On top of everything else, if she had to repay the debt in a lump sum at great expense, the estate as it stood now would have no choice but to collapse entirely.

To Luna, the Marquis and Marchioness of Lutenberg were as good as benefactors who had taken her in when she had been abandoned as a child.

She knew well enough how wretched the end of a ruined noble family could be.

Repaying that kindness in a way like this was something she simply could not bring herself to do.

Caesar watched her hesitate in silence, then spoke one final time.

“I am a merchant by nature, so I never make a losing deal. I will send a letter to the marquis’s estate tomorrow demanding repayment. Regrettably, it will not be difficult to surmise that the cause lies with his daughter. Then let us consider this arrangement void…….”

“W, wait a moment!! Please sit down. I need to think, yes, I need a little time to think.”

Scrape― Caesar rose from his seat with the sound of the chair dragging across the floor, then settled back into it at a leisurely pace, as though he had been persuaded against his will.

For some reason, his manner was that of someone who already held the upper hand.

Luna’s eyes wavered without restraint.

Perhaps the conclusion of this deal had been decided from the very beginning.

Luna felt like a wild filly that had been cornered and was simply waiting to have a leash put around its neck.

There was no choice left to her now.

In that case, she had to extract as much as she could from him.

“Then, if I carry out all of this faithfully, what happens?”

“When that day comes, do as you wish with whatever you want. Meet another man, choose divorce, demand money… I will grant you anything.”

“All right. Then…….”

Luna pressed the tip of the pen to the parchment and scrawled her signature, as though trying to shake off her hesitation.

She did not know the full details, but it also meant that she had that much worth to him.

Caesar looked it over once, then rolled the parchment up with an indifferent expression and tucked it inside his coat.

“Then let us call tonight’s dinner done.”

He left those few short words behind and walked out of the dining room without looking back.

* * *

Several days later.

House Valenstein, Grand Duchy estate.

With every step Luna took, the maids startled and hurriedly bowed their heads.

She had simply come out for a walk in the nearby garden.

Her notoriety for causing trouble the moment she set foot in the Grand Duchy estate had apparently already spread throughout the entire household.

The maids, fearing that a stray spark might land on them, kept their bodies drawn in tight and waited for her to pass by safely.

She had done nothing more than throw a few fits to establish her image. Nothing particularly remarkable.

Compared to the real Adelia, that much was nothing at all.

She had only been wandering about for a bit of digestion and to pass the time, and even that alone was apparently a considerable nuisance to everyone around her.

In the end, she had brought it on herself.

Luna walked the garden alone, lamenting a situation she had no way to change.

Since the dinner with Caesar a short while ago, whether by good fortune or bad, she had not crossed paths with him for several days.

She had wondered whether she would have to do something significant to fulfill the role of Grand Duchess, but fortunately he was an extremely busy man.

He would typically leave early in the morning and return late in the evening, and from time to time the rough footsteps of men and the sounds of servants moving busily about would drift faintly from beyond her door.

Those sounds repeated without fail every morning and evening, and Luna could only guess from them that he had come or gone.

Occasionally the light from his study would stretch long down the corridor well into the small hours, and a low murmuring voice giving reports and instructions could be heard.

At those times she would prick up her ears and press them to the door, but no further sounds reached her.

“I wonder if he even eats…….”

From what Luna had observed over the past while, he was a man addicted to work.

Even back when she had been handling all the maid’s duties at Lutenberg’s estate, she had never once skipped a meal. She knew well that if her strength gave out, she would not be able to keep going. If he were to fall seriously ill from this, it would all be for nothing.

The worry rose in her before she could stop it, but she quickly pushed it back down.

Luna was in no position to be worrying about someone else right now. What mattered was her own future. In the end, the only one she could rely on was herself.

“I was nervous over nothing.”

After signing the conduct guide a short while ago, she had fretted over whether she might be getting tangled up in something unnecessary, but it had been needless worry.

If time simply continued to pass like this, everything would fall smoothly back into place…

Bang―

Early one morning, her door flew open without any warning.

The one who appeared in the doorway was none other than Caesar.

“Oh, you startled me.”

He looked as striking as ever. The surprise of the unexpected moment lasted only a moment.

“There is somewhere we need to go together this afternoon. I have already informed Noah, so I will see you then.”

The Noah he was referring to was Luna’s current personal maid.

Luna, apparently not yet fully awake, stared at him blankly without managing to hide her surprise.

“Answer me.”

Only then did Luna belatedly grasp what he had said, and she nodded her head vigorously.

Caesar left his words behind in that one-sided manner and vanished just as abruptly.

* * *

Luna finished getting ready and rode the carriage to her destination, which turned out to be the middle of a street lined with boutiques and high-end shops popular among the nobility.

