“Get up! Time to go to work!”

Paul Evoque, startled, looked up at the guard who had come to fetch him with eyes full of fear.

The guard pulled him outside with rough hands, showing not a trace of compassion.

Paul Evoque struggled and resisted, but it was useless.

“I, I haven’t even had a trial yet! I, I am not yet a criminal…!”

“How many of those who enter this place do you think had a trial?”

The guard coldly mocked him and dragged Paul Evoque to the basement level of the prison.

Paul Evoque’s expression turned pale as he surveyed his surroundings.

Though he hadn’t been here long, he knew that certain dangerous factions existed within this prison.

The most dangerous and powerful of these groups were gathered in the dyeing process room on the basement level.

In reality, that place was essentially their hideout.

And that was exactly where the guard was taking Paul Evoque.

“N-no! Please take me somewhere else, not here! Please, anywhere but h…!”

The guard, who had been looking down at the desperately clinging Paul Evoque, whispered in his ear with a cruel smile.

“I always thought I might see you here someday when you were strutting around, Paul Evoque. You’ve put quite a few people in this place, haven’t you? Why don’t you go reunite with them.”

“……!”

Paul Evoque grabbed his pant leg in shock, but the thick iron door closed mercilessly.

Drrrrrk.

Kukukukung, kukukukukukung, kukukukukukung.

The eerie sound of machines running echoed through the quiet place.

Bang, bangbangbang!

“L-let me out. Let me…!”

“Hey, newcomer.”

Paul Evoque, who had been pleading while banging on the door, flinched at the voice calling him from behind and slowly turned around.

There, more than a dozen prisoners with weapons in their hands approached him as if they had been waiting for him, surrounding him.

Hiiik!

Terrified, Paul Evoque backed away, shaking his head with nowhere left to retreat.

“I-I was just following the Duke’s orders…!”

“Shhhhh. Shshshshshsh. Why make excuses before we even begin? Let’s not make this boring, okay?”

“P-please spare me! I’ll do anything! Please!”

Paul Evoque threw away his pride and prostrated himself, begging desperately.

He wanted to live.

He didn’t want to die so miserably and unjustly.

‘Damn it, damn it! Schultz Tartien!’

Perhaps God took pity on his desperate plea.

“……Anything?”

Parting the men surrounding him, a woman approached him.

A rough hand grabbed Paul Evoque’s hair.

“Aack!”

Paul Evoque screamed and opened his eyes at the physical pain he had never experienced before.

A woman appeared in his terrified eyes.

“Would you really do anything if I just spare your life?”

A woman?

She was so large it was hard to believe she was a woman.

Her hair was short, and she had many scars all over.

Her shoulders, tightly packed with muscle, were broader and sturdier than most men’s, and her fiercely glinting eyes shone with intelligence and venom.

‘……T-this woman!’

Paul Evoque knew this person.

That made him even more afraid now.

Before Shantes took over the back alleys, this person had managed the northern region.

Though she looked quite fierce, she was a former guard with a good reputation among people.

Shantes and Schultz had kidnapped her family and trapped her.

He hadn’t paid attention to what happened afterward, but to think she had been imprisoned here…

“Your answer?”

“……Y-yes! I-I’ll do anything. Anything!”

Paul Evoque answered, lying flat on the ground.

The woman, who had been staring intently at Paul Evoque, threw away his hair and stood up.

“Keep him alive for now. I’ll have use for him soon.”

A single sentence that extended Marquis Evoque’s life, if only slightly.

* * *

A curious rumor began circulating in the opera scene.

The word was that Cissus Opera House was preparing an incredible production for the upcoming grand holiday.

What’s more, it was said to be a masterpiece that the genius playwright, Luka Raus, had poured his heart and soul into.

This was welcome news for the opera-loving Levanians.

People were already lining up to purchase box seats at the Cissus Opera House.

All this for a play that hadn’t even been cast yet.

It wasn’t just opera-goers who were anxious about this news.

Almost all well-known actors knocked on Osman’s office door.

“Has the casting for the opera on the grand holiday been completed?”

“Manager, I heard Luka Raus has a new work… Please give us a chance too.”

“Please let us at least audition!”

“Please!”

So many actors visited him that the threshold of his office was wearing out, all saying the same thing.

After much deliberation, Osman selected about fifty applicants, and from those, he chose the final cast from individuals willing to sign confidentiality agreements.

Having watched opera since birth, Osman already knew which actors possessed which capabilities.

With time being tight, the entire process moved forward quickly.

The only remaining issue was the poster for promoting the opera.

“……Hmm.”

Elina, Osman, Chris, Luka, and Lumiere all gathered in one place.

They were there to decide how to design the poster.

“How should we express ‘spring burning in flames’?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to go with something intense from the start? Or how about drawing sword marks like this… centered around the four characters?”

“Ugh, isn’t that too obvious? It’s cliché!”

“Hmm, I suppose you’re right?”

“Rather than that, maybe we could add flowers here…”

“No, no, we should focus on the characters…”

The four had differing opinions.

In the midst of this, Lumiere, who had been quietly listening to the four people’s discussion, gently raised her hand.

“Um…”

The four people’s gazes turned to Lumiere simultaneously.

“I have an idea. May I share it?”

At her words, Elina and Osman’s faces brightened.

“Of course! Please tell us anything, Miss Lumiere.”

“Come to think of it, the painter’s opinion should be most important for something like this. What do you think, Lumiere?”

“If you have an opinion, please don’t hesitate to share it. Actually, Miss Lumiere, your posters are always popular, so your opinion is the most crucial.”

Knowing that she had suddenly been going to the palace to paint the king’s portrait, the four people found it difficult to pressure Lumiere.

No, to be precise, three people.

Only Chris, who knew that Lumiere had regained her memories and that Karl was the king, remained relaxed.

But Elina, Osman, and Luka, who didn’t know this, looked at Lumiere with helpless expressions.

Their faces pleaded for her opinion, if she was willing.

“Actually, I brought something…”

Lumiere carefully spoke and pulled out a well-wrapped painting that she had placed next to the sofa.

“What is this?”

When Luka asked curiously, Lumiere smiled slightly and unwrapped the packaging.

Jjik, jik—

When she removed the brown paper, a beautiful painting of a mansion appeared.

She placed it on the table and said.

“This is the Buchanan mansion that burned down. I painted it. I’d like to use this for the poster.”

The eyes of the four people gathered widened at Lumiere’s statement.

Luka was the first to react.

“As expected of Miss Lumiere. I strongly approve. I don’t think there could be a better poster image than this.”

Following his lead, the other three nodded their heads.

Lumiere sighed in relief and added one more suggestion.

“And I have another idea related to this.”

“As I said before, please share any ideas you have.”

Osman looked at her with a face full of trust.

The others had similar expressions.

“Thank you for trusting me. Then, for this painting…”

The five people’s heads gathered together as Lumiere whispered.

After hearing her idea, the four simultaneously nodded with sparkling eyes.

“That’s really good, don’t you all think?”

“I enthusiastically support it. I think it will have much more dramatic impact for the play.”

No one objected.

Lumiere nodded with a relieved face and said.

“Then I’ll prepare the ‘rest’ of the paintings too.”

The five pairs of bright eyes twinkled like stars with anticipation for the future.