“Everyone, I sincerely apologize for having to show you such a shocking scene. As you can see, Lady Eskis is unable to continue the performance, so we have no choice but to halt the stage. We ask for your understanding.”
Letticia’s voice remained calm and steady as usual, and slowly, the audience began to recover from their shock and confusion.
Some grumbled in dissatisfaction or frowned slightly at the announcement, but continuing the performance was impossible—Letticia playing the piano alone would have no meaning.
What the audience had been looking forward to was the duet of the two Diamonds, not a solo performance by Letticia.
“We will announce further proceedings after confirming Lady Eskis’s condition. Please wait for a little while.”
After making the announcement, Letticia quickly left the stage and headed to the waiting room.
There, the other debutantes who had been waiting for their turn looked at Letticia, startled by her sudden arrival, and immediately asked what had happened.
Because the concert hall was equipped with soundproof magic devices, they hadn’t heard the commotion from the stage.
Instead of giving a long explanation, Letticia summarized the situation in a single sentence.
“Lady Eskis collapsed on stage.”
“What?!”
Vanessa screamed in shock, and Dayna, her eyes wide, asked urgently.
“Collapsed? Why?”
“I don’t know. But it was definitely serious. She was on the verge of suffocating.”
Letticia’s answer made Giselle panic and ask.
“She couldn’t breathe?”
“Yes. Right now, she’s been moved to a bedroom and is being examined by a physician, but until we know more about her condition, it’s uncertain whether she’ll be able to return to the stage. Even if she does recover, it might still be too difficult for her to perform immediately.”
“So… is she going to be okay?”
“We’ll have to wait for the physician to say. For now, all I can say is that we don’t know.”
Letticia paused for a moment to catch her breath.
Even when she had almost been hit by wine at the ball, she hadn’t been this shaken—at least back then, no one had been hurt.
As the atmosphere grew heavy, Dayna brought up a pressing, practical concern.
“Then… what do we do about the next stage? Since Lady Eskis has collapsed, someone else has to go up now, right?”
“First, let’s proceed with the next performance according to the original schedule. After that, we’ll need to rearrange the order. If Lady Eskis is unable to recover, we’ll have to cancel all the pieces she’s involved in.”
Letticia checked the stage order list placed on the table in the waiting room.
Out of a total of 11 performances, the diamonds—Letticia and Seraphina— were scheduled to participate in 4 pieces each, while the other 5 debutantes would each participate in 3 pieces.
Letticia quickly recalculated the sequence in her head, trying to move Seraphina’s four remaining pieces toward the latter half, including the one that had just been interrupted.
“Lady Norton, Lady Mortimer, Lady Wallace—for now, it’s best if your performances proceed as originally scheduled. After that, we’ll need a duet—either between Lady Mortimer and Lady Norton, or Lady Mortimer and Lady Maynard.”
“Wait a minute—are you telling me to perform two pieces back-to-back?!”
Giselle protested, but Letticia stood firm.
“The songs Lady Eskis isn’t involved in are the three I mentioned earlier, plus the duet between me and Lady Hailey. I have to go check Lady Eskis’s condition and decide whether we can continue the performances. Unfortunately, all three remaining songs require Lady Mortimer’s participation—there’s no way around it.”
“Why does Lady Sharon have to be the one checking on Lady Eskis’s condition? Couldn’t her cousin, Lady Wallace, go instead?”
“Exactly! And why is Lady Sharon suddenly giving out orders anyway? Who gave her the right?”
“Then why don’t you come up with a better plan!”
Already overwhelmed, Letticia finally snapped under the constant nitpicking from Giselle and Evelyn.
While the two faltered in surprise, Letticia fired back without even taking a breath.
“Do you not understand the situation? At a concert where the two Diamonds are the main highlight, one of them collapsed in front of everyone—and instead of trying to manage the crisis, you’re busy dragging down the person who’s actually doing something about it? You built up all this hype with your angelic debutante image, raising expectations sky-high, and now you want to become a laughingstock because the most critical performance fell apart?”
“That’s unfair! Lady Eskis was the only one who collapsed! If we perform well for the remaining parts, we can still salvage this—”
“You think you’re musical geniuses who could move the gods of the underworld to tears? That trees and rocks would start dancing if they heard your playing?
