A Woman with a Story (1)
A Woman with a Story (1)
Alright.
Let's not make eye contact.
I tried my hardest to direct my gaze elsewhere.
I turned my head, trying not to look like I was deliberately avoiding anyone or drawing attention, but whether I had been a beat too slow or had already locked eyes with Alice, I felt Bella, who had been at the edge of my vision, look this way.
Then again, strictly speaking, she was the type to tease us whether we made eye contact or not. She hadn't been a character in the main story, but I had spent enough years with her by now. I knew exactly how mischievous Bella could be, and how little she cared about what she was wearing.
"Oh my, you handsome boys over there!"
But Bella cut off her conversation with the noble entirely and waved in our direction. The middle-aged noble she had been speaking with wore a look of disbelief, but Bella did not seem to care in the slightest.
.......
The thought crossed my mind that the age gap was a little too wide for her to be using a word like 'handsome boys,' but that was probably just because I knew who Bella really was. In a place like this, using that kind of language to attract customers was perfectly natural.
"Huh? M-me?"
Leo gave a startled jump.
The distance between Bella and our group was considerable. Far enough that, if someone waved at the person behind you, you could reasonably mistake it for a wave meant for you.
It was also close enough that a shout would carry.
And Bella's voice was, in fact, quite loud. As if she meant for it to reach us.
Claire looked at Leo, who had jumped at Bella's call, with open disbelief. The vibe was less jealousy and more 'there is no way she meant you.'
And that made sense, because we were wearing our school uniforms. If one assumed Bella was not a princess but an ordinary commoner who knew nothing, there was no reason for her to single us out over all the wealthy noble gentlemen wandering around. Even if she mistook the uniforms for something else, they still read as military.
Students or soldiers alike had far less money than the lavishly dressed nobility.
"Yes, you. The handsome one."
But Bella walked straight toward Leo and kept talking. This time, not only Leo but Claire as well looked caught off guard.
"......."
Naturally, Alice and I were just exasperated.
I mean, wasn't this supposed to be undercover?
Though, I had expected she would act like this even while supposedly infiltrating.
Thinking about it again, this kind of reaction might actually be more natural. Even if Bella was moving around while hiding her status, she was never the type to hide her personality.
As she approached us, Bella was wearing a mask—the kind that covered only the area around the eyes, less like a masquerade ball mask and more like the sort a girlfriend might wear with a bunny girl outfit as a bedroom treat for her boyfriend. The material was blatantly cheap and decorated with what looked like white fuzz, leaving no impression whatsoever that it belonged at a noble's ball.
"......."
Lena wore a stiff expression as well.
In fact, seeing how quiet she had been ever since we arrived in the area, she seemed unable to adapt to an atmosphere so completely different from the autonomous state run by the military.
"Heh."
Bella, now right in front of us, bent forward slightly and peered into Leo's face.
Bella was not particularly short compared to a man, and she was wearing heels that looked at least ten centimeters high, which put her eyeline above Leo's. Her legs stretched out sleek and long, her waist was slender, and her chest was prominently forward. With someone like that bending over, a certain area was bound to be very heavily emphasized.
"What brings you here? Interested in the casino?"
"Huh? Ah, I, uh."
When she spoke to him, Leo could not even manage a proper answer.
Looking at Leo like that, Bella took no notice of Alice or me standing beside him and lifted his hand in hers.
"Judging by your clothes, you must be a young nobleman from somewhere, right? Won't you play with me? I can teach you all sorts of things. I know the casino over there very well, and I know the area, too. Or, perhaps a hotel?"
"......."
If I had known nothing about her, I might have felt something from Bella in that moment. A certain sexual allure, perhaps.
But... you know that saying, don't you? That no matter how unrelated by blood someone is, if you spend too long in close proximity with them, you come to know exactly what kind of person they are—and that makes it impossible to feel any sexual attraction toward them.
That was me right now.
I knew perfectly well that Bella had no actual intention of doing anything like that, so I could not even bring myself to want to stop her—how could I put it.
"Wai—"
But Claire was different, apparently. Setting aside whether she saw Leo as a man or not, Claire and Leo had the kind of relationship where they bickered over who was the older sibling.
