SHALL WE DANCE? 2
All around me, people are dressed in flowery dresses and stylish suits. Extravagant dishes line the tables of the hall. Beneath the chandelier-shaped magic-stone torch arrangement, waiters pour out bottles of wine, and their human and demi-human recipients engage in pleasant conversation.
The streets outside are lit only by the moon, but here, a spectacular ball is taking place. Lady Hestia places both hands on her hips and proudly looks out over the floor.
“Heh-heh-heh! I’m back, high society! Did ya miss me?”
She is dressed in a fancy costume and as pleased as punch. Standing behind her, I try to keep my nerves under control.
“D-did we really have to come back here…?”
We are in the north of Orario, in a building that could easily be mistaken for a royal palace. It is the very same place where Lord Apollo’s party was hosted, a venue owned and operated by the Guild. It is only the second time that I am experiencing this kind of nightlife, and I can’t help but express my worry.
Behind me enter Lilly, Welf, and Mikoto, each voicing their displeasure as they arrive.
“Why did we have to come along?!”
“Goddess’s orders. Can’t do anything about it.”
“Grrr…I can’t believe I’m back here…Wearing clothes like this again…”
Of course, they are all dressed smartly as well. It’s four days after the War Game, and the goddess of Hestia Familia has encouraged her members to accompany her to another fancy party.
“What’s the meaning of this, Lady Hestia?! Why are we here at this ball?!”
“Why, to dance, of course!” Goddess replies. “The last party ended before I could get a single song in! This is a do-over!”
That’s what she says, apparently. It seems that Goddess was fairly upset that Apollo’s gathering ended in the sudden and dramatic fashion it did after she went through so much effort to dress up neatly for the occasion. I can hear in her voice how much she’s looking forward to it. She probably brought us along because she wanted to share that joy with us.
I figure we can’t just stand around in the doorway any longer and start to make my way down the stairs. Just as I pass Goddess, I feel the gaze of a predator, and a chill works its way up my spine.
“Plus, I can’t just let Ms. Wallensomething steal my Bell like that!” she growls. “This time, for sure…!”
Meanwhile, Welf and Lilly are chatting.
“I think I heard this was organized by some commerce familia.”
“Yes, I think they put on events like this regularly…that explains all the merchants…”
As they say, it’s not just familia members like us at this ball. There are city businesspeople in attendance as well.
The only Dungeon in the world is an invaluable resource. Some people would stop at nothing to get their hands on rare materials and drop items from the lower or the deep floors. Today’s party is an opportunity for merchants to make connections with powerful familias that can obtain those items for them. The familias also benefit from having a wealthy sponsor to share their expenses with.
We had to pull a few strings, but given our recently increased rank, not to mention our victory in the War Game, we were able to secure an invitation for Hestia Familia.
“Oh? I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Hermes!”
It’s a little while after mingling that we run into Hermes and Asfi. Asfi gives me a curt greeting, which I return with a nod.
“I have to be honest, Hestia. I wouldn’t think all this money-and-connections business was your thing,” says Hermes.
“And you’d be right!” replies Goddess, striking a proud pose. “I don’t care at all for all that stuffy mercenary talk! I’m here to dance, and nothing else!”
Goddess’s response elicits a bemused reaction from Hermes, but she goes on beaming an indefatigable smile. Hermes grins, amused by her blatant disregard for the “rules” of this event, and as if on cue, the band begins to play.
“It’s finally time, Bell! Come dance with me now!!”
As the merry tones of waltz music fill the air, Hestia shows more excitement than ever before. Her eyes sparkle and gleam, and she offers me her hand. Lilly frowns, Welf laughs, and Mikoto is still off in her own world, face blushing and eyes spinning wildly. A bead of sweat dribbles down the side of my face as I timidly reach out to accept, when…
“Did she say Bell?” “Little Rookie? …Is that Hestia Familia?” “Look over there…it’s the Loli Goddess!”
