Just looking at how he raised the title from baron to count showed that. If he didn’t want to get close, he would have just given the baron title and brushed it off.

And Brianna clearly remembered Nerea’s appearance, who couldn’t rise to the position of count because she didn’t have a knighthood.

At this point, was he trying to fully bring in Count Rosa? It was just as Brianna was about to inquire further into the emperor’s intentions.

“Oh. Did you hear that story? I heard His Majesty the Emperor was thinking of raising the acting count to the position of marquis.”

At Claude’s following words, Brianna couldn’t hold back her smile.

Marquis. It was a sweet word. To think that I would be the daughter of a marquis, not an acting count’s daughter.

“Yes, I heard. You don’t know how happy my mother and I were. To finally escape the acting count title and even receive the marquis title on top of that. His Majesty’s grace is too great.”

“His Majesty must have been pleased with how this border issue was handled. I am too.”

“It seems he was quite pleased with the days you spent at the border.”

Claude laughed softly.

“That’s right. I wish you could have seen it with me. My people cheering for me, and occasionally seeing some good faces that are nice to see once in a while.”

For a moment, a strange sense of superiority flashed across Claude’s handsome face. Brianna knew that emotion was directed at Grand Duke Edward Castarty Valere.

“Of course, the unfortunate news about Count Esteban, your sister’s. Well. It wasn’t bad either.”

As she listened to Claude’s additional words, Brianna stared blankly at him.

It was clear. Claude and I were alike.

Feeling superior while looking at an unqualified sibling, knowing how to wield the power we hold.

Above all, that we are the ones who deserve to be loved and seated in noble positions.

Her heart raced sharply. Meeting Claude’s eyes that looked at her as if she was lovable, Brianna suddenly spoke to him.

“Please leave Count Rosa, that ill-mannered one, to me. Your Highness.”

“To you?”

“Yes. How dare he disturb Your Highness’s mind. It’s enough for me alone to fill Your Highness’s thoughts.”

A subtle flirtation coated her gentle voice. Claude raised the corner of his mouth in a smirk.

Brianna smiled brightly, savoring the instantly thickening atmosphere.

I wonder when Grace Lancaster will give news. If she hesitates, it might be good to light a fire. Like that ruffian elder brother with a knighthood that Grace hates so much.

All the plans fell into place in her mind. Everything was bound to flow smoothly.

* * *

At the time when the sunset was falling beyond the horizon.

The carriage bearing the Lancaster crest turned onto a different road than usual. It was the road to Count Rosa’s mansion.

Grace, looking at the scenery beyond the window, tightly clasped her hands. Her hands had turned white from how much force she was exerting. But what mattered to Grace now wasn’t just her hands.

“I want someone as capable as you to rise closer to me.”

Recalling the Crown Princess’s gentle voice sent a thrilling shiver down her back.

Capability.

That had been the axis supporting Grace until now. Her weapon that allowed her to be acknowledged by her father, surpassing her blood relative who acted arrogantly just because he was her elder brother with a knighthood despite being stupid.

“But Grace. Even if I acknowledge you, I can’t put you forward as the next baron without receiving a knighthood.”

So her father’s words felt like they were crushing her.

No matter how much she tried to mentally triumph that a mere knighthood wasn’t a big deal, it was despairing that she couldn’t inherit the baron title without a knighthood.

When Rosa’s merchant group made Orlando a channel for trade, the emperor seemed desperate as he bestowed a noble title on Alejandro.

Seeing him receive a noble title without even a knighthood right beside her, Grace thought she could become like that too.

She had tried everything she could to receive a knighthood.

Forming connections with high nobles, repeatedly making donations to imperial affairs, and diligently attending charity bazaars.

But the world was not easy.

The only news that came to her, the rose of high society, was the emperor’s strict order to ‘bring Count Alejandro Rosa to the noble council.’

Meanwhile, Alejandro Rosa was suddenly busy doing other things after calling in the merchant group.

Grace became greedy. It seemed like she could achieve just a little more within the miracle she had created with her own hands. But that little bit remained unfulfilled.

It still seemed difficult for her, without a knighthood, to succeed the Lancaster baron title instead of her elder brother.

So during this Victory 10th Anniversary Celebration, Grace hoped just in case.

If she stuck close to the imperial family, perhaps a sliver of a miracle would come to her. But Alejandro drew the line with the imperial family, saying he was adhering to principles.

The more dejected and empty she felt, the more poisonous Grace became.

It felt like she could do anything for a knighthood, and an opportunity came.

From the daughter of the acting Count Esteban, whom Alejandro who had created her axis disliked the most.

Grace looked at the high, solid wall.

This mansion, which was little more than ruins until ten years ago, had been reborn as one of the most impregnable fortresses in Castarty after welcoming Alejandro Rosa as its master.

Whether he was beyond this wall or not, she had to meet Alejandro no matter what today.

But when she actually arrived at the main gate, the door did not open.

“The count’s mansion cannot receive guests today.”

Ha. Grace lowered the carriage window with an incredulous face. The butler who had been repeating the same words like a parrot quickly bowed his head.

“I see the vice guild leader. I’m sorry you came all this way after so long. Have you been well?”

“It seems you do know who I am.”

Grace raised the corner of her lip crookedly. Despite the intimidating atmosphere, the butler only maintained proper etiquette without signaling the soldiers guarding the main gate.

“I’m sorry. It’s the guild leader’s orders.”

Grace glanced at the grand iron gate. No wonder the already flawless count’s mansion seemed especially stringent today. The merchant group’s guard soldiers were maintaining ironclad security.

“The guild leader’s? Does Colin Vanson know about this too?”

