Until just a moment ago, the surrounding gazes that had bothered her so much were no longer felt. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice when Enrico approached her side.

“Dance one song with me as well.”

“Duke?”

“If you only dance with the Crown Prince who has a fiancée, strange rumors might spread. Rather, if you dance with all the royals, the newspapers will only report you as the most notable lady at the ball.”

Listening to it, it did make sense. Emilia reluctantly took his hand and began to dance. However, Alessandro’s mention of proceeding with the engagement earlier bothered her, and she began to wonder how this was any different from dancing with Alessandro.

“…But don’t you have a fiancée too, Duke?”

“I’ve never had one.”

“No, aren’t you about to have one soon?”

Enrico’s eyebrow curved upwards at the probing question that seemed to come from someone who knew something.

“Why are you suddenly asking about that?”

Emilia hesitated for a moment but thought there was no need to keep it a secret.

“Just now, His Highness the Crown Prince said you might be having a political engagement.”

“Ah…”

“You’ve been busier than usual lately. I thought it must be because of such matters.”

“I’m not busy these days because of that.”

“…Pardon?”

“I have to find evidence for the Este Viscount couple’s case, create positions, set traps. I barely have enough time.”

Wait, suddenly traps? Emilia let it slide for now and carefully asked again.

“Then, there’s been no talk with the princess of the Caernt Kingdom?”

“I’ve never even met her, so there’s no way engagement talks could come up.”

“…Why not?”

“Because I don’t like it.”

It was a somewhat deflating answer. If it’s something he dislikes, it seems he won’t do it at all. But even so, can such important matters be decided solely on personal feelings when a country is involved? Yet, his answer was so full of arrogant confidence that it was hard not to believe.

Perhaps it was because his hands holding her back and arms were no longer uncomfortable. Her heart quickly accepted it.

“But why. Are you concerned?”

“Pardon?”

Emilia’s eyes blinked a couple of times.

“I’m asking if you’re concerned about me getting engaged.”

“…That’s.”

“That’s?”

“That’s, I suppose if you get engaged, I’d feel a bit reluctant to visit your mansion…”

She made an excuse hurriedly, but she felt confused inside. She couldn’t understand why she was so fixated on his engagement to the point of feeling down. It was too embarrassing to use the contract as an excuse since she didn’t think about the contract at all when asking him.

“…Is that really all?”

“Yes.”

But she couldn’t be completely honest. Perhaps today’s many surprising events had left her mind too complex to have room for such thoughts.

Emilia increasingly rationalized to herself that she wasn’t bothered by his engagement, but rather her reaction was just an instinctive calculation of the harm she would suffer.

A regretful air flashed across Enrico’s purple eyes as he looked down at her. The onlookers gradually lost interest, saying the two looked too uncomfortable and that there didn’t seem to be anything between them, as their atmosphere had become more subdued compared to before they started dancing.

Enrico slightly furrowed his brow, then smoothed it out again upon seeing Alessandro watching him from afar. Although Alessandro was trying to hide it, his displeased expression was faintly visible.

“But why did the topic of a fiancée come up?”

“Ah, I told His Highness the Crown Prince to go to nice places with his fiancée, and then your name came up.”

“Wait a minute. You told him to go with his fiancée?”

“Yes? Yes. I thought his fiancée might feel bad, so I asked him not to suggest things to me.”

He laughed briefly at her answer. The low chuckle he let out, as if finding something amusing, was quite pleasant to hear.

‘Huh? Pleasant? What am I suddenly saying?’

Emilia blushed at her own thoughts, belatedly surprised.

“You did well. It’s better to reject all proposals fairly. I thought you were being harsh only to me.”

“When have I ever been harsh to you…?”

Who else would be as compliant as her to be called harsh? She felt a bit wronged.

Despite Emilia’s slightly sulky voice, Enrico just seemed to be in a good mood. Seeing his mood change so drastically almost every five minutes, she thought with a resigned face that she should quickly move on to the next dance.

Hoping that the Second Prince would be a normal person.

The ball ended in a whirlwind.

While dancing with the Second Prince was comfortable as he didn’t make much conversation, the unrelenting gazes of people were truly like sitting on pins and needles.

