“Signor Ottavio!”

“Miss Isabella!”

Isabella and Ottavio, who met in the dining room of the Bartolini Count’s house, seemed almost ready to hug each other. Anyone who saw this would have thought they were lovers who hadn’t seen each other in three months.

“No, it’s been really a long time! I never thought we’d meet here!”

“Ottavio’s sister invited me. I’ve been out of touch with my sister Clemente, but it’s a real friend who takes care of me in difficult times.”

Isabella glanced at Clemente with a smile in her eyes. She had her own enlightenment while watching her ‘friends’ betray her en masse. If you don’t share a single bean, there’s no samesex friend on your side.

In the past, they flocked like clouds to earn the title of being a friend of Isabella de Mare, the highest wealth and beauty in San Carlo. Now… it’s cheap and dirty, but it’s time to lift up the praise, recognition, and hard work with your own mouth.

Clemente, who heard the unexpected compliment, spoke to Ottavio with a slightly improved mood.

“Ottavio, sit down quickly. Why did you come alone. Where is the friend you were supposed to come with.”

“Ah, that friend. He doesn’t always go on time. He’ll come slowly while we eat first.”

Upon hearing that, Isabella’s purple eyes twinkled. Perhaps…

But Isabella decided not to show her impatience. In the noble days, it was good to show emotions. Now… she was tightrope walking on thin ice. Dignity and elegance only come from attitude.

When she quietly smiled and touched the end of her finger to the cheek washing her mouth, there was a knock in the dining room.

Knock, knock.

“The guest has arrived.”

A domestic of the Bartolini Count’s house led the guest into the dining room.

The guest was none other than Count Cesare, who was wearing a velvet hat decorated with water gun feathers and wearing the latest fashionable clothes with deer leather gloves.

He took off his hat, bent his knee, brought it to his chest, and raised a graceful greeting.

“Countess Bartolini. It’s an honor to be invited.”

Although no one sitting here knew, in fact, this meeting today was the first opportunity for Count Cesare and Countess Bartolini to develop into a clandestine relationship.

“Nice to meet you. I am Count Cesare.”

Cesare greeted the hostess respectfully, and Clemente de Bartolini received the greeting with a bow like a frightened minipin.

“I heard you are close with my brother… It’s nice to meet you.”

The fact that Cesare and Ottavio started sticking together like inseparable friends hasn’t been three years yet, and Clemente de Contarini has been living in the Count Bartolini’s territory since she married Count Bartolini four years ago.

She had just recently come up to San Carlo by the summoning of Leo III.

“It’s a bit late to greet you now. You’re much more beautiful than I heard.”

“Oh my, that’s too much…”

“Haha, Cesare, don’t praise her too much. If you do, our sister will really think she’s pretty.”

“Ottavio…!”

It was a rare experience for Isabella to become invisible. No one took the initiative to include her in the conversation. Clemente did so out of her own selfishness, and Ottavio had no sense to take care of such a thing.

Count Cesare’s attitude was ambiguous. It seemed like he was deliberately ignoring her, but he also seemed to be treating the hostess of the invited house with respect.

If she was a hottempered person, she might have dragged Countess Bartolini to the back room and tore her apart, but Isabella took a deep breath and endured.

‘I am the new Isabella. A poor and pitiful Isabella who lost her mother.’

Isabella smiled and patted Clemente.

“Ottavio! Don’t say that. Sister Clemente is really pretty.”

Isabella lowered her long, purple eyelashes and winked at Clemente. Isabella’s porcelain dolllike perfect features shone brilliantly in the sunlight coming in through the window.

She was wearing a simplified formal dress today. The white veil on her head, the white lace decorating the collar, and a single lily on her wrist were decorations allowed to those in simplified formal dress. Underneath, she wore a shining black satin dress.

Isabella, adorned in black and white, looked innocent and elegant, and it was strange for such Isabella to praise Clemente’s beauty, which was obviously inferior to hers.

Clemente was the first to realize this fact. She was upset, but she was leashed by Isabella. Ignoring the bitterness in her mouth, she responded with a friendly smile.

“……Don’t say such things…… I must look ridiculous……”

“Oh, I’m serious.”

Count Cesare interrupted the conversation between the two for the sake of the Countess Bartolini, who was being sucked into an inescapable swamp.

“Lady de Mare, it’s been a long time.”