The Welcome Banquet (2)
"Making her put on an act like that looks exhausting."
Lucy was staring at the table where the King sat.
The King and Queen, the Prince and Princess, Duke Toledo, Yosef, the Duke's knight commander, and Kiera were all seated there.
Kiera was playing the part of a refined, pure maiden to the hilt—composed in speech, graceful in every gesture.
When she laughed, she hid her mouth behind a hand and smiled demurely. When the King addressed her, her eyes sparkled as she laughed heartily, and at times she would even flush with a delicate shyness.
Lately, Lucy had grown more and more tired of Kiera's two-faced behavior, and the sight of it irritated her.
Heroes are supposed to be good at slaying demons. Why does she keep trying to play politics?
Lucy, Yoris, and Natalie had originally been seated at that table too, but the conversation had been so dull that one by one they'd made their excuses and slipped away.
"I'm heading out."
Lucy rose from her seat, sulking through the entire banquet, and Yoris glanced over at her.
"Already? The banquet isn't over yet."
"I can't stand sitting here any longer. I'm going to my room to rest."
Natalie, sitting beside her, let out a derisive snort.
"Walking away from all this fine booze? What a child."
The muscular giant of a woman was already pleasantly drunk.
"A child? Keep it up and I'll put you to sleep with a spell so you can't drink at all."
"I'll rip your mouth open before you finish chanting."
"Ugh, insufferable."
With that, Lucy stormed out of the banquet hall.
"I suppose Lady Lucy wasn't enjoying herself."
"Mages are boring creatures by nature. All day long it's nothing but showing off their knowledge, shut up in their own little worlds—cripples who can't get along with anyone else."
Natalie lifted an oversized goblet and drained it in one go.
"KAH~ Now that's a drink. I like this country. Only thing missing is a fine specimen of a man sitting next to me."
"Lady Natalie."
"Hm?"
Yoris tilted his chin toward Maru, standing off in the distance.
"What do you suppose happened?"
"With what?"
"That talentless baggage carrier who had nothing to his name—how is he staying at the Vasilite royal court? What could he possibly have done to rise so high?"
"How should I know? If that bastard tries to play clever with me, I'll crack his skull open. Hiccup. Ugh, I'm drunk."
"If you ask for my theory, I'd say he must have been skimming the loot while he traveled with us."
Yoris's eyes went cold even as his mouth kept smiling.
"There's no other explanation."
"You mean he stole from us?"
"A few coins smuggled away here and there—and before anyone noticed, they'd snowballed into a mountain of gold, which he used to buy himself an official position. Wouldn't that fit?"
"I never saw him skimming anything."
"Would he let you see? He'd have to be sly as a ghost about it."
"Haha, what a son of a bitch."
Natalie clutched her belly and roared with laughter.
Natalie's boisterous, manly laughter cut through the noisy hall and carried all the way to where Maru stood.
Apparently, they were having a grand old time.
Maru, standing alone amid the crowd, ignored the sound and scanned his surroundings.
Still going smoothly.
He looked toward the King's table.
"Kwahkwah! Our princess has a keen eye for economics and trade, so once the Eastern Expedition concludes, let us pursue formal trade relations with House Toledo."
"Thank you for considering it so favorably, Your Majesty. And my gratitude to Her Highness the Princess for her wise counsel."
The King and Duke Toledo appeared to be on excellent terms.
Then, glancing beside them, Maru saw that Edward and Yosef had, for some reason, locked into a petty standoff.
"That wretch Han Maru slandered me this afternoon! Punish him at once!"
"Punishing Sir Maru is tantamount to punishing me! I'll say it nicely one last time—drop it, and mind your manners!"
They were both young, and the drink had their blood running hot.
"You can't even hold your liquor, you—"!
"I can't hold my liquor? Care to prove it? Right here, right now?"
"Let's do it!"
Now they were posturing at each other too.
