When Angela looked at her with bright, sparkling eyes, a piece of a smile hung on Mrs. Seymour’s lips.

“Oh, and be careful since there will be many men approaching you while eyeing your wealth because of the rumors that you inherited Count Huntley’s fortune. It’s fine to refuse if there are people approaching with impure motives.”

Before boarding the carriage, Mrs. Seymour offered advice like she had just remembered something.

“Ah… yes.”

Angela smiled awkwardly and boarded the carriage with Amy, her personal maid, and Austin, Mrs. Seymour’s nephew.

Austin attended the ball as Angela’s partner. Since attending a ball without knowing anyone was no easy task, Mrs. Seymour had asked her nephew for help.

“I’m not good at judging people, so Austin, you need to look carefully at whether the other person is a decent man or not, okay?”

Inside the swaying carriage, Angela spoke to Austin while letting out a small breath. After hearing Mrs. Seymour’s warning, worry came first, so her voice was full of anxiety.

“Of course. We can’t let just anyone near you, miss.”

Then Austin straightened his shoulders wide and lightly tapped his chest a couple of times like telling her to trust only him. Though he was younger than Angela and probably didn’t have an accurate eye for people either, his build was adult-like, making him seem somehow reliable.

“Lady Angela Huntley is entering.”

The moment they arrived at the ball and were about to enter, a soldier standing at the door called Angela’s name, and all gazes poured onto her.

“So that’s the subject of the rumors.”

“Isn’t she the most talked-about person in high society these days?”

Just like Mrs. Seymour had said, many people already seemed to know about Angela.

Some looked curious, some envious, some displeased, and various different emotions could be felt from their expressions.

Most whispered while looking at her with gazes full of curiosity about whether this commoner woman had really adapted well to the world of nobles and whether she had truly inherited much wealth by herself.

“She’s of commoner origin, so what would she know? There’s no way she’d have noble dignity.”

But among them, the sound of gossip reached Angela’s ears the loudest. Then her confidence, which had soared high, began to shrink.

“Don’t mind them. Mrs. Seymour told you to pretend not to hear such words.”

When her proudly straightened shoulders began to droop, Amy whispered in a small, comforting voice to raise Angela’s confidence again.

Right. She said noble dignity comes from confidence, didn’t she?

Recalling Mrs. Seymour’s teachings, Angela tried to straighten her back proudly and maintain elegant gestures and a relaxed smile. Then the murmuring directed at her seemed to decrease somewhat.

“Would you dance with me?”

To boost Angela’s self-esteem, Austin also proposed a dance to her. It was partly to loosen her tense body and partly to show off elegant dance moves to demonstrate that she was indeed a noble.

Though she was nervous since gazes followed her every action, thanks to much practice, Angela was able to dance with Austin without mistakes.

“Would you dance with me as well?”

Perhaps Angela’s dance moves were beautiful, as the men who had been watching requested to dance with her, and after that she was busy changing partners and dancing with different men.

She was sure she had conversations, but her mind went blank and she couldn’t remember what conversations she had. She needed to pick out men with ulterior motives, but she didn’t even have the mental leisure for that, so Angela simply spent time responding to her partners’ words with smiles.

But since it was her first ball, the mental exhaustion was considerable, so there was a limit to how much she could endure.

“I’m going to get some fresh air outside for a moment.”

After whispering to Amy, Angela left the banquet hall. Her cheeks were flushed from being caught up in the atmosphere, but she felt increasingly suffocated and couldn’t bear it anymore.

“My, she’s showing that it’s her first ball.”

She heard gossip, but Angela ignored all those sounds and headed to the garden.

This doesn’t suit her.

Throughout her walk, Angela’s heart beat fiercely. She needed to relieve her stuffy feelings by breathing some cold night air, or else she felt like she would suffocate to death from the stuffy air and buzzing noise inside the banquet hall.

Angela’s steps stopped in front of a bench in the rose garden. Without realizing it, she had walked quite far from the banquet hall, and no other people could be seen around.

