Not only had she gotten completely drunk on her first taste of alcohol, she had used that drunkenness as an excuse to tumble with him like a madwoman through the entire night.

“Hah… what do I do?”

Luna pulled at her own hair as she turned the problem over and over in her mind.

She was still at Lutenberg’s estate.

There was a custom that after the wedding ceremony, the bride would spend at least the first night in the home where she had grown up.

And so the innermost annex of the estate had been transformed over the past few days into an elaborate bridal chamber by the hands of many servants. Luna had helped with those preparations herself, and that knowledge brought her a small measure of relief to know she was still at the estate.

She eventually pushed herself up from the bed, only to stagger and nearly lose her footing, her legs refusing to hold her. The aftermath of the previous night had left them without strength.

But she could not afford to waste any more time.

As long as she had not yet left the estate, she had to find even the smallest clue about Adelia, no matter what.

Surely it must be somewhere here. That thing Adelia had boasted about. Something that could get me close to her. My belongings as well… ah, I could just ask about where ‘Luna’ has gone.

She dressed herself quickly in a simple gown, tidied her appearance, and dragged her exhausted body straight out the door.

She was in the annex. Following the long corridor from here would lead her to the main building.

Luna had grown up in the estate since childhood and knew the layout of the mansion like the back of her hand. She walked the familiar hallway at nearly a run.

As she went, the servants of the estate who spotted her bowed their heads politely in greeting.

“Good morning, my lady!”

“Good morning, Lady Adelia!”

They were colleagues she had worked alongside until just recently, familiar faces all of them, but the courteous greetings were directed not at Luna but at Lady Adelia.

Thrown into confusion, Luna returned their greetings in a distracted, half-hearted manner and hurried on.

At last she reached the drawing room and caught her breath as she looked inside.

“Hah… hah…….”

There was Adelia’s mother, the Marchioness of Lutenberg, who had just finished receiving a guest.

In one corner of the drawing room, gifts sent along with congratulations were piled up like a small mountain.

The fact that her daughter, long regarded as the troublemaker of the nobility and the bane of the family, had married the wealthiest man in the empire meant that a smile had not left Marzel’s lips all morning.

When she caught sight of Adelia, her expression softened at once.

It was a markedly different manner from her usual strictness.

“Adelia. You’re up? Why are you wandering about like this? You must be exhausted. You should be resting.”

“Mother, there is something I need to ask you.”

“All right. Go ahead.”

Luna let out a short breath and steadied herself.

Luna, who had become Adelia.

Since she had entered Adelia’s body, she reasoned that her own body must also have someone occupying it. The most likely candidate was Adelia.

Yesterday had been the day of the wedding itself, and there had been no time to think. In the midst of the bustle of wedding preparations, she had asked the servants about Luna’s whereabouts, and they had told her that Luna had taken sudden leave and departed from the estate.

Recalling that moment, she kept her voice carefully casual as she asked.

“I heard Luna took sudden leave yesterday. Did she happen to say where she was going?”

“I’m not sure. I only heard that she took leave saying she had somewhere she needed to go in a hurry. But why do you ask all of a sudden?”

At the Marchioness of Lutenberg’s words, Luna’s expression stiffened sharply.

Luna was an orphan who had come from a children’s home.

A lonely child with no one to call family and no home to return to.

Since entering the estate as a young girl, she had spent all her time within its walls, with almost no reason to go in and out of the outside world.

Her original body had vanished after taking sudden leave.

The thought that the whereabouts of her own body might be connected to Adelia sent a growing urgency creeping into her chest.

“Dear, you must be hungry, how about a meal… Adelia… Adelia!”

Luna slipped out of the drawing room and broke into a full run down the corridor.

* * *

“Hah…….”

Luna let out a hollow sigh and sank down where she stood, the strength draining out of her.

Adelia’s room had been turned into a complete mess.

She had gone through every last drawer in the room, and when that was not enough, she had searched the bed and every wardrobe in the dressing room as well. But no matter how thoroughly she searched, nothing that could serve as a clue turned up.

Was she going to have to leave for the Grand Duchy without finding a single lead?

She was racking her memory for anything that might offer even a thread to pull on, turning the question over and over in her mind, when it happened.

‘This is my secret place.’

A forgotten memory from the past suddenly flashed into her mind.

Adelia had a spot where she hid things she considered especially precious or important.

The moment that fact came back to her, color returned to Luna’s face. She got to her feet without delay and headed straight for it.

Adelia’s secret place was beneath the carpet laid under the sofa.

She gripped the armrests of the sofa with both hands and pushed. The heavy piece of furniture scraped against the floor and slowly shifted.

Scrape―

The dry sound of friction broke the silence and bled into the room.