Let’s be real—even at your very best, you can’t hold a candle to professional musicians. And after witnessing a performer collapse mid-stage, the audience’s mood has already been ruined! What delusion makes you think your performances can salvage the prestige attached to the title of Diamond?”
Every word hit painfully close to home, and no one could retort.
Even the hot-tempered Giselle could only tremble and bite her lip, unable to say anything back.
The joint performance of the two highly anticipated Diamonds had collapsed right at the start.
To make matters worse, the one who collapsed was none other than Seraphina—the eldest daughter of the Western Great House, the de facto leader of this concert, and the centerpiece of all their image-building efforts
Even if Letticia, as the other Diamond, could assume leadership within their group internally, she couldn’t publicly replace Seraphina’s role in the performance or her speeches about the orphanage project.
Above all, there was only one way to soothe the audience’s disappointment after the unexpected suspension of the concert, Seraphina’s return.
Especially because in this season’s social scene, there wasn’t even an exceptional debutante like Camilla to rival the Diamonds’ spotlight.
“If Lady Eskis doesn’t recover soon enough to perform at least one piece, this concert is over. Not to mention, she was also supposed to deliver most of the explanations about the orphanage after the performances. Is there anyone else who can do that?”
“Won’t she recover by then? Surely it won’t turn into such a disaster…”
“If you’re going to sit around being so optimistic, you might as well put on pale makeup, have your hands shake during your performance, and at least make it look like you were so shocked by her collapse that you barely managed to play.”
At Letticia’s merciless words, Giselle’s eyes welled up with tears.
However, Letticia didn’t even glance at her and continued coldly.
“Remember this—what we need to focus on now isn’t succeeding; it’s avoiding failure. Ideally, Lady Eskis recovers and returns. But if not, you must flawlessly complete the remaining performances. If playing two pieces in a row is too much, we can extend the intermission a little longer to manage.”
“…Then, why don’t we go ahead with the three scheduled performances first, and have a ten-minute break before the next piece?”
Dayna suggested a compromise.
While comforting the tearful Giselle, Evelyn glared at Letticia and spoke.
“If Lady Sharon apologizes for what she just said to us, then perhaps we would be willing to accept her plan.”
“You think I’m in a position where I need to bow my head and beg you? You really think if this event fails, you’ll just walk away unscathed, and I’ll be the only one left to bear the consequences?”
“But Lady Sharon, you’re a Diamond! The damage would surely be far greater for you than for us.”
“Well, you see, even if this event fails, I’m not going to get scolded by my future in-laws.”
At Letticia’s biting remark, Evelyn’s face flushed red with anger—and then turned deathly pale.
Giselle wasn’t much different.
Unlike Letticia, whose own family far surpassed her fiancé’s in status, wealth, and influence, the two of them were in the opposite situation.
Their fiancé’s families held the upper hand, and, crucially, their future husbands were known to be the heirs of their respective houses.
Moreover, noblewomen’s mothers often tried to retain control within the family by exploiting any weaknesses of their incoming daughters-in-law, treating them harshly to keep their position of power just a little longer.
Even without a weakness, a daughter-in-law would often face endless pressure—but with one, life could become a living hell.
They didn’t need to be told—they had witnessed it firsthand growing up.
“An accident happened during a charity concert even the Crown Prince attended, and you couldn’t even manage the situation? Maybe it’s not enough to break the engagement immediately, but it’ll definitely leave an ugly stain on your future married life. If you’re fine with that, feel free to walk away. I’ll just tell everyone you were too ill to perform.”
Leaving those words behind, Letticia turned on her heel and left the room.
She knew that if she stayed any longer, she wouldn’t be able to keep herself from saying something even harsher.
‘Unbelievable. Can’t I just throw those two away somehow?’
Seeing how Giselle and Evelyn spent all their time nitpicking Letticia’s instructions—during the preparation and now again—Letticia finally understood why Lenard often complained that his subordinates ruined simple tasks with petty power struggles and drank himself into a rage.
Normally, she might have tried to exercise a little patience.
But in a crisis like this, seeing them remain so clueless and obstinate made it almost impossible not to pick up a random instrument and smash it over their heads.
‘Forget it. First, I need to check on Seraphina’s condition.’
Letticia summoned a passing maid and headed for Seraphina’s room.
In front of the door, she found the Count, unable to hide his anger, the physician, and, surprisingly, even Achilles and Ezkhiel gathered there.
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