Sera frowned as well. "And why is he with Lady Kosler?" Her tone wasn’t entirely suspicious more puzzled than anything else. "They look like they’ve been talking for quite a while."
Valerie remained silent.
Her eyes stayed fixed on the two figures, yet her mind felt empty strangely empty. There was no surge of emotion like before, no suffocating urge to cry. Only a bitterness slowly seeping in, like a truth she had finally stopped denying.
He did co, she thought. Just not for .
Valerie drew a slow breath, steadying herself. She lowered her gaze briefly, then lifted her face again with an expression that was hard to read.
"Maybe they just ran into each other by chance," she said lightly too lightly. "Lady Kosler was invited to the hunt too. It’s not strange for them to et in the city."
Sera and Lira exchanged glances, clearly not fully convinced by that explanation. But seeing Valerie’s expression, they held back any further comnts.
"Should we... wait?" Lira asked carefully.
Valerie looked at Demian again just for a second then shook her head softly. "No."
She turned away from the intersection, walking off in the opposite direction. Her steps were calm, almost too asured, as if what she had just seen had left no mark on her heart at all.
Yet deep inside, sothing had shifted slowly, quietly, and in a way that could never be undone.
"We should move away," Valerie said at last, her voice low but firm.
She didn’t wait for their agreent. Her feet were already carrying her forward, as if standing still for even one more second would turn all those whispers into piercing stares.
Sera hurried after her, worry written all over her face. "Lady Valerie... if we leave like this, what if the Duke becos angry? Didn’t he say he would co to pick you up himself?"
Lira joined in, her tone anxious. "Yes. If he looks for you and can’t find you..."
Valerie curved her lips into a faint smile a smile that never reached her eyes. "I know," she said quietly. "Demian will be angry."
She knew that man’s nature all too well. Absence, a small refusal, or a decision made without him always led to the sa end, anger restrained, then unleashed. Valerie was not naïve about that.
But this ti, the sense of wrongness pressing on her chest was heavier than fear.
Because all around them, the city itself seed to be speaking.
Valerie could hear the whispers clearly, even though none were directed at her outright.
"That’s Duke Zarkiel’s kept woman..."
"Shaless, isn’t she? Still daring to show herself in the city."
"Just look Lord Duke and Lady Kosler look so well matched."
"Just like the opera earlier, right? The third woman who doesn’t know her place."
The words were never spoken loudly, yet that was what made them humiliating. The half-pitying, half-condemning glances cut far deeper than open insults ever could.
Valerie lowered her head slightly and quickened her pace.
The opera they had just watched now felt like a cruel mirror placed directly before her. As though the story on stage had not been enough, reality itself had decided to imitate it rcilessly.
A role with no advantage at all, Valerie thought bitterly.
She felt small. Not because Demian stood beside Ivanka but because the world around her seed to have already decided who belonged, and who was nothing more than an intrusion into soone else’s story.
Sera clenched her fists, clearly wanting to argue back against the whispers, but Valerie shook her head gently. There was no need. Any defense would only confirm Valerie’s position as the one in the wrong.
"Let’s go ho," she said softly, almost like a plea. "I’m tired."
And beneath her outwardly calm steps, Valerie realized one painful, honest truth it wasn’t only Demian who could leave her at any ti, the world itself had already pushed her aside,from a place that had never truly been hers to begin with.
Sera and Lira both fell silent, their steps faltering under the weight of suffocating hesitation. On one side stood Valerie their lady, clearly pressed down by emotion and circumstance. On the other stood Demian a man whose anger was never sothing to be taken lightly. They lingered awkwardly, unsure whom to side with, unsure which choice would not end badly.
Valerie herself tried to look away, forcing her feet to keep moving, to leave that place behind. She did not want to see anymore. Did not want to deepen a wound that already burned. But just as she turned her head in another direction she saw her again.
The frail old woman stood not far from them, half her body swallowed by the shadow of a building. Her wooden cane tapped softly against the ground, her steps unsteady, like a remnant of the past that refused to fade away.
Valerie’s chest tightened instantly.
"Grandmother...!" she cried out without realizing it.
The sound escaped her, raw with urgency and emotion she had no ti to restrain. Before Sera or Lira could react, Valerie was already running, leaving them behind in the middle of the street. Her skirt fluttered, her breath ca fast, but her eyes never left the elderly figure.
"Lady Valerie—!" Sera gasped in panic."Stop! Don’t run off alone!" Lira shouted after her.
But Valerie did not hear them or perhaps she did not want to. There was only one thought in her mind, This ti, I can’t lose her again.
At the sa mont, that shout broke Demian’s attention.
Standing with Ivanka, he stiffened. His head snapped toward the source of the sound, his brows drawing together as he recognized the voice.
"Valerie?" he murmured.
Demian’s gaze caught sight of Sera and Lira, clearly panicked, then of Valerie’s figure disappearing into the crowd. His expression hardened instantly.
"What is she doing?" he asked coldly, his tone making several people nearby turn to look.
Sera hurriedly bowed, her voice trembling. "M-My Lord Duke... Lady Valerie saw an old woman. It seems she knows her or has so important matter with her. The mont she saw her, Lady Valerie ran after her."
Demian followed the direction of Valerie’s flight, his jaw tightening. Without hesitation, he stepped forward, his strides long and determined. "In the middle of a city like this?" he growled. "She isn’t thinking about the consequences at all."
He was about to give chase.
But Ivanka moved quickly.
Her hand closed around Demian’s arm, stopping him with a firmness that belied her gentle voice. "Demian, wait."
Demian turned sharply. "Let go."
Ivanka did not. Instead, she stepped half a pace closer, lowering her voice so only the two of them could hear. "Not now. Look around you. Every eye is on you. Do you really want to be seen running after your kept woman in public?"
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