Though Astaire briefly came to mind.

Even if Astaire had once dreamed of being a painter, that wasn’t a reason she couldn’t pursue the art industry. She needed to shake off the bad habit of connecting everything to Astaire now.

“How about working with me at my business for a while?”

“Would that be alright?”

Watching Daphne deliberate, Tomer made an unexpected offer.

Daphne’s voice grew loud from sheer joy. Then she felt somewhat embarrassed and subtly averted her gaze.

“Of course. I got a feeling watching you—you seem smart and like you’d have a good eye.”

“…Daphne does have a good eye.”

Just then, Elda spoke quietly.

Tomer and Daphne’s gazes turned to Elda.

“Even during Academy days, Daphne organized the art club exhibitions and worked on art sales events during festivals. I think she’d do well with anything art-related.”

Daphne couldn’t believe Elda was praising her.

“Then that’s perfect! My eye wasn’t wrong after all!”

Tomer beamed and laughed heartily. In his joy, he offered Daphne wine, but Daphne politely declined.

“Then how about resting well today and commuting together to the gallery I run starting tomorrow?”

“Yes, sounds good.”

“Great! Very good! Hehehe.”

Tomer laughed heartily in his happiness.

“I’ll go smoke a cigar for a bit.”

He soon stood up holding a cigar with one end cut off. Seeing Elda scrunch up her face, it seemed his daughter really hated when her father smoked cigars.

Seeing that made one corner of Daphne’s heart ache again.

Astaire.

He too had once smoked cigars, but quit cold turkey after smoking for years for the sake of her pregnancy.

Now that she’d left, what was he doing?

…No, no.

Why am I thinking about this?

Daphne denied it inwardly. She clenched her fist so tightly that her palm stung from her nails.

After Tomer left, Elda and Daphne were left alone.

Suddenly, Daphne thought perhaps Tomer had deliberately left to give Elda and herself space.

An awkward silence flowed between the two women. Neither could easily speak first.

Then Elda spoke first.

“I’m sorry.”

Daphne had nothing to say.

Bringing up old feelings now would gain nothing.

“I shouldn’t have done that back then. I was scared. You know how terrifying those clique kids were…”

Elda seemed to have carried that incident heavily in her heart. As she poured out words like rapid fire, her eyes grew hot and tears soon flowed.

“Elda.”

Daphne handed Elda a tissue from nearby.

She couldn’t quite say “it’s okay.” But she didn’t want to resent Elda anymore.

“It’s all in the past.”

“Still…”

“I forgive you.”

Daphne looked straight into Elda’s eyes and spoke clearly.

“Everyone makes mistakes. If you’re remorseful, I’m fine with it.”

Daphne didn’t say she understood Elda too. Abandoning a friend just because that friend started getting bullied by the clique was still hard to accept even now.

“Well, you’re different.”

Elda muttered while accepting the tissue.

“Because you stood up for Jayden. Even knowing Jayden was being bullied by those guys, you told them to stop…”

Jayden.

At the sudden mention of the old name, Daphne flinched in surprise.

The one now called Second Prince Phaios.

“Oh right. I wonder if Jayden’s doing well.”

Elda muttered.

Daphne didn’t know what to answer for a moment. It was awkward to bring up first that Jayden was actually Second Prince Phaios.

“Come to think of it, the war hero praised in the newspapers lately looks vaguely like Jayden.”

“…Huh?”

“Looking at the Second Prince’s photo, I thought if time passed and Jayden grew a bit more and dyed his hair, wouldn’t he look like him?”

Daphne was flustered.

Should she be relieved that Elda only thought they were similar? She really didn’t seem to know that Jayden was that Second Prince.

“Do other classmates think that too?”

“I don’t know. I cut off contact with all my friends after graduation.”

Elda spoke in a deliberately bitter voice. Then Elda’s head whipped around.

“Father, how long have you been standing there?”

Daphne’s gaze naturally reached there too. At some unknown point, Tomer stood leaning against the doorway.

His face seemed briefly flustered.

Why?

Daphne was momentarily suspicious.

Though Tomer quickly erased his expression.

“Haha, Elda. You have a rich imagination.”

“What?”

“So you’re saying the Second Prince attended the Academy with you?”

“…Mm.”

Daphne deliberately kept quiet. She pretended to drink the orange juice she’d barely touched.

Then she suddenly grew curious.

So she asked, feigning innocence.

“Mr. Belinda, I’m curious about something.”

“…Oh, yes. What are you curious about?”

Actually, Daphne wanted to ask him to do something about that polite attitude first. Living in his house while he respectfully called her Duchess this and Duchess that was extremely uncomfortable.

“Well, there are circumstances. As I said on the train, please just call me Daphne comfortably from now on, and first of all.”

“…Oh my, would that really be alright? Even so, really.”

“Please call me Daphne.”

“Alright, Daphne.”

“And you don’t need to use such formal honorifics with me. Just treat me comfortably.”

“Then would this level be okay, Daphne?”