Well, if my own younger sister were about to be seduced by some street host, I would have stepped in to chase them off, too.
But before Claire could even step forward, a man shouted.
"Hey!"
The fellow striding toward us, visibly furious, was the same man who had been talking with Bella moments ago.
He was not the stereotypical dissolute noble who whiled away his time in places like this. Whether he took care of his body properly, even through the heavily decorated clothing, a well-trained physique was visible—and his face, while not openly a pretty boy like the male leads of the protagonist's party, was reasonably handsome.
Of course, even taking all that into account, he still gave off the impression of some nameless nouveau riche upstart.
... Then again, my assessment of him as a 'noble' might have been wrong. A real noble would have seen our school uniforms and either been too frightened to come anywhere near us, or at the very least would have recognized Alice's face.
Besides, Jake was standing a step away, watching the whole situation with amusement. With an imperial princess and a duke right there, the fact that the man could not correctly identify their faces meant he was that far removed from political circles.
"Are you playing games with me? Just a moment ago, our conversation was going so well."
... Apparently, he had been on the verge of falling for Bella's sweet talk.
"Oh my. But I found myself more drawn to this one here. Look,"
Bella rested her hands gently on both of Leo's shoulders and drew him to the side.
Then, positioning him so the man could compare their faces, Bella nodded and said,
"Yes, this one is far prettier, as I thought."
What are you saying about a minor?
... Though, in games like this, people in their mid-teens were practically treated as young adults.
"......."
The noble's face as he looked at us shifted from red to blue and back again. Once he flushed that deeply, whatever handsomeness I had perceived in his face earlier vanished completely.
"Ah, wait!"
Claire, who had been about to step between Bella and Leo a moment ago, cried out in surprise again.
But this time, it was not because of Leo.
"Ow!"
Bella let out a shrill yelp.
The noble had strode right up and grabbed her arm.
"......."
Hmm.......
After watching the situation, I was certain.
Bella had obviously cut off her conversation with that man and come over here to drag us into exactly this kind of situation. Alice must have thought the same, because she was watching the scene unfold with an extremely complicated expression.
"Should we not help?"
"......."
Lena, who had been standing beside me watching, asked that.
Hmm.......
Would just standing here and watching leave us with a less-than-favorable impression?
As I stepped forward wordlessly, I heard Alice let out a small sigh behind me.
"Hey."
But there was no need for all of us women, myself included, to step in.
Because the arm of the man holding Bella was already being held by another man.
It was Jake.
"It won't do to grab a lady's arm so roughly like that."
Jake said that with a smile.
"Lady my—"
The man tried to ignore Jake's words and move his arm, but—
"Huh?"
He muttered blankly for a moment.
His arm would not move, apparently. No matter how hard he pulled back or twisted, Jake, gripping the man's arm, did not budge an inch.
"A-agh......!"
Not moving also meant Jake was squeezing that arm tight. As Jake steadily applied more pressure, the man let out a shrill scream.
"My—my hand......!"
The man screamed and twisted his hand, eventually letting go of Bella's arm. Bella quickly pulled her arm free and cradled it with her other hand. The spirited expression from moments ago was gone, replaced by the look of some pitiful, distressed woman.
...I honestly did not know what to say.
Once Jake confirmed the man had let go, he released his own grip as well. The man, who had been groaning and trying to pull away, lost the force yanking him forward and went tumbling backward in an undignified heap.
"You—do you know who I am!"
"Do you know who I am?"
When Jake answered the man's outburst with obvious disbelief, the man was struck speechless. It seemed he had only just now realized what kind of place this was.
Above the man with money, there was always a man with more money, and above one status, yet another status.
People simply did not go around announcing their status aloud here, but high-ranking nobles and magnates abounded.
"......."
In the end, the man scrambled to his feet and chose to flee without even dusting off his clothes.
"Are you alright?"
Charlotte, who had seemed to find this place vulgar earlier, asked with apparent concern—perhaps her opinion had shifted slightly after watching the situation unfold.
"Ah, y-yes....... I'm fine."
Unbelievable. Honestly.
Watching Bella, who had completely shed her attitude from a moment ago and was now speaking so pitifully, that was all I could think.