The Imperial Ball (7)
The deep purple wine filled the glass, releasing its distinctive sharp alcoholic aroma. When about a quarter of my glass was filled, Leo stopped pouring. Oh, he hadn’t filled it to the brim. I was slightly surprised. There was a common etiquette that one shouldn’t fill a wine glass completely but pour only a little, and it seemed Leo knew that too. That’s right. Since he had occasionally served drinks for his father, he must have possessed the basic knowledge.
I set the filled glass on the table and smiled at him. “I’ll pour for you, my lord.”
“Yes. Then I’ll leave it to you.”
Leo lifted his own wine glass and held it out to me. I filled only a quarter of it, just as he had done. After we had poured for each other, we each raised our glasses and clinked them lightly. The round-bottomed wine glass produced a clear, ringing ting.
When I brought the rim to my lips, the pungent alcohol scent mingled with the slightly sour fragrance of grapes tickled my nose. I took a sip. The moment the clear purple liquid touched my tongue, a dizzying astringency swirled through my mouth. As expected, I never could get used to wine no matter how many times I drank it. Still, having consumed quite a bit in the past, it wasn’t undrinkable.
After swallowing lightly, I glanced at Leo. He was frowning slightly—probably because the wine tasted bitterly strong—but the moment he noticed my gaze, he smoothed his expression at once. The sight made laughter bubble up inside me before I could stop it. Our Leo must be drinking for the first time. How cute.
“...It’s tolerable.”
The bravado-laced words that followed made it even harder to hold back my laughter. How was I supposed to stay quiet after hearing something like that?
“Pfft…!”
In the end, I burst out laughing despite myself.
Offering Aria wine had, of course, been partly to comfort her after the conversation with the princess had left her looking dejected. But that was only the surface reason. My true purpose lay elsewhere—one of the other reasons I had come to this ball.
To ask Aria about that day.
Why she had left me. Why she had returned like this, clinging to me again. And who that person was who was supposedly better than me.
I couldn’t possibly ask those things while in my right mind, so I planned to borrow the courage of alcohol tonight.
Uncorking the wine wasn’t difficult. I had picked up the basics by watching over my father’s shoulder whenever I served him drinks.
“......”
Yet wine proved far stronger than I expected. The intense aroma stung my nose the instant it touched my lips, and merely holding a sip in my mouth made my stomach churn and my vision blur. How do people even drink this?
As that thought crossed my mind and I stole a glance at Aria, I unconsciously furrowed my brow.
Strangely, she seemed quite accustomed to drinking. After taking a sip, her expression remained perfectly calm, without the slightest change. Is this woman a monster?
A strange sense of competitiveness rose in me. Before I knew it, words I didn’t truly mean had left my lips.
“...It’s tolerable.”
“Pfft…!”
The moment I spoke, Aria let out a soft laugh. What? Why was she laughing? Had my words been funny?
Puzzled, I asked, “...Why are you laughing?”
“Ah, no… it’s nothing.”
Aria was clearly trying to stifle her amusement.
…She really was a strange woman.
Thinking that, I took another sip. As expected, it was horribly bitter and unpleasant. I set the glass down and casually brought up the subject.
“My lady.”
“Yes?”
“Shouldn’t you go over there?”
I gestured with my eyes toward the people chatting merrily beneath the brilliant lights in the distance. Aria followed my gaze for a moment, then slowly shook her head.
“It’s all right. I don’t have any particularly close acquaintances anyway.”
“...I see.”
The conversation died. As expected, being with her was awkward. A rather long silence stretched between us. Neither of us spoke. We simply listened to the beautiful melody drifting softly through the grand ballroom, each lost in dry, fleeting thoughts.
When I felt enough time had passed, I spoke first again.
“My lady.”
“Yes?”
“I have something I want to ask.”
“What is it?”
For some reason the words flowed out smoothly, without hesitation. Things I would never normally say kept tumbling from my lips. It felt as if courage were rising within me like a tide.
“My lady… do you like me?”
“......Pardon?”
I realized I had misspoken, yet strangely I felt no urge to take it back. With the resolve that I would not retreat until she answered, I looked straight into her eyes.
“I asked if you like me.”
“......”
Perhaps because of the wine, Aria’s face seemed to spin slowly before my eyes.
What kind of situation was this?
Leo, who had suddenly asked if I liked him, was staring at me intently, waiting for my answer. His eyes looked slightly unfocused—he was clearly drunk. To become intoxicated after only a few sips… I wanted to call it impossible, but with Leo it made sense. He had always been terribly weak to alcohol; even the scent could make him tipsy.
“Ah… well…”
What was the right thing to say? In any case, drunk Leo didn’t seem to be in his right mind. This was the very situation I had longed for, yet now that it had arrived I couldn’t decide how to respond. Even if I told the truth, it was doubtful whether he would remember it properly. And if I lied and he recalled it later, the backlash would be severe.
I was hesitating seriously inside when—
Thud!
