“Thank you… Sakuya-chan, you look… very grown-up.”
What did that mean…? For a first-grader to look grown-up… maybe she wasn’t praising me, but instead saying something random?
Anyway, Satsuki-chan was wearing a really cute dress. It wasn’t the cheap dresses made for children I’d seen in my past life. It was a high-quality, branded, made-to-order dress. We’d immediately get bigger and outgrow it at our age, but she still wore a dress that must’ve cost hundreds of thousands of yen.
As expected of the Saionji family, or rather… other families were wearing clothes like that too, not just Satsuki-chan. They just weren’t clothes I’d think a first-grader could wear. That was from the past me’s perspective; I really couldn’t understand this neighbourhood’s point of view.
Even so, just as the saying ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’, I couldn’t do what I wanted just because the past me wasn’t used to it; I had to match up with everyone. It was possible that I’d forget my commoner’s perspective and instead think like a rich young lady, which’d lead me to fail like Lady Sakuya.
So I had to strike a balance between both perspectives and mind my actions. People would laugh at me if I continued looking at this upper-class world from a commoner’s perspective, but I should be able to live well if I didn’t act domineering like Lady Sakuya.
“Oh… then, Sakuya-chan, see you later.”
“Yes, see you.”
Satsuki-chan, looking as if she noticed something, lowered her head towards me and left. Maybe someone was calling her or one of her acquaintances was here. It was unavoidable that I felt a little lonely. Satsuki-chan, unlike me, was in a faction, so she probably had all sorts of things. A lone wolf like me could just stay hidden in the shadows alone, but…
After Satsuki-chan walked away, I looked around a bit and found Azami-chan. Well, all the Five Norths Association members were invited and she was there when the invitations were handed out, so I knew that she’d come here too, but…
Azami-chan was surrounded by many different people like usual; she was a truly popular person. Those people weren’t just the members of her faction always with her in the Five Norths Association, but also other girls. I could agree with the admiration from the others since she was a really reliable big-sister type.
I actually also wanted to talk to Azami-chan, but I couldn’t head towards her circle. If I did that, I’d be the center of attention of the faction that I wasn’t a part of and something troublesome would happen. I didn’t have any people I was friendly with or a faction. But, the Kujou family had monryuu <sup>1</sup> This is a type of master-servant relationship between families in the Japanese aristocratic class. Monryuu specifically refers to the relationships between other nobles and the five regent families: Ichijou, Kujou, Takatsukasa, Nijou, and Konoe. relationships, meaning that it also had a faction.
My brother Yoshizane-kun had also created a faction, but they didn’t need someone unrelated like me. If I just shamelessly walked towards Azami-chan’s faction and started talking to them, that would mean the Kujou family faction had fallen under the Tokudaiji family’s faction. I wouldn’t mind if that was just my problem, but I didn’t want to cause trouble for the Kujou family and even their faction, so I didn’t thoughtlessly call out to them.
Because of that, I didn’t expect that Satsuki-chan would often talk to me, but… maybe that was why we only exchanged simple greetings. If we talked for a really long time, both the Kujou faction and the Saionji faction wouldn’t remain silent.
As I thought about this and that, eating food in the corner for a while, the music in the venue started to change. It looked like the party was entering its climax.
“Sakuya, let’s dance?”
“Yes, brother.”
The music changed and the center of the hall emptied. This party was mainly an informal social gathering for Touka Academy’s high-ranking students, so the party’s climax was a dance for the children. That started now.
I wondered if this was true in other parties, or just a custom particular to this place, but the person you first danced with was your partner. My brother had escorted me, and I didn’t have any other guy friends. I had acquaintances and enemies, but no friends at all. It was very sad.
So, to indicate my brother was my first dance partner, I took his hand and we headed to the middle of the hall…
“Oi! Dance with me!”
“…what?”
Ibuki barged in and walked up to me without any manners at all, yelling loudly.
“Um… I am dancing with…”
“It’s alright, Sakuya. Go. Ibuki-kun, I leave Sakuya to you.”
Brother! Why were you selling me to Ibuki?! Betraying me in the eleventh hour!?
…agh! Wait… My brother was a sixth-grader. When one was in fifth or sixth grade, they were at the age where others might’ve thought that kids were dating even though they were just playing kids’ games. Of course, even if they were actually dating, adults would only see it as an extension of kids’ games, but…
Maybe Yoshizane-kun already had someone like that?
And yet, he accompanied and escorted me because of my selfishness… but wasn’t he the one to ask if I wanted to dance?
Maybe I was taking advantage of my brother too much… he was in his youth, so maybe he was dating someone. Even so, I was just thinking of myself and used my brother. Could I blame my brother for that? No, I could not!
“As my brother appears to have another partner, I will now withdraw. Well then, adieu, Konoe-sama…”
“Wait! Are you thinking of running!? Dance with me!”
“…”
His voice was… really loud… wouldn’t everyone notice us…? And also, wasn’t the first dance meant to show who your partner was? So go over to someone else…
No… wait a second? Right… this guy was planning to embarrass and choke the life out of me, right? He was probably going to make me mess up at the very first, very conspicuous dance so that others would publicly shame me. I was sure that he’d follow me around and something annoying would happen even if I did reject him. So, I was going to settle it here.
“Sakuya, you don’t have to mind me. Go dance with Ibuki-kun.”
Brother… I wasn’t thinking of you at all. Please forgive me. I had only worried about myself. Because of that, I stole your youth.
“I am sorry, brother. You need not sacrifice yourself for me. Please do not leave your partner waiting.”
“…okay? I don’t have a partner, though….?”
He still didn’t admit it. The good-looking, amiable, smart, and tactful Yoshizane-kun must’ve had one or two lovers, right? I understood. I understood, so! Don’t worry about me! I’ll entrap Ibuki!
