‘Don’t forget. You are Rosana.’

Her throat choked up. She couldn’t understand why those words came to mind now. Because he didn’t believe her? Because it wasn’t something ‘Rosana’ would say?

No words escaped from her awkwardly parted lips. Her trembling lips couldn’t form words, and the life in her eyes was gradually fading. 

Though no one was behind her, she felt a hand gently grasping her shoulder. Goosebumps rose so intensely her fine hairs stood on end. Her head gradually lowered, and she squeezed her eyes shut.

“I see.”

Jade chuckled. A voice tinged with slight amusement. Rosana slowly raised her head. He wore an elegant smile. Jade tapped the table with his finger and continued.

“I’m telling you this because you seem to be mistaken, but this isn’t a gift from me.”

“What? What do you mean…?”

Rosana looked at him with wide eyes. He was so different from his serious demeanor just moments ago that a smile unconsciously formed on her lips.

“It’s an item that came from your luggage. So I thought you were trying to end your life… but I suppose I was mistaken.”

Rosana looked at him with a dumbfounded expression. At her still bewildered appearance, Jade burst into hearty laughter, saying he was relieved. As his laughter lengthened, Rosana grasped the situation at once.

‘My… mistake?’

Rosana covered her mouth with her hand in embarrassment. She writhed in mortification as her face flushed red. What did she say? She groaned and hung her head low.

The Duchess’s words that had been circling in her mind had long since disappeared without a trace. Her head was filled with Jade’s laughter. Not mocking laughter, but the sound of genuine amusement.

Rosana couldn’t bring herself to raise her head. Remembering the words she had spoken so boldly to him made her face flush endlessly. It had all been a misunderstanding.

Rosana lowered her face and touched her bangs, hiding her expression. When she glanced up, there was Jade looking at her with a distinctly different smile than before. It was a clean smile without any ulterior motives.

Jade chuckled at Rosana’s display of embarrassment. Rosana flinched. He leisurely crossed his legs.

“If it was a misunderstanding, that’s fine. I misunderstood too, so let’s forget what was just said.”

“…”

Both Jade and Rosana had problems arising from misunderstandings. For him, it was enough of a situation to misunderstand since he had discovered a dagger in Rosana’s luggage, and conversely, Rosana had no choice but to misunderstand when he presented the dagger.

‘Thank goodness…’

Rosana placed her hand on her pounding heart. Having received confirmation that she was someone who could continue to exist here, she felt the burden on her heart lighten. 

And at the same time, she realized something. He said a dagger had been in her luggage. It was an item she had never packed.

Then who on earth…?

She seemed to hear that familiar woman’s laughter from far away. Rosana’s face stiffened. Just when she was pondering who had packed the dagger, Jade spoke.

“You’re quite different from the rumors I’ve heard. From what I understand…”

Jade continued speaking gently. However, not all of it reached Rosana’s ears.

“…”

Her dizzyingly spinning head froze, and the bright red color that had flushed her face completely drained away. The mysterious expression that had mixed bewilderment, surprise, embarrassment, shame, and shock disappeared, leaving only an expressionless face.

‘Just now… what did he say?’

Rosana slowly raised her head. A ringing sound echoed in her ears. Rosana couldn’t understand Jade’s words for a moment. All she could do was stare blankly at Jade. His words echoed in her chest. Her heart pounded and thrashed mercilessly.

‘Different from the rumors?’

It meant she was different from the ‘Rosana’ in the rumors he had heard. Rosana’s pupils trembled violently like aspen leaves.

’He said I’m different from that ‘Rosana’.′

She wanted to escape the ducal family. She wished someone would appear who would see her for who she truly was. It had been nothing more than a desperate hope. 

Someone who would see the Rosana before their eyes, not the ‘Rosana’ passed from mouth to mouth.

However, Jade didn’t notice Rosana’s excitement. He stood up from the sofa since his business was finished. Only she endlessly followed his traces. Jade walked slowly to Rosana’s side. Then he cheerfully extended his hand. It was a plain gaze and gesture.

“Marriage with you might not be so bad. We can be good partners.”

Rosana looked at the hand he extended once, then looked at his face. His expression, smiling with one corner of his mouth raised, looked refreshing.

‘Good partners.’

Everything he said was something she had never heard before. Feeling dizzy, she bit her lip with a different meaning than before.

Rosana’s eyelids drooped gloomily. A person she had only met today had seen through her true self. People who had been with her all her life hadn’t even stepped on the edge of that shadow. 

He had seen through her at once after just a brief conversation.

‘A strange feeling…’

Somehow her stomach felt heavy and sorrow welled up. Her heart tickled. She didn’t know if this tickling was a good symptom or not. Rosana gripped her dress tightly. 

She looked at her slightly trembling hand, swept up in a whirlpool of emotions she couldn’t tell was anticipation or anxiety.

“Won’t you take it? Is there no handshaking culture in Astrot?”

“N-No.”

At Jade’s muttering that it was strange, Rosana relaxed and extended her small, trembling hand. She only extended her hand without even raising her head. Jade silently watched her trembling hand, then firmly grasped it. Rosana’s body flinched greatly.

‘I thought she was a fierce stray cat, but she’s a timid mountain rabbit.’

It was a sudden thought. He found himself laughing at his own thought. Rosana couldn’t bring herself to look at his face. 

