The detached palace where Princess Chloe stayed had an atmosphere quite different from the residences of the emperor or the other members of the imperial family.
There was almost no gold or jewels, but the dark-toned hardwood, countless bookshelves, and the subtle scent of herbs mingled faintly with roses combined to create a calm, scholarly air.
‘It feels like a library…’
Guided by Amber into the spacious reception room, I stopped in my tracks for a moment.
“……”
There was no trace of the Chloe who was usually buried in books at the library, dressed in a simple, comfortable one-piece dress.
She stood there wearing a dress so white it hurt the eyes, with fine silver threads densely woven into it so that it would sparkle with every step beneath a ballroom’s lights.
It was an off-shoulder design that elegantly revealed the line of her neck, and her silver hair, which she usually braided or pinned up, had been let down to flow naturally.
Her large, clear violet eyes curved prettily toward me.
“Welcome, Prince Ian.”
“Ah… yes, Your Highness. Good day.”
A foolish voice slipped out of me before I realized it.
She looked so unfamiliar and dazzling that I wondered if she really was the same princess who spent every day doing nothing but digging through books.
Noticing my blatant stare, Chloe’s cheeks flushed slightly, and she averted her gaze.
“Please don’t stare at me like that. If we’re going to practice dancing, I need to get used to the weight and length of the dress, so I was simply waiting in it ahead of time.”
“Ah, my apologies. You look so different from how I usually see you at the library… You are very beautiful.”
“…Thank you.”
Chloe shyly gripped the hem of her skirt for a moment before letting it go, then gave a small cough and changed the atmosphere.
“Now then, shall we begin practicing in earnest? Since you said you’ve never danced before, Your Highness, we’ll start with the very basics.”
“I’ll be in your care, Master.”
“Hehe. There are many kinds of social dances in the empire, but in truth, the most fundamental one at a ball, and the one that can look the most elegant, is the waltz. Today, we’ll focus on getting your body used to the basic steps and rhythm of the waltz.”
Chloe stepped closer and lightly took my right hand. A soft, warm sensation reached me.
“The waltz is fundamentally in three-quarter time. One-two-three, one-two-three. You need to remember this rhythm.”
“One-two-three, one-two-three…”
“That’s right. Put strength into the first beat, ‘one,’ change direction as you take a large step, then lightly bring your feet together on the remaining ‘two-three’ and find your balance.”
As Chloe explained the rhythm, she tapped my chest with the slender index and middle fingers of her free left hand.
“One, two, three. Like this. Can you feel it?”
“Ah… yes.”
Her fingers, tapping rhythmically just above my heart, carried a strange warmth.
Of course, I knew this was part of the lesson, but with our bodies touching in a large room where it was just the two of us, a peculiar ticklishness and an oddly suggestive tension began to rise.
“Now, let’s take the proper posture with your partner. Your right hand, Your Highness, should gently wrap around my waist… no, slightly below my shoulder blade. And I will lightly place my left hand on your right shoulder.”
Following Chloe’s instructions, I carefully reached out and wrapped my hand around her back.
Her body heat came vividly through the thin fabric of her dress, and without realizing it, my shoulders tensed.
She was warmer than I had expected.
“Your left hand and my right hand should be lightly joined like this, almost as though our fingers are interlaced, and raised to about eye level. Don’t grip too tightly. Leave a little space between our bodies, and your gaze should either naturally meet your partner’s eyes or look slightly over their right shoulder.”
“Like this?”
“Yes, good. You’re getting the posture faster than I expected.”
Chloe smiled in satisfaction.
“Now then, let’s try stepping to the rhythm I mentioned earlier. I’ll step back first, so on ‘one,’ you step forward with your left foot. Shall we begin? One, two, three!”
One-two-three.
Counting the beat in my head, I awkwardly stepped forward.
Fortunately, the disaster of my foot stepping on her silver shoe did not occur.
We began slowly spinning around on the wide carpet of the reception room.
At first, I was busy keeping my eyes fixed on the floor, but thanks to Chloe’s skilled and gentle lead, I gradually became able to lift my head and entrust my body to the rhythm.
“Prince, are you truly sure this is your first time dancing? You learn incredibly fast. You don’t have any of that beginner’s wobbling either.”
“It’s all because you’re such a good teacher, Master.”
At my words, Chloe let out a small laugh.
We turned several more circles without speaking.
From such a close distance, her subtle scent of herbs and roses lingered at the tip of my nose, and a strange tranquility settled within the rhythm of the dance.
Then Chloe lightly pushed against my chest and suddenly whispered something by my ear.
“…Actually, this is my first time holding hands and dancing with a man as well.”
“Pardon?”
“This winter’s social season… is also my debutante. I turned nineteen this year.”
Instead of her usual calm and intellectual expression, Chloe’s lips moved as a red blush, like that of a girl her age, colored her face.
