“Hmm− Does he already want to send the 2nd Prince to another country?”

And our older brother agreed to that? Enrico slowly put on his gloves that he had briefly taken off, recalling the King who had always quietly stared at him with inscrutable eyes since he was young.

The King would very occasionally show a glimpse of discomfort but quickly hide it. Before the former King and Queen died, they had considerately given the current King’s much younger brother faraway lands away from the capital, but who would have known that oil would be discovered in that land?

With the former King’s oath, they couldn’t take it back, and Enrico suddenly ended up holding a big weapon in the kingdom, so the distance between him and the current King only grew further.

As he left the art gallery, the cold wind slightly tousled his hair. Enrico swept his hair back and descended the stairs.

“It has nothing to do with me, so handle the invitation as you see fit.”

“Understood.”

“What about Emilia?”

“She’s practicing hard. I’m a bit concerned that she stays in the practice room longer than others, but I don’t know if that’s her usual amount of practice. Ah, and she seems a bit disappointed with her role. She doesn’t show it, but when practicing alone, she sometimes dances the part of the role she missed out on after the casting announcement trouble.”

“Hmm…… Keep an eye on that. I’m curious to see how much the loach will muddy the waters.”

“Understood. And I confirmed that she briefly spoke on the phone with the Crown Prince at dawn.”

“……With the Crown Prince?”

“Yes. His Highness the Crown Prince seemed very welcoming of Miss Emilia.”

“Was it written in the report that they knew each other?”

“Count Este had visited Desierto 11 years ago regarding patent rights, and he was with Miss Emilia at the time. It was confirmed that they encountered His Highness the Crown Prince about four times then.”

“He remembers and is happy to see her now from that long ago?”

One of Enrico’s eyebrows slightly raised. Fabio bowed his head once at his displeased reaction.

“Yes. However, Miss Emilia didn’t seem to remember.”

“……Insects are swarming around what they think is a flower.”

“But most of them don’t have a clear relationship yet. Antonio Chiavelli, whom I reported about before, was just her partner during her time at the arts school and they talked more than others, but there has been no contact since then.”

“Well. If we leave her free and she gets into foolish things that interfere with ballet, it would be too late.”

“……”

“Keep a close eye on her. By the time you notice, it may already be too late.”

“Understood! Shall I escort you to the mansion?”

Enrico stopped for a moment as he was getting into the carriage. He stared into the air as if contemplating something, then casually sat down and took out a cigarette.

“Yeah. And call the jeweler.”

Click, the end of the cigarette burned red and emitted white smoke. A red hue flashed for a moment in his languidly half-closed eyes.

When Assistant Director Silvia appeared in the practice room, the dancers’ eyes filled with intensity. She had been watching in passing, but this was the first time she came inside and sat down.

Emilia was about to put on her toe shoes when she firmly grabbed her ankle that had been aching a little since yesterday. I should have used a heat pack yesterday. She had put it off thinking the intermittent pain would subside by tomorrow, but now she was filled with belated regret.

“Is your ankle hurting again?”

Juliana approached from the side and whispered softly. She was used to seeing Emilia rub her ankle like this or use heat packs in her room sometimes back in their arts school days.

“No, it’s just……”

“No it’s not…… It’s because you practice too much, Emilia. You move around so much on your own aside from us practicing all day, so how can your body be fine? In our situation, it’s hard to get frequent treatment, and there’s really no way to fix the aching in our bodies. We just have no choice but to not use it, but you work yourself too hard.”

“It can’t be helped. Using our bodies is our job.”

“But still, no one does it like you……”

“Is that so? But I feel like I have no choice but to practice ballet for a long time so I can move on stage without getting tired.”

“……That’s why you’re good, but if you get hurt and can’t do ballet for long, that’s a problem too.”

That was true, but now wasn’t the time to take it easy. The familiar concerned nagging still stung her heart. Emilia finally smiled ambiguously and rolled her eyes at the sight of Juliana worrying as if it were her own business. Then she stopped her gaze at the place where people were gathering.

“Is something going on?”

At Emilia’s murmur, Juliana chuckled. It was obvious that someone who was usually uninterested in other people’s business wanted to change the subject.

“Sigh− I’ll stop. Okay, are you curious about over there?”

“What? Well, just……”

“If you’re curious, you can go next to them. Here, grab your toe shoes.”

