Kaze's mood took a turn for the worse as Bryle stuck his hand out in front of him.
Shaking it, Kaze quickly retracted it in a not-so-obvious manner. It was clear that neither of them liked each other, especially considering how Bryle just tried to take out Kaze during the exam to teach him a lesson.
Lunaria was equally aware of this fact, since she was the one who rescued the fainted Bryle after the centipede struck. She regretted doing so, even if it was the right thing to do. Why should she have to save someone who was trying to act detrimentally anyway?
"Lunaria-hime, you look good tonight," Bryle addressed Lunaria, who step out from behind Kaze.
"… Mm," Lunaria coldly replied with a simple nod, not even bowing.
This move surprised Bryle, who took a step back. Looking from Kaze to Lunaria, to Kaze again, he seemed to have guessed that Kaze must have told Lunaria about what happened. This made the smile on his face warp a little.
After hearing it was Lunaria who had saved him when he woke up, Bryle thought that it was Kaze who dealt the massive explosion which caused him to black out. Thinking it was him playing dirty instead and Lunaria went out of her way to ensure he wasn't harmed, only then did he learn that it was actually the centipede who caused all the destruction and made the exam void.
Even so, Bryle was actually thankful to Lunaria for saving him. It was beyond his imagination when he found Lunaria standing by Kaze's side, an action that showed support for her friend. Clearly, Bryle was in the wrong for targeting Kaze in the exam.
"… Lunaria-hime, are you perhaps angry at me?" Bryle tried to smoothly play off the situation. "May I enquire for your reason?"
"I don't believe I need to explain it, do I?" Lunaria crossed her arms and glared at Bryle. "You and I know the reason for it."
"I'm afraid you are going to have to elaborate," Bryle challenged Lunaria, taking a step forward and holding her hand.
Getting on his knee, he gave a light kiss on the upside of her palm, much like how a formal greeting was made for the royalty. Kaze glanced at Lunaria upon seeing this, wondering how she was going to react. He knew that Lunaria was equally as pissed as he was at Bryle, if not worse.
Thankfully, Lunaria didn't erupt or do anything that attracted attention to them. She simply pulled her hand away after the kiss and applied water magic to it, adding insult to injury. Lunaria was essentially washing away any traces of the kiss when supposedly the greeting was to be taken very seriously. This meant her saying: 'I won't even receive your respect'.
"This is stupid. Kaze, let's go," Lunaria linked arms with Kaze and dragged him off in the opposite direction.
Bryle could only watch the two leave with a baffled expression on his face. First was her washing her hand with water magic to get rid of any stain of his kiss, next she stuck to Kaze and brought them away. The message now conveyed once combined with her previous gesture was as if she said to him: 'You are insulting me. How dare you flirt with me when my boyfriend is here?'
Dousing water all over his pride, the anger within Lunaria quelled a little. She had a satisfied smile on her face after 'very politely' shrugging Bryle off. Instead, now she was able to secure Kaze away without any incident. It would, without a doubt, develop into a fight if she kept watching or allowed them to talk.
"L-Lunaria, is this alright?" Kaze asked her nervously. "Leaving just like that?"
"What about it?" Lunaria stopped and turned around to face him with a pout. "Would you rather have me punch him in the face?"
"No, not that. I mean… wouldn't he chase after us?" Kaze held up both his hands in front of him to protect himself from Lunaria's pouting. "Since we stormed off so rudely."
"Well, let's see if he has the balls to come," Lunaria sighed. "I doubt he would, after what I did right in front of him. Anyway, you were going to ask me something before we were SO RUDELY interrupted. What is it?"
"Oh, right. Um, I was going to ask if you wanted to dance with me?" Kaze straightened his back and bowed. "For later, I mean."
"… Oh, was that it?" Lunaria broke into a fit of giggles at his reaction. "I accept. In fact, if possible, we can dance the whole night if you want."
"Huh? Really?" Kaze was surprised at her words and broke into a smile. "Alright then. I figured you would have been occupied by now, since there must be a lot of people who were attracted by you."
"Yes and no. While people have approached me, I simply told them I was 'occupied' already," Lunaria poked his cheek lightly. "Thankfully, you asked me before I was the one to ask you for a dance."
"That would be embarrassing, wouldn't it?" Kaze laughed, swatting her finger away. "I can't imagine allowing a girl to ask me to ask her to dance. Were you waiting for me to ask for that long?"
"What do you think?" Lunaria gave him a mysterious smile. "I'm glad to know you considered me."