Repeatedly taking small breaths in and out, Angela sat on the bench.

“Now I feel like I can live.”

When the deep floral fragrance stimulated her nose and cold wind brushed past her face, it seemed like her blocked-up heart was being released.

Only then did Angela, who had gained some peace of mind, sit on the bench and stare blankly at the sky.

The gentle moonlight visible in the distance made the rose garden’s profound atmosphere even more beautiful, and the twinkling starlight added to the garden’s elegance.

Receiving gazes from strangers and exchanging conversations while forcing smiles was more tiring and difficult than expected, so being here where the moon and stars welcomed her was much more comfortable than the banquet hall that had been full of unknown people just moments ago.

It seemed like it wouldn’t be bad to put down all the complicated things and be intoxicated by this space for a while, so Angela closed her eyes for a moment and enjoyed the quiet, peaceful time.

What broke the peaceful time was the sound of footsteps touching dry leaves.

When she opened her eyes and looked toward where the sound came from, she could see guards and knights taking turns patrolling.

Huh? That uniform?

Then when she saw a familiar uniform, Angela’s eyes widened.

Seeing that the uniform was the same as that of the man who had saved her in the forest recently and the imperial knights, he must have indeed been an imperial knight.

Sir Dion… was that what he was called?

Looking at the people wearing knight uniforms, Angela found herself unknowingly searching for Dion while recalling past events.

The day after returning to the mansion, she had immediately headed to the bank. Since she didn’t know when Dion might come to the bank, she wanted to pay him as quickly as possible. That way, his frustration and doubt would be resolved.

It was three days later that the bank manager contacted her saying Dion had come to collect the money.

Upon hearing the news, though he had only received payment for his help, Angela felt somehow proud in her heart, like she had paid for having her life saved.

She even felt like thanking him once more if they happened to meet. So her gaze continued to focus on the knights coming and going through the garden.

But unless she stood near the banquet hall entrance, since the palace was so vast, it wasn’t easy to encounter Dion.

‘Should I get up now?’

The night breeze was getting colder and Dion was nowhere to be seen, so she was about to dust herself off and get up when she spotted a familiar silhouette passing before her eyes.

Huh? Sir Dion?

The man with silver hair that sparkled diversely in various colors stood out even more brilliantly than when she had seen him before. Even without knowing his face, her gaze was naturally drawn to him.

Would it be okay to go greet him?

Angela got up from her seat and confirmed that there was no one else around Dion. Seeing him walking alone, it seemed like it would be okay to speak to him.

Since they weren’t close enough to call his name cheerfully, she put away her bright smile and walked toward him steadily.

“Sir Dion? We meet again here. Thank you for last time. Thanks to you, things were resolved well.”

Angela spoke first with an elegant smile as Mrs. Seymour had taught her.

Then Dion, narrowing his eyes, looked down at her.

In his green eyes that seemed to have deep, clear emeralds embedded in them, there was puzzlement, and his gaze was saying, “Who exactly are you?”

‘Ah, can’t he recognize me because I’m beautifully adorned?’

“We met in the forest about six months ago. You saved my life, but don’t you remember me?”

Since he seemed not to recognize her because she had become more noble-like than before, Angela’s smile grew brighter as she felt pleased.

“Ah, you’re the woman I met back then.”

After the introduction, Dion finally seemed to recognize Angela. However, perhaps because he hadn’t expected to encounter her, his pupils shook slightly the moment their eyes met.

“I thought I already received your thanks last time.”

His gaze lingered on her dress. Looking at his tilted head, scanning gaze, and tone, he was still speaking down to Angela. Like someone who had forgotten hearing that she was a noble woman.

“Yes. Things went well after that, so I wanted to thank you once more.”

“That’s fortunate. Well then, I’ll be going.”

The moment he heard that things had gone well, Dion’s gaze scanning Angela contained a look of contempt.

‘Why is he looking at me like that? Does he think I’m lying?’

At that moment, her happy feelings sank instantly.

“Since you received the money, don’t you believe my words now? I told you I really am a noble.”