Only then did Valt notice the other painting covering the entire wall, and his jaw dropped.

“Is this…… the sea?”

“……Yes.”

“What?”

Thinking he misheard, Valt asked again and drifted closer to the wall, drawn in.

Blue and black. Yet hot and aching. Deep and intense, sorrowful and warm.

To think someone could produce colors like this…….

Valt felt goosebumps rise across his entire body.

“What did you say this was, miss?”

“It’s a painting of a man.”

“My…….”

Valt studied the painting without breathing. He was having the strange experience of jealousy and admiration blooming at the same time.

How much time passed?

Valt finally remembered the reason he came rushing here.

“What am I thinking? Please pack your things at once. No, you need to go straight to the carriage.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The Grand Duke has given the order to return to the main castle.”

Meliciel tilted her head. Why, all of a sudden?

“Along with that, there is a message that from now on, you are not to breathe a word to anyone about divine power, divine paintings, or the paintings.”

“Why?”

“That I don’t know either. Let’s go.”

Valt stared at the hesitating Meliciel with impatience and pushed her outside first.

Once Meliciel left, Valt stayed behind in the room and began gathering all the remaining paintings.

***

Meliciel rode a black carriage bearing the ducal house’s crest back to the main castle.

It was strange that the coachman and servants came all the way to the cabin and surrounded her like an escort, but the moment she got into the carriage, she fell asleep.

The instant Meliciel stepped out of the carriage, a man who introduced himself as the castle’s steward came to greet her, and she was led straight to her old room.

Unlike before, the bedroom was neatly cleaned, and several maids stood waiting. The maids approached Meliciel as she walked in, dazed.

“We will assist you with your bath.”

“A, a bath?”

“Yes. We will start by helping you undress.”

“It’s fine. I prefer to be alone…….”

“It is our duty.”

The maids’ hands that moved toward the protesting Meliciel were swift and unavoidable. In the blink of an eye, Meliciel was placed in the bathtub and was able to wash her body and hair in no time at all.

After the bath, the maids dressed her in new clothes, combed her hair neatly, and left as though their duty was done.

More exhausted than before, Meliciel buried her weary body in the bed. Since possessing this body, there was not a single day she slept comfortably.

Still, what could be the reason Duke Dexter called her back to the castle. She tried to figure it out, then dozed off.

She kept painting without rest, and her body was not in good shape.

Knock knock knock.

The door opened almost simultaneously with the knock. Before Meliciel could fully sit up, those same maids came flooding in.

“Miss, please wake up.”

“Wh, what’s going on?”

“There has been a summons. Orders to bring you.”

“Is it the Grand Duke calling for me?”

“You will find out when you get there.”

The maids were not kind. Meliciel was dressed and groomed almost by force.

Outside, darkness already lay thick. Meliciel tried to walk slowly, feeling the cool breeze at the tip of her nose, but the maids pressed sharply up behind her.

“You are late. Please hurry.”

“I can’t walk fast.”

But Meliciel’s objection was ignored. The maids closed the distance behind her, pressing in like a threat.

To avoid being knocked over by them, she had no choice but to quicken her steps.

“Ouch!”

Her ankle twisted in the end. A sharp pain shot through it, but the maids pretended not to notice and kept urging her on.

“Hurry. There is no time for this.”

She wondered where on earth they were rushing her to, and the place they arrived at was somewhere she visited before. The castle where the dancers lived.

This was where she first met Duke Dexter, and where she was shocked by the sight of Viviana’s portrait.

To think that was already nearly several weeks ago. Time moved fast. She grew accustomed to Meliciel’s body at some point, and she already met Kahar in this form.

Was all of this the will of God? The scheming of evil? Or just a string of coincidences?

“The door is open. Please go in.”

Swept along by the maids’ momentum, Meliciel stepped inside the castle. In the hall, women in extraordinarily lavish silk dresses and their maids were gathered.

The woman standing at the center was a bewitching beauty with violet hair and black eyes. She was likely one of the dancers.

Meliciel felt pity for her, probably one of Duke Dexter’s collectibles, while at the same time wondering why she was summoned here in the middle of the night.

“Who are you?”

“Who am I? There is no one in this place who doesn’t know the name Yulina.”