All of a sudden, I feel all eyes on me, and the next moment, a crowd of people swarms around Goddess.
“Lady Hestia, might I humbly ask you to consider a business partnership?”
“Allow me to present some of the offerings my company produces, Loli Goddess!”
“I can offer you a prime golden Jyaga Maru Kun in return for your services, Lady Hestia!”
“Wh-what’s gotten into you guys?! L-leave me alo—Waaaagh!!”
In an instant, and right under my very eyes, Goddess is washed away by a tidal wave of clamoring merchants. Lilly, Welf, and I look on in abject shock, but Lord Hermes only shrugs.
“A powerful familia is no different from royalty,” he says. “Their patron deity lives like a king or queen, and there’s no shortage of merchants who want to be the providers of that cushy life.”
To read between the lines, they all see the debutant Hestia Familia as an easy mark. I watch as Goddess is ferried farther and farther away by the crowds until her already small frame is completely out of sight. All I can hear is her futilely screaming my name.
“Nothing you can do for her now,” advises Welf. “I’m getting hungry. How about we grab some food?”
“I think Lilly will join you. At least that way, this night won’t be a total waste.”
“Ahh! Sir Welf! Lady Lilly! Please don’t leave me behind…!”
“W-wait, where’s everyone going…?”
As my friends all leave, I scratch the back of my head, unsure what to do.
In the end, I find no luck attempting to free Goddess from the horde of rabid merchants and reluctantly give up trying. I feel sorry for Goddess, but there’s nothing I can do alone, and so I head off to find the others and regroup.
…Or so I’d like, but it’s impossible to find anyone in this crowd…
“…Oh, Ms. Asfi!”
“Bell. It’s you again.”
After fighting my way through seas of people, far denser than at Apollo’s celebration, I eventually bump into Asfi again. She’s wearing a blue dress, and I ask her where my friends are, only to hear that she hasn’t seen them either since we parted ways.
“What brings you here?” I ask. Then, noticing Hermes’s absence, I add, “…And where’s your god?”
Asfi sighs. “He’s just gone and left me alone.”
I turn to where she looks and spot Lord Hermes chatting with several merchants. They must be talking business, but Hermes wears a pleasant smile and deftly works his way through several negotiations before seeing them all off with a handshake. The merchants all leave happy, so they must have come to some sort of agreement.
“…Argh! I can’t stand around here, doing nothing, any longer! You’ll have to keep me company, Little Rookie!”
“Huh?” I say, my face freezing, but Asfi swiftly pulls on my arm. I go red in a flash as the girl leads me over to the center of the dance floor. Before I can even get a word out, the two of us are dancing.
“He’s always dragging me around from place to place, but then he completely ignores me once we’re there! I wish he’d think about how I feel for once!”
“Ha-ha-ha…”
As we dance, I’m forced to listen to her complain. Our hips and shoulders are touching, and while the sudden and unexpected contact makes the blood rush to my head, Ms. Asfi is as relaxed and cool as ever. Even I can tell she’s an amazing dancer. She corrects my awkward movements, urging me to take the lead, gracefully performing the steps even as she continues to grumble in my ear. It’s as if dancing is second nature to her…Did she use to do it a lot?
“I know those negotiations are important for the future of the familia. I just wish it wasn’t all he thought about!”
“E-erm…Does this sort of thing happen often?” I ask, somehow able to splutter out the words despite Ms. Asfi’s soft, pink lips right under my nose.
“Ever since we met. He’s constantly dragging me all over, even if I say I don’t want to go, but…”
“Hmm?”
“…He spirited me away from that castle, and for that, I’ll always be grateful.”
As our dance carves a path through the crowds, Asfi smiles, a distant look on her face. She normally looks very tired and worn beyond her years, but right now, wearing a big smile, she looks young and pretty. Is she Miss Eina’s age? I wonder. Maybe a bit older?
