Chapter 7
Baron Starace, trying to calm his pounding heart, stepped forward and offered a handshake to the approaching Duke.
“Your Highness! It’s an honor to have you accept our invitation—”
But the Duke ignored his hand completely and walked right past him. The Baron’s hand lingered awkwardly in the air.
“Ah… haha?”
The Baron stood frozen, eyes darting in embarrassment. Next up was Zenovio, who rushed forward to greet the Duke.
“Haha! It’s an honor to meet you too! I’ve heard so much about the great information power of the Vetra family! I actually run a little guild myself—”
But again, the Duke didn’t even acknowledge him. He walked straight toward where Camilla and I were standing.
Zenovio, who had been trying to casually promote his guild, sensed the tension and quickly shut his mouth.
My aunt stared at Camilla with hopeful eyes. Camilla blushed like a girl expecting a kiss.
“Your Highness, Ezequiel…”
Camilla gracefully stepped in front of me and greeted him with a curtsy, pushing me aside. I had to tiptoe to see past her. Excuse me?
“Lady.”
His voice was smooth like a spring breeze. Camilla, thrilled, replied immediately.
“Your Highness, I’m so happy you came to see me personally!”
But Ezequiel frowned.
“Who gave you permission to answer me?”
“W-What? Me?”
Camilla blinked, confused. But Ezequiel walked past her and gently took my hand.
“Miss Viola. So this is where you were.”
The entire Starace family stood with their mouths hanging open, as if they’d just witnessed a gorilla getting proposed to by a prince.
“What’s going on?”
“Doesn’t he see Camilla standing right there?”
As the family whispered in panic, Camilla rushed forward.
“Your Highness! I’m the host’s daughter tonight! You don’t need to pay attention to her.”
Then she subtly stepped on my foot—her signal for me to get lost.
Just then, the Duke’s butler approached and softly said,
“Your Highness, it’s customary for the host’s daughter to open the first dance with you.”
Ezequiel, soon to be my husband, looked at me with a soft gaze.
“Viola, what’s your family name?”
“It’s Starace.”
He turned to the butler.
“Then Miss Viola here is also the daughter of this household.”
The butler’s expression shifted. My aunt and Camilla sensed something was off and tried to interfere—but it was too late.
“As you said, I will have the first dance with the host’s daughter.”
Then he turned to me and said with a cheerful voice,
“Shall we go to the dance floor, my lady?”
The spotlight that Camilla had so desperately dreamed of—dancing the first waltz with the Duke in front of everyone—was now mine.
All the guests watched us with curiosity and excitement. By tomorrow, the whole social circle would be buzzing with rumors.
And it was obvious who those rumors would harm.
“This can’t be! Mom! This isn’t fair! What does she have that I don’t?! Why?!”
Camilla stomped her feet and clung to my aunt as I passed by her.
The Duke and I interlocked hands and slowly embraced each other at the waist. He smelled like a cold winter breeze.
Ezequiel kept his voice polite and playful as he spoke,
“Now, future wife—shall we try our first dance as a couple?”
“Oh my. Moving a bit fast, aren’t we?”
I smiled softly and leaned slightly against his chest.
The moment we got into position, the music began.
While I danced with the Duke, Camilla had a complete meltdown off to the side. She was so loud with her screaming and cursing that Zenovio had to drag her away in embarrassment.
Not that it mattered to me.
While we danced, Ezequiel leaned in and whispered into my ear—
“I accepted your contract marriage proposal and did a little background check on you over the past few days.”
“You sure say that like it’s no big deal.”
“Well, you looked into me too before offering the contract, didn’t you? So we’re even. I heard these people gave you a pretty hard time for a long while?”
He gave me a wink—oddly sweet, not at all fitting with his sharp eyes. And that mismatch had its own strange charm.
“So I got some revenge on your behalf.”
“Oh my. That was actually kind of nice.”
Amid the applause of the crowd, we finished our dance smoothly.
The Baron and my aunt still looked like they couldn’t believe what was happening.
Clinging to their last shred of hope—well, more like desperation—they came back toward us again.
“Ahem. Ahem.”
The Baron exaggerated a cough to get attention, then rudely pushed me aside to speak.
What he said next made me doubt my ears.
“Your Highness, we actually have another daughter in our family who’s quite exceptional…”
Wait. I knew that line. My eyes widened.
This was one of the early scenes from the original novel!
“She’s actually even more intelligent and gentle than the one you seem interested in. And of course, her appearance speaks for itself…”
Ah, so the original skipped over some of the awkward dialogue. In any case, the Baron was trying his best to offer up Camilla.
But Ezequiel—frowning deeply—gave a very simple reply.
“Get lost.”
The Baron’s eyes widened in shock. Understandable. No matter the difference in status, that was still a huge insult.
But when Ezequiel’s gaze sharpened even more, the Baron shrank back and eventually stepped away without another word.
“Y-Yes! Of course!”
Now I understood why this scene ended so quickly in the book. I wouldn’t have been able to argue back either under that glare.
But hold on… This event didn’t happen this early in the original story, did it?
Wasn’t this scene supposed to take place after the main story started, once the Duke and Baron’s families were discussing merging?
‘Ah… time has twisted.’
With all the reincarnators, regressors, and transmigrators running around, the timeline getting messed up and major events happening early wasn’t surprising at all.
And if I was the reason things were shifting? That actually made perfect sense.
I quickly gathered my thoughts and spun around the ballroom with the Duke’s hand in mine.
Though my dress was simple, it looked elegant beside the Duke. And the wildflowers in my hair only made me look more graceful.
The two of us dancing together would be an image people remembered for a long time.
“Your steps are a bit off.”
People didn’t notice it, but we were having slight miscommunication issues.
“Don’t force the moves. Just relax. I’ll lead.”
As the dance went on, Ezequiel spoke to me without making eye contact. He seemed uncomfortable. Was it because I was bad at dancing?
‘Tch. I tried really hard…’
I felt a little embarrassed, but if he was disappointed, I could understand.
Still, since this man was going to be my husband for life, I believed—at the time—that one day we’d laugh and joke together as equals.
I shouldn’t have been so confident.
* * *
The next day, my aunt called the ball a “complete disaster.”
For some people, it had been a deeply embarrassing night.
The Starace mansion was in total chaos.
“We even went into debt to host that ball! And this is how it ends?!”
The most heartbroken person was the Baron.
“The fish wouldn’t bite where we wanted, and it ended up going after some random worm instead!”
The Baron yelled, voice loud and ridiculous—he sounded like a duck trying to quack opera.
He glared at the so-called “worm.”
“What exactly did you do to seduce the Duke? Are you like those modern girls who use ‘romance’ as an excuse to sleep around?!”
Camilla took the chance to jump in too.
“It’s obvious! You’ve got nothing to lose, so you dressed up like a courtesan and went hunting for rich men. Then you just got lucky with the Duke!”
Gross. She spat while yelling. I scrunched my nose in disgust.
Seeing that, Camilla thought she’d gotten to me and looked even more smug.
“Just watch! You’re nothing but a one-night fling. A dumb girl like you might claw her way into being his mistress, but you’ll never be his duchess!”
I’d had enough. I decided to speak up.
“You’re wrong, Camilla.”
“What?”
I pulled out the wedding invitation I had tucked in my dress. The Duke had handed it to me just yesterday.
“I’m getting married. To His Highness, Duke Vetra.”
With a soft smile, I placed the invitation on the table.
The parlor was instantly filled with suffocating silence.