The two of them were dead serious, but to everyone watching, the sight was oddly hilarious.
Maru murmured to himself as he surveyed the whole hall.
"Good, good."
Everyone was enjoying themselves on the stage he had worked so hard to build. It felt rewarding.
The past few weeks of preparation—he'd sacrificed sleep again and again, pouring everything into this event.
He'd worked so hard he never wanted to go back to those days.
"I'm beat."
He rolled his stiff neck, and his joints crackled.
He'd spent the entire day standing and fussing over one thing after another; he didn't have an ounce of energy left to enjoy the banquet.
One touch of the bed and he'd be out cold.
The King had actually invited him to join the head table, but he'd refused.
Because he suspected someone there would make it uncomfortable.
He'd excused himself with the claim that he wanted to keep managing the hall and get more work done.
And yet…
Why does she keep glancing at me? It's uncomfortable.
Every time he moved around the hall, he could feel Kiera's gaze trailing after him.
There she went again, just now.
Was she trying to catch his eye?
He had a feeling that the moment their eyes met, she would seize the chance to rise from her seat and walk straight over.
No thanks.
A hard pass from him.
He had no intention of wasting emotion on someone he'd cut ties with.
Live your life your way. I'll live mine. While I'm staying here, I have no intention of getting petty revenge over the past, so relax. I'll treat you well—keep a low profile and go home in peace. And stop staring at me already.
Maru chanted this silently to himself, dodging eye contact and feigning indifference.
Even when something urgent came up, he sent someone else in his place and never once set foot near Kiera.
Before long, the stately classical melody that had drifted through the banquet hall faded away, and every eye in the room turned toward the center.
"Ladies and gentlemen—it's time to dance!"
The moment someone called it out, a bright, lively tune struck up.
Adventurers and noble couples who had joined the expedition took to the floor, hand in hand, and began to dance at the center of the hall.
Matching the merry music, their dancing was light and full of life.
Soon after, Kiera stepped out onto the floor as well, led by the hand of one Yosef.
The two danced with their bodies pressed close, their steps at once lively and elegant.
But strangely, they kept circling within barely two meters of where Maru stood.
In one breath, right before his eyes, Kiera's upper body bent fully backward over Yosef's arm, her waist caught in his grip.
Her hair and breasts surrendered to gravity and spilled downward, and Kiera gazed up at Maru, upside down.
"…"
Maru's eyes met hers without meaning to.
Her face was expressionless, yet it felt like a provocation.
Look at me, dancing in another man's arms.
Does it sting? If it stings, come over here.
I can show you far worse than this. Remember it. If you're late to speak up, that's your problem.
Her eyes were saying exactly that.
Kiera righted herself and spun round and round with Yosef.
To anyone else watching, the movements looked perfectly natural.
But what Maru felt was something else entirely.
Now that he looked closely, it seemed Yosef was the one being used.
As a prop—to provoke one Han Maru.
Back when Maru was in the hero's party, Kiera had made a point of never dancing anywhere near him whenever she danced with noble men.
Yet tonight she was flirting shamelessly right in his line of sight.
Worse, she didn't shy away from the kind of steamy physical contact she'd never engaged in while dancing before.
How extreme? Extreme enough that onlookers gasped, Whoa! Is that even allowed?
Yosef's hand sliding up her thigh to the very brink of decency; Kiera's fingers brushing, then withdrawing, from the front of his trousers.
What's gotten into her today?
Goddammit. That woman was trash back then, and she's trash now.
He tried not to waver, but the visual assault made it impossible.
In the end, he'd been caught in Kiera's trap, just as she intended.
Not jealousy.
Whatever he'd had with Kiera was definitively over.
It was simply that memories surfaced—of Kiera back in her pure days, of the painful era when he'd known her since then—and the taste was bitter.
If he had to put a name to it, it was the feeling of a father watching his daughter.
I raised her, gave her my liver and my gallbladder, everything I had—and now she's off shooting pornos with some guy.
