Turning Chapter 995

Chapter 995

Yuder followed the hand that elegantly held and led him, passing through the wide-open door.

The grand melody of the Rancha dance resounded loudly. It was natural, as it was different from the imperial palace party where Kishiar had the privilege to choose the music first. Although it was a completely different dance tune from the Avitan, which was originally danced by the commoner, Yuder was not perplexed or concerned. He placed his hand against Kishiar's as he was pulled, turning his body in the opposite direction and standing.

The basic posture of the Rancha was slightly different, but anyone could see that Kishiar was taking the female steps. The sound of people simultaneously holding their breath could be heard from around them.

"Oh my...!"

Regardless, Kishiar was confident as always. As soon as the music started, his footsteps were filled with certainty. Despite being surprisingly tall, his movements were so astonishingly smooth that there was no awkwardness at all. If one only looked at Kishiar without paying attention to the others around them, it would seem as if the dance was created to be performed that way from the beginning.

'Thanks to him, it's fortunate that it's not noticeable that I've forgotten more than half of this dance.'

Yuder recalled the man's words before coming here, whispering to leave it to him no matter what dance tune came out. The Avitan practiced in the capital was still vivid in his memory, but not the Rancha. There was no time to practice separately and get used to it again like before, and in the first place, he only knew the male dance steps, so he had been hesitant, but it was truly a needless worry.

When dancing with someone who had reached mastery, even if one was somewhat clumsy, it would not appear that way at all. Realizing this fact firsthand was truly magical.

'Not actual magic, but it's something quite similar...'

Others might not know, but Yuder sensitively felt the invisible, faint force surrounding their bodies. The owner of that force was naturally Kishiar. While fully utilizing his physical abilities and dance skills to lead Yuder, he was also using his Awakener ability in case it couldn't be done with just that.

The force surrounding them pushed Yuder's back a little faster whenever he slightly missed the beat, and sometimes, mysteriously, it pulled his arms and legs to distribute his weight. If he hadn't been seeing it with his own eyes, he probably wouldn't have believed that someone could use their ability so delicately to dance together.

Thanks to that, Yuder could focus only on the hand leading him and the smiling face without worrying about anything, which was simply comfortable for him.

"The advantage and disadvantage of the Rancha is that there is almost no moment when the body touches except for the hands. It's a dance that makes you enjoy the moment of harmonizing with many people while keeping a certain distance. If you say it nicely, it's modest, and if you say it badly, it's not much different from combining solo dances into a group dance."

The man leaned in close and whispered softly.

"But there is definitely a joy in this that you can't feel in other dances. The moment of perfectly harmonizing with your partner, savoring the changing body temperature when switching the touching hands, and the moment of briefly talking like this."

"...I see."

"When you're too close, it's rather difficult to observe properly, so it's nice to be able to see some parts more overall and leisurely. Like how perfect the outfit my partner is wearing today, and how beautiful the ankles slightly revealed thanks to the short shoes."

Whenever he whispered, Yuder felt the red gaze sweeping over the mentioned parts. The eyes that had followed the black cloth wrapped around his arms and the tail of his cloak now trailed down to the slightly exposed ankle above his shoes.

The moment it lingered on the ankles slightly revealed above the shoes, a tingling sensation ran through the skin at that spot.

As if appreciating something beautiful, but hidden within it was a secret sensuality that only Yuder would know. Perhaps because they were not closely attached, as he said, it seemed to make the feeling a bit strange.

When Yuder slightly frowned to swallow that secret anxiety, the man laughed softly. As they switched the touching hands according to the music and spun around, he bowed his head and spoke again.

"Looking around while spinning, it seems everyone is curious about what we're talking about. Did you see?"

"Not really... I'm not interested."

He could feel that much without looking. After all, he had expected to receive more attention than necessary when stepping out to such an occasion, so it wasn't surprising.

"Even though there seem to be many people admiring the beauty of Baron Yuder Aile, who has become the hero of the South following the West, and contemplating whether to request the next dance?"

"I'm even less interested in that."

Yuder looked up at Kishiar with a blank expression and opened his mouth.

"No matter what others say, what's more important to me now is the present. So, Commander, if you have time to joke around looking elsewhere, you should look more this way until the dance is over. I can see that you dance better than me, but you seem too relaxed."

Kishiar's eyes widened. After a moment, his red eyes sparkled with joy, and a big laugh burst out.

"...Oh my. I'm ashamed to have made my precious partner think that way. Alright. From now on, I swear I will never look anywhere else and will only look at one person more than now."

The dark green cloth wrapped around Kishiar's arm fluttered as beautifully as his laughter. Under the light of the crystal chandelier, the brightly shining man looked like a gem carved out of a single piece.

Yuder focused on the dance, quite satisfied with that sight. Even though he didn't enjoy dancing, he felt a strange desire to keep watching Kishiar dance like this if possible. If he could continue to see that figure up close, completely focused only on this side as promised, Yuder felt he could gladly spend his time this way.

The instrument's melody, which had risen greatly, gradually thinned out as it approached the end. As the last movement of spinning around with one hand raised high against each other slowly ceased, Kishiar slightly bent the touching hand and intertwined his fingers with Yuder's. Naturally, looking at the intertwined fingers, a low whisper was heard.

"It was the most enjoyable. To the point where I thought I had spent all those days for this very moment."

"Thanks to you... I'm glad I finished well without many mistakes."

"That must mean my partner also enjoyed it without worry, right?"

The man winked and looked around, then lowered his head to Yuder's ear and asked very softly.

“So... may I ask who you’ll dance with next?”

"..."

"Damn it."

"Pardon?"

"Not you."

By the wall far from the dancing people.

Enon, who was standing where a long table with simple food and snacks was set up, suddenly cursed thickly. Lusan, who was startled, was a little relieved that it wasn't directed at him, but soon, filled with curiosity, he raised his head.

"What are you looking at? Ah. You were watching the dancing people."

"..."

As the dance tune ended, people dispersed. Among them, Enon cursed again, looking at the two particularly eye-catching tall men.

"It's a mess. A complete mess."

Naturally, those two men were the Commander and his Assistant.

"Hahaha. Is it because of Yuder?"

"..."

"Hmm... Well, you said you knew Yuder from before, so it's understandable that you'd be a bit worried. I was also unsure at first if it would be okay."

Lusan heard that Kishiar had been working to make the Awakeners' second gender naturally accepted by the world through parties and dances since the capital. When he first saw the two of them dancing at the imperial palace party, despite knowing that fact, he felt restless and anxious, but today, unlike then, he watched them quite comfortably.

It might be because he had seen it twice and had gotten a bit used to it, but on the other hand...

"But this time, I could feel that they were really focused on each other, so rather than feeling strange, should I say it looked somewhat natural..."

"Who said what?"

Enon grumbled.