I turned around, puzzled by the sudden voice.

“Christina?”

“But don’t you think excessive modesty can be seen as deception?”

Emilia blinked her eyes. She had never spoken with her before.

Recently, she seemed increasingly unstable, visibly frustrated with her skills and rarely interacting with others. So Emilia was a bit taken aback, given that Christina had often looked at her with uncomfortable glances.

Juliana seemed to feel the same, glancing at Emilia once before looking back up at Christina.

“We’re dancing here now because we have some talent. And among us, skill varies depending on effort.”

Seeing Emilia and Juliana cautiously nodding, Christina smiled slightly.

“But only geniuses can reach the top through effort. No one can beat a hardworking genius.”

“What? You don’t have to be so definitive-”

Christina raised her palm as if to say listen to more of what she had to say. Emilia hesitantly closed her mouth.

“So I decided to just accept this reality. I’m sorry for being unnecessarily hostile to you all this time.”

It was an unexpected turn. Even those who had been eavesdropping nearby all looked at Christina with surprised faces.

“Your dancing was so amazing that I was envious. I guess I was desperately craving that talent I could never have in my lifetime.”

“Ah… Thank you for being honest. But Christina, you said it yourself earlier. We’re dancing here because we have talent. Maybe your talent has even more left to bloom.”

Emilia spoke sincerely to Christina. Christina stared at Emilia, who was speaking kind words in a calm voice, with an unreadable expression for a moment. Christina’s expressionless face, as if all emotions had been oxidized, evoked a strange sense of discomfort.

“…Yeah, sorry.”

Sorry? As Emilia looked at her quizzically, Christina left with a faint smile. The other dancers playfully teased Christina, saying how admirable it was that she was acknowledging things, but she just vaguely waved her hand at them as she left the practice room.

“I guess she was embarrassed.”

“Did you see how fast she left? I never knew Christina had this side to her.”

People chatted cheerfully. They said various things, like how Christina, who seemed like such a stickler who only practiced, looked different now that she had publicly shown her shortcomings.

“Emilia?”

“I need to step outside for a moment.”

Emilia walked out into the hallway, leaving Juliana behind with a troubled expression. After checking both sides of the corridor, she headed towards the changing room and saw Christina coming out. Emilia slowed her pace and examined her face.

“Going to the changing room?”

“…Yeah.”

“Okay. I’ll go ahead then.”

As she watched Christina pass by nonchalantly, Emilia, who had thought it was just her imagination, carefully called out to her as if she had made up her mind.

“Um, Christina.”

“Yes?”

“Can I ask why you suddenly changed your mind?”

Christina’s lips were still turned up. But it wasn’t a genuine smile, more like a doll smiling without emotion, somehow giving off an eerie atmosphere.

“No.”

It was a firm answer. Emilia didn’t feel like saying anything more. What could she say when Christina revealed that same cold gaze she always had while erasing her smile?

She quietly watched Christina’s back as she walked away as if nothing had happened. Emilia calmly opened her mouth.

“Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

She ended up saying it because Christina’s demeanor, somehow reminiscent of Eva, bothered her. Christina’s steps paused for a moment, but Emilia’s eyes deepened as she watched her resume walking away.

Emilia blinked slowly as she looked at the dressing room vanity.

“No flower bouquet today? It used to come every performance day before.”

“…Indeed.”

The flower bouquet that usually arrived during makeup time didn’t come until the makeup was finished. Emilia stood up with an awkward smile.

Should she apologize to Enrico? She wasn’t sure. It was her fault for misunderstanding and bringing up engagement talk leading to contract talk, but his subsequent words had cut her heart too deeply.

It wasn’t the first time he had treated her like an object, so why did it hurt so much this time? And why had she been so worked up about his engagement?

Everything felt strange and unlike herself. He was just repeating his usual pattern of being nice then cold on a whim.

It seems she and he had been too close lately. Originally, they should have been in a contractual relationship where she performed in his private shows in exchange for information, but at some point, this boundary had naturally crumbled, which was the problem.

