“Ha, what a strange person.”

“It’s fine. Never mind her, let’s look at the dresses. We don’t have time.”

“Oh, right. Excuse me, could you show our Miss the ball gowns?”

Rina shifted the mood and went to find a staff member. But the staff member’s expression was troubled.

“I…… I’m terribly sorry, but…… we are unable to rent out the ball gowns.”

“Pardon? What do you mean? We made a reservation in advance.”

“……Another guest has rented all of them.”

“What do you mean? It’s not as though she’s going to wear all of these dresses.”

“That is beyond our knowledge. Only…… she said she might change her mind tonight, so she rented every single one……”

The staff member was flustered, and Rina’s face showed equal bewilderment. But Alicia alone remained calm.

“Who rented them?”

“It was Miss Mariella of the Wagner comital household, who just left a moment ago.”

The moment she heard the name, she knew exactly who it was. The daughter of the Wagner family, who had bought their comital title with money. She knew the father well too. No, she could never forget him.

Chief Minister Jeffrey. He would be a count by now.

The very Chief Minister Jeffrey who would later become one of Helena’s closest associates was Mariella’s father.

She takes after her father, it seems. Utterly shameless.

Her behavior made sense on its own. The look in her eyes when she had seen the bracelet on Alicia’s wrist. The bracelet her aunt had bought at great expense out of love for luxury was clearly something Mariella had wanted as well.

How fitting. Do ill-fated connections always find each other no matter how they meet?

A meaningful smile spread across Alicia’s lips at the thought of yet another ill-fated connection unfolding, entirely independent of her own choices.

“I am truly sorry.”

The staff member, watching nervously for fear of being caught in the crossfire, offered an apology.

“She is not someone I could have refused……”

“It’s all right. Could you show me the other dresses instead?”

“That is…… these are all that remain.”

The wardrobe behind the curtain was opened to reveal a collection of aged dresses.

“Old and out of fashion, all of them.”

They were the kind of clothes that would invite ridicule at a ball. But despite the murmured words, Alicia looked through the remaining options with a composed expression.

If anything, it was the boutique staff member who was the more anxious of the two.

“I am terribly sorry, but would you perhaps like to try another shop while there is still time?”

It was the most sensible alternative, but getting to a boutique on the other side of the city was impossible given the time. And then, as Alicia looked through the options in silence, one dress caught her eye.

“No. This one will do.”

“This dress, Miss?”

“Yes. I’ll take this one.”

The staff member stared at Alicia with wide eyes.

“……Are you certain?”

Alicia nodded. The bewildered boutique staff member looked back and forth between the dress and Alicia in disbelief. Perhaps the reaction was understandable.

The dress Alicia had chosen was pitch black.

Rina, watching from the side, looked equally taken aback and gently tried to dissuade her.

“Miss, this…… looks like something you’d wear to a funeral.”

“Exactly. That’s why I chose it.”

“……Pardon?”

Leaving a bewildered Rina behind, Alicia looked quietly at the dress.

Black enough to swallow even light.

It was a symbol of grief and mourning.

‘Until every last piece of my revenge is complete, I will wear nothing but black……’

It was a mother’s heartbroken vow for her child.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

The day of the memorial ball.

Grand Duke Evander had dealt with the monsters on the northern front and returned in haste.

Upon receiving Lieutenant Derick’s report that Alicia had arrived safely, the Grand Duke finally let out a quiet sigh and filled his glass.

Good.

Glug.

Picking up the clear glass, Grand Duke Evander’s gaze drifted to a portrait hanging on one wall of the study.

A wall covered in portraits of past Grand Dukes. Among them, the one that held Evander’s attention was the former Grand Duke, Ryan.

‘Brother……’

His one and only sibling, who had raised him like a father in place of their parents who had died young. The two had been close since childhood, but their last moments together had ended in a great quarrel.

‘Brother, how can you take the hand of our enemy!’

‘Evander, it is a choice I cannot avoid, to protect you and the principality.’

‘Do not make cowardly excuses. Do you not think of the soldiers who have sacrificed themselves all this time?’

‘Someday…… you will understand my intentions.’

