Chapter 125
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The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
The first Beginning-of-Spring Festival held in the Grand Duchy of Waldrova.
Hestia Village celebrated the new shoots of spring with spirited music, laughter, and the smell of alcohol.
The nobles’ social gathering began after noon, when the sun had halfway descended toward the west.
Most of the young ladies and young noblemen who had arrived early mingled with one another to expand their social connections.
The later they arrived, the more it showed how influential they were.
Olivia arrived just before sunset and entered the social hall.
Even though she was not the host, everyone’s attention was drawn to her.
No one said it aloud, but everyone in attendance, even the host himself, knew it.
The real star of this place was Olivia Arken.
“You’re beautiful as always, Your Highness.”
“I heard you went to great lengths to let us attend the Beginning-of-Spring Festival. Thank you so much.”
The members of the Golden Rose lavished Olivia with flattery.
Since she had asked Ferda in advance to make sure they could attend, naturally, every one of them had been allowed in.
Since they had faithfully played their roles, it was her duty to reward them.
“Of course. We share a friendship that binds us as one, don’t we?”
“Until last year, I couldn’t even imagine setting foot in a Beginning-of-Spring Festival like this……. I’m so moved I feel like I could cry.”
“Ah, my makeup is starting to run too. At this rate, I might end up looking like a ghost bride.”
“A ghost bride? Don’t say such frightening things.”
The young ladies burst into laughter.
No matter what it was like for the other young ladies, Olivia had never endured a time as harsh as this.
She had to offer praise and consolation she did not mean, while enduring the gazes of men she had no interest in.
‘Still, this isn’t as irritating as the other social gatherings.’
It was strange.
Was it because someone she was looking forward to was here?
She was not as tired as usual; instead, she was able to play her role more energetically.
Evening came, and Ferda entered the banquet hall.
“The Great Imperial Consort, Regent Ferda Waldrova, has arrived!”
The music stopped, and everyone bowed their heads toward Ferda.
The young ladies of the Golden Rose chattered without pause.
“So that’s Regent Ferda Waldrova.”
“He’s young and handsome, just as the rumors said…….”
Perhaps it was because of his distinctive air.
Quite a few young ladies felt a thrill they could not experience when looking at men their own age.
At the same time, they kept stealing glances at Olivia.
They wanted to confirm with their own eyes whether the gossip was true.
Olivia left no opening.
She wore only the businesslike smile she used with other men.
‘He’ll give the speech now, I suppose.’
The speech was none other than the one she herself had written.
Having attended countless social gatherings, she had considered the age and status of the audience and composed the best possible speech.
Now it was Ferda’s turn to read it.
The speech began.
The moment he opened his mouth, the astonishment began.
His precise pronunciation, characteristic of a mage, combined with his solemn air to overwhelm the hall to a degree that would put most orators to shame.
‘When they said he had moved those old men at the Grand Council, it wasn’t an idle rumor.’
All she felt was the shallowness of having imagined him merely giving a speech.
Olivia found herself imagining it.
That man reigning as the new emperor after overthrowing Emperor Arken.
The sight made Olivia’s heart flutter.
He concluded his speech to a round of applause.
Olivia clapped along as well, then returned to the Golden Rose.
The young ladies, their faces flushed bright red, talked about Ferda.
“Isn’t the Regent absolutely wonderful?”
“I know. If only he didn’t have a fiancée, I’d be tempted to go over and seduce him.”
His magnificent air combined with his speech to completely capture the ladies’ hearts.
Olivia found their reactions strangely displeasing.
Even though everything had gone according to plan.
“Oh my, he’s coming this way.”
The young ladies swept back their hair and began pretending to be demure while chatting among themselves.
“Thank you for helping with the Beginning-of-Spring Festival.”
Ferda offered Olivia his thanks.
“Not at all. It was my honor to be able to help.”
“Then I hope you enjoy yourselves.”
The two exchanged only a cool, perfunctory greeting.
The young ladies looked as though they wondered whether they had failed to see something properly.
Olivia naturally tilted her head and asked them,
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
Hardly nothing.
Their minds were probably filled with the scandal by now.
