47. Dance
47. Dance
Outside the window, the pretty-looking light blessing the wedding grew gradually stronger, and soon the rattling sound of the carriage slowly faded away.
"Lady, an escort."
This crazy bastard.
As soon as we got off the train, the bastard Siwoo extended his black-gloved hand as if he were truly my husband, wearing an unpleasant smile.
I desperately tried to ignore him and walk past, but the guests who hadn't yet entered the wedding hall had all turned their gazes toward us for some reason, so I forced a smile and took the bastard Siwoo's hand. Let's see about this after everything is over.
Following mine, numerous carriages were lined up in the carriage parking lot outside the wedding venue. The most expensive-looking carriage in the middle was probably Paul's, the ones trying to match its class were Paul's acquaintances, and the relatively cheap-looking ones belonged to the guests who came to offer 'tribute'. For your information, our carriage is top-of-the-line among top-of-the-line. Though it's a rental.
Thinking about what kind of bastard the coachman was to make me feel the rattling even while driving a top-tier carriage, I walked along the white stairs leading to the entrance of the wedding venue, holding the bastard Siwoo's hand.
At the end of the stairs, a huge theater reminiscent of an opera house emitted a bright light to greet us. The classical music of the party and the sound of guests murmuring in harmony could be heard piercing through the building.
"Could you please show me your invitation?"
"Ah, h-here...."
"Don't be nervous. My Mademoiselle."
......Has he genuinely lost his mind? Did I hit him too hard on the head with a chestnut earlier? His voice made my hands and feet curl up as if I had poured a whole jar of honey down my throat, so I roughly matched it with, "Haha, indeed," and then handed the invitation hidden inside my body to the manager.
"Verified. Cecil-nim and Jace-nim."
Cecil and Jace. These are the names of myself and the bastard Siwoo inside this wedding hall. An affectionate and cute wife who dotes blindly on her husband's words, and a gentle husband who loves such a wife dearly... that's the setup. Naturally, the bastard Siwoo made it up. I just let it slide because it was annoying, but if it was going to be like this, I should have just made it up myself.
"I hope both of you have a wonderful time."
With the manager's greeting, the bastard Siwoo and I stepped into the wedding hall together. I squeezed his hand tightly halfway through, telling him to cut the bullshit, but the moment I heard him mutter, "What's the matter, my Mademoiselle?", I simply gave up, decided to play along with the bastard Siwoo's utter nonsense for just today, and kill him tomorrow.
No matter how you look at it, this place wasn't a wedding hall; it was a party banquet hall itself. Numerous tables reminiscent of a large-scale social gathering, various kinds of food, and classical music that kept the ears from getting bored. And even the guests.
Though they try desperately to hide it, it's all obvious. Those who came genuinely to enjoy this party, and the 'tributes' who were practically dragged here to sell their bodies to Paul Hedeltz, alongside those who claimed to be their husbands.
They wore masks pretending to enjoy the banquet, desperately forcing bright smiles over faces steeped in despair, but the microscopic trembling of the hands holding their glasses could not be erased.
The group with the most varied expressions is those who claimed to be the husbands of the tributes. From those who raised their 'tribute' solely to offer her to Paul, feeling not an ounce of guilt about it, to those who somehow grew fond of the ones they raised as tributes from some point on, secretly wishing she wouldn't be chosen by Paul. With the air of this place exuding countless human conditions, a slight nausea rose up.
I am not a person with a strong sense of justice. Even so, once you actually see a sight like this, the emotion of guilt creeps up from deep within and wraps around my body sluggishly.
I am not a magnanimous person who can take responsibility for the happiness of everyone here. There surely exist those here who participated as wedding guests in order to revive their households, which were so desperate that they looked as though they would collapse at any moment. If I am chosen by Paul here, thoroughly expose his reality, and drag him down to the bottom, am I a villain to those who came here to revive their desperate households?
......I don't know. My thoughts are jumbled and mixed up. Just around the time when that guilt, eating away at my heart, wrapped around my head to the point where I no longer knew what was right,
Siwoo squeezed my hand tightly.
"You're having weird thoughts again."
And then, reading the thoughts I had kept bottled up inside without a care,
"You said you're saving Seolhwa. Your friend."
"......Yeah."
"Then you gotta save her. Don't think about anything else. Think about what's most important to you right now."
He whispered words in my ear that the Siwoo of the original work would never even have thought of saying.
......That's right. I am not Siwoo, the protagonist inside <Academy Effort One-Tool Gladiator>.
There is no need to nail holes into my own heart and carve away at my mental strength just to save a complete stranger.
I just need to wish for the happiness of those who are precious to me.
Because I am Yuriel.
With Siwoo's advice, the guilt that had been weighing down my body vanished, and feeling the rare sensation of my body being light, I said to Siwoo.
"What are you babbling about, you asshole?"
