Emilia looked at Juliana with an anxious face.

“Yes, she’s waiting in the hallway. Seems like she’s here on an errand.”

“What could it be……”

Tilting her head, she headed towards the hallway Juliana had pointed to. There, a small boy was holding his hat to his chest.

“Lady, I have this for you……”

It was a tiny flower. The ballerinas who had been curiously glancing around smiled sweetly and soon lost interest. Emilia also smiled slightly, feeling relieved.

However, that smile stiffened slightly when she felt the piece of paper the boy secretly slipped into her palm.

“Then, I look forward to your wonderful performances in the future!”

Emilia clutched the paper in her hand, watching the boy’s back as he retreated after an awkwardly formal greeting.

It seemed they had recruited a street boy for this task, but there was only one person she knew who would go to such lengths.

Enrico Michele, that is.

Emilia deliberately walked leisurely down the hallway towards the emergency stairs. With the sound of the door closing, she leaned against it. She looked down at her hand, hearing the rustle of paper.

-Come to the Duke’s mansion tomorrow.

Though unsigned, the arrogant tone made it clear it was from Enrico. Emilia sighed and crumpled the paper, not even having a chance to feel relieved after the performance before being summoned by his actions.

“Emilia?”

She suddenly raised her head at the voice from across. Alessandro, coming down the stairs, entered her view.

“Your Highness, why are you here?”

“Well……”

Alessandro, now standing before her, rolled his eyes with an embarrassed expression and then smiled sheepishly.

“I came by on the chance you might be here, but I didn’t expect to actually run into you.”

“Ah….. May I ask why you were looking for me?”

Didn’t he say he wouldn’t come looking for her separately? He had said he would bring flowers when she got a lead role, so she thought he wouldn’t come separately for a while, but what was this situation?

Alessandro opened and closed his mouth a few times before carefully speaking.

“Are you free tomorrow, by any chance? You must have been working hard, so I’d like to treat you to a meal at a nice place.”

Emilia inadvertently let out a small sigh. She thought he was just being kind to her because of childhood memories, but it seemed he had feelings for her regardless of the past.

It would have been burdensome enough if he were single, but for someone with a fiancée to act this way doubled her discomfort.

Seeing her hesitation, he moistened his dry lips and quietly waited for an answer.

“……I’m sorry. I have a prior engagement. I sincerely appreciate the thought.”

For the first time, she was grateful for Enrico’s one-sided appointment. It seemed better to make an excuse about having plans rather than outright refusing when nothing was wrong, which would be too awkward.

Alessandro’s lips tightened slightly. Undisguised disappointment flickered in his eyes. Emilia, tense in case he might ask about another day, was relieved to see his dejected expression and hear his words.

“That’s a shame, but it can’t be helped.”

“I apologize.”

“Ah, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I just wanted to have a meal with an old childhood friend I hadn’t seen in a long time.”

He seemed to have read Emilia’s mind, bringing up appropriate words. However, it was an excuse that didn’t quite reach her, as she had already started to feel uncomfortable around him. Still, she smiled slightly, pretending not to notice.

“Thank you. I’m grateful you remembered me for so long,”

“Not at all. Are you going straight home today?”

“I think we might have a small after-party.”

“I see. Well then, I hope you have an enjoyable time.”

Alessandro withdrew cleanly, just like last time. Though he was an unpredictable person, he wasn’t clingy, so it wasn’t unpleasant. His gaze briefly touched her hand. Perhaps due to the dim lighting of the emergency stairs, his eyes seemed somewhat downcast.

Emilia, feeling like she needed to hide something, pulled her hand holding the paper behind her back and gently placed her right hand on the center of her chest.

“Thank you sincerely for coming to the performance.”

It was the standard posture of a ballerina greeting the audience on stage. In that brief moment, a look of regret passed through his eyes at her graceful appearance, but he quickly masked it with a casual smile.

“It’s my pleasure.”

At his polite response, her face relaxed. She didn’t notice the coolness that settled on his face as he turned away.

Emilia, riding in a carriage heading to the Duke’s mansion, tilted her head curiously at the sight of people seriously reading newspapers. When she opened the window, the cold wind brushed her cheeks and the shouts of a newspaper-selling boy drifted in.

“Morning edition of Liberta Record! Breaking news!”

Emilia, who had been staring blankly at the boy shouting the name of Treano’s largest newspaper, tapped on the front window. She stopped the carriage and held out money through the gap in the window.

The boy, seeming accustomed to this, stopped shouting and quickly approached the carriage. After receiving the money, he stuffed a newspaper through the gap and returned to his original spot to resume shouting. The carriage started moving again, its wheels turning.

