Chapter 3 (Part 1)

“Lady, I have something to tell you. I should have said it earlier, and I apologize for that. I am the owner of this ducal manor, and the Duke himself—Theodore Grace.”

At those words, Reinis nodded and smiled.  

“I’m sorry.”  

Theodore, nervous and swallowing dryly at the thought that she might look at him with disgust, gazed at her. Reinis, however, nodded with a bright smile, as if it didn’t bother her at all.  

“Thank you for telling me.”  

In the brief silence that followed, it was Rio who first regained his composure and shouted.  

“What? What is this? Why are you so calm about it? This guy is a Duke! Do you really… really intend to go through with this marriage, knowing he’s a Duke? Are you seriously planning to marry him?”  

Reinis, smiling bashfully, nodded, while Theodore looked at her with a satisfied expression. Watching the two of them, Rio alternated his gaze between them, then briefly adopted a serious expression as he thought to himself.  

‘She’s not even surprised to hear he’s a Duke… I guess I need to learn a bit more about Reinis.’  

But his thoughts didn’t last long, as Rio clapped his hands with a bright smile once again.  

“Well, fine. Now that we’ve found out his true identity, and since I, his closest friend, have seen it for myself, and since you also seems to know a bit about Theo, Lady, let’s move past this topic. But don’t you think we should get to know you as well? This guy knows nothing about you either. So, wouldn’t it be good to invite a friend who can tell us about you, Lady?”  

At the mention of the word “friend,” Reinis’s face hardened again.  

Theodore immediately understood why her expression changed.  

‘From the investigation before, it was said she doesn’t really have anyone who could be called a real friend. Come to think of it, when we first met at the banquet, she was crying.’

“A… a friend… um… I don’t really know… what kind of friend… you mean…” 

Reinis asked in an awkward voice.  

Tilting his head, Rio replied, 

“Hmm… a friend close enough that you would want to brag about your upcoming marriage?”  

“Ah…”  

Reinis let out a short sigh and gave a bitter smile. Rio frowned and tilted his head again.  

‘Could it be that she doesn’t have any friends? No matter how unlikely that seems, I heard she’s been active in social circles. There’s no way she doesn’t have friends, right? Is she hiding something?’

Understanding Rio’s thoughts, Theodore almost exploded with anger directed at him. However, what mattered more was figuring out how to address the wounds she had suffered.  

“I should have been more considerate of you first, Lady. I apologize. If there are any friends you’d like to invite, please let me know anytime. I will make the arrangements.”  

“Thank you.”  

“Then, how about taking this opportunity to send an invitation to that friend who calls you Ren?”  

Since he wasn’t one to pay much attention to social gossip, Rio made the suggestion without much thought. At his words, Reinis fell into serious contemplation.  

‘I don’t particularly want to invite Chloe… but if I don’t have any friends, the Commander will be disappointed in me. It’s only natural that someone like me doesn’t have real friends, but…’  

Curious about whom the invitation would be sent to, Rio immediately called someone to prepare the invitation. Meanwhile, Theodore, watching this unfold with a deeply dissatisfied expression, had to rack his brain on how to resolve the situation.  

As the invitation was being prepared, Rio’s eyes caught the name “Chloe Teyshire” written on it.  

‘Brother, I don’t like her. Don’t get close to her.’  

‘Her?’  

‘Her! Chloe Teyshire!’  

‘Ah, Lady Teyshire, the Marquis’s daughter? Why?’  

‘She pretends to be nice while throwing flirtatious smiles everywhere. Ugh, anyway! I don’t like her, so don’t get close to her!’  

Rio recalled the conversation he had with his younger sister.  

“Lady, are you close with Lady Teyshire, the Marquis’s daughter?”  

“Pardon? Ah… the person who calls me Ren is Chloe.”  

‘Chloe?’  

Feeling a strange sense of unease, Rio decided it would be better to observe for a little longer and said nothing further, simply nodding.  

The completed invitation was handed over to a servant.  

* * *  

“No matter how I think about it, your taste is absolutely terrible.” 