“Thank you for letting me get that off my chest,” she says. “It made me feel a lot better.”
“N-no problem…”
The dance ends, and Ms. Asfi and I separate. She gives me one final look, smiles, and heads back to find her god.
“She could be royalty, that Perseus.”
“Oh, Welf…”
As I leave the floor, I spot him standing by a table, sampling the food. I guess he was watching the whole thing. He hands me a glass of fruit juice as I come over.
“You could tell?”
“Her posture, the way she moves…More than anything, she just smacks of it. I saw a lot of those royal types when I was young. I know the smell.”
That’s right…Welf’s family is made up of aristocrats in the kingdom of Rakia…That might all be in the past now, but it makes sense he would have a lot of experience with nobles.
I’m not sure if I want to poke my nose into it too deeply, but I just have to ask.
“Did you go to parties like this when you were younger?”
“Pretty much. Mom and Nan figured it’d make me ‘cultured’ or whatever. They made me go to dinners, taught me all these rules, made even me learn random instruments…but I was a blacksmith through and through. I preferred it when I was alone in the forge.”
Being a wealthy Crozzo is not all it was cracked up to be, it seems.
“I don’t want to be rude to Lady Hestia, but truth be told, I can’t bring myself to care about events like this.”
Welf seems a little suffocated in his suit, and he wears a sullen look as he grabs at the lapels. Whether that’s regret at dredging up old memories or distaste for the superficial politeness going on all around him, I can’t tell.
“How about the two of us blow this joint, Bell? We can go grab a drink or something instead.”
I’m not sure if he means it as a joke or not. The corners of my mouth cramp up a little.
“Ha-ha-ha…I’m not sure I can leave Goddess here by herself…” I say, trailing off.
Besides, what would it look like if a couple of adventurers dressed in suits waltzed into a tavern downtown? I’d be too embarrassed.
But at that moment, something seems to catch Welf’s eye.
“Hmm?”
He looks over my shoulder, and I follow his gaze to see that an excited crowd has formed around one woman in particular…
“W-wait! That’s Ms. Mikoto!” I say, horrified.
“I thought they were giving her trouble, but it doesn’t look like it,” says Welf, spotting the crowd of men offering her their hands. “Are they…asking her to dance?”
They do all seem quite taken by Ms. Mikoto. Unfortunately, the feeling doesn’t look mutual. The flurry of invitations causes her to freeze…she’s red-faced and seems about to cry. I can see the panic in her eyes from here.
“Guess someone ought to step in,” Welf says.
“I-I’ll do it!”
I hand Welf my glass and run over as fast as I can. I can’t stop myself, seeing a familia member in danger and certainly not seeing a woman in tears. I know it’s rude to run at a party like this, but I don’t care. I make my way across the crowded floor like a rabbit.
And as I make my way through the crowd, Ms. Mikoto notices me, too. A flash of light returns to her eyes. She pulls up the hem of her dress, marches over to me, grabs my hands, and cries…
“I-I’m sorry, but I already promised to dance with this gentleman here!!”
“Huh?!”
“Whaaat?!” the men all yell, but before they can voice their complaints, Ms. Mikoto leads me back onto the dance floor.
“Urgh…I am sorry to force this on you, Sir Bell, but I was truly at a loss!”
“I-it’s okay. I know how you feel…”
According to Ms. Mikoto, word of her exotic beauty got around during the last Denatus, and now men of all kinds are flocking to her. Apparently, it all started when a few of the foreign dignitaries at this party spotted her, and things spiraled out of control from there. I can’t help but feel the gods had something to do with it, though. I know they often find the reactions of us mortals amusing and get carried away…
Ms. Mikoto seems truly shell-shocked, though. I wonder if she’s not used to being around that many men. She seems even more self-conscious now about her revealing dress, and her bare shoulders and the back of her neck are starting to become a little red. I feel myself going red in the face, too…
“I-in any case, could I ask you to dance with me until they go away? Please, I beg of you…!”
