It was early December, and like any other year, a banquet was held at the imperial palace.
The imperial banquet was much grander than the parties held at noble houses, but it was not a banquet to be particularly nervous about unless you had a daughter who was having her debutante party or a son who was of marriageable age at home.
In other words, it means that in a household with such a child, this is a position that causes quite a bit of anxiety.
Even if it wasn’t a child, but a contractor.
“What’s Elaine doing?”
“Emily is doing her hair. She’ll be ready soon.”
“Hmm.”
Sergey was bothering Hubert every half hour from the morning, asking about Elaine.
“Doesn’t Elaine seem too nervous or worried?”
“Aren’t you like that, Master?”
“Me? I’m fine.”
“You’ve been shaking your legs frivolously since a while ago.”
Only then did Sergey become aware of his trembling legs.
Sergey suddenly stopped shaking and started talking about something else as if nothing had happened.
“No sign of anything unusual from Count Newt?”
“There has been no response since Miss Elaine sent her third letter of refusal. And judging by the fact that he’s only debuting his youngest daughter, he doesn’t seem to know that Miss Elaine is attending with master today.”
“What can he do even if he knows? He is an insolent bastard. That family doesn’t even know that I am saving their life thanks to Elaine.”
These are people who would have been wiped out long ago if Elaine hadn’t told him not to kill them.
‘In any case, it was so ridiculous to see humans, no different from ants, despise and harass their own kind by dividing them into groups based on bloodline and class, that I sometimes felt the urge to remind them of their weakness.’
‘But when I think about seeing their shocked faces today, I think it was a good idea to keep them alive.’
Sergey smirked while imagining the shocked look on the Newt family’s face, and Hubert, who was standing next to him, stroked his arm, which gave him goosebumps, as he watched that smile.
At that moment, the door to the living room opened and Emily appeared with a happy expression.
“Miss Elaine is ready!”
And then Elaine followed her in with a smile.
“Oh, you’ve been waiting for a long time? It took longer than I thought to prepare…”
Elaine felt awkward in the dress, which she had never worn in her entire life, past or present.
The dress Merida made was even more beautifully made than the one Elaine remembered, and the earrings made of sapphires and diamonds were so gorgeous that she didn’t need any other jewelry.
Emily applied Elaine’s make-up with the skill she had boasted, and loosely braided Elaine’s light wheat-colored hair, placing several small crystal pins in the shape of flowers on top.
Elaine was purely pretty even without makeup, but with her appearance polished and decorated by experts, she was as beautiful and elegant as any other family’s young lady.
“she is truly beautiful! Isn’t it, Master?”
When Hubert, who was impressed by Elaine’s appearance, turned to Sergey with a big smile on his face, Sergey tilted his face slightly and said.
“It’s so shiny.”
Emily and Hubert, expecting a reaction of either admiration or stunned speechlessness, quickly looked at Elaine and tried to fill in the blanks.
“Well, did you mean sparklingly beautiful, or dazzlingly beautiful, right?”
“Yes, I’m sure that’s what he meant, hahaha!”
Hubert’s eyes seemed to contain a sense of alarm, saying ‘Emergency! Emergency!’ or saying ‘This stupid reptile again!’, but Sergey was not sensitive enough to read the servant’s eyes.
Instead, he expressed his honest feelings.
“I don’t know if you’re pretty or not, but you’re definitely the cutest thing in the world.”
He still found it difficult to judge the appearance of human beings.
However, he was certain that Elaine and Lancer were the cutest people in the world.
No matter what they did to him, he could look into those sparkling eyes and feel all his anger melt away and forgive them.
Emily and Hubert looked at Elaine again with ambiguous expressions.
But Elaine blushed bright red and stammered as if she were dying of embarrassment at being called cute.
“I’m…not the best in the world. There are so many people cuter than me.… no, I mean, I’m not saying I’m cute.…It’s because the dress and earrings are pretty…Emily did a good job with my makeup too.”
Sergey, who had been looking at Elaine like that with pleasure, got up from his seat with a refreshed face.
