In the darkness, Isabella’s shining eyes caught sight of another glittering object.

In the spot where all the main characters had left, a sparkling bracelet with red rubies and green topazes in a fleur-de-lis design had fallen.

Isabella looked around, then nimbly ran out and picked up the bracelet. She then hid herself back in the garden.

It was an item she had desperately wanted, but she never thought it would end up in her hands like this. She thought that later she might be interrogated about why she had this bracelet, but for now she pushed that thought aside.

When the jewel you wanted was right in front of your eyes, what else was there to see? Isabella was not the kind of person to leave it behind with her desires unfulfilled.

‘What strange luck.’

Isabella stroked the bracelet with her hand.

As expected, an item she had picked up couldn’t be in perfect condition. Perhaps damaged from the fall, the six prongs that were supposed to tightly hold the central red ruby wobbled loosely.

Isabella instinctively pressed her thumb down on the red ruby. With that, the ruby popped out of the setting under the force of her finger.

“Oh my!”

Startled by her own actions, Isabella picked up the ruby that had fallen to the ground and hurriedly stuffed it along with the bracelet into her handbag.

“……How annoying.”

Now that the bracelet was broken, her mood suddenly soured.

Until now, Isabella had thought finding the bracelet was good luck as she was returning to the grand ballroom. But now as she left the remote queen’s palace and walked alone through the garden, anger suddenly boiled up.

‘To think that I considered myself lucky for merely picking up a bracelet that’s not even intact! Since when did I, Isabella de Mare, become so pathetic?’

The prince’s attention was something Isabella had dreamed of. Her life’s greatest wish was to become the crown princess.

It’s not like she hadn’t tried. In order to somehow get involved with the prince, she even constantly carried the handkerchief of Prince Alfonso that she had previously obtained through Ariadne.

But her good-for-nothing, unsophisticated, and ugly half-sister had taken it all.

The prince, and even the attention of Count Cesare that was originally supposed to be hers – she had seized it all! To call that good luck, it had to be to that extent!

‘Count Cesare’s proposal was originally mine!’

Although Count Cesare had never sent Isabella an official letter, he had continuously brought up the topic of marriage with Isabella to her father, Cardinal de Mare.

The sincerity of that proposal was not just Isabella’s delusion. Those talks became more and more concrete and the tone grew firmer, which is why the de Mare family had hurriedly brought Ariadne up from the Bergamo estate.

No matter how she thought about it, Count Cesare’s courtship had abruptly stopped right after or around Ariadne’s debutante ball.

As her thoughts reached that point, Isabella felt an intense anger welling up from deep within her heart.

When she first realized at the debutante ball that the prince was interested in Ariadne, shock came first, and hurt feelings came after that.

At that time, she didn’t feel this blazing fury rising up from the instinctual level like she did now.

‘Did I…… like Count Cesare that much?’

After briefly pondering, Isabella shook her head.

Rather than fondness for Count Cesare, this was the sense of loss of someone with vested rights having something taken away. The prince was nice to have but nothing to fret over, but losing Count Cesare who had been hers was a completely different story.

An uncontrollable rage boiled like wildfire.

‘Damn that wench Ariadne……!’

When someone else gains something I never originally had, I merely feel a bit of regret. To go a bit further than that, I come to admire or envy that other person.

But if someone takes away what is mine, that is a declaration of war. Humans are inherently inclined to remember the grudge of losing their possessions longer than even the death of their father. (Gli uomini dimenticano piuttosto la morte del padre che la perdita del patrimonio.)

‘Everything was fine when she wasn’t around! Who does she think she is, strutting around like this?’

Isabella made up her mind. She would win back Count Cesare. She resolved to recapture his gaze.

She liked having the power to manipulate others as she pleased. That’s why she wanted Prince Alfonso, whose status was even nobler than Cesare’s.

But now, she found herself uncontrollably desiring Cesare’s sculptured handsome face, deep blue eyes, his lighthearted attitude, and political acumen in handling those around him.

‘Yes, other than the fact that Count Cesare doesn’t actually have a chance at inheriting the throne, there’s nothing else lacking about him, right?’

At least half his lineage was undeniably noble, he was tremendously wealthy, and he had an undeniable presence and influence in high society that could move others as he wished.

