He said that this time too, she was hovering around Rudfelix, using the excuse that she came to the debutante to congratulate someone she knew.

“Lady Joudro, I see.”

Her conversation partner was decided.

Elena decided to approach Joudro as a Count’s daughter rather than as an aide. She directly approached the spot where Joudro had frozen in place.

Joudro’s cheek twitched at Elena’s languid demeanor and relaxed expression, which made her look as if she had just woken up.

“How pleasant to meet you by such chance.”

It is a chance encounter, right? At Elena’s muttered follow-up, Joudro couldn’t hide her flustered state and rapidly fanned herself. The person she had wanted to meet was the Grand Duke, not Elena. And certainly not his lover who had just emerged from the Grand Duke’s room in the morning.

“That’s right.”

However, even if Elena might later become someone who barely brushed against the Grand Duke, right now she was the only woman standing by his side, so Joudro couldn’t ignore her.

“Is His Highness the Grand Duke still inside?”

“Oh, you missed him. He left not long ago.”

Joudro’s rationality wavered even more at Elena’s nonchalant attitude, acting as if she knew everything about Rudfelix’s departure.

She had been lingering around Rudfelix since before Elena appeared. Whenever he was said to appear at a ball, she would always arrive early to prepare to greet him with a pretty smile, and she had searched for the Grand Duke until her feet were blistered, trying to increase her chances of meeting him somehow.

When Elena appeared at the debutante with his escort, Joudro trembled with a sense of betrayal, but there was one strand of comfort.

Could she really have turned the heart of such a cold man? At best, he must have just placed an impressive statue beside him. Though very handsome and accomplished, she believed the Grand Duke held no such emotions for that statue.

“Does His Highness…… treat you well?”

Joudro covered her mouth at her own words, which had come out as she tried to make casual conversation. Even to herself, this was……

“He treats me so well that I’m happy. This is a secret, but I thought His Highness couldn’t say he loved someone at all. But it turns out I was wrong. I must be the only woman who receives confessions of love every day.”

It was a question that dug her own grave.

Joudro bit her lip at Elena’s boasting. Unable to accept reality, she forcibly suppressed her feelings.

“Did you become his aide because you had personal interest?”

Unlike other ladies, asking if she had entered as an aide to capture his heart was her final act of rebellious disbelief.

“Sekreya also became an aide to claim His Highness.”

Elena smiled as she answered.

“I’m different from her. But how did you know about Sekreya? Do you perhaps know where she is now?”

She muttered, “Perhaps she went straight home?” but her face showed no real curiosity.

After Sekreya caused that commotion and quit being an aide, Elena hadn’t separately searched for her whereabouts. Though she had withdrawn on her own, Elena had no intention of just letting her be.

‘I’ll deal with the urgent matters first and then finish things up.’

Elena planned to slowly tighten the noose around her neck to torment her.

“I don’t know where she is.”

Joudro clearly knew and pretended not to, and Elena, fully aware, played along.

They were still exchanging meaningless conversation in front of the room, unable to leave, when it happened.

“My child, did you sleep well?”

Elena turned her upper body to receive Lady Schmie’s greeting.

“Yes, Mother.”

She now naturally used the title that had once felt burdensome.

Elena moved with light steps, almost as if flying, toward Lady Schmie, leaving behind Joudro who had frozen in place.

‘It wasn’t just a stone but a heated stone floor, I guess.’

She had definitely been in pain from having a stone placed on her. But after dealing with Joudro, she felt refreshed in body and mind, as if she had been sitting on a heated floor. Treating Rudfelix as a stone once again, Elena left the mansion entrance with Lady Schmie seeing her off.

“You must be careful, first and foremost, and careful again.”

Lady Schmie sometimes spoke casually and sometimes formally. Elena decided to just accept it as she no longer understood why Lady Schmie did this.

‘Earlier, she seemed to greet me more intimately because Lady Joudro was there……’

She had received the greeting as if it were meant for Joudro to hear, but on other days, Elena gave up trying to figure it out since Lady Schmie did as she pleased. Elena didn’t realize that Lady Schmie was adjusting her manner so that Elena would accept it without being conscious of it.