“It is alright, brother. I understand everything, so… I shall now fight on my stage.”
I said that to my brother, lowering my head, then faced opposite from Ibuki. I planned to settle this here, so I’d take up his challenge.
“Konoe-sama, please take care of me.”
I curtsied and lowered my head towards Ibuki.
“Yep! Come!”
“Ah…”
Ibuki grabbed my arm and forcibly got us to assume our positions in the middle of the hall. That drew notice from absolutely everyone. He was definitely planning to choke the life out of me. The song stopped for a while, and the lights had switched on. In the middle of this dimly-lit hall… at the moment when it felt like a searchlight was shining on just us two standing in the very middle, the song started.
It started with a slow, calm, and romantic song. But Ibuki… was way too bad at dancing…
He wasn’t paying attention to me at all. He just moved how he wanted to move and danced how he wanted to dance. His rhythm was sometimes off, and he also messed up the dance steps. His steps themselves were sometimes too large and sometimes too small, so it was pretty hard to match up to him at first dance.
You’d probably get used to it if you danced with him all the time, but it was hard matching up with his unique breathing… for a normal person!
But I was different. I’d continued dancing in every possible situation and under any possible conditions this month, so matching up to this was a piece of cake.
When Ibuki made a mistake in the dance steps, I made the same mistake. If Ibuki’s steps were too small, I made mine small too. If his steps were too big, I widened mine. Even though he danced selfishly without any plan to match up with me, I synchronised with him and we danced without any chaos.
Ibuki was probably dancing badly on purpose to make me miss. But I wouldn’t mess up. Ibuki had the man’s role, so I’d match up with him. Mistakes themselves weren’t related to the thing called dance. It was something where if you matched up with the lead and danced perfectly, it wouldn’t matter if you messed up the dance steps or had weird step spacing.
Right, I guess this is what dad meant when he said “Even if you’re bad at something or if it’s pretty weird, it will turn out well if you master it”.
The song changed to a faster one. I could match up with Ibuki’s purposeful mistakes if the song was slow, but that was much harder if it got faster. Did you think that? How naive! Don’t underestimate my training with Master!
…after that, I perfectly matched up with Ibuki’s characteristic dance throughout many different songs. Yes, absolutely perfectly. Ibuki definitely made many mistakes with the dance itself. But our breaths were perfectly synchronised and there were no weird spots anywhere. That was how it should’ve looked. I was singing my own praises, but I was proud that it was perfect.
Sparse applause echoed, which then grew thundering.
“Stunning!”
“Those two are well-matched.”
The applause was too loud and it wouldn’t stop ringing out, so I couldn’t hear Ibuki’s voice even though he was right in front of me. Enju came over when the applause finally settled down.
“Amazing, Kujou-san. Maybe you can dance with me next?”
Oh~… nah. Well, I couldn’t say that… Maybe since Ibuki failed in embarrassing me, Enju would attack next. I couldn’t refuse anyway, so I had to dance with him.
“Yes.”
“Oi, Enju! Are you actually!?”
“Aah, you’re wrong, you’re wrong. It’s not what you’re thinking, Ibuki. For now, maybe.”
“?”
I was about to dance with Enju, but he and Ibuki had some kind of exchange. Maybe it was a kind of code. Was it something they were both planning to kill me socially?
After that, I danced with Enju. But, as expected of the “Snow White Prince”, he danced femininely or something. It was different from Ibuki’s own selfish exuberant dancing; instead, it was delicate. Nevertheless, I managed to match up with his dancing somehow and didn’t make any mistakes.
“Thanks, Kujou-san.”
“No…”
I didn’t know how to reply. What was he thanking me for? Maybe this was that? Maybe his plan to embarrass me didn’t work, so he was just saying “Come on”? Or maybe he meant something like “Remember this!”.
“Dance with me next, Sakuya-chan.”
“Hirohata-sama…”
Why did I have to dance with him? I wanted to settle this with Ibuki and Enju, so that was alright, but I didn’t want to dance with anyone else. The only person I’d probably dance with if I was invited afterwards was my brother.
“Oi, Mizuki. How many times do I have to tell you not to lay a hand on my sister?”
“Yoshizane… isn’t it alright if I’m just dancing with her at a party?”
My brother – where had he come from? – stepped in between Mizuki and I. If he was going to stop Mizuki, then alright. I didn’t want to be his dance partner. After that, my brother danced with me to keep Mizuki away, and then I stopped dancing. The other kids were still dancing, but I left the middle of the hall and withdrew from the party.
How sad that I had to dance with a guy. I would absolutely dance with a girl, but I would refuse to dance with a guy without any prior circumstances. Ibuki and Enju were exceptions, and my brother was just here for this occasion.
After that, I made a slight mistake regarding Azami-chan… but it was fine. I didn’t regret anything. They could laugh at me for being ill-mannered.
Thus, my high society debut ended with me making a fatal mistake.
～～～～～～～
The day after, I told Master Momochi about the party.
“My stomach still hurts when I remember that party.”
My stomach was hurting because of nerves before the party, but it was still occasionally hurting now. I had a fragile heart, so maybe I wasn’t used to those stressful places after all.
“You’ve got plenty of bravery, how could you have a stomach ache? That was just your stomach ruined from consuming too much poison. You even coughed up blood during training.”
“…huh?”
…huh? The reason why I coughed up blood during training and had a stomach ache afterward was because Master made me continue drinking poison?
“It didn’t reach lethal doses, but that’s what happens if you drink that much poison in a short time. Drink this.”
“Yes…”
Then, Master gave me some sort of powdered medicine. It was probably stomach medicine. …Speaking of that, was it really okay to continue receiving training from this gramps?