Chapter 5: The Cat-Boy and the Impending Change
“IT’S a misunderstanding. And there’s not even anyone here!”
“You’re not fooling me, Prince Dino. How dare you leave me, your fiancée, to dance with this…this… Oh, there she is. Yes! This commoner!”
Clarissa smiled with relief when she saw Nina running up. Nina, on the other hand, was gasping for breath. Running in a gown and high-heeled shoes she wasn’t used to wasn’t easy.
It looked like the gist of this scene was, “The prince is planning to cast aside his fiancée to go dance with another girl.” Nina just wished Clarissa would wait until the players were there to start.
She was seriously impatient and terrible with follow-through. Nina strongly believed she was better suited as a seemingly-perfect-but-flawed heroine rather than a villainess.
“I, huff, I…am not…” panted Nina, her line coming out in small chunks thanks to her jog.
Clarissa was so obviously engaged with her performance as the evil foe that she didn’t even appear to notice Nina’s lack of breath.
Based on the conversation so far, Nina guessed that she was supposed to push Clarissa aside to dance with Dino.
But now that she actually thought about it, she remembered she couldn’t dance.
They could go for a scene where Dino is kind to Nina even though she’s a bad dancer while Clarissa looks on in jealousy. However, dancing with Dino was like putting his feet on death row.
Nina decided to try to throw a curveball instead. “Lady Clarissa, please dance with Dino,” she offered.
“What? But…why?” She looked openly disappointed, likely because this was different from the plans she had in mind.
There shouldn’t be anything wrong with her dancing with Dino, but Clarissa was looking for a fight.
Nina let out an exaggerated sigh for Clarissa’s sake since she wouldn’t normally accept Nina’s suggestion to dance with Dino. “You’re so elegant and graceful, Lady Clarissa. I wish I danced so well everyone admired me, but I…can’t…”
She tried to exude sadness, casting her eyes downward. Nina once heard someone say that a girl’s weapon was her smile, but a heroine’s weapon was downcast eyes. She could bluff through pretty much anything if she looked down a little sorrowfully. At least…she hoped.
“I just feel more and more embarrassed when I see you and Prince Dino dancing so beautifully and delicately. It…hurts to watch…”
It would have been perfect if she could’ve shed a single tear there, but that was asking too much of herself.
She glanced up at Clarissa. For a moment, she was utterly dumbstruck; then, her expression transformed into sheer joy. “Th-That’s right! A commoner like you is suited for nothing more than observing!”
While Clarissa looked like she was having fun, Dino was behind her, sighing. “Clarissa, would you…dance with me? Over there?” he requested.
“I would be delighted, Your Highness!”
They joined hands and walked away, and Nina slumped with fatigue as she watched them go. Any regular person would just dance with their partner without all this fuss. Actually, they should marry and get it over with.
Then again…that would mean losing her opportunity to relieve Aida’s pain. Maybe she should be grateful for Clarissa’s tiresome taste.
“Right, that’s one job done,” muttered Nina. She was reluctant to say farewell to the food, but she didn’t need to stay any longer. However, her plans were about to be ruined.
“Nina, would you dance with me?” asked a boy, holding his hand out to her, even though she thought of nothing but going home—and he was only the first. There were several more students behind him swarming to ask her to dance.
Even the girls were looking at her with passionate gazes.
This was bad.
She thought about trying to convince them she hurt her foot, but it would probably be hard to pull that lie off, considering she’d literally run up to Clarissa. It was going to be impossible to dodge every single one of these dance requests, and she was never going to be able to escape if she danced with even one of them.
This was it. It was all over.
“Nina, may I have this dance?” someone with a beautiful voice cut through the clamor, holding a hand toward her.
Everyone exploded in whispers when they saw the smiling white-haired boy. As the son of a duke, all the other students would know who Edmund was, being nobles themselves. No one could stand in his way, not with his status and those good looks.
He must be trying to save her. She didn’t even have to debate whether she should take his hand or not. “You saved me, Ed. I had no idea what I’d do, surrounded like that.”
They moved toward the edge of the hall, and Nina let out a massive sigh. The pair successfully escaped without issue thanks to his good looks, which silenced all the other boys. She couldn’t be more thankful for his overwhelming beauty.
“Okey-dokey. Job’s done here. I should be able to go home now,” Nina breathed in relief. “Thank you for everything, Ed.” She waved goodbye and went to leave, but he grabbed her hand.
“Wait, please. I don’t get an opportunity like this very often. Would you dance with me?”
“Huh? But I told you, I can’t dance.”
“I’ll match you. We don’t stand out much here, and Prince Dino can’t see either.”
He was right about that; they were at the edge of the venue in the shadow of a pillar. It was good that Clarissa wouldn’t catch sight of the two, but that didn’t give them a reason to dance.
“I don’t mind, but I’m being serious; I honestly can’t dance. I’ll only end up hurting your feet,” protested Nina.
“That’s fine. I’m not asking you to dance with me well.”
“Uh, okay?”
He pulled her hand while she was trying to figure out what that meant, and, before she noticed it, they’d started dancing.
She was a little shocked when he slipped his arm around her waist, but it wasn’t unpleasant like when her coworkers at the restaurant put their arm around her shoulder. It was a bit odd, but maybe this physical contact was different since it was all about purely wanting to dance, while the coworkers had an ulterior motive.
Nina tried hard to match Edmund as he led, but she stepped on his feet at regular intervals. It was almost like his feet were always right where she was about to put her foot down. She felt so bad that she started to change her mind about agreeing to dance.
“I’m sorry, Ed, let’s stop. I’m gonna hurt you.”
“It’s okay.” He still smiled with enjoyment despite being trampled on constantly.
There was a limit to how kind someone could be, which almost made Nina wonder if he was into being hurt.
“I haven’t danced in such a long time…” he murmured, and that’s when Nina finally figured out what was happening.
If he hadn’t danced in a while, he must be uneasy about dancing with the noble girls, who would be good at it. Nina was so bad that you’d never be able to tell if he made some little mistakes. He was practically a victim of her dancing. So, even if his feet hurt, he at least felt at ease with her.
That must be what he meant when he said he wasn’t asking her to dance well.
If that was the case, then she should join Edmund for this, as a thank you for everything he’d done for her lately. Knowing he actually wanted her to dance poorly made her feel more at ease too.
After dancing for a little while, she started to feel able to look up and around them rather than down at her feet.
“You’ve gotten better, Nina,” he complimented.
“You think?” That made her happy for some reason. She looked up, her eyes meeting his beautiful blue and gold eyes. They glittered like gems, looking at nothing but her.
“Yes, you’ve gotten very good.”
She took him in from up close, smiling gently, then jerked her eyes away. It was a terrifying thing, the smile of a handsome boy. Her heart was threatening to go off racing.
“Thank you,” she replied. “I should really be getting back.”
She bade him goodbye and slipped quickly out of the hall so no one would notice.
Her heart was pounding faster than usual, but she was sure that was because she’d been running.