The military reception finally wound down as the last of the carriages rattled away from the Alvarez estate.

The air in the ballroom, once thick with the scent expensive cologne, and the metallic tang of Ace’s suppressed rage, had now dulled.

Evelina moved toward her private chambers, her mind was cheerful, though the evening’s performance had left her bones aching with a deep fatigue.

She dismissed Marta at the door, wanting nothing more than to peel off the structured silk that felt more like armor than a gown at this hour.

The room was dimly lit, the only light coming from the pale moon filtering through the heavy drapes.

As she stepped toward her vanity to unpin her hair, she felt a shift in the air. A familiar and oppressive presence lurked in the corner of the room.

"You lingered quite a while with the Captain," a voice rasped from the shadows.

Evelina tilted her head and met his gaze in the reflection of her mirror.

Ace was leaning against the bedpost, his silhouette resembled a jagged tear in the darkness.

The white linen of his cuff was still stained with a faint purple and red, that caught her attention for a moment.

"The Captain is an expert in cavalry management," Evelina replied, her voice smooth and entirely nonchalant as she began to pull the pins from her hair one by one, "As the Duchess of this estate, it is my duty to ensure our officers are well-supported. I assume you would want nothing less for your men."

Ace moved.

He didn’t walk; he prowled, crossing the space between them until he was looming directly behind her.

The heat radiating from his body was a sharp contrast to the cold indifference in her eyes.

"Management? Is that what you’d like to call it?" he hissed, his hand reaching out to grip the back of her chair, "The way you smiled at him? The way you let him hold and kiss... and linger over your hand like a common suitor? You made a spectacle of yourself, Evelina. You even made a spectacle of us."

Evelina stood up, turning to face him.

She stood her ground, her chin tilted upward, forcing him to look her in the eye, "I merely made a connection that secures the loyalty of your third division. If your pride is so fragile that a conversation about horseshoes threatens it, then perhaps the Iron Duke isn’t as sturdy as the Empire believes."

The insult snapped the last thread of his control.

In a single, blurred motion, Ace stepped forward and yanked her towards him.

He twirled her around and pinned her against the cold stone wall, his hands slamming into the masonry on either side of her head.

The tension in the air was dangerous... yet seductive.

"Do you even know what you’re doing?" he growled, his face inches from hers, his breath hitching as he searched her eyes for a flicker of the old devotion she had towards him, "You spend weeks ignoring me, you bankrupt your father, you seize control of my household, and then you flaunt yourself in front of my rivals. What is the end goal, Evelina? To see how far you can push me?"

Evelina looked at him with a bored curiosity, "You are making this about yourself again, which is a mistake. My end goal doesn’t have you in it."

Ace stared at her, his jaw set so hard his teeth ached.

’My end goal doesn’t have you in it.’

Those words did something to him that he couldn’t understand.

He was at his wits’ end. For so long, he had held all the cards, and now he found himself playing a game where he didn’t even know the rules.

He wanted to shake her, to demand she become the predictable woman he was so familiar with. But as he looked at her calm, almost mocking expression, he realized with a sickening jolt that he might... not have no power over her anymore.

Bewildered by his own lack of control and enraged by the fire burning in his chest, he abruptly pushed himself away from the wall.

He didn’t say another word. He turned on his heel and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him with enough force to rattle the windows, as angry at his own weakness as he was at her.

Evelina watched the door for a moment, then her lips curled downward into a small scowl.

"Men," she whispered to the empty room, shaking her head as if the Duke of the Empire were nothing more than a particularly troublesome moth, "Such a bother."

[Notification: Target’s ego has sustained critical damage]

[Status: Ace is currently ’Self-Loathing’ and ’Obsessed’]

[Reward: +300 Heart-Wrecker Points awarded!]

[Current Balance: 1600 Heart-Wrecker Points]

Evelina’s mood was uplifted right away. She could barely be bothered to understand his mind’s inner working but that didn’t mean she would say no to free points.

Soon, she turned back to her vanity, her mind already shifting away from the domestic drama.

She needed her beauty sleep.

In two days, it would be the day she had been looking forward to for a while now.

...

Soon, it was the day of the Midsummer’s Tea.

The iron-wrought gates of the Imperial Palace swung open, yielding to the black-lacquered carriage bearing the Alvarez crest.

In her past life, this journey had been a source of suffocating anxiety for Evelina.

Back then, she had spent the ride frantically checking her reflection, adjusted her outdated and modest lace collar, praying that her appearance would finally merit a single, approving glance from the man sitting across from her.

But today, the seat across from her was empty.

Ace had intended to arrive late, a silent statement of his indifference to her social standing.

Evelina, however, had used the solitude to communicate with the System in peace.

"I want to know the current status of the [High-Class Aura]"

[Notification: The High-Class Aura has crossed its effectiveness period.]

Now, that made Evelina straighten almost instantly.