Later, when the ballet troupe members rushed over asking why she had danced with the royals, all she could give was a vague answer that she didn’t know exactly why, but they just seemed to ask her to dance because she was there.

As the hectic early spring passed by, June was already approaching with the [La Sylphide] performance ahead. During that time, regarding the investigation into her parents’ case, she heard that two of the three letter recipients couldn’t set a separate meeting date.

As a result, it seemed they hadn’t been asked any questions and didn’t know anything about her father, so finding the owner of the remaining letter became the most important task.

It seemed that finding a lawyer would help unblock the stalled parts, but this was proving to be more difficult than expected, which was quite troublesome.

‘No news articles today either. That’s a relief.’

Emilia folded the newspaper and placed it aside as she looked out the window. Originally, she didn’t have a habit of reading the newspaper daily, but it had become a routine since the serial killings began.

The loss of lives of poor women was too heartbreaking, and it was frustrating to see the police unable to make any deductions about the culprit.

Although she was glad that no incidents had occurred recently, if one suddenly happened again, someone would already be dead by then, so she only hoped the culprit would be identified as soon as possible.

‘That perverted bastard… I really hope he gets properly punished.’

She felt like going back to the temple she hadn’t been near since childhood to offer prayers.

Emilia packed her things as she saw the theater approaching. Today was scheduled for an all-day dress rehearsal, so it was good to warm up thoroughly. Her ankle condition had been quite good recently, so there didn’t seem to be any particular problems. As the carriage stopped and the door opened, warm sunlight greeted her. It was the kind of day that naturally brought a smile to her face.

The practice room was filled only with the sound of heavy breathing. They had been repeating the dress rehearsal as if it were the actual performance until it was satisfactory, so the number of repetitions had increased.

As soon as break time was given, everyone sat or lay down on the floor with tired faces. Emilia also sat on the floor, massaging her ankle while resting.

Even while everyone was exhausted and resting, Christina continued practicing in the middle of the practice room. It was immediately understandable why she was called an incredible hard worker.

Since the [Cinderella] audition, she seemed to be practicing even more intensely, to the point where it was worrying if she might collapse from exhaustion. Moreover, gritting her teeth and continuing the movements like that wouldn’t lead to proper practice.

Emilia sighed secretly. She was worried because the practice seemed too compulsive, and Christina appeared to be overacting rather than immersing herself in the role and performing appropriate movements.

“Christina, take a break and then continue!”

A colleague who couldn’t bear it any longer raised their voice. The season approaching late spring was already sending lukewarm winds. Even with the windows open, the breeze wasn’t as cool as last week, so the heat inside the practice room lingered without quickly dissipating.

“That’s right! Your form won’t drastically improve just by doing a bit more now. Hurry and rest. It’s uncomfortable even for me to watch.”

“Last time it was Emilia, and this time it’s Christina.”

“Even Emilia didn’t practice that intensely. This is really extreme.”

As Christina stubbornly continued practicing despite the dancers’ dissuasion, they started clicking their tongues one by one. Their expressions mixed with disgust and pity as they gradually lowered their voices.

“That’s how she rose to the lead role. But she immediately lost it for the next performance, so it’s understandable she’s gritting her teeth.”

“But I don’t know. I think even innate talent can be caught up with if you don’t put in effort, but I believe you can’t beat a hardworking genius.”

“Well, they don’t just cast one lead anyway.”

Usually, schedules were set for the first and third weeks, with five consecutive performances in a week, so it was burdensome for a dancer to perform every day. Because of this, considering that, they cast two lead roles to alternate on stage, and sometimes even three leads were cast when there were many.

“The problem is that those two are overwhelming. Since plays with three leads are extremely rare, there’s no guarantee of being cast.”

“…That’s true.”

However, the problem was that ‘Beluce Sorpia’, who had been the principal dancer for three years, was likely to be selected as the next prima ballerina, and ‘Emilia Este’ was recognized internally as a rising star. Honestly, they were quite formidable opponents for Christina to compete with.

Thanks to Emilia not immediately challenging the lead role audition, Christina had secured the lead position, but now she had been immediately pushed out of the lead role in the next audition, so her pride must have been quite hurt.