“No, you really don’t have to go that far.”

“Miss Emilia, get up quickly.”

At the firm voice, Emilia hesitantly got up. Juliana, who had her arm linked with Emilia’s left arm as if escorting or supporting her, went to where people were gathered and plopped down next to them.

“Right, it seems like disappearance cases have increased a bit these days.”

“Right? But since it’s just a rumor that occasionally goes around in Coniglio, everyone dismisses it saying the women ran off with men. Because it’s close to the slums……”

People seemed too busy talking to care if anyone came or sat next to them. Seeing them talking while each stretching their bodies, Emilia sat nearby and slowly rubbed her ankle, thinking they had just casually gathered to chat.

“Come to think of it, there was a girl who used to come here to clean, right?”

“Who?”

“The one they said was short and had pretty blonde hair!”

“Ah, the kid who often came to clean? What about her?”

“She stopped coming a few days ago.”

“Oh? Now that you mention it, you’re right. She was eagerly cleaning saying she wanted to do ballet.”

“They said you can’t because you’re too short. It seems you gave up since it doesn’t look like you’ll grow more. Or maybe you had to earn money.”

Although it was called a ballet troupe, not everyone was from an arts school, and there were some who hadn’t learned systematically from a young age, making it ambiguous to call them ballerinas.

Poor young children were simply brought by their parents to do chores at the ballet troupe for free and learn by watching from afar, and then some children who looked to have good physiques and potential were given audition opportunities.

Some referred to them simply as dancers, and there were cases where they continued working at the theater even into adulthood to seize that opportunity before being dragged back by their families, so it wasn’t surprising if they suddenly quit.

“Is that so? But she seemed so desperate that I thought she would keep coming. She could at least apply to be a theater cleaner.”

“I heard it’s hard to even get a cleaning position here. It’s said to be cutthroat?”

“Well, I understand since jobs are so hard to find, but I didn’t know there were people cleaning for that reason too.”

Emilia was gently rotating her ankle when she glanced at Juliana approaching closely.

“I know who you’re talking about. I saw her once last week and her hair color was light. Of course, darker than yours though.”

At the softly whispered words, Emilia pointed her chin at Juliana’s comfortably stretched out legs.

“Really? But stretch while listening. It’s time for the coach to come.”

“Already? Ah, he’s already here.”

Juliana turned to look at the clock but saw the back door opening and jumped up from her seat. Emilia, who stood up as well, moved to the side and waited for the coach to enter.

“Everyone, good morning. The choreographer and assistant director will also be attending this morning’s class.”

The dancers murmured quietly at the coach’s words.

“The assistant director too? Didn’t she say she would only watch the rehearsals?”

“Right. She occasionally watched performance practices, but she didn’t watch this early last year.”

“Ahh− The choreographer alone is hard enough, but the assistant director too.”

“Well, it’s good to catch her eye on this occasion.”

“We haven’t practiced much yet to catch her eye though……”

Emilia stood at the barre that had been moved to the center and briefly looked at Assistant Director Silvia who had just entered the practice room.

To think the dancer who was the lead in the ballet performance she saw with her parents 13 years ago was now teaching her. It felt strange. That was the last performance Silvia did in Treano, and after Emilia saw it, she fell deeper into ballet which led to her parents later signing her arts school enrollment form, so old memories naturally flooded back like the tide.

The day when snow was falling softly, she vividly remembered going to the theater wearing a red velvet dress and holding her parents’ hands in both of hers. Even though her nose turned red from the cold, she was simply happy, and sitting still for 2 hours straight was simply nice too. Because she was so immersed in Giselle’s beautiful dancing figure on stage that she lost track of time.

Now, instead of warm hands, she felt the cold barre in her hands. Emilia gazed at Assistant Director Silvia who was standing with crossed arms and looking at the dancers one by one from afar, then turned her gaze to the back of the head of the dancer in front of her.

Happy memories now only made her heart ache. Stubborn malachite eyes stared only at the void. Soon, heat gradually rose in the arm holding the barre, and the legs performing various movements also became hot.

Before she knew it, she was immersed in practicing and time flew by. After the 2-hour practice ended, Assistant Director Silvia stood in the middle, passing by dancers catching their breath or massaging their legs.

“I came down today because I have an announcement to make personally.”