Under the moonlight, Isabella shivered at the sight of the faintly revealed face of a woman. It was the young Countess Bartolini, renowned for her quietness and faithfulness.

Before her marriage, she was known as Clemente de Contarini, the elder sister of Ottavio de Contarini.

From her glazed eyes and flushed skin, it appeared the Countess Bartolini had also had her fair share of drink.

When the amorous pair was engrossed in their business, finally, they were discovered by someone other than Isabella.

“Who’s there!”

“Good heavens!”

The ones who shouted were a noble couple who were walking together. They screamed at the sight of Count Campa and Countess Bartolini.

“……!”

“!”

The man and woman on the bench froze. Especially the Countess Bartolini, despite being drunk, grabbed her mask and pushed Count Campa away with a remarkable force.

She bolted upright and started to run in the opposite direction of the noise. Coincidentally, it was towards where Isabella was standing.

The eyes of Countess Bartolini, dressed in a bright brown dress, met Isabella’s for a moment. In the woman’s eyes was a strong sense of humiliation. At that moment, an inspiration came to Isabella.

‘This is it……!’

The encounter between Countess Bartolini and Isabella was indeed momentary. The woman shoved even Isabella and quickly escaped into the depths of the garden.

Count Campa, pushed by the woman, fell off the bench with a thud. People started gathering from the direction of the screaming noble couple.

“What’s happening?”

“How dare they do such a disgraceful thing at a masquerade!”

“Isn’t that Count Campa?”

People were all shocked, just like Isabella.

“Who’s the woman he was with?”

“Did anyone see her face?”

“Such audacity!”

“She must be crazy!”

Isabella put her hand into her handbag. Inside was Ariadne’s fleurdelis bracelet she had picked up earlier. Isabella subtly rolled Ariadne’s bracelet into the vacant lot amidst the chaos.

The red ruby remained in her handbag, but the green topaz bracelet rolled about two piedi (approximately 1 meter) away from Count Campa into the grass.

Isabella shouted out loud.

“Look over there! A woman’s bracelet!”

Isabella’s cry indeed had a good reaction. People immediately focused their attention on the grass that she was pointing at, where there was a shining jewel bracelet, although its color was similar to the grass.

The noblewoman who had first discovered the lovers in the garden, the wife of Marquis Dafiani, quickly ran in and picked up the green topaz bracelet. She held up the bracelet and exclaimed excitedly.

“It seems to belong to the woman!”

People rushed in en masse to inspect the bracelet. The vacant lot became noisy, and the crowd grew to about a dozen in no time.

Count Campa was utterly drunk. Too drunk to resist the strength of his lover when she pushed him away, he fell from the bench and began snoring, face planted on the ground.

His untidy trousers were messy. One gentleman could not stand the sight and pulled Count Campa’s cloak to cover him entirely.

Among the throng of people that gathered, indeed, there were some who recognized the bracelet.

“This seems like a product from Collezioni’s current season, isn’t it?”

“Yes, yes, I think I saw it in the catalog. It’s a fleurdelis design.”

‘Good, they are slowly getting closer to the answer.’

However, it was slower than expected. Isabella, pretending to be oblivious, decided to give these ignorant crowds a little more help.

She feigned innocence and subtly dropped a hint.

“I heard that almost no one bought it. I wanted to buy Collezioni’s fleurdelis jewelry, but they said it’s no longer for sale because someone had preordered it.”

It seemed that there were several others who had a similar experience. With murmurs of “me too, me too,” the crowd began to buzz.

“Then we just need to find the woman who wore the new Collegioni product this season!”

Sparks flew from the people’s curiosity. If they narrowed it down that much, they could surely find her. Moreover, the woman who fled was wearing a dark yellow dress.

A woman in a yellow dress wearing a new Collegioni item. People started to discuss who had been wearing the new Collegioni item today.

“I think the Count and Countess of Marquez arrived today adorned with fleurdelis!”

“No, that’s not a Collegioni item, it’s from Alpette. The details are off.”

“Didn’t the woman who ran away earlier wear a deep yellow dress? The Countess of Marquez is wearing a red dress today.”

The discussion was in full swing. A silhouette appeared from the direction of the Queen’s palace.

It was Ariadne, who came to check if the Grand Duchess of Valoa had been found seeing the gathered crowd.

The gently appearing woman stopped in her tracks upon seeing the noisy crowd.

“Look there!”

At someone’s exclamation, all eyes turned to Ariadne. Ariadne was wearing a deep gold dress and a Bauta mask with the pattern of the fleurdelis.