How she was going to live from here on out, which direction her future would flow toward, all of it lay submerged in a thick fog.

But one thing was clear. For the time being, she had no choice but to live as the Grand Duchess while searching for Adelia or finding a way back to her original body.

Her mind in turmoil, Luna walked through the garden with heavy, dragging steps.

The flowers in full bloom were radiant, each one showing off its own beauty, but even that sight felt somehow cruel.

She was still unable to collect her troubled thoughts when a carriage bearing Caesar came rolling in through the front gate.

He had left early in the morning, and it seemed he had only just returned from wherever he had been.

Recalling the blazing events of the night before, she felt a strange flush of embarrassment creep over her.

They were not the sort of couple who exchanged warm greetings, so she turned and quickened her steps in the opposite direction, intending to pass by without acknowledging him.

Just as she rounded the corner of the rose garden, she walked straight into a maid coming from the other direction.

Thud.

“Oh!”

“Ow, ow…”

It was a young-faced maid with a scattering of cute freckles across her nose.

The moment the maid’s eyes met Luna’s, she began trembling like a leaf. She immediately dropped to her knees right there and began begging for forgiveness.

“I, I, I am so terribly sorry, my lady…”

“What are you doing? Get up.”

“I have only just arrived and I have made a t-terrible mistake. Please, please forgive me…”

“I said it’s fine, so get up.”

No matter how Luna tried to help her to her feet, the maid would not budge.

Perhaps because of Adelia’s reputation, the maid had gone pale as a sheet and kept trembling and apologizing over and over.

What was her name again? A memory flickered past, something about her being a new hire who had not been here long.

“Your name is… Yuriya. Right? I really am fine.”

Since becoming the Grand Duchess, Luna had made an effort to remember the names of each person here.

She had no one truly on her side in this place, and she had no desire to give orders to people whose names she did not even know.

But the fact that the Grand Duchess remembered her name sent Yuriya into an even greater panic, and she began trembling more violently than before, looking more dazed than ever.

“Y-yes…? Yes… m-my lady…”

At the same moment, Luna felt Caesar’s gaze snap over to her.

Oh no. She was going to be branded as a woman who had done something terrible again. He was far away, but she could picture his expression and reaction clearly. Either clicking his tongue, or shaking his head.

She half expected him to walk over and say something to her, but he watched the scene for a moment and then disappeared into the manor without a word, as though nothing had happened at all.

【A Burning Suspicion】

Today was a day with an official engagement for the Grand Duke and Duchess. Their destination was an orphanage.

The grand carriage of House Valenstein passed through a bustling shopping district and soon turned onto an open plain.

Luna had boarded the carriage with Caesar and was blankly staring out the window.

Having not slept a wink through the night, faint shadows had settled beneath her eyes. After hearing the news of Adelia’s disappearance from the Marquis’s estate, she had spent the long night tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

She had been drifting in a daze for some time when the thing that brought her back to her senses was none other than Caesar’s low voice.

“Adelia.”

It was the first time her name had ever passed his lips.

Luna, who had happened to be thinking of Adelia at that very moment, startled visibly and turned to look at him with wide eyes.

“Yes…? Did you call for me?”

“I was wondering whether you were listening to what I said.”

It seemed he had said something to her, but Luna had been so far away in her thoughts that she had not heard him.

Realizing the situation belatedly, she hurried to speak.

“Ah… I’m sorry. Could you say it once more?”

Caesar held his gaze on her for a moment, noting that she seemed somehow different from usual, then spoke again as though it were nothing.

“Today’s outing is for charitable purposes, so you only need to go along with things appropriately.”

“Where exactly are we going?”

“Saint Lumen Orphanage.”

Luna’s eyes went wide with surprise at his unexpected answer. She had thought the road seemed oddly familiar, and now it made sense. Saint Lumen Orphanage was the place where Luna, abandoned by her parents, had grown up.

It had already been well over a decade since she had left the orphanage.

She found herself wondering whether the scenery would still be the same, whether the playground would still be there, whether the sisters would still be in their places.

The strange and peculiar feeling it stirred in her, to have suddenly become the Grand Duchess and now be returning to the place where she had spent her childhood, was difficult to name.

The carriage ran without stopping, and before long they arrived at their destination.

Saint Lumen Orphanage.

The person who came out to welcome the Grand Duke and Duchess was a familiar face, a nun she recognized.

“Welcome. Your Highness, the Grand Duke. And Your Highness, the Grand Duchess. I hope the journey was not too taxing.”

Sister Teresa, who had been there since before Luna’s own time, still wore the same gentle smile. The marks of the years showed plainly around her eyes, but the warmth in her gaze was exactly as it had always been.

