Surely she won’t try to excuse that chemise as something she wore herself. Anyone can see it’s a kitchen maid’s clothes.

“It seems Lucrezia is raising the Cardinal De Mare’s second daughter worse than a maid.”

“Even a distant relative or lady-in-waiting wouldn’t be dressed in such clothes. It really is a maid’s outfit.”

Isabella’s pupils shook as if an earthquake had struck.

There was no way to salvage the situation further. As her face turned bright red and she was trying to gauge whether to tell more lies or flee, Queen Marguerite, who had been keeping her mouth shut, threw one word at Isabella.

“Is that chemise also something you wore?”

Isabella turned pale and clamped her mouth shut like a clam. For a mere seventeen-year-old girl, Isabella was indeed quick to assess the situation. When cornered, it’s best to minimize words and escape.

However, Lucrezia, not as shrewd as her own daughter, tried to somehow salvage the situation.

“That… I didn’t dress her like that, it seems the maids must have switched it!”

Queen Marguerite clicked her tongue. Lucrezia, in trying to claim she hadn’t mistreated her stepdaughter, had essentially confessed to completely failing to manage the household.

Queen Marguerite firmly waved her hand outward, gesturing to stop Lucrezia’s words.

“Enough. Take that child and give her a proper chemise to change into.”

Queen Marguerite’s lady-in-waiting bowed her head and took Ariadne’s hand to lift her up.

Ariadne summoned her maximum acting skills and got up, led by the queen’s lady-in-waiting, with wide eyes looking around as if she knew nothing.

As she left the queen’s reception room, at the edge of her vision she saw Lucrezia, her face red with shame, breathing heavily.

Queen Marguerite issued a social death sentence to Lucrezia.

“Miss De Rossi, I will change the Cardinal’s second daughter’s clothes and keep her a while longer before sending her back. You and the Cardinal’s eldest daughter may return now.”

The inhospitable dismissal that didn’t spare her face was the final touch.

The address for an unmarried noblewoman, the disregard implying the children belonged only to the Cardinal and not to her, the expulsion from their circle – it was the culmination of the worst treatment imaginable even in Lucrezia’s nightmares.

[This is the timeline separator]

The path following the lady-in-waiting to the queen’s inner palace was all too familiar to Ariadne. It was the palace where she had stayed for 9 years as the Regent’s fiancée.

This was the back path that led to the queen’s inner palace through a side door, a route Ariadne always used when she needed to sneak out for Cesare, as few people passed through it.

So, it was the starting point of all the misdeeds of Ariadne’s past life.

‘I wish I could erase it from my memory.’

If she could erase it all from memory and not commit those sins again, if she could live as the upright and good person she originally wanted to be this time, would her past sins be undone? Could she be forgiven for the sins she had already committed?

Lost in thought as she walked, Ariadne ended up bumping into the back of the queen’s lady-in-waiting who had stopped.

“Ouch.”

But the lady-in-waiting’s voice was louder.

“We greet Prince Alfonso.”

The queen’s lady-in-waiting stopped and bowed deeply, and Ariadne, who had bumped into her back, hurriedly stepped back and bowed her head a beat later.

The sin she had committed in the past was looking at her in the form of a fair and tidy young boy.

“Ariadne?”

“Alfonso?”

[This is the timeline separator]

The secluded back path didn’t get much sunlight, but a patch of sunlight that seeped in at just the right moment brilliantly illuminated Prince Alfonso’s golden hair.

Ariadne gave a bitter smile as she recalled the day she had gone out through this very back path to meet Prince Alfonso and drive him to his death.

However, the Prince Alfonso now before her eyes was an innocent seventeen-year-old boy who had nothing to do with power struggles.

“Alfonso, you were a prince?”

But even in this life, Ariadne could not be honest.

Honesty was a luxury for those who had. For her who had nothing, she needed to use lies and deception to climb to a safe place.

She needed Prince Alfonso’s favor and, well, perhaps a marriage proposal. There would be many hardships to reach that point.

But if she succeeded…?

“Young lady De Mare! How insolent!”

Ariadne was worried about her own poor acting, but the queen’s lady-in-waiting who jumped up in shock covered for the lead actress’s lack of skill.

“This is Prince Alfonso de Carlo, the only blood heir of His Majesty King Leo III and Her Majesty Queen Marguerite!”

Alfonso stopped the outraged lady-in-waiting.

“Carla, that’s enough. I deliberately didn’t tell her. Ariadne didn’t know.”

Lady-in-waiting Carla glared at Ariadne, her eyes screaming ‘How could that be!’. Avoiding that glare, Ariadne bowed her head.

