At the end of Cardinal de Mare’s short speech, all the guests celebrated, lifting the fruit wine brought by the servers in the air, making a toast, and drinking.

Ariadne and Cesare also each took a sip of the fruit wine brought by a server on the stage. It meant they had come of age.

Soon after, the band began to play. It was time for the first waltz.

Since the débutante and her partner had to dance the first dance, no one else could start dancing, so Cesare escorted Ariadne to the center of the ballroom.

Taking the starting pose of the waltz, wrapping one hand around Ariadne’s waist and holding her other hand, he greeted her affectionately.

“It’s been a few weeks since I last saw you, Ariadne.”

A charming smile, in which he had the most confidence, formed on Cesare’s lips.

“Let’s honor each other from today, as we promised.”

He seemed to remember his previous statement about speaking casually, since she was a child. Ariadne, taking steps to the waltz, didn’t soften her expression and shot back,

“Call me Lady de Mare.”

Her spirit was not swayed by a cheap smile. Perfect. Bravo.

He had never shown any interest in Isabella’s crude younger sister, but now, he was genuinely interested in Ariadne.

He wanted to steal anything Alfonso had. And if that thing was a lively, beautiful girl, he wanted to poke his own eyes out for not having noticed her until now.

“Let’s wait until the day we become friends, Lady de Mare.”

Cesare led the waltz, maintaining his best manners for the woman he had set his sights on. Ariadne was not the best dancer, but she danced proficiently.

“You dance well for a debutante. Did you learn a lot at home?”

She didn’t learn much at home, but she had danced with him, for 14 years. Repeatedly. Several times.

It was difficult to adjust to Cesare’s suddenly sweet attitude, who had not been very fond of dancing with her in her past life.

In order to suppress her complicated emotions, Ariadne thought of Cesare, who had asked if she would sell the ‘Heart of the Blue Sea’ when a glimmer of hope arose. No, she thought of the Cesare before the regression, who had shouted at her, asking if she felt humiliated when your father forced me on you.

Automatically, her heart sunk, cold as a late autumn downpour. Her gaze and voice also cooled down.

“I’m not dancing well. I’m just doing the basics.”

As the climax of the waltz approached, Cesare held only Ariadne’s left hand, sent his partner far away, then spun her back into his arms.

“This is the ‘Heart of the Blue Sea’. The jewel is shining, but it seems to be inferior to your beauty.”

“Stop the nonsense.”

Irrespective of the cold words spewed from her lips, the girl’s body temperature was incredibly warm. Cesare focused on the warmth of the girl embraced in his arms, contrary to the harsh words that fell from her lips.

He was confident that he could melt the heart of the awkward teenage girl given time. Unbeknownst to him, he had already done this perfectly in his previous life.

To Cesare de Como, the count and the most popular man in San Carlo, winning a woman’s heart was only a matter of time.

When Count Cesare de Como was throwing sweet words at the impenetrable Ariadne de Mare, Prince Alfonso was standing blankly, leaning his back against the wall of the main hall, looking into the middle.

The ladies were all looking at him, whispering, but no one could approach him. It was a firm rule that a gentleman should be the first to offer his hand for a dance request at the ball.

There was no way any lady would dare approach the Prince who was leaning against the wall, sighing heavily without any enthusiasm. Except for one person.

Isabella, dressed in a pure white organdy dress imported from the Moore Empire and adorned like a peacock, knew exactly what she had to do as soon as she spotted the prince.

Without an ounce of hesitation, Isabella lightly approached the Prince and pushed the decorative white porcelain vase on the drawer next to him.

Seeing that the vase was about to fall, Alfonso’s eyes widened and instinctively stretched out his hand towards the porcelain. However, in the place where the porcelain was about to fall, there was Isabella who had thrown herself instead of the porcelain.

“Clang!”

The loud sound of the vase breaking resonated, and everyone’s attention was immediately focused on Prince Alfonso, who all the ladies had been staring at already.

Prince Alfonso was inadvertently left holding Isabella. Isabella offered a fresh smile to the flustered Alfonso and proposed.

“Let’s pretend you wanted to ask me for a dance.”

The curious eyes of many people were watching him.

“Everyone’s watching, come on.”

Alfonso nodded reluctantly, feeling that if he didn’t agree here, he’d be the man who had touched a woman without permission. He was then pulled to the center of the main hall by Isabella.

Isabella sweetly grabbed Prince Alfonso’s hand and placed it on her waist. Alfonso, not knowing what to do, began to step to the rhythm of the waltz while holding Isabella’s waist.

They seemed like a perfect couple on the outside. Isabella in a pure white organdy dress and Alfonso who faithfully kept the debutante partner outfit, they looked like a debutante couple from afar.

The combination of rich and light blond hair was a handsome man and beautiful woman, at a glance, it looked like these two were the protagonists of the debutante ball.

However, the chemistry between the two was not very good. Isabella spoke persistently to the Prince throughout the dance.

“Do you like today’s ball?”

“It’s a wonderful ball.”

And the conversation did not continue.

“Prince, you seem to dance very calmly. Who was your social dance teacher at the palace?”

“I learned from Mr. Lorebald.”

The Prince’s answer was a terse one. But persistent Isabella did not give up. As she took a big turn according to the rhythm of the waltz and settled in the arms of the Prince, Isabella threw a topic once again.

“The interior decoration is quite unique and beautiful, isn’t it? It was chosen by my younger sister, Ariadne.”

Then finally, a light shone in the Prince’s eyes. Isabella thought that the physical contact had finally worked and beamed her pretty eyes. However, the Prince’s interest was elsewhere. Alfonso, who was responding, spoke faster.

“Your sister Ariadne is truly amazing. She’s creative and intelligent, and I’m deeply impressed.”

Prince Alfonso’s positive response was not due to the skin contact with Isabella.

Isabella, who was about to talk about Ariadne’s audacity in omitting the traditional tapestry decoration, felt an intuition that the Prince’s reaction would not be very good if she proceeded that way.

Helplessly, she went along with the prince’s topic and joined in praising her younger sister.

“Ariadne is indeed smart. She studies hard.”

“What is her favorite subject? Is it theology?”

Isabella, who had little interest in her sister beyond her rivalry, began to fumble for an answer.

For the first time since she had grown hair, Isabella found herself talking about another woman while conversing with a man, and she swore it was the first time.

Good heavens, when had Isabella de Mare ever been treated like this by a male peer!

She began to glance anxiously in Ariadne’s direction, grinding her teeth. She had prepared an incident in advance that would make the prince realize that Ariadne was a poor commodity in his view.

Once that happened, there was no doubt that the prince Alfonso’s rolling interest would fade.

She had definitely set it up, but when was it going to explode?