Yulina answered with a vicious tone. According to Valt, some of the dancers were even noblewomen, and if she was a concubine Duke Dexter cherished, her influence was nothing to dismiss.

So it would be better to approach with care.

“What did you call me here for?”

Slash. In an instant, the woman rushed forward and struck Meliciel across the cheek.

What…… is this……?

Before the stinging sensation faded, her cheek was knocked to the side again. She was struck twice in a row, but she had no way of knowing why she deserved this humiliation.

“How dare a thing like you ruin my daughter’s marriage?”

Meliciel steadied her unbalanced body and looked at her. Yulina’s face, twisted grotesquely, looked like a demon.

“What is the meaning of this?”

Meliciel asked as calmly as she could, hiding the tremor in her voice. She thought that at a time like this, she had to keep her head clear.

She did not want to live her second life like a fool either. She still had no one on her side, and enemies filled every direction.

A peaceful and quiet life already seemed far away, so at least she should live without being taken advantage of the way she used to be.

She would not be made a fool of. Meliciel clenched her fist.

“You set your sights on the Grand Duchess’s seat and now you pretend not to know?”

“Gr, Grand Duchess? What do you mean?”

“The position of Grand Duchess was meant for my daughter Shalon! You stole it and now you plan to play dumb?”

Grand Duchess.

Meliciel remembered hearing through Jacob before that Kahar was to marry a young noblewoman named Shalon.

“Do you truly know nothing?”

“I don’t. This is nothing I know about.”

“The Grand Duke came personally to the ducal residence and said he must marry not my daughter, but that half-witted dimwit Lady Meliciel?”

……What?

Meliciel’s mind went blank, like she took a blow to the head. Why on earth would Kahar?

Could it be that, unable to forget Viviana, he gave up on everything?

“He seems to like that meager position of yours. I can’t know the mind of someone so high, but that doesn’t mean you should become Grand Duchess. My daughter Shalon is right here!”

Yulina screamed and raised her hand again. Meliciel stepped back to put distance between them.

“Is it certain that I am to become Grand Duchess?”

“What did you hear? But I won’t allow it. You’ll crawl back into that wretched bed and spend the rest of your life as an invalid.”

So, Meliciel was set to become Grand Duchess?

Not Shalon Chloe, but Meliciel Chloe would become Kahar’s wife?

Why? Kahar was someone whose inner workings she could never read, so she could not know the exact reason, but one thing was certain. This was an opportunity.

The moment she reunited with Kahar, the child who faded away without ever seeing the light became even more pitiful to her. She felt sorry and guilty.

Whenever she thought of that child, her chest ached with guilt.

So wasn’t this an opportunity?

An opportunity to meet the child again.

“By your own words, an opportunity has come to me.”

“What?”

Yulina’s lips twitched. Meliciel steeled herself with resolve.

“Then I will no longer live as an invalid.”

“Ha! Do you not understand your situation?”

Meliciel slowly looked around her. The maids surrounded her like they were keeping watch.

But she did not waver.

“If you lay even a finger on me, do you think that crime would be light? I don’t know how much you are favored by the Grand Duke, but if I were to come to harm here, you would have nothing to say to the Grand Duke, would you?”

When Meliciel finished speaking calmly, the maids flinched.

Kahar personally named Meliciel as his choice for marriage.

He might suddenly change his mind, but marriage was a serious matter. He would not go back on his word easily.

So she had to use him to get out of here, if nothing else.

Right now, Yulina’s eyes gleamed like a madwoman’s, and they were threatening Meliciel’s life.

“You should be the one understanding your situation.”

When Meliciel spoke like a warning, the maids exchanged glances. They looked frightened.

“How dare you!”

Yulina suddenly seized Meliciel by the hair.

“Ugh!”

“I’ve changed my mind. I will kill you. If you die here, there will be no witnesses to testify. The maids have no reason to take your side.”

It was a chilling voice. Yulina yanked Meliciel’s hair with enough force to tear the scalp.

Meliciel bit back a groan and struggled not to fall. Her body was wrenched this way and that, and her hair was ripped out, but she clenched her teeth harder.

She did not want to die. She did not want to be at anyone’s mercy.

Grand Duchess. It was a position she never dared to look at.

In her past life, a position she never dared to dream of was within arm’s reach.

The more her hair was torn out, the clearer her mind became, like cold water poured over her head.