When Pride Falls at Your Feet (19 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 5
“…Huh?”
“You seem to be under a misapprehension. While I did propose the contract, you never truly had a choice to begin with.”
A languid, almost bored voice murmured softly.
“You may think you don’t need patronage since you’re on the run, but don’t you realize your plan collapsed the moment I caught wind of it?”
Emilia’s eyes grew increasingly red. Her trembling lower lip and the look in her eyes—accusing him of being despicable—seemed on the verge of breaking, yet her slender back remained stiffly upright like her last shred of dignity. Finally, Emilia clenched her fists tightly and gritted her teeth.
“It doesn’t matter. I can stay here and conduct the investigation myself.”
“…You?”
Enrico tilted his head slightly and chuckled. His eyes, laced with thinly veiled contempt, leisurely scanned Emilia.
Overwhelmed by humiliation, Emilia squeezed her eyes shut. She understood all too well the condescending look he gave her—as if she were someone utterly naive—and it only tightened the knot in her throat.
Conducting an investigation required both money and status. All she had were a few jewels she’d taken when she was young—barely enough to buy a home and survive for a few months once she came of age.
It was already a precarious sum, barely sufficient for her escape. Using it for an investigation was utterly unthinkable.
This wasn’t something from one or two years ago—it was a case from seven years prior. Anyone asked to investigate that far back would naturally demand an enormous fee, especially if the client was a woman with no standing or influence.
Her own defiant words came back to strangle her. If she stayed here, she’d be dragged back by her uncle and married off to some wealthy family like a commodity. Could she really expect to conduct her investigation freely in such a household?
“…Please.”
So many thoughts raced through her mind in that brief pause. The answer was already clear, yet her heart refused to accept it, making her thoughts increasingly tangled. In the end, all she could manage to say was this:
“Give me time to think.”
Emilia finally lowered her head deeply, as if trying to hide her despair.
Shaking her head sharply, Emilia tried to dispel the endless thoughts swirling inside.
“What good is it to keep dwelling on yesterday? I need to figure out what to do next.”
She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and muttered as if releasing a sigh. Of course, she knew she had to accept the contract—but that very word, “patronage,” kept holding her back.
Could someone who treated people like disposable dolls truly be satisfied with just dance? It defied her common sense. Perhaps it was due to the rumors she’d occasionally overheard at the academy about patronage—his offer didn’t feel genuinely pure to her.
Especially that last, almost condescending remark he’d casually dropped—it only deepened her suspicion.
That he wanted her to dance in his mansion? Normally, a sincere patron would support her stage appearances and maybe occasionally share a meal, but Enrico’s terms felt far too suspicious.
“I should refuse… But instead of hesitating, I should be figuring out how to escape…”
She knew it was a poisoned chalice, yet she couldn’t bring herself to reject it outright. What if there really was something hidden behind her parents’ deaths? Even if there wasn’t, wouldn’t it be right to at least find out? The smiling faces of her parents looking down at her fondly flashed vividly in her mind.
Their always-warm hands holding hers, their affectionate kisses, and those gentle eyes watching her dance with genuine attention—despite seven years passing, their memories remained as vivid as if imprinted on her retinas.
“Is this signature enough?”
Her parents’ careful faces as they handed her the Royal Academy of Arts admission papers, briefly hesitating as if wondering whether it was appropriate to give her documents for a place she couldn’t yet enter as a birthday gift.
“Yes! It’s perfect!”
Then her younger self beaming happily—until her parents, unable to resist, broke into matching smiles. Every moment passed before her eyes like a panorama.
Emilia hugged her knees and rested her cheek against them. Her tightly shut eyes trembled faintly along with her eyelashes.
“…It’s not okay at all.”
All she had left now was ballet—and even that had become uncertain. An unpleasant sense of helplessness began creeping up from her toes.
“Rather… Rather than ending up achieving nothing like this…”
Wouldn’t it be better to use this ballet to accomplish something, however small? Her eyes opened. A glint flickered in her emerald-green irises. Even if Enrico Michele was strange, her future was bound to be unhappy no matter who she ended up with—as long as she didn’t run away. So what was there to agonize over?