Emilia slightly furrowed her brow as she looked at the front page of the newspaper. She had bought the newspaper worried that they might be doing another ballerina search today, but fortunately, that wasn’t the case. However, the content wasn’t very pleasant.

The headline was quite sensational.

The incident was being covered in great detail, with the front page of the newspaper completely filled with the content. It criticized that blonde women had started disappearing recently, and it was a mistake to consider it as simple evasion.

The body of one of the missing women had been found, and it was written in detail that this wasn’t the first time a blonde woman’s body had been discovered.

Come to think of it, around the beginning of the year, Juliana had shown her an article about a body floating down the river, and it seemed to be part of this.

Alessandro’s recent worried words flashed through her mind. His warning not to go out alone because the world was in turmoil.

‘So it wasn’t just a simple disappearance.’

Emilia continued reading the newspaper with a troubled expression. The newspaper, which was voicing the need for a clear investigation regardless of social class, was saying the right things for once in a long time.

Until yesterday, she had thought the paper was a waste, constantly writing about finding women, but everything had completely changed overnight. By now, the carriage was approaching the main gate of the Duke’s mansion. New buds were visible on the once bare branches, and the huge fountain between the mansion and the main gate was showcasing its intricacy as always.

‘It’s good that my story is buried, but… it’s unfortunate that it’s this kind of content.’

Emilia let out a small sigh, then neatly folded the newspaper and placed it on one side of the seat, preparing to get off. She smoothed out her red skirt one last time before slowly stepping down from the carriage, wearing a beige blouse with red flower embroidery around the neck and chest center, topped with a wine-colored coat.

Thinking they might guide her to the dining room again, she followed the butler who greeted her at the entrance. However, contrary to her expectations, the place the butler guided her to was a warm greenhouse.

It was a place she hadn’t visited in a long time since coming once before. As the door opened, Enrico, sitting at the large table in the center of the greenhouse, immediately caught her eye.

Still with beautiful and arrogant eyes, he smiled like a picture as he met her gaze.

“It’s been a while.”

Emilia curtsied slightly towards him, who nodded his head while seated, and headed to the opposite seat. Sitting in the chair pulled out by the butler, she inwardly thought as she looked at the dishes prepared by the servants who entered afterward.

He intends to eat first before speaking. It seemed he planned to eat simply today, as he didn’t bring out luxurious course meals like before. Emilia, who had been worried about burdensome food being served, felt relieved and slowly chewed and swallowed her food.

It was her first time eating potage with flowers, and it was quite good. It had a slight fragrance and flower petals on top, but the taste of potato was dominant. After eating thinly sliced truffle-topped duck and gratinated oysters, Emilia carefully put down her fork after taking a bite of the apple tart that came last.

As expected, Enrico showed no interest in dessert and was drinking white wine. His thick neck undulated as the grape wine went down, visible indirectly.

“What are you planning for Easter?”

It was a question based on the assumption that the ballet company would be on break. Emilia moistened her mouth with water, wondering if he had already seen and received the schedule.

Easter was an official holiday designated by the country, making April a month when the ballet company could enjoy a long five-day vacation.

“I’m planning to visit Bacorta briefly then.”

It was already the next week that would be April, meaning Easter would be in two weeks, so it seemed she should buy train tickets in advance soon. Though there would be plenty of seats in the VIP car, the cheaper seats were more likely to sell out, so it was safer to buy in advance for the holiday period.

“Bacorta? Going to visit your family home?”

Enrico tilted his head slightly as he put down his wine glass.

“Yes. I heard my uncle isn’t at that mansion much and has gone up to the capital. I want to see if there’s anything my parents left behind.”

“I suppose there might be some hidden places? Giorgio probably searched and took most things.”

“That’s why I want to go and see for myself.”

At her calm words, his eyes narrowed. He stared at her intently as if something displeased him, then finally spoke with a crooked smile.

“I’ll have to go with you then.”

“……Pardon?”

Her expression suggested she might have misheard.

“How can I trust you to go alone.”

Emilia widened her eyes as if she had heard something completely unexpected. He continued speaking, looking at her with strangely pleased eyes as her previously calm face crumbled.

“If you run away, I’m the only one who loses. I’ve given out a lot of information but haven’t gained much in return.”

“That’s impossible. Why would I run away when everything hasn’t been revealed yet?”

“I don’t know either. Maybe I just don’t trust you enough yet.”

“Hah……”

“So give me a reason to trust you.”

It was pure nonsense. It was clear that he would never trust her, even if a lifetime passed.

Emilia blinked a few times, then turned her gaze to the side as if in disbelief.