Second Arc: Fourteenth Chapter

"Cosette, Georg! That was wonderful!"

Just as I'd finally gotten my wheezing under control, His Highness came over, clapping lightly. Lady Julia, his partner, was with him.

"Thank you! Ahh, that was a good sweat!"

Georg answered with a beaming grin.

Dancing is not about working up a good sweat! I was seized by an urge to knock out those bright, gleaming white teeth of his, but I clenched my fists and held it in. I'd been made to dance in every sense of the word — but it was true that thanks to Georg I'd danced above my actual ability. I'll say nothing… ahh, my legs are shaking.

"You were very much in sync — but you weren't doing flourishes like that in practice. Or have the two of you been practicing on your own?"

As he spoke, His Highness's eyes — smiling a moment ago — suddenly narrowed, and for some reason a jet-black aura came surging off his back.

"Eeep?! N-no! This was our first meeting!"

I was so rattled I blurted out something bizarre. "First meeting," what am I saying. We are smack in the middle of a long-running childhood friendship.

"Cosette turned out to be a surprisingly good dancer, so I improvised a few flourishes! Seems like the two of us are pretty in sync!"

Unfazed by His Highness's black aura, Georg said it cheerfully and threw an arm around my shoulders. At his words — which could well be taken as a challenge — His Highness's aura bore down harder.

Stop it, Georg! His Highness's aura has the whole class buzzing! My life bar's already at zero! Mostly a stamina problem!

So His Highness was surprisingly competitive, was he. Maybe, as a master dancer, this was a fight he couldn't back down from.

Trying to clear the heavy air, I hurried to change the subject.

"I-isn't it almost Your Highness and Lady Julia's turn?! I can't wait to see it!"

Aaah, was that a little too much of a challenge?! It just slipped out! Idiot! You idiot, me!

"Hmph… very well! Watch our dance and learn! Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

"Lady Julia…?"

For some reason, a switch had flipped in Lady Julia. Its name: the Remie Switch.

His Highness, startled by the Lady Remie who'd suddenly possessed her, stood there dumbstruck. At the same moment, his aura — which a breath ago had looked ready to hurl lightning — scattered to nothing, and he was all but dragged by the hand to the center of the hall.

As the piano started up, the two of them caught the rhythm and began to step.

There was none of the wild, off-the-wall business Georg and I had gotten up to. But every single movement flowed, and their gestures — controlled right down to the fingertips — were graceful, in a word. Sighs of admiration spilled from the classmates, myself included. Though she was wearing the same standard-issue lesson dress as everyone else, the hem of her skirt fluttered like the finest silk.

By the time the two of them bowed at the end of the piece, the hall had gone as silent as still water. Everyone was entranced, as if caught in a dream.

"Bravooo—!!! This, right here, is the very essence of dance! Magnificent, as one would expect!"

The teacher's voice broke the silence, and the students, coming to their senses, sent up a great round of applause for the pair. Georg and I clapped as hard as we could too, of course.

As he clapped, Georg muttered under his breath.

"Yeah, with Julia you could probably work in a vertical spin too."

Hold on a second, Georg. Just what exactly are you aiming for?