Once she had pushed the sofa all the way into one corner, Luna took a deep breath and carefully lifted the thick carpet from the floor.

The marble floor that had been hidden beneath it.

At a glance it appeared to be a perfectly ordinary arrangement, but on closer inspection, the edge of one section was ever so slightly raised.

Luna placed her hand over it without hesitation and pressed down gently.

With a dull clunk, one of the marble tiles shifted slightly.

She lifted it carefully, and a hollow space hidden beneath the floor revealed itself.

Inside, a neatly folded paper crane rested undisturbed.

The moment she found it, Luna’s movements came to a sudden stop.

A paper crane. She was not without knowledge of what it meant.

Long ago, Luna had been an orphan abandoned at the doorstep of a children’s home in Tranel.

One day, the Marquis and Marchioness of Lutenberg came to the home to do charitable work, and seeing that the young Luna bore a striking resemblance to Adelia, they brought her back to the estate. The bond formed that day had continued to this very moment.

Luna and Adelia, placed side by side, looked remarkably alike, and when Luna was dressed up to resemble Adelia, it was difficult to tell them apart at a glance.

That was when it had begun.

Adelia, who had never shown much interest in lessons on academics or etiquette, would often ask Luna to stand in for her. And the signal she sent each time was a paper crane.

If a paper crane appeared somewhere in Adelia’s room, that was a day when Luna had to become Adelia.

Fortunately, Luna had found a strange sort of enjoyment in the task.

Learning etiquette, manner of speech, and bearing one by one, she had eventually become quite convincing in her imitation of a noble young lady.

On those days, she had truly felt as though she really were a noble lady herself.

In her young heart she had even quietly harbored a kind of longing, but as time passed and both their faces matured, such things had naturally faded away.

Gazing at the paper crane she had not seen in so long, Luna found herself unexpectedly drawn back to the memories of those days.

Her heart pounded fiercely, as though it might burst at any moment.

It had become all the clearer that all of this had originated from Adelia’s own hands.

With trembling fingers, Luna carefully unfolded the paper crane.

Inside, written in a familiar hand as though to confirm that her suspicion was not wrong, were words she could read plainly.

[Bear in mind that the position of Grand Duchess may look appealing, but it is an extremely dangerous one.]

Becoming Grand Duchess had taken her so far from the quiet, comfortable life Luna had dreamed of. To think that all of this had been planned by Adelia.

Luna had not considered the possibility that Adelia had switched their bodies on purpose, and she could not help but fall into confusion. Her mind was tangled like a spool of thread wound into knots.

Only then did the conversation from the day before the wedding come back to her.

Adelia’s words, which had carried such weight at the time. All the scattered pieces began to fall into place in her mind, as though each one had found where it belonged.

* * *

Adelia, resting her chin on one hand as she painted at her easel, let the words fall from her lips with an air of indifference.

“Luna, you really have it good.”

Across her white canvas were scattered indecipherable scrawlings and a tangle of abstract lines.

Adelia had been painting something closer to doodles all day long.

Then, out of nowhere, she spoke to her maid.

Luna, who had been watering Adelia’s beloved potted plants, waved the comment away.

“Pardon? That you, of all people, would envy someone like me, my lady. Anyone who heard would think you were teasing me.”

In truth, this was not the first time Adelia had done this.

Whenever she did, Luna would always laugh it off in exactly this way.

“Teasing you? Why would I? You’re free. I mean it sincerely. It’s like… how do I put it. It feels like being forced to wear clothes that don’t fit me. I’ve always wanted to go somewhere far away. Luna. But if I become the Grand Duke’s wife… I’ll have to spend my life watching every step around my husband and the imperial family.”

Adelia had stopped her scrawling at some point and was staring out the window.

Her thoughts always seemed to be somewhere else entirely. Her light brown eyes looked vacant, as though hollowed out.

Luna watched Adelia with worried eyes, but shook off the unease just as quickly.

She recalled having heard that women often felt restless and unsettled before their wedding day.

It was no different from leaving the shelter of one’s parents behind, becoming the mistress of a household, and stepping into the second chapter of one’s life. It was not entirely beyond understanding.

Luna offered Adelia her characteristic bright smile and replied.

“Every young lady in the capital must envy you, my lady.”

“Why?”

“Because there is not a thing lacking in you, whether in looks or family, and you have secured the most sought-after match anyone could dream of.”

“Then… you envy me too?”

“Of course. If I could be you for even just one day, I would have no other wish in the world.”

In that instant, something shifted in Adelia’s eyes, taking on a look of unmistakable significance. She asked Luna again, her voice carrying a slight lilt of excitement.

“Is that so? If you were me, how would you want to live?”

The look in Adelia’s eyes as she posed the question to Luna carried a gravity to it that was unusual for that day.