"W-Well, I wanted to sit the dance out honestly, but then…" Kaze looked away with a slight blush on his cheek. "… the thought that you were going to be led on by other guys… it's a surprisingly uncomfortable feeling."
"Don't you forget I have decades worth of experience with dealing with guys," Lunaria explained, her heart silently thumping in excitement over his words. "B-But I won't deny I feel incredibly happy that you considered dancing because of that… Does it make you feel that uncomfortable to see me with other guys?"
"More than I would like to admit," Kaze nodded shyly. "I'm fine if you were dancing with them, but… I can't say the same for what the others would feel when they get so up close with you. It's almost like they are taking advantage of you."
"Ehh, really?" Lunaria looked at him with such great interest now, leaning forward such that glancing down would mean staring past her face would lead him right at her cleavage. "It bothers you that~ much?"
"Y-Yes, I admit it," Kaze gulped nervously, his nether region throbbing a little from a single glance into the pit formed between two voluptuous mountains. "Unfortunately, I feel like me dancing with you also means I'm taking advantage of you…"
"Hehe, then you better take advantage of me as much as you can," Lunaria whispered into his ear. "I'll be waiting~"
At her playful tone, Kaze's embarrassment shot through the roof along with his endurance for Lunaria's teasing. He instantly crumpled to the floor and groaned softly, grasping his head between both his arms and shaking it as though rejecting reality. The way that Lunaria had teased him was beyond his own comprehension. There was no way she was taking him seriously, especially after her last words.
Giggling once more at his reaction, Lunaria helped him up and gave him a headpat to soothe him. It was funny how they acted the same age, yet Lunaria often showed her maturity, which constantly reminded Kaze of how old she actually was.
"Oh, you…"
"Hm?"
Both Kaze and Lunaria looked around when they heard someone calling out to them. Tilting their head, they saw Kenridge standing in front of them with a slouch. Wearing what looked to be sunglasses to cover up his face, he had a loose tie hanging from his crumple white shirt and scrubby-looking pants.
"Y-You are… Kenridge?"
"Yeah, yeah… where is that Frey? She still hasn't returned my necklace…"
At his words, Kaze sweatdropped due to understanding the situation. Frey likely must have stolen something from Kenridge since he wasn't going to turn up to such an event. Saying that she would return it to him if he came, Frey had perfectly forced Kenridge to come effortlessly. That was so like Frey, the ever-cunning person she was.
"She… was with Yu Quan," Kaze pointed at the direction where their group was at. "I think you can find her over there."
"That damn Frey…" Kenridge stomped past them and made his way across the hall. "Wait till I get my hands on-"
"Sorry about that," Ryuuseki sighed, bowing politely to Kaze and Lunaria. "He's always like that."
"O-Oh, Ryuuseki, it's a pleasure," Kaze quickly greeted the famous Skjolder. "Albert had a good time with you."
"Ah, Albert," Ryuuseki quickly smiled at the mention of his opponent. "If I follow Kenridge, will I be able to see Albert?"
"Probably, assuming he hadn't left yet," Lunaria nodded. "We will be here alone."
"Oho, is the famous Ojou-sama dating you?" Ryuuseki smirked at Kaze before going after Kenridge. "Good luck!"
"At this point, I think we look more like a couple than close friends," Kaze addressed the issue to Lunaria, who simply waved it off.
"Let the people think what they want to, we have no right in determining what they can," Lunaria nodded at his words, essentially saying that she was fine even with misunderstandings.
"I thought you would value your name more, since you are a princess," Kaze asked her. "I don't want you associating me to you in a bad way."
"I don't mind if my reputation is ruined among the students because it had already happened before in the past," Lunaria gave him a strict look. "I have more than one lives, one being a student in Czech, one being a foreign princess, one being in Aravel. But you… you only have one. I can't make you ruin it because of me. What I'm saying is, stop devaluing yourself when associating it with me. I'm happy to be your friend, Kaze, and maybe even more than that."
Kaze didn't really catch the hidden intention behind her last few words, only taking it as her being happy to be this close with him. While they hadn't had many moments together like the one they were currently having, it was still something he treasured a lot.
On the other hand, Lunaria's face fell a little as she knew he missed out on her true meaning. Sighing softly, she felt the same trepidation rising within her again. It wasn't like she was trying to throw hints at Kaze or make him listen to her feelings, since this was something she wasn't ready to open up about too.