In case her face, which felt like it would cry if she raised her head, would be discovered. In case he would think it strange. 

For Rosana, who had always felt hands as cold, this was the first warmth she felt as warm.

Jade’s solid hand and Rosana’s small hand touched. It was a moment when warm sunlight shone down on her heart, where only rain had always fallen. Jade lightly shook her hand, then released it and continued speaking.

“There’s a reason I threw away the dresses. The Diovaha Empire has very low temperatures, so it would be hard to endure with the dresses you brought. I’ll call a designer urgently. Buy whatever you want.”

“…Thank you for your consideration.”

At her hoarse voice, like she had caught a cold, Jade tilted his head. But he couldn’t see her face since Rosana’s head was deeply bowed. 

Jade, curious about Rosana’s expression, reached out to lift her chin, but remembering how Rosana kept being startled by physical contact, he stopped.

She jumps every time I touch her, so I feel bad about bothering her.

Hmm… Jade hesitated for a moment, then offered a brief greeting.

“Get plenty of rest.”

And Rosana didn’t raise her head until the end. When the sound of the door closing came as he left, she slowly raised her head. Then she walked to the mirror. The mirror sparkled, reflecting Rosana’s face.

“A funny face…”

It was a distorted face, neither smiling nor crying. Rosana raised her hand and covered her face reflected in the mirror.

She no longer had the confidence to look at her bare face. Like a balloon inflating, anticipation endlessly swelled. She prayed this anticipation wouldn’t grow too large and burst. She knew well the agony of hoping and then despairing.

* * *

Just like Jade said, a designer came within a short time. The maids moved busily, and dresses of various designs and colors were displayed before her eyes.

The designer enthusiastically appealed the merits of each dress from the side, but Rosana only listened. Choosing dresses had always been someone else’s job. So she hadn’t even thought she should choose a dress.

“Lady Rosana, which dress do you like?”

“Celine.”

Celine, who had approached her side at some point, asked. Celine, who always stood ahead of the other maids, played a role similar to a personal maid. Whenever the bell rope was pulled, it was always she who came to Rosana’s room.

Jane had also subtly asked if it would be alright to keep Celine by her side, and Rosana had nodded. Perhaps still testing the waters, Jane hadn’t precisely called Celine her personal maid yet.

Or it was because of Emma…

Rosana stared intently at Emma, who was strutting among the dresses.

“Then, please take your time choosing.”

The designer tactfully withdrew. Rosana remained silent at Celine’s question, and she too waited quietly. Though she had asked Rosana, there was nothing to say. 

Honestly, no dress caught her eye. Since she had never chosen a dress even once, there was nothing to answer even if they asked about her preferences now.

“Anything is fine.”

It was the best answer. While silence lingered, Emma, who had been enthusiastically strutting among the dresses, approached.

“These aren’t all the dresses, are they?”

Emma grumbled that there was nothing worth salvaging. When Celine kept staying by Rosana’s side, Emma became even more agitated. 

‘Don’t you trust me, are you restricting Miss’s range of behavior?’

Though she had been scolded by Rosana, she chattered beside her as usual, acting like nothing had happened. This was also one of the reasons Rosana had given up.

Celine, who seemed to have decided to ignore her, picked up a decent dress nearby and showed it to Rosana.

“Lady Rosana, how about this dress?”

“Are you recommending such an unfashionable dress to Miss? It should be at least this level!”

“The dress I chose is everyday wear that you can comfortably wear around the palace.”

The dresses in Emma’s and Celine’s hands could be said to be polar opposites. Emma only used flashiness as her standard. It was a dress that sparkled so much you’d suspect gold powder had been sprinkled on it. 

On the other hand, Celine brought a dress that maintained an appropriate line, neither excessive nor plain.

“Oh my, even for everyday life, shouldn’t it be at least this much? I guess not here?”

At the heavily sarcastic tone, Celine’s brow furrowed. However, in a tone that seemed to be holding back, she recited calmly without inflection.

“If you wear the dress you chose and walk around, you’ll get frostbite. A custom-made dress for banquets is sufficient later. Lady Rosana needs everyday dresses more.”

“This is everyday wear for Miss!”

While Rosana remained still, Celine and Emma confronted each other tensely. Celine thought Emma was talking nonsense and regarded her with displeasure.

“Be quiet.”

However, the confrontation that had already ignited didn’t subside even at Rosana’s restraint. Rosana let out a deep sigh.

‘It’s good that she’s not taking Emma’s side… but she’s not listening to me either.’

She realized the hope she had harbored was a bubble. Something that would burst with one poke—yesterday’s incident had ultimately been just that level of luck.

Before long, Rosana was just sitting on the sofa like it wasn’t her business. Eventually, Celine and Emma split apart and each chose dresses they thought were right from their own perspectives.

Choosing dresses had been Emma’s job since childhood. More precisely, it had become Emma’s job. 

Emma consistently claimed she didn’t like dresses that didn’t suit ‘Rosana,’ finding fault with them, and the only ones that survived that censorship were flashy dresses.

A dress style decided at some point, items she had never mentioned. But they were all dismissed as things Rosana had wanted. Rosana was adorned with items that were nothing but flashy.

A familiar daily life. Rosana let Emma run wild as she pleased. Nothing changed and only draining days continued, so she had become numb.