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“Omg! It doesn’t unfold! What the hell have you done, you wicked witch!”
“Edna, I heard you have holy power! Release me immediately.”
“My holy power is not purifying power, but offensive power…”
“Then show the witch at least!”
The moment someone shouted that, she opened the rulebook.
“Anyone who uses violence for private purposes within the territory without the permission of the Grand Duke or a person acting for him, whether high or low, will be immediately expelled and punished appropriately.”
After reciting the Grand Duke’s work rules, the ladies became dumb. She bowed slightly on her knees and shouted as she climbed the stairs.
“The moment you truly repent, your fingers will straighten themselves.”
“Hazel!”
“Huh?”
It was so loud that it was deafening. As the party guests looked away from the dolly-looking window, Luna stood behind her with her arms crossed.
“What are you thinking about? We called several times, but you didn’t hear.”
“Uh? I’m not thinking about anything.”
Sorry for lying.
“So, why did you call me?”
“When are we going to see the fireworks?”
“Ah…”
She was startled when she saw the clock on the table. When did the time become like this?
“Now.”
She took the children downstairs. Because children weren’t allowed to attend the party, but they had asked permission to watch the fireworks together. So after taking the children to the Grand Duke, she planned to go to the garden and set off firecrackers with magic. However…
“Where are you?”
The ballroom was so vast and crowded that the Grand Duke could not be seen.
“Hey, Sir Victor.”
She approached the knight who was laughing and talking with other customers nearby.
“Where is the Grand Duke?”
“There he is.”
The crowd at the place Sir Victor pointed with his hand dispersed just in time. Sh was dazed for a moment at the sight she saw in between. The Grand Duke was dancing in the middle of the ballroom. With the daughter of the Monette family.
“They are a really good pair.”
The elderly ladies around them looked at the two dancing with delighted eyes and admired them. The young ladies of the Grand Duke’s age looked at him with eyes that clearly showed their disappointment and envy at the fact that they had not been chosen.
SheI was worried that her eyes would be like that now, so she looked away.
“If the previous Grand Duke couple had been alive, I think they would have already sent a letter of courtship to the Monette family.”
A gray-haired nobleman asked Sir Daniel, who was standing on the wall behind them.
“The Monette lady is a wife candidate with a status befitting the Grand Duchy in many ways, from its history to its status.”
Sir Daniel replied roundly, but everyone would have interpreted it as an affirmation that the Grand Duke would soon send a letter of courtship to the Monette family.
“Hey, Sir Victor.”
She came to her senses and pushed the children towards Sir Victor.
“Could you look after the Grand Prince and the Grand Princess for a moment? I decided to bring it to Her Highness.”
“Where are you going?”
“Because of the fireworks…”
“Oh, there are still two or three songs left, so you can take it slow. Don’t do that, let’s dance a song while Miss Hazel is here.”
Sir Victor must have been a nobleman after all, but unlike his usual rough and rugged life, he politely extended his hand to me.
“But I don’t know how to dance…”
“No one knows how to dance from birth. Isn’t it time for everyone to learn? For Miss Hazel, today is that time.”
“That’s right. Hazel learns to dance like us.”
Luna took Luca’s hand and spun around as she learned in her dance class.
“Sir Daniel will take care of the Grand Duchess and the Grand Duke.”
“I?”
Sir Victor beckoned, and Sir Daniel raised his voice in surprise. A troubled expression flashed on the captain’s face.
“Well, it seems that the employee dancing at the employer’s party is…”
“Sir Daniel and I are servants of the same grand ducal family, aren’t we?”
Sir Victor then asked Sir Daniel.
“Isn’t it fine?”
Sir Daniel stared into the middle of the ballroom where the Archduke was and nodded his head.
“Don’t get close to His Highness.”
“Yes, yes. I will follow your orders, vice-captain. I have no intention of stealing attention from the main character of the day. It can’t be, ha ha!”
In the end, she took Sir Victor’s hand in a daze and headed into the ballroom.
“Now, a half step forward… Then take the other foot half a step to the side…”
“Oh, it’s so difficult…”
“You are doing well.”
“It’s thanks to the good teacher.”
She got used to it pretty quickly, following Sir Victor’s guidance. As soon as her mind was relaxed, her gaze naturally turned to the surroundings.