If there had been even the slightest opening, they would have been pleased to have something to chew over, but there had been none at all.
Now that she had planted suspicion, time would naturally erode their interest.
“Come to think of it, the Regent hasn’t smiled even once.”
“I thought he might at least smile with someone if he had a close friend here.”
‘Of course not.’
Olivia did not join in; she answered inwardly instead.
That man’s smile was different from the cheap laughter men gave off when crushed beneath their own passions.
That smile was something even Olivia had never seen.
Did it not possess the ultimate value forged from pure affection?
Olivia was happy.
The fact that she alone knew the value of that smile
meant she was different from these foolish women who chased after men’s tails.
And this was a moment when she could once again confirm how noble that man was.
The ball began.
The bees flew toward the flowers, and Olivia was no exception.
Bees that flew in without knowing their place.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m unworthy, but I would like to ask Your Highness for a dance—”
“Oh my, how about dancing with me?”
“Pardon?”
“Come along!”
Another young lady snatched away the hand reaching toward Olivia, and the nobleman was dragged toward the dance floor with a dazed look on his face.
The way the bees swarming the Golden Rose were devoured resembled a Venus flytrap.
This was the Golden Rose’s method of making eye contact, falling for one another, and eventually becoming engaged.
‘I should get ready.’
After the first dance ended, Ferda would come.
And Olivia only had to refuse him.
Everyone would be watching, and the suspicion would end right there.
Olivia calculated the expression and demeanor she would display at that moment.
“Oh?”
“Oh my goodness.”
It was starting again.
The fussing of an immature young lady.
Just as Olivia was about to sigh inwardly,
“The Regent is smiling?”
Smiling?
Wondering what they meant, Olivia turned her gaze toward the dance floor.
By coincidence, Ferda immediately caught her eye.
The moment she saw him, a crack appeared in Olivia’s mask.
‘……Is he really smiling?’
She wondered whether she was seeing it wrong.
The banquet music flowed, and men and women moved like schools of fish across a lake.
In their midst, Ferda could be seen smiling as he spoke with someone.
Her eyes reflexively turned toward his partner.
‘Who is that young lady……?’
Freckles and black hair.
No matter how she looked at her, the young lady’s appearance was inferior to Olivia’s, and even her clothes were behind the latest fashions.
She could not possibly be Waldrova.
As far as Olivia knew, when Waldrova took human form, she was a red-haired woman with two pairs of horns.
That meant she was merely a nobody, an extra whom Ferda had approached for the sake of the scenario.
But.
‘Why is he smiling like that?’
It was strange.
I danced with that harlot longer than she did.
Even though he hadn’t smiled after dancing for four hours.
At me.
Not even once.
Olivia reflexively opened her folding fan and covered her mouth.
The mask around her mouth had shattered.
With her mind in turmoil, Olivia objectively analyzed herself.
‘Am I…… jealous?’
No.
That was impossible.
Ferda loved Waldrova.
Olivia cherished that love.
It was because she treasured that pure devotion that she admired Ferda.
As the god who moved her heart.
‘……I understand.’
She was angry because he had lied.
He had acted as though he were different from other men, but in the end, he was just the same as them.
He smiled freely at other people but not at me because
he knew that I was special.
‘So he intended to toy with me in the palm of his hand like that…….’
Right.
That was what it was.
You were just like every other man after all.
The music stopped.
Ferda exchanged greetings with that harlot and turned away.
Then he came toward Olivia.
Just as Olivia’s scenario had laid out.
Olivia herself acknowledged what would happen next.
What she was about to do was an impulsive act not included in the plan.
An act driven by emotion.
And yet, she could not stop herself.
Only one sentence repeated in her mind.
“All right.”
You deserve to be punished.
* * *
Ferda suddenly found himself in a bewildering situation while everything had been proceeding according to plan.
‘What is she doing?’
If he asked her to dance, she was supposed to refuse.
But unlike the scenario she had described, she had accepted his invitation.
Ferda was not the only one who was surprised.
Even the young ladies, who had naturally expected her to refuse, could not hide their wide eyes behind their fans as they looked back and forth between the two of them.
‘What on earth is she planning?’