By now, Lunaria had pretty much confirmed her suspicion from being with Kaze. For the past few minutes, more emotions than she could count had quickly arose from walking around with him. From moving away to look for him to their encounter with Bryle, she reacted differently than how she usually would to people like Yuuji and Mitsui.
Lunaria made a gasp as she felt her hand brushing against Kaze's, since they had to squeeze together to walk through the crowd. Just slight contact was enough to make her heart to beat faster, causing her to recoil her fingers a little at that. Kaze had no change himself, seeing that he honestly didn't care what happened to Lunaria as long as she was comfortable.
The atmosphere in the room quickly picked up when the background music being played faded off. With the school's Music club ascending to the stage, they took positions as practiced and began orchestrating. It was clear this was meant to be for the dancing part of the event, causing all the students to quickly take place.
"May I?" Yuuji reached out to Mitsui, who accepted and took to the dance floor.
A huge circle had opened up in the middle of the room, exclusively for those who were going to be dancing to enter. Students had the choice of choosing whether or not they wanted to dance, based on the partners available. By now, more than 50 pairs had joined the dance floor.
Chris and Irene were seen waltzing along to the beat of the song, Yuuji and Mitsui dancing not far off. Sera and Rena were both reluctant in a few approaches made to them, but eventually gave in due to wanting to play along with the atmosphere. Even Albert managed to get a hand in with another random student, the two taking things nice and slow.
Kaze quickly caught sight of Shoko with another female dancing, making them quite the unique pair. It wasn't like two people of different gender weren't allowed to dance, since there were specific parts of dancing that required exchanging pairs too. Shoko's outfit was what made the dance work, seeing her making her partner giggle with each spin and flattery.
"Well?" Lunaria looked at Kaze, a small smile appearing. "We can always sit one or two songs out if you don't feel comfortable."
"M-Maybe one song," Kaze sighed, still not feeling the confidence to take the lead just yet.
One song lasted between 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the pace and arrangement itself. There were short intervals in between for resting and switching of partners. Taking that into consideration, Kaze took his time to try to loosen up. He didn't want to make Lunaria look bad on her first dance.
From the dancing floor alone, the first dance already provided a lot of funny moments that could be spotted, with students tripping and laughing. It was clear that despite being nobles, not everyone was into the art of dancing nor well-versed in it. Even students who were commoners took part, showing off the variety of representation from two distinct classes.
The first song quickly ended with a round of applause, marking the start of the long dancing session.
Kaze then offered his hand to Lunaria, who had been waiting patiently this whole time.
"Will you take this dance with me?" Kaze requested, getting on one knee.
"With pleasure," Lunaria replied, taking his hand.
Walking to the dance floor together, the others who saw this began whispering and muttering among themselves. It was clear they didn't expect Lunaria to show up with someone they least expected, especially when Kaze hadn't put much on an expectation on himself in the eyes of the crowd. Only his friends who were already dancing since the first song smiled and applauded when he joined the dance floor.
Bryle, who saw this, quickly joined as well. He dragged along an innocent person who just so happened to be looking for a partner. If they were going to fight, it was going to be in a discrete manner.
"Kaze," Lunaria whispered as soon as she noticed Bryle walking up, a few meters away from them.
"Yeah, I see that," Kaze nodded. "Let's try to avoid them as much as possible."
"I feel sorry for his partner," Lunaria added, the second song starting right after.
This time, it was a high-paced song that required much more movement than the first. The starting song was just warmup, so now it was the real challenge. The other students quickly got caught up in the tune itself, dancing freely and happily with each other.
As for Kaze and Lunaria, they were focused more on trying to avoid being targeted by Bryle without being too bothered. With the rhythm of the song carrying the mood of the hall, the two moved along with the crowd while actively avoiding getting anywhere close to Bryle.
Bryle wasn't letting up either, stepping closer and closer to them without hiding his intentions. While his partner might not have suspected anything, the game of cat and mouse had already begun.
Moving back and forth from each other, Lunaria and Kaze utilized whatever they have to avoid Bryle. When it came to a certain dancing move, they ducked at the same time just as Bryle raised his head to look for them amongst the crowd. Slipping between people while moving seamlessly, it was almost like they were displaying their talent for dancing when it was actually Lunaria leading Kaze on.
"Right foot, left, step aside, twirl," Lunaria muttered under her breath, instructing Kaze on what to do. "Good. Move back once, twice, duck."
