61

Elena doubted her ears.

'Why? Why? To His Highness, she is a necessary being…'

Count Lyndon's Cecilia, the daughter of the Countess Lyndon, was a perfect fit for Sian, who tries to keep the aristocracy in check. Political marriage was essential to prevent Princess Veronica of the Great Duchy or the Princess of Reinhardt, a member of the four great families, from seating Avella as the Crown Princess. Nevertheless, Sian stepped down. As long as he has promised the honor of the imperial family, he would never speak of his words.

'Somebody explain it to me. Why is the future wrong?'

Even Elena's smart brain did not function properly at this moment. For Sian, who was born the Crown Prince, the cause and the imperial family were always a priority. There must have been an opportunity for him to make a different choice from the original history, but she even felt uneasy because she didn't know what it was.

'It's not because of me, is it?'

Elena's heartbeat didn't calm down. She was the only variable that went against the original history.

"… You're serious, right? Can I really believe that?"

Cecilia's voice trembled slightly. She also seemed incredulous about Sian's behavior.

"Yes."

"Thank you, Your Highness. Thank you very much."

Cecilia shouted her thanks in a joyful voice. Since then, no further conversations have been heard in the studio.

Kiiik.

The short silence was the opening sound of the wooden board door, which had been open at an angle.

"And you?"

"…!"

Elena, who encountered Sian head-on, blamed herself. She was embarrassed and ashamed that she was caught as if it wasn't enough eavesdropping on other people's conversations.

"I-I'm sorry…"

With her head down urgently, Elena couldn't see Sian's face. He was more perplexed and troubled than Elena. The ignorance of what to do when he was caught was a look that Elena had never seen in her past and present life. Sian didn't feel confident enough to face Elena, so he just walked on by.

"Ah."

For a moment, Elena's heart throbbed and she put her hand on her chest. The image of Sian leaving as if he was ignoring her reminded her of the past. The memory of that time, which had been left behind as a scar, became thorny and piercing.

'Don't be hurt. I made a mistake.'

She knew. She knew that eavesdropping was a breach of etiquette. She also knew that it was an unforgivable mistake. But before that, seeing Sian like that was so painful that she couldn't bear it. She had gotten used to Sian's gentle demeanor during those chance encounters and forgot about the hurt for a while.

Even though he and she had a bad relationship.

"…"

Elena stared at Sian's back as he moved away.

***

Elena put her hands on her knees and sat in the chair. Looking at her hardened like a statue without moving, Raphael across the room was busy teasing his brush on the canvas.

"What happened?"

"What?"

Elena, who did not even open her mouth so as not to break the composition, listened.

"You're a little different from usual. You seem to have a lot of thoughts."

"…"

"Are you not supposed to tell me?"

Elena refused to answer Raphael's uneasy question. It was impossible to simply define or explain the bad relationship she had with Sian, as it had continued from her previous life.

"I'm sorry it's a bit of a problem… Am I causing a problem with the painting?"

"Not really, but I'm worried."

Elena forced a smile.

"Thank you for your concern. But you don't have to worry about it."

"…"

"Now let's concentrate and go back."

Raphael looked at her and could no longer offer words of consolation. He was afraid he might look presumptuous. However, when he looked at Elena, who looked worried, he couldn't stay still.

"Please stay for a while."

Raphael searched the locker inside the studio to see if something came to mind. Then he took out a wooden doll and put it on the table next to the easel.

"It was modeled after a gift my parents gave me when I was young. In my hometown, I believed that looking at this wooden doll would bring happiness."

Elena's eyes were on the wooden doll. It was a model modeled after a rabbit, and it was hilarious that its big ears were about to fall down while it was doing nothing.

"It's going to fall like that."

"But the point is not to fall over. It is supported so that it does not fall with the ears."

"Pft. What is that?"

Elena burst into laughter without realizing it. She was distraught by her experience with Sian, but she forgot for a while thanks to Raphael.

"I did, too. I laughed because it was so ridiculous."

Raphael also felt relieved to see Elena, who was better than before.

"Thank you, senior. For caring."

"Keep that smile on your face now. I think I can draw it right now."

"I'll do it again and again."

Elena looked away mischievously, her face calmer than usual. When Raphael had wanted to paint her as his first model, he had felt her complexion lighten and he had rushed to capture it in his painting. It was a stark contrast to how he had hardly been able to paint since he fell into a slump.