‘Thanks to that, he did do me some favors…’

It wouldn’t be bad to maintain this relationship and keep receiving information, but she was worried about having to get her ankle examined after this performance, and also about her feet trapped in pointe shoes that didn’t match his standard of beauty eventually being discovered.

For now, she could pass it off as just adjusting, but the moment there was something wrong with her body, the scales would tip completely in his favor.

The more favors he did for her, the more interference came her way, so it seemed better to distance themselves while she could…

‘Ah, I don’t know. What am I even thinking?’

Emilia rubbed her chest with her palm as if trying to relieve her confused feelings, then let out a big sigh.

‘Let’s just finish the performance first.’

Her mind was all tangled up and she couldn’t organize her thoughts. Especially since Christina was weighing on her mind the most right now, she’d have to be extra alert the moment they shared the stage.

‘Surely she wouldn’t do anything strange.’

Emilia pushed down her uneasy feelings and walked towards the stage. As full summer approached, the heat in the theater didn’t dissipate as quickly as before.

She saw Christina already at the wing of the stage. She was rotating her ankles, waiting for the maestro to start conducting. Emilia stayed behind, slightly to the side, examining Christina’s face.

Christina’s gaze, which had been looking at the stage expressionlessly, turned towards the ceiling. Her lips slowly curled up as she stared intently at something.

Feeling a chill from that somehow creepy smile, Emilia quietly took a step back and looked up at where Christina had been staring.

There were only beautiful chandeliers, lights embedded here and there, and stage equipment. Emilia took a deep breath as if to soothe her ominous feelings and dusted her pointe shoes with rosin. When she looked up, her eyes met Christina’s, who had turned around. Her amber eyes seemed strangely gloomy.

‘It must be my imagination.’

Emilia looked at her, then turned around and headed towards where the staff were. Just hoping they would check once more.

The sound of the orchestra’s performance filled the air, making her heart pound. Emilia waited for her turn while watching Sylphide and the male lead dance. When her turn came, she extended her hand to Antonio, who played the village youth in love with ‘Effie’, and danced.

Pushing away Antonio, who was expressing his emotions by rubbing his cheek against her palm, Emilia went to the male lead, circling around him worriedly as if she had become the real ‘Effie’.

As the drama intensified and Emilia, having finished wedding preparations, came out of the room and approached the male lead, a cracking sound was heard from somewhere.

But mixed with the music, it was hard to distinguish properly, so everyone ignored it and the ballet continued. Emilia, spotting a scarf on the sofa in the center, approached it joyfully, thinking it was a gift the male lead was giving her.

But at that moment, the sound of something falling from above was heard. Emilia’s eyes filled with shock as she looked up.

She heard someone shouting from afar to get out of the way. Emilia saw not one, but several small lights falling and quickly moved away. Being the only one standing in the center, the surrounding dancers tried to approach with shocked faces, but it was already too late.

Emilia tried to dodge the randomly falling small lights by quickly jumping to the side, but her feet got tangled and her ankle twisted.

The last light was falling towards her as she lay fallen. As she tightly closed her eyes, she felt a force pulling her arm.

Bang!

Following the gunshot that tore through the sound, the shattering of the light was heard as broken glass scattered everywhere.

Emilia’s eyes flew open. Juliana and Antonio, who had been pulling her arm, also looked in the direction the bullet had gone. There stood Enrico Michele, risen from his seat with his gun extended forward.

The light shattered by the bullet scattered everywhere, but that wasn’t the big problem. People belatedly came to their senses at the sight of her bleeding shoulder and started screaming in panic, and the staff hurriedly lowered the red curtain to cover the stage.

Emilia’s whole body trembled. Unbearable fear and pain washed over her like a wave.

“Emilia!”

“Quickly, over here. She’s losing too much blood!”

“Emilia, stay conscious!”

She wanted to respond to the voices calling her from all around, but her eyes were losing strength. Emilia entrusted the pain searing her shoulder to her fading consciousness as her vision darkened, and she collapsed.