52.
When I whipped my head around, Meriana was dancing a little distance away.
I couldn’t believe this was actually happening.
Was it because I’d frozen for several seconds instead of dancing properly?
Rohwinas urged me on, his mouth set as if displeased.
“What are you doing right now?”
“Ah……”
I opened my mouth to answer, then hurriedly shut it again.
‘He might recognize me by my voice.’
Only then did I naturally realize how Prien had recognized me.
This was clearly supposed to be an extremely social, extroverted dance number where everyone spun around, changed partners back and forth, and danced merrily……
But Rohwinas’s face remained stiff the entire time he danced.
‘Lately, every time I run into him, he always looks half angry.’
“Tch.”
“……”
I clicked my tongue without thinking, then rolled my eyes in alarm.
Fortunately, Rohwinas showed no particular reaction.
In any case, it wasn’t as if I could stop dancing midway and storm out of the hall.
If I did something that conspicuous, that sister-obsessed fool of the Peregrine family might find me.
I kept dancing, matching the beat as I faced Rohwinas.
“……”
“……”
Everyone around us was laughing happily, but for some reason, only the two of us were wrapped in a solemn atmosphere.
For some reason, being like this brought back so many feeling…… as if.
I hastily pulled back my left foot, which had nearly stepped on Rohwinas’s foot.
‘Damn it.’
It was bad enough being cursed at as Anastasia Roxan. I really didn’t want to be cursed at as a complete stranger too.
“Didn’t I tell you to fix that habit?”
I snapped my head up.
What did he say?
“Have you still not fixed that habit of always moving your left foot first whenever you’re flustered or lost in thought?”
“……”
He knew it was me.
‘How on earth did he know?’
This time, I truly meant to shake off the hand clasping mine.
As if he had already expected it, Rohwinas gripped my hand tightly and refused to let go.
Just as a physical struggle was about to begin.
“Why?”
He raised one eyebrow crookedly and asked sharply.
I didn’t answer.
If I held out just a little longer, the part where we changed partners would come around again.
Ignoring him, I silently continued the dance.
And when the moment to change partners finally arrived.
I tried to quickly shake off his hand and move away, but.
“……”
“Who are you trying to go to right now?”
He pulled my shoulder toward him with force.
Our eyes met.
Disconcertingly enough, he didn’t seem to have the slightest intention of letting me go.
His head tilted.
Looking down at my shadowed face, he quietly asked.
“Who are you trying to go to with the dance I taught you?”
“……At the very least, it won’t be you, so why don’t you stop worrying?”
I sneered and struggled to free the shoulder he was holding.
“Is it so hard for you to live quietly, as if you’re barely there? Why do you keep getting on my nerves?”
“Then don’t look at me.”
When I snapped back coldly, he lifted one corner of his mouth ever so slightly.
I could feel the artificial composure he was forcing himself to put on.
A twisted sort of smile.
It was an unfamiliar face, one he had never shown me before.
His hand clenched my shoulder again.
Over and over, as if he couldn’t trust the sensation in his own hand.
For some reason, that……
All of a sudden, I sensed that the atmosphere around us was starting to turn unusual.
The moment I turned my gaze, I realized where everyone was looking.
Rohwinas hadn’t sent me back to my original partner.
Which meant he hadn’t looked back at the partner who had come back to him.
In the middle of the hall where everyone else was dancing in pairs, I saw a woman standing all alone.
Even as they danced, everyone kept stealing glances at Meriana.
The murmurs of the crowd were growing loud enough to pierce through the dance music.
Meriana stared blankly this way with a confused, disbelieving expression……
Then her face crumpled all at once.
I looked up at Rohwinas.
“Are you insane?”
As if crushing down his emotions, he spat out briefly.
“You!”
“……”
“That was because you……”
“Because I what?”
There was no way someone as sharp as Rohwinas wouldn’t know.
How humiliating this would remain for Meriana.
I looked up at him with disbelieving eyes.
He was far too different from the way he had appeared to me when I drank the potion.
Without knowing what this emotion was that was pressing down on my chest, I clenched the hem of my dress.
“Let go of me.”
Rohwinas did not let go.
And of all times, that was when I sensed someone approaching from behind.
If Meriana had been left alone, then naturally, there would be a partner left on this side too.
Even without looking back, I knew it was Prien.
And that emotion had entered his footsteps, which were always restrained and quiet.
