Chapter 15: 15

Volume 1 Chapter 15: Miss Cecilia is Unable to Flee!

After meeting with Cloud and the others, Lect and Melody introduced themselves to the women: Cloud’s elder sister Catherine, Georac’s wife Haumea, and Hughes’s wife Marianna. Thankfully, it seemed Marianna also did not see through Melody’s disguise, but…

“This one is an exceptionally cute girl… Lectias, why did you not introduce her to us sooner?”

Christina, the woman that shared Cloud’s silver hair, asked Lect, teasing him with a mischievious smile on her face.

“…We only recently became acquainted with one another. She is not of noble birth, so tonight is actually her first time attending this kind of event.”

Lect managed to keep a straight face as he gives an explanation to keep Christina from digging for further information.

Lect continued with the fabricated backstory: Cecilia was Paula’s distant relative living on the west side of the kingdom, who happened to be visiting and whom Lect happened to meet.

He claimed he had not introduced her because they had just gotten to know each other and that, since she was not a noble, she would only be attending an event with him this one time. There was no need to introduce a girl he would have no further interactions with after tonight — was what he implied.

But of course, Christina simply giggled with a smirk, and Haumea began happily gossiping away without regard to Lect.

“Oh my, so after all this time, after always coming alone, you suddenly decide to bring a girl that you only recently got to know… You seem to be quite serious about her. In that case, fufufu… What ever shall we do, Lady Christina?”

“What ever shall we do indeed, Lady Haumea. If we wish to see her again at a future party, it seems she will require appropriate standing… Perhaps as the wife of a certain noble? What say you?”

“Oh my, that sounds like a lovely idea! Fufufu…”

The noblewomen’s peals of elegant laughter flew in the face of Lect’s cobbled explanation, and it was all he could do keep from letting out a tired sigh. Well, the ladies were simply having fun at the expense of this young man’s innocence, so please find it in your heart to forgive them ♪

(…And this is exactly why I never brought along a female companion.)

These two women loved gossiping about romance, and they found great pleasure in teasing someone as straight-laced as Lect. Of course, on any given day, they were model ladies of respect and influence in high society, but their gravitas would instantly disappear the moment they found a vulnerable target and went out-of-control with their teasing.

Lect turned to take a quick peek at Melody, but it seemed the teasing has not affected her in the least as she still wore an angelic smile.

But while he admired her courage, he did not notice the panic hiding under her façade.

(She’s. Watching. Meee..!)

The teasing did not bother her in the slighest; rather, the more pressing issue was the stare… no, the glare boring holes right into her, a strong glare that came from Luciana.

After the pair had greeted the men and were addressing the ladies, Melody had felt as though someone was watching her every move, and when she looked around to find the source… she found her young mistress scowling right at her.

(Kyaaaaaa!)

The sudden appearance of such a frightening look blindsided Melody like a jumpscare out of the dark.

(Um… I wonder if… she n-noticed… Definitely not… right? Ahaha…)

Melody, well aware Luciana has found her out, desperately tried to cope by telling herself otherwise… but being in denial changed nothing.

Meanwhile, Lect continues talking with Christina and the ladies.

“Oh my! So what you mean is from the moment you met, you wanted her to be your partner? Isn’t that right?”

“N-no, um, that’s not…”

“There is surely more to this story, Lady Christina! I am sure they met up every day, and as they grew closer, he began thinking ‘I want to be with her, she is the one!’. Oh my, how romantic it must have been! Ohoho!”

“Um, as I mentioned before, that’s not what happened…”

” “It seems young Lect is actually much more of a romantic than we thought!” “

Poor Lect, so serious and straight-laced… There was no way he could fend off the calculated digs and innuendos of these experienced ladies.

Lect could scarcely defend himself against their verbal assault; the ladies added fictional subtext and implication, took his careful answers out of context, and twisted the meaning of his words. Their teasing, well-practiced from years of socializing, easily cornered Lect, and it was rather unclear how he was supposed to defend himself…

But in the middle of all of this, there was one lady unable to keep up with the conversation: Marianna Luthorburg.

Of course, she wanted to join in on the fun talk, and she does so now in the worst way possible.

“Ah, um… Oh, Miss Cecilia, if you do not mind, I would like to intro…”

— In that very moment, Melody’s thoughts accelerate as her genius brain starts working to its limits; at this rate, Marianna’s full question should be…

“If you do not mind, I would like to introduce my daughter Luciana to you.”

Melody must not allow her to finish that sentence as meeting Luciana now would be disastrous. As Marianna continued her sentence, Melody could see a sharp glint in Luciana’s eyes.

