Dolores was forced to listen to the two people who were utterly consumed by their affair.

Eventually, it seemed as though Adrian pulled away first and began to murmur nonsense.

“Haa… You’re so adorable, and everything you say is so sweet…”

“Mm… But isn’t Cousin eloquent as well?”

“Eloquent? Hardly. She just follows proper etiquette. Like a doll. Boring.”

“Is that why you call her Dolly…?”

“Haha, you caught me.”

The revolting words echoed through Dolores’s ears.

The hand covering her mouth slowly curled into a trembling fist.

‘Like a doll? Boring?’

Who was it that always said, “Dolly doesn’t need to think about things like politics” whenever she asked questions?

‘Who was the one who silenced me?’

Tell her!

Who suffocated her for over twenty years?

Who pointed at her in public and called her defective?

Then Angelica’s sickening sniffles reached her ears once more.

“Sniff… But… You’re going to marry Cousin soon, Your Highness.”

“Ah, my angel. Don’t cry.”

“I should… let you go now…”

“What are you saying?”

The sounds around them became noisier, as though they had pulled each other into an embrace.

Then came Adrian’s voice, sweet enough to drip honey.

“You’re the only one I love, Angelica.”

And the sounds of lovers lamenting their impossible love continued for a long, long time.

***

Lesrexion didn’t just dislike banquets; he despised them.

From childhood, he had endured countless stares because he looked different from ordinary Imperial citizens.

Even when those gazes were filled with desire rather than disdain, he still found them unwelcome.

“Your Highness! Your Highness!”

“Haa…”

At that moment, he deeply regretted having brought his aide, Viscount Edwin Shelley, with him.

Someone who chirped incessantly like a lark should have been locked in a cage and left behind.

Edwin Shelley looked up at him with bright black eyes.

“Are you not going to meet Lady Rochester?”

“How many times have you asked me that now?”

“Fifteen. This makes fifteen. So, are you going to meet her?”

‘Even after hearing about Howard Street?’

His gaze made the question unmistakably clear.

Howard Street, visible from the palace balconies, was lined with factories, warehouses, and merchant companies.

Hidden from the knowledge of the Imperial Family, however, was the fact that the Grand Duke secretly ran a business of his own at number 483: It was a merchant company known as Sub Rosa.

True to its name, it operated with absolute secrecy.

For the right price, it discreetly handled scandals, illicit transactions, and all kinds of affairs that nobles wanted to keep hidden from the public.

Naturally, such discretion came at an exorbitant cost.

Lesrexion shot Edwin a glare filled with irritation.

But Edwin was right, and that was precisely what Lesrexion hated most.

“Tch.”

“Oh! So you’re going to meet her?”

“Yes. I’ll find out where she heard that nonsense. If I search around the lounges, I’ll probably find her eventually.”

“Please don’t kick down any doors this time… Though I must say, I’d love to see Lady Rochester myself!”

Edwin’s eyes sparkled like stars.

Although they were both nobles, the Rochester family lived in a completely different world to the Viscounts Shelley.

Someone like Edwin rarely had the opportunity to see her up close.

Lesrexion thought his aide’s enthusiasm was utterly ridiculous.

“Then look at one of her newspaper illustrations. She’s always featured in the society pages.”

“How could a drawing possibly compare to the real thing?! Honestly, no wonder you’ve never had a marriage proposal.”

Edwin grumbled as he looked up at the indifferent Grand Duke.

While Adrian was like brilliant golden sunlight, Lesrexion was like a forest shrouded in midnight darkness.

He was the kind of man who drew people’s attention, despite the unmistakable danger lurking beneath the surface.

Yet throughout his life, Lesrexion had never shown the slightest interest in women.

Even on the battlefield, where most soldiers freely indulged in such pleasures, he remained completely detached.

His self-control bordered on the absurd.

“Marriage proposals? I have no interest in them. Have I lost my mind?”

“You’re telling me there isn’t a single lady among them who catches your eye? Not one?”

Edwin’s eyes practically screamed the question.

‘They’re all so beautiful. Truly? Is your eyesight failing you?’

Lesrexion ground his teeth.

The hall was filled with women, like a flock of brightly colored birds.

They tilted their eyes just so.

They laughed in practiced, melodic tones.

Watching women having to behave like that just to survive made his stomach churn.

‘And Dolores Rochester is the worst of them all.’

Whenever he thought of the carefully crafted smile on her face, his mouth filled with bitterness.

It had been that way ever since they were first introduced as children.

Without another word, Lesrexion left the chattering Edwin behind and continued alone.

There were only a few places Dolores Rochester was likely to be.

‘Probably one of the lounges. Or—’

Then he paused.

