He could confidently say that he had held her arm without any ulterior motives and held her in his arms. But after that, just before falling asleep, the image of the girl in a white dress with black hair appeared.

The feel of her arm he had held then, the breath from her mouth, the scent from her soft skin and hair overwhelmed him as he lay in bed.

Once he realized this, he couldn’t help himself. The touch of Ariadne’s hand today might objectively be nothing, but subjectively, it was special. Alfonso couldn’t stop himself and called Ariadne in a whisper.

“Come here.”

“Uh, what?”

Alfonso lifted Ariadne by her waist. Now, he really couldn’t even make the excuse that he didn’t make the first move.

At first, Ariadne, who seemed surprised, broke off a purple hydrangea that had been blooming at the top of the hydrangea bush with her own hands, thanks to the height Alfonso had lifted her to.

Ariadne held the broken hydrangea like a bouquet.

“How is it? Is it pretty?”

“It’s really pretty.”

Their conversation seemed to be smooth on the surface, but in reality, they were referring to different things. The girl was asking if the bouquet was pretty, but the boy was answering that the girl was pretty.

There were also other invited guests from the salon who had come for a walk.

To their eyes, everyone else except the two of them seemed like inanimate objects, wall clocks, or furniture. If one thing was common between the wall clock and other guests, it was that they told the time.

Whether it was in the garden or the building, men and women could naturally take a walk around once, but if they wasted too much time in the middle or were stuck somewhere and didn’t come out, they would soon be gossiped about.

A ‘natural round’ meant that when they started, the other invited guests who had appeared around them still had to be around to be within the safe zone.

Ariadne and Alfonso slowly began to realize that there were fewer and fewer familiar faces around, or almost none at all.

“We need to go in quickly.”

Alfonso reluctantly agreed with Ariadne, who was in a hurry. The feeling of Ariadne’s waist fitting into his hands hadn’t left his brain.

Her yellow silk dress had briefly nestled in his hand and then left. It felt as if the sunlight had briefly entered through the window and then suddenly cut off, giving a feeling of loss.

“I thank the Duke and Duchess of Chibo, who have arranged such a wonderful event today, Prince Alfonso de Carlo who graced this event, and all the gentlemen and ladies present here.”

The art auction had finally started. The merchant who brought in the auction items was a middleaged man in his 50s, with a somewhat fierce look, a neatly trimmed beard, and an overly flamboyant style.

“I am Vincenzo from the Republic of Porto. I am the second son of the younger brother of Benasio, who is serving as the finance minister in the Republic of Porto. Today, thanks to this connection, I have been able to bring some fantastic works of art here! You all know what’s coming, don’t you?”

Although he emphasized his connection with the powerful family of the Republic of Porto, he oddly felt like a street hawker.

However, the reputation of was indeed outstanding, and the invited guests who gathered and seated in the hall buzzed amongst themselves, whipping up their expectations.

“Let’s start with the small and pretty ones. They are the paintings by a new artist from Urbino. Even if they don’t meet your eyes fully, please generously look at them as a form of support for a youth brimming with potential. This is .”

Ariadne smirked. Bernardo of Urbino, who painted this picture, was to leave next year due to scouting from Seonghwangcheong after receiving rave reviews for the portrait of the Duke of Urbino he would reveal to the world next year.

He was to continue his career at Seonghwangcheong, and a few years later, he was expected to be in charge of the expansion and mural painting of the Trevoro Cathedral, with his value literally skyrocketing.

Bernardo of Urbino boasted a solid and stable composition and brushwork from the beginning, enough to be embarrassed to be called a new artist.

At the time, his youth was poking at the sky, and his works were daring.

Either you’re an art enthusiast who doesn’t even know what to look at, or you’re the type who has no choice but to start painting with a brush and oil paint because your eyes are stuck in the sky.

“Starting at 5 ducats! Is anyone there?”

However, because the merchant of the Porto Republic had opened with an excessively striking comment, no one bid even 5 ducats for a work that would multiply in value by next year and would become unaffordable to most nobles in 5 years.

Ariadne didn’t want to stand out, so she waited a little longer before calling out her bid.

“5 ducats!”

“Oh, who is this? Ah, the second daughter of the De Mare family, the Cardinal’s daughter, bid 5 ducats! Is there anyone else?”

He was not sophisticated in his honorifics, perhaps because he was a foreigner. It was forgivable.

“If no one is there, I’ll start the count. 5!”

“4!”

“3!”

“8 ducats.”

The second bidder was the person who had just taken the seat next to Ariadne.

He was a latecomer who had been rummaging around the hall while the count was being called, and although the seats were mostly filled, it was not that there were no vacancies, but he had chosen to sit right next to Ariadne, which was a bit annoying.

It was rude for a lady to stare at the person next to her, and because the bidding was going on, Ariadne did not check who the person next to her was.

Instead of Ariadne, the merchant of Porto asked the person next to him a question.

“Who is the gentleman who placed the second bid……”

After a moment of murmuring, the merchant of Porto declared after receiving confirmation from the host.

“Ah! It’s Count Cesare De Como!”

Ariadne turned her head in surprise, as if she had been hit by fire.

Count Cesare De Como was just sitting down, removing his hat and fixing his clothes.

The high nose and delicate jawline were barely visible under his auburn hair. He quickly swept his auburn hair back, turned his head to the side, and made eye contact with Ariadne, who was watching him in surprise.

He slightly raised his left eyebrow and left corner of his mouth, showing a vague expression that was neither a smile nor a sneer, and greeted Ariadne with a nod of his head.

It was an expression that Ariadne knew all too well.

Just then, the merchant of Porto found the next bidder.

“Count De Como has bid 8 ducats, 8 ducats are up! Next bidder……!”

Before the merchant of Porto could finish his sentence, Ariadne shouted out gleefully.

“10 ducats!”