(Oh no no no! I can’t let her finish that sentence! I need a way out, now!)

“…duce my dau–“

“Sir Lect!”

Melody raised her voice, using a volume unbecoming of an angle. The ladies looked at her in surprise, but Melody was successful in stopping Marianna. She steeled her resolved and pinched the hem of Lect’s sleeve.

“…Um, Sir Lect, would you… care to join me for the next song?”

There went Melody’s desperate plea. At the moment, the hall had calmed as the party was at the intermission between dances, and Melody had seized that opportunity.

Such was her strategem to escape the situation: a direct retreat into the crowded fray of dancers.

But this was a major faux pas; noblewomen were supposed to quietly wait for an invitation while noblemen were supposed to invite their lady to dance.

However, the sight of an embarassed, blushing Melody nervously tugging at his sleeve was, putting it lightly, extremely cute. Lect’s heart began to beat faster than before.

And so he answered Melody’s invitation, escorting her to the dance area.

Christina could not help but laugh as she watched Lect’ walk off with stiff nervousness.

“Fufufu, it looks like we didn’t need to tease them so much after all. I thought the girl was just an innocent wallflower, but she was quite bold at the end there.”

Haumea was smiling as she nodded in agreement. Marianna seemed to share the same opinion as she nodded her agreement.

“I agree. I was even feeling embarassed for her, even though I used to do things like that all the time with Hughes…”

Unfortunately, Marianna’s casual words trigger an immediate response from the two love-story-enthusiast friends beside her.

“Are you perhaps speaking from personal experience, Lady Marianna?”

“Huh? Why, yes, it actually happened a number of times while we were students. That Hughes would spend all of his time with those friends of his if I left him alone!”

“Oh my!”

Haumea’s cheeks glowed red as her smile deepened while Christina grew ecstatic as the two discover a new source of entertainment.

“Fufufu, it seems we may have chanced upon a new font of riches, Lady Haumea.”

“My goodness Lady Christina, did you think so as well? I lamented losing a precious jewel, but it seems an even greater trove was among us this entire time! Ohohoho!”

“Um, might I ask what it is the two of you are speaking of?”

A bad feeling suddenly came over Marianna as her two compansions, the very embodiment of those bad feelings, wore mischievous smiles.

” “Why, about the fun Spring Ball that’s about to begin, of course!” “

After that, the ladies interrogated Marianna, wringing out every detail of her love story. It was a careful, thorough interrogation…

Meanwhile, on Luciana’s side —

(Melodyyy..!)

It had become clear to Luciana that Melody was deliberately avoiding her, and Luciana’s anger had risen to critical levels..

“Luciana, what’s wrong? You keep furrowing your brows.”

“It’s nothing! Nothing’s wrong!”

“It does not seem that way to me…”

Luciana was, to any casual onlooker, very clearly angry about something, but neither Beatrice nor Miliaria knew the cause.

Luciana was glaring at the angelic beauty from some moments ago, but it did not seem to be a look of jealousy…

“Well, we should leave it be. In any case, what do you plan to do for that, Luciana? Are you planning to participate? Would you like to go together?”

“Plan to do for what? What are you talking about, Beatrice?”

“Oh, were you not aware, Miss Luciana? There is a sort of annual tradition during the Spring Ball…”

Miliaria took out a programme and pointed out a specific line to her. Luciana’s eyes widened with astonishment.

“– Huh?! This…”

“Oh, you really didn’t know. It looks to be a very interesting event… So what will you be doing?”

Luciana grinned as she answered Beatrice’s question.

“I think I will participate.”

“Oh? Well in that case…”

“Lord Maxwell!”

But before Beatrice could finish speaking, Luciana ran off towards Maxwell.

“Is there something wrong, Lady Luciana?”

Luciana found Maxwell talking with other men, and she had cut-in to call out to him. Maxwell, in response, tilted his head in confusion.

“Lord Maxwell, please allow me to have this dance.”

Luciana had unexpectedly invited him to dance but had committed a worse faux pas than Melody. Again, in proper etiquette, ladies were supposed to receive an invitation to dance, not demand one themselves.

The people around her became astonished at her forwardness, but no words of criticism came… because she was too cute and dignified to criticize!

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“– Eh? Ah, wait..!”

Maxwell, still reeling from the sudden proposition, could not resist as Luciana took his hand and dragged him over to the dance area.

The remaining guests looked on, watching Luciana take Maxwell away.

