“So even if women who want me come flooding into this palace, you’re fine with that.”

Rita didn’t take her eyes off the canvas. Her hesitant lips slowly opened.

“Yes.”

Of course, by then she wouldn’t be in this palace or even in Torre Kingdom. It didn’t matter anymore, and it shouldn’t matter.

Fortunately, her affirmative response came out quite calmly. Rita finished rinsing her brush in the oil container and dipped it in paint again to apply it.

For some reason, Gabriele stood silently by her side without saying a word.

The moment she looked up in puzzlement, he turned his head and walked out toward the exit.

The last thing she saw was him wiping his face with his sleeve outside the door, like something had gotten on it. Soon the door closed firmly again.

* * *

After that day, Gabriele didn’t appear during portrait sessions.

It didn’t matter much. The information needed for finishing work was already all in her head. 

What he looked like. How the sunlight settled on his face, how well his outline blended into the background.

Rita picked up her brush every day and completed the painting before the day she promised Princess Medina. She placed the canvas with her final signature in the middle of her room and began packing the remaining belongings.

“Sis, what’s this?”

She hadn’t told anyone else she was leaving, but Bianca was an exception.

Bianca lived too close for Rita to pack without her knowing. They’d also grown close and formed a bond during their time together.

Bianca, who was helping clean, discovered a bundle of papers crumpled in a corner. Before Bianca could unfold them, Rita rushed over and snatched them away.

“Ah, th-this is personal work!”

“Oh, really?”

They were sketches of Gabriele’s n*de studies that she’d hidden away carefully in case they were discovered. She’d burned the canvas but hadn’t managed to dispose of these.

Fortunately, Bianca didn’t pay much attention. Rita briefly considered throwing them into the fire to burn them all up. But she soon decided to pack them in her luggage instead.

She didn’t regret burning Gabriele’s n*de painting, but it was true she occasionally felt regretful about it. So finding these sketches of him made her secretly pleased.

‘Didn’t you burn the painting to avoid getting involved with him anymore?’ a voice in her head protested. Rita crumpled the drawings and made excuses to herself.

They would become memories.

Anyway, a few small pieces of paper like these wouldn’t entangle her with him anymore, so one day far away, when these drawings no longer caused any ripples in her heart, it would be fine to burn them all then.

“The New Continent. You are coming back, right?”

“Well…”

At the ambiguous answer, Bianca made a sulky expression.

But if she returned early, Gabriele would be enjoying his honeymoon with a woman who came after seeing the portrait she painted, and it would be hard to watch that scene indifferently.

So returning to Torre would be in the distant future. But she decided not to tell Bianca that.

After finishing her farewells and checking her preparations, Rita left the palace before dawn. During the not-short walk, she looked back toward the royal palace several times, or actually quite often. 

Even while looking back, she felt puzzled about what she was expecting and eventually let out a bitter laugh.

A light sea fog hung near the port. Before long, she could spot Princess Medina’s tall silhouette. She was standing with workers unloading cargo and waved her hand toward Rita.

“You came after all, Margarita!”

She laughed heartily and patted Rita’s shoulder.

“The ship is ready. We were just waiting for you. Shall we go?”

“…Yes, Your Highness.”

When the Princess gestured, the workers picked up the luggage and began following the two women. Just as they were about to board the dock.

“Stop.”

Someone stopped them with a calm voice. It was one of Gabriele’s knights wearing the Red Lion uniform that Rita had also seen at the palace.

Princess Medina crossed her arms and asked.

“What’s the matter?”

“I’ve come to enforce the laws of Torre Kingdom.”

“Laws?”

“Yes. According to the law, heads of noble families and their heirs cannot leave the country without royal permission.”

At the knight’s words, Princess Medina shrugged and asked.

“I’m from Gares though. What are you talking about?”

“I’m not talking about Your Highness.”

While the two women stood bewildered, the knight looked at Rita and knelt respectfully.

“Lady Margarita. Count Rusole of the territory has decided on succession, so from now on, you are Countess Rusole.”

It was a story that didn’t make much sense. Rita blinked several times before asking back.

“…Pardon?”

Count Rusole was her father. Since her mother was of common birth, Rita’s birth wasn’t legally recognized. In other words, Rita was a noble’s illegitimate child.