Rio remarked in a serious tone as he looked at the dresses Theodore had chosen. Heldor, nodding in agreement, also wore a grave expression.  

For some time now, Theodore had wanted to gift Reinis a new dress. Using the excuse of hosting a tea party, he decided to purchase a dress and called the head designer to the manor.

Rio, who claimed to know Theodore very well, immediately spoke upon hearing the news that the head designer was coming.  

“Hel, you’re not seriously thinking of entrusting that guy with the lady’s dress, are you? Ah… this won’t do. I can’t just stand by and watch the lady end up wearing some ridiculous clown dress. I’ll help too.”  

Hel also knew that Theodore’s sense of choosing dresses was terrible, but he hadn’t realized it was this bad.  

The dress in Theodore’s hands wasn’t just bad—it was downright disastrous. Laden with excessive and cumbersome frills, it was beyond comprehension. Rio approached Theodore, who was holding the dress, and snatched it from his hands.  

“Let me ask you seriously. What exactly do you focus on when choosing a dress?”  

“Frills, lace, and decorations that look pretty.”  

He answered flatly, then took the dress back from Rio’s hands and moved toward Heldor.  

“What about this one?”  

For the fifth time now, Heldor sighed and shook his head.  

“Women’s clothing is difficult.”  

With the same comment, Theodore announced he would go pick another dress and headed toward the display area. Unable to bear watching any longer, Rio stepped in front of him.  

“It’s true that frills, lace, and decorations can look pretty, but… this is overkill. They should be used as accents, not all over the place. Look at the dresses you’ve chosen so far. How are they any different from clown costumes?”  

Sighing at Rio’s words, Theodore looked at the dresses he had picked. Indeed, the designs did not suit Reinis at all.  

“Now that you’ve realized how terrible your taste is, watch carefully from now on. You might have to choose the lady’s clothes by yourself next time.”  

With that, Rio began selecting dresses he had been eyeing earlier, one by one.  

The dresses Rio picked were noticeably different from those Theodore had chosen.  

They featured frills, lace, and decorations as accents, creating a balanced design that wasn’t excessive yet looked comfortable. Rio, looking satisfied, turned to Heldor with a proud expression.  

Heldor, clearly pleased with the dresses Rio had chosen, smiled brightly and gave a thumbs-up.  

‘I’ve lost.’  

Seeing this, Theodore had no choice but to fully admit his defeat.

***

“Miss, didn’t you say you were only buying as much as you needed for now?”  

“Yes. I said we’d gradually fill in anything we were missing… but…”  

Reinis and Yuria couldn’t hide their astonishment as they looked at the clothes that filled the dressing room.  

“Then what are all these?”  

Yuria pointed at the packed dresses with her hand and asked.  

“I don’t know either… He said that since the tea party date was too close for a custom dress to be made, these were just clothes to wear until the custom dresses were completed…”  

It was true that Theodore had said that. He had even apologized for not being able to gift her better clothes.  

From behind the confused Reinis and Yuria, a cough broke the silence. Reinis turned around to check who it was and approached him with a troubled expression.  

“Sir Rio, what’s going on here?”  

“Do you like them?”  

Rio replied, puffing out his chest with a proud expression.  

The fact that Reinis’s dressing room was completely filled was largely due to Rio.  

While Reinis was staying at the Duke’s manor, a few ready-made outfits had been prepared for her to wear in the meantime. However, in Rio’s eyes, they were merely comfortable clothes. They didn’t look like the dresses a noble lady should wear.  

Theodore and even Hel, who had likely never seen women’s dresses since the late Duchess’s time, were clueless. So Rio urged the two of them to purchase proper dresses.  

As a result, they ended up buying every dress that Rio deemed acceptable.  

The moment Reinis saw the proud look on Rio’s face, she immediately realized it was his doing.  

“This is far too much. These were supposed to be just clothes to wear until the other dresses were made.”  

At Reinis’s reaction, Rio’s expression hardened.  

The noble ladies he had seen so far were so obsessed with dresses that they couldn’t resist them.  

And yet, the amount here wasn’t even half—no, not even a tenth—of what his younger sister owned.