Isabella looked at her. No matter how she searched her memory, she did not know this woman. She did not think she had seen her in the past either. Not among the crowd that had shut her out. She went through the faces she could not place, trying to find a match, but before she could, the woman introduced herself.

“Lovely to meet you. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”

“Pardon?”

“My name is Selectra Blair.”

Selectra Blair? That name was familiar somehow. Where had she heard it? The way she said it with such confidence, she had to be someone well known. But where?

“Lovely to meet you. I’m Isabella Piper.”

“Be honest with me. You still don’t know who I am, do you?”

The woman asked outright, and Isabella hesitated for a moment before finally letting out a small sigh and admitting it. No matter how hard she thought, she could not place her.

“I’m the designer who designed the dress you’re wearing tonight.”

The woman smiled and gave her answer, and Isabella’s mouth fell open. She designed this dress? Come to think of it, the maids who had chosen this dress had chattered on about it being made by a very famous designer. A noblewoman who had been pushed out of the line of succession because she was a woman, and had turned to design instead.

Fortunately, design suited her perfectly, and her work was popular among nobles for being beautiful and distinctive. The maids had also added this: years’ worth of orders must be backed up, so how on earth did His Highness the Grand Duke manage to get one? She had laughed it off at the time.

“The dress is so beautiful! Thank you. I’ll wear it well.”

“No need to thank me. I’m just glad the dress found its rightful owner.”

“Its rightful owner?”

“Didn’t Declen tell you?”

Declen. The woman said his name without a moment’s hesitation, and the chill that ran down Isabella’s spine made her go rigid. Was there another lover besides Aria? And he had given me a dress made by that lover? What on earth was this man thinking?

“I wasn’t told anything.”

She wrung out the answer to the woman’s bright, full smile and felt the strength drain out of her entirely. So it was not Aria. This time it was this woman. At least she seemed unlikely to be the same kind of presence Aria had been. That was something to be grateful for.

In the past, she and Aria had been the kind of people who never exchanged even a proper word with each other.

“Hmm. He didn’t mention me. That’s surprising. Even after giving you that dress?”

“I wasn’t told anything. Is there something I should have been told?”

Her voice came out sharper than she intended. She had always known she was nothing to him, and yet had she already been taken in by those sweet words of love? Even knowing better.

“I at least expected him to tell you who made it and what she means to him.”

Having rinsed the liquid from her hands, the woman turned to face Isabella with a smile. Her expression was easy and bright.

“He was in such a rush, demanding I finish the dress quickly.”

“…….”

She let out an amused scoff, dried her hands with the handkerchief provided, then picked up a fresh one and held it out to Isabella.

“Dry your hands.”

“I can manage on my own.”

It was embarrassing, but she could not get her feelings under control. Would Aria have been better after all? Running into another one of his lovers in a place she had not expected left her feeling as though the composure she needed most today had already shattered into pieces.

“Your hands are too pretty to stay wet, and it bothers me, so go ahead and dry them.”

But the woman paid no mind to Isabella’s sharp reply and smiled without missing a beat, pressing the handkerchief into Isabella’s hand regardless. Isabella stared at it for a moment, then sighed and dried her hands, and the woman’s smile grew warmer.

“It really does suit you perfectly. I chose the jewels and sent those as well.”

She did not want to hear this. The irritation of being in a situation where she had to hear it anyway came crashing in. Even if the marriage had not happened yet, this was her first debut as the prospective grand duchess, and bringing along another lover was hardly proper. And why was she hearing this from the grand duke’s lover, of all people?

“I apologize.”

“For what?”

“I didn’t know you were the one who made this dress, and I didn’t know the jewels were sent by you either.”

“…….”

“If it bothers you that I’m wearing them, I’ll change into a different dress right away and have these returned to you.”

She had no desire to keep up a pointless argument, so she said that and left it there. The spare dress in the carriage was surely also sent by this woman, but Isabella did not bother to say so. What she wanted right now was to get out of here and pour every curse she had onto Declen.

“Wait, no. There’s no need for that. It was made especially for you to wear.”

“…….”

“Are you really telling me you haven’t heard what Declen and I are to each other?”

She had not. And she had no memory of this woman from the past either. It seemed impossible not to remember someone with such a striking presence.

“I haven’t, but do I have any reason to know?”

“Excuse me?”