Only while painting portraits did Raphael put out of his mind all the theories of painting, such as technique, interiority, expression, and physical structure, and all their attendant aspects.

Despite the fact that painting is a realm of art, there was still a view that it should be approached scientifically, but only in the moment of painting did he strive to portray Elena, the original human being, without being conscious of it. What is clear was that Raphael had overcome his slump and was moving in the direction of breaking his own limits and boundaries.

"Oh, my. It's so hard sitting around."

Elena, who was leaving the studio and heading to the library, patted her shoulder with her fist and made a painful sound. It was only a few hours, but sitting still like a statue was harder than she thought it would be. If it hadn't been for the fact that the emulsion had time to dry and she had to model in regular cycles, she might have gotten hurt.

When Elena arrived at the Central Library, she immediately went to the records room. There, after erasing her disguise and returning to Veronica, Elena left the record room.

Then she went downstairs across the quiet corridor. It was very exhausting to be a model, but she was also very distressed mentally because of the experience with Sian.

"Hey, I caught you."

After her disappearance, a man appeared beyond the stairs to the fifth floor. It was Ren.

"It was Lucia when she went in, but Veronica when she came out?"

Ren, who felt he had stepped on her tail properly, walked slowly to the recording room.

"Not here? Not here? Is it because she's hiding somewhere?"

Ren began to whistle, perhaps in a jovial manner and began to rummage. He violently opened the drawers of an old paulownia desk that had been used by successive owners of the Friedrich family. He searched through all the other possible storage spaces. He was expecting to find a clue, but he found nothing. Then Ren's gaze landed on a chest of drawers in the corner of the recording room.

"Oh, it's so suspicious."

With last expectation, Ren pulled the handle of the wardrobe.

"Why is it locked here? More suspicious."

Ren grinned like a madman and took his name tag on his chest. He then pulled out the safety pin that was inserted into the back of the name tag to straighten the uniform. Stretching the safety pin long, Ren pushed it through the keyhole. Moving the safety pin this way and that, he found that it caught perfectly on the edge of the lock.

"I'm right."

Ren turned the gear held in place by a safety pin.

Click.

A pleasant sound signaled that the lock had been released.

"What's in it?"

Ren rubbed his hands together as if he had found a treasure chest on Treasure Island, and opened the wardrobe door with all his might.

"Hey! First treasure found."

In the closet, there was a familiar uniform coat on a hanger. It was the coat he had given Lucia in the past, telling her not to get wet in the rain.

"Where is the second treasure?"

Ren turned his gaze to the chest of drawers attached under the cabinet with anticipation. Ren laughed as he looked at them in a place that did not deviate from expectations.

"I knew this would happen. What? Your father is the owner of the Castol Corporation? Where do they sell drugs? Then is my uncle your stepfather?"

In the drawer was the wig, black-rimmed glasses, disguise tools, and name tag that Elena used to disguise herself as Lucia. Ren's smile became even darker as he could clearly see the use of the items at a glance.

"When my cousin said she'd be quiet, I didn't expect her to be doing this kind of nasty thing. How is it? I got the feeling when she talked back to me."

Ren was sure Veronica and Lucia were the same people. There was no doubt as he had already seen her go to and from the recording studio. But there were still lingering questions.

"But why does she do this? Because she's bored?"

Ren laughed as he looked for a reason that might apply to him.

"I don't think this is right. What the hell is it?"

One mystery was solved, but he was faced with another. Veronica was the only daughter of Grand Duke Friedrich and the only heir to the Grand Duchy. There was nothing in the world that she couldn't get, and nothing that she couldn't put under her feet. He couldn't understand why she would even bother with such a disguise.

Ren stroked his chin and winced. He looked back at the past and inspected it to see if there was anything he had missed. He found some suspicious situations that had passed him by without difficulty.

"My gut tells me that Emilio and Veronica first saw each other that day. But he tried to hide Veronica's identity. Just like he was trying to protect her."

Ren's thoughts deepened. But nothing was clearly caught. He felt like he was caught in the clouds due to lack of evidence and circumstances. Ren, who was analyzing without giving up, snapped his finger as if something came to mind.

"The guy who was with Veronica in the library. Let's dig him up. I'm sure something will come out."

Ren pointed to Khalif. A natural touch was signaling that the two would not be just acquaintances.