“No! It’s really not like that.”

Since it wasn’t a marriage out of love but a contractual one, I didn’t want to cause unnecessary problems and trouble while in a foreign country.

‘Is it because it feels like something bad happens every time I go out?’

“Geez, they’re really putting the pressure on, aren’t they?”

“No, Theron. If that were the case, during the festival…”

“You stubbornly followed along during the festival, so there was no need to pressure you separately.”

This side also seemed to react with disgust at just the thought of Reus. What on earth had happened between them for the emotional rift to be so deep?

“If you want to get some fresh air, now’s your only chance. You can’t go tomorrow.”

“…”

“Don’t just think about it. Decide.”

…A short while should be fine, right? Besides, Theron is here too.

The fame of the Monzeto National Ballet was something I had heard about until my ears hurt from Roshan and Emily. So giving in to Theron’s encouragement was already a foregone conclusion.

‘I was so envious every time Roshan and Emily went to see performances.’

The two of them never missed a chance to attend famous singers’ concerts, plays, classical music performances, and even ballet whenever they had time.

They were good friends who always invited me along, but Feria rarely allowed me to go out except for balls and invitations from other families, so I never had a proper opportunity.

And now, to have a chance like this.

We soon arrived at Graham Hall, right next to the hotel.

“Wow…”

Graham Hall exuded the grandeur typical of a very old building.

While the magnificence felt from the hall was nice, the excitement that could only be felt among the crowd of people waiting to watch the ballet was the best.

I had occasionally seen famous singers and performers invited to the imperial palace a few times, but since this was my first ballet performance, I couldn’t hide my excitement.

“If you’re going to enjoy it this much… Instead of just staying at home, you could have asked that guy.”

“Reus always seems so busy, so it’s a bit difficult to ask…”

“Busy? That bastard? Bull. He’s probably just pretending to be busy.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at Theron’s expression, which was similar to Reus’s when talking about such things.

“It’s ridiculous. Don’t just stay cooped up in the castle reading books until you leave. Make that bastard work for you. You won’t be returning to the Empire for a while after you leave, right?”

“Even so, what right do I have to do that?”

“Why can’t you? He’s the one trying to hand over even the Grand Duke’s fortune to you.”

“Still… What?”

“…Just kidding.”

What a scary joke. For a moment, I thought it was a serious statement because the voice sounded the same as usual when expressing displeasure.

“Anyway. Try asking him for favors and such. It’s not like he won’t do it for you.”

“Reus has a reason for making a contract with me. I don’t know exactly what it is, but… Even if he treats me comfortably, I know I shouldn’t cross the line. So I think it’s better not to make such personal requests as much as possible…”

Theron just stared down at me without saying anything.

“What is it?”

“You acted like you had feelings, but now you seem to have no lingering attachment at all.”

“Ah…”

Is that so? I was worried about appearing as if I wanted to stay at the Grand Duke’s castle, but that’s quite a relief.

“But do you have something hidden in Belliata?”

“No. Why do you ask?”

“Apart from any lingering attachment to Reus, you don’t seem to have any will to stay in the Empire.”

“There’s no special reason. I just want to live in a quiet and peaceful place for once. The Empire is always full of incidents and accidents, isn’t it?”

And it’s going to get noisy with big events soon…

“Well, you must have your own reasons… Yeah, don’t have any unnecessary attachments and just leave. Don’t hesitate and end up getting your ankle caught.”

“Ankle? What would catch my ankle?”

“There are such things.”

I’m not sure what he means by that, but thanks to Theron’s large strides, I had to quickly move my feet without a chance to ask questions.

As we entered the performance hall, there was a sense of disorder. Despite there being plenty of time before the performance was set to begin, most people had already taken their seats, leaving few empty spots.

“Do you like it that much?”

“It’s a performance I’ve been wanting to see for a long time, even in the Empire.”

Theron nodded vaguely with an expression similar to when he couldn’t understand my taste in books. It’s clear that he doesn’t have much interest in cultural activities, including reading.

“If you can’t ask that bastard, you could at least tell me occasionally. I can take you anywhere within the Empire. Whether he’ll allow it… I don’t know either.”

There’s that disgusted expression again.

I wonder how they can be so alike even in this. This is why I think their relationship is bad, but in the end, I can only conclude that they’re too close.

“Just in case, let me tell you that you don’t need to feel burdened. I’ve become too free thanks to someone.”

“Um… Alright. If I ever need to, I’ll ask you.”

“You do that.”