Even when Rosa’s guard captain was mentioned, the experienced butler’s face didn’t change at all.

“I’m sorry. I cannot say anything more.”

That’s when it happened.

“Why are you here?”

At the familiar voice, there stood Johnny. Finally, someone she could talk to appeared. Grace smiled faintly and nodded towards the iron gate.

“Open the door.”

“No. I said we can’t open it today.”

“Does Rosa’s precious vice guild leader really have to burn down the guild leader’s office to see that precious face?”

“Burn it.”

It was an uncharacteristically firm attitude for the always smiling Johnny. What on earth was going on for them to lock the door like this? Grace got out of the carriage and sneered at the iron gate.

“How about the vice guild leader staging a rebellion? It seems like we could open the door with the guard forces remaining in the guild right now.”

Miss. This isn’t good.

Johnny glanced at the back door. Grace was someone who would do it if she said she would. He didn’t want to risk drawing attention by causing a disturbance.

Many thoughts crossed Johnny’s mind, and he sighed and nodded to the butler. Then he said to Grace:

“Send the carriage back. Come in if you’re okay with walking.”

“How gracious.”

Grace sneered as she looked at the door that had opened with difficulty. Walking through the garden in high heels wasn’t a welcome task, but Grace walked majestically.

“Wasn’t there supposed to be a tea party at the imperial palace today?”

“There was.”

“Then why did you come here?”

“Are you unhappy that I came here?”

Grace smiled brightly as she surveyed the count’s mansion.

It was clearly unusually strange today. Johnny tried to quickly block Grace’s line of sight, but Grace was one step faster.

“What? Why is that open?”

Johnny let out a sigh as if in trouble.

He had good reason to. The place Grace pointed to was the jewel room.

It was the center of the mansion that overlooked the mansion’s garden at a glance, but even Count Alejandro didn’t use it and kept it locked.

The fact that that room was open meant…

“…Has Count Esteban come up to the capital?”

Even as she spoke, Grace thought her words would soon be denied.

Nerea Esteban, who had refused even the emperor’s official invitation. Nerea Esteban, who had gone mad after suffering from illness.

Recalling the rumors spread in high society, Grace looked at Johnny.

But Johnny betrayed Grace’s expectations.

“To be precise, she’s in the process of coming up.”

Grace let out a dull sigh. The back of her head throbbed and her blood circulated quickly.

The relationship between the Rosa merchant group and the imperial family, the relationship between the Crown Princess who had summoned her for a private audience and Nerea Esteban. The thread-like hope for her own knighthood.

As her mind became as tangled as knotted thread, Grace recalled a buried memory.

Ten years ago. It was a day when she was fourteen, when her hopeless elder brother Trevor had gradually taken away even her dowry left by her mother.

“Father. She won’t be able to marry into a good family anyway. A baron’s daughter who can barely manage a territory in the countryside won’t go anywhere good even if she tries. Rather, since she’s pretty enough, let’s send her away if someone comes looking when she’s at her best age. There might even be people who will give us a dowry instead.”

The content spewing from those glaring eyes was certainly not something that could be said to one’s own flesh and blood.

On that day when she left as if fleeing with all the money she had, taking it as if she was being treated as property, the victory parade was being held.

It didn’t seem right that flower petals were falling and cheers were pouring out for someone when she herself was a mess. As she was hurriedly turning away lest her sharp and wicked heart be revealed, her eyes suddenly hurt.

The moment she glared at the black armor reflecting the sunlight, their eyes met.

Those transparent and strange water-colored eyes. Such hazy eyes in Castarty where clarity was a virtue. But those eyes she saw briefly were so solid that Grace stood there blankly. She heard voices around her.

“Still, he returned as a hero.”

“When he said he was going to war two years ago, I really thought he was going to die soon.”

“Who would have known that shining armor would become a symbol of victory?”

“The impossible has become possible.”

Hearing the cheerfully laughing voices, Grace’s heart raced. Even she didn’t know where hope had sprouted from, but.

If the impossible really became possible, couldn’t it apply to her too? She impulsively spent all the money she had brought to buy a doll of Nerea Esteban.

A doll with red hair made of the finest silk and water-colored eyes.

When she returned home, Grace was barely beaten enough not to die. But she fiercely resisted Trevor who tried to sell the doll and pocket the money.

Because those intense eyes had planted hope in her… Just then, she saw a carriage entering in the distance.

For a shabby carriage entering through the back gate rather than the main gate, the fact that it was using the central road instead of the side road meant… Grace glared at the carriage as she moved her steps. Her heart pounded.

“Vice guild leader. I know you don’t listen to me well, but just this once, listen to me and go.”

“What?”

“You said even hearing the words I relay makes you feel unwell.”

As Grace blinked at the sudden words, the carriage door opened and Alejandro, dressed in shabby clothes, got out. What on earth are those clothes.

But the next moment. With a feeling like a ringing in her ears blurring all sound, Grace couldn’t believe her eyes.

If there was the coldest, most rational and arrogant man in the world, it would be Alejandro Rosa. A man whose proper smile was rarer than diamonds.

“Be careful getting out. Slowly.”

Just who on earth is that dog-like man?

Smiling with a face that seemed unable to contain his joy. The deeply curved eyes under the black hair fluttering in the wind seemed to pierce her eyes.

His face, always cool, was as radiant as a fully bloomed flower, and Brianna unknowingly crossed her arms and shrank her body. Goosebumps rose on her skin.

As she felt dizzy, she suddenly recalled what Johnny had said a few weeks ago.

“…So do you know what Alejandro said then?”

It was right after Le Soare’s painting was revealed.