His feelings were tangled.
That wasn't what he'd raised her up for.
Unable to watch a second longer, he was just about to move elsewhere when—
Suddenly, something sharp pressed against the small of his back.
"Don't move. Unless you want to get stabbed, stay still."
A woman's voice, pitched low and doing a poor impression of a man's, came from behind him.
Maru raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.
"Who might you be?"
"This body is an assassin who hunts only the ill-mannered. Are you afraid?"
"Yes. A little."
"If you want to live, go to Her Highness the Princess this instant and request a dance with the utmost courtesy."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then I'll plant your face in a plate of food until you die."
"How dreadful. I suppose I'd better hurry to the Princess. Although—"
Maru turned around and smiled.
"You're right here, aren't you?"
Audrite, resplendent in a beautiful gown, waved the fork clutched in her hand.
Perhaps she'd had a bit to drink—both her cheeks were flushed pink.
Her skin was so flawlessly clear and fair that even the slightest blush gave her away completely.
"How boring. What are you doing over here?"
"Working."
"Everyone else is eating, drinking, and having fun, and you're working with no sense of the moment at all. Come on, forget it and dance with me. I'm curious how well you dance."
Her eyes, curved in a bright smile, brimmed with anticipation.
"Do you like men who dance well?"
"A man who can dance is dashing, obviously."
"And if I'm terrible, will you beat me up?"
"I might. But if you can't dance, I'll lead. Just follow me."
"What an admirable attitude. Then…"
Maru had no desire to be the center of attention in front of everyone, but the thought of Kiera left him unable to stand still.
This time, it was his turn to provoke.
"Shall we?"
"Yes."
His body was already warm.
You might say he was desperate to dance.
Dancing skill he had never once revealed, even while traveling with the hero's party.
That dazzling technique of his—so devastatingly sexy that noble daughters across the realm had nearly died of infatuation, so scandalous that even a certain kingdom's Queen Mother had begged him to tone it down out of sheer embarrassment.
Shall I shake it with everything I've got tonight, and make this princess fall head over heels?
At the very moment Maru began dancing with Audrite—
the door to Maru's room, long kept shut, slid silently open.
"Kukku…"
Lucy stifled a cackling laugh as she slipped inside and closed the door behind her.
The room was silent and dark.
She lit it with magic and looked around.
True to his long years as a baggage carrier, the room was immaculately tidy.
"Mutt, believe me, I'd love to talk to you, but my pride would rather die than let me. So I've decided to find another way."
Lucy drew a green, viscous object from inside her coat.
"I'm going to use you for my own comfort."
Her eyes gleamed with lewd intent.
She went to the mirror and smeared the green object thickly across its surface. Light flashed, and the thing was absorbed into the glass.
"I'll dig up intel on how you pulled off your little success, and find out exactly what you think of me and my comrades right now. I do look forward to a good drama."
Lucy waved brightly at the mirror and left the room.
Click.
With the door shut, silence settled over the room once more.
"Fufu… how shameless."
Black smoke suddenly billowed out from behind the curtains, and Luciella emerged.
"To treat my Lord with harm so casually, as if it were nothing at all."
Luciella approached the mirror and reached out her hand.
At her low murmur, the green viscous mass was forcibly dragged back out of the glass, coating her palm.
In the next instant it burst into flame and crumbled to ash.
"What did I tell you? I said those wretches would only hurt you again. I said don't meet them, that we should leave this place—and why did you refuse?"
Luciella stared absently at her smoking hand, then licked her upper lip.
"Will you simply stand by and watch, even here? Very well. If my Lord will not act, then I shall. And first on the list is that creature with a name so similar to mine. With a succubus's own brand of training, I'll drag her down until she pours out her loyalty to my Lord. Such a very, very…"
She bared her fangs in a sly grin.
"…entertaining time it will be."
A short while after she left, only the echo of a wicked laugh remained in the empty room.