“Welcome home, young master.”

The servants bowed respectfully as Alexis entered the mansion.

Without so much as glancing at them, Alexis continued walking. The butler immediately followed behind him.

“Countess Osment is waiting for you.”

Just as the butler had said, Countess Osment was still dressed in her outdoor clothes. She had not even changed, which made it seem as though she had been anxiously waiting for Alexis to return.

“Alex. What happened? You made up properly with Lady Ceres, didn’t you?”

Before Alexis could even answer, Countess Osment grabbed his arm and pressed him for an answer.

“Everything is working itself out, so please don’t worry too much.”

Thinking that his mother must have been terribly anxious, Alexis gently reassured her.

“Of course. She must have been upset about something. That must be why she was being a little sulky. I thought she was an easygoing girl, but apparently she has a rather difficult side to her…”

Countess Osment narrowed her eyes, making no effort to hide her displeasure toward Evelyn.

“Just wait until you two are married. I’ll make sure that pride of hers gets knocked flat…”

She did not forget to hint that she intended to get even with Evelyn later.

In truth, Alexis and Evelyn had not completely reconciled. He had merely taken temporary measures to prevent the rumor of their breakup from spreading further.

If he attended the upcoming imperial palace ball as Evelyn’s partner, the rumors of their separation would quickly die down.

Of course, the process had been somewhat rough, but there had been no other choice. Evelyn simply would not listen to his apologies.

Rather than explain the situation, Alexis quickly changed the subject.

“By the way, Mother, have you decided on the dress you’ll wear to the imperial palace ball? I believe I heard it would take a little longer to finish.”

Countess Osment’s expression immediately brightened, as though she had completely forgotten that she had been criticizing Evelyn for being fickle only moments ago.

“As it happens, the dress shop sent over the completed dresses today. I told them that if they didn’t finish them by today, I would stop doing business with them.”

“You handled that well.”

Alexis responded appropriately as they climbed the stairs to the second floor.

“This whole situation reminded me of something once again. People of lower standing should never be treated too generously…”

Countess Osment chattered away as though all the worries Evelyn had caused her had completely vanished.

“I’m glad you seem to be feeling better, Mother.”

Alexis said this as they continued their quiet conversation.

Countess Osment laughed heartily.

“How could I not be in a good mood? Just thinking about the expressions on those noblewomen’s faces when they mocked my son for being dumped makes me feel wonderful.”

Countess Osment and Alexis spent a pleasant time together, eagerly looking forward to the day of the imperial palace ball.

***

Viscountess Schneider tilted her head as she looked over the dresses delivered from the dress shop.

There was one dress mixed in that she had no recollection of ordering.

“Did I… order something like this?”

It was true that she had ordered so many things at once that the carriage was practically overflowing with clothes, some of which she could barely remember ordering.

But she was certain she had never seen this particular design before. It was also quite different from the styles currently in fashion.

“Would you like to check the order form, Your Ladyship?”

“Let me see it.”

Viscountess Schneider snatched the order form from the butler and carefully examined it. Yet the number of dresses listed on the order form matched the number that had arrived exactly.

“Hmm…”

Viscountess Schneider drew in a sharp breath.

“Is there a problem?” the dress shop employee asked.

Viscountess Schneider glanced at the dress she suspected had been delivered by mistake, then shook her head.

“No.”

Perhaps this dress belonged to another customer of Madame Charlotte’s dress shop and had simply been delivered to the wrong place.

“If there is no problem, please sign here.”

Without giving it much thought, Viscountess Schneider signed the parchment handed to her by the dress shop employee.

“Thank you as always for choosing our dress shop, Your Ladyship. We hope you will visit us again next time.”

As she watched the employee leave the drawing room, the butler quietly whispered,

“Your Ladyship, wasn’t there a problem?”

“There was. It seems the dress shop made a mistake. A dress that was supposed to go to someone else was delivered here.”

“I’ll call the employee back immediately.”

Viscountess Schneider firmly stopped the butler, who was about to turn around in haste.

“There’s no need.”

The butler blinked in confusion. Viscountess Schneider explained,

“Madame Charlotte is rather proud. Especially for someone whose business is simply making and selling clothes. She doesn’t make dresses just because someone has plenty of gold to offer.”

She continued while looking at the wrongly delivered dress.

“She seems to believe that if just anyone goes around wearing clothes she designed, it lowers the value of her dress shop.”

“Then this must be a dress ordered by another noble family.”

Viscountess Schneider nodded.

“Exactly. Find out which families have recently placed dress orders with Madame Charlotte.”

“Yes, Your Ladyship.”

“Find out as carefully and discreetly as possible. No noblewoman would be pleased to have a dress that has not yet been publicly revealed exposed to outsiders.”

The butler left the drawing room.

Viscountess Schneider continued staring down at the dress she had never ordered before before finally giving an order to the maid.

“Put this dress in an expensive box and store it somewhere safe.”

“Yes, Your Ladyship.”

The maids bowed deeply and carefully carried away the dress. Viscountess Schneider glanced at them before gracefully walking away.

The head maid followed behind her and spoke in a concerned voice.

“But, Your Ladyship, Lady Evelyn’s dress still hasn’t been prepared. Will that be all right?”

“…”

“I heard the Young Marquis of Ceres will also be attending the imperial palace ball.”

The head maid reminded her of something she had momentarily forgotten.

“Shion, honestly. He should have just stayed where he belonged and guarded the battlefield…”

The faint smile on Viscountess Schneider’s face immediately disappeared into a frown.

But she quickly composed herself and said,

“I noticed earlier that the dress shop sent over some leftover fabric from Beatrice’s dress. We can use that to make Evelyn something that looks presentable enough.”

With that, Viscountess Schneider headed toward the study.

***

“My lady. Someone from the dress shop came by this afternoon.”

Lena spoke up.

“It seems the dresses have been completed.”

Evelyn nodded at Lena’s words.

“Yes. So they moved the dresses to the Viscountess and Lady Beatrice’s bedrooms.”

“All of the dresses? There should have been one that wasn’t ordered mixed in with them.”

“I heard the Viscountess specifically instructed them to set one dress aside. I suppose that must be the one.”

“Did you happen to see what kind of dress it was?”

“I didn’t see it myself, but one of the maids who ran an errand for Her Ladyship said it was an incredibly elaborate and beautiful dress… Oh, and one more thing! I think she said its design was slightly different from the other dresses that arrived with it.”

“I see…”

Lena studied Evelyn’s thoughtful profile before asking,

“But, my lady, I was wondering. If the Viscountess noticed that the dress hadn’t been ordered, why didn’t she send it back immediately?”

“She probably intends to return the wrongly delivered dress directly to its rightful owner.”

Lena tilted her head.

“…Pardon? Why would Her Ladyship go out of her way to take on such a troublesome task?”

“Madame Charlotte’s main customers are high-ranking nobles. Her Ladyship intends to find the owner of the dress and return it to her personally. And while she’s at it, she’ll probably try to establish a connection with another high-ranking noble family.”

“Ah…!”

Lena gave a short exclamation when Evelyn finished explaining.

She finally seemed to understand the reason behind Viscountess Schneider’s otherwise puzzling behavior.

“Come to think of it, I heard Her Ladyship ordered me to find out which families have recently commissioned dresses from Madame Charlotte. After that, she went straight to the study and started writing a letter!”

Evelyn nodded, now certain that her assumption had been correct.

“But, my lady.”

“Hmm?”

“This is just so amazing that I have to ask. How did you know? How did you know Her Ladyship would make that choice?”