The crown prince and young duke wore solemn expressions as they watched me rise from my seat.

The tips of their hands trembled slightly as they waited for my choice.

“I’m… really sorry.”

When I whispered quietly to them, they tilted their heads as if they didn’t understand what I was saying.

I grabbed both their hands simultaneously and joined them together.

The young duke and crown prince, who found themselves holding hands, looked at each other with surprised expressions before turning their heads toward me.

I avoided their gaze and grabbed Brother Rubert’s arm beside me.

My startled brother gave me a look that said not to drag him into this, but with the intention of making him pay for refusing to help me earlier, I took his hand.

“I… will dance with Brother Rubert.”

Hearing those words, the surrounding nobles gasped.

To reject dance offers from the crown prince and the young duke.

But I couldn’t choose between them, so I closed my eyes tightly and walked past them to the center of the ballroom hall with Brother Rubert.

As people who hadn’t properly grasped the situation were murmuring, the emperor rose from his seat and clapped his hands once.

Then he said to the orchestra members,

“For this song, I’d like a deep jazz, please.”

The members hurriedly began playing, and people started pairing up to dance.

During the song, the crown prince and young duke Posilia couldn’t dance, nor could they let go of their joined hands, so they just stood among the dancing people, staring at each other as if they wanted to kill each other.

I felt their resentful gazes, but I decided to pretend not to notice.

…Actually, it was hard to hold back my laughter.

“What are you trying to do?”

Brother Rubert asked with a worried voice.

“Heh, I had no choice. It’s not like I could have chosen one of them in that situation.”

Hearing that, my brother nodded in agreement.

“Still, people will probably think of you as a femme fatale who received courtship from both the young duke and the crown prince.”

After dancing with Brother Rubert for a while, the music began to slow down as if signaling its end, and then it stopped completely. Brother Rubert and I bowed to each other.

And I quickly moved to leave the ballroom.

Or more precisely, I tried to move.

“Would you mind having a chat with us, Lady Masipacius?”

Two firm hands grabbed my shoulders as I tried to escape, and I felt murderous intent from the eyes of the men who had somehow become “us.”

I pretended not to notice the single drop of sweat running down my back and smiled awkwardly.

“Oh my, the two of them have caught Lady Masipacius again!”

“Goodness… I thought Lady Leila would be the protagonist of this ball, but the real protagonist was the other Masipacius.”

“Well, to me it looks more like they’re trying to settle the earlier situation rather than making her the protagonist?”

“Oh, but have you all heard about that? There seem to be strange rumors spreading at the academy….”

I took a deep breath at the whispers of the people and led them to the terrace where people’s gazes would reach us as little as possible.

Their faces looked much more relaxed than before, but the slight resentment lingering in them was impossible to ignore.

“Um… I’m sorry. But if you two have a nerve-wracking competition over me, how am I supposed to…”

Hearing that, the two stared at each other for a long time before bursting into laughter.

I couldn’t hide my bewildered expression as I watched the two men laughing heartily in front of me.

“Well, we expected you to be surprised, but we never thought you would make us hold hands.”

“I told you we should approach in a normal way, Your Highness.”

“No matter what situation we’re in, being with you would have attracted people’s attention anyway, lady.”

“That’s true, but….”

Listening to their conversation… I still didn’t understand what was going on, so I clapped my hands in front of their faces to get their attention.

“What is this about?”

At my question, the young duke shrugged and gestured for the crown prince to explain, and the crown prince opened his mouth while looking at me.

“After seeing you and Delian talking last time, I had someone investigate what happened between the two of you.”

I nodded in understanding at the crown prince’s words.

I had somewhat expected this because the crown prince’s expression at that time clearly looked like he wanted to say something.

But I couldn’t say I wasn’t completely surprised.

I could have guessed that he would send someone to investigate the rumors circulating in the academy, but I hadn’t thought he would directly ask the young duke of Posilia about the incident.

I heard that the young duke of Posilia had recently visited the imperial palace, so this must have been why.

“Since you told Delian to wait a little longer… I wanted to ask if you had a strategy and tried to create an opportunity for you to slip away. Originally, we planned to argue over who would dance with you and naturally take you out of the hall, but….”

I naturally rolled my eyes, avoiding their resentful gazes.

