ITEIWD CH 47🔒

 CHAPTER 47

It was obvious at a glance.

That this woman was the infamous “Marchioness Sedor.”

Her vivid red hair was striking. Thick, voluminous waves cascaded all the way to her waist.
When their eyes met, her large amber eyes curved seductively.

Beneath her full lips sat a conspicuously dark beauty mark.

Even in the darkness, she was dazzling enough to steal one’s gaze.

Slim, yet voluptuously shaped—she moved with elegant ease.
Her very presence was 압박 itself, a kind of intimidation.

“Alive eyes.”

Sedor propped her chin on the armrest and appraised Lunaria’s face.

On her carefully groomed, smooth nails, black manicure shimmered with pearly glitter.

Her voice, when it flowed out, was rough—hoarse, as though slightly cracked.
Yet even that only added to her charm.

“Top grade. I’d like to display you in my salon. Frantes… he’s lucky. What a waste. I should’ve found you first and taken you.”

Sedor smiled—an enchanting, almost mesmerizing smile.

Lunaria quickly calculated how she should behave.

Right now, she was the naïve Grand Duchess who’d come up to the capital from the countryside, head over heels for Frantes.

How should she react when meeting someone hostile to her husband?

She couldn’t be too foolish—
but she needed to look easy enough for Sedor to take lightly.

“How did you get in here? Pardon me, but I think you’ve come to the wrong seat. That is my husband’s place.”

“In this Empire, there is no place I cannot go, Lunaria Tersy. Even if it is your husband’s seat.”

“…Are you Marchioness Sedor?”

Sedor lifted her chin with lofty pride.

Strangely, that arrogance didn’t feel rude.

“So—how is Elevar, now that you’ve come?”

“I don’t know. It’s complicated… and there’s so much I have to learn.”

“Is it all right to be so honest with me? Your husband won’t like that.”

Sedor burst into laughter.

“Then why did you come to see me?”

“The capital is full of beautiful jewels, and handsome men. You might get distracted, start wanting too much—so be careful.

Mistakes always happen at times like that.”

“Marchioness, when you first came to the capital… did you ever make a mistake?”

It was a question asked in genuine curiosity.

Onstage, brilliant lights flashed.

The opera was nearing its climax.

The stage lights washed over Sedor’s face.
A pale smile settled on her beautiful features.

“Hm. The actors’ performance is excellent.”

Sedor did not answer Lunaria’s question—at all.

“Your guard will be back soon. We’ll meet again before long, Lunaria Tersy.”

Sedor rose and vanished with a refined, effortless gait.

The opera’s curtain fell, but Lunaria couldn’t watch the ending.

The curtain call continued.

The actors, receiving cheers, clasped hands and bowed.
A strong bond could be felt in their 모습.

A short while later, Frantes returned to his seat and reached his hand toward Lunaria.

“Luna! Are you all right?”

Lunaria quietly smiled and took his hand.

In the carriage with Frantes, Lunaria released the hand she’d held so tightly when they were alone again.

Then she folded both hands together and placed them neatly atop her knees.

Frantes’s eyebrow twitched slightly.

“I don’t know what Marchioness Sedor was thinking when she came to see me… but after meeting her today, I had a thought.”

“Tell me.”

“Everyone makes mistakes. Because life is everyone’s first time.

Unexpected situations can happen at any moment, and wrong judgments are bound to be made.”

Lunaria looked at Frantes.

“Wouldn’t Marchioness Sedor have made at least one mistake when she first came to the capital?”

“I understand what you’re trying to say, Luna. I haven’t never thought of it.

But Sedor never leaves evidence. Not once has she ever dirtied her own hands.”

“What about her hometown? I heard she, too, came up from the countryside like me. Does she still go back there?”

Come to think of it, Lunaria and Sedor shared a similarity: both were born into minor rural nobility.

“Sedor’s hometown is…”

Frantes lifted one corner of his mouth in a cold, mocking smile.

“Someone set it on fire, and the entire village burned down. The only survivors were Sedor and her younger brother, Alden.”

For a moment, Lunaria lost her words.

“So… they survived because they were in the capital?”

“Half right, half wrong. The village burned down right after Sedor left. The culprit was never caught. There wasn’t a single corner left unburned, so no evidence remained.”

All of Sedor’s past—burned away along with the villagers.
A meticulousness that discarded humanity.

Perfect erasure.

