiously searching for.

In a moment of joy to call the man,

“Is the merchandise ready?”

“Yeah, we’ll send it to the south tonight.”

“Hurry, if we get caught by the police, it’s over. The atmosphere these days is not normal.”

‘Merchandise? Police?’

Lina, who had been about to call the man, stopped and began to quietly eavesdrop on their conversation.

“Don’t you have something better? They want a special color like blonde or golden eyes on that side.”

“Look, the police are on our heels right now. It’s too risky. Besides, do you think such colors are common when dealing with commoners?”

Lina sucked in her breath as she listened to the men’s conversation that followed. People continually going missing. And the talk of the men, as if trading people.

‘Could it be… human trafficking…?’

She unconsciously swallowed dry saliva as if her head had been hit with a hammer in shock.

‘I must inform the Duke of this fact…!’

She couldn’t linger here any longer. With a thought that she must inform the Duke as soon as possible, Lina was about to hurry away when,

“This rat was eavesdropping here. How fearless.”

When had he been standing there?

A man with a large scar on his face was blocking Lina’s way.