“I beg your pardon, Your Highness.”

Ariadne glanced at lady Carla as she gave a polite greeting to Alfonso.

“This lowly one has committed an offense, and humbly begs for your generous forgiveness just this once.”

Strictly speaking, the Cardinal’s daughter didn’t need to bow to the queen’s lady-in-waiting.

But judging from the situation, this lady-in-waiting was the queen’s direct subordinate and confidante, and everything that happened here would undoubtedly reach Queen Marguerite’s ears in detail.

Although Queen Marguerite had just taken Ariadne’s side and embarrassed Lucrezia, that was likely not because she liked Ariadne, but because she disliked Lucrezia, or more precisely, all mistresses and concubines.

Queen Marguerite had suffered no small headache throughout her life because of King Leo III’s mistress, Countess Rubina, Cesare’s mother.

Lucrezia had just taken the brunt of that resentment. If she found out that Ariadne had rudely treated her only son, the queen would flip her attitude in an instant.

“Hmm, hmm. You’ve been well-trained in etiquette.”

As lady Carla’s raised eyebrows softened at Ariadne’s formal apology, it was now Prince Alfonso’s turn to pout.

“I don’t like that.”

“Pardon…?”

“Everyone in the palace calls me ‘Prince’. No one calls me Alfonso. I finally met someone who didn’t know I was a prince, and now this.”

Well. You’ve been deceived, but…

“Your Highness. People have different statuses according to their birth, and their nobility and innate qualities differ as well. It is only natural to see you as a prince, not an individual, so you must accept it.”

At lady Carla’s nagging, a dark expression clouded Alfonso’s handsome, kind eyes that seemed as if drawn. It was an expression of boredom and irritation. Even the most upright person couldn’t escape adolescent rebelliousness, it seemed.

Suddenly, the prince’s eyes sparkled. As if something interesting had happened, Alfonso’s eyes filled with laughter as he suddenly grabbed Ariadne’s wrist and dashed towards the outside of the queen’s inner palace.

“Ariadne, let’s go!”

“Aaaah!!”

Only the shocked cry of the lady-in-waiting echoed.

“Your Highness!! Where are you going?! Your Highness!!!”

[This is the timeline separator]

The place Prince Alfonso dragged Ariadne to was a small fountain that people rarely visited. Ivy vines climbed up the old fountain, and daffodils untouched by the gardener’s hand bloomed here and there.

“…It’s so beautiful.”

Prince Alfonso smiled proudly. His childish smile of an adolescent boy looked cute, making Ariadne smile gently in return.

She decided to speak casually. It was an unthinkable act by etiquette standards, but her feminine intuition whispered that it was okay.

“You really hated being treated like a prince, huh?”

“This is much better.”

They faced each other and giggled together at an inexplicable sense of transgression. A sense of camaraderie rose from doing something they shouldn’t together. Laughing until her stomach hurt, Ariadne played along with Alfonso.

“Last time at the almshouse, they only gave you… different food.”

A shadow fell over Alfonso’s face. He seemed displeased with being treated specially as a prince, like a bird trapped in a cage.

Ariadne paused for a moment before asking.

“But what should I call you? You?”

“Call me ‘Alfonso’.”

Ariadne smiled broadly at the prince’s unpretentiousness but shook her head.

“We can’t do that, Your Highness.”

“Why the sudden change?”

“Didn’t you see Lady Carla’s face earlier? She looked ready to beat me to death.”

Indeed, she had jumped up shouting about insolence.

“If I’m caught calling you ‘Alfonso’, she certainly won’t let me off easy.”

“But I don’t like ‘Your Highness’.”

“Then, let’s…”

Ariadne smiled brightly.

“Make a secret name.”

Alfonso looked at Ariadne. There was not a trace of malice on the boy’s clear face, but his attitude revealed the habits of a man accustomed to privilege.

“Then would you more insolently call not just my name, but a nickname for the sole heir to the Etruscan throne? Your confidence is excessive, young lady.”

A young noblewoman might have felt dejected here, thinking she had made a mistake. But Ariadne, who had been through thick and thin, didn’t bat an eye.

She instead raised an eyebrow and put on a stern expression.

“If you keep that up, I’ll call you ‘Your Highness’?”

Jackpot. Alfonso’s expression showed his distaste.

“Please. Anything but that.”

“Your Royal Highness, I am overwhelmed by your grace. I humbly pray for your precious golden body’s health. Shall I go on like this?”

“No, no. Not that.”

Alfonso, who had vehemently refused, surrendered with a white flag.

