Gloria lowered the scarf that had been tightly covering her mouth as soon as she exited the mansion gates.

“I thought I was going to suffocate in there.”

Despite practicing beforehand, the real situation proved much more difficult. She had tried to appear accustomed to written communication, but in reality, she had merely avoided fumbling—communication hadn’t been smooth at all.

It wouldn’t have been strange if Dale had found her suspicious.

“I wonder if he thinks I just need to paint well.”

Gloria let out a deep sigh she’d been holding in. The Dale she knew was fundamentally indifferent to others.

He was someone who had no interest in humans themselves, except for his family and Isabel.

While he liked the paintings of J, who had suddenly appeared like a comet in the art world, he wasn’t the least bit curious about why she covered her face.

Everything was going as expected.

He was also the kingdom’s Knight Commander with the finest swordsmanship in the realm and a war hero. A mediocre intruder wouldn’t even be a threat to him.

So he was probably being generous to the suspicious painter J, who was wrapped up to the point of looking like a mummy.

“I don’t know if I should consider this fortunate.”

Gloria laughed dryly, promising herself not to be surprised if she received a message tomorrow canceling the commission.

Even if that happened, she decided to be satisfied with just having seen his face.

Gloria shook off her increasingly heavy steps and quickly headed toward the main street.

After walking for quite some time, she would reach the capital’s central district, and turning a bit further into the alleyways, there was a small studio nestled between tightly packed houses.

Gloria boldly flung open the door.

“Master, I’m back.”

The person who had been painting inside immediately jumped to his feet.

“How did it go?”

“I agreed to do it. But……”

“But?”

Gloria smiled brightly at his tense face.

“He was unbelievably handsome. The gallery manager was right—I’m glad I went.”

Though she spoke jokingly to ease the tension, his expression remained rigid.

“Did nothing really happen when you went looking like that?”

“What do you mean ‘like that’? These are the clothes you lent me.”

“Exactly.”

He crossed his arms and looked Gloria up and down. Regardless, Gloria removed her hat, scarf, and short brown wig.

As she did, bright golden hair without a speck of dust cascaded over her shoulders. Gloria roughly combed through her slightly tangled hair with her hands before sitting down in front of the easel.

As her mentor followed, she looked up at him with a faint smile.

This man whom Gloria called Master was Peter, a teacher she had met half a year ago after begging her brother, Count Payton, to let her learn art.

To avoid suspicion, she had pretended to be a complete novice, even using her non-dominant hand, but it didn’t take long for her skills to be exposed by his keen eye.

Since that day, Peter had been helping her work as J in various ways, including lending her a corner of his studio.

“Stop sitting there and come over here.”

Peter sighed softly as he pulled up a chair nearby. Gloria took out a canvas of appropriate size and placed it on the easel.

“He looked even more intimidating than I expected. Have you ever seen him before, Master?”

“Just once, from a distance. At an art auction.”

Gloria swung her graphite back and forth, grinning.

“Look.”

As she spoke, she began sketching on the canvas.

“His forehead is absolutely unreal. At first, all I could see was his forehead.”

She had always imagined Dale’s appearance while reading the novel. According to the descriptions, he was tall, sturdy, and had perfect posture.

His white hair was always neat, and his strong features were harmoniously positioned, making him handsome at first glance. However, his fierce eyes and tightly closed lips made it difficult for most noblewomen to even approach him.

And seeing him in person, he was exactly as described.

“But his silhouette is just insane. That nose bridge, just—wow.”

Gloria tilted her head to one side and let out a deep admiration.

Of course, Dale hadn’t been as cold to Gloria—or rather, to J—as the descriptions suggested, since he had treated her with some goodwill.

“Sometimes the corners of his mouth lift up just a tiny bit. If you miss that moment, it’s like it never happened.”

Since Gloria had entered the world of the novel, the written descriptions couldn’t be false, but it was quite surprising that he wasn’t much different from her imagination.

It felt like her dream ideal type had appeared before her.

Drawing such a man posed no great difficulty. What she needed to decide was how ambitious she should be.

“What do you think?”

By the time she finished her enthusiastic explanation, Dale’s face had hazily emerged on the previously blank canvas.

“……First of all, Miss, you shouldn’t speak in such a frivolous manner.”

“What does it matter? You’re not my governess.”

Peter slowly examined the drawing and then looked back at Gloria’s face.

“Did he not ask about you being left-handed?”

“He seemed completely uninterested in me.”

“That’s fortunate. Please continue to be careful, just in case.”

“I will. But you know there’s no end to being careful about every little thing.”

When Gloria dropped the corners of both eyebrows and smiled bitterly, Peter’s face darkened even more.

