Mélisande smiled brightly and continued.

“I am the one and only legitimate Marchioness of Levizet who became your son’s wife before God and humans!”

It was the moment when Alix’s precise indoctrination education, which had been brainwashing Mélisande constantly, shone.

Madame Eleonor held her forehead. Surely when they had their first and last conversation before marriage, she hadn’t been a woman full of such groundless confidence. Rather, she had been a timid girl full of intimidation. She had trembled, unable to even make proper eye contact. Why had she suddenly changed?

“Oh my, Mother. Do you have a headache? Ah, seeing that you use fragrant oil with camphor and rosemary, you must feel headaches periodically. I know a bit about herbs—does it hurt like there’s something stabbing around your temples? Or does your whole head hurt like ringing? I know that periodically massaging your neck with warm towels to loosen the muscles also helps.”

Madame Eleonor was speechless as Mélisande began chattering. Until now, among those who could handle her presence, there had been few young women at this level.

Madame Eleonor, who had become accustomed to maidens who quietly shrank into corners or sniffled when pressed by her presence whenever they were alone together, instinctively felt it. An unknown, new type of person had appeared in the court food chain hierarchy where she had occupied the top position.

This was the intuition of a seasoned hunter. She couldn’t yet tell whether it was prey or a natural enemy.

***

Grand Duke Nicerion, who would absolutely never come out of the north, outside his territory, had appeared in the imperial capital.

This alone was shocking enough for one to faint, but the fact that he had even taken a warp to come congratulate Lord Lorge’s wedding, despite being the supreme commander of the anti-Vizern war that was currently the hot topic of society, made the mansion shake.

To take a warp, first one needed permission from the emperor or imperial family members within the top three in succession. After receiving permission, one had to use gates or use one-time magical devices with set coordinates. Warp gates were installed in only five places—the empire’s capital, extreme west and east regions, southernmost and northernmost points—so ordinary people could consider them almost impossible to use.

One-time magical devices had no spatial restrictions like gates, but should be considered several times harder to obtain. Even she, who had grown up almost in the imperial palace, had never seen one. And whether magical devices or gates, in this era when magical power was disappearing, using them required costs equivalent to silver equal to the weight of the object being transported.

In other words, Grand Duke Nicerion had come here while paying enormous costs.

Following his request to keep his visit strictly secret until he returned to the battlefield, people generally remained silent, but the excitement stirring within seemed clearly visible. The reason people were so excited was because he was the war hero who had successfully recaptured the Belvue region just a few days ago. Long live the protagonist of victory, His Grace the Grand Duke.

That very Grand Duke Nicerion had come all the way to the capital just to congratulate the union of his comrades’ families. And he even served as a witness at the wedding! The excited atmosphere like an amusement park floated around the banquet hall.

The reception began and the band started playing the allemande, the opening dance of the ball. Following the bride and groom who lightly entrusted themselves to the cheerful music, she felt people’s gazes piercing her back as she went out to the banquet hall as a bridesmaid. It was naturally because Sophie, one of the two bridesmaids, became Marquis Pengson’s partner as his fiancée, making her naturally become Grand Duke Nicerion’s dance partner.

Ah, she hadn’t wanted to encounter him until the original story began. Now the male lead knew both her name and family. Something was getting seriously tangled. Her brain’s danger detection area was doing the popping. She stepped while deliberately avoiding his gaze. She would definitely escape after this song ended! While making firm resolutions, she got confused with the steps in the last part. It was her partner, Grand Duke Lysander Nicerion, who caught her as she lost her balance.

“Are you alright?”

Worry crossed his transparent purple eyes like amethyst. Her face instantly reddened and she just nodded. How many years had she been dancing the allemande, yet she almost fell from getting the steps confused. Embarrassing, embarrassing.

“I’m fine. Thank you.”

She thanked him and tried to remove her waist from his grasp, but he didn’t loosen his grip. She just blinked in bewilderment. It was time to escape, wasn’t it? Then Grand Duke Lysander Nicerion opened his mouth.

“Alix, do you perhaps remember me?”

His amethyst eyes seemed to burn red. The moment she nodded absentmindedly, a minuet performance began somewhat carelessly and people started pouring out. Before she knew it, she and Grand Duke Nicerion stood facing each other in the minuet formation. No, did she have to dance again in this snatching manner? Just before her soul departed, Grand Duke Nicerion whispered briefly.

