“The lady who was declared the finest beauty at last month’s debutante ball, Raul. Lady Talbot of Viscount Talbot’s house.”

“I’ve heard so much about you, Lady Talbot. It’s an honor to meet you.”

Raul’s response was immediate and polished, and Andrea raised one eyebrow slightly, looking faintly surprised.

The phrase ‘I’ve heard so much about you’ did not sit well with him.

But the effect of that phrase on Lady Talbot was greater than expected.

Her expression brightened, and from that moment she stopped hiding her interest in Andrea. She had apparently taken the phrase as confirmation that the crown prince had been speaking of her.

“But Your Highness, why did you leave Madame Cuisine’s salon so early? I was disappointed when you disappeared. You could have at least said something to me before going……”

Riley dutifully studied the lady’s wistful expression as those thick lashes fluttered.

She had no idea why she was supposed to, but she had been told it was her task for the evening, so there was nothing else to do.

“The card game ended early, so I left early. Once the match is over, there isn’t much reason to stay.”

That remark was also subtly deflating, but Lady Talbot seemed not to catch it.

“Ah, I see. I’ve heard so much about your skill at cards, Your Highness. They say no one can match you.”

“Yes, well. It’s not just cards. Anything with a competitive edge, really.”

Somewhat unexpectedly, the two of them kept the conversation going at some length.

Andrea was exercising patience, buying Riley time.

Throughout it all, Riley kept watching the lady in a mild daze.

‘She really is so beautiful. The most beautiful person I’ve ever seen.’

The elegant nose, the full lips, everything about her seemed to shimmer, and Riley found it impossible to look away.

Then a waltz began to drift through the hall, and Lady Talbot made it clear she was hoping for an invitation to dance.

But Andrea showed no sign of asking, continuing the idle conversation, and she finally took the bold step of asking herself.

“Your Highness, I believe we are now the only pair in the room who haven’t taken the floor.”

“Ah.”

Andrea glanced around as though only just noticing, then looked at Riley out of nowhere.

“Raul, would you take Lady Talbot for one dance?”

Riley startled.

“I, I’m not much of a dancer.”

In truth, she had received all the etiquette training that children of noble families typically received, back when she lived at the Queen Dowager’s estate, and she could dance. But this was entirely out of the question.

Dancing with a noble lady this beautiful, of all people.

Watching two men apparently dodge her invitation, Lady Talbot’s expression turned faintly sulky.

Andrea offered a polished but unhurried smile that was just slightly infuriating, and delivered his final refusal.

“My apologies, Lady Talbot, but we must be going. I need to see Raul home.”

The words were barely out before the men who had been hovering nearby seized their chance and descended on Lady Talbot with dance invitations.

“You keep leaving me behind in the middle of parties!”

Lady Talbot tossed her head with a mixture of grievance at the crown prince’s elusive manner and pride in her own popularity, and swept away.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Riley had no choice but to be pulled out of the ballroom by Andrea.

Only after climbing into the carriage did she realize he truly intended to return to the palace, and she asked,

“We’re really going back?”

“Did you want to stay longer? Because Lady Talbot was so beautiful?”

Andrea tilted his head toward Riley and plucked a piece of confetti from her hair, asking with easy warmth.

“No…… it’s just that you said I had something to do there.”

“Right, and that was it. Did you get a good look at Lady Talbot’s face?”

Riley blinked.

“Pardon? …… I did look……”

“I mean really look. Study her. You need to capture her features accurately enough that anyone would recognize her.”

Andrea’s teasing, resurfacing just when she had nearly forgotten it, made Riley feel like steam was rising off her head.

“Why are you bringing that up again. That is something I must atone for my whole life, but if you keep poking at my guilt……”

“What, are you going to go on a rampage?”

Pressed right up beside her, Andrea laughed openly.

The way she sulked every time he teased her was entertaining.

Why did a person who had done something that outrageous go red every time it was brought up?

She was fun to keep around.

Was that why he didn’t want to let her go?

“Anyway. You can draw Lady Talbot’s face, can’t you?”

“Yes…… well. Beautiful people are easy to draw. It’s plain people who are difficult.”

“Good. Then go back and draw a n*de portrait of the lady.”

Ugh.

Riley choked, coughed, and stared wide-eyed.

“A n*de portrait?”

“Right, nothing too explicit. Something in between. The kind of level that’s just barely tantalizing. You’ve done it before, so you’ll manage.”

Riley’s jaw dropped.

“Th, that’s a crime!”

Andrea narrowed his eyes with an expression that said those were exactly the right words.

“What? That’s precisely what you did to me, and then distributed it to the general public.”

He caught Riley’s flinch out of the corner of his eye, covered his face with one hand, and muttered.

“Do you have any idea how unsettling it was tonight, fielding all those glances at my trousers? The way those middle-aged noble ladies were looking at me was absolutely suffocating.”

It was true that he had genuinely found it unpleasant. He was used to looks of admiration and reverence. Those blatant, leering stares were something else entirely.

Riley ran out of things to say and gave up on any rebuttal, mouth opening and closing silently.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

A few days later, Riley presented Andrea with a semi-n*de portrait of Lady Talbot of Viscount Talbot’s house, eyeing him with suspicion.

‘What on earth does he need a drawing like this for? Surely he’s not planning to keep it for himself in some creepy way?’

It made no sense. If he was interested in someone, he could simply pursue the real thing. Why go to the trouble of having it drawn on paper?

Playing it cold and distant to her face, then secretly keeping something like this behind closed doors.

No matter how she looked at it, it was strange.

From what she had seen, that lady was brimming with interest in His Highness, practically overflowing.

Unable to contain her suspicion any longer, Riley stuck out her lip and grumbled.

“Y, you could just have a secret romance instead of brooding over something like this.”

“What?”

Andrea had been looking very pleased with the drawing Riley had brought him, and he glanced up with an irritated expression.

A long finger flicked her forehead.

“Ow.”

“Brooding over it, honestly. Everything has its use. And in the end, it’ll be good for Lady Talbot too.”

Riley rubbed her forehead and watched Andrea mutter something incomprehensible with a satisfied smile.

Hearing him murmur ‘this is really well done’ with that pleased expression, she could only tell that some scheme was in motion.

Since joining the Daily Minerve, Riley had shifted the way she saw Andrea.

She had believed, wrongly, that he simply drifted through a charmed life of lavish parties and hunts. Four years of serving him, and she had missed it entirely.

The articles in the Daily Minerve were strategically calculated, written with a precision that looked several moves ahead of the political landscape.

And they were beginning to reshape the balance of power, bit by bit, into the form Andrea wanted.

The Minerve was also locked in a fierce back-and-forth with the press outlets trying to corner Andrea, deploying every format available: articles, editorials, opinion pieces, cartoons.

Only then did Riley understand.

She had been an unwitting collaborator in the enemy’s effort to undermine Andrea through the fictional figure of ‘Captain Alain.’

The realization made her want to crawl into a hole.

Even so, this particular task still felt wrong.

“You can go now.”

Riley watched Andrea tuck Lady Talbot’s semi-n*de portrait neatly into a document folder, and thought to herself with a heavy heart.

‘Is my talent destined to be used only in ways like this, never finding its way to something truly artistic?’