"Wow, and here I spoke like that for your sake, you shouldn't use language like that, my Mademoiselle."
"Yeah, I put up a barrier right now so I can't hear you, asshole."
"......."
The party progressed. The bottle of liquor displayed in the glass case gradually emptied, and the classical music echoing through the hall slowly filled the place with an upbeat tune. Of course, pretending to empty the liquor, Siwoo and I hadn't actually drunk a single glass, leaving us completely sober.
As the mood of the party gradually heated up like that, the gazes of most of the guests here began to converge toward my direction.
"Whoa, look at everyone around you staring at you. As expected of Elysia's pride, Yuriel — "
"Shut the fuck up. And it's not the pride of Elysia, it's the miracle."
"Aha!"
The fact that the guests' gazes were gradually glancing and gathering toward my side means, well, they too have a vague intuition about who the protagonist destined to be this banquet's 'tribute' will be. To be honest, I think it's a foreseen event.
Pretending not to care about those gazes, the bastard Siwoo and I smiled at each other and clinked our wine glasses, from which the alcohol component had already been purified and vanished.
It probably won't be long before Paul Hedeltz appears and shouts — The dance time to ornament the climax of the party is about to begin!
Actually, it's not like Paul Hedeltz chooses the woman to enjoy tonight based on dance skills, so I didn't actually practice dancing or anything. My body will probably figure it out and do well on its own.
By around now, he's probably finished filtering out all the pretty-faced kids in advance and is thinking about how to fuck the women, and the protagonist of that spot will probably be me.
I will pretend to be obediently dragged away by Paul, enter a room, subdue him with force, and then present him with a fatal weakness that can instantly collapse the Hedeltz family. Using that as collateral, I will coerce him into canceling the marriage with Hong Seolhwa. I'll just tell him not to ask why.
From Paul's perspective, he will misunderstand, thinking that an extraordinary powerhouse suddenly popped out and an assassin sent from the imperial family is starting to lay down the law in moderation, so I'll act accordingly. In the first place, during the latter half of the original work, the imperial family held this weakness and shook the Hedeltz family to keep them in check. I can just consider it using in advance what I would have used later.
If the biggest reason the Hedeltz family was able to hold the Seolhwa family by the neck is also 'this' that I brought, it will be more than enough to cover it—no, my situation will become much better. Yeah, there is truly not a single problem with the plan.
As I repeated the plans in my head, spouting casual nonsense, and just killing time, clap. clap. clap. With three sounds of clapping, Paul Hedeltz made his appearance.
"The second son of the Hedeltz family, whose heart resonates and who is devoid of selfish motives...."
Roughly a sentence sucking up to Paul's ass. I filtered it out.
His abdomen looked like it would last a full three days if you stuck a candle in his navel and lit it, and the chunks of flesh around his neck, as if he were wearing an air cushion, were impressive.
"Greetings. I am Paul Hedeltz, the second son of the Hedeltz family. I sincerely congratulate the guests who came to my wedding and...."
His worthless exhortations were also filtered out. It was genuinely fascinating to see Paul babbling away all by himself when it was obvious everyone was bored out of their minds.
By filtering out what needed to be filtered—no, actually filtering out literally every single word uttered by Paul—before I knew it, the tempo of the classical music, which had been calm and leisurely, gradually accelerated and grew brisk.
The guests who had been quietly listening to Paul's exhortations also gradually matched the music, holding each other's hands, moving their bodies, and starting to dance.
Thinking that this was the last dance performed before offering his wife as a tribute, my feelings became somewhat peculiar.
The sound of upbeat music continued to play.
The surrounding guests were dancing.
Siwoo slowly knelt down toward me, who was momentarily frozen in a daze, and extended his hand.
"Would you dance with me, Cecil."
......He's getting into the mood and acting crazy again. If he does this, I have no choice but to play along.
I recalled the words Siwoo had said before entering the wedding hall.
I am Cecil, an affectionate and cute wife who dotes blindly on her husband's words; you are Jace, a gentle husband who loves such a wife dearly. Honestly, this was way too far from our actual relationship.
Still, well, for the sake of someone precious to me, I could act like this kind of wife a hundred times over.
I looked at Siwoo. To others, he would appear as a clumsy boy with curly hair and glasses, but I was looking at Siwoo's true appearance.
I too extended my hand to Siwoo. Our warmth touched across our gloves. It was warm.
My reflection was mirrored in Siwoo's black eyes. What kind of face was I making, I wonder? The light was too bright, so I couldn't see. Actually, I didn't even try that hard to see that expression.
I simply smiled. Because for this very moment, I was Cecil, an affectionate and cute wife who dotes blindly on her husband's words.
Thus, wearing a smile as bright as if I possessed all the gold, silver, and treasures in the world, and feeling my face instantly grow hot and flushed due to the blazing lights, I said to Siwoo.
"With pleasure, Jace."
So I spoke.