Though he grumbles occasionally, Theron seems like a really good person too. The fact that I’m worried about him like Reus even before leaving proves it.

[This is the timeline separator]

While Roel was having a good time with Theron, Reus was looking at Assenri sitting across from him, mulling over what he had heard from Millie in the morning.

[“That woman kept interfering with Your Highness’s shopping! At first, she would snatch and buy the items that Your Highness liked, and later she followed us around and bought everything that caught Your Highness’s eye. In the end, Your Highness gave up and didn’t even look at the women’s section after that…”]

Of course, he hadn’t asked thinking Roel had made a mistake.

He was just worried about what kind of fool had exhausted Roel for such a trivial reason this time, or if something more serious than he had thought had happened.

But it was a situation where he couldn’t even manage a wry smile.

To cause trouble out of nowhere, disappear without an apology, and then dare to look at Roel with such brazen eyes.

His insides had been twisted for a while, but Reus just quietly looked at Assenri, who was slightly tense in front of him.

‘How should I handle this?’

Lately, Reus had been hearing that he seemed to have softened a bit.

Although it appeared he had become equally generous to everyone, in reality, it was just an act of being a good person to avoid creating situations that would worry Roel.

The fact that he was thinking about how to continue this pretense of being nice, which he had already started, showed that he hadn’t really changed much since meeting Roel.

‘If I had my way, I’d drag that woman to Roel’s feet and make her kneel.’

If he had liked Roel even a little less, he would have acted without hesitation, but coincidentally, Reus found himself pondering longer than usual today.

Should he do it the usual way or pretend to make an effort? Somehow the options seemed similar, but Reus appeared to be seriously contemplating.

The latter would probably be easier to win a woman’s favor.

Although Reus generally avoided pacifism, this time he decided to pretend to be as generous as Roel.

Who knows, maybe by imitating Roel, he might eventually develop a generous nature himself.

“You’ve arrived earlier than the appointed time.”

“Of course, I should be here early! But Your Highness has also come early. Liam must be busy preparing in surprise.”

It was very rare for Reus to arrive much earlier than the appointed time.

Although rumors painted him as the epitome of an arrogant noble, Assenri felt a subtle pride in the fact that the Duke of Rochester, who had been consistently docile towards him since yesterday, was behaving this way.

So this is how efforts built from the ground up shine. Indeed, even a grand duke of the great empire was no match for money.

‘Even stiff characters eventually become the same in front of money.’

Somehow, the father and daughter’s way of thinking was exactly the same. Even if they calculated just by the money they loved, the Duke and Duchess of Rochester were superior, but they seemed to forget this fact in strange areas.

Reus was the kind of person who would rather blow everything away completely and make everyone start from scratch than learn business know-how from someone like him.

“I wanted to try having what you might call a conversation, uncharacteristically.”

“When you say conversation, what kind of thing do you mean…”

Assenri, who had been gradually expanding his territory from Monzeto to the Kingdom of Leveren, showed a face full of expectation that he might be able to advance into Asilite with this opportunity.

“It seems you think fondly of your daughter.”

“Ah! You mean Rose. She’s a child we had with difficulty, so we’re raising her very preciously.”

Reus, who had no particular interest in other people’s child-rearing, calmly set a trap and suddenly brought up the main point.

“I hear there was a problem between my wife and your daughter. Did you know about this?”

Assenri’s face, which had been consistently confident, briefly clouded over but quickly returned to normal.

As if that wasn’t enough, he had struggled to soothe his daughter who couldn’t contain her anger after meeting the ducal couple yesterday.

Even after hearing Rose’s story, he couldn’t understand exactly why she was so angry with the duchess, but he had a rough grasp of the situation.

He had thought the story might come up, but he didn’t expect it to be brought up so directly over what was merely a clash between women.

In any case, the best thing to do in this situation was to play dumb.

“A problem, you say? What kind of…”

The complacency that he could just gloss over it since he hadn’t boarded with his daughter was clearly visible on Assenri’s face. Seeing this, Reus’s head tilted curiously.

“For someone who claims to raise her preciously, you seem rather uninterested in your daughter.”

“Th-that’s not it… The child is going through puberty, so she doesn’t talk to me about herself these days. She’s so sensitive that I can’t even ask, it’s really…”

“You seem to have quite a few guards assigned to her, but it doesn’t look like you receive separate reports. Your daughter must be greatly disappointed by her father’s indifference.”

No matter what, there seemed to be no escape route for Assenri.