She would take off my apron. She began to feel humbled among the aristocratic ladies who danced with colorful jewels jingling and fluttering hems of rich dresses.
“Oh!”
After losing her focus like that, she eventually stepped on Sir Victor’s foot.
“Hey, I’m sorry.”
“This is it, what. Nothing.”
She moved her feet back to match Sir Victor.
“I was distracted by something else, haha…”
“It’s okay. When I first started learning, I stepped on the other person’s feet so much that for a while, everyone rejected my dance request…”
It was a time when she laughed while listening to Sir Victor’s jokes.
“Is someone like that teaching you to dance?”
She heard a familiar voice and a long shadow cast over her. As she was about to look up, a large male hand burst out from behind her and took her hand away from Sir Victor. She turned around and the moment her eyes met the man holding her hand, her heart sank. The Grand Duke’s purple eyes looking down at her were cold.
“Oh no, I’m pretty good at it now.”
“That’s not the problem. The string is untied.”
The Grand Duke’s eyes turned downward. Following his gaze, she saw that the laces on her right shoe were indeed untied.
“You don’t even know this. The teacher is sloppy. What are you going to do if you trip and fall? It’s dangerous.”
So you’re saying the Grand Duke was looking at her? Oh no. Maybe she just turned her head and their eyes met by chance…
‘Omg!’
When the Grand Duke tried to lean toward her shoes, she flinched and swung her free hand. At that moment, when the shoelaces that had been untied were tied by themselves, the Grand Duke paused without extending his hand.
“Ah…”
The Grand Duke straightened up again and brushed his hair. Like the last New Year’s festival, the auricles under the neatly combed hair were red.
“Anyway, the teacher is not good.”
“Since a great teacher has appeared, I, the insignificant one, will leave now.”
The moment the Grand Duke playfully scolded him again, Sir Victor laughed meaningfully and withdrew with an exaggerated courtesy.
“Ah, then I need to go too.”
She removed her hand from the Grand Duke’s and left the ballroom as if to run away, bowing in a sloppy manner that would sigh if Lady Valea saw it. It was the time when she ran out of the wide open door and hurried down the high steps of the terrace.
“Oh!”
She stepped on the loose shoelace, probably because she had tied it too long. It was the moment when she lost her balance and closed her eyes tightly. Someone suddenly grabbed her body, which she thought would plummet down the far-off marble stairs.
“Didn’t you hear my warning that you might trip and fall?”
As her heart thumped as if it were about to burst out of her mouth, the Grand Duke stopped her in front of the terrace railing with a face full of anger and put her on one of her shoes.
“It won’t work out anymore.”
She had the foolish idea that what he was talking about might not be shoelaces, but the magic that was on her at this moment. Although she was not Cinderella.
“Are you okay?”
She came to her senses only when the Grand Duke asked with a worried face. Even though it was dark on the terrace, she turned her head so he couldn’t see her flushed face.
“Yes, yes. I’m OK. Thank you. Go in now.”
She thought he was going to leave because he let go of her hand, but he didn’t.
“Shouldn’t I save face by proving that I am a better teacher than Victor?”
He took a step back from her and bowed gracefully and moderately. Like right before dancing.
“I… To dance here dressed like this…”
“How about the clothes I bought you?”
“Ah…”
In the end, like a possessed person, she slightly lifted the hem of her skirt and bowed, and the Grand Duke smiled and held out his hand.
He looked like a prince. But she was a witch. At that moment, she was about to put her hand on his, but hesitated. Did the Grand Duke not feel it? Behind him, from the window, countless eyes were watching them. Among them was a familiar face she had seen this afternoon. As her gaze reached Princess Monette, who was wiping her tears with a handkerchief while being comforted by the ladies, she removed her hand from the Grand Duke’s fingertips and turned around resolutely like someone burned.
“Sorry, but I have to go prepare the fireworks.”
She repeated as she stepped carefully step by step on the stairs so that the Grand Duke would not have to catch her again. The prince must dance with the princess, not with a witch. Witches in fairy tales were only supporting characters. She was not the main character. So he’s not hers.
“Wow! So pretty.”
“Wow, brother, look at that! Can you see?”
Elliot’s gaze, which was casually nodding at Luca, was not focused on the colored fireworks that adorned the sky. Farther below, in the dark garden, there was a woman who created this magical moment.