“It suits you. That dress. Whatever you wear……I think it would suit you just as well.”

“……Pardon?”

“Beautiful. You are.”

Lacy’s eyes went wide with surprise, and she stared straight into Rafez’s blue eyes.

Even this — even this was something he had never seen before.

Her sitting across from him. Meeting his gaze. Speaking.

The way she parted her lips, then pressed them shut again. The way she seemed to steel herself before letting the words out in the smallest opening. The twitch at the corner of her mouth. The flutter of her lashes. The tremor moving through her eyes.

All of it.

He had never looked at her like this — up close, properly. Not even once.

“Right now. I mean you.”

She had died. And yet here she was, sitting before him, speaking.

At first, he had thought he was dreaming.

But it had already been several days since then.

He knew now. He didn’t understand how — but she was alive again. And she was here, moving and breathing before him.

Then whatever feeling rose up in him, he shouldn’t run from it.

He should acknowledge it. Accept it. No one could know what lay ahead.

“You’re beautiful. Just like this.”

“What do you mean by——”

The carriage came to a stop, and Rafez stepped out first, extending his hand to Lacy.

It was the same hand he offered her at every ball — and yet why did it feel different this time?

Lacy took it, and they walked into the ballroom.

The hall was already full. It was a large Imperial ball, and as befitting the occasion, nearly all the nobility had turned out.

“Your Highness, Your Highness the Grand Duchess.”

“Duke Schkotz.”

Edward Schkotz approached Rafez and Lacy. At present, there were only two ducal houses in the empire outside of the Grand Ducal house — House Lennon and House Schkotz.

“It’s a shame that a ballroom is the only place where one gets to see the two of you together — such a lovely sight. Though I suppose that’s precisely why I look forward to the Imperial Ball so eagerly. I’m sure everyone else feels the same.”

His manner was perfectly gracious. Whether his thoughts matched was another matter entirely.

“Have you ever considered hosting a ball at the Grand Ducal house?”

“As you know, the Grand Duchess isn’t particularly fond of going out into society. She came tonight as a favor to me, so I’m afraid it would be difficult to ask more than that.”

It was the truth, which made it easy for Rafez to say without any hesitation.

Lacy stood quietly at his side, listening without any apparent intention of joining the conversation.

In any case, if either of them were to be spoken ill of for not fulfilling their duties in this marriage arranged by the Emperor, it would be Rafez, not Lacy. On the surface, Lacy had complied with the Emperor’s decree — whereas everyone knew full well that Rafez had been forced into the marriage against his will.

“What a pity. I had hoped that with Your Highness taking over the succession, the atmosphere of the Grand Ducal house might change somewhat.”

Duke Schkotz was, alongside the Duke of House Lennon, one of the Emperor’s loyal servants.

Outwardly he made a show of approaching Rafez first and treating him with warmth — but that was all it was. He was simply a man waiting for Rafez to make a mistake.

“How could anything change so quickly? The late Grand Duke led the house for many long years. I only hope to follow the path he laid down.”

The Grand Ducal house would remain as it always had been. That was what Rafez declared.

“……I see. On another note — how is the former Grand Duke faring?”

“I received a letter not long ago. He is doing well.”

“That is a relief to hear. He always seemed rather frail — I worried quite a lot, you know. Now that he has stepped down from the position, I do hope he finds some peace.”

Rafez felt Edward’s warm-looking smile sink into his chest like a blade.

But he buried that feeling and held the man’s gaze, his own expression perfectly blank.

“His Imperial Majesty arrives!”

That brought the conversation between Edward and Rafez to an end.

The moment the Emperor and Empress entered the ballroom, the Emperor spotted Rafez and made straight for him.

“We greet His Imperial Majesty.”

“Grand Duke, Grand Duchess. It feels like it’s been some time since I’ve seen the Grand Duchess.”

“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.”

Lacy inclined her head in greeting.

The Emperor’s gaze as it settled on Lacy was notably warm.

“I hope you enjoy the ball tonight. And do come to the Imperial Palace more often — the Princess misses you terribly, you know.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Could you come as early as tomorrow?”

“Pardon? Ah — yes, I will.”