“Umm, Miss Beatrice? What shall we do now? If you would like, we could…”

“…Let us do nothing for now. Luciana seems to have a goal in mind, so how about we relax and watch for now? I’m sure we will get to see something interesting.”

“Perhaps you are right. This is Miss Luciana, after all.”

The two exchanged knowing looks before laughing together, and then they turned their attention to Luciana at the dance area.

Lect and Melody were facing each other; their hands were clasping, their waists were nearly touching, and they were close enough to hear the other’s heartbeats and breathing.

In short, Lect was feeling extremely nervous at the moment.

But that was a predictable outcome. Really, there existed no man who would not feel nervous when invited by their crush —

(…”Invited by my crush”? Is that how I see her? …Are these feelings of mine… Is this what love is?)

This shocking revelation struck Lect like a bolt from the blue: Lect has finally realized and understood his own feelings.

Lectias Frodo was in love with Melody Wave… probably.

But Lect was twenty-one years old, quite the age to finally experience his first love. And if this was the first time he experienced these kinds of feelings, how could he be totally sure of what they were? But…

…Melody, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief having escaped imminent danger.

(I managed to escape from my lady. Now all I have to do is return home after the dance!)

If Melody blended in with the crowd and remained hidden, she could escape the Spring Ball before Luciana catches her.

But as Melody began to relax, Lect conversely grew more nervous.

(…Wh-which foot takes the leadings step again? Oh no, I’m drawing a blank… I can’t seem to remember right now.)

“Sir Lect? You seem to be getting quite stiff. Is something making you nervous?”

Naturally, Melody, who is in close proximity, could feel every minute change.

“Uh, um, no, it’s just…”

“Could it be that dancing is not your forte, Sir Lect? Is that the reason why you never attended these kinds of events?”

Melody let out a soft giggle. Although Melody had a complete misunderstanding of the situation, Lect still became surprised.

“But there is no need to worry. After all, as long as you know the basics of dancing, all you have to do is enjoy yourself.”

Despite being spartan instructor reviewing and nitpicking a certain young lady’s dance lessons, Melody was quite flippant now, and she cheekily stuck her tongue out with a smile… When Lect saw this, he could feel the awkward stiltedness in his body disappear.

That casual smile filled Lect’s heart with joy — he could no longer doubt his feelings. What he felt about this girl was…

When the music resumed, a truly angelic dance began.

Lect’s lead was better than Melody had expected. His robust muscles supplemented her movements, and the techniques they displayed boasted perfect choreography. Lect’s support uplifted Melody’s routine, turning their performance into a mesmerizing dance.

(So you can dance after all, Sir Lect. Fufufu, this is getting to be quite fun!)

How about this? What about this one? Can you keep up with this, too? Melody performed a number of moves as though testing Lect, and he responded to each of her unreasonable challenges without difficulty.

The result was a delicate dance that seemed to stimulate every nerve down to their very fingertips. Their performance gave a bold but light impression, and the other guests watched as the two moved their entire bodies in their dance.

The angel’s dance has completely mesmerized the audience. In that moment, Lect took hold of Melody with one hand, lifted her off the ground, and began a gentle twirl.

She had become an angel in flight, and her cape, fluttering tenderly, was the very image of flapping wings.

The other dancers felt as though they ascended into the heavens as they watched the angel take to the skies: they were no longer in a ballroom; they had soared into the blue, above the clouds, and where the angels did reside… And at the same time, there, beside the angel, was a fairy in flight.

While such an angelic dance was occurring, there were two unfortunate souls missing out on the wondrous spectacle…

“Ugh, too many people invited me to dance. There were so many that I missed out on meeting and speaking to Luciana-chan.”

“What are you complaining to me for? I wanted to talk to her and dance with her too, but I didn’t get to do either of those things. Well, it’s not like it was bad to dance with all those beautiful girls, but what I really wanted was to be able to talk with my favorite one…”

The unfortunate ones were the two reincarnators, Annemarie the Marquis’s daughter and Christopher the Crown Prince.

“Hey, can you not talk about your disgusting fetishes out in the open?”

“It’s not a fetish though?! It is a man’s duty to invite every beautiful lady to dance.”

“Is that so? Then, do the duties of the Crown Prince include following a lady as she leaves to fix her make-up? Wow, I just learned something new… you degenerate.

“Hey, wait a minute! What are you trying to say here?! Don’t put words in my mouth with these weird accusations!”

As it turned out, the two had, after the unending stream of dance invitations, excused themselves to find the restrooms.. together. Of course, it did not take long for them to start arguing again, and it appeared they would not be returning to the ballroom.