“So practicing like this with you, Prince, is also quite… special… to me…”
Baaang—!!!
Before Chloe could finish speaking, the thick wooden door of the reception room was flung open roughly, and an enraged brown bear barged in.
“Where are you, Ian Sterling!!!”
It was the Second Imperial Prince, Arthur, shirtless, his sweat-soaked body covered only by a light golden vest thrown on haphazardly.
Chloe’s face, which had looked like that of a shy girl just moments ago, froze over coldly in an instant.
“…Brother, what on earth are you doing here? How rude. Without even knocking!”
“Silence, bookworm! I have come to reclaim what you stole from me!”
“…What do you mean, what I stole from you?”
She let go of the hand that had been wrapped around my waist and shot a murderous glare at her ignorant older brother, who had barged into her private space without warning.
But Arthur seemed to have no interest whatsoever in his sister’s anger, and he strode toward me, grabbing my shoulder in one swift motion.
“The empire’s greatest dancer is right here, so why in the world are you learning dance from that bookworm?! The steps of one who does not know the limits of the body are nothing but flailing!”
“Y-Your Highness? How did you suddenly get here…!”
“Enough chatter and watch me! I shall engrave into the depths of your bones what true steps are, and what a perfect turn is, with that flimsy lower body of yours!!”
Without even listening to my reply, Arthur began stepping with movements as light and elegant as a feather, completely at odds with his enormous build.
“…!”
I was horrified, yet I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
The claim that he was the greatest dancer in the empire was true.
The turns and steps produced by that ridiculous bulk were far more dynamic than the orthodox waltz Chloe had shown me earlier, and yet he maintained perfect balance without even a hair’s breadth of error.
He glided across the floor of the reception room like a single agile black panther.
“Did you see that?! This is dance, and this is art! Now, take my hand, Ian! Let us enter the true realm of dance together!”
Arthur extended a sweaty, rugged hand.
Still going “uh, uh” in confusion, with my hand yet resting on Chloe’s slender waist, I unconsciously inhaled the familiar smell of sweat that had somehow drawn near and completely overwhelmed the scents of herbs and roses.
“True dance is the act of throbbing muscles colliding with muscles, mingling souls through hot beads of sweat! A dance with one who does not understand the body’s perfect communion is nothing but flailing!”
Arthur spun in a light, elegant turn completely unsuited to his massive frame and approached right up to my nose.
“Enough chatter and look at me, Ian! As you feel both my breath and the contraction of your muscles, I shall engrave into the depths of your bones what a true waltz is!!”
“No, wait, hold on—aaagh!”
Arthur reached out with his sweaty, rugged hands and violently snatched away the hand I had placed on Chloe’s waist.
In an instant, I found myself trapped in the arms of a huge, muscular man with his shirt stripped off, and we began spinning madly around the reception room of the detached palace.
“Entrust your body to the rhythm! Feel the movement of my muscles and maintain the tension!”
“Your Highness! I can’t, I can’t breathe…!”
For the first few seconds, I flailed like a piece of luggage hanging from a roller coaster.
Unlike when I had danced with Chloe, my feet got tangled and my breathing fell apart, and each time I nearly stepped on the imperial prince’s feet, he dodged it all with an astonishing agility that was impossible to believe came from a body that size.
“It’s all right, I believe in you! You can do it, you can do it! The Ian I know is a strong man!”
However, human adaptability is a terrifying thing.
At first, I could barely keep up with the rhythm, but at some point, my body adapted.
‘Huh? I can hold on?’
As if by magic, my flailing steps began to match Arthur’s explosive rhythm.
One-two-three.
My body synchronized perfectly with the speed of his rough, beastlike lead and glided over the carpet.
At that moment, in Arthur’s violet eyes as he looked down at me from extremely close, a hot heat blazed up all at once.
“……!!”
Breathing roughly, he shouted in a voice filled with ecstasy.
“Hah… splendid, Ian! That perfect elasticity transmitted just now when we changed direction…! And even that flexibility that absorbs every bit of my rough lead instead of rebounding against it!!”
“Your Highness, this is too fast…!”
“Yes, this is it! This burning communion! If it’s you… yes, Ian! If it’s you, you can surely become the finest partner whose soul can touch mine!!”
As if overcome with emotion, Arthur pulled my waist even more tightly into his arms and fell into rapture in the middle of the reception room.
And in the midst of that insane, feverish waltz of hot muscle—
Bang!!!
Until Chloe slammed the door and went into the inner room, I was unable to come to my senses.
“Ah… Your Highness? I think Princess Chloe is angry.”
“Pay it no mind! What matters right now is dance! Can you not feel this passionnnn?!”
And so, as punishment for skipping the gym that day, I had to spend more than twice the usual amount of time held against the Second Imperial Prince’s sweaty chest.