Even with Isabella’s thorny reply, the woman’s expression did not harden. If anything, she let out a little laugh, as though she found it entertaining. What kind of person was she? Isabella had not been on her best behavior either, but this woman was something else entirely. Continuing to engage with her seemed unlikely to lead anywhere good, so Isabella turned around without another word.

She had no idea what this woman was to him, but she intended to tell Declen firmly that she never wanted to see her again. She would say it did not matter if she was a lover he kept hidden, as long as she did not appear in front of her. She was already forming the plan in her head as she stepped out into the corridor, and then someone grabbed her arm again.

The irritation she had been keeping down surged up at once, and she shook the arm off roughly. Forcing herself to hide the hostility written across her face, she turned around.

“Was there something more you wanted to say?”

“I’m sorry if what I said was unpleasant. It’s just that I’ve never seen Declen care about someone like this before.”

“…….”

Declen. Declen. The name coming from between those lips painted in a tempting shade of red was deeply, deeply unpleasant. Unbearably so.

“I’ve never seen him smile like that, so openly.”

“…….”

“He said your eyes are the color of violets just beginning to bloom, and that looking at your silver hair makes him feel like he’s looking at a water spirit.”

What on earth was that. Declen had said that? To this woman?

“He said you seem like someone unreal.”

“…….”

“And that you feel like a gift sent by Avilion to bring him to ruin.”

“Pardon?”

The more she heard, the more tangled everything became. He had said she felt like a gift sent by Avilion to bring him to ruin?

“Let me introduce myself again. I’m Selectra Blair.”

“I heard your name earlier.”

“I’m an old friend of Declen’s.”

“……Pardon?”

“A count’s daughter and a grand duke, I know it seems unlikely. But our fathers were close. So we’ve been on informal terms since we were very young.”

“…….”

“I was too forward. I’m sorry. It’s just that Declen has never once rushed me to finish a dress quickly before.”

His friend. Declen’s friend. This woman is Declen’s friend. Isabella kept turning the woman’s words over in her mind, and as time passed she felt the heat rising in her face.

“Oh my. How adorable. Were you jealous?”

The woman saw Isabella’s face go scarlet and moved quickly to her side, smiling as she linked her arm through Isabella’s. Before Isabella could catch herself, the woman had made a kind of physical contact Isabella had never experienced, and she could not stop her. Isabella dropped her head.

She wanted to sink into the floor from embarrassment. She wanted to disappear somewhere. The woman must have sensed it, because she patted Isabella’s arm warmly.

“It’s all right. He’s your man, a little jealousy is perfectly fine. Declen would obviously be jealous too if he saw you with another man.”

“That’s not what this is. Let go of my arm.”

“Lady Piper. Will you be my friend?”

“Pardon?”

“Let’s be friends.”

Isabella looked up at the woman making this out-of-nowhere proposal, and she was looking back at Isabella with the same bright, open smile as before. But somehow that smile no longer felt irritating, now that the misunderstanding had been cleared up.

“I want to see Declen get annoyed because of me.”

“Pardon?”

“So be my friend!”

Even with all the misunderstanding resolved, Isabella could not make sense of what she was saying.

* * *

“Isabella! What took you so long…….”

Declen had been pushing through the men gathered around him to walk toward Isabella as she came back into the hall, but his words cut off.

“My, Grand Duke Clerc. It’s been so long.”

“……Lady Blair. Did we not see each other just a few weeks ago?”

The smile on Declen’s face hardened in an instant, and at exactly the same rate, the corners of the woman beside Isabella lifted rapidly. Isabella could do nothing to stop her.

—Help me out and I’ll keep it a secret from Declen that you were jealous!

—You can tell him if you like. He won’t believe it.

—You really think he won’t? I think differently.

—…….

—Shall we make a bet? What kind of reaction Declen will have when I tell him you were jealous? I’ll put my money on Declen being pleased. What about you?

Isabella had looked at her as she said it with such confidence, then let out a sigh. It seemed like it would not hurt to play along with her once, so she had decided to help her in the end. That said, wanting to see him get annoyed. What a peculiar hobby.

“We did see each other. You swept in like the wind, made your demands, and swept out again just the same.”

“…….”

“Didn’t you come to an old friend after all this time and, without so much as asking how she was, go straight to ordering her to make a dress?”

“…….”

“You gave me a very detailed and precise description of Lady Isabella Piper’s eye color and hair color, and yet you didn’t spare a single word to ask how I was doing. I’m a little hurt by that, but as your oldest friend I can of course understand and let it go.”