She had two older brothers born to the Count’s wife, but naturally she had almost no contact with them. Rita grew up outside the castle like any other commoner when she was young and didn’t even know she was the Count’s daughter.

Only when she became an adult did she hear about her birth from her mother. While she was growing up, the Count only sent a very small amount of child support. Even that was woefully insufficient, so Rita’s mother always had to do menial work.

The tuition Rita arranged to learn painting was also saved penny by penny by her mother. Then, after Rita’s brothers became disabled in an accident, contact finally came from the Count’s family. They wanted her to come care for the Count, who was bedridden with age.

But there was no reason to go. Even without his children, the Count had many vassals to care for him. Instead, she chose to go to the capital to learn painting in a broader place, and after fully displaying her skills, she was able to become a court painter.

Letters asking her to return to the territory continued to arrive occasionally even after she entered the court. But they only said the old father was lonely so come to the Count’s estate. There was no talk about what Rita would do there or any affectionate words about Rita as his own daughter.

Since there was even less need to go, Rita ignored the letters every time. She thought by then the Count would have completely forgotten her out of resentment.

But suddenly deciding to pass the Count’s title to her was truly bewildering.

“It’s a legally sound succession. Alberto and Antonio, the legitimate sons of Count Rusole, have been excluded from the line of succession due to physical disabilities.”

“I know that, but I’m…”

Before she could say “illegitimate,” Gabriele’s knight quickly caught her words.

“As of yesterday, Count Rusole registered Lady Margarita as his adopted daughter, so Lady Margarita has no defects in succeeding to the Count’s title.”

‘Registered?’

Rita gaped in bewilderment and asked.

“Why would that man, I mean, the Count suddenly…?”

If Count Rusole had any intention of leaving Rita even a scrap of land, he would have registered her as an adopted daughter long ago. Or if he simply needed an heir to succeed the Count’s title, contact would have come right after her two brothers’ accident.

But the fact that it didn’t meant he had no intention of giving anything to a half-daughter mixed with common blood. In fact, according to rumors, Count Rusole was busy seeking a second wife from a fallen family to have an heir even in his old age.

To stop all that and give her the family now. What wind had blown?

‘The messenger is Crown Prince Gabriele’s knight. Does that mean His Highness was involved in this?’

But the Crown Prince’s knight didn’t explain further. He simply pointed to a carriage parked to one side and spoke politely.

“Then I’ll escort you to the townhouse in the capital. Count.”

“…Wait, what’s happening right now?”

Instead, Princess Medina, who had been listening quietly for a while, answered.

“Margarita, were you a noble?”

“I’m not a noble! I’m just a commoner, so there must be some mistake…”

“There’s no mistake. All procedures and legality have been reviewed and completed.”

“N-no…”

Rita was still confused. For this to happen overnight. Wasn’t it impossible unless someone was desperate to make her a noble? Or Count Rusole had suddenly gone mad.

Princess Medina, who had grasped the situation during this time, muttered with a sulky expression.

“Tsk. I was trying to take her first…”

“Pardon?”

“It’s nothing.”

“More importantly, Your Highness, I can’t keep our promise now, but if you give me a little time, I’ll somehow…”

“Ah, forget it.”

Princess Medina waved her hand and crossed her arms like everything was bothersome now.

“Do you really think I’d interfere with international trade just because my marriage fell through? I’m not some personality disorder case.”

She wasn’t a personality disorder case? Then what about asking for a n*de painting in the first place…

“Well then, Countess Rusole. Go settle into your new home. I’m leaving!”

“W-wait!”

While Rita reached out to Princess Medina, the Princess hurried up the dock and boarded the ship.

Was it her imagination that the retreating figure looked like she was fleeing? 

The knight politely escorted Rita, who was speechless with absurdity, to the carriage.

What followed was a series of unfamiliar events. The Count Rusole townhouse she traveled to by carriage had been empty for a long time, but it was fairly clean since a caretaker had been maintained.

Maids cleaning the mansion bathed Rita in water infused with rose water and dressed her up nicely.

Wearing a dress embroidered with gold thread and with curls added to her roughly tied hair, Rita was unmistakably a proper noble by anyone’s standards.

“A noble who has newly succeeded to a title must immediately have an audience with His Majesty the King.”

The estate manager temporarily serving as butler said.