Goosebumps prickled up Lunaria’s arms.

“No other survivors besides the siblings?”

“None. Not a single one.”

Frantes said firmly.

Before coming to the capital, Sedor had already made a cruel decision—staking her entire life on it.

Her starting line had been different from Lunaria’s from the very beginning.

To keep her early wrongdoing from ever being discovered, Sedor must have moved through the capital with caution layered upon caution.

And yet, all her actions would be woven tight like a spiderweb—
so if they could seize even one thread and flick it with a finger, the whole web might collapse.

Lunaria fell briefly into thought, then spoke.

“The one who first connected Marchioness Sedor to high society was Lady Elona, wasn’t it?”

“Elona left the capital of her own accord after losing the Emperor’s favor.”

“That’s what’s strange. Why would Marchioness Sedor let Lady Elona leave?”

Frantes watched Lunaria quietly, as though urging her to continue.

“Count Alden arrived in the capital before Marchioness Sedor did… and Count Alden isn’t Marchioness Sedor.”

Alden is not Sedor.
The implication of those words was… different.

“Before Sedor came, is it possible Alden made some mistake in the capital?

Something between him and Lady Elona, for example. Is Lady Elona still alive now?”

“She disappeared.”

“Was the process confirmed?”

Frantes rested his chin on one hand.

When Sedor became the Emperor’s mistress and Elona went missing, he had been only a fifteen-year-old boy at most.

The later investigation hadn’t been properly carried out—there were surely many uncertain parts.

More than anything, what Frantes had focused on all this time was Sedor’s trail, not Elona.

“I’ll track Elona’s movements again. And while doing so, I’ll confirm what kind of influence Sedor had on the process.”

“Thank you… for listening to my opinion.”

“I’m the one who’s grateful you thought about it seriously.”

Frantes smiled.

The date had been ruined, and the sweet 분위기 from last night had vanished, replaced by something heavy—
but the reliability of his lovely new bride felt even greater.

“I think I know why Sedor came to see you, Luna. And it’s clear she didn’t achieve her 목적.”

Lunaria’s eyes widened.

“What 목적… would she have had in coming to see me?”

“Sedor came to warn you. But it didn’t work. And there’s no way Sedor didn’t notice that.”

“Then that’s bad. I’m supposed to look easy to her…”

“I like it. It’s a shame I couldn’t see Sedor’s expression.”

Frantes chuckled softly.

“Like you said, this life is our first time too. And since there’s nothing we can truly predict… it’s fine.”

Just like us.
Frantes swallowed his last words silently.

The summer sunlight stretched long.

The Grand Duke and Grand Duchess stepped down from the carriage at the entrance of the estate, and walked along a road blanketed in crimson evening glow.

As Lunaria got down, she took Frantes’s hand again.
Walking side by side, the two spoke in a warm, intimate way.

Since this morning, Frantes couldn’t stop thinking about Lunaria’s subtly changed behavior.

He’d thought their relationship had grown notably closer last night.

But… had it been a misunderstanding?

To Lunaria, had it merely been a mistake made while drunk?

Well. She had always, again and again, said she would be faithful to the role of “Grand Duchess.”

Frantes didn’t show it, and instead drew Lunaria’s shoulder tightly into his embrace.

He held her as if nearly carrying her in his arms.
Lunaria looked a little startled, but she didn’t change her expression—only smiled.

Their shadows cast over the garden fused into a single shape as they moved forward.

“Your Grace!”

Regen ran out from the estate and blocked their path.

His face was harder than ever.

“I’m sorry, but there is a matter you must confirm immediately.”

Regen held out a single invitation.

Frantes snatched the envelope.

As he tore the seal, then rapidly skimmed the gilded invitation, his smile twisted more and more.

“Impressive. We got hit. Our Marchioness… she’s truly set her mind to it.”

Lunaria accepted the invitation Frantes handed her.

A crest of three golden roses entwined with vines.

An invitation from the imperial family.

With careful hands, Lunaria held the thick, high-quality paper properly.
Several lines stamped themselves into her eyes at once.

An imperial palace ball, welcoming the Grand Duchess newly arrived in the capital Elevar.
We desire your first dance here.

‘First dance…!’

When Lunaria looked at Frantes, he nodded.

This invitation from the Emperor also meant:
until they attended the imperial palace ball, they could not attend any other ball.

An imperial command—one that could not be defied—had descended.

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