“Emilia! Where have you been!”
Emilia glanced to the side, avoiding Juliana who was approaching her anxiously.
“Ah……. Are you done with your makeup?”
“I finished that a long time ago. Are you ready? You’re the lead, where have you been running around?”
“I had something to do for a bit.”
“……Are you okay? You don’t look well.”
“I’m fine. I’ll just go and fix my headpiece.”
“Ah? Uh….”
Emilia passed Juliana who moved aside for her and took off the brown shawl that was draped over her shoulders. She approached the mirror and slowly looked over her appearance.
A puffy skirt and a tight-fitting top that showed off her slender figure. And the small wings attached to her back made her look like a fairy straight out of a fairy tale.
She finally adjusted the white headpiece that was placed on top of her blonde hair, which was neatly tied up, and her eyes slowly sank as she looked at her dreamlike figure that was becoming more and more perfect.
‘Prepare to get married.’
Giorgio, whom she had met for the first time in a long time, was still rude. His enlarged belly and crooked mustache were still unpleasant to look at, and the wrinkles that had increased as much as his greed made his expression even more despicable.
‘……It’s the day of the performance. I’ll come back and talk to you then.’
‘It’s the day of the performance, so you came! You’ve been putting up with these commoners doing ballet and vulgarly showing off their bodies, so now it’s time for you to listen to me. If you hadn’t run away to that place, I wouldn’t have let you do ballet in the first place. It’s all gone to waste.’
‘Anyway, today is the last day. You just have to get through today, so what’s the rush? It’s not the first time I’ve performed.’
‘Isn’t it different today? I heard that some high-ranking people are coming. What if your value drops if you show off your body in a place like this!’
‘Ha……. My value?’
‘In a few days, you’ll be an adult. You can’t run away using your dead parents’ sign as an excuse anymore. You’ve lived the way you wanted for those few years, so now live for the family. Your good-for-nothing parents were only rumored to be rich, it was all just a facade. Do you know how hard it was for me to do business with that little bit of money?!’
Although she lost her parents at a young age, she didn’t have time to grieve. A distant uncle, whom she didn’t even know existed, suddenly appeared and turned the family upside down.
Giorgio, who had rushed in, was truly annoying.
He just kept repeating the same words like a parrot, saying that there was a system where the inheritance was only passed on to the eldest son, and if there was no eldest son, it would be passed on to the closest male relative of the family, and that he was that person.
Emilia couldn’t refute him in any way.
Because it was true that there was such a beggarly system. In a country where male heirs who are not yet adults need to be under the thorough protection of a sponsor, how harsh it must be for women who are considered to be accessories of men. Even though the perception was changing little by little, the reality was that it was still difficult for women to escape from their sponsors even after becoming adults.
But what was more frightening than the invisible future was the appearance of her uncle, who had not even thought of hiding his greedy eyes from the first time they met and simply reached out to her.
It even awakened the survival instinct of a child. To quickly run away to the Royal Academy of Arts.
It was difficult to find a place to go for herself who was not yet an adult, and it was dangerous anywhere with her young body. The Royal Academy of Arts, which was especially protected by the rule prohibiting the entry of outsiders, including family members, was like a safe fortress more than anywhere else.
In a way, it could be said that it was her parents’ last gift.
If it wasn’t for the Royal Academy of Arts application papers that her parents had signed for her when she was young, as a way to comfort herself for being a noble’s hobby and not being able to dream of anything else, she would never have dreamed of it.
But was it hard? Taking away everything that was mine?
Giorgio’s teeth, which seemed to be really resentful, had a gold filling that she had never seen before. His hair was slicked back with oil, his suit was overly luxurious, and his gold rings looked heavy. There was nothing about his appearance that looked difficult, and she almost scoffed.
The strength slowly drained from her two trembling fists. Her stomach, which had been hot with anger, also calmed down quickly, as if cold water had been poured over it.
‘You’ll know your place soon enough, so until then, stay at home like a dead mouse. A girl who doesn’t know shame and shows off her legs, tsk tsk. I don’t have anything more to say. Follow me when I tell you nicely.’