“You especially need to be careful. Even if others don’t recognize you, he’s a nobleman. You never know when or how you might encounter him……”

“Master.”

Gloria put down her graphite on the easel and stood up.

“It’s been half a year already. Since I stopped attending social gatherings. And I have no intention of going back.”

Peter had been worried about her since he first delivered the news that Dale wanted to commission a painting.

Gloria understood her mentor’s concerns.

She herself had deliberated dozens of times before meeting Dale.

In the end, after Gloria’s persuasion, Peter had lent her his clothes. Being a man of small stature and thin build, his clothes fit her generously.

“It’s not easy to think that a socially maladjusted Count’s daughter who locks herself in her room and a commoner male painter are the same person. Even if my face were exposed, no one would immediately recognize me as Gloria.”

Even in the highly unlikely event that ‘Gloria’ were to meet Dale, he wouldn’t have enough interest in her to recognize her.

“You look less like a man in disguise and more like someone pretending to be in disguise.”

“Still, he didn’t outright ask if I was really a man.”

When she retorted without giving an inch, a faint smile also appeared at the corners of Peter’s lips.

“Are you going back to the residence?”

“I should.”

Gloria moved busily. The evening hours were approaching.

She changed into women’s clothes that she had kept in another room and pulled up her hood.

“See you tomorrow, Master.”

“Return safely.”

Gloria covered the canvas with Dale’s portrait with a white cloth before leaving the studio.

It was quite a walk from the studio to the Payton comital residence.

Past the main gate, circling around the wall, there was a small back door used by servants. Covered by bushes, it wasn’t easily visible at first glance.

Gloria took a key from her pocket and opened the door.

As soon as she stepped inside the mansion, she felt suffocated, as if by magic.

‘It still doesn’t feel right.’

Peter worried that her identity might be discovered, but Gloria felt the opposite.

The noble Gloria Payton and the commoner painter J.

If asked which life was more precious, Gloria was confident she would choose the latter without hesitation.

Recalling what had happened to Gloria, she could vividly remember everything from that very day half a year ago. The Payton comital residence where Gloria Payton lived had been completely turned upside down.

Not only had the young lady they served died overnight, but she had returned alive and well.

Although Gloria was a young lady who had grown up preciously in the household, it would be a lie to say she was loved by everyone.

She was, so to speak, the small tyrant of the family.

Sensitive, neurotic, tyrannical, and freely demeaning and mistreating her subordinates.

Everyone in the residence suffered from the young lady’s harsh words. Even so, no one had wished for her death.

That’s why after her body was moved to the temple, the atmosphere in the residence was darker and more depressing than ever before. Perhaps even more so than when the former Count and Countess, Gloria’s parents, had passed away in an accident.

Some young maids were so shocked by her death that they stopped working and shed tears quietly. Even the head maid, feeling equally heavy-hearted, didn’t bother to scold them.

At that time, while the funeral was still in progress, Count Chris Payton’s carriage arrived at the front of the residence.

The Countess and servants came out to the entrance in confusion. And soon everyone was shocked.

“……Let’s go inside then I’ll explain. I’m not sure if I can explain properly, but.”

Count Chris Payton spoke with a complicated expression. Next to him stood Gloria, looking somewhat embarrassed.

It was an impossible situation.

All the servants had seen the young lady’s body, cold and empty after her soul had departed. The image of her without any blood, hardening like a wax doll, was still vivid.

Yet the Gloria before them now was the same as before—no, she had even more color in her face, and her blue eyes sparkled with the light of a soul.

“Miss, are you alright? No, how……”

The Countess, who regained her senses first, approached hesitantly and spoke.

Gloria looked back and forth between her and the Count.

“As I explained in the carriage, this is your sister-in-law, Bellaranda.”

“Ah.”

Gloria’s lips parted, and a small sigh escaped. In the tense silence, she spoke.

“I’m fine, sister.”

That was the moment. The air in the entrance froze in a different direction. As the Countess, Bella, froze in place, Chris broke the silence.

“That’s why I said an explanation was needed.”

Not only had the young lady returned from the dead, but she had become a completely different person. And a very docile one at that.

No one could accept this fact at once. Even the maid who had been mourning the young lady’s death until just now was now trembling with fear.

She seemed unfamiliar, like a complete stranger.

This was Gloria, who would cause a commotion at the slightest provocation, refusing to acknowledge Bella as family. No one could have imagined that the day would come when she would smile so willingly and call her ‘sister.’

Gloria was first moved to a guest bedroom. The family physician arrived promptly and, naturally, was also shocked.

He had confirmed her death with his own hands. Yet no matter how thoroughly he examined her, her body was miraculously normal.