Having secured Lacy’s answer, the Emperor smiled at last, visibly satisfied.

The Empress at his side shot him a sideways look.

“Why is Your Majesty personally involving himself in the Princess’s affairs? The Grand Duchess has her own matters to attend to.”

“If it gives me a chance to see her myself in the bargain, all the better, no? I saw her often at the palace before her marriage — I never imagined it would become so difficult once she was wed. If I had known, I might not have arranged this match at all.”

The Emperor was genuinely fond of Lacy.

Had the Emperor a son, he might well have taken Lacy as a daughter-in-law.

There was something curious about that, when one thought on it. To send someone he cherished so dearly into a ducal house he regarded with such wariness.

“Your Majesty, that is going too far.”

“Ha ha. I speak in jest, Empress. I simply feel the loss of not seeing the Grand Duchess as often as I once did. These two are very dear to me — Grand Duke, I do hope you’ll bring the Grand Duchess along whenever you visit the palace from now on.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The Emperor moved on after Rafez’s reply — though it was the kind of promise with no assurance of being kept.

When the music began, the other guests took to the floor, but Rafez left Lacy behind and went to attend to other business.

Left alone, Lacy stood in silence, glass in hand, watching the women drift and flutter across the ballroom floor like butterflies.

“You don’t like dancing, do you, Lacy?”

The one who approached her was Mary of the Valerian County — a woman with striking golden hair.

She had seen Mary before, as she occasionally came to the estate to visit Rafez, apparently a childhood friend of his. But they had never been close enough to address each other by name.

“Because of you, Lacy, Rafez can’t dance either. He loved dancing so much when he was little.”

Lacy said nothing and took a quiet sip of her drink.

She wanted to say that it made no difference to her who Rafez danced with — but she held her tongue.

Though, to be fair, if he were to dance with another woman while leaving his own wife aside, that too would reflect poorly on Rafez.

“Mary.”

“Rafez, you’re terribly busy even at a ball, aren’t you? Busy enough to leave your wife standing alone. Poor Lacy must have been so lonely without you.”

Rafez had apparently finished his business and returned, and Mary greeted him with a teasing grin, pressing a glass of wine into his hand.

She was playing at teasing — but the barb was aimed squarely at Lacy’s situation, standing there alone.

“I’m sorry. Something urgent came up.”

Rafez answered Mary’s quip in earnest, directed at Lacy — and both Mary and Lacy were quietly taken aback.

The Rafez they knew would have simply told Mary to stop joking around. Apologizing to Lacy was another matter entirely.

“Oh? Come on, I was just teasing. Lacy was fine — I was with her the whole time. Isn’t that right, Lacy?”

“Since when do you call the Grand Duchess by her name?”

Mary faltered at Rafez’s question, caught off guard and at a loss for words.

Come to think of it, Rafez himself had barely ever called Lacy by her name. And yet here was Mary — hardly close to Lacy at all — addressing her as though they were intimates.

“Well, I just — I wanted to be friendly——”

“Then be friendly first, and use her name after. It may feel presumptuous to the Grand Duchess.”

Lacy was just as flustered watching Rafez say exactly what she herself had wanted to say.

* * *

Inside the carriage on the way home.

Lacy and Rafez sat in silence.

“……About Mary earlier — I owe you an apology. I hadn’t been paying enough attention. She may be a childhood friend to me, but to you she’s a stranger.”

He had seemed lost in thought — apparently he had been turning it over in his mind the whole time.

Lacy could not seem to get used to this version of Rafez.

All this time, he had appeared to have no thoughts or concern for her whatsoever. So why had he changed like this?

“And from now on, I won’t leave you alone at balls.”

“No, it’s fine. Please don’t trouble yourself.”

It had only been six months since she married him — and yet the man she had come to know in that time and the man sitting before her now were entirely different people.

Something had shifted in him. That much was clear. What it was, she couldn’t begin to fathom.

“You are my wife. Is it not natural that I concern myself with you?”

“……Do you mean that?”

My wife? My wife?

Since when?

Since when had he thought of her as his wife — and how could he say it so easily, as though it were nothing?

A shadow of reproach crept into Lacy’s eyes as she looked at him.