The Konoe family held a party on that day. On the surface, it was a party for the new students of Touka Academy to mingle and get to know each other better. That was just on the surface, though.
A rumour had been whispered as if it was true in this place and neighbourhood; a rumour that the Konoe family heir was of the age to enter Touka Academy, but didn’t have a fiancée. A family like the Konoes – no, any family with high status like the Five Norths and Seven Shining families – would normally have at least selected marriage candidates.
They didn’t need to have a specific person decided on, but it was strange that they hadn’t picked a few candidates and continued discussion.
Even so, the Konoe heir, Ibuki, didn’t have a fiancée, and no one had publicly come forward as his marriage candidate. Was that really possible?
There was information that the candidates had already been privately selected, but couldn’t be officially announced for some reason. Or no, that candidates had been selected, but the process was restarted. Or that they were in the middle of selecting candidates now.
It wasn’t just that people were making their own guesses and getting their opinions from an unknown source; they were also creating their own opinions and saying them as if they were fact. But since the Konoe family didn’t respond and kept silent, the rumour took on a life of its own.
And now… the party that was ostensibly an informal social gathering had been hosted far too fast. One couldn’t normally invite politicians, business leaders, and celebrities to a party with only a month’s notice. One would normally send out invitations months in advance and make preparations. This party steamrolled over those impossibilities and was still hosted. What could the Konoe family be thinking?
Then, another rumour had spread in this neighbourhood: that the Konoe family would announce who the heir’s fiancée was at that party.
The source of the information was somewhat unclear. There wasn’t any proof of who said it or the authenticity of the information, but it still interested people, so they jumped to gossip about it. Maybe some kind of unexpected surprise will happen today , the curious onlookers thought, hoping excitedly for that.
On the other hand… families wanting to unite with the Konoe family as relatives, waiting for the right time to strike, were very nervous. Families that had completely unequal statuses to the Konoes’ were just onlookers from the beginning. They knew that they were completely unrelated, so they could just think of the matter as something that’d hopefully be interesting.
But upper-class families seriously aiming to marry into the Konoe family couldn’t ignore those trivial rumours. Thoughts like “The Konoe family didn’t discuss such things with my family,” or “Maybe when his fiancée will be publicly revealed, she won’t be from my family” ran through their heads.
They’d worked through many different channels and had continued to seriously approach the Konoe family for company and conglomerate mergers, but maybe the Konoes would choose to marry another family that was not theirs. For those families who were thinking that and were seriously aiming for marriage or were in the position to, rumours and jokes didn’t end at simple fun.
The families who had no chance of marriage with the Konoe family hoped for it to be interesting, while high-status families aiming to marry into the Konoes ostensibly grinned and exchanged greetings while keeping each other in check and probing each other to see who his fiancée would be.
At that time… the party hadn’t started yet and it was slightly late. The door of the party hall opened wide.
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“That is the Kujou family’s Yoshizane-sama… so that means the girl he is escorting is…”
Their gazes shifted to the pair that had entered through the large door. They knew one of them quite well. There was no one here who didn’t know Kujou Yoshizane, the heir of the Kujou family, which was said to be on par with the Konoe family. Since Yoshizane didn’t have a partner even now, he hadn’t been escorting anyone. But now, Yoshizane was escorting one girl.
“Is that the rumoured favourite child of the Kujou family…?”
“Her name was definitely…”
Then, there was no need to think about who that girl could’ve been. The Kujou family had another child who hadn’t appeared in public. That was the only daughter of the Kujou family, who still hadn’t debuted despite being of age. She’d never appeared in center stage like this. Her name was…
“Kujou Sakuya-sama.”
A lot of rumours had flown around about her. One: “Maybe she was someone too rude to allow to ever appear at a party,”. Another: “She was horribly ugly, so she couldn’t appear in public,”. Yet another: “She couldn’t remember manners no matter how much she was taught, so she couldn’t appear in public,”.
None of the rumours were good. The rumour-mongers couldn’t miss such a good target. The rumours themselves weren’t even rumours, but instead someone’s conjecture and imagination said as if they were true, which had then gained a life of their own. But that was up until today.
“Beautiful…”
“Truly so. Who said that she can’t remember manners?”
“She doesn’t look rude at all.”
The girl who entered walked in stately, in such a way one wouldn’t think she was a first-grader nor someone who was debuting in high society. Her back was perfectly straight, and there wasn’t a single gap in her manners. Her manners were such that teachers who taught manners and etiquette, let alone adults, would be captivated by them: an absolutely impeccable example.
She looked around with a slight smile on her face. Even the adults whose job it was to captivate were weakened at the sight of that. There was a rumour that the current head of the Kujou family, Kujou Michiie, was quite proud of his daughter, but no one believed that.
Everyone doubted it, thinking that if she were as good-looking as he said she was, why had she not appeared in high society? But that pride was true. No, he was being humble.
One may wonder what was being said about a first-grader who was six to seven years of age. But Kujou Sakuya had charmed all of the adults by weakening them. This wasn’t the s*xual sort of passion. It was something like grandparents cherishing their grandkids, or fans chasing after idols.
The adults attending this party, no, even the kids, regardless of age or gender, were all held captive by her for a second.
Most children would stiffen up from nervousness and make some kind of mistake at a normal high society debut. Even so, no one could take their eyes off this girl who was walking perfectly without a single gap.
