Volume 1 - CH 18

“My apologies for keeping you waiting.”

After parting with Melody, Luciana rejoined Maxwell in the ballroom.

“Not at all, please be at ease. Shall we be going then? I would like to introduce you to a friend of mine.”

“Oh, of course.”

Luciana could not help but blush as she offered her hand to the handsome youth; his dashing smile was just that effective.

As Maxwell took the proffered hand, he began nervously looking around.

“I must ask, what happened to your dance partner, the angel? Is she not with you?”

“The ‘angel’? …Oh, you mean Me– Lady Cecilia? I think she left and returned home already.”

“What a shame. I was hoping I could have at least one dance with her tonight.”

Maxwell wore a dejected expression as he quietly muttered a complaint, causing Luciana to widen her eyes in shock.

“…It is quite bold of you to complain like that when I am standing beside you, you know.”

How could he have said such a thing when his partner was right there in front of him? Luciana’s expression became sullen, and she sukily puffed her cheeks, but when she looked again to see Maxwell’s reaction, she realized he had pressed his hand to his mouth and his shoulders were shaking.

(Wh-what..? What is he laughing about? What happened to that sad look? Why would… Oh, of course.)

Luciana suddenly remembered exactly who it was that first abandoned the partner next to them to chase an angel.

Her accusation completely backfired, and Luciana’s face turned completely red in embarrassment.

“Fufufu, my teasing may have gone a little too far, so I must apologize. It is only natural that people would desire a dance with someone as beautiful as that angel. In fact, it wasn’t surprising at all that even the fairy would choose to dance with the angel.”

“…Fairy? What do you mean?”

“Oh, were you unaware? All anyone can talk about right now is that unbelievably phantasmagorical dance the two of you performed together. They’re even calling the “Fairy Princess”, and I think that title fits you quite well.”

“Wh-wh-wh-what are you talking about?!”

Maxwell gave another of his picture-perfect smiles to the shocked Luciana.

“Looks like you’re in for a rough school life starting tomorrow. Everyone will be watching you very closely, Miss Fairy Princess.”

Luciana hung her head with apprehension; such a title was ill-suited for the pitiful “Luciana of House Lutherbroke”. She began to panic, worrying about complete strangers becoming interested in her or bullying her

“A lady such as yourself need not despair over matters as trivial as this.”

She raised her head with sudden surprise; Maxwell was still smiling at her, and, still holding her hand, he pulled Luciana along as he walked.

“Do not worry, Lady Luciana, all will be well. First, allow me to introduce you to my good friend.”

“Um… a-all right.”

Luciana quietly went along with Maxwell, wondering what he had meant by “all will be well”, and her consciousness began growing hazy as she nervously considered to whom Maxwell could be introducing her.

And then her pendant began to glow.

(This must be what Melody was talking about earlier… Is someone looking at me with ill-intent?)

The pendant shone a white ray of light to one side; taking care to avoid notice, Luciana snuck a quick glance over and —

(…Who is that?)

There she saw a short and fat middle-aged man with a toad-like face. He was directing an obscene smile to Luciana.

Frankly speaking, the man was so visually repulsive that Luciana could barely keep her smile from warping into a grimace of disgust.

(Ugh, that’s so gross. I absolutely have to be sure not to get anywhere that thing… Oh, the pendant is starting to shine again.)

This time the beam highlighted a beautiful blonde girl. She was happily chatting with her friends, but she would occasionally cast a cold glare toward Luciana.

The staring made Luciana want to tillt her head in confusion; the girl seemed to be glancing over with feminine jealousy, but Luciana could not find a reason for it..

(…That girl is this beautiful, so what is she so jealous of? I don’t understand…)

While Luciana was fighting to keep her smile from dropping, Maxwell was reevaluating his assessment of her.

(She’s quite perceptive. I wasn’t expecting her to notice the hostility or the depravity some people are directing her way.)

Maxwell was keeping a constant vigil so as to shield the unfamiliar Luciana from the more nefarious elements of high society.

He intended to be extra careful up until he introduced her to his friends, but it seemed Luciana was able to identify the people Maxwell had an eye on, without his assistance.

(…For someone who may become the wife of an important noble, like the prime minister, being able to quickly determine friend from foe is an essential but rare ability.)

But he dismissed that observation as quickly as he had thought it.

What was he doing, entertaining such notions about a woman he had just met today, for the very first time?

Indeed, he should not be having such thoughts: Luciana was just a girl he had volunteered to escort in order to assist his troubled friend Melody.

In the first place, he has not yet spoken much to Luciana, so there was much he did not know about her, least of all develop any sort of special feelings. That simply was not how Maxwell operated.

