The imperial ballroom is filled with brilliant lights and music. Duke Hermann and Guest, joined by an arranged marriage, stood together as a show window couple, devoid of any emotion as usual.

There was no private conversation or warm glance between them. They merely accepted the greetings of others dryly, without even looking at each other. Their sterile relationship, lacking even a formal smile, was on full display.

Then, Hermann's amber eyes, which had been scanning the room indifferently, fixed on one spot. The person at the end of his gaze was Lilien, a young lady of a Baronial family standing in a corner of the ballroom.

The moment he saw her—with her peach-pink hair slightly waved at the ends and her pale green eyes—Hermann could not look away. Leaving Guest by his side, he walked straight toward Lilien.

Amidst the focused attention of numerous nobles, Hermann stopped in front of Lilien and politely extended a hand.

"Will you have a dance with me?"

It was an action directed only at Lilien, something he had never done for Guest throughout their entire marriage. A moment of silence followed by murmurs swept through the ballroom, and the bewildered eyes of the nobles turned simultaneously toward Guest, Hermann, and Lilien.