When the music quieted again, the audience began to cheer and applaud. Melody and Lect shook with exhilarated exhaustion, wearing expressions of satisfaction; they bowed to one another, indicating the end of their dance.

“Thank you for the dance, Sir Lect. I had a very fun time.”

“Likewise… it was fun for me as well.”

Lect gave a soft smile as droplets of sweat trickled down his face.

Seeing his smile for the first time struck Melody with sudden surprise.

(Wow, I never knew Sir Lect could smile like that.)

Melody could only feel happy that she got to see another side of her friend.

But that reminded her of what she needed to do: she should not stay at the venue for much longer! Since the dance had ended, Melody only needed to make a stealthy exit.

“Um, Sir Lect–“

“Ladies and gentlemen, and honored guests!”

But before she could make her break, the announcer’s loud voice echoed throughout the hall, and its suddenness surprised Melody into silence.

(Wh-what in the world?!)

“Is everyone enjoying the Spring Ball? Many of you are meeting others for the first time tonight, not to mention the very students who will be attending our Academy this year, and dancing together is a very good way of getting to know one another! However, it must be very lonely to only dance with someone of the opposite gender, so we are adding in a new twist! In this next song, we would like to have some of the ladies to take the gentleman’s leading role and some of the gentlemen take the lady’s following role to better understand each other! Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, let us commence with the Spring Ball annual tradition, the Same Gender Couples’ Dance!”

(The what dance?! This is the first time I’ve ever heard of that! And it’s starting now?!)

Many same-gender pairs came into the dance area. Melody tried to leave, but there was nowhere for her to move.

“Oh, so it was already time for this part of the dance.”

“Did you know about this, Sir Lect?!”

“Of course I do, it’s a Spring Ball annual tradition.”

“An annual tradition?! Um, I-I don’t think I will participate in this dance, so I think I will be goin– kyaa!”

Something, no, somebody suddenly grabbed Melody by the arm. Melody’s eyes widened in shock while her face paled as she slowly looked up to meet the smiling girl who grabbed her arm.

“Fufufu. So how about a dance with me, Me–, Lady Cecilia?”

Staring straight at Melody was a beautiful, blonde-haired and blue-eyed girl; the fairy princess Luciana wore a great smile on her face as she caught hold of Melody’s arm.

(Kyaa! That’s not a smile! And your eyes, my lady! They don’t look happy at all!)

And without further ado, the angel-fairy couple disappeared into the crowd.

Elsewhere, with the Annemarie-Christopher pair…

“Correct me if I’m remembering wrong, but this “Same Gender Couples’ Dance” affects certain relationship parameters depending on who the heroine dances with, right?”

“That’s right. For example, if you dance with the new friends from the entrance ceremony, your affinity with them increases, and they will provide more support. On the other hand, dancing with me, the villainess, and increasing the affinity will reduce the game’s difficulty. The partner you choose during this event would affect how you play the game going forward.”

While Annemarie proudly explained the mechanics, Christopher’s mouth bent with a frown as he had a sudden thought.

“…And I suppose the male-pair dances in this event were rather popular among the more… rotten-minded female fans?”

“There were even CGs of some love interests dancing together, and I heard some fans took it upon themselves to make some… derivative works from that. I didn’t have any interest in it myself, but I did hear Christopher x Maxwell was a popular ship…”

“No, stop explaining! I didn’t ask to hear about any of it!!”

Christopher put his hands to his head, groaning with mental anguish. He wanted to imagine cute girls together, not this!

“Well, for me, I’d prefer Lect-sama. I suppose I wouldn’t mind if his partner were you…”

“Seriously, cut it out! I’ve heard more than enough!”

Annemarie smirked as she watched Christopher, whom she disliked, squirm in discomfort.

…But the fun, carefree ball they were enjoying will last only a little while longer.

(After the dance finishes, the next part of this event will begin. Since the heroine isn’t here… I can’t say for certain we won’t have any casualties. We will need to be careful.)

Annemarie wore a pensive expression as she walked through the hall… with a spring in her step.

Well, it is what it is. Unsettling, unexpected developments may occur down the line, but it would happen when it happened. More importantly in the now, Annemarie imagined dancing with Luciana, and her heart filled with excitement.

…But they had misread the schedule of events and did not realize the Same Gender Couples’ Dance had already begun. How much worse could their luck get? It was getting painful to imagine…

That being said, because our maid heroine danced with her young mistress, what relationship parameters would that affect? And how would that change the game? …It was truly a mystery.

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