…But it was an undeniable truth that Luciana’s beauty had unexpectedly affected Maxwell.

It was different from what he had felt for Melody, and it was this difference that confused him most.

However, now was not the time for him to ponder such ideas. Instead, Maxwell refocused on his task at hand and quietly whispered to Luciana.

“The man we passed just now, that was Count Saishin from the Ministry of Finance.”

“..Huh?”

“And despite being from the Ministry of Finance, he is rather crass and has tried to lay his hands on the maids. Do be careful around him.”

“…Is that so, so he has a history of harassing the maids, I see.”

“And that lady, over there? That’s the daughter of Duke Rankdol. She’s rather upset about having lost to you.”

“She… ‘lost’ to me?”

“Were you not aware? Prior to the event, everyone expected the crown prince and his partner, the daughter of Marquis Victirium, to be the stars of the show, with the daughter of Duke Rankdol behind them. However, even you should have noticed that the one who attracted the most attention and was equal in beauty to Miss Victirium was none other than you, Lady Luciana. And when you take into account that amazing dance with the angle… Suffice to say, it is no surprise that Miss Rankdol is getting very little attention. That is how she ‘lost to you’ and why she is upset.”

Luciana’s face immediately paled; it would be no trivial matter if a duke’s daughter marked her as an enemy.

Maxwell gave a wry smile as he watched Luciana’s internal panic set in behind her smiling façade.

“But that isn’t anything to worry about. After all, introducing you to ‘them’ is the perfect countermeasure.”

“Um, Lord Maxwell, when you say ‘them’, to whom might you..”

“Oh my, if it isn’t Lord Maxwell. Has there been a problem?”

A question that came from a clear but captivating voice startled Luciana.

Luciana then noticed the young lady in front of her, and despite being of the same gender, Luciana could feel the allure of the girl’s beauty.

“You must be Miss Luciana of House Luthorburg. I am Annemarie of House Victirium. It is my pleasure to finally meet the beautiful Fairy Princess of the Spring Ball.”

“Oh, uh, um… Th-the pleasure is all mine. I-it is as you say, I am Luciana of House Luthorburg.”

Despite her nervousness, Luciana was able to give a flawless curtsy due to muscle memory, eliciting a nod of satisfaction from Annemarie. Furthermore, though Luciana had stumbled in her introduction, it seemed Annemarie has taken no offense from it.

Luciana let out a sigh of relief, but that was a mistake; it was far too early for her to relax.

“It was rather sly of you to go and greet her first, especially when you know I wanted to meet her too.”

“Well, I suppose you should have come here sooner, Your Highness. That is not something I am responsible for.”

Luciana felt her body involuntarily stiffen as she realized the person standing behind Lady Annemarie was none other than Crown Prince Christopher. When he noticed her staring, Christopher gave a smile whose beauty rivaled that of Maxwell’s.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Luciana. I am Christopher, Pardon my presumption, but as you may know, I have the rather troublesome title of “Crown Prince of Theolas”. And about your partner Maxwell, he and I have been close friends since our childhood, so I hope you and I could also get along.”

“Y-yeshh! Th-th-thank you for your consideration! It would be an honor to get along!”

Luciana once again gave a masterful curtsy despite her fumbling introduction. She had already been nervous about the Spring Ball since discovering Maxwell was to be her partner, but Luciana would never have expected she would be introducing herself to royalty at that very same event!

“You need not be nervous, Lady Luciana. These two are, despite their rank and appearance, quite open-minded and welcoming.”

“Oh my, your words wound me. Surely I do not come across as villainous as you would describe me to be.”

The casual joking between the two helped to relax the atmosphere, and Luciana could feel herself becoming less tense.

Without missing a beat, Christopher invited them over to the royalty-only rest area where they could continue their pleasant conversation.

“Miss Luciana, I heard you were with an angel during the Same Gender Couples’ Dance, so I must ask: who is that person? And what is their name? I was unable to find anyone matching the description of this angel.”

Unsurprisingly, the main topic of conversation shifted to Luciana and her dance with Melody. Annemarie and Christopher explained they had had other matters to attend to elsewhere, so they had missed the entirety of the Same Gender Couples’ Dance.

“I am also interested in knowing who she is. Nobody I asked on my end knew who she was either, but they all agreed that she was an extremely beautiful girl.”

“Oh, you mean Me– Lady Cecilia. She seems to have…”

” ” Lady Cecilia?!” “

Christopher and Annemarie suddenly jumped to their feet, surprising both Luciana and Maxwell.

“Miss Luciana, where can we find this Cecilia person?!”

“What does she look like?! Where did she come from?! Which house does she belong to?!”