‘Did Adrian even show his face at the banquet tonight?’

No.

At some point, Adrian had quietly disappeared as well.

Lesrexion raked a hand through his hair in disbelief.

“Hah. That idiot.”

His fiancée was plotting to break off their engagement, and he wasn’t hiding away in the Ruby Room, was he?

‘He still needs the support of House Rochester. Brilliant strategy.’

He didn’t want to know which woman his brother was having a grand, tragic romance with.

It was none of his business.

However, the voices drifting through the crack in the door of the Ruby Room made it obvious.

“Haa…”

It was no wonder that Dolores Rochester had gone completely off the rails and asked the Grand Duke to marry her.

Then something else caught his eye.

The door to the Emerald Room was slightly open.

“…?”

A slow frown spread across Lesrexion’s face.

Combined with the sounds coming from the Ruby Room, it made the situation even more suspicious.

“Who’s in there?”

His voice sharpened with anger.

Who dared enter the room that had once belonged to his mother?

“Ugh?”

As soon as he opened the door, a chilly April wind swept into the room.

The terrace doors were wide open.

On the white stone railing beyond them stood a woman.

“…Lady Rochester?”

“Grand Duke.”

For perhaps the first time in his life, Lesrexion looked genuinely startled.

The woman looking down at him, however, remained perfectly composed.

Each time the wind blew her dress, her bare white feet were visible for a moment.

The instant he saw them balanced on the railing, a chill shot through his veins.

His blood ran cold.

Without a second thought, he rushed towards her.

“Dolores. What are you doing? Get down immediately—!”

“Allow me to ask once more, Grand Duke.”

As she spoke, Dolores slowly shifted one heel over the edge of the railing.

Only her years of dance training kept her balanced.

One small mistake and she would fall straight into the garden below.

“Marry me.”

“Forget that! Get down first!”

“I’m not getting down until you answer me.”

“Have you completely lost your—!”

Boom!

A deafening explosion echoed through the night.

“What?!”

Beyond the palace gardens, flames suddenly erupted in the city below.

Although the fire was far away, Lesrexion recognized the location immediately: Howard Street.

The very place that Dolores had casually mentioned earlier.

At that moment, she slowly spread her arms.

Below, crimson flames surged through the streets like a river flowing straight from hell.

The night wind caught her long, chestnut hair and sent it streaming behind her.

Bathed in the glow of the fire, she looked almost unreal.

Like a dead woman who had returned from the grave.

“There’s a large flour mill on Howard Street, isn’t there? And flour explodes quite easily when even the smallest spark catches.”

“Dolores…!”

“So tell me, did you follow my advice and secure Number 483? It was right next to that factory, after all.”

Lesrexion clenched his jaw.

All of Sub Rosa’s secrets had been stored in the building at 483 Howard Street.

Although he had mocked Dolores’s warning, a lingering sense of unease had prompted him to move the most sensitive documents and funds elsewhere.

But—

‘She knew there would be a fire?’

Did she really know what he had been doing?

Was this all just an elaborate joke?

Or was it a dream?

He couldn’t tell which it was.

The face that had always worn an expressionless smile like a doll’s was hidden in shadow, obscured by the blazing firelight behind her.

“…Lesrexion.”

This was not how Dolores had imagined the conversation would go.

Despite how infuriating Lesrexion was, she had intended to negotiate with him calmly and gracefully.

She had promised herself that she would never struggle so desperately again.

This time, she wanted to live as Dolores Rochester —elegant, composed, and untouchable.

Not as the empress who had been driven mad by her husband and his countless mistresses.

But just this once —

In this second chance at life, she would allow herself to fight.

She would allow herself to fight.

She would fight with everything she had.

“Please help me, Lesrexion.”

Her voice trembled.

“If you do, then this one time… I’ll stake everything I have on helping you in return…!”

“Dolores!”

“Much faster than you ever dreamed possible!”

She was certain of it.

Even in her previous life, Lesrexion had wanted the Alaister Territory.

Looking back on everything he had done, there could be no doubt about it.

For reasons she still did not understand, he had pursued it at an excruciatingly slow pace.

Lesrexion stared up at her in utter disbelief.

He had never imagined that, without her ever-present smile, Dolores Rochester could command such an overwhelming presence.

For a moment, she seemed like an entirely different person.

But then again, Lesrexion would not be Lesrexion if he surrendered so easily.

The shock in his eyes quickly hardened into defiance.

“And if I still refuse?”

The cold April wind blew once more.

The scent of smoke drifted through the air, leaving a bitter taste in their mouths.

Dolores answered slowly.

“Then I’ll die.”

Without hesitating for a moment, she moved one foot completely over the edge of the railing.