A red dress blazing like a flame.

Golden hair that shone like gold, and eyes that gleamed like emeralds. Her beauty was the kind that no one who saw it once could ever forget.

“I heard she fasted and prayed for a full week recently, for the sake of the principality.”

“Is that true? Not only her appearance but her heart is so beautiful as well…… I am proud that such a person is our principality’s Grand Ducal heir’s consort.”

“Indeed.”

The nobles all exclaimed in admiration and paid reverence to Helena. But Alicia’s eyes held a different light.

We finally meet.

Still beautiful, still cold-eyed. She was right there, wearing a kind expression, yet harboring the most ruthless ambitions of anyone in the room.

And then,

she looked at Alicia.

A brief glance that met across the air.

She was unmistakably looking at Alicia.

In that moment,

the faintest shift crossed her eyes.

Alicia knew the reason.

‘She’s surprised I’m alive.’

A great distance between them. Not a word was spoken, yet Helena’s thoughts were readable in her gaze.

‘Now it’s my turn.’

Alicia deliberately swept her hair back slowly. An intentional movement to let the ruby bracelet on her pale wrist come naturally into view.

It was a kind of warning, signaling that her terrible plan had failed.

But then,

a haughty smile rose at the corners of Helena’s lips.

A powerless count’s daughter from the North.

It was an expression of confidence that even if she were alive, there was nothing she could do.

But this time, Alicia smiled back.

Let’s see if you can still smile like that when tonight’s ball is over.

A gaze that yielded not an inch.

It ended a moment later with the arrival of one man.

“His Highness Grand Duke Evander has arrived!”

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

The ruler of the principality.

The ball began with Grand Duke Evander taking his seat. A banquet hall filled with beautifully dressed nobles, accompanied by grand music.

Music rang out beneath the brilliant chandeliers, and the hems of dancing nobles brushed the floor, adding rhythm to the room. Noble young ladies were busy fanning themselves with elegance and sending smiles to young noble gentlemen.

But Grand Duke Evander, the very subject of this ball, sat at the highest seat and looked on without expression.

A cold air that no one dared approach.

On top of that, whether out of fear of falling out of Helena’s favor, not a single young lady moved toward Grand Duke Evander. They only stood at a distance, stealing glances and whispering cautiously.

The strongest warrior on the battlefield, yet here a solitary presence with no one drawing near.

A man of noble blood and title, yet occupying a lonely seat that no one sought out. There was something strangely familiar about it, and Alicia felt an odd kinship.

But her thoughts did not linger long.

“It is a beautiful evening.”

A voice from behind her.

“You are Miss Alicia of the Windmore comital household, are you not?”

She turned to find a polished-looking noble sweeping back his hair and smiling.

“I am Edmond Charlot.”

A handsome face, a warm-seeming smile, and gentlemanly manners. The eldest son of the Charlot family, well known in social circles, and the object of many young ladies’ attention. But his true nature was,

A legendary rake.

A womanizer whose name had been on gossips’ lips for decades. On top of that, he loved gambling and squandered every last coin of his family’s fortune, a wastrel among wastrels.

“Would you dance with me tonight?”

A young lady making her first appearance at a social gathering in a black dress. People’s attention gathered on the sight of someone approaching him to ask for a dance.

But Alicia’s answer was cold and brief.

“No.”

“……”

Caught off guard by the unexpected reply, Edmond blinked. He forced a smile, seemingly aware of the eyes around them, and asked again.

“May I ask why? There couldn’t possibly be a man here more to your liking than me.”

“Could there not?”

A flash of embarrassment crossed his face before it shifted into an expression of wounded pride.

“You shouldn’t let a pretty face make you so arrogant. In the end, everyone shows me the same expression in bed.”

The moment his pride was scratched, his crude nature and tongue came spilling out. But Alicia’s expression remained perfectly composed.

“What an unnecessary worry. It would be harder to bring about than parting the sea in two.”

“Could it be that there is another man here you prefer over me?”

“Of course.”

“Ha, and just who might that be?”

Click. Click.

Before Edmond had even finished speaking, Alicia was already crossing the ballroom floor. Her unhesitating stride drew every eye in the room.