Among the fine carriages around them, the Grand Duchy’s carriage drew attention without question, enough that everyone turned to look at least once. Some among them recognized the seal of the Grand Duchy engraved on the carriage and exchanged whispers with one another in acknowledgment.

It was the first outing she and Caesar had shared since the wedding.

Luna felt an inexplicable nervousness wash over her at the thought of facing him.

His characteristic expressionless face and those silver-grey eyes, cold as ice, had a way of making it difficult to keep her composure whenever she met them.

Well, with that level of presence, it was no wonder he had built a house that had nothing into one of the most prominent families in the empire.

Luna barely managed to press down her fluttering nerves and let her thoughts drift elsewhere for a moment to settle herself.

Presently the carriage slowed to a stop, and the coachman sent the signal that they had arrived.

The door opened, and Caesar was standing beside the carriage in his striking way, as though he had been waiting to receive her.

He extended one hand and offered a courteous escort, greeting Luna with a gentle smile.

The sharp, keen line of his eyes curved softly and settled into gentle crescents.

The defined corners of his mouth lifted in a smooth arc, and in an instant even the cool air that had always surrounded him seemed to shift into something warm.

She had wondered what he would look like when he smiled…

Seeing it in person, it was beautiful enough to make her eyes ache.

Thump, thump―

It felt as though time had stopped.

Every scene surrounding him turned to black and white in an instant, and only Caesar seemed to hold any vivid color.

“Ah…….”

As she stared at him in a daze, Caesar raised an eyebrow slightly, as though telling her to collect herself, and spoke.

“I was worried the journey might have been tiring for my wife.”

The preparations had been handled by the servants and the driving by the coachman, so there was nothing tiring about it, but he said it in the manner of a man who truly worried for his wife.

The moment she took his hand, the tension climbed another degree. Caesar looked every bit like a man anxious that his wife might stumble.

Several nobles who recognized them began exchanging startled glances and murmuring among themselves.

Grand Duke Caesar Valenstein, who had recently wed by the emperor’s command.

The talk-of-the-moment Caesar and the wild filly Lady Adelia at his side had appeared together in public.

Presently the carriage that had stopped before the dress shop pulled away, and the Grand Duke and his wife stepped inside the boutique.

With the many servants they had brought along, the attention of onlookers was drawn all the more inevitably.

〈Rose Bloom〉

It was a dress shop that had been sweeping the nobility with tremendous popularity of late.

As the much-talked-about Grand Duke and his wife entered, the staff lined up in a row bowed their heads in unison to receive them.

“Welcome, Your Highness. It is an honor to have you visit as well, my lady.”

From the most junior staff to the owner and head designer, everyone had come out to greet them with the utmost courtesy.

If the talk-of-the-moment Grand Duchess were to wear a dress from this shop, it would be as good as sitting on a pile of gold.

Caesar looked at his wife with the same warm gaze and spoke.

“I have come to purchase dresses suited to my wife. She is quite particular, so I ask for nothing but the finest. I want only the best for my woman.”

He said it with perfect composure, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

“We have everything prepared. Please come this way, Your Highness.”

Caesar and Luna moved together, following the staff member’s guidance.

He looked at Luna with a gentle smile, every bit the man in love.

‘Fulfill the role of Grand Duchess faithfully enough that the outside world sees a couple in love.’

She too had to faithfully carry out her duties as Grand Duchess.

Luna reminded herself that it was nothing more than a performance and worked to rein in her heart, which kept stirring against her will. She took Caesar’s hand and answered him with a soft smile.

Presently, as they stepped into the VIP room, what spread before their eyes was a feast of dresses so varied in color and design it was almost dizzying to take in.

Fine fabrics brought from distant lands, and dresses adorned with delicate jewel work. From the materials themselves to the designs, each one was striking enough to hold the eye in its own way.

Rare pieces brought in from other dress shops at short notice were also visible among them.

It was plain that every means had been employed to ensure they did not lose such a high-profile customer.

Caesar swept an indifferent gaze over the displayed dresses and gestured toward several of them.

“This one, this one. And that one as well.”

There was no deliberation to speak of. The fate of each dress was decided the moment he gestured toward it. Luna had only to be led by a staff member and have her measurements taken.

As his gestures continued, dresses for the Grand Duchess piled up in a towering stack.

Because Luna had personally handled and purchased Adelia’s wardrobe, she had a fair understanding of noble ladies’ dresses.

At this rate, the total would be a staggering sum, enough to make her hands tremble.

But Caesar did not stop there and turned to the staff member.

“I would like to see some matching looks my wife and I could wear together.”

“Of course, Your Highness.”