“I think a man dancing in a uniform would only be an eyesore,” Elysia said. As always, she’d struck without mercy.
“I-I thought this was what was expected... I guess I should’ve brought a normal dress suit...” He had one suit he’d brought from his parents’ house just in case, but he’d left it behind in Todd Village. It turned out this might’ve been one of those “just in case” moments after all.
“Hee hee. You really aren’t sensible when it comes to things outside of work,” Elysia giggled, speaking in a tone that seemed to say, It’s cute how hopeless you are.
“Take it easy on me, please...” Zen hung his head, depressed. He didn’t know who the real parent here was.
The sun was beginning to sink, and the city’s bell tower informed them that it was three in the afternoon.
In the end, Zen remained in his uniform, escorting Elysia and Mina into the carriage.
Incidentally, Keel stayed behind in the room. He was snoozing away in front of the living room fireplace.
The carriage moved at a leisurely pace through the streets, which were alive with the festival continuing day after day.
Stoga didn’t use the government housing that was normally provided for officials, instead having purchased a mansion to be his own private residence. It was located at the city outskirts, but thanks to that, the garden was spacious, and the building was big too. It was even grander than the inn they were staying in. Zen thought it was too indulgent for an unmarried man to have all to himself.
It must take more than twenty employees to manage a mansion and garden like this. Where was he getting the funds to pay them? His prefectural governor’s salary? His allowance from his wealthy merchant father? He wasn’t treating it as a public expense, was he?
When they disembarked the carriage and went to the reception desk at the entrance, he could see there were already a lot of guests. That meant there were just that many people who’d wanted to hurry here to leave a good impression on Stoga. He was a mere prefectural governor in the countryside who’d been in office for only two years, but this was one indicator of the great influence he held.
“I want us to hurry up and get our greetings done with, but...he’s extremely popular.” Mina smiled wryly.
There was a grand dance hall inside the mansion, and past the swath of arriving guests, they could see Stoga surrounded by a large number of people, so Zen and Mina gave up on greeting him for a while. As Cummel’s representatives, the need to flatter Stoga wasn’t so urgent that it warranted wedging their way into that crowd, and they didn’t want to leave a poor impression on the other guests.
At any rate, even if they’d wanted to have an audience with the Alona prefectural governor, they could hardly see him through all the people.
“We might as well get some food first,” said Mina.
“We did skip lunch.”
As the three of them talked, they went looking for the party dishes that were currently being served close to the wall.
There were mostly small refreshments that could be eaten while standing. Upon the waiter’s explanation, they learned that many of them used Alona’s famous products, especially blue crane.
On the other hand, dishes that used marine products also stood out, like the smoked salmon canapés. Such seafood wouldn’t have been odd in Nazalf Prefecture, which faced the Giovanni Sea, but it must have been brought from quite far away to be enjoyed here in Alona. You could also tell with just a sip that the grape wine that was being freely distributed was a particularly old vintage.
This had to have cost an unreasonable amount of money. Since Zen’s brain was that of a government official, it immediately launched into calculations, and he just couldn’t buy that Stoga could supply all of this with the salary of one prefectural governor. Was that just how much his family was supporting him? At this point, Zen wanted to suspect that he was doing something underhanded, like embezzling public funds or taking bribes.
Even Palk, who was at the top of South Talum’s town hall, was misbehaving so brazenly. Zen couldn’t help eyeing the prefectural governor with suspicion.
The food is good but it’s a little hard to enjoy... While it was also a little obnoxious to be too hung up on morals, there was nothing he could do if he didn’t have an appetite.
Well, this might actually be a good thing. Elysia and Mina didn’t want their stomachs to stick out in their dresses, so they were nibbling delicately. It would’ve been awkward if Zen were the only one greedily stuffing his face.
Then, with more guests around now, the orchestra started playing a waltz.
The moment they did, several pairs of men and women stepped into the center of the dance hall as if they knew what to do and started to show off their ballroom dancing. Judging by the sheer fact that they’d taken the initiative, those pairs must’ve felt confident in their abilities. And indeed, they couldn’t be written off just because they were from the countryside. They were skilled enough that, if they participated in the balls held at the Goldragon Palace, not a soul would look down on them.
“Now then, my lady, may I have this dance?” Just as Zen had promised, he extended his right hand to Mina with a bow.
“Huh...?” They’d already agreed to dance together, but she remained stiff without taking his hand.
“What’s the matter?”
“I-I’m a little hesitant to dance among those people...” she answered awkwardly, looking at the skilled dancers.
“In that case, shall I dance with him first?” Elysia suggested.
“Oogh...” Mina once again stiffened before making up her mind. “N-No, that’s all right! If I go after you, I think I’ll freeze up even more...” She knew that Elysia had proposed the idea from a good place, but at the same time, she also sensed the younger girl’s confidence in dancing. Mina decided it’d be better to have her turn first.
Zen knew that Elysia was, in fact, an imperial princess, and she’d been trained by the Chancellor of Rites’s wife, who was known as a master among masters in the art of dance. Elysia’s skill far surpassed anyone’s on the dance floor right now. If that was going to pressure Mina, then indeed, she shouldn’t witness Elysia’s dancing first.
“Aren’t you supposed to throw all your shame to the wind when you’re on a trip? Let’s be laughed at together.” Zen purposefully extended his hand to her in an even more grandiose way. It wasn’t like they absolutely had to dance right this second, but during lunch, Mina had really wanted this. He wanted to grant her wish.
There were probably plenty of other people who wanted to dance too but lacked the confidence. Supposing Mina couldn’t dance all that well, it was highly plausible that her attempt would prompt those people to feel confident enough to join in.
“I-I understand. If you insist, Sir Zen...” Mina summoned her courage and took Zen’s hand.
With a slight bow toward Elysia to let her know they’d be off, the two headed to the dance floor in the center of the room and entered the ring of waltzers.
Mina held Zen awkwardly, and as Zen thought of how cute she was, he began to lead the way.
“I-I actually started taking dance lessons because you agreed to be my partner,” she confessed as she took floundering steps.
“Huh? But that was really not that long ago.”
“I’ve never been interested in girlish things, so... I’m embarrassed...”
Mina had started to shrink her shoulders, so with a deft hand, Zen straightened her up, raising her face.
So she only practiced for about four days. If she can dance this well with only a surface-level grasp of it, that’s pretty amazing! he thought honestly to himself as he smiled, moving out of the way every time Mina was about to step on him.
She had good athletic ability and no doubt excelled at martial arts and horsemanship as well, although he hadn’t actually witnessed her demonstrate those skills in person. If she didn’t, then niece or not, there was no way Cummel would’ve employed her as his guard.
“It seems you’re skilled at dancing, though, Sir Zen.”
“Is that surprising?”
“I-I didn’t mean for it to come off that way.”
“I was kidding.” Zen smiled mischievously as he easily pulled Mina, who wasn’t looking around her, along and evaded the other dancing pairs who nearly collided with them.