Caesar had laid out his terms, after all.

If she played the part of a couple in love and gave him an heir, he would grant her whatever she wanted afterward, whether that was a divorce or compensation.

The life that followed might be… something she could choose for herself.

For someone who had lived as a maid, it was possible she would come to hold more money than she could ever have imagined in a lifetime, and perhaps this was an opportunity that would not come again so easily.

But she could not simply rejoice without reservation. Adelia weighed on her mind.

Had she managed to get far enough away? How on earth did she intend to survive alone as a woman?

But Luna shook her head.

She was clearly the victim here. It was Adelia who had switched their bodies first and twisted the situation around however she pleased.

Adelia had always wanted to live freely, so now that things had come to this, the right thing to do was to cheer each other on in their respective lives.

Besides, if he was someone whose heart ran warmer than his appearance suggested… perhaps it was all right to trust him.

And so, almost without realizing it, the two of them were spending time together in a stretch that could only loosely be called a walk.

Even the gentle breeze felt somehow warm, like a soft wind carrying the season with it. Riding along on that skin-tickling breeze was the rich, toasty scent of freshly baked bread.

Just as they were passing in front of the prayer room, children who had just finished their prayers came pouring out all at once, heading toward the dining hall.

The moment they spotted Luna and Caesar, the children came running over and surrounded them in an instant.

They looked to be around ten years old, and it was not just one or two but a whole crowd that swarmed in, making the area noisy in no time. As though drawn by the sound, even more children joined, and before long a small cluster had formed.

“Hello, Your Highness!”

“Wow… he’s so handsome!”

“Sister said you are people we should be very grateful to.”

“Thank you so much for your help!!”

The children called out their greetings at the top of their voices, then tugged the two of them along, insisting they had prepared gifts to give in person.

Peals of bright laughter and unguarded, cheerful faces filled the space.

Luna, moved by their innocence, naturally took the children’s hands and followed along. Looking at the children gathered around her, she felt for a moment as though she had returned to her own childhood, and smiled along with them.

Caesar watched her laughing with the children in silence for a long while.

After that flurry had passed, the two of them were back inside the carriage heading toward the manor.

Luna unfolded the gifts and letters the children had given her and wore a broad smile the entire time.

The workmanship was a little clumsy and rough, but each one was made with the children’s sincere care. As Luna examined them one by one, she spoke to him with a smile still on her lips.

“Children really are so pure, aren’t they. Seeing them without a single shadow on them puts my heart at ease.”

“That very purity is what makes children so wonderful.”

The sky had grown dark without her noticing, and the scenery outside the carriage had dimmed and was rushing past. Between the two of them, seated facing each other, the air was a little more comfortable than it had been before.

After a brief silence, Luna turned her head slightly and spoke.

“Um… Sister Teresa mentioned earlier that many children have been abandoned due to the poor harvest. So I was thinking I would like to expand the facilities a little so they can take in more children…”

“The funds House Valenstein already provides are more than sufficient for that. The only limitation is that there are simply so many children, and there is a limit to how many can be taken in at once. The orphanage has its own circumstances as well.”

“Ah, I don’t mean on top of House Valenstein’s support. I understand there is a personal allowance set aside for me that amounts to quite a bit. I was wondering if there might be a way to contribute that toward helping them.”

It was her allocated sum, after all, so how she used it would be her choice.

He might think she was donating someone else’s money, but Luna wanted to repay them in some small way, even if it meant being frugal with her own share.

Caesar tilted his head slightly with a look of mild surprise, then fell into thought for a moment before slowly opening his mouth.

“Is this… by any chance because of that person, Luna?”

Her heart dropped in an instant.

It was because her own name had just come out of Caesar’s mouth.

The awareness that she had not been acting like Adelia came crashing over her, and Luna quickly masked her flustered expression and added in a hurry.

“Ah… it’s not exactly that… I just thought the children were so adorable and I wanted to do something too. And come to think of it, it is the place where Luna was, so I figured it would be nice to help out even a little if I could. Ha ha…”

“Very well. If you feel that strongly about it, I will think of a way.”

“Yes. I truly… thank you.”

It was the first time her thanks had carried a genuine feeling, a mix of many emotions all at once.

For some reason, she felt strange today.

Perhaps it was because she had caught a glimpse of an unexpected side of Caesar. His expressionless face no longer felt as cold as it once had.

Luna kept unfolding the gifts the children had given her, and while rummaging through a paper bag one of them had handed over, she pulled something out.

It was a little flower ring, made by a child who looked to be about five years old, with small, fumbling hands.

“The children gave this as a token of their gratitude, so Your Highness ought to wear it.”

Caesar looked at her with a puzzled expression, but Luna paid no mind and reached out.