“Yes. I’ll be careful.”

Lady Schmie lightly stroked Elena’s hair before entering the mansion. It was a consideration so that Elena would not board the carriage while she was still there.

“Thank you.”

Elena murmured with sincerity as she looked at the empty space where Lady Schmie had just been standing. She was another person Elena wanted to be with for the rest of her life.

“Now I should go.”

To Vieta Valley.

Just as she was about to board the carriage, Elena’s eyes met with Roina, who was standing in front of another carriage. When Roina also turned her head and their eyes met by chance, she smiled slightly and bowed her head.

She was going to Vieta Valley despite not being Suharto’s lover.

‘Those two really can’t be separated.’

She had thought Roina would come despite the changed flow from before. But actually seeing her face made Elena feel that fate was like a tough rubber band that couldn’t be broken.

After returning Roina’s greeting, Elena boarded the carriage. Hundreds of troops protecting the two men, Suharto and Rudfelix, surrounded the two carriages.

Elena looked through the window at the soldiers lined up in orderly fashion. Knights with red cloth tied to their shoulders commanded the soldiers with fierce energy, one by one. The soldiers moved with discipline according to their commands.

‘Such a spectacle created in just one day.’

They say that for nobles, military power is power itself! Seeing it firsthand made it real.

Rudfelix, standing at the head of those troops, glanced back, and all those who had been murmuring quietly closed their mouths.

“Depart.”

At Rudfelix’s command, the soldiers simultaneously raised their spears, and the knights pulled on their horses’ reins.

Elena discreetly attached a paper to the outer wall of the carriage. The moment the white paper stuck to the brown wall, its color changed, hiding its previously conspicuous presence.

***

A deep rumbling sound came from Vieta Valley. The sound of the earth shaking. It was a kind of warning that frightening movements were occurring in the once-quiet valley.

The valley did not discriminate based on human status. Even though the Crown Prince had arrived, it emitted threatening sounds and started up with rough vibrations.

The soldiers watched tensely, holding their spears.

It seemed like boulders would roll down at any moment if they just entered. Suharto, who had been observing this spectacle, turned his horse’s head and approached the carriage guarded by the soldiers.

He knocked on the carriage wall and called for Roina.

“We must enter the valley soon.”

“Yes. I’ll come out.”

Roina said she would come out in a trembling voice, unable to hide her fear. The carriage door opened, but Suharto extended his hand with his characteristic smile to her, who couldn’t quite bring herself to come down.

“I told you not to worry yesterday. I whispered it to you all night long, was that not enough?”

“I’ll only trust Your Highness.”

Roina extended her hand and got out of the carriage with his escort.

“I assure you that no boulders will roll down on your head. I’ll make sure not even a pebble grazes your body, so you just need to stay by my side.”

Suharto muttered incomprehensibly to himself as he looked at a shadowy cliff in the valley.

“Because I won’t make it happen.”

While Suharto was escorting Roina, Rudfelix approached the carriage. The door opened automatically, as if on its own.

When Elena tried to get out of the carriage energetically, Rudfelix grabbed the door with both hands to prevent her from getting out.

If she had insisted on getting out, she would have inevitably fallen into his arms, so Elena retreated back inside.

“It’s still not too late, stay here.”

“My thoughts haven’t changed.”

Rudfelix couldn’t hide his sigh at Elena’s determination to go all the way.

“Even pebbles hurt when they hit you, but what rolls down from there are boulders.”

“I know.”

“And you’re still okay with that?”

“Alix, I’m not saying I want to go because I think it might be fun. I’m not butting in on my own either.”

Elena seriously took Rudfelix’s hand.

“You can trust me. I can tell you everything I’m thinking.”

Just as Rudfelix was about to open his mouth to say something, Suharto called him from behind. Rudfelix looked at the valley while still holding Elena’s hand.

“Stay by my side.”

“Thank you for trusting me.”