With Lunaria's excellent directing, Kaze was somehow able to not fumble up. He was definitely not a dancer, especially when he just learnt it a few months ago. What he was doing now was beyond his understanding, but he trusted in Lunaria's judgement and went along with it. Since she was leading him to the tune itself while avoiding Bryle at the same time, he couldn't have done anything better to help with the situation.
The second song quickly came to an end. With the third and the fourth song, they repeated the same strategy now that they had some experience.
The audience who kept their eyes on the Lunaria-Kaze pair this whole time were astonished. They could tell that Kaze wasn't an experienced dancer, based on the way his arms were moving awkwardly with each turn. It was what Lunaria did that impressed them. With her guidance, she was able to turn the situation around to suit their moves. Kaze, who was adapt at following her instructions, was able to respond accordingly and moved to the rhythm.
While it didn't give them the perfect symmetry that Lunaria was hoping for, it was enough to convince the audience that they were 'dancing' instead of 'moving around'. Kaze surprised himself by being able to commit and follow her every word, causing them to put up display after display of dances.
Bryle, on the other hand, wasn't having it so well. He was forced to step out after the fourth dance since his female partner was tired. Unable to do anything other than watch them from the outside ring, he clutched his hand so tightly it felt as though he could crush stone to dust. It irritated him that nothing could change how Kaze and Lunaria were, at the same time causing him to wonder what part of it was so unacceptable for them to be together right now.
Towards the end of the fifth song, Lunaria and Kaze bowed towards the audience as a sign of them finishing off their duet. Applauses came as usual, though this time it was directed towards the two instead of the music or the other dancers.
"You two were quite the pair," Yuuji smirked as Kaze and Lunaria moved out of the dancing circle.
"Shut it," Kaze panted, wiping the sweat that had begun dripping from his chin. "It was tiring."
Everyone else from their group had stepped out to enjoy the view of Kaze dancing with Lunaria. It was rare that they got to see the duo performing together like that, so might as well enjoy the view while it lasted.
"I'm going to get a drink," Lunaria told Kaze before heading off.
Kaze sighed and proceeded to tell the others about their short encounter with Bryle. Just like Lunaria, they had heard of what happened from Kaze too, but not to the specific details. Kaze had only shared more of the bits and parts that he was reluctant to speak about with his friends with Lunaria, not wanting them to develop some form of prejudice against Bryle.
"Hm, sounds like trouble alright," Shoko frowned. "I knew Lunaria was giving you instructions, but all for that?"
"We can't do anything about it, since there is no rule that would ban him from coming," Albert shook his head. "Plus, I remember Lunaria complained to the school before?"
"Yeah. There was little to no evidence due to the grounds of fighting being destroyed by the centipede battle," Rena agreed with Albert. "Listen, Kaze, don't try anything that would ruin the mood of the event…"
"I'm not going to do anything, Lunaria's the one who would do something," Kaze shuddered in fear. "For a second there, I thought she was going to brutally slaughter him from how she was glaring at him."
"That sounds like Lunaria alright," Sera sighed and shook her head. "Based on that girl's personality and what she experienced before, she is likely to- Wait, nothing. Ignore what I said."
"I feel like I was going to hear something scary, so I will choose to not pursue that topic," Yuuji sweatdropped with a nervous smile. "Was… Lunaria a brutal killing machine in the past or something?"
"You read too many books about scary stories, Yuuji," Mitsui smirked at Yuuji and nudged him lightly. "Do you really think that Lunaria is someone that scary? She seems like a normal girl to me."
Only Kaze, Sera, Rena and Shoko knew the truth about Lunaria. Sweating nervously, Kaze tried to shrug off the awkward topic about Lunaria's past that had somehow been kept hidden all this while.
"Ah! Did Kenridge come looking for Frey with Ryuuseki?" Kaze quickly thought of something relevant. "They passed by us earlier."
"Oh yes. Frey immediately ran off as soon as Kenridge showed up," Rena pointed out with a wry smile. "I wonder what happened with them. Ryuuseki came right after with an apologetic smile."
Just as they were talking, all of a sudden there was a bunch of shouting and gasping right behind them. Kaze's heart dropped as soon as he saw the direction of the commotion.
"Lunaria," he muttered under his breath, dashing over to the area where the students had gathered immediately.
His suspicions were confirmed when he found Lunaria standing there with Bryle. Instead of worst he expected to happen, what he saw was something surprising.
Lunaria stood there with a furious look on her face, her glass shattered all over the floor. Bryle was seen holding the side of his face, looking stunned.
She had slapped Bryle in front of everyone.