“If you have something in mind, I want to help. This is related to me as well. Grace was hurt too.”

At the young duke’s words, I nodded.

But there was one thing I didn’t understand.

Why the crown prince…?

As I carefully shifted my gaze from Delian to the crown prince, the crown prince showed a flustered demeanor for the first time.

“But Your Highness the Crown Prince….”

“Ahem, well… Since that academy has deep connections with the imperial family, I felt the need to pay attention to it.”

“Then shouldn’t you have people verify the facts of the incident rather than getting involved personally?”

“The imperial family has its own methods.”

I couldn’t say anything more to the crown prince who invoked the imperial family’s methods against my logic.

In the Gellions Empire, no one could challenge the imperial family’s methods.

“Ah, then I have a favor to ask.”

Since things had come to this, I decided to use these two men who had followed me asking to be used.

When I carefully explained my plan and what they needed to do, both men nodded with eager expressions.

So I returned to the hall together with the both of them, and although the nobles whispered busily among themselves when they saw us, I didn’t mind.

Soon the protagonist of those whispers would change again.

And then, the crown prince urgently announced that he had something to say and drew everyone’s attention.

The emperor and empress also looked at him with puzzled expressions.

Taking advantage of the moment when everyone’s attention was on the crown prince, I quietly walked toward the terrace outside the door.

I carefully closed the curtains so that the terrace couldn’t be seen from inside the ballroom and waited for someone to visit the terrace.

The one who visited the terrace was Pelena Clevan.

The very person who had poured dirty water on me and was trying to bring me down by using Leila.

But Pelena was mistaken about one thing.

She was under the illusion that she was using Leila, but in reality, she was the one being used by her.

Both in my previous life and in this one.

Well, it’s not like I needed to tell her this fact, nor would I.

Pelena frowned when she saw me.

“Why are you here……”

As Pelena clicked her tongue in disgust and tried to return to the ballroom, the one who stopped her steps was none other than Heris.

“Pelena Clevan.”

Pelena seemed to hesitate when she heard Heris’s voice, then turned back toward me.

Heris, who had been hiding on the terrace before I entered, revealed herself.

“Apologize.”

Pelena snorted when she heard Heris’s words.

“To you? For what?”

“No, not to me, but to Lady Rowenloa.”

“Did you all eat something bad together? What do I have to apologize to you for?”

Hearing that, Heris gave a bitter smile as if she couldn’t believe it.

“I called you here to end this quietly. If you apologize to Lady Rowenloa right now and personally apologize to Lady Grace as well, I won’t say anything either.”

“I’m telling you, I have nothing to apologize for.”

“I saw everything. I saw you pouring water on Lady Rowenloa and the young lady of Posilia.”

Pelena’s eyes shook violently upon hearing those words.

Although she had been quite cunning in her previous life, right now she was just a 17-year-old girl who had recently left her parents’ care.

“Ha, evidence… do you have evidence?”

I couldn’t help but sigh at her predictable response.

“Yes, I have evidence.”

At Heris’s confident voice, Pelena became flustered and started breathing more roughly than usual.

Her nervous fingers repeatedly gripped and released her dress.

“The young duke of Posilia already knows about this. He also knows what the evidence is.”

Pelena’s face froze white.

It was Delian who had called her to this terrace.

It was worth asking him to call Pelena, who wouldn’t leave Leila’s side, to the terrace.

“Pfft—”

After staring at me and Heris with a bewildered expression for a while, Pelena burst into laughter.

I don’t know what was so funny, but she eventually bent backward at the waist and started cackling.

“Don’t make me laugh. There’s no way you have evidence.”

Heris flinched at those words.

Then she tapped my shoulder as if signaling to me.

Seeing Heris’s action, Pelena approached us with a sinister smile.

“Lady Pelena, I’ll say it again, but we called you here to resolve this amicably……”

Just as Heris opened her mouth toward Pelena who was approaching us, Pelena’s hand shot up high and then, with an unpleasant slap, Heris’s head turned to the side.

“Yes, I poured water on the young lady of Posilia and that girl. So what? What are you going to do about it? If you had evidence, you would have shown it already. Meltua and Viet wouldn’t have said anything either. Do you think people will care what you say just because you, Heris, claim you saw it?”

With that, Pelena’s hand rose once more.