The Konoe family’s Ibuki and the Takatsukasa family’s Enju approached her and they began conversing. There were so many people and so much distance that the contents of the discussion couldn’t be completely heard even if one pricked their ears. But it was clear that they were rather close. More than anything, Ibuki’s reactions were easy to understand.
Ibuki, who behaved much like a mature child normally, only acted like a boy his age in front of Kujou Sakuya. There wasn’t a single adult who didn’t know what that meant. Basically, today’s party was…
The Konoe family wife even went to talk to the Kujou brother-sister pair. That decided it. Everyone understood that this party was held for this debut and that announcement.
～～～～～～～
The adults were very interested in Kujou Sakuya, who was debuting in high society today. They got closer to Sakuya, who was enjoying her food, out of curiosity. As they were instead looking closely at her while pretending to take the same food that she did, they all stiffened.
Her etiquette and conduct was all too perfect. It was a perfection exceeding first-graders and themselves, even clearly exceeding the teachers they’d learned etiquette from. They wondered where and how much she had trained to be that good. Many tried desperately to look for a chink in her armour, thinking one must be there, but then gave up and returned.
In the middle of that, a single girl approached Sakuya. She was Saionji Satsuki, who was said to be one of Konoe Ibuki’s marriage candidates. Saionji Satsuki was also considered mature for her age, but she couldn’t compete with Sakuya. If Satsuki was regarded as a mature child, Sakuya was treated as a full-fledged adult.
It was strange, then, that Saionji Satsuki, considered to be a proper, mature child, acted her age around Kujou Sakuya. They were probably both rivals as Konoe Ibuki’s marriage candidates. They had some sort of conversation, then Saionji Satsuki left.
Then, the party finally reached its climax and the dance for the attending children began. The adults near the centre of the hall exited. Kujou Yoshizane, escorting Kujou Sakuya, walked towards the centre. Konoe Ibuki, waiting in front, took over escorting Kujou Sakuya. There wasn’t a single adult who didn’t understand what that meant.
Sakuya, who’d previously been escorted by her brother, was now being escorted by Ibuki. That meant the Kujou family was handing over Sakuya’s lead to the Konoe family. Ibuki didn’t previously have a partner, but now nominated Kujou Sakuya, the person he was first dancing with, to be his partner. The Kujou family had the brother, Yoshizane, pass her over to Ibuki.
In a Western wedding ceremony, the father leads the daughter but is then replaced by the bridegroom mid-ceremony. There wasn’t a single person who didn’t understand what that meant in this specific situation. Ibuki, who didn’t have a partner up until now, was leading Sakuya, who hadn’t shown up in high society, to the centre of the hall. It was clear to everyone what that performance meant.
Eventually, the children began to dance to the music that was playing. All of them were childishly clumsy: getting the steps wrong, bumping into people, stepping on people’s feet and getting their feet stepped on… they all looked like excited children. Yes, except for one pair in the centre…
Only they, bathed by the spotlight, seemed to be in a different world. No, they really were in a different world. Their breathing was so perfectly in sync that one could wonder how long they’d practised together. One wondered who’d taught them the choreography, but combining that with their unique arrangement, they danced perfectly without a single slip.
The kids around them were already no more than foils to make them look better. They danced in the centre of the hall, looking as if they were in a scene from a movie; it so moved some wives that they shed tears.
The song changed and became intense, but the pair still did not stumble. The other kids gradually became unable to keep up, but that pair still danced beautifully to the music. No, the musicians were being pulled along by their dancing. Professional musicians were frantically keeping up with two first-graders’ dancing.
I want to watch this forever . Everyone forgot time and everything but breathing watching those two as the song reached its climax and marked its ending. The hall, still holding those feelings of wanting to see more, was blanketed in silence for a short while.
*clap*… *clap clap*… *clap clap clap clap*!!!
One person clapped. Then, someone else clapped as if they were pulled back to reality. Finally, a large amount of applause erupted inside the hall, directed to the pair in the centre.
“Beautiful!”
“Those two are good together.”
Their dancing was really amazing. Their breaths were even in sync. The choreography, including their own arrangement, was also amazing. Those two had to have practised together countless times before to achieve that level. If not, they wouldn’t have been able to achieve that quality of dance on the spot.
Ibuki’s partner was already decided. Everyone thought that. But… the matter didn’t end with just that. Takatsukasa Enju appeared in front of the two of them after the dance. Enju then danced with Sakuya next. The rumour mongers, looking at that, once again formed their own guesses.
Sakuya was handed over from her first partner, Ibuki, over to the Takatsukasa family’s Enju, who she danced with next. This was the same as the Konoe family and the Takatsukasa family – Ibuki and Enju – having a battle for Sakuya.
Enju and Sakuya’s dancing was also amazing. Once again, this probably wasn’t their first time dancing with each other. Had they not practised beforehand, they wouldn’t have been able to achieve this amazing dancing that was on par with a dance teacher’s.
Wasn’t this party just held for Ibuki and Sakuya’s engagement to be announced? Why didn’t the Konoe family announce their engagement with Sakuya already? Maybe because the Konoe family’s Ibuki and the Takatsukasa family’s Enju were in the middle of a battle for Sakuya. This party was the beginning of that rumour that spread around the upper class.
And because of the big incident that followed, another large rumour would spread throughout high society.