“Y-yes, yes. I will, Ms. Mikoto. Just…try to calm down…”
We find an empty spot, and out of the corner of my eye, I spy Welf grinning at me. I take Ms. Mikoto’s hands, but—out of sheer bashful panic—she steps hard on my toe. We haven’t even started dancing yet!
Oww!!
Her long, hard heels feel like a spike in my foot. The misstep causes her to lose balance, and she cries out in shock. I step in to catch her, only to be overpowered and knocked to the floor instead.
“Ahh!”
“Grhh!”
I catch a stray elbow to the gut—Wait, an elbow?! Is this martial arts? I can feel the impact deep in my stomach, and I double over. In a few more seconds, I am out cold.
…It seems I was unconscious for quite some time, and the party is now nearing its climax. Ms. Mikoto apologizes to me profusely, and I head off to try and find Lilly.
“Ah, there she is…Lilly!”
After Ms. Mikoto’s predicament, I was worried something might have happened to Lilly, too, so I am relieved to see her leaning against a wall by herself. I call out to her, but something about the way she looks makes me stop in my tracks. She’s gazing at the dancers as if staring at a world of dreams from the other side of a thin pane of glass.
“…Aren’t you going to dance, Lilly?”
Before I realize it, I walk over and ask her that question. Lilly peers up at me and cracks a playful smile.
“I doubt any of those bigwigs would want to dance with a tiny little street girl like me. I don’t belong here.”
That last sentence strikes a chord in my heart. Lilly squints as though the whole room is too bright for her.
“I can’t believe Lady Hestia wasted her money on buying me a dress like this…but to tell you the truth, I’m a little grateful to her, too. It wasn’t long ago when I couldn’t even dream of attending this sort of event.”
She looks down at her dress, custom-made to fit her prum size, and sighs.
“…But at the end of the day, this just isn’t me.”
Lilly was forced by her familia into all sorts of shady business. She never learned proper manners or etiquette and seems ashamed that a soot-covered girl like her is even allowed anywhere near this place. Because of that, she’s resigned to being a wallflower, even while the longing in her gaze is plain to see.
I wasn’t sure what to say at first, but once I see that look in her eyes, my mind is made up.
“Then why not dance with me?” I ask.
“Oh, come on. A prum can’t dance with a human,” she quips, frowning. “You’re twice my size!”
“Ah, yeah…Sorry.”
Lilly is even shorter than Goddess, so I see what she means. It would look like I was giving dance lessons to a child.
I feel embarrassed for even suggesting it now, but for some reason, Lilly looks embarrassed, too. She looks down at her feet, her cheeks reddening.
“B-but…” she says, “There is one thing I would like to try…Mr. Bell! Ask me to dance with you! Just to see what it’s like!”
She leans in and whispers, adding, “As fancily as you can, just like a fairy-tale prince!”
I feel a little daunted by the challenge ahead of me, but eager to fulfill Lilly’s request, I decide to give it a try. A fairy-tale prince…I think back to how Lord Miach acted at the ball. I turn my shoulders, face Lilly head-on, and kneel, taking her slender hand in mine.
“Would you give me the pleasure of a dance, my lady?” I say.
I imitate Lord Miach as best I can, even doing my utmost to recreate the gentle smile that I saw on his lips. Lilly’s eyes go wide, and she freezes in place. After a while with no reaction, I ask, “Was that no good?” and give an awkward smile, tipping my head.
“…S-six out of ten!”
Harsh. I feel even more awkward now. I guess I have a long way to go before I can begin to approach Lord Miach’s level. As I rise to my feet, I catch Lilly’s gaze on me. Her reddening cheeks and the way she’s still clutching my hand make me think I must have satisfied her request, at least in some small part. As long as she’s happy, I’m happy.
We stand there for a while, hand in hand, until we hear the announcer signal the end of the party.
“…It sounds like this is it, then,” she says.