The sudden noise right beside me made me flinch. Before I knew it, Leo had turned toward me, stretched out his right arm to block my path, and pushed me against the wall. I ended up trapped between his arm and the back of the sofa.
It didn’t seem intentional. He was probably too dizzy to control his own body.
His face was so close. I could feel his somewhat ragged breathing directly against me, carrying a strange scent faintly mixed with wine.
Before I, suddenly thrown into panic, could react, Leo asked again.
“Can’t you… answer…?”
I was at a loss for words. For some reason, the look in his eyes as he asked felt unbearably sad. My breath caught, and I couldn’t speak.
His words continued.
“Do you even know… how much I suffered because of you…?”
“Leo…”
I barely managed to whisper his name, but it seemed my voice no longer reached him. Still drunk, he began muttering as if to himself.
“Will you… leave me again this time… like you did back then…?”
“……!”
The moment I heard those words, my mind snapped into focus. No. That’s not true. I won’t leave you again.
My thoughts burned white-hot. Without realizing it, I gently grasped his shoulders and spoke desperately.
“I won’t leave…”
“......”
Leo’s movements froze. Though his eyes were slightly hazy, they were clearly fixed on me with surprise.
Looking straight into those eyes, I spoke clearly.
“I won’t leave you again. No matter what happens from now on, I will stay by your side for the rest of my life, my lord.”
“......”
“So please… don’t make such a sad face.”
As I spoke, tears threatened to spill from my own eyes. Something hot surged up from deep inside my chest. Somehow, right now, it felt as if I could tell him everything.
“My lady…”
It was then that Leo’s eyelids slowly drooped. At the same time, his body collapsed forward and slumped heavily over mine. His considerable weight pressed down across my whole body. It seemed he had fallen asleep.
“......”
After stiffening for a moment, I slowly wrapped my arms around him. Just like that day. I caught his helplessly limp body with my entire being.
In the end, I still couldn’t say it all. Yet this time was clearly different from before. I could feel Leo’s faint breathing against my ear. The fact filled me with such joy that tears streamed down my cheeks without warning.
His warm body heat transferred fully to me. If only we could stay together like this forever.
I held Leo’s head, buried against my chest, tightly in both arms and savored his warmth for a long time.
“I love you, Leo…”
Those words that could no longer reach him—the same ones I had once whispered while he slept in the past—I spoke softly once more into his ear. For a long while, I gently stroked his hair.
“......”
My eyes opened of their own accord. My head felt like it would split open. My temples throbbed, and the world spun.
What on earth was going on?
I was lying on my side. Something soft cushioned the left side of my head. I tried to look around, but the surroundings were dim and hard to make out.
…That’s right. After I drank the wine, after that…
……I couldn’t remember anything.
How much time had passed? Where was I…?
“Are you awake, my lord?”
“......?”
At the familiar voice from above, I instinctively looked up. Aria had leaned forward, gazing down at me with an inexplicably gentle smile.
“......Ah.”
Only then did I realize my situation. I was lying on my side on the private sofa at the imperial ball, using Aria’s thigh as a pillow. The so-called lap pillow.
Looking across the room, the ball still seemed to be in full swing. Not much time appeared to have passed…
Damn it. How had it come to this?
I remembered bringing the wine to my lips and exchanging a few words with her. After that, everything grew hazy and the memories blurred.
“……!”
Then a fragment of memory suddenly surfaced.
My lady, do you like me?
Crazy. Crazy bastard. Crazy bastard. What the hell kind of insane thing had I said? Cold sweat broke out across my skin. I tried to sit up at once, but the moment I moved, the world spun violently and my body lurched.
“Ah, my lord…! You haven’t recovered yet, so don’t push yourself. Lie down a little longer.”
Immediately afterward, a soft weight pressed down on my head from above. It didn’t take long to realize that weight was Aria’s chest. She had wrapped both arms around my head and was leaning over me with her upper body so I couldn’t rise. The party dress that clung perfectly to her figure made the sensation far too vivid.
I was deeply shaken, but my body was in such poor condition that I lacked even the strength to push away that not-so-heavy pressure. In the end I was forced back down onto her thigh. My head grew dazed for an entirely different reason than the alcohol.
I had heard countless times how dangerous a first drink could be, yet I never imagined I would end up like this. To have shown such disgrace in front of this wicked woman, of all people… At this rate I might really have no choice but to die.
Grasping at straws, I spoke quietly.
“Um… my lady.”
“Yes? What is it?”
Aria’s soft voice floated down. For some reason it sounded slightly more excited than usual. Was it the wine? Or was she thrilled at having caught my weakness?
“While I was asleep… did I do anything? Any rude behavior, or strange words…?”
“......”
The moment I spoke, Aria’s body flinched. As I waited in confusion for her answer, a slightly shy voice finally drifted down.
“My lord, perhaps… you don’t remember?”
“...Remember what?”
A wave of anxiety washed over me. Somehow it felt as if she were holding back laughter.
“While asleep, you confessed several times that you love me.”
“What?!”
What kind of bullshit was that? Fuck.