"—follow me!!"
Riol immediately pulled her. Sharina was quick on the uptake and followed suit. They headed towards a table filled with lots of snacks and drinks.
"Did That put a tracker on you…?" Riol exhaled, while taking a gla.s.s.
"I almost became a stone…"
"Don"t be relieved, yet. That Medusa won"t yield easily."
The party was to start soon. It would open with the Princ.i.p.al"s speech. Then, the music would start signaling the time for the first dance.
It wasn"t a violation of manners if someone were to invite a nearby person for first dance, but said inviter would surely be ridiculed—
—in other words, it was possible for the Prince, who didn"t have a partner yet, to invite Sharina to dance at the last minute—regardless of whether or not she had a partner.
As such, Riol and Sharina kept their distance from him.
A certain distance needed to be maintained—hence, they escaped to the food and drink area at the end of the hall.
"Even so, does he think I would accept him just like that?"
"Well, he wouldn"t, if he had any certain degree of common sense."
It was no problem to invite someone who was alone in that area to dance during the middle of the party. However, trying to invite someone at first glance would result in the inviter being considered "unable to read the situation. After all, said someone might be alone due to simply wanting to take a break.
However, it was different if someone was in that area along with her respective partner. Such would mean that the two wanted to spend time together chatting, not that they were tired or anything.
By staying there, either with or without Riol, the Prince should pick up on her intentions—that she didn"t feel like dancing with others.
"Other than that, most of the girls seem to be wearing blue and gold dresses… the hall looks like the dawn sky…"
Sharina, whom had entered the safe zone, finally had a chance to look around. She sipped on her drink. Although the men"s costumes had become more gorgeous these days, the women"s dresses were the most prominent at the dance hall.
Sparkling gold laces and embroideries on a fluttering blue fabric. Each ribbon flapped due to wind magic and glimmered from being sewn on with light magic. Yet, for some reason, the color scheme were largely the same.
"…in the end of the day, That is still a prince."
"Huh?"
"Every dress is the same color as the Prince"s hair and eyes. Since so many girls in school yearn for him, they probably wear said colors to express exactly that."
"Then, I"m the existence that yearn for you, Riol!"
"…in the end of the day, you"re still you. Well, for now, anyway."
If there were many dresses of the same color, it would be difficult to tell who was whom. Angelica, her best friend, should be there, and yet, she couldn"t find her. Maybe because Sharina was searching for her within the swarm of blue dresses—wondering if Angelica had decided to join the trend instead of wearing her usual red dress.
"—look! It"s Lady Rosalind!"
"She"s alone!"
"Even though Lady Rosalind came, His Highness isn"t her escort—the rumors are true…!!"
A woman whom had just appeared from the door drew in everyone"s attention.
"How beautiful…"
The woman was so beautiful, it hurt. Deep blue eyes, like the bottom of the sea. Platinum blonde hair, almost silver, without any fray…
Her dress, too, was blue embroidered with gold. However, other than that, she didn"t wear anything flashy. She only wore a simple silver necklace. Pearls were scattered on her hair. She didn"t wear corsage, either. The simplicity only drew out her beauty.
"Rosalind Ariarose—one of the Prince"s fiancée candidates."
"No way—! What a terrible fate—!"
"Well, you"re probably the only one who thinks that way. In the eyes of others, she is in a position to be envied by everyone—in fact, she is envied by everyone, isn"t she? I get where you"re coming from, though."
Riol explained in a quiet voice to Sharina, who was still admiring Rosalind. Sharina also knew that the Prince had no fiancée, only candidates. Well, that was her first time seeing one of those candidates. Whether she was interested in such gossip or not was irrelevant—the point was, all the aristocrats knew their names.
"He has such a beautiful fiancée candidate, I truly don"t know what he sees in this little me…"
Everyone also knew that the fiancée candidates and the Prince weren"t getting along too well.
"Your normalness has its charms, too."
"Huh?"
As he heard to himself, Riol had an unusual look of surprise on his face. Such a rare expression—very cool!!!
"Well, if Rosalind manages to attract the Prince, that would be good, too. We would be saved."
As Rosalind treaded forward, everyone naturally opened a path for her—one that led to Prince Leonardo.
Sharina watched Rosalind gave a perfect bow from a long distance.
The Prince and Rosalind—neither of them had partners. Furthermore, Rosalind was the prime candidate to be the Prince"s fiancée. If the Prince didn"t invite her to the first dance, Rosalind would lose face for sure.
