Esmeralda pretended to dab her eyes again, but her upper lip revealed a slightly raised smile.

“Yes. I prepared everything with Raina in mind.”

“Ha…”

Lady Marquess let out a short breath.

“How can this be?”

And then, with a determined expression, she clenched her fist.

“Yes, yes? What are you talking about…”

“How can you shamelessly take away the party idea that was planned for our Raina and boldly plan a debutante ball party?”

Esmeralda was flustered, and her words didn’t come out smoothly.

“Oh, no. I didn’t take away the idea. I just thought…”

“Instead of doing that, how could you think of bringing up chilled tropical fruits when the weather is so cold?”

Despite Lady Marquess’s words, the weather was still quite chilly, and winter had not yet set in.
“Now that I think about it, Young Lady Yeongae visited the Marquess’s residence back then to gather information.”

“No [dash]!”

At that time, Lady Marquess had been talking for a long time about how Raina’s debutante ball had been opened. So, Esmeralda had deliberately prepared for the party, going as far as acquiring tropical fruits that were as difficult to obtain as stars in the sky.

But her efforts had come back like this.

While Esmeralda stammered, Lady Marquess was composed.

“Well, a debutante ball together? Nonsense. Instead of inserting ourselves into such a poor party that shamelessly copied someone else’s idea, we could have easily organized a solo party for our Raina.”

Lady Marquess grabbed Kilian’s arm tremblingly.

“Kilian!”

Kilian nodded with a smile inwardly.

“I was planning to refuse anyway.”

“Esmeralda Yeongae’s dance request, accept it.”

In response to the unexpected answer, Kilian slightly raised an eyebrow. On the other hand, Esmeralda’s face, which had been pale, began to regain color.

Lady Marquess whispered quietly, audible only to Kilian.

“Kilian! Dance and step on her foot.”

Of course, due to Lady Marquess’s excitement, the voice came out louder than intended.

Esmeralda blushed with embarrassment but extended her hand. That’s how desperate she was for a dance with Kilian.

However, Kilian only gazed at her hand without any intention of taking it.

“I’m sorry, Mother, Lady Marquess.”

Kilian bowed gracefully. Even though stepping on Esmeralda’s foot a few times might have been refreshing, he didn’t want to move as Esmeralda wished.

“I already have a prearranged dance partner.”

Kilian extended his hand to Douglas, the Marquess’s son, who was eagerly watching from the side.

“Young Lord Douglas, may I request a dance?”

“Me?!”

Douglas, the Marquess’s son, looked bewildered, and the nearby Lady Marquess almost fell backward.

“Yes.”

While speaking to Douglas, Kilian looked at Esmeralda with a cold gaze. More precisely, the tightly clenched fist she held, on which glimpses of densely packed characters were visible.

As expected, there was no one in the Marquess’s office.

I carefully closed the door behind me and quickly began searching the desk.

The desk was cluttered with accounting books, various letters, and various magical books.

It was typical material one would find in any noble house. Nothing could be learned from these. Although there were many contracts related to magic stones, it wasn’t particularly unusual for Marquess Majiné, a prestigious magic lineage.

Just in case, I tapped on the desk, the wall, and behind the bookshelf one by one.

Thunk [dash]!

One part of the wall echoed loudly. It was undoubtedly a fake wall.
“Ha… As expected, being too smart is a problem.”

I shook my head nervously and tried pushing the wall. However, the wall that seemed like it would easily move didn’t budge.

Only then did I notice small writing in one corner of the wall.

It was a locking spell.

“What could be hidden here that the security is so tight?”

I opened a magical book and selected a suitable spell. A spell to unlock, and I chose the most powerful one.

‘The union of open sets is always an open set, but the intersection of open sets may not be an open set. Demonstrate this.’

Honestly, I wasn’t confident. My amount of magic power was so small that I doubted I could surpass Marquess Majiné’s magic, as he was the most recognized magician in the empire and had a considerable amount of magic power.

I borrowed Marquess Majiné’s pen and wrote down the solution on the fake wall.

“But let’s give it a try.”

Mumbling to myself, I pressed my palm firmly.

Bang [dash]!

With a loud noise, the wall opened. No, it wasn’t just opened. I stared in dismay at the fake wall that had shattered into pieces.

“Ah… I didn’t expect it to turn out like this.”

Now that such a loud noise had occurred, it was only a matter of time before people gathered.

I quickly began to explore the secret space. However, contrary to expectations, there was nothing to investigate.

It was filled entirely with magic stones. Moreover, each one had the same spell written on it.

I picked up a fallen magic stone, intending to use the faint moonlight to determine which spell was inscribed on it.

But I didn’t have time to compare the spell with the magical book. The moment I set foot inside the secret space, the floor suddenly gave way.

It was a trap.

“Lord Ant!”

When I came to my senses, I was lying flat on the cold stone floor. Above my head, I heard a familiar voice.

“Ugh, my head hurts.”

As my eyes accustomed to the darkness, I realized everything in front of me was covered with bars. On the opposite side of the bars, Number 5 was looking at me with wide eyes.

“Lord Ant, why are you there?”

Looking around, I saw spirits gathered in the corner.

“Well, you see.”

Number 5 spoke again.

“Why are you inside the prison where the missing people are trapped?”