Isabella didn’t particularly want military power, the right to recruit soldiers, or taxation authority. She merely wished to not be looked down upon by others, to have no one outshine her in a room, and to be able to slight others and vent her feelings as she pleased.

‘Someone of Count Cesare’s caliber…… is a perfect match for me, no?’

She could do it. All she had to do was draw the man’s attention back to her after it had once been hers. And that half-sister of hers who didn’t know her place needed to be taught a lesson.

‘Ariadne, I won’t leave you alone!’

Ariadne and Alfonso were walking through the maze-like inner garden in awkward silence.

Ariadne was walking briskly ahead with quick strides, but she had no destination in mind. She was merely wandering around and around inside the labyrinthine garden.

Alfonso noticed that Ariadne wasn’t particularly heading anywhere, but he patiently followed her at a distance of three steps behind.

“Ari……!”

After walking for a while, Alfonso couldn’t endure the awkward silence any longer and was the first to break the stillness.

“Lariessa is the second daughter of the Duke of Valois. As Cesare said, she’s visiting San Carlo as part of the process for an arranged marriage.”

Ariadne, with her back turned, did not respond. A moment of hellish silence blanketed them. But Alfonso did not back down and mustered the courage to call her name once more.

“Ari.”

The young lady with her back turned did not budge an inch.

Although Ariadne appeared to be calmly maintaining her composure on the outside, uncontrollable emotions were swirling inside her like a stormy sea.

”Lariessa’……!’

Ariadne found herself feeling intense jealousy at the fact that Alfonso referred to the potential bride of his arranged marriage as ‘Lariessa’, not even ‘the Grand Duchess of Valois’, let alone ‘Grand Duchess Lariessa’.

Flustered, she bit her lip. What was the big deal about that. He was well within his rights to do so.

‘Emotions are a luxury, emotions are a luxury.’

Ariadne repeated to herself. She would not love anyone.

In her past life, the love she had devoted to Cesare became shackles that devoured her life. She would not repeat the same mistake in this life.

Prince Alfonso was merely a tool. She must not love him or be devoted to him. She had no room for such things. Survival was all that mattered, everything else was secondary.

“Alfonso.”

At Ariadne’s response, Alfonso straightened his posture.

“Yes, go ahead. I’m listening.”

After a moment’s hesitation, despite his caution, he added one more thing.

“Are you angry…… that I didn’t tell you about Grand Duchess Lariessa beforehand?”

Directly confronting and acknowledging the possibility that one’s own actions may have caused discomfort to another requires a great deal of courage. Alfonso was taking a bold step forward in their relationship.

But Ariadne, solely focused on protecting herself with a hard shell, mistook Alfonso’s courage for a cowardly pretense.

“Alfonso, why would I be angry about something like that? Aren’t we good friends?”

As Ariadne turned around, although she came face to face with Alfonso, she hid her expression perfectly behind her enamel mask. In that state, she replied in the most even tone she could muster.

“Congratulations on the marriage talks with a fine lady. You’ll become the son-in-law of the Grand Duke of Valois.”

Alfonso had no choice but to shut his mouth.

He wanted to tell her. Grand Duchess Lariessa is a bit of a strange person, do you know what she did today? I don’t really have much desire to marry her, to be honest.

If mother and father found out about Grand Duchess Lariessa’s personality, perhaps they would abandon this political marriage?

But her porcupine-like firm spines were sternly pushing him away. Were my feelings… just my own thoughts? Was it my misconception that we were looking in the same direction together? Do you not feel the same way about me?

The person who had approached him in a special way for the first time in his life was now telling him that he was not special to her. Alfonso had always found himself in the opposite situation. With his fine appearance, gentlemanly personality, outstanding achievements and noble status – the so-called ‘Golden Prince’.

People whose names he didn’t even know chanted his name, sought his gaze, and craved his affection. Many crossed the line as well. On the flip side, his goodwill, no matter how minor, had never once been rejected.

So Alfonso had never even imagined a situation like this.

Alfonso forgot his words and simply gazed at her. Was the virtuous thing to do in this moment to politely back away and respect her wishes, or……

Alfonso clenched his fists tightly.

The more Isabella thought about it, the more her anger boiled. Something was seriously wrong. Ariadne must be using some underhanded trick.

While Ariadne was living it up with both hands full, Isabella was happily picking up a mere bracelet. This situation that should never have come to pass.

