“Please come in, Miss Ariana!”

The members saluted in unison.

Their eyes sparkled with firm trust.

I smiled lightly as I left the opera house.

‘This ended more smoothly than expected.’

My bag contained a total of thirty-three sheets of paper.

They were documents with signatures from all members of the Lopez Orchestra.

With this, I had obtained control of the orchestra.

The prima soprano.

That is, the female lead… would be burning with passion in the practice room I had arranged by now.

Though I wanted to go see Rosalyn, I had other things to do today.

Standing in front of the Information Guild Yor, I took a moment to catch my breath.

‘I didn’t expect to hear from them so soon.’

This morning, I had secretly received a letter from Yor.

A red letter with nothing written on it. Its meaning was ‘the request has been completed’.

“Ah! Welcome, customer!”

As I entered the building, a receptionist, not Rionard, greeted me this time.

The employee who guided me to my seat with a friendly attitude immediately began the briefing.

“We caught evidence much faster than expected.”

The employee said, spreading out a pile of developed photos.

I was momentarily speechless as I looked at the photos.

A man and woman kissing in a deserted alley. A man and woman in close proximity in the back garden of the Lopez mansion.

More than ten explicit pieces of evidence poured out.

“We’ll continue investigating until the contract expires, but this is already what we’ve gathered so far.”

I smiled bitterly.

This speed wasn’t just a matter of Yor’s good information network.

‘It means Lucas and Elena are sticking together without being cautious.’

It also meant that those two were looking down on me.

“And there’s one more piece of information we’ve discovered.”

The employee gauged my reaction.

It seemed they thought this news would upset me more than these explicit photos.

“Elena Lopez… has been frequenting an apothecary.”

“I see.”

I nodded lightly.

Women who shared love with the wrong man often visited apothecaries.

It was to obtain contraceptive medicine.

“Having a child before marriage. My life is over now, sob!”

I recalled the sound of Elena sobbing in Lucas’s arms.

Swallowing the memory, I spoke calmly.

“It seems to be for contraception. If we can obtain the prescription, it could be used as evidence that Elena was meeting a man.”

“No, …actually, it was the opposite.”

The opposite?

As I looked with puzzled eyes, the employee carefully continued speaking.

“Elena Lopez was being prescribed medicine to help with pregnancy.”

I slowly left the building.

Elena had been trying to get pregnant from this moment. That fact kept circling in my mind.

It had been planned from the beginning. Deceiving me, seducing Lucas, and even getting pregnant with his child – all of it.

The moment she cried pitifully towards Lucas, saying she had become pregnant with his child…

She must have been hiding a joyful smile beneath her lowered face, pleased to have finally achieved her goal.

“…”

I parted my lips. Something between a sigh and a laugh escaped.

A very small, sliver of possibility.

The ridiculously slim chance that Elena had fallen so deeply in love with Lucas that she couldn’t resist his seduction…

That possibility had been completely shattered.

‘Get a grip, Ariana Lopez.’

I tightly clenched my slightly trembling hand.

‘If you’re going to indulge in sentimentality now, you shouldn’t have started in the first place.’

On the day I returned from death, I swore that even if this was an illusion, I would repay as much as I received before closing my eyes.

So I decided not to waste time on being sad and despairing.

That decision was still valid now.

I won’t waste time pouring emotions into things that aren’t even human.

I won’t waste my life, which capricious gods might take away again at any moment, on such things.

‘So, keep walking.’

I should keep moving without stopping. I shouldn’t stagger pathetically in a place like this.

Just as I forced myself to take a step with that thought…

“I heard brides-to-be are usually too busy to even breathe before the wedding.”

I held my breath at the voice piercing my ears.

“Seeing you here puts my mind at ease.”

“…”

“It seems my bride has time to stroll through alleys.”

Is this what it feels like when your heart feels like it’s going to drop to your toes in shock?

I barely managed to hide my agitation and turned around.

A man with a presence too enormous to match the narrow alley was smiling like a picture.

“Your Grace.”

I opened my mouth in disbelief.

The noble Duke and a back alley. Just as I thought it was an ill-fitting combination like a tasteless joke…

My eyes met with the head of some man that Dante was gripping with his right hand as he stood crookedly.

“…Your Grace. Who is that man?”

The man’s eyes were already bruised dark blue, as if he had been severely beaten.

As I asked while looking at the man who was trembling pitifully, Dante answered lightly.

“A rat that was following you around.”

I opened my eyes slightly wider, and Dante smiled crookedly.

“Didn’t you know you had a tail?”

I had no idea at all.

Someone had been tailing me, and Dante had even discovered it and beaten up the culprit, but I hadn’t noticed at all. I was surprised at myself.

Had I been so consumed by thoughts of Elena that it had taken away all my attention?

“You should be more careful.”

Dante looked me over after spitting out the warning words.

“A young lady who shows signs of being well-bred is an easy target. Moreover, you are.”

I was thinking that ‘well-bred young lady’ was quite an unfamiliar description when Dante smiled faintly.

“Involved with a big shot, aren’t you.”

…There was no need to ask who he meant by ‘big shot’.

It was the first time I’d seen someone refer to themselves that way, but given who it was, I didn’t think it was brazen.

Looking at the man trembling like a mouse in Dante’s grasp, I fell into thought.

‘I always hid my face when going to Paradise, but the last time I stopped by, I attracted so much attention that someone might have recognized me.’

If that happened, someone might have put a tail on me.

‘I should have been more careful.’

With Sophie gone, the mansion is now full of untrustworthy servants, so I came alone, but next time I should bring a mercenary or something.

I nodded slightly.

“I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful about my conduct in the future.”

As I readily admitted my mistake, Dante raised one eyebrow.

Then he pulled up the man’s head by his hair and whispered something in his ear.

“Yes, yes…!”

The terrified man nodded his head repeatedly and then disappeared in a hurry.

Silence fell over the alley where only the two of us remained.

Dante broke that silence nonchalantly as he strode towards me.

“So.”

It was just one step closer, but my chest tightened strangely.

As I was thinking that, Dante spoke.

“Why were you crying?”

My heart briefly stopped at the question thrown without warning.

‘Crying?’

Me?

I reflexively touched around my eyes, but there was no moisture.

Of course there wasn’t.

I’m not such a weakling that I would shed tears just because I was backstabbed once again by a child who had already betrayed me once before. …I shouldn’t be.

‘Then why are you saying such things?’

Swallowing my rebellious feelings, I faced Dante.

“I think you must have seen wrong. I wasn’t crying… I’m just a bit tired. As you said, wedding preparations are more taxing than I thought.”

Dante stared at me speaking calmly for a moment, then blurted out,

“Of course it would be. A bride with two grooms-to-be.”

“…”

“Speaking of which, Lopez.”

Dante suddenly took another step closer.

The man now standing right in front of me lightly grasped my chin and whispered softly.

“When do you plan to get rid of one of them?”

My gaze, forcibly fixed due to my raised chin, wavered slightly.

Why is it? Even though I’m just receiving his gaze, I feel trapped.

Forcing out the breath that was tightening, I opened my mouth.

“My plans haven’t changed from what I told you last time.”

Hiding my trembling, I looked straight at Dante.

“I will go through with the wedding to Lucas Fedegrin as planned.”

To be precise, I should say I ‘intend to step into it’.

The wedding will proceed as planned.

So that Lucas won’t notice anything. So that he will face disaster without any preparation.

Just as I did.