Where on earth is she going.

A moment later,

the eyes of those watching Alicia wavered. The place she was heading was none other than in front of Grand Duke Evander.

“Would you dance with me?”

She extended her hand first to the Grand Duke, the one no one had dared approach.

“She…… she must be out of her mind.”

Everyone gasped and covered their mouths.

A hand extended toward a tyrant said to bathe in the blood of monsters and cut down even his own men in a frenzy. It was a move no one had anticipated.

People naturally braced for a brutal punishment.

Sure enough.

Grand Duke Evander, who had been as still as stone, slowly rose from his seat and stood before Alicia.

He raised his hand slowly, his cold eyes fixed on her. A moment of crisis where anything seemed about to happen.

“Oh no……”

Some could not bear to watch and squeezed their eyes shut.

But soon the nobles had no choice but to admit their expectations had been wrong.

His large hand, covered in scars, had taken Alicia’s. And then he led her toward the center of the banquet hall.

“That can’t be……”

Gasps escaped the stunned nobles.

Grand Duke Evander took his place in the middle of the floor and leaned down to whisper in Alicia’s ear.

“You seem to enjoy being the center of attention.”

“Isn’t this what you wanted?”

Over Alicia’s shoulder, Helena’s cold gaze was visible. Grand Duke Evander looked at her quietly for a moment, then smiled.

“Not bad.”

With that reply, he pulled Alicia’s waist toward him. His warm hands, at odds with his cold eyes, wrapped firmly around her hand and waist.

The two began to dance as the music started.

At the same moment, the expression on Helena’s face stiffened.

It was the most elegant declaration of war in the world.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Beneath the brilliant light of the chandeliers, the two of them began to dance to a captivating melody.

Grand Duke Evander’s movements were rough but precise, bold but graceful. Alicia followed his lead perfectly.

The sight of the two of them, beautiful as a painting, held every noble in the ballroom spellbound.

“Is that…… really Alicia?”

“I know. They look as elegant as a king and queen from a fairy tale.”

“Shh.”

At the warning from one of the young ladies, everyone lowered their voices at once. It was because of Helena, watching the ballroom with cold eyes from one side of the room.

The music gradually drew to a close, and a brief silence followed.

The dance had ended, yet Grand Duke Evander remained still for a moment, looking at Alicia. It was Alicia who spoke first.

“The time has come.”

“……So it has.”

Only then did Grand Duke Evander carefully draw Alicia away from him. He took her hand and looked out at those gathered around them.

“Dear meritorious subjects of the principality. I wish to make an important announcement on this occasion.”

A low, weighty voice rang through the ballroom. His commanding tone drew every eye and ear.

“I, Evander Leonis, hereby declare my intention to wed Miss Alicia Windmore, present here today.”

A shocking declaration of marriage from the Grand Duke.

“……”

The ballroom was swallowed by silence in an instant. It was a marriage declaration from the Grand Duke himself, yet people were too flustered to know how to react.

Every eye turned without exception toward Helena, seated across from Grand Duke Evander.

The Grand Duke’s daughter-in-law.

Yet in practice, the true power holder with the Empire and the Holy Order at her back. The meritorious subjects looked back and forth between the two powers, at a loss for what to do.

Then, at that moment,

Helena rose from her seat.

She offered a brief bow and spoke.

“At last, the seat of the principality’s mother, who will embrace its people, has been filled. Congratulations, Your Highness the Grand Duke.”

With Helena offering her congratulations, reluctant applause finally began.

Clap. Clap clap.

The applause grew louder.

It was a gathering to celebrate the Grand Duke’s marriage.

Yet in truth, the atmosphere was dangerously precarious, like a flame flickering in the wind.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

A marriage announced in a public setting.

Grand Duke Evander’s plan carried two major purposes.

The first was Alicia’s safety.

‘At the very least, they won’t be able to openly threaten me or pressure my family.’

The second was to compel the meritorious subjects to make a choice.

There are still many who are torn between Helena, and the Grand Duke. This is a message aimed at them.

It was Grand Duke Evander’s plan to draw a clear line between his own faction and the supporters of Helena.