9
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‘I wonder what Cesare is thinking.’
Aileen didn’t know Cesare’s intentions, but her own were clear. She didn’t want to marry for the sake of a transaction, not for love.
From the start, they were too different. Cesare might be able to kiss anyone he was going to marry, but Aileen only wanted to kiss one person.
She’d rather remain his child than become a Grand Duchess through a loveless marriage. She knew it was a spoiled complaint, but Aileen simply didn’t have the confidence.
‘Should I ask him today if he can save me without marriage?’
Or, since she was already being brazen, what if she asked him to help her complete her research instead?
It was interrupted midway, but if completed, Morpheus would surely benefit the empire. She was confident it was a drug so great that it could avoid punishment.
‘I’ve always received, so I wanted to be helpful too….’
She researched the powerful painkiller entirely for Cesare. Aileen dejectedly stroked the white petals. No matter what she said to him at the party today, she would still seem like an immature child.
“Still, I promised, so I have to go.”
She muttered to herself and got up from the sofa. She carefully placed the lilies in a vase and began preparing for the party.
Before the party, Cesare sent an invitation, a dress, and jewelry. A lady also came to help with the preparations, but Aileen felt burdened by her curious gaze. When she tried to touch her bangs and glasses, Aileen only accepted help with putting on the dress and sent her back.
It wasn’t easy to dress up alone, but she managed to do it with some effort. It was a bit clumsy, but she was dressed.
In the first place, she had no desire to stand out at the party. She just planned to stay quietly in a corner, quickly meet Cesare to congratulate him, and then return.
As she finished getting ready, a car stopped in front of the house. It was the car that had come to pick up Aileen. Cesare’s soldier took Aileen to the Imperial Palace.
Aileen hadn’t even made her social debut yet. But suddenly, she was attending her first party, and no matter how hard she tried to stay calm, she kept getting nervous. Aileen entered the banquet hall in a completely frozen state.
The Imperial Palace banquet hall was more splendid than she had imagined. As if they had paid attention to the Grand Duke’s attendance, everything was sparkling and dazzling. In the magnificent banquet hall, men and women dressed to the nines laughed and chatted, waiting for the protagonist of the day.
The unmarried young ladies were dressed with more care than ever. The various perfumes emanating from them made it seem as if colorful flowers had gathered.
The young ladies and gentlemen were busy greeting each other with smiles and conversing, but no one paid any attention to Aileen.
They even talked about the woman who had received the Grand Duke’s flowers, without ever imagining that the person in question was Aileen right in front of them. They only mentioned the rumor that a woman of unsurpassed beauty had received the bouquet.
It was only natural. Who would think that the Grand Duke would give flowers to a woman like this?
A dowdy appearance with large glasses and bangs hanging down. The sophisticated dress didn’t suit the wearer, giving off a ridiculous feeling.
Such a splendid party for a country bumpkin who only ever locked herself in the lab. In this place where everyone blended in smoothly, she seemed like a lone, protruding stone.
Aileen even felt like she was going to throw up from the tension. The dance card she had been given upon entering the banquet hall felt too heavy.
The dance card, where the names of those she would dance with were written in advance, was completely empty. In society, a young lady who didn’t receive dance requests due to lack of popularity was called a wallflower, but even the word flower was too much for Aileen.
‘Maybe I’m a weed….’
It seemed like it would take quite a while for Cesare to arrive. Just as she was steeling herself to endure as a weed on the wall until he came, the banquet hall suddenly became noisy. The Grand Duke’s soldiers in uniform appeared. A young lady near Aileen was talking to another young lady with admiration.
"Ah, the uniforms are really cool."”
The soldiers who had returned after ending the war were showing their faces in society for the first time in a while. Among the young ladies attending today’s party, there were many who were aiming for the Grand Duke’s soldiers.
They had received generous rewards for their victory, so they would be wealthy, and they were more drawn to the wild soldiers than the gentlemen in the islands who only pretended by fiddling with hunting rifles.
“They seem like they’d protect me no matter what happens, right? They’re reliable.”
“Exactly. And their bodies are so good. The bedroom would be fantastic too.”
Aileen’s cheeks flushed at the explicit appraisal. She subtly distanced herself from the young ladies whispering lewd stories and stealthily examined the soldiers who had entered the banquet hall. Rohan and Diego, Cesare’s direct knights, were visible.
They looked very presentable in their ceremonial uniforms. Rohan was as neat as ever, and Diego was also dressed neatly, having removed all his piercings and accessories.
She thought she would just say hello later if she could. It was too conspicuous now, so later, she thought.
“…!”
Aileen’s eyes met directly with one of the soldiers who was looking around the banquet hall. He was someone she didn’t know, but his eyes widened as if he recognized Aileen. Then, he immediately pointed to where Aileen was to his surrounding comrades, and the soldiers all looked in this direction at once.
Aileen’s shoulders twitched at the shower of gazes. Rohan and Diego immediately began to come this way. As the tall men crossed the banquet hall diagonally, attention naturally gathered. To make matters worse, other soldiers followed the two men in a swarm.
“Miss!”
Diego pushed Rohan back and approached with quick steps, as if he was in a hurry.
“Miss, the dance card, the dance card!”
He almost snatched Aileen’s dance card and wrote his name on the second line. Diego, who had succeeded in writing his name before Rohan, had a very proud expression.
While he was enjoying his sense of victory, Rohan naturally took the dance card and wrote his name after him.
“Thank you for coming, Aileen. His Excellency will be very pleased.”
While Rohan was speaking kindly, the soldiers also began to approach Aileen and strike up conversations.
“Aileen, do you perhaps remember me? I found the book you lost when you were twelve years old….”
“Ah, of course I remember! I was really grateful.”
“Then may I ask for a dance?”
“Of course.”
In fact, it was so long ago that her memory was hazy, but she still felt grateful, so she agreed. Then, another soldier immediately spoke.
“Aileen! I would also like to ask for a dance. You may not remember, but I was there when you were fifteen years old….”
Aileen was swept away like a wave, talking to the soldiers in a daze. As she hurriedly answered and greeted them, the dance card, which had been completely empty, quickly filled up.
After being harassed for a while, Aileen belatedly checked the card and blinked blankly.
“Huh…?”
No one had touched the first dance. All the soldiers had avoided the first line and written their names.
As if someone’s name was already written there.
Looking at the dance card with only the first line empty, Diego, who had written his name first, looked like he had realized something.
“Originally, the lady was supposed to write it, right?”
Aileen, who had received the dance request, was supposed to write the names on the dance card, but things had gone awry because Diego had signed the card without hesitation. Thanks to the other soldiers also signing it, Aileen had a dance card full of soldiers’ signatures.
She didn’t know what it was like originally, but Aileen didn’t care whether she wrote it or someone else did, so she readily said it was okay. Diego said awkwardly, making excuses.
"Haha, it’s been a while since I returned to the system, so I’m a bit confused about etiquette.”
Aileen didn’t know much about social etiquette either. Around the time when young ladies started learning social etiquette, Aileen was studying at university.
When she returned to the island, her family had gone bankrupt, so she couldn’t afford to hire a tutor to learn etiquette. Afterwards, Aileen was able to barely make a living with the money she made from making and selling medicine, but she couldn’t even dream of making her social debut, which required a large sum of money.
Still, she had been imitating roughly with the few things she had picked up from wandering in and out of the Imperial Palace since she was young…….
‘Why is the first line empty?’
