Constance Grail left, and the musicians, who had stopped playing at some point, resumed their performance. It was a sad serenade that signaled the end of the banquet.\n\nPamela had finally ended up in a sticky situation. She felt like everybody there was criticising her. She felt their gazes. She felt how they were scrutinizing her. Like she’d let herself lose! She would lift her face and pass the night as if nothing happened. However, as one would expect, she was scared. \n\nThat’s why, the moment she recognized a familiar face, she instantly went to them.\n\n“Madam Holland!”\n\nA plump woman turned towards her with a surprised face. Madame Holland was a safe bet, She would protect her. Ever since Pamela’s social debut, she had taken care of the latter as if she was her daughter.\n\n“Please help me! I was deceived. I swear to Moirai, I haven’t done this. Madame, you believe me, right?”\n\nShe put on a sad expression, insisting that everything was a misunderstanding and looked at the woman with imploring eyes. This much should have been enough for the kind Madame Holland. She would surely embrace her and console her with words akin to “My poor child, it must have been hard.”\n\nMadame Holland was smiling just as Pamela anticipated. The latter also returned a relieved smile back. However, the next moment, she froze up.\n\n“My apologies, who were you again?”\n\nPamela swallowed her breath. The eyes of the nice and agreeable Madam were horribly distorted in amusement.\n\nWhile she was standing stock still, somebody bumped into her. Pamela staggered and fell on her butt. In that short time, Madame Holland had gone somewhere. “Oh dear, I’m dreadfully sorry”, a lady covering her mouth with a fan calmly narrowed her eyes. This slender woman with her dark blonde hair done up was Countess Emmanuel. If Pamela remembered right, she should’ve had some relation with Constance Grail.\n\nNobody asked anything but the woman still opened her mouth and started talking glibly.\n\n“――― You see, I’ve always truly enjoyed Miss Grail’s company. She’s a boring child, with no points worthy of noting, but she’s not a bad girl. She’s as sincere and honest as any Grail could be. It is a very rare thing in this world, as I’m sure you would know. Therefore, what you did tonight was slightly vexing for me. Yes, only slightly. But, well, it enabled me to see something interesting as a result so I shall forgive you this time.”\n\nSaying so, she extended a hand to Pamela, who was unable to get up on her own.\n\n“Besides, even If don’t do anything, there are plenty of people eager to dance the waltz with you two.”\n\nThe moment Pamela snapped back to reality and looked around, she noticed that they were surrounded by many other people. The quietly flowing music suddenly changed keys. Resonating cheerfully in the hall was a fast-paced 3-beat melody ――― it was waltz. Pamela quickly turned pale. The snickering voices would approach and withdraw, much like ripples. Looking at the two with excited gazes were all people of certain ages. Pamela’s peers were shrinking back at the atmosphere that greatly differed from the usual atmosphere at such evening parties. They only looked from a distance, wondering what exactly had happened. It was natural.\n\nEven Pamela didn’t know anything about this, this kind of evening party.\n\nFor Pamela, evening parties were dreadfully boring and exemplary. Both bad mouthing and harassment were as cute as playing with dolls and even hanging out with commoner men in dubious cabarets in the downtown seemed more exciting. That was why she decided to carry out this plan. She was sure that she would easily lead these people around by their noses\n\nThe Countess whispered something by Pamela’s ear while they were passing each other.\n\n\n“―――Where I come from, thieves are forced into flaming shoes and made to dance until they die.”\n\n\n\n\n◇◇◇\n\n“Oh, it started, it started.”\n“How nostalgic.”\n“It’s been 10 years since the last one.”\n“I wonder how long these children will last?”\n“Oh dear, I’d like for them to stay fine at least until my turn.”\n“Ever since ancient times, this part of the banquets have always been the most enjoyable. But still, it has been a really long time since the last one. Everybody has been really meek this last decade, no?”\n“Nobody would like to stand out in a wrong way and get executed, after all.”\n“Indeed. Just like that time 10 years ago.”\n“That was truly terrible.”\n“Shh, you know you can’t say that out loud.”\n“That said, Constance was quite surprising today, wasn’t she? It was almost as if―――”\n“Yes, as if―――”\n\n\n“――― Almost as if Scarlet Castiel had clawed her way out of the pits of hell.”\n\n—\nNotes:\nFor some reason I thought they were actually forced into flaming shoes when reading manga but turns out they were just forced to dance waltz with everybody there.\nOh yeah, kanji for Moirai is “three goddesses of destiny.” Could be a holy trinity reference, who knows\nAnyway, this concludes the first “chapter”.\n\nHey, wp, I don’t know how else to explain that I hate your blocks editor so have this: fuck you.\n\nNotify me about mistranslations, typos and awkward grammar so I could fix them asap.\n\n\n<< || Table of Contents + Chara Introduction || >>