“No, Meriana……!”
On the other side, I saw a head of green hair pop up between people’s heads.
Alarm bells rang in my head.
My heart pounded unpleasantly.
‘I didn’t want to go this far.’
I squeezed my eyes shut and plunged into Rohwinas’s arms.
He drew in a low breath.
And I……
brought my hand to his waist.
Just as Prien reached right behind me,
and just as the green-haired man who had burst into the center of the hall because of Meriana was about to turn his head this way.
Rohwinas flinched in surprise and stepped back. Naturally, the hand that had been holding me lost its strength as well.
Like a quick little animal, I slipped out of his grasp in an instant and stepped back.
Because of that, I lightly bumped into Prien. Perhaps startled that I might fall, he reached out and caught me.
I pulled him in, held on to him, and ran straight through the people.
I could feel a tenacious gaze clinging to my back, but I had no time to look back.
This was not running away.
Once again, this was a strategic retreat.
“Did you…… embrace him?”
That was the question I heard as soon as we safely slipped to the edge of the hall and caught our breath.
I let go of Prien’s arm, pressed a hand to my breathless chest, and lifted my head.
“Pardon? ……What did you say?”
“To my eyes, it looked as though you embraced him.”
“Ah, Rohwinas.”
“You still call him by name.”
“……”
I didn’t even want to explain, so I simply avoided answering.
It was merely a habit that had stuck.
One that held no meaning anymore.
I raised my hand.
“I tickled him.”
“Pardon?”
“I didn’t hug him…… I tickled him.”
“……”
“This is a secret, but he’s really ticklish. Especially around the sides.”
“……”
“Well, something like that.”
It was a secret one could only know in an excessively intimate relationship, so I hadn’t wanted to make use of it like this after we’d become people with nothing to do with each other.
But there was no other way.
There was no other way to stop Rowhinas from running his mouth however he pleased,
nor could I wait for Prien, who had approached us, to finally grab him by the collar,
and I couldn’t simply stand by until Meriana finally noticed who I was and her brother tactlessly butted in to make the situation worse.
This was a wise response, all things considered.
“…….”
And yet what seeped into my chest was a faint sense of humiliation and a very familiar anxiety.
My certainty that I was right faded, and my thoughts began to multiply.
Until now, whenever I was swept up by this feeling, I would quickly run away.
In truth, even now, nothing would have been easier than escaping from among these uncomfortable strangers, opening the heavy doors,
and returning to my peaceful mansion to hide myself away.
I blinked, feeling my trembling breath.
I raised a hand and felt the mask I was wearing.
‘I’m still all right.’
Let’s try a little longer.
Because I have something I need to do.
At that moment, something like a faint strand of thread…….
I felt it burrowing into my chest.
I raised my head.
Prien was looking at me.
While gently holding my other hand, which hung at my side.
‘Ah, it was divine power.’
Only, strangely, as if responding to the divine power pouring into me, my heart trembled in tiny pulses.
A change I had never experienced before, different from anything until now. And yet, on the other hand, it felt familiar…….
“What were you trying to do earlier?”
“I judged that I had to separate that man from the Baron. So…….”
Prien trailed off, but he seemed to be admitting it.
“It would certainly have caused a commotion.”
“…….”
“Next time, would you check my wishes first?”
“……I will. I’m sorry, Baron.”
He was probably sincere.
And yet, for some reason, it didn’t feel like his true feelings.
The face Prien had worn when we bumped into each other as I turned away earlier had clearly been…….
Terrifyingly distorted.
It was the complete opposite of the chilling, emotionless face I had witnessed in the basement.
A very human face, with emotions surging up and roiling over.
‘And yet he says he wants nothing from me?’
All this time, using a single word of permission from me as an excuse, I had known the feelings he kept revealing.
Feelings that, given his personality, he normally would never have been able to confess so honestly.
But how long he could remain calm behind that courteous face, as though nothing had happened…….
‘It’s because of the elixir anyway.’
There was no need for me to look into his innermost thoughts right now.
I gave a light nod and let go of his hand.
“Thank you for this.”
“…….”
“Still, I think it would be best if we stopped sticking together here.”
I glanced toward the central hall, where everyone’s gazes had gathered.
Neither Meriana nor Rowhinas was in sight.
Then that was fine.
It didn’t seem as though the matter would grow any bigger.