“Umm, Lady Cecilia, uh, has already left the party to return home. Also, she has blonde hair…”

“She went home?! But why? …Wait, did you say blonde hair?”

Luciana repeatedly nodded her head in assent and continued describing Cecilia to them…. but of course Luciana had already corroborated the details with Melody beforehand.

Once Luciana’s explanation finished, Christopher and Annemarie fell back into their seat, like puppets whose strings had been cut.

“…Is there something we should be concerned about, you two?”

“No, its nothing. There’s nothing to worry about, sorry about that.”

“M-my apologies as well. I got overly curious about the kind of girl you danced with, and I became overexcited from hearing about her.”

(If a girl named Cecilia appeared with this kind of timing, does that mean she’s the heroine? Her hair might be blonde, but she was escorted by Lord Lect, just like the heroine in the story. She doesn’t seem to be Count Reginbars’s daughter… Who could she be?)

But of course they would find no answer to their questions here. The discrepancies between the game and reality confused Annemarie, but, as expected of a marquis’s daughter, she quickly adapted and set aside the questions she still had about Cecilia.

Instead, the talk instead focused more on Luciana, how she lived most of her life in the Luthorburg territories and how she had few friends in the capital as a result. Due to the events of this Spring Ball, Luciana had attracted too much attention, and it became clear that she would need backing from more influential nobles.

As a result, Annemarie and the others began introducing Luciana to their other friends. Luciana was grateful for the assistance, and it had not been a one-sided exchange; the acquaintances were more than happy to meet and greet the star of the Spring Ball in person.

The pendant reacted during a few of the introductions, but there was nothing Luciana could do at the moment but make a mental note to remember and be aware of any person the pendant reacted to.

And finally, after the entire ordeal, the four of them exchanged partners and danced, enjoying the ball through to the end.

The time was quickly approaching midnight, when the ball would finally come to a close.

“Thank you all so much for everything everyone has done for me tonight.”

“Think nothing of it. We also enjoyed our time together.”

“Annemarie’s right, and I had a great time. I hope we’ll be able to get along like this when our classes begin.”

Luciana smiled as she happily agreed. Maxwell, who was of a different year, nonchalantly shrugged.

“It must be nice for the three of you… Maybe I should just do over my first year.”

“Oh? Well, feel free to do so should the Prime Minister allow it. I shall personally inform the principal if so.”

The pleasant atmosphere continued as the four made jokes and laughed together.

“Miss Luciana, it was truly a pleasure tonight. I eagerly await our future meetings together, from tomorrow onward.”

Christopher gently grasped Luciana’s right hand and kissed its back. Luciana’s eyes widened in surprise, but Annemarie and Maxwell frowned as they looked on unamused.

(This guy… He really took the first opportunity he could, when our guard was down. I’ll have to punish him for this later… Hmm, it seems like Buque Kischel really isn’t going to show up after all.)

Annemarie had remained vigilant the entire evening, even when the group was having fun with Luciana, but she had yet to see anything happen around the window she was suspecting.

(And if that’s the case, then we’ll have to revise our plan of action. I’ll discuss this with him later… Hey, Christopher, you’ve held her hand long enough, so let go already! You’ve left Luciana-chan in shoc… huh? What is she…)

Luciana’s eyes had indeed widened as Christopher kissed her hand, but what surprised her was something else.

(The pendant… is so bright!)

The brightest beam coming from the pendant pointed upward to the ceiling, and Luciana instinctively followed it and looked up.

And she finally found what it shown at: on top of the chandelier, a boy, raising his sword high in the air, leapt right at them.

The light from the pendant focused solely on the boy, but his target… wasn’t Luciana?!

“Look out!”

Luciana pushed Christopher away, entirely on reflex; the boy was targeting the crown prince!

In that instant, everyone had become speechless.

The boy dropping down from the ceiling had slashed Luciana on the back, and the power behind the slice had caused Luciana’s dress to split open from there.

As though in response to the dress bursting, a massive shockwave rippled through the venue. The force sent the attendees flying every which way and left only Christopher, Annemarie, and Maxwell still standing.

…Luciana, who had taken a direct hit, had fallen over and rolled behind the others after taking the shockwave.

She seemed to be unconscious, as she had lain there face-up with eyes closed and body unmoving.

“Lucianaaa!”

Somebody’s panicked scream echoed across the hall.

A shorter man holding a black sword in his right hand stood in front of Christopher and the others; the assailant, Buque Kischel, stared them down with a dispassionate, cold gaze.

“…Let the hunt …begin.”

And thus the curtains had risen for the first big event of The Silver Saint and the Five Oaths: the Spring Ball Raid.