“That deceitful wench must be up to some foxy scheme!”

Did she crudely throw herself at them? She must have. Ariadne had nothing to boast of besides her body, and this abnormal situation could not be explained any other way.

‘A beautiful and cute girl like me gets no attention from Prince Alfonso and Count Cesare while ugly Ariadne has them wrapped around her finger!’

This could never happen under fair competition. There must be some plot that Isabella was unaware of.

Isabella was also angry at herself for preciously picking up and bringing back a bracelet that Ariadne had lost and didn’t even realize was missing because she considered it so trivial. Should I just smash this bracelet to bits……?

That’s when it happened.

– “Ah! Ah!”

– “Mmm, stay just like that.”

Isabella, who had been raging, heard a strange, sticky moaning sound. It was the voices of a man and woman.

‘What is this now?’

Isabella approached the source of the sound, muffling her footsteps.

It was a day of discovering many peculiar things. In the clearing that she peeked at through the bushes, there was a small bench, and on top of it, a disheveled man and woman were entangled. The woman’s fair skin was visible, and the man was just about to mount her.

‘Gasp!’

Isabella covered her mouth. It wasn’t merely because the man and woman were entangled in an indecent position.

The woman was wearing a mask and her appearance was obscured under the man, but the side profile of the man who was drunkenly trying to hurriedly undo his own clothes was undoubtedly Marquis Campa.

‘There’s a woman out of her right mind fooling around with that Marquis Campa?’

If Cesare de Cosmo was infamous in San Carlo as a ‘bad boy’, then Marquis Campa in his late thirties was infamous as a ‘vile man’.

As the only heir to the wealthy Campa marquisate, as soon as he inherited the family, he married a virtuous noble young lady. But the Marchioness Campa, who was known for her docility and piety in her maiden days, died less than a year after marrying into the family.

Unsavory rumors circulated about the cause of her death.

Nevertheless, the position of the family’s mistress could not be left vacant without an heir, so Marquis Campa soon sought a second wife.

While marriage talks were in full swing, an incident occurred where Marquis Campa molested the youngest daughter of a noble family who was sitting next to him while attending mass at the Grand Cathedral. She was a young girl who had not even made her societal debut.

This incident led the girl’s father, Count Rinaldi, to challenge Marquis Campa to a duel. Although Count Rinaldi had now retired as an elder, he was originally a man of martial arts with profound skill in swordsmanship.

Marquis Campa barely avoided the duel by fawningly apologizing to Count Rinaldi and giving him a large sum of money that could buy a luxurious mansion in downtown San Carlo as consolation.

In the end, Marquis Campa’s engagement at the time was broken off and he married the daughter of an impoverished noble family that was little more than commoners. This time it was a young wife sixteen years his junior.

Marquis Campa’s second wife died from puerperal fever while giving birth two days before her fifteenth birthday. This time, rumors circulated that Marquis Campa had ‘frequented brothels and transmitted syphilis, killing his young wife.’

The credibility of the rumors was very high. After all, mere days after the second Marchioness Campa’s death, an incident occurred where Marquis Campa beat up a courtesan at a brothel.

This time, he was caught red-handed for causing a scene and resorting to violence, so he was in no position to deny it. Once again, he handled the situation by giving a large sum of money to the brothel owner as consolation.

After that, no one invited Marquis Campa to any social event. He was excluded not only from ladies’ tea parties but also from gentlemen’s salons.

Naturally, the royal family did not summon Marquis Campa either. Marquis Campa was not allowed to attend royal balls, but today was a large-scale masquerade ball, so he had managed to sneak in and blend into the crowd by concealing his identity.

Isabella rubbed her eyes again and looked at the entangled man and woman.

If this were rape, even Isabella with her broken morality would have been willing to scream and save the woman. But judging from the woman’s elated voice and coquettish gestures, this was a situation where the woman was enjoying it all the more.

Moreover, based on her physique and body shape, she was not an underage girl who had been deceived and entrapped, but a full-fledged adult woman.

‘Who on earth is that insane woman?’

Isabella narrowed her eyes and tried to see the woman’s face. The woman was wearing a black ‘moretta muto’ mask, but as she let out a swollen moan, she accidentally dropped the bit she was holding in her mouth, revealing her face.

‘Crazy!’