Perhaps it was because the chairs where the two had sat side by side discussing freedom had disappeared. The sky stretched high above their heads, vast and distant.

Diego positioned Ribeta in the middle of the flower garden. Standing among the white flowers in her crimson dress, Ribeta’s magenta hair made her stand out vividly in Diego’s eyes.

Ribeta felt a similar impression. Diego’s golden hair, standing tall among the profusely blooming flowers, shone like the sun.

For similar reasons, or perhaps entirely different ones, their gazes kept turning toward each other, their eyes becoming deeply entangled.

Buried in the dizzying floral scent, Diego was the first to speak.

“Is there anything in particular you want?”

“What I want?”

“I’m asking what kind of proposal you’d like to receive. For example, should I kneel? Should I wrap my arms around your waist and vow eternal love? Or we could skip the troublesome words and share a passionate kiss instead.”

As soon as Diego finished speaking, he lightly grasped Ribeta’s chin and lifted it. Their lips drew closer. However, Ribeta didn’t think for a moment that he would actually give her a passionate kiss as he’d suggested.

It was his eyes. Because of his eyes.

His eyes rippled with an emotion very far from passion—none other than curiosity.

He doesn’t really mean he’ll do whatever I want. He seems curious about how I’ll react.

“I was too flustered earlier to say anything. May I say it now?”

Diego nodded lightly. Ribeta pulled out the flower and handkerchief she’d been using as hair ornaments and showed them to him. Diego’s boldly drawn eyes narrowed.

“It seems you already proposed yesterday…… If I’m correct, you don’t need to propose separately, do you?”

Last night, Diego had casually tossed the flower and handkerchief to Ribeta as if discarding them. Diego’s face tilted crookedly. A moment later, he let out a snicker and suddenly knelt on one knee before Ribeta.

Never expecting him to come at her this way, Ribeta was visibly flustered. Regardless, Diego took her hand and supported it.

A magnificent smile graced his perfect face. Even Ribeta, who knew his true nature, momentarily lost her train of thought at the sight that would evoke ecstasy in any observer.

“Will you marry me, Illeshia?”

Illeshia.

Even Ribeta, who knew nothing about Lady Barea, could tell. That this was the lady’s name. Ribeta’s pupils trembled finely.

Diego Ruperto was proposing not to her, but to Illeshia Barea.

As if driving home the fact that she was merely the lady’s substitute.

“Illeshia, I love you deeply. I hope to earn the right to love you forever from the closest place by your side.”

Diego’s whisper was infinitely tender and sweet. It was even earnest, as if confessing to someone he truly loved. Ribeta bit her lip. Her fingertips trembled.

That trembling must have surely transmitted to him, holding her hand. But Diego paid no mind and smiled. Exceedingly brightly. Like someone who possessed the entire world.

“What could be more joyful than you loving me too? I’ve prepared a ring so you can always feel my affection. Please let me put it on you.”

“……No. I’ll—”

“It will fit your hand perfectly. I guarantee it.”

Diego grasped Ribeta’s hand as it tried to escape his and slipped the ring onto her fourth finger. Amazingly, the ring fit Ribeta’s finger perfectly, just as he’d guaranteed. It was a ring set with a transparent, luminous gemstone.

“My beloved Illeshia.”

Diego kissed the ring. The entire time his lips touched it, his gaze remained fixed on Ribeta. Her chest felt stuffy and heavy, as if plugged with cotton. But Ribeta neither cried nor trembled.

She couldn’t indulge in self-pity. This was only the first step. This is what being a substitute means.

Two years. If she just endured two years, she would be free. After two years, she could cleanly part ways with this chillingly cruel and cold man.

“……Yes. I look forward to working with you.”

Ribeta answered resolutely. The corners of Diego’s eyes crinkled slightly. At his following words, Ribeta honestly felt a little—no, very—dumbfounded.

“No. You should answer that you love me too, shouldn’t you?”

Love.

At this moment, in this place, there was no room anywhere for the tender emotion called love.

Yet Diego now looked more like someone passionately in love than at any other time she’d seen him. As if he truly loved her with all his heart, just as his words claimed. As if his chest would burst if he confessed this fervently boiling heart and didn’t receive reciprocation.

“Illeshia.”

Diego’s tender call awakened Ribeta. That nothing but lies existed here. Just as she didn’t exist as ‘Ribeta,’ he too was originally not Diego but ‘Count Ruperto.’

Ah. So this is what being a real substitute means. Even love must be acted out. Like that Count Ruperto.

It was on a different dimension from imitating Melissa a few times in childhood. Though late, she now thought that hadn’t even been proper imitation.

Would the governess who had dealt with children endlessly really have been unable to distinguish between Ribeta and Melissa? Probably not. She likely just let it go because scolding was too bothersome.

‘Can I do as well as Count Ruperto?’

The answer came immediately: no. She didn’t know what kind of person Lady Barea was, or even what manner of speech she used.

Ribeta stared intently at Diego. His gaze, flushed with affection, looked at Ribeta as if she were adorable. This person…… though she couldn’t read him, she thought he was truly remarkable, separate from that. Also the type of person who should never be made an enemy.

Shallow tricks wouldn’t work on Diego. Ribeta answered honestly but ambiguously. Perhaps it was an answer Illeshia Barea might give.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not quite sure how to answer.”

“I’m a bit disappointed. I firmly believed you felt the same as me.”

Diego, smiling bitterly, rose to his feet. He personally tucked away Ribeta’s disheveled hair. His touch was exceedingly tender.

“Don’t you need my love?”

Diego’s fingers slid down. Soon, magenta hair coiled around his long, delicate index finger like a ring.

Does he like my hair? Or did the lady have hair a similar color to mine? Ribeta watched his languidly moving finger while thinking it didn’t matter either way.

“Even if you don’t need it, you’d better accept it.”

Diego’s voice, breaking the brief silence, had lowered considerably. He lifted his chin slightly and looked down at Ribeta. It was an arrogant, overwhelming gaze.

“I’m offering it first, aren’t I? Illeshia.”

She wanted to act at a level that wasn’t excellent but not the worst either, but it was impossible. Just enduring the overwhelming pressure Diego exuded was already too much for Ribeta. She nodded slightly.

“……Yes.”

“Now, try again.”

“……I love you too, Count.”

Her voice grew smaller toward the end. She wasn’t accustomed to lying or acting, and having to pretend to love the Count made her even less confident. It was so clumsy that even a five-year-old could tell she was lying.

Nevertheless, Diego didn’t rebuke her but smiled tenderly. Honey dripped from his eyes as if he’s looking at a lover embarrassed by a love confession. However, Ribeta noticed the sharp warning buried in the honey.

Right. I have to live as the lady for two years—I can’t fumble over just one ‘I love you.’ Ribeta steeled herself and gently grasped Diego’s hand.

“I love you, Diego.”

Diego’s face, smiling satisfactorily, shone brightly. Ribeta stared blankly at him, then noticed that the bright light was coming not from him but from the ring.

Then something astonishing happened. Light emanated from the ring Diego had put on her, enveloping her from head to toe.

The light disappeared quickly, before Ribeta could even panic. For such a dramatic event, there was nothing wrong with her body. What was that? As she let out a deep sigh, Diego thr*st something before her eyes.

It was a mirror.

“This is……?”

A strange woman was looking at her from inside the mirror. A woman with shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes.