Today I practiced cross-stitch, today I read, today I took a walk. It rarely strayed beyond those three. Given that reading and walking were her favorite pastimes, it was clearly a peaceful and pleasant life.

“I was going to go for a walk, but the sky was overcast today, so I just read.”

Dante smiled and murmured. Your favorite thing.

And so Lionette sometimes found herself confused about whether she had married for love. Even more so when he looked her over with eyes so full of warmth like this. The maids each let out small, quiet gasps and bowed their heads.

Why did a man who could fake affection this convincingly get broken up with? She couldn’t figure it out. Lionette tilted her head, then nodded.

“If I’d known you were dining at the residence, I would have waited.”

That probably would have been the right call. It would make them look like a couple on good terms to the household staff.

But Dante shook his head lightly.

“I told them not to say anything on purpose. You’d wait for me.”

“……Why?”

“Hm?”

Shouldn’t we be looking as close as possible right now? Lionette furrowed her brow. She had asked him reflexively, then reached her own conclusion.

Was he aiming for the rumors? If word started spreading from the butler that he cared enough to tell her to eat first rather than wait, it would travel through the estate in no time.

“Never mind.”

Lionette shook her head and smiled.

“You worked hard today, Your Grace.”

“I told you to call me Dante.”

“I can’t seem to get used to it.”

After their usual back-and-forth over what to call him, Lionette raised her eyebrows. The exchange just now was essentially her way of saying he was free to leave.

Since there was nothing more for Dante and Lionette to discuss at the moment, Dante left the room without lingering.

Lionette fell asleep quickly in the lavish bed. The wedding was just around the corner.

***

The wedding day arrived in the blink of an eye.

With no idea how her fate was about to change, Lionette smiled brightly beneath her veil. She was a truly beautiful midsummer bride.

“May these two always look upon each other like the sun, yet reflect one another like the moon…….”

“…….”

“Do you swear to be faithful to each other as one another’s sole companion?”

“I do.”

“I do.”

A low voice resonated right beside Lionette. She glanced over on instinct, and Dante, meeting her eyes, curved the corners of his and smiled faintly.

Lionette knew it instinctively. This man won’t hurt me. I’ll be safe under his protection now.

……For at least a year.

A reception followed the wedding ceremony. Lionette changed her dress and came down to the hall. Dante stood greeting guests with a smooth smile. Women were flushing at that handsome face of his, seemingly forgetting he was a new groom.

“He really is something. Clearly, even just looking at him, but on top of that he’s the Siegfried.”

Even the chandeliers here had jewels set into them, and all of this Siegfried splendor was his. Lionette realized anew that she had married a remarkable man.

Under normal circumstances, Lionette should have been greeting her own guests, but everyone on her side had already left. Charlotte had come to the bridal waiting room just before the ceremony, held Lionette tightly, and then disappeared. She had come from far away, so leaving early made sense.

As for Count Wagner…… well, he seemed to be using the occasion to expand his connections, and Lionette had no particular desire to acknowledge him.

Doesn’t seem like a space that needs me.

Lionette was thinking exactly that and scratching her cheek when a sharp voice pierced her ear.

“Know your place.”

She didn’t need to turn around to know those words were aimed at her. Rather than feel freshly wounded or flustered, Lionette turned around slowly. The other woman looked at her with eyes that had been waiting for exactly this.

“Does she actually think she’s a match for Duke Siegfried?”

“I wouldn’t have even dared.”

“I wonder what kind of fleeting amusement she managed to hold onto to get the duke to agree…….”

Ah, that last one landed a little harder. It was a jab implying Lionette had spent a night with Duke Siegfried using her body, then used it as leverage to tie him down in marriage.

“Quite the imagination.”

Rather than feel wronged or hurt, Lionette looked at the women and thought, well, someone could see it that way.

But however they interpreted that look, the women across from her only whispered louder. The things she half-heard seemed to be escalating in intensity.

“……Ah.”

The surroundings went quiet all at once. That was the first thing Lionette noticed. She wondered for a moment whether the atmosphere had frozen because the words had gone too far, but that didn’t seem to be it.

Then why had it gone quiet? She was still turning that over in her mind.

“Lionette.”

Duke Siegfried approached. She had no idea how he had made his way through all those people surrounding him, but there he was, and he wrapped an arm around Lionette’s shoulder.

The hand resting on the skin left bare by her dress was warm. That warmth seemed to loosen something knotted inside her that she hadn’t even known was there.

Duke Siegfried’s expression, however, was far from pleasant. He swept his gaze across the people in front of Lionette the way a man surveys something he finds deeply disagreeable. No one opened their mouth until that gaze moved on. They stood frozen before him, the way nothing can move in the presence of the apex predator.

Duke Siegfried tugged his cravat down slightly, as though he found the whole thing suffocating, and spoke. His voice wasn’t loud, but it was more than enough to make everyone tense.

“Do you have something to say to my wife?”

“What? No, I was just…….”

“Next time you have something to say, send a formal letter.”

It was the same as saying: take it up between our families. Since no one could win against the Siegfried ducal house, it was, in plain terms, an order to shut their mouths.

The young lady who heard those words pressed her lower lip together and fell silent. She seemed to have caught every layer of meaning. She left shortly after, and the other young women who had been chiming in one by one followed her out.

Duke Siegfried watched even that with displeasure, then tilted his head toward the orchestra.

“Schperghen.”

He had them play a waltz. It was a light, easy waltz, the most fundamental of all social dances.

The orchestra, which had been holding its breath and watching the mood, began to play the Schperghen at the conductor’s cue. As the familiar melody filled the air, the hall seemed to come back to life.

Duke Siegfried lifted his hand from Lionette’s shoulder, stepped back, and formally asked her to dance with a bow. Since it was apparently the first time Duke Siegfried had ever asked anyone to dance, she could feel everyone watching with the look of people witnessing something rare.

“May I have this dance?”

“Yes, yes.”

Lionette stumbled over her words a little, like a fool, and gladly took his hand. Duke Siegfried smiled faintly, and the smile looked almost childlike. Lionette found her gaze drawn to him without meaning to.

Her worry about not being a good dancer turned out to be pointless. Duke Siegfried was an excellent partner. She only had to relax and let her body follow his lead, and she found herself moving smoothly to the melody without any effort.

Lionette drifted away from him for a moment, then returned to his arms, and whispered quietly.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”