“Yes.”

Daphne smiled slightly.

Then added nonchalantly.

“Do you happen to know anything about the Second Prince?”

Cough! Cough! Cough!

Tomer, who’d been drinking orange juice, suddenly started coughing. Daphne was startled and patted the man’s back.

“Are you okay?”

“Gasp, huff, I’m fine, cough. Cough.”

She probably asked something unnecessary.

Actually, Daphne saw the flustered emotion blooming on his face.

But Tomer wouldn’t readily answer that he knew the Second Prince.

Definitely, there’s something.

Between Tomer and the Second Prince.

Daphne felt that certainty clearly.

“Anyway, Duchess—no, Daphne. It’s gotten too late. Isn’t that right, Elda?”

“Father, it’s only ten o’clock.”

“Still, we should start getting ready for bed soon! Ah, Daphne. I tend to go to the gallery early in the morning, so it’d be good to go to bed now. Your body must be tired from the long train journey anyway.”

“What? No, I’m not that tired…”

Daphne muttered in bewilderment.

“You won’t know you’re tired now! But! Tomorrow morning you might regret it. Like, ‘I should’ve slept early last night’—that kind of regret.”

Rambling with incoherent answers, Tomer pushed Daphne and Elda toward the stairs.

Daphne was pushed along, received a room after dinner, and had no choice but to end that day.

The first day arriving in Timarum, many things had happened.

Daphne lay comfortably on the bed.

Though it was incomparably narrower than the bed she’d used at Duke Seyfried’s estate, and even creaked due to the old wooden frame.

“I really did well to run away.”

She muttered while looking at the plain ceiling with a simple light fixture, not ornately carved chandelier sculptures and art patterns.

She hugged a pillow tightly in her arms.

Somehow, she felt like she could sleep soundly tonight.

* * *

Somehow, he was going to have trouble sleeping soundly tonight.

Not just tonight. Yesterday too, the day before, and the day before that. Astaire hadn’t slept properly.

Since Daphne left the ducal estate.

The man stood still like a statue in the moonlit study, looking out the window.

Having not slept properly for days, the man’s jawline and features looked sharper, having lost a bit of weight. As he moved between the palace and the trading company, passing women stared at Astaire more fervently than usual.

Regardless.

The man’s head was filled entirely with Daphne.

“I shouldn’t have let her go.”

The man regretted that day, and regretted it again.

That wasn’t the time to be smiling leisurely. He shouldn’t have stood with his hands clasped behind his back, watching Daphne leave the estate.

He should have held her back somehow.

He should have bound her ankles.

No.

It wasn’t too late yet.

Astaire ran his hand through his hair. He had to think of something somehow.

Rather than forcibly bringing Daphne back, he wanted to make her submit before him.

That she was wrong.

That she was sorry.

He hoped Daphne would return to him and beg like that.

He wanted her to know how harsh the world was.

From now on, Astaire planned to give Daphne trials.

Of course, absolutely not to the point of putting her in danger.

His lovely wife needed to learn.

That in this harsh world, without him she was nothing.

If he could just teach her that, he would do anything.

Knock knock.

As he quietly looked out the window, someone knocked on the study door. Astaire responded with silence to come in.

“It’s me.”

He knew.

Astaire welcomed Germo, who’d been away for days. Of course, he was welcoming the news his aide would bring upon returning.

“Did you find out?”

“Yes.”

Moonlight glinted on Germo’s face. Half his face wrapped in light, half submerged in darkness created an eerie atmosphere.

Click.

The sound of locking the door rang out and a chilly air circulated in the study.

Like something was about to happen.

Germo quietly opened his mouth.

What he was about to say was a story that must never leak out.

“As expected, the Second Prince had his hand in it.”

“Report.”

“The Second Prince, who usually wanted support from artists and humanities scholars, has recently been buying works by new artists of the Avont Empire and supporting them.”

“And?”

Actually, Astaire knew the end of this story. The Duke uncharacteristically rushed Germo. Germo looked at Astaire for a moment, like he was unfamiliar.

“Can you guess through whom the Second Prince buys the works?”

Astaire nodded like he finally understood.

“An art dealer named Tomer Belinda.”

“Hmm, as expected.”

It wasn’t particularly surprising.

“But I’m curious why that man specifically.”

“There’s a reason for that.”

Germo pulled out a file folder like he’d been waiting. He opened to a certain page of the folder and began his report.

“Right after you visited Second Prince Phaios, the Second Prince tracked Daphne’s whereabouts, learned she’d bought a ticket to Timaru, and immediately mobilized people. He sent an urgent telegram to Tomer Belinda, asking him to help Daphne.”

“Didn’t you mention that earlier?”

“Yes. The Second Prince revealed through Elda, the man’s daughter, that he was actually Jayden.”

“…Then perhaps Elda persuaded her father to help the Second Prince take care of Daphne?”

“Yes, you could see it that way.”

Astaire still looked puzzled.

There were still several more things unexplained.