Caesar reflexively tried to pull his hand back, but there was no room to retreat in the narrow carriage. In the end, Luna succeeded in slipping the small flower ring onto his finger and curved her lips upward with a satisfied look.

“It suits you.”

He had been watching her quietly, noting how differently she was behaving today, and murmured under his breath.

“Unbelievable.”

He said that, and yet he did not bother to take it off.

“Pft.”

Luna felt laughter bubbling up. The thought of a man with such an imposing build and that impassive face wearing a cute little flower ring like that.

Something else was strange too. Was something wrong with her health? Her heart was racing again, and her chest felt oddly unsettled.

“Um, I…”

“You have a lot to say today. What is it this time?”

“It’s not that, I just wanted to say that today was really wonderful. And I wanted to thank you once more.”

Was this also a performance? He looked into her eyes, but her face was the most at ease he had ever seen it.

Caesar held his gaze on her eyes as she conveyed her gratitude with sincerity, and when their eyes met, he looked away toward the window as though it were nothing and spoke.

“Stop pestering me now. Unless you want to be devoured again.”

At his words, Luna’s eyes went wide and she pressed her lips firmly shut.

Caesar found her reaction amusing once more and let the corner of his mouth lift ever so slightly before smoothing his expression back into indifference.

* * *

A soft hum echoed through the middle of the manor.

Luna had found a spare moment and was wiping down the potted plants arranged in one corner of Caesar’s study.

Since visiting the orphanage with Caesar, she had come to see both him and his father in a different light.

Luna thought back to her days at the orphanage.

She remembered how, whenever nobles paid a visit, the orphanage would be well stocked with food and supplies for a good while afterward.

The memory of getting her hands on paints for the very first time back then, something she had wanted more than anything, and running around the room with joy, was still vivid. Thinking back on her childhood, she felt a natural sense of gratitude toward him as well.

He was someone who grumbled on the outside but knew how to show warmth on the inside.

She wanted to repay him in some small way, but there was nothing fitting she could do, so she had decided to contribute by tending to the space where he spent most of his time. With that feeling in mind, Luna carefully wiped the leaves of the orchids.

The thin, delicate leaves could be damaged by even the slightest misapplied pressure, so she had to handle them as gently as she would a small child. They might look like ordinary plants at a glance, but these orchids were a rare variety valuable enough to appear at auction.

The more precious something was, the more care it required.

Perhaps because of that, her touch grew more and more attentive.

As she tended to the orchids with care, a memory of the conversation they had shared in the carriage on the way back drifted into her mind.

It had been light, meaningless small talk, but the air from the day before lingered with an unusual warmth.

The flower ring sitting on his masculine hand, and the way he had looked away toward the window and pretended not to be affected when she had thanked him.

The platinum hair falling softly, the nose at a perfect angle, the languid droop of his eyes, the neat press of his full lips.

It was a sight so like a finely detailed miniature portrait of beauty incarnate that Luna had found herself completely unable to look away.

“He does have a quietly endearing side to him…”

Luna lifted her head as she recalled the moment, and caught her own reflection in a mirror on one side of the study.

A flushed face, and an unfamiliar smile resting at the corners of her mouth.

She looked rather sly.

“Get a hold of yourself, Luna Ellen.”

She muttered under her breath and snapped her head away. It was because she had felt inexplicably embarrassed.

She gripped the cloth in her hand again and began wiping somewhere else.

Caesar’s study was tidy without a single unnecessary thing in it. Decorations that served no purpose were nowhere to be found, and everything was arranged for efficiency. True to the space where he spent most of his time, it resembled him exactly.

The one thing that caught the eye in that space was a small collection of models set in one corner.

An intricately crafted train model, a sailing ship, and a carriage model made with a level of detail that was almost uncanny.

Luna had been studying them for quite some time when she realized how much time had passed and stepped out of his study.

Click.

“Oh…? You’re the one from before…”

It was the child she had run into in the garden. It was Yuriya.

Her face was not pretty exactly, but it had a cute quality to it, with the freckles across the bridge of her nose standing out in particular.

Perhaps because they had crossed paths several times now, Luna felt a warm familiarity and greeted her the moment she saw her.

Inwardly startled, Yuriya flinched slightly and spoke to her.

“Ah, hello, my lady. The head butler gave me something to attend to, so if you’ll excuse me…”

“Of course. Go on then.”

She had been so flustered that she disappeared in a hurry.

Her retreating figure made it plain that she wanted nothing more to do with the encounter.

She seemed to be an unusually shy child. Being so young, it was understandable enough.

Looking at her, Luna was suddenly reminded of her own younger years.

Luna waved after Yuriya until she was out of sight, then slowly made her way back to her room.