Who Are You?
Does sword dance count as dancing?
"Ugh! Gyaah!"
"Hrgk!"
That was the sound of the Heavenly Demon screaming.
"W-wait! I said don't touch the chest! That's the waist! And don't touch the rear either! Did I not tell you this seat's body is a jade vessel?!"
Life as a woman had, so far, been nothing but inconvenience and distaste. The useless fat on her chest only got in the way of movement, and the day of agony that arrived once a month was so wretched she had honestly wondered whether this seat had come down with a fatal illness. But she was setting a new record for discomfort right now.
For one thing, the garment itself was absurdly ornate, and ornate meant her movement was restricted. Run in a dress that dragged along the floor? One wrong step and she would trip and smash her nose. Getting into it was a trial all its own. She had somehow worked her legs in, only for the thing to jam at her hips with a solid thunk.
"Young miss…! Isn't your pelvis a little too wide?"
The dress the maid had brought was cut for an average woman's body. The fat had hidden it until now, but Lilith's hips were in a class no other woman could match. She had wondered where the firmness of those thighs came from. It was the pelvis they were joined to.
"Everyone, haul it up together!"
The maids clutching the dress leapt as one and yanked it upward.
Sssk!
At last the dress cleared her hips. The waist, however, was lying in wait.
"Hah… why is her waist this thin?!"
They barely managed that as well, adjusting the elastic inside the dress until it fit and dragging the whole thing up over her shoulders. All that remained was to cinch the corset and draw up the zipper at her back. Whether it was the mountain-broad shoulders or the outrageously large chest, the corset refused to sit no matter how they pulled. Come to think of it, Lilith's figure was close to ideal—full where it ought to be full, narrow where it ought to be narrow. Not a thin, merely pretty body. A beautiful one, healthy and radiant, wrapped in firm muscle.
"All right! Everyone, pull with everything you've got!"
The laces jerked tight at once. The corset cinched completely, and her breasts began to gather toward the center.
"K-kuhk! This… I can't—I can't breathe properly?!"
Her torso was forced upright and locked into a perfectly straight line. The trouble was that she could scarcely draw a breath, and her chest felt packed so tightly it might burst all the way to her soul.
"…How long am I supposed to keep this on?"
Having barely survived the lacing, the Heavenly Demon kept fussing at her back, unable to get comfortable.
"You have to wear it until the party is over! It runs from about lunch until evening, so… you'll need it on for half the day!"
Yure smiled, bright and sweet.
…How did I come to this?
The Heavenly Demon had, of course, threatened that she would never put on some ridiculous dress. She had also declared, flatly, that she would not be attending any party. Cultivating her inner energy as soon as possible mattered far more than wasting time on a gathering. Weighed down by that heavy body, she had valued external training over the accumulation of inner energy, and through that effort she had succeeded in shedding the fat. Her external arts had reached a level where further training was hardly necessary. Her inner energy, by comparison, was pathetic. What had gathered in her dantian amounted to a single sixty-year cycle, and no more.
Well. Depending on how one allocates a single cycle, even arts that burn inner energy heavily can be used in moderation.
She needed to build that energy at once. Then Duke Briton's order came down.
"On the day of Prince Gris's birthday, not a single member of our Tyrivi household will be absent."
She could hardly become the madwoman who killed Briton simply because she did not wish to attend a party. In the end, the Heavenly Demon agreed to go.
"Kyaaaa! You're so beautiful!"
Yure's face went slack with shock, and she bounced where she stood. Lilith was a sculpture. Gowned in elegance and wearing makeup for the first time, her looks were not of this world. Those refined eyes—merely meeting them made the heart pound as if it might burst.
"Especially… this… chest…"
Breasts that had already been large gathered into an even deeper cleavage, seated with perfect grace. However they had been kept, the firmness was no joke.
"Kyaaaaa! Young miss, take me!"
Without a word of warning, Yure rushed in and flung her arms around the Heavenly Demon. Hanging off her, she was moved all the way to tears. Had that sincerity gotten through? The corner of a mouth that would normally have told her to get lost seemed to tick upward.
"H-hmph! Do I… do I look that acceptable?"
After that she tried on several more dresses. The one that finally won was violet. It clung to the body, throwing Lilith's figure into even sharper relief—a deeply plunging, thoroughly seductive gown.
A young man of warm, handsome looks was tying a necktie, smiling at his reflection in the mirror.
"As always, I am handsome."