“I’m sorry. Do as you like. Anything is fine.”

Having gained the upper hand, Ariadne made an ordinary suggestion.

“Then, ‘Al’?”

The prince shook his head. He didn’t seem to like it.

“‘Fonso’?”

“‘Fonso’ sounds more like a normal person’s name than a nickname. It’s like an alias, not a pet name.”

The prince’s resistance to the types of nicknames was strong. I know just how to handle this. Ariadne stepped closer to Alfonso and took his hand.

It was a large and thick hand, unlike a boy’s. She knew that in a few years, this hand would become even more robust.

Ariadne forcibly opened Alfonso’s palm and wrote a letter on it with her finger.

− A.

“Dear A. Let’s go with this.”

Alfonso, whose hand was suddenly grabbed, stared at Ariadne stiffly. The woman in a girl’s disguise smiled brightly as she withdrew her hand from Alfonso’s grasp. The warm body heat left Alfonso.

“I think I should go now.”

Ariadne turned to look back at Alfonso while standing. Her modest ivory-colored dress fit in well among the old fountain and the lush ivy leaves.

Alfonso suddenly thought that the lady before him blended in perfectly with this castle, as if she were a part of it.

“I was on my way to follow the lady-in-waiting because the queen said she would bestow clothes on me, but I ran away like this. It won’t be good if I stay out too long.”

He wanted to hold her back, but it was an understandable reason.

“Ah, right. Mother won’t be too pleased if she finds out I was with you.”

Ariadne looked straight at Alfonso, a little surprised. She thought he was so pure that he didn’t think of anything, but this prince was unexpectedly seeing through his situation accurately. It was very interesting.

Alfonso hesitantly spoke up.

“Actually, there’s something I haven’t told you.”

‘If it’s about things not told, I have many too. I knew you were a prince, and in my past life, I killed you with my own hands. You were married to my elder sister. Oh, and I’m a regression. Ariadne, unable to say these words, nodded and asked Alfonso.

“What is it?”

“Actually, Mother probably called you today because of me.”

Ariadne smiled faintly. She could see clearly, as if looking at her palm, what had happened.

“You told her about meeting me at the almshouse.”

She continued without hesitation.

“She must have been curious about what kind of child her son’s friend is.”

“How did you know?”

Alfonso couldn’t hide his surprise. It was the first time someone seemed to have entered and exited his mind like this.

Bringing in a girl right away to investigate and learn about her character just because her son met a girl seemed a bit like an obsessive mother-in-law, but looking at the seventeen-year-old Prince Alfonso through thirty-year-old eyes, she thought such a son might warrant it.

Prince Alfonso was a perfect prince who looked like he had stepped out of an ancient myth, with deep blue eyes, a high nose bridge, and a firm jawline.

If the past Ariadne had such a son, she would have set the curfew at 4 PM, banned maids from entering the prince’s palace, and only used male servants instead.

“But Mother didn’t say she invited you today. I just thought she might have called you for some reason, so I came to look for you.”

She hadn’t expected that much, but it seems Queen Marguerite was more abundantly qualified as an obsessive mother-in-law than thought.

Ariadne pondered for a moment on how to respond.

Usually, when someone else’s mother is mentioned, unconditionally praising her is the basis of social life, but when an adolescent boy is practically badmouthing his mom to someone he’s just met, responding with “Your mother must have had her reasons” is tantamount to saying “I’m an old fogy, so please don’t interact with me from now on.”

For Ariadne, who had rolled in the highest echelons of society for 9 years, all these calculations were done in an instant.

“You must not be very free.”

Ariadne took a step closer and tucked Alfonso’s hair behind his ear.

“It must be stifling.”

The girl’s hand brushed through the boy’s smooth hair. The boy, with eyes wide open, stiffly froze and stared at the girl who had stepped closer.

A person who understands me, with whom I can converse, who smells nice.

Her green eyes, high nose, and red lips entered his vision in order. He had thought eyes were just eyes, but he could read countless stories in her green eyes, deeply shaded by pitch-black eyelashes.

Until yesterday, Alfonso de Carlo was merely a child.

He had no particular interest in others. This was even more so if the other person was a woman, not a same-age, same-sex peer sharing his interests. He was more curious about events that would happen, games he would play, studies he had to do, rather than people.

Today, he felt like he had become a man, or at least a boy. His heart raced, and he kept thinking about her green eyes. The sparkle in those green eyes, her eye smile, her eyelashes – after imagining all of these, he moved on to her nose, and after the nose, her lips.

It was the first moment when another person’s features were meaningfully imprinted in his mind.