Slowly, Emilia lifted her head. Fidgeting her toes as if ready to dash off toward someone, she turned her gaze toward the door as it quietly opened.
“Oh? You’re awake?”
It was her roommate, Giuliana. Her cheeks were flushed like frostbitten apples, and in one hand she held a newspaper, her expression slightly surprised.
“I thought you’d sleep in since you weren’t feeling well yesterday.”
“Oh… I guess I just relaxed a bit, so I woke up early. But why are you back so soon? Weren’t you supposed to stay home until tomorrow?”
“There’s an audition coming up soon. I couldn’t just sit idly at home, you know?”
Emilia nodded slowly. Most ballet students at the academy came from commoner or fallen noble families, so there was a growing trend of encouraging them to earn their own livelihoods.
Though some families pushed for early marriages, Giuliana’s fortunately wasn’t one of them.
“When are you submitting your company application? Should we go together?”
“Sure. The deadline’s the day after tomorrow, so let’s go tomorrow.”
“Great! The audition’s in a week, right?”
“Yeah.”
“But… Emilia, is something wrong?”
Giuliana, after studying her for a moment, blurted out the question.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“You look strangely drained.”
Emilia offered a faint smile and brushed her cheek lightly.
“Must just be tired. Oh, is there anything interesting in the paper?”
“The paper? Oh! A body was found floating down the Baia River.”
“What? A body?”
“Yeah… But since it was discovered downstream from the slums, they probably won’t investigate thoroughly. They said it’s an old corpse, hard to identify…”
Giuliana trailed off bitterly. It was obvious they’d already written the victim off as just another poor soul who’d starved to death.
If it was someone from the slums, the police would likely conclude it was a waste of time to investigate since they couldn’t even identify the body. Normally, such cases wouldn’t even warrant a newspaper mention—so it was odd that this one made the news at all.
“Apparently, a noblewoman found the body and caused quite a stir.”
As if sensing Emilia’s thoughts, Giuliana continued.
“And that noblewoman was meeting her lover there.”
“Oh… So that’s why…”
That explained the article. To gossip-hungry readers, it must’ve been thrilling news.
Emilia let out a faint sigh, thinking “of course,” and lay back comfortably on her bed.
“By the way, there was also an article about Duke Michele.”
“…An article about Duke Michele? What did it say?”
Giuliana blinked in surprise at Emilia suddenly sitting bolt upright.
Emilia usually showed so little interest in others—almost to the point of indifference—that her reaction now felt jarring.
Truthfully, nearly every conversation with Emilia began and ended with ballet. Giuliana did most of the talking, while Emilia merely offered minimal responses just enough to keep her roommate from feeling awkward.
“It’s nothing big… Just that he attended our performance yesterday.”
“Can I take a look?”
“Huh? Oh… sure…”
But such keen interest? Giuliana stared blankly as Emilia, before she’d even finished speaking, snatched the newspaper from her hands.
Emilia’s brow furrowed slightly just from reading the headline. She didn’t need to read further. Enrico, famously obsessed with collecting anything—art or people—that met his aesthetic standards, naturally drew attention wherever he went, and everyone expected his next acquisition to make headlines.
But covering an academy performance? He wasn’t even someone who rarely attended shows. Perhaps because, despite being the king’s much younger brother and having long withdrawn from royal affairs after receiving his ducal title, Enrico still commanded attention wherever he went—even trivial matters like this ended up in the news.
“If I happen to sign the contract… Would confidentiality even be possible?”
Realistically, it seemed hopeless. She’d immediately become the public’s focus, and rather than being recognized for her ballet, she’d forever be branded as “Enrico Michele’s latest collectible.”
Lost in thought about the potential contract with Enrico, Emilia flinched at the sound of her name and slightly crumpled the edge of the newspaper.
“Emilia.”
“Hmm?”
“…Do you… have an interest in Duke Michele?”
“It’s just… Everyone was surprised he came to watch our performance, but I didn’t expect it to become news. Sorry, I accidentally crumpled it a bit.”
Acting nonchalant, Emilia smoothed out the creased part and handed the paper back. Giuliana took it with a dazed look, then quickly nodded in understanding before offering the newspaper again.
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
_____
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