Chapter 43
Following Thierry’s lead, I put one hand on his hand and the other around his bicep, and I loosened my waist. It felt like my eyes were spinning. Without thinking, my body moved automatically, following his lead.
“That’s good. Just relax and follow me.”
He said something, but I didn’t have time to answer. I concentrated on not stepping on his foot, on not falling.
“Keep your head up.”
“Okay.”
I’d been hunched over, and as soon as he pointed it out, I lifted my chin, pretending to turn my head in a fluid motion to make it as awkward as possible. The floor, which had been empty, was suddenly full.
As soon as Thierry stepped out, everyone followed him, smiling and enjoying the dance.
‘Thank God… I’m not the only one watching.’
It would have been overwhelming if it had been just us, but I breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a little buried under all the attention.
I glanced up at Thierry, slightly relieved. Thierry immediately locked eyes with me, as if he hadn’t taken his eyes off me at all. His normally sunken eyes sparkled like brilliant rubies in the glow of the lights around us.
“You dance well.”
“… I think I’ve stepped on your feet several times now.”
“Did you? I didn’t notice, so call it a good dance.”
There was a moment of laughter. His uncharacteristically cheeky demeanor tickled my cheeks.
After last night, when we parted ways on such a low note, I expected to be uncomfortable all day today, but that wasn’t the case at all. In fact, the way he acted like nothing had happened made yesterday seem like a distant memory.
‘… So, when did he start smiling like that?’
I stared into his eyes, which were filled with laughter. Most of the time, I’d only seen him laughing at me, or when his mouth was smiling but not his eyes, but today I realized that he was genuinely smiling.
I felt a tingle in my chest at how genuinely amused he seemed to be. It stung until I couldn’t look at him anymore, and I looked away to push the unwelcome sensation away.
I could feel his hand tighten slightly against mine. But I didn’t react, just pretended to look around in silence.
‘Huh? That’s…’
But then I noticed an unexpectedly familiar face. Even from a distance, the innocent beauty, with her uncommon rose-pink hair, was enough to catch my attention.
‘Ariadne, isn’t it?’
The original heroine I had forgotten about until now. I realized that I had been so busy with my own life lately that I hadn’t paid attention to Thierry and Ariadne’s interactions.
‘No matter how I look at it, I don’t think their relationship will improve… They’re so twisted in the first place that there doesn’t seem to be much of a connection.’
I squinted slightly, dubiously, at Ariadne’s partner. A mild-mannered, light brown-haired handsome man was looking down at Ariadne with affection. He was tall and broad-shouldered, but his slender build made him look more like a literati than a knight.
‘I think I recognize you. Hmm… Maybe I just saw him on the way here, but handsome men like him are not common…?’
I felt a strange sensation, so I stared at him more intently. Suddenly, Thierry’s hand on my small of my back tightened and my body pressed against him.
“You’re stepping on my foot.”
“Hmph, sorry, are you okay?”
“… No, it hurts.”
“It hurts? Oh, my God, I’m sorry.”
“So just focus on me and don’t look anywhere else.”
Thierry’s mood was uncharacteristically sullen, as if he had been in a good mood earlier. I don’t know if it was the mood, but he looked like a child who’d thrown up from lack of attention.
I narrowed my eyes and rolled them uneasily, uncomfortable with the way he was staring at me.
“… Can I come in now?”
“Why. You don’t like it?”
“No! I don’t hate it, I just have a sore foot.”
It wasn’t an excuse, but the truth was that my feet hurt. I usually wear low heels, but today was a party, and I wore high heels, and I danced a waltz that I had never danced before, so my feet were getting tired. My toes were screaming at me to kill them right now.
“And I’m treading on your feet, too, Your Majesty!”
“Quickly. I’ll take you to the common room.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. I was glad to be off the floor, but I hadn’t expected to be swooped up and carried away like that.
I could feel the murmurs and surreptitious glances in my direction.
‘I’m so fucked…’
I buried my face in my hands and sobbed a little. I knew my plan to stay quiet was going to be difficult to accomplish, but I didn’t think it would be this bad.
‘So much for the Empire’s celebrity. I’m sure most of the nobles know me… Haha.’
My liberated laughter rang hollow inside. His arm around my shoulders and the golden collar was so reassuring that I felt comfortable in his arms, and my head was spinning with the disparity between the comfort and the uncomfortable reality.
“Are you okay? You should have told me if you were in pain.”