"Of course. Our young master is the handsomest of all!"
The butler at his side lavished praise on Uni.
"At the second prince's birthday party tomorrow, what am I to do if every young lady looks only at me?"
He stroked the sharp bridge of his nose this way and that.
"Of course. The young master will captivate every woman's heart. But…!"
"But?"
"There is your fiancée, Lady Lilith, is there not? That is the greatest reason the other young ladies dare not approach you!"
The moment Lilith's name left his mouth, Uni's expression crumpled.
"Ugh! Don't even put that ugly girl's name in your mouth!"
The butler seemed to find teasing him entertaining, and went right on mentioning Lilith.
"But if one looks only at the features, they aren't exactly ugly, are they?"
True enough. Eyes, nose, and mouth alone, and she did seem rather pretty.
"I hate fat pigs!"
"Even so, you'll have to marry Lady Lilith someday, won't you? Now that I think of it, the proper age for marriage is nearly upon you."
"Gyaah! Butler! Don't say things like that! I'm getting goosebumps!"
He shuddered as if he truly could not stand her. Uni was the precious young master of House Nam. A noble, yes—but if one ranked the aristocracy, he sat second from the bottom. Practically last. There were many ways for a noble to rise, and the easiest of them was marriage: wedding someone of higher station than oneself. His father had already settled the matter.
"…It's for the sake of the family, but I truly hate Lilith. Ugh! I feel like a fool for getting excited just from hearing the name at first."
How pretty the name Lilith was. The girl herself had been the opposite of it—an enormously fat, ugly woman.
"Hmph. I'll have to say a word to her out of courtesy at this party…. She isn't going to cling to me again just because I spoke to her, is she? The thought alone makes me want to vomit!"
Uni had his reasons for speaking of her so poorly. Her weight was one, of course, but she was also far too forward. Lilith, who had grown up without ever once being loved, had liked even his thoroughly calculated kindness. At least he had never said anything cruel to her.
"What can one do, when it's all because the young master is so handsome? Our young master will simply have to endure!"
"Heh, heheh! Is that so?"
Damn it.
In the end, the day had come. A party she truly wished would never happen again. What was so blessed about merely being born that one had to boast of it to the whole neighborhood?
Thanks to that, I carved up my training time and nearly died practicing how to walk in heels.
The dress was bad enough, but the damned shoes wore a person out. Did they have any idea how sharp and pointed those heels were? It was a mercy she had been given a lower one, tall as Lilith was.
With shoes like these, I wouldn't even need a sword.
She could simply stamp them all with the heel. As expected of the Heavenly Demon, whose balance was excellent, she grew used to the heels in no time. The problem was the dance.
"You want me to learn to d-dance?"
She had never danced in her life. Ah—did Sword Dance count? Then she had, technically. It was a completely different thing, though. How to put it… it was like the dancing of a courtesan in a pleasure house. And it was not something one performed alone. It was a dance done in pairs.
Has Lilith ever danced?
No. She had not. Who would offer Lilith a hand and ask her to dance? Most men would collapse under her weight. All she had ever done was hole up in a corner and eat, or serve as a target for the other young ladies' tempers. And yet she had attended every party without fail, and the reason…
A certain figure rose in her mind.
…A man?
She did not know who he was, but she had a faint memory of this man treating Lilith kindly.
"As expected of Lady Lilith! Incredible! Your talent for dance is no joke!"
Yure shot a thumb into the air and launched into praise. A single demonstration was enough for the simple steps, and even the refined movements she committed to memory in no time.
"Ahem, ahem. It isn't that this seat cannot learn. I simply dislike it. Once I actually do a thing, I do it well."
Strangely, whenever Yure praised her, she found herself getting carried along.
"Shall we go, then?"
She followed Yure out the door. Since the last meal, the Heavenly Demon had informed Duke Briton that she would be unable to attend breakfast for the time being. The reason was simple. Dawn and morning were the best hours for training, and a meal in the middle of that golden time was entirely unnecessary. Aside from the training ground, she had not left her room at all.
Click. Click.
The sharp strike of heels announced the Heavenly Demon's descent.
"Hmph. That pig of a girl, I swear! Takes after herself, coming down this late."
Serna—daughter of the lavishly adorned Lady Hoian, and Lilith's older sister—was in the middle of her complaint when the footsteps reached her. Her head snapped around. She looked at Lilith, and the words tore out of her.
Those words spoke for every face in the room. Even Duke Briton wore a question mark.