“I’m happy that you remembered me.”

She wasn’t sure if she heard correctly. People mixed together so quickly. She just blankly stepped according to what her body was accustomed to. One two three, one two three. Pastel-toned dress hems rustled past each other.

Soon men and women paired up, placed their hands together, and began spinning round and round. At some point, Grand Duke Nicerion, who stood before her, whispered quietly enough that others couldn’t hear.

“How have you been? For me, a day without you felt like a thousand days.”

What about that mysterious Victoire, and why are you doing this to me again! She wanted to grab his collar and shake him vigorously right away, but she endured it considering people’s gazes. Let’s turn the conversation to another topic. And escape immediately after it ends. She no longer wanted to set flags with the original work’s male lead.

“Um…… How did you leave the war to come here?”

“The former king of Vizern has passed away. Though it’s an enemy nation, we’ve made a two-day temporary ceasefire to maintain courtesy toward the monarch and minimum chivalry. Our side also needs temporary reorganization.”

I see. No matter how much of a hero he was, she had wondered if it was okay for the supreme commander to suddenly abandon the battlefield and come here. Then, as Lysander circled around her, he whispered brushing against her ear.

“Coming to this place today is something His Majesty the emperor has also permitted. However, I’ll have to return in about thirty minutes.”

She flinched for a moment. Whether she flinched in surprise at words that seemed to read her mind, or because her nape somehow tickled from the terribly low voice that pierced into her ear, even she herself couldn’t tell. Meanwhile, she found the Grand Duke, who was calmly stepping while doing this, somewhat annoying and glared at him slightly.

She didn’t know how he interpreted her gaze, but he smiled slightly. Since a beauty was smiling, her anger suddenly melted away. Was this an emotional algorithm born from humanity’s aesthetic instinct? Somehow she felt at a loss. Grand Duke Nicerion opened his mouth.

“Do you remember? That I promised to dedicate the glory of victory to you.”

He continued.

“If it’s alright with you, I’d like to dedicate the glory of victory in the Battle of Belvue to you today.”

Are you crazy? She was horrified that someone else might have heard. Fortunately, with the music growing louder, the people around seemed too busy dancing excitedly to have heard properly. Relieved, she carefully opened her mouth.

“Ah, I’m sorry but since I’m still a young girl not yet twenty, people’s gazes are burdensome.”

For Alix Levizet, the predator of the court social food chain, to fear people’s gazes…. If Elene had heard, she would have laughed for three days and nights. She cast her eyes down pitifully while imitating an innocent girl who knew nothing as much as possible.

“Ah.”

Grand Duke Nicerion made a troubled expression.

“Did I perhaps make you feel burdened?”

“……Since Your Grace is a war hero, it’s natural for people’s gazes to be drawn. However, I’m not accustomed to such gazes……”

She did her utmost to act pitiful. Fortunately, everyone was absorbed in dancing. For Mademoiselle Levizet to not be accustomed to gazes. It was a lie that wouldn’t work on anyone who had seen her even once at court, but Grand Duke Nicerion’s expression, who had only lived buried in the north, became serious.

“I apologize. I had no intention of making things difficult for you.”

One two three. Dress hems gathered and scattered. Men and women began elegantly spinning in pairs again.

“What would Your Grace the Grand Duke have to apologize to me for? However……”

When she deployed her ultimate technique of fluttering eyelashes, Grand Duke Nicerion flinched.

“While I express infinite gratitude for Your Grace the Grand Duke’s sincerity in remembering the insignificant me, I want to live modestly and quietly.”

Even a passing dog would laugh at those words.

***

In the study of Levizet territory’s main castle.

Originally the marquis’s office, but if one were to pick who had frequented this place most often for nearly 50 years, it would be the former marchioness, current Madame Eleonor.

After the former marquis died suddenly, it didn’t take long for Madame, who had refused even the careful suggestion of remarriage from her natal family, to come to thoroughly dominate everything about Levizet.

There had been branch families who opposed an outside woman manipulating the marquis house, but they closed their mouths before Madame Eleonor’s achievements in taking control of everything in the territory within a short time. She had even swept away the corruption that existed in secret and improved the lives of the territory’s people with clean work processing, so Madame Eleonor was almost revered like a goddess among Levizet territory’s people.

However, few knew that behind those brilliant results were years of overwork, even sacrificing sleep in the marquis’s study.

“Why has the tithe become so enormous?”