/
“Then, I shall take my leave here.”
Bertin, who had escorted us to the front of the banquet, quickly left after bowing politely.
The young ladies who were stealing glances at us with envious gazes, one by one started to trail their gazes on Bertin.
Raynia laughed as she watched all those gorgeous dresses shuffle around the banquet hall.
“What shallow women!”
“And yet you only look at money.”
She shook her head with a serious expression.
“Money has no difference inside and outside. Only if there’s no counterfeiting, of course.”
“. . .”
I wondered who had made my friend become like this.
When I was looking with a concerned gaze at my best friend, who was filled with distrust towards humans, I saw Orion approaching us.
There was an exotic looking knight by his side that I hadn’t seen before.
The man with slightly dark skin and dark grey hair was a rare-to-see looker here.
His gentle brown eyes were on me.
When I looked at him, Orion introduced the knight who was standing beside himself.
“This is Bayhan Rune. He is the vice-captain of our Dukedom’s knight order. As you can see, he is from the desert.”
“I am Marianne Button.”
“Bayhan Rune.”
Right when I was about to introduce Raynia— who had been scanning Sir Rune up and down— Orion spoke first with a determined expression.
“As you already know, the wedding has ended and the reception has begun.”
“That’s right.”
“It means became an official couple through marriage.”
“Yeah.”
“Now, the Miller surname. Ahem. Aren’t you supposed to use it?”
I blinked my eyes at his fake cough and words.
Marianne Miller.
So, that was the reason.
It seems as though he was hoping that I would introduce myself in that manner.
Mother had been recognized as Duchess by the imperial messenger.
So her daughter, me, was naturally recognized as a member of the duke family.
Well . . .
I’d like it if he put a subject before the married words he said before.
For those who didn’t know, his sentence had a nuance that would cause misunderstandings— as though it was me who got married to him.
When the one got married was my mother and the Duke.
“Yes, I am Marianne Miller.”
The feeling of saying an unfamiliar family name was strange.
The last name Button was created by my mother just before she announced her name as an actor.
There were times where her family name changed through marriage, but it always changed back to ‘Button’.
And, until now, I had never changed my last name.
Precisely, it was because there had been no occurrence for me to introduce my changed last name to anyone.
I introduced Rany while trying to shake off the unfamiliar feeling.
“This one is my friend. She is Raynia Rocke.”
“Nice to meet you, Young Duke Miller. I am Raynia Rocke.”
Looking at Raynia’s polite greetings, it seemed that the amount of gold that her father had spent was not in vain.
The problem is that she would usually grab other young noble ladies’ hair, regardless of her manners and her acting skills.
Orion nodded in response to Raynia’s greeting.
“I’ve heard about the Rocke family. Aren’t they the ones who paved the way for trade with the East Continent?”
“These days, we’ve been focusing more on domestic business.”
Raynia let out a smile.
“Yes, I hope you’ll get along with my sister in the future.”
“Oh my, she is my friend.”
“. . .”
Was it my feeling that there was emphasis being placed in strange places in their conversation?
I could see Sir Rune to the side, turning his head while holding in his laughter.
Among the two who were having something of a staring contest— as if fireworks sparked from their eyes— Orion was the one to surrender first.
I poked Raynia who was happy for winning the staring contest with the Young Duke, then Orion spoke to me once more.
“By the way, your mother said she needed a few days to pack up and move to the residence. So, Marianne, do you perhaps need any manpower?”
“Pardon?”
“If you need, I can send a few maids from the . . .”
“No, I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
“Even so, isn’t this about moving your residence? And there would be your stuff too.”
“Why would I have to organize my stuff?”
Orion hesitated for a moment.
He opened his eyes widely and looked at me before carefully asking,
“Don’t you need your stuff to live in the Duke’s residence? Have you been living so humbly?”
“But I don’t have any plans to live in the Duke’s mansion.”
“. . .”
His shocked eyes met with mine.
Wait, wasn’t I the one who was supposed to be in shock?
Why was he the one who wore an expression as if something unbelievable had happened?
“I have an academy dormitory. I’m going to stay there, starting next semester.”
“I, I can’t believe that . . .”
He stumbled.
His complexion paled to the point that I wondered if he had any chronic disease.
Raynia slightly scrutinized through such Orion and didn’t hide the sardonic gleam in her gaze.
Because of my disrespectful friend, I was rather sorry.
And I still haven’t had a chance to bring up the broken crystal ball.
He barely calmed down and asked me.
“Mmm, Marianne.”
“Yes?”
“We’re a family now. Shouldn’t we spend time together in order to become closer to each other?”
“Maybe you’re right.”
Though divorce had always come before I could even become a proper family member.
Thanks to the experience I had while living as my mother’s daughter, I knew that not opening my heart from the very first time would be the best way for me to feel less pain.
He is someone who never knew my mom, so he still retains such a fantasy.