As the guests begin to leave, Welf and Ms. Mikoto find us and come over.
“Sir Bell, where is Lady Hestia?”
“Erm…I think she’s still busy…”
I cast my eyes over to the other side of the hall, where I see Goddess remains besieged.
“Looks like she’s going to be there a while,” says Welf.
“She never got her wish in the end,” adds Lilly.
The two of them look over at the tuft of black hair we can see poking over the crowd and groan in pity. I also feel a little bad that I couldn’t help her in the end, even if that was because I spent most of the party asleep on the floor.
At that moment, Ms. Asfi and Lord Hermes walk by. “Are you not leaving yet?” Ms. Asfi asks, noticing we haven’t moved. Wondering if I should, I end up telling her the whole story and ask if she knows how we can help.
Lord Hermes grins at me like a shepherd leading his lost lamb. “Leave it to me,” he says. “I know just what to do.”
“Urgh…I still didn’t get to dance…”
Hestia moped as she shuffled back over to Bell, her head hanging in disappointment. The merchants and investors had finally let her go, and yet the party was already over, and all the lights were off. Even the band must have packed up their instruments and left because the hall was dark, empty, and silent. Standing there alone in her special dress, illuminated only by a single moonbeam filtering through the window, the goddess felt unbearably lonely.
Her dreams in tatters, she was trying to find her way back to Bell’s side when a figure stepped out of the shadows before her.
“Bell…?”
“Come with me, Goddess.”
Dressed in a tailcoat, Bell took Hestia’s hand and led her to the balcony. Before she could even ask what was happening, the two of them walked past the glass windows and down the staircase and were standing on the lawn outside.
“B-Bell, what’s gotten into you?”
The waters of the nearby fountain twinkled like stars in the moonlight. That was when Bell turned to face her.
“Look, Goddess.”
Bell cast his gaze over her shoulder, and when Hestia turned to look, she noticed many people, all standing atop the roof of the building. And there, on a conductor’s podium with his orange hair billowing in the wind, was Hermes.
“All right, everybody! Pick your favorite instrument!” he shouted. “Tonight, we have a very special encore for a very special goddess!”
The others began to move, picking up instruments from the floor.
“I-I didn’t know you could play violin, Mr. Welf.”
“I can’t. I just know how it works from my time as a Crozzo. Don’t worry, though. I’m not any good.”
“I-I wonder if there is even anything here that I can play…”
“This lyre should suit you well, Ms. Mikoto. It’s enchanted so that anyone can play it. As for me, I think I’ll go with this flute.”
Lilly, Welf, Mikoto, and Asfi raised bows or hands to their strings and flutes to their lips. Then, as Hermes swung his arms, the impromptu band began to play.
Despite the varied sounds coming from the array of instruments, they somehow combined into a beautiful waltz, and soon the melodies of this five-instrument band filled the garden with the strains of music.
Hestia stared in wonder at the gentle sounds coming from the rooftop, then turned back to Bell. He looked somewhat tense. That was because Hermes had ordered his next line be delivered in as theatrical a manner as possible. He steeled his nerves, looked up into his goddess’s eyes, and kneeled at her feet.
“Might I most humbly request the delight of your company on this fine night, Dea Ange?”
Calling upon his memories of sleepless nights spent absorbed in his favorite tale, Bell constructed his most dashing invitation yet. Immediately after he said it, Bell went red-faced with embarrassment. Hestia’s eyes twinkled like the soft, blue waters of a lake, and then she beamed a stunning smile.
“Yes, please!”
Her gaze enraptured by his rubellite eyes, Hestia took Bell’s hand and, guided by the beautiful melodies of their friends on the rooftop, embarked upon a dance just for two.
And behind those palatial stones, surrounded by lush greenery, as the fountain babbled away in the background, a goddess and her follower intertwined their steps. Smiles decorated their faces as Bell and Hestia danced beneath the moon until the very last note played.
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