Party Venue: Almeria’s Regret
[Titania Kingdom Capital, Ruin]
If you followed the great central road stretching straight south from Titania Castle, you passed through the noble district and entered the commoner district.
Beyond that, once you passed the castle gate, you would normally be outside the capital, but if you looked left and right at the road before the gate, there stood an enormous building.
It was the world’s largest megacompany, the Yotsuba General Trading Company, which had built its own walls and turned the area inside into a shopping district.
The dance hall inside this place was the venue for tonight’s party.
This dance hall was a place opened only on special occasions. Even royalty could not enter it otherwise.
That alone was why everyone’s enthusiasm was on a different level this time.
The moment it was announced that this dance hall would host the event, those invited had rushed to acquire the finest clothes and accessories... and the women to beauty treatments...
Absurd amounts of money had changed hands.
It was a three-story building.
The first floor held the lobby, waiting rooms, function rooms, kitchens, and such...
The second floor was made up of guest rooms and staff rooms.
And the entire third floor was a glass-walled, magically engineered, 360-degree panoramic dance hall. On clear nights, it showed the nightscape of the capital Ruin, and on bad-weather days, different scenery could be projected onto the glass.
Naturally, no one outside could see in...
And there were elevators running as well.
The party was to begin after dark, but invited guests who couldn’t wait had already formed a line from early afternoon.
It couldn’t be helped, so the first floor had been opened for them to wait until the appointed time.
“Ohoh, so this is the famous dance hall? As expected, it’s in a different class.”
“This is something to brag about.”
“To think it was this grand...”
“I had the most fashionable dress made just for today, ohoho.”
The guests seemed impressed, though quite a few had gotten too fired up and gone overboard.
Watching it all from backstage, Julius...
“I can tell a lot of money was spent here, sure, but those outfits sparkle so much my eyes hurt. They’re as aggressively attention-seeking as old Japanese idols. And the women have so much makeup on they’ve gone beyond ghosts... they’re undead monsters now. If I met them at a graveyard, I’d exterminate them on sight. A few of them look boss-class too. I’d need top-tier gear for that. Either way, I’m not getting out unscathed...”
“Ahh, this is shaping up to be one hell of a battle. First fun fight in a while. An undead stampede, huh?! Boss, I’ll take the vanguard!”
The huge oni tribesman beside me from the adventurer clan Shiranui, Fourth Squad [Rasetsu]’s Captain Dadan, looked ready to charge out from backstage.
“Ufufu, Dadan, stop. And you as well, dear sir. Please don’t encourage him. He’s taking you seriously.”
That was Sixth Squad [Whirlwind] Captain Whirlwind Elia, a seductive elf beauty.
Wrapped in an evening dress, with bare legs visible through the slit...
Outrageous.
“Yes... I got carried away. Sorry...”
She was smiling.
But her eyes weren’t.
The undead might be less scary than this one...
Normally, one entered a party hall with one’s fiancée. If a man had multiple fiancées, one on each arm. If there were even more, they lined up behind him according to future-wife ranking...
Hero Waltz had Princess Elizabeth the Second Princess, and his original fiancée, a count’s daughter.
(Both flat-chested. Hero-boy is committed to his tastes.)
Crown Prince Erason had several women with him, including a Duke’s daughter Milian and a Marquis’s daughter, while Saintess Almeria stood at the very rear.
(That side was all royal-class. As expected of royalty.)
Among them, Almeria was a Saint, yes, but in noble rank she was only a viscount’s daughter, the lowest there.
That was why she walked at the very back of the line.
The other fiancées did not welcome her much.
Ordinarily, royalty could only marry into houses of count rank or above.
So while she was a viscount’s daughter, being allowed in because she was the Saintess felt like she had cut in line.
They could tolerate Milian the duke’s daughter.
But Almeria received no mercy.
Verbal abuse and treatment close to bullying had been directed at her, yet Crown Prince Erason never noticed. And Almeria herself had no intention of telling him.
“Because this is my own atonement for what I did to Julius... But...”
The party hall opened, and everyone was guided to their assigned seats.
Ambassadors and representatives of other nations were seated near the stage.
The nobles of Titania Kingdom were seated nearer the doors.
Since this was a party chiefly hosted by the Margrave House of South, Crown Prince Erason naturally tried to head for the seat of honor…
But was stopped.
“Why must I, the Crown Prince of this nation, sit in a lower seat at a banquet held by my own vassals?! Correct this immediately!”
“My deepest apologies, but Chairman Julius personally designated the seating. If you refuse, you are welcome to leave. How would you like to proceed?”
He dropped heavily into his seat with a thud and snorted.
“Hmph.”
Erason’s fiancées began taking their seats as well.
Then his eyes landed on a beautiful woman with pink hair...
A prize he had taken from that insolent Julius.
Maybe I’ll get to see that bastard’s bitter face after all...
“You lot, step back. Almeria and Milian will stay beside me.”
Erason rearranged the seats on his own.
That drew objections from the marquis’s daughter and the others.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince, this is an official venue. I must apologize, but I do not believe Lady Almeria can properly fulfill such a role here.”
“Silence. Do not offer opinions to me.”
“However, tradition demands…”
“Did you not hear me? The very fact that I was assigned such seating proves this is no proper formal party. Enough. Step back. Almeria, come here.”
“... Yes.”
The sharp stares of every fiancée except Milian stabbed into Almeria.
She imagined the harassment that would surely come later and felt exhausted.
But this was the seed she herself had sown.
She had to accept it.
Completely oblivious, Crown Prince Erason was in high spirits, believing he had finally managed to make Julius swallow his pride.
Even though an even greater tragedy was waiting just ahead...
In this dazzling dance hall, Almeria pitied the Crown Prince desperately clinging to his own authority…
But what angered her most was herself, for having been swept along by the mood back then.
That engagement period with Julius had been the only...
If, on that moonlit night, she hadn’t been so stubborn and had simply talked things out with Julius... would there have been a different future?
I want to go back to those days...
Head lowered, Almeria sat beside the Crown Prince as ordered, drowning in regret.
But it was already too late...
“Even if Julius weren’t the leader of a famous clan... even if he weren’t the chairman of a world-renowned company... even now, I still...”
What do you think about this chapter?
