Chapter 118
“You’re too kind, my lady. Though our Mikael is indeed clever.”
Having just finished his drink, Mikael tilted his head and joined the conversation.
“Mo’drink?”
“You’re so clever, my baby.”
“Oh, how adorable… They say children this age grow by leaps and bounds every day, do you notice it?”
“Of course. Just the other day, I was so surprised when Mikael hummed along to my lullaby. His sense of rhythm was perfect, you know?”
The four chatted in a harmonious atmosphere. Laughter and chatter spread nearby as they watched Mikael’s endearing attempts at showing off.
“So then Mikael said…”
“Ysaa.”
At that moment, Kazhan abruptly cut into the conversation. Embracing Ysaris’s waist from behind, he spoke with apparent displeasure.
“Didn’t we agree to dance? At this rate, the banquet will end without us doing anything.”
“Oh, you… Alright, let’s go dance. Duchess, could you possibly look after Mikael for a moment?”
“It would be an honor to care for His Highness.”
Ysaris entrusted Mikael to the Duke and Duchess Blake and moved along with Kazhan. Following him as he strode confidently toward the center, she failed to notice the surprised looks from those around them.
“Come to think of it, I’m sorry we were supposed to open with the first dance. Is it still alright to dance now?”
“It’s fine, but in exchange, we’ll dance to two songs.”
“Alright. Please take care of me again, Cain.”
“I ask the same of you, Ysaa.”
A large circle formed around the two of them. As people stepped back to make room for them, it became almost like a solo dance.
‘This is a bit burdensome.’
Ysaris was bothered by the hundreds of gazes fixed on her. Despite being accustomed to it from her life as a princess, somehow the nobles’ eyes felt unsettling and uncomfortable. It was almost nauseating, as if they were devouring her with their eyes.
‘Is it because I’m from Pyrein? Because they’re all strangers? Or is it the anxiety that only they know who I am?’
“Look at me, Ysaa.”
“Ah.”
As Ysaris looked at Kazhan, new music began. Though she could keep step with the rhythm, unlike when they practiced alone, she couldn’t fully focus on her partner.
And Kazhan felt this too. Observing her anxiously trembling blue eyes, he spun Ysaris in a turn, and when catching her, pressed their upper bodies close together and sharply bent her waist.
“…!”
There wasn’t even time to complain about not following proper form. Kazhan’s shadowed face filled Ysaris’s widened eyes.
“Let me correct my words about looking at me.”
His voice was chillingly low. Though darkened from the backlight, his intense red eyes captured Ysaris.
At a distance close enough to feel each other’s breath, her husband demanded:
“Look only at me, Ysaa.”
‘Just as I look only at you.’
Before Ysaris could respond to the hidden message, their upper bodies straightened. Their movements flowing with the continuing music were mysteriously more in sync than before.
Tap, ta-tap, tap, tap.
When Ysaris spun another turn and settled into Kazhan’s embrace, this time she made the unexpected move. Drawing his head close by pulling his nape, she slightly narrowed her eyes as their faces came near.
It was the smile that Kazhan had once loved endlessly.
“I am looking. At you, properly.”
“…!”
Kazhan stiffened for a moment and was caught up in Ysaris’s next move. Dancing almost reflexively, he let out a breath, “Ha,” and regained his pace.
“You got me there.”
“Does it feel like losing?”
“If it’s losing like this, I’d want it any number of times.”
The imperial couple, now relaxed, played with the second song perfectly and intimately. Occasionally whispering indiscernible words and laughing, they were a perfectly matched pair in anyone’s eyes.
Grind.
“I cannot tolerate this…”
Runellia, keeping her lonely post amid everyone’s indifference, was crawling with the desire to rush out right then. It was Kazhan’s first time dancing at a banquet, and to show such a sight with Ysaris of all people – it made her insides twist maddeningly.
But causing a scene here would render all plans futile. That was why she remained still, even as she ground her teeth.
“Soon now. Soon…”
‘I will take that place.’
Madness lurked in her poisonous blue-green eyes. The emperor’s order to live like the dead and not draw attention – that would end today.
Because she would make it so.
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