No matter how much of an idiot that Prince is, he should at least be aware of that fact, right?
"…It"s a very simple thing to do, this should end well…" Even if she couldn"t think of a reason to back that up—still…
"Although it"s no use to expect anything of That…"
What happened next went as Riol "expected"—
—the idiot prince left Rosalind behind and exited the place.
His attendant seemed to be panicking and saying something, but the person in question only shook his head dismissively—
—before suddenly turning back.
"Eh—!?"
"Wa—"
"See" "You" "Later".
Even though there was a considerable distance between them, their eyes still met. Leonardo"s lips moved, and through those movements, Sharina caught what he was trying to say.
"Uuu, …ueeeeeee—"
"—are you okay—!? Hold on—!!"
She felt so disgusted she collapsed on spot. Riol supported her and somehow managed to get her back up.
"I"m sorry, Riol, even though you told me not to meet his eyes…"
"Don"t worry about it. I wasn"t even the one he"s looking at, and yet I"m ready to throw up—how much did you get damaged by that direct hit…?"
Eh?
What"s this?
What"s this sudden self-loathing I"m feeling?
Was it because I was able to correctly read his lips?
Sharina supported herself by leaning on Riol. (Truth to be told, she had already recovered enough to stand on her own, but she obviously couldn"t miss that chance.)
"If you find it hard to stand, do you want to go to where the chairs are?"
—it seemed that she had leaned on him a bit too strong, raising his concern. Riol sounded seriously worried.
"Eh, uhm…"
However, when she was about to stand upright and rea.s.sure him—
"—then let me take you there."
Her body stiffened from the voice coming from the immediate vicinity. In the next moment, her feet floated into the air.
What a tragedy.
The moment she allowed her eyes wander, the source of her nausea was already rus.h.i.+ng towards her—
"—wha—"
—no matter how much she regretted it, the dye had been cast.
She realized it too late, the voice"s owner had already embraced her and was carrying her towards the venue—
"—Your Highness! Please wait! She"s my partner, I"ll take her—"
"—I told you already, Black Rat—there shall not be a third time."
Immediately after that, a strong gust of wind arose before her. It burst open the door, and as the stream of wind billowed against the wall—
"Riol!!"
—there was a sound of someone collapsing on the floor after being slammed into the wall.
She no longer cared about being profane. Right away, Sharina screamed and twisted about. However, no matter how strong she swung her legs and twisted her shoulders, she couldn"t get free.
"Oi, oi, there, there, don"t go wild, Cat."
She exerted her utmost strength, but, she wasn"t as strong as she thought she was. She only added to her kidnapper"s satisfaction, who thought she was playing, when her hopes were actually dying out—
"—t, this is a lie!! Who"s that girl!?"
"It couldn"t be, is she the rumored freshman!?"
"There"s no way that could be true! She"s just faking it! By feigning sickness, she"s exploiting our Highness" kind heart! This kind of desperation makes me sick! What an eyesore!"
Loud screams were heard everywhere. The entire venue became noisy. The Princ.i.p.al should be giving a speech, however, none paid it any attention.
"…I can walk by myself. I don"t want to trouble His Highness. His Highness can just return to the party."
"Don"t worry, it"s my duty as a gentleman to help a lady."
Sharina had already given up all hope of freeing herself from his grasp. Even while her stomach was curling, she forced herself to calm down—
—yet still,
…yet still, he didn"t release her.
"—Lady Rosalind!?"
"Please get a hold of yourself!"
Right before they went through the opened door, Sharina felt like she was. .h.i.t by torrents of ice. She struggled to look behind her—
"—eh…?"
Over the shoulder of the kidnapper, in the middle of the hall, Rosalind, excluding cold aura, was staring at Sharina—full of wrath.
***T/N:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH….!!!!!!!
HAHAHAHAHA
HAHA
HA….
OH MY G.o.d, THAT"S THE FUNNIEST JOKE I"VE EVER HEARD THIS ENTIRE MONTH, OH MY G.o.d WHAT A GOOD LAUGH–
–other than that, D I S f. .u. .c. .k I N G G U S T I N G.
There you go, a “””””””””Prince”””””””””” that not only resort to numerous power abuses but also violence the moment something doesn"t go his way, poor Riol. To top it off, he also kidnapped a girl, as clearly stated above, with full blown rapist vibes. Someone like this should go to the block asap.
~a budding translator~