On the day of the play, I stepped onto the battlefield just before noon, as I had predicted. Mary’s kindness allowed me to start later versus first thing in the morning, like I would have for a usual Lady’s Day. Nevertheless, the maids were even more fired up than usual. Probably that was on account of how I would be standing beside Yuri, whose beauty was unparalleled.
“Hello, Lady Sei.”
“Uh, hello.”
Yuri looked unspeakably lovely when he came to the palace at the appointed time to pick me up. The combination of him being, you know, himself but also dressed in formalwear like he’d worn at that ball ages ago made him seem radiant and, um, sparkly? It made my voice come out as a squeak.
They said that wearing a suit made a person thirty percent more handsome, and I had a feeling that his outfit had a similar mathematical effect.
Yuri wore a black justaucorps and culottes with a madder-red vest, and his garments were all made of velour. The justaucorps had a gorgeous, embroidered border of many colors, though mainly gold. The front of the vest was also finely embroidered with a pattern that looked like snowflakes. Both items were extremely luxuriant.
I suppose you wouldn’t expect the son of a marquis to wear anything less.
Meanwhile, my dark-red gown was also made of velour, and my long black gloves were silk. The hem of the dress sported sumptuous golden embroidery with a black lace border. The gown’s color had been picked because it matched my hair color, but I’d wound up matching Yuri’s outfit as well.
As I was overwhelmed by the shock of coincidence, Yuri leaned in and smoothly took my right hand. I was distracted by the gloves he wore as he placed a kiss on the back of my hand.
“You look most striking today, Lady Sei.” He maintained that pose as he glanced up at me. There was a strange intensity in his smiling eyes. It was incredibly alluring.
H-his attack! It’s too powerful! My internal scream couldn’t be contained and leaked out, to my dismay. “Huh?! Wh-what are you doing?!”
I yanked my hand back, and Yuri chuckled with amusement. “Oh? Did I offend you?”
He’s making fun of me, isn’t he?
I took a deep breath and let it out before once again demanding why he’d done that. He claimed his family had ordered him to, and furthermore that it was just good manners when escorting a lady.
Hey, Yuri’s family! What do you think you’re teaching him?! I can take it because I know how he is normally, but I bet I would have fainted if I didn’t! I couldn’t voice these thoughts out loud, so mentally lambasting House Drewes would have to do. “It’s not that I’m offended…” I sighed. “Just forget it. Let’s go.”
“Very well, then.”
I was already thoroughly exhausted, and we hadn’t even left. Yuri seemed satisfied. He didn’t say anything further when I suggested we ought to go.
The theater we were headed to was in the district where most of the noble estates were located in the city. As you’d expect from a theater for nobility, the exterior was both exquisitely beautiful and exquisitely expensive, with stone pillars carved with all kinds of different designs out front.
My maids had told me about it as they helped me get dressed, and according to them, the carvings on these pillars were inspired by scenes from a certain story. In front of each pillar there was a woven iron fire pit, and the shadows of the flames made the carved scenes look like they were moving.
The entrance to the theater lay beyond these pillars. As we passed in the carriage, we saw elegantly dressed people passing through them, one after another.
There was a stairway in front of the pillars, so many carriages were lined on the road in front of the stairs. It looked like there was a bit of a traffic jam; we would have to wait our turn to get out. I craned my neck, trying to see the end of the line, but the carriage passed the front without stopping.
“Wasn’t that the entrance?” I asked, thinking it strange that we weren’t slowing down.
I felt Yuri lean closer to me. I got the sense that he was looking out the window over my shoulder. Then I felt his faint warmth on my left shoulder as he spoke from that intimate distance. “Yes, it was. However, there’s a separate entrance for patrons, so we’ll be entering from there.”
I was just a bit frozen. After Yuri’s behavior when he first showed up to pick me up, I couldn’t help but notice every little thing he did today. Even though the person doing these things was Yuri, who may I reiterate had no interest in anything but magic, I was strangely hyper-aware of everything he did.
It’s just because we’re in this cramped carriage. Calm down, me! I tried to soothe myself as I felt him lean back away.
Relieved that reality had reinstated itself, I turned my attention to what Yuri had said. So the general public went through the front entrance while patrons had their own, huh? It made me wonder if the royal family had their own entrance as well. When I asked, Yuri confirmed that this was the case. The carriage would be able to go right to the door of our stop, just as it would for the royals. The whole thing felt like a pretty big deal.
As we chatted, we arrived at the patrons’ entrance. I followed Yuri out of the carriage and took his hand to step down, though the process felt distinctly different from usual. I mulled it over and concluded that it was probably because Yuri had never before escorted me in this fashion.
Yuri led me inside while I was lost in thought. Just as he had told me in the carriage, it was only a few steps from the carriage to the building. It felt like I was stepping into an entirely different world.
The interior of the theater was even more dazzling than the exterior. I found myself wholly captivated. The first things that caught my eye were the enormous chandeliers at both ends of the hallway. The mounted glass shards sparkled as they reflected the light. There were no candles because they used enchanted foci as a light source, just like they did in the palace.
I wouldn’t have expected anything less from a theater catering to nobility. The place felt super high-class, and not just because of the resplendent chandeliers.
The pillars rising from the floor to the ceiling were inlaid with gold leaves, and they shone with the light they reflected from the chandeliers. The top and bottom of the pillars were carved with intricately fine details that I couldn’t quite make out. Plain vertical lines were carved into the middle sections, and they cast shadows as well.
The ceiling was a bright mural of men and women together. Perhaps it was a scene from a story as well? Unfortunately, I wasn’t very well versed in the stories of this world, so I had no idea what tale it was alluding to.
I had gradually slowed down as I stared up at the ceiling, so I felt Yuri tug on my arm, which was linked with his. I looked to him, and he stopped to turn to me. He tilted his head as he asked, “Is something the matter?”
I shook my head; I was just reeling over our surroundings. “Oh, I’m sorry. I was just struck by the opulence.”
Yuri nodded in agreement. “That’s just the word. I hear the front entrance is equally magnificent.”
“Is that so?”
“Indeed. Would you like to pass that way when we leave?”
I had assumed this entrance was extra fancy because it was for patrons, but apparently it was like this all over. Perhaps it was all to lend to that extraordinary air characteristic of all theaters? At any rate, his suggestion was tempting, as I’d be able to see something new and see something fancy.
But would we be making trouble for the person picking us by leaving through a different door? I’d hate to do that, if so…but I couldn’t resist my curiosity.
“Would that be all right?” I asked.
“I certainly don’t mind; I’ve never seen it myself either.”
“Thank you!”
With that decided, Yuri resumed walking. As he was my escort, I followed along.
We soon arrived at what I had to assume was the door to the seats on the second floor. We had passed numerous similar doors along the way, and there were men who looked like attendants waiting beside each one. Women who looked like maids accompanied well-dressed people down the hallways—presumably fellow spectators.
Might these seats actually be… A bad feeling grew in my chest as I started to put together the clues and stepped through the doors with Yuri.