Olivia was levelheaded.
When it came to matters like this, she was more calculating and perceptive than Ferda.
That meant she knew the woman inevitably suffered the greatest damage when a scandal broke out.
A man could simply meet another woman, but the moment a woman was branded a seductress, her social standing was ruined.
There was no way Olivia did not know that.
‘Is there something I don’t know?’
He wondered whether there was some rational reason beyond Ferda’s ability to notice.
He needed an explanation.
“Would you escort me?”
Olivia held out a hand wearing a silk glove.
Then he had to take that hand.
He had to dance with Olivia here.
He had to.
And yet, at the same time, he felt weighed down as though he were doing something terrible.
That heaviness and his sense of duty collided, confusing Ferda.
Was it really right to take her hand and dance with her here?
Just as he was about to place his hand over hers,
“Show proper respect!”
A booming voice rang out.
The speaker was not the employee sent from the Empire, but Ruri.
She, who never casually joined human banquets, overwhelmed the entire hall.
There was only one occasion when she stepped forward.
Waldrova’s arrival.
“Her Highness the Grand Duchess has arrived!”
The doors opened.
Ferda doubted his own eyes.
It was not the dragon armor he had seen countless times while staying in this castle.
She stood about 160 centimeters tall.
She had red hair and two pairs of horns.
She wore a splendid red dress adorned with gold, its color complementing her hair.
She walked elegantly across the carpet.
Everyone bowed their heads, expressing respect and awe toward the immortal.
Ferda stared at her, dumbfounded.
It was like being granted an audience with the goddess of beauty.
Waldrova’s footsteps, which had been following the carpet forward, veered toward Ferda.
She was coming straight toward him.
“……”
Waldrova came right up to Ferda but said nothing.
Instead, she quietly held out her hand to him.
The hostess was asking the host for a dance.
Ferda’s predicament grew even worse.
Olivia had just asked him to dance.
According to etiquette, he had to put Waldrova off until later.
But if he said that now, it felt as though the hand suspended in the air would fall in vain.
“Please enjoy a pleasant time with Her Highness the Grand Duchess.”
Fortunately, Olivia withdrew without protest.
Ferda took Waldrova’s hand.
He did what Waldrova had always been afraid of.
He exerted a carefully controlled amount of strength.
He could tell how much grueling training it had taken her to control it.
He escorted her to the dance floor.
Ferda carefully placed a hand on her body.
He felt the warmth of her skin through her soft hand.
And her trembling.
Even though he had only taken her hand, Ferda realized
that Waldrova knew about the gossip involving him and Olivia.
‘I see.’
She had not come here because she had found the courage to appear before everyone.
She had been driven from her sanctuary.
Driven by the emotion of anxiety.
And the source of that anxiety had surely been Ferda himself.
‘I hurt her.’
Guilt tormented Ferda.
A voice running the Shadow Circle breathed into Ferda’s ear.
It only sneered, as though there were no need to say more.
Even though the moment he had longed for most had arrived, Ferda could not feel happy.
He could think only of what expression she wore behind that mask.
‘I need to keep time…….’
He could not hear the music, so his steps kept tangling.
The same was true for Waldrova.
They displayed the worst possible coordination, trampling each other’s feet throughout the dance.
One hellish minute after another passed, and the song came to an end.
They were supposed to release each other’s hands and exchange a bow, but Waldrova did not let go.
Instead, she rose onto her tiptoes and whispered into Ferda’s ear.
“……Mr. Ferda.”
Ferda’s heart plummeted into the depths.
It was her real voice, not the one altered by the voice modulator.
Her trembling voice carried the dampness of dawn’s dew.
“Please speak.”
“This hand…… You mustn’t let go……”
She pleaded weakly.
“I…… I might run away somewhere right now. If you let go…… I’m sure I’ll show a side of myself unworthy of a sovereign. I might…… embarrass you, Mr. Ferda.”
The uncertain voice gradually trembled more violently.
Ferda knew what he had to say.
“I’ll lead you.”
Ferda held her hand tightly and walked out of the banquet hall with her.
He did not even greet the guests.
Etiquette and appearances no longer mattered.