Just as Luna was about to drift back into her thoughts again, Caesar wrapped an arm around her shoulders with a tender look in his eyes and a convincing smile on his face. At moments like this, he truly seemed like an entirely different person.

She could not afford to let her mind wander any further. Now was the time to focus on the role she had been given.

Luna pushed away her stray thoughts and linked her arm through Caesar’s to match him. Perhaps because she was not accustomed to the performance, her heart gave an odd little flutter whenever she did.

Sister Teresa looked at the Grand Duke and Duchess with a warm expression and offered her gratitude.

“We are always so grateful to Your Highness. The support over all these years has been a blessing to so many children.”

“Think nothing of it.”

“The flooding from the long rains has been severe. Without the support of House Valenstein, I truly don’t know what would have become of us…”

When poor harvests continued, the number of orphans grew noticeably. When survival became difficult, children were always the first to be abandoned.

And that was the better outcome.

Some parents, without a shred of mercy, handed their children over to slave traders, or sold them to nobles in exchange for money.

Sister Teresa bowed her head to them once more, conveying her deep gratitude.

Luna, visiting her old home after so long, took in the surroundings slowly, a wave of nostalgia washing over her.

In one corner, a rocking horse with peeling paint still stood, and on the wall, the marks where children had measured their heights remained, still unwiped.

The people had long since grown up and moved on, but the objects remained exactly as they had been.

That contrast stirred an even deeper sense of longing.

“This place hasn’t changed.”

Luna spoke quietly toward Sister Teresa.

When Adelia was young, she had visited this place with her parents, and it was on that very occasion that she had taken Luna back to the Marquis’s estate.

Sister Teresa recalled the memory from that time and continued with a gentle expression.

“To think that the young lady has grown into such a fine young woman and come back to visit. Is Luna doing well? She was such a good and upright child.”

It was frustrating and bittersweet not to be able to say that she herself was Luna, but she answered with a sincere wish that Adelia, wearing her face, was truly doing well.

“Yes… she is doing wonderfully.”

“I’m so relieved to hear it. I had a feeling, from the moment you said you were taking her somewhere good. That Luna’s life would be blessed by God and she would find happiness.”

The moment she heard those words, tears nearly burst from her eyes.

She was only one of the many children who had passed through the orphanage, and yet Sister Teresa had remembered her. The gratitude of it closed her throat. The fact that someone had held onto the memory of her, someone so unremarkable, and had wished her happiness all this time.

Luna swallowed it down with effort and continued.

“Thank you, Sister. I will be sure to… pass along your regards to Luna.”

“Please take your time and look around. I will let you know once all the donated goods have been moved.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

Sister Teresa smiled softly as she finished her last words of guidance.

Luna kept her smile in place as she lightly held his arm and leaned against him naturally. They were the picture of a happily married couple.

Only after Sister Teresa had disappeared from sight and the sound of her footsteps had faded did the two of them awkwardly widen the distance between them and step apart.

An awkward silence passed between them.

Unable to hold back her curiosity, Luna eventually ventured a question to Caesar.

“Sister Teresa… are you well acquainted with her?”

“I have known her since I was very young. So I suppose so.”

“How long have you been coming here?”

“It started in my father’s time, so it must be well over a decade by now.”

House Valenstein was the largest patron of Saint Lumen Orphanage.

Whenever famine or war struck, they made large secret donations each year to ensure the orphanage could take in more children. Beyond that, it was an open secret that they lent a hand to charitable works in various regions.

Luna was inwardly struck with surprise at the fact that, for all his vast wealth, he had been putting a good deal of it toward good works.

It was a moment when the impression she had vaguely formed of him as a cold businessman who only looked out for his own interests suddenly looked different.

And in a way, perhaps the fact that she had been able to eat, dress, and grow up well might have been thanks to his father’s generosity.

All of it was something she was learning for the first time. Along with the surprise, a quiet and peculiar feeling seeped into one corner of her chest.

“That’s truly… surprising.”

Luna had been listening to him in silence when she let her inner thoughts slip out before she realized it.

She caught herself a moment later, aware it had been rude, but Caesar did not seem to mind and answered in a teasing tone.

“Do I really seem that heartless?”

“A little…?”

“Well, I suppose that kind of image isn’t so bad.”

The air between them felt subtly different.

And then Luna, all at once, seemed to grasp the answer to something she had been turning over in her mind for a long time.

Luna looked at Caesar’s neat, handsome profile and thought to herself.

Perhaps living on as the Grand Duchess like this would not be so bad after all.