Diego, who had been sharply alert to every sound outside, looked down at her. He noticed the flush on her cheeks. The arm around her shoulder slowly loosened.

“I’m sorry. It would be a problem if Annie found out just yet.”

“No. It’s all right.”

The conversation stalled and fell silent. The awkward quiet was broken by Diego’s unhurried voice.

“What were you about to say?”

“Oh, yes. As I said, all I can do is make beads. They’re ordinary beads…… I never once thought they might be magic. I was worried you might be disappointed, so I wanted to tell you in advance.”

“That I would be disappointed in you?”

Diego laughed soundlessly, as though he had heard a very entertaining joke. The smile faded, and he sat Ribeta down on the sofa, then settled beside her and rested his chin in his hand.

“I see. I suppose I might be disappointed. If it turned out you were lying about being able to make beads.”

“That’s not a lie. I could show you right here.”

“Good. I’m looking forward to it.”

Diego’s face was all easy satisfaction. If Luna had been there, she would have cried out that the lady had walked into a trap, but Ribeta’s mind held only one thought: she didn’t want to disappoint him.

Ribeta brought her hands together and closed her eyes.

It took longer than usual to concentrate, with Diego’s presence so close, but she managed. She couldn’t hold the focus for long, though.

When she opened her eyes, a bead half the size of her pinky nail fell between her palms.

❀❀❀

It was a wondrous sight.

A red bead falling from empty air. It fell with scattered light, and looked like Ribeta’s tear, or a drop of blood, or a crystallized fragment of a soul.

After seeing that, Diego could no longer think of it as a bead. Something so beautiful, so fleeting, so radiant, so dazzling.

Calling it a jewel was the only word that fit.

Diego looked down at his own palm. The jewel Ribeta had made was resting there now. He had reached out and caught it himself.

He didn’t know why. He simply couldn’t let it fall. So he moved.

“I’m sorry. It’s so small…… If I concentrate longer, I can make it bigger. Let me try again.”

There was no reason to refuse something this precious being offered again. He also wanted to watch her make another one. But his mouth moved on its own, against his intentions.

“Stop. Isn’t it a strain on your body. This is enough for now.”

“Idiot.”

Diego laughed at himself without mercy.

Of course. An absolute idiot. Ribeta’s face had gone pale, but even so. He had searched for this desperately, madly, and it had finally come into his hands.

Why. Had going through a wedding ceremony and playing at being a fake couple made him feel like her actual husband? Like she was actually his wife?

“Diego.”

Irritating.

Diego pushed his hair back. He had a sudden craving for a cigarette, though he didn’t smoke. He stretched out on the study sofa and turned the red jewel between his thumb and forefinger.

What would it taste like if he swallowed it? Looking at it now, it was shaped a little like a cherry, so it might be tart, or it might be sweet like the scent of Ribeta’s hair.

If he asked Luca something like that, Luca would immediately ask what had happened. He was clearly not himself right now. He couldn’t even tell where or how he had gone wrong.

What he did know, with certainty, was when it had started.

“…… D*mn it.”

From the moment he had pressed his lips to Ribeta’s while she was drunk.

Remembering those unfocused red eyes brought the same thirst surging back. Diego clenched the jewel in his fist. If he kept staring at it, he would lose to the craving and swallow it whole.

Not that swallowing it would quench the thirst.

He had worked so hard to find this. Letting a moment’s desire drive him to something so foolish was out of the question. The value of this small stone would far exceed, laughably so, the value of thousands of diamonds that everyone in the world would one day kill to possess.

“It is a crystallized form of pure magical energy. However, the amount of magic contained within it is not particularly large.”

“Meaning it can’t be used as a power source?”

“It can. The structure appears to be capable of absorbing other people’s magical energy. We tested it with several people, myself included, and it absorbed everything we channeled into it. We confirmed that it doesn’t dissipate over time and remains intact.”

“So it’s a kind of vessel or shell. Empty inside, ready to be filled however one chooses.”

“There will be a limit. Even so, the potential to store large quantities of magical energy is significant. We must find out exactly what process was used to make it.”

Yes. This jewel was like her. Ribeta, who had spent her life under the control of others and didn’t even know what she wanted, empty inside, and yet paradoxically able to receive and hold whatever was placed in her. A contradiction.

His false wife, wearing a borrowed shell and performing a role, with freedom as her only collateral.

“I want freedom. Even someone like me can want things and dream.”

Diego had never once broken a contract in his life. That was natural enough. He had never agreed to terms that put him at a disadvantage, so there had been nothing to break. And even when terms were unfavorable, reshaping them to work in his favor was precisely Diego Ruperto’s skill.

So this time was no different.

Ribeta. He simply had to make her love him more than the freedom she had dreamed of her entire life.

❀❀❀

“I’d like to draw up a separate contract for this matter. With your wishes fully reflected, of course.”

“You mean related to the beads……”

Ribeta set down her teacup. She had only been holding it because looking directly at Diego while he sat across from her in thought felt too forward, so the tea had barely been touched.

Saying magic directly felt a little too blunt, so she had said beads instead, and Diego responded with a look that confirmed he understood.

Following Diego’s wishes was the right thing to do, but Ribeta couldn’t accept his proposal right away.

She had a complicated relationship with the act of making contracts. The desperation she had felt signing contracts at the Sirente Exchange had been about survival. Even if a contract was useless when things went wrong, it was better than nothing. Her contract with Diego had come from a similar place.

So she preferred to avoid contracts if possible. That was separate from the trust she had built in him through his careful explanations.

Is he worried I might reveal the secret to someone? That didn’t seem to be it. But even without suspicion, wanting assurance of trust was something she could fully understand.

Magic was that dangerous a secret. One that could cost Diego everything the moment it came to light.

I won’t betray you, Count.

Ribeta wanted to prove her innocence, but there was no way to prove it in words. And regardless, she had been keeping her ability to make beads from Diego all this time.

Ribeta looked down and said nothing. Reading her thoughts, Diego spoke in a noticeably gentler tone.

“I’m not doing this because I suspect you.”

“Even if you did suspect me, I would understand. I didn’t hide it on purpose. I truly never thought this could be magic.”

“Ribeta.”

Ribeta’s eyes widened.

The voice calling her real name sounded slightly different from when he called her Ilesia. There was something desperate in it, something that made it feel tender and aching.

It probably wasn’t actually different. It only sounded that way because of her own feelings. Even so, Ribeta wished the moment of him calling her name would never end.

Diego slipped the ring from her finger entirely. As the magic released, her true appearance returned.

Ribeta startled and looked around. The shared bedroom, where only the two of them could enter, was of course empty, but Diego’s sudden action had surprised her so completely that the glance around was purely reflexive.

Diego took her hand and drew her gaze back to him.