The conversation with his elder brother Grand Duke Ryan, just before the humiliating diplomatic agreement was concluded. Despite Evander’s fierce opposition, Grand Duke Ryan had signed the peace treaty with the Empire.

It had been Grand Duke Ryan’s unavoidable choice to save the people and the principality, but an unbridgeable rift formed between him and Grand Duke Evander, whose convictions differed.

And the death of his blood kin, whom he had ultimately failed to protect, still ached in Evander’s chest even years later.

‘Do not seek revenge. Only survive……’

It was his brother’s dying wish, born of worry for him.

But Grand Duke Evander shook his head.

‘No. I cannot do that.’

His jaw muscles clenched.

The sound of grinding teeth came from his tightly set back molars.

Glug.

He downed the full glass in a single swallow.

But even the strong liquor could not match the burning heat of vengeance rising in Evander’s chest.

“Phew……”

A long breath, heavy with drink, escaped him.

Then Lieutenant Derick entered the study to deliver his report.

“Your Highness the Grand Duke, it is time to depart.”

Grand Duke Evander slowly nodded and rose from his seat with effort.

A body unsteady from drink.

But today, there was something that had to be done.

For the sake of revenge for his dead brother.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Late afternoon.

Rina asked as she helped with the makeup.

“Miss, there will be all kinds of delicacies at the ball, won’t there?”

Rina, as devoted to food as she was to her generous figure, licked her lips in anticipation.

“It’s the principality’s biggest event, so I would imagine so.”

“Haa, I don’t know about anything else, but the thought of getting to taste all that delicious food to my heart’s content is just wonderful.”

A luxury reserved for nobles alone. For Rina, a commoner-born maid, it was a luxury she could not even dream of.

But what came to Alicia’s mind was not food, but Grand Duke Evander’s plan for this event. Announcing a marriage at the principality’s largest gathering was an enormous challenge even from the Grand Duke’s perspective.

All of it will ultimately amount to a declaration of war against Helena.

A grand plan to keep Helena’s power in check through a political marriage and build up a military force. A firm resolve to go to war with the Empire if necessary, all for the sake of avenging his brother, but it was, in the end, only a plan.

‘Sadly, you will not live to see that dream fulfilled.’

The following winter, he would fall in battle, cut down while holding back a massive wave of monsters surging from the North.

And from that turning point, the Belonia Principality would fall into the hands of Helena.

His unfinished revenge was preserved in full within the pages of history.

‘But this time it will be different. Because I will help.’

Two people with different destinations but the same path of revenge. In that sense, this ball was critically important.

“Make me beautiful, Rina.”

“You’re already beautiful enough.”

“No.”

Alicia looked into the hand mirror as she spoke.

“I need to be more beautiful than anyone.”

She had to be the one everyone was watching at tonight’s ball.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Outside the ballroom.

Countless carriages arrived one after another. The crowd was enormous, as though every young lady in the principality had gathered in one place.

A short while later, an elaborately decorated four-horse carriage stopped at the entrance, and Mariella stepped down slowly.

Click. Click.

Measured, proud steps, dressed to impress.

Whispers followed as Mariella descended from the carriage.

“Oh, which family does that beautiful young lady belong to?”

“Indeed. It is rare to see someone who wears a pink dress so well…… truly charming.”

“That looks like the work of a master craftsman. Truly beautiful.”

Warmed by the enthusiastic reactions of the young nobles, Mariella walked forward with a broad smile. That was how much a dress mattered at a ball.

A dress was the single greatest factor in drawing attention at an event that was the very pinnacle of splendor.

Mariella’s thoughts naturally turned to Alicia.

“Whatever became of the young lady from the Windmore comital household?”

“I heard she chose a single black dress, not even a ball gown.”

“A black dress to a ball? She could have simply gone to another boutique. What a fool.”

“But did you not already take care of that as well, Miss?”

“That I did.”

Mariella and her maid exchanged a sly smile.

Then, at that moment, another carriage arrived and came to a stop.

“Hmm? Who is that young lady?”

“Who?”

“There, that silver-haired noble.”

Every eye turned at once toward a woman stepping down from the carriage.