“Your face is red, so you look a little stupid now. But you are the cutest thing in the world. That’s why I’m suffering like this…”
“Huh?”
“Oh, no, it’s nothing. If you’re ready, shall we go now?”
Elaine looked at Sergey, who was bewildered by his words, and then her face turned pale when he said that they should leave now.
“Don’t be nervous.”
“Is this really okay? I might get laughed at.”
“If there is a brazen bastard who dares to mock the successor to Count Lindell and his partner, I will not remain silent. Of course, I will remember their faces and names.”
“But…”
“Trust me, Elaine. No matter what happens, I will protect you.”
“.…!”
“No matter what happens.”
Elaine barely managed to calm her trembling breath at the sight of Sergey’s firm gaze and voice.
It was strange to feel such a sense of security with Sergey, when before she had only felt it with Rabes.
‘Come to think of it, Rabes hasn’t come by lately. Is he busy hunting monsters? I wanted to show him a picture of me in a dress.’
Although it was unfortunate, Elaine thought it was inevitable and took Sergey’s outstretched hand.
Now, it was time to make her debut in the world of snobby nobles.
* * *
Huge chandeliers made of hundreds of crystals, large glass windows and mirrors on every pillar, gilded decorations and ice sculptures, silver cutlery, and champagne glasses.
The imperial banquet hall, where everything was splendidly glittering, was bustling with noise just from the girls who were about to perform debutantes, the ladies who had already made their debuts in society, and the young men who glanced at them.
As if to cover the noise, the palace orchestra played a bright and cheerful song, and the clinking of champagne glasses echoed here and there, adding to the music.
And then, in the middle of the banquet that was well underway, a late guest arrived.
The doorway opened and closed once, just as it had when everyone else arrived.
But from the direction of the open doorway, all the noise began to die down. Soon, diligent whispers came from behind the fan.
“Isn’t that man Count Lindell’s son?”
“That’s right. But who is the girl next to him? I’ve never seen her before.”
“They said he lived abroad for a long time. Could she be a member of a foreign royal family?”
“I guess so. Look at those earrings. How could anyone wear something like that unless they were royalty?”
“The earrings are earrings, but that dress is…I’m sure I saw it in <Loragerie> a while ago! I heard that Merida was making it by postponing all reservations, so it was because of that girl!”
People whispered speculations, admiration, and questions as Sergey and Elaine took each step.
But as they entered the banquet hall, eyes finally began to recognize Elaine.
“No way, Elaine Newt?”
“What? No way!”
“No, look carefully. It’s Elaine!”
“Oh my God! Is that true?”
“I heard that she became the chaplain of Count Lindell, but why did she become his partner?”
The saints of the temple who attended the banquet as children of each family all looked towards Elaine with surprised eyes.
But no one was as surprised as the people of Count Newt.
“Honey…why is she like that…”
“No, what’s going on? Lark! Why didn’t you tell me?”
Count Newt and his wife were quite taken aback to see Elaine walking in with Sergey’s arm linked.
To them, Elaine was just a worthless girl who lived in the attic of Newt’s mansion, wearing tattered clothes and eating only stale bread.
Elaine was never meant to be wearing such nice clothes and expensive jewelry.
Even as Countess Newt watched with her own eyes, she couldn’t believe that Elaine was attending the banquet, arm in arm with a son of a high noble family that even Ellie wouldn’t dare hope to be his partner.
Ellie’s face, who had been standing next to her mother, also turned pale.
“Why does her dress look better than mine?”
Not only the dress, but also the earrings, hair accessories, and even the makeup and hairstyle looked prettier and better than she did.
It seemed like Ellie’s dream of standing out at this year’s debutante banquet was shattered.
But no matter how surprised Count Newt and his wife and Ellie were, they were no more shocked than Lark and Lorina.
“Sergey Lindell…!”
Lark clenched his fists in anger. The main culprit of this situation could only be Sergey.
‘How could Elaine, who had nothing, become Sergey’s partner?’
* * *