‘……’
‘Anyway, aren’t you going to flirt with the high-ranking people and get them to take care of you? You don’t have to do that, I can connect you enough, so don’t do anything stupid.’
‘……Among those high-ranking people, someone might take a liking to me.’
‘What?’
The mouth that uttered those humiliating words was too bitter.
‘Someone higher than my uncle knows. Then there’s no need for you to look into it, is there? They’ll know my worth and approach me, and you might get a better deal.’
However, in order to seize the last chance, she had to find a way to get out of this place. With each word she spoke, a bitter taste filled her mouth, as if she had a mouthful of sour fruit.
She could see the deep wrinkles between Giorgio’s eyebrows slowly disappear. Emilia suppressed her emotions, killing her desire to spit on his face as she watched him roll his eyes and purse his lips in a way that was secretly disgusting.
‘It’s only for one day anyway. The nobles who have come to see the academy performances have been here all along, so even if I don’t go on stage, my past as a ballet dancer will not disappear. So take this opportunity.’
Giorgio’s eyes, which had been staring into space for a moment, moved slowly. His moss-green eyes, which were now openly sparkling with desire, reflected Emilia’s expressionless face. Giorgio’s lips curled up in a disgusting way at her face, which looked resigned in a way.
This was truly the last chance. The last chance for her to escape.
Emilia woke up from her reverie and took a deep breath, rolling her feet slightly on the floor. The sound of her toe shoes hitting the wooden floor rang out hard.
‘It was my greed that made me want to go to another country to do ballet in the first place. In the first place, there’s no guarantee that it will work out, and there’s no guarantee that I won’t get caught……. It would be best to just go far away and live quietly.’
It’s not rationalization, it’s facing reality. She tried to comfort herself by licking her dry lips with her tongue.
“Are you crazy! Do you know what I just heard?”
“Why? What did you hear?”
The faces of the dancers waiting for their turn on stage were tense with nervousness, but at the same time, their eyes sparkled with anticipation. While one person stretched alone, others gathered in twos and threes, chatting and stretching, their voices filling the dressing room.
“The Duke is here!”
“The Duke? Do you mean Duke Polenta?”
“No.”
“Then, oh my gosh! Don’t tell me…”
“That’s right! Duke Michele is here!”
Emilia, who had been calming herself down while stretching, froze.
“He came to see our performance? No, I know he’s interested in arts, but I didn’t think he would come all the way here to a place like this.”
“I guess so. Maybe he came because it’s our first big performance. But it’s still surprising. He’s known for being a generous patron!”
“That’s right. They say if he likes your performance, he’ll shower you with support… But has he ever sponsored a ballerina before?”
“Maybe we could be the first!”
“But there are so few rumors about what he does in return for his patronage. I think I heard someone say he invites them to his mansion separately…”
Emilia paused for a moment, then pulled herself together and rubbed her ankles.
Flustered by Giorgio, she had momentarily forgotten, but now she felt a surge of relief that she hadn’t been hurt when she almost fell earlier.
He had been such a large figure that even if she had hit him head-on, she surely would have bled. Enrico Michele, who hadn’t even glanced back at the person he bumped into, came back to mind.
How can someone so indifferent be a big patron of the arts? He was known as a collector who just hoarded things, but for someone so famous, there wasn’t much detailed information about him.
The gossip-fueled newspapers only mentioned that Enrico Michele had won some auction or another.
“There are a lot of people who make strange requests for patronage, but I think it would be alright if it’s the Duke. Honestly, he’s the most handsome man in our kingdom. Young, rich, and even handsome to boot. So what if he has some strange requests?”
“True, but…”
“Bella, quiet down a bit.”
“What’s the big deal? Honestly, some people might jump at this opportunity.”
“The deal is, it would look like we have ulterior motives.”
“Oh my gosh! Teacher!”
“We’re about to go on stage, and you have the mental energy to focus on something else right now? Especially on the day of your important graduation performance?”
“…I’m sorry.”