Thierry muttered as he crossed the floor and yanked open the door in the wall of the first hallway.
Quickly, swiftly, but very carefully, he set me down on the couch. I was practically half lying on the couch, so I scrambled to get my upper body up and my legs down, but he was right in front of the couch.
I crouched down on the couch and looked up at him uneasily. He looked as if something catastrophic had happened. The worry on his face was so overwhelming that I felt a pang of guilt.
“It’s not that bad… I just meant that we should stop dancing…”
I squeaked out in a small whimper and looked up at him. He folded one knee in front of me to meet my gaze, and his brow furrowed.
“Princess, are you crying? It doesn’t hurt anything to cry.”
“Huh? I’m not crying!”
“You have tears in your eyes. You keep saying no. Okay, stop saying no.”
“No, it’s not because it really hurts.”
“Okay. Give me your foot.”
Thierry, who was no longer listening to me, reached for my foot. I flinched and pulled my foot closer to my body.
“What?! I’m fine!”
No, why do you want to touch my foot, casually. I waved my hands furiously in the air to make my point. But if my words had worked in the first place, I wouldn’t have come all the way to the break room in a hug like this, so everything was going Thierry’s way.
“Ha, that’s how it’s going to be, then I’ll have my way.”
He gritted his teeth as he grabbed my ankle, sounding like he’d never had his way before.
I felt like he was going to cut my ankle off at any moment. But in contrast to my feelings, he gently touched my ankle as if he were handling glass that might shatter at any moment, as if he were showing off a strange disparity.
“Your foot is a little swollen. Let’s ice it.”
“… It’s okay, just don’t move around too much.”
His gentle touch on my ankle made me pause for a moment before I answered. His rough, callused skin was warm, and his gentleness made my heart flutter.
He looked down anxiously at my ankle, then slowly lifted his gaze and locked eyes with me. His warm breath drifted from the ground.
I wondered idly if this closeness to him seemed to be a frequent occurrence these days. I don’t know. I felt like I was possessed by something.
His gentle touch, his worried eyes, his concern for me alone, and the fact that yesterday’s appeal was perhaps genuine, I was conflicted about whether or not I should speak.
“Your Majesty, if you’ll excuse me.”
There was a short knock on the door, followed by Bakken’s voice. Thankfully, it brought me back to my senses.
Thierry’s eyes narrowed in disappointment, as if he’d noticed my change in demeanor. He turned to Bakken in the doorway and replied coldly.
“Later.”
“I’m fine, come on.”
I hurriedly grabbed his arm. He looked at my hand in surprise, then back at me.
“… I’m not okay.”
Bakken hadn’t said a word since the knock, but it was clear that he hadn’t left the doorway, just waited quietly.
I exaggerated my anxiety that if I didn’t let Thierry go now, the ambiguous atmosphere from earlier might happen again.
“You just saw, I’m fine!”
I acted like I was going to get up from my seat at any moment, and he sighed, running a hand through his hair in a gesture of annoyance at the situation.
“So you’re going to stay here alone?”
“No. I’d rather get some air on the terrace than here, Your Majesty, and I’ll follow you out when you leave.”
Thierry smirked, one corner of his mouth twitching upward in amusement at my eager demeanor as I clasped my hands in front of my chest. On the plus side, it wasn’t his usual sneer, so I could infer that he wasn’t offended.
“… Do whatever you want. But take Oscar with you.”
“Sure.”
“Come on in. Unless you have something important to do.”
“Uh, I’ll do it!”
Before Thierry could finish his sentence, the door opened and Bakken appeared. Bakken’s jaw dropped as he walked in and saw Thierry kneeling down to help me put on my shoes.
“Let me do this.”
Of course, I stumbled back in shock at the next words.
***
I managed to get to the terrace by myself, barely resisting Thierry’s offer to walk me to my room. Luckily, Oscar offered to wait at the door to make sure he didn’t want to follow me in, so I secretly sighed.
“I have a lot of work to do, and this case just keeps getting worse.”
I sighed again, this time deeply. I leaned back against the railing and tilted my head back. The sparsely scattered stars shone brighter than the chandeliers that lit the hall.
I stopped thinking for a moment and stared at the stars, listening to the distant chirping of grasshoppers. My excitement subsided a bit, and I could feel my brain calming down.
“… Excuse me?”
My heart nearly leapt out of my chest at the sound of a low, bassy voice that came out of nowhere.
