A party was being held in one of the many halls of the palace.
The people there were mostly made up of nobles and servants that carried drinks around.
The atmosphere was very loud because everyone was trying to converse with each other, and in the center of the room was a group of people surrounding a man with silver hair.
He had a green robe engraved with golden threads and white formal pants.
Contrary to how other male elves usually cut their hair, he had long, straight hair, and with his beautiful blue eyes and a captivating smile, he kept conversing with the blushing female nobles around him.
That elf was Jassin, and he was the fourth faction leader.
But he wasn't the only royal elf who was attending the party.
His sister Soliana was also there, and she was being surrounded by old male nobles, but instead of feeling uncomfortable, she kept giggling and smiling while they talked to her.
These parties were very common, so there weren't any other royal elves. Unlike Soliana and Jassin, their siblings didn't want to spend their entire time courting other nobles.
A soft melody continued to be played throughout the hall, but nobody was dancing because there was a rule that one of the royal elves had to start dancing first before the others could join him.
And as both of the royal elves were currently busy talking, nobody could dance, so everyone just conversed or ate the luxurious food that was on the tables all around the hall.
Unlike the poor commoners who were willing to trade their children for a small piece of bread, these powerful nobles had so much food that there was no way for them to eat it all.
Suddenly the music stopped, which was surprising because the song wasn't over yet, so it could only mean one thing.
Whenever the musicians stopped playing, it meant that a royal elf was joining the party.
They were paying their respects to him by not playing until the elf walks down the white stairs and joins the others.
So everyone looked up, even Jassin and Soliana, to see who was joining them. They knew that it wasn't their father because he would always say that he didn't have time to attend parties like this.
The wooden double door on top of the stairs slowly opened, and a breathtaking elf entered the hall.
Valindra gracefully put her right hand on the stair railing and slowly walked down while the nobles were whispering to each other because they didn't know that there was a beautiful princess like this in the palace.
Meanwhile, Soliana clenched her teeth in fury, but her smile remained because she couldn't show weakness in front of the nobles around her.
Jassin, on the other hand, was slightly surprised because he also didn't know that he had a gorgeous sister like this.
"I am sorry for interrupting the party. You are free to continue talking like you were doing before I entered."
Her melodious voice sounded throughout the hall, and as Valindra smiled, a lot of the nobles that were talking to Soliana felt their hearts skip a beat.
The musicians also resumed their song and continued playing even though there was no one dancing.
Most of the male nobles suddenly excused themselves and rushed to talk to Valindra, which made Soliana even more upset.
"May I know your ladyship's name?"
"I was here first! Will you please tell me your name, princess?"
"Back off! Princess, your beauty is like that of an angel!"
As soon as Valindra walked down the stairs, a lot of the male nobles crowded around her and tried to talk to her, but because there were so many, all of them were talking over each other.
Jassin, who was also wondering about her name and the reason she was here, perked up his ears, and Soliana watched this with a smirk, hoping that her sister would embarrass herself before all the nobles.
"My name is Valindra, and I appreciate all of your compliments, but may I ask a question, gentlemen?"
Instead of embarrassing herself, Valindra managed to easily talk herself out of the chaotic situation, and she also put her finger on her chin while tilting her head, which made her appear adorable in the eyes of the noblemen.
"Of course!"
"You can ask me anything!"
"Please tell me what you need!"
Like loyal dogs, the other noblemen, who were all much older than her, started talking with a blush on their faces.
Those nobles may have been older, but they were elves, so they all looked like handsome middle-aged men.
"I came here to attend a party, but nobody seems to be dancing."
She first looked around the hall, and then she gazed back at the noblemen.
"Why is that?"
Soliana thought that the nobles would laugh at Valindra for not knowing the basic Elvish customs, but instead they all started telling her, hoping that she would pick them for her dance.
This made Soliana finally show anger on her face, and she excused herself before leaving the party.
Valindra already knew how the royal elves had to initiate the dance, and this was to stop the nobles from trying to crowd them with dance requests, but she still asked because she had a plan in mind.
"I see."
She nodded and looked at Jassin, who was glancing at Valindra while talking to the noble ladies.
"Does that mean that my brother is such a wuss that he didn't have the balls to ask someone for a dance?"
Purposefully raising her voice a little, her question echoed throughout the hall, and everyone shut their mouths.
Even the musicians stopped playing, and prince Jassin's smile froze on his face.
He then turned to Valindra and walked over to her while the nobles made way so as not to block him.
Standing in front of his sister, Jassin was taller than her, so he looked down with a smile and a raised eyebrow.
"Excuse me? I probably heard you wrong, sister."
"Tsk."
But to his surprise, Valindra clicked her tongue and grabbed his collar, pulling him down so that their eyes were at the same height.
"I said that my brother is probably so bad at dancing that he is afraid to ask someone."
She smiled at him, and although Jassin could feel her breath on his face from how close they were, he didn't resist because he liked forceful women who knew what they wanted and weren't afraid to say it out loud.
"I- I am a good dancer! I was just…"
Keeping his emotions in check was normally easy for Jassin, but when he was this close to a seductive-looking woman like Valindra, he stammered and forgot how to talk.
"Then ask me right now. Show me your skills and I'll be the judge."
Leaning even closer to him and whispering in his ear, Valindra smirked, and Jassin felt like he was being tempted by the devil, but he didn't dislike it. In fact, he noticed that his heart had started rapidly beating out of his chest.
Valindra let go of his collar, and as he straightened his back, she patted his robe, which was a little scrunched up from how she grabbed him.
"So?"
Smiling and looking up at Jassin, Valindra waited for his answer.
"I, the son of the current emperor and the prince of the Elvish continent, Jassin, ask my sister Valindra for the first dance."
The other nobles gasped in shock because they had never seen Jassin ask someone for a dance before.
He was always too proud for that, but now someone had managed to tame his pride right in front of them.
"Wrong. Ask again."
"…"
The other noble ladies who would do anything to be in Valindra's position were baffled, and even the noblemen were stunned to see Jassin get rejected.
Jassin felt how his pride was being attacked by Valindra, but instead of feeling anger, he felt pleasure.
The feeling of someone as stunning as Valindra stepping all over him made him become filled with ecstasy.
Valindra knew that Jassin was a masochist, so she treated him like one.
She found this out because a maid once accidentally hit Jassin with a broom while she was cleaning, but instead of being scolded or executed for hurting the prince, he quickly excused her.
Upon watching him leave, the maid noticed that Jassin was heavily breathing with a blush on his face, and he kept rubbing the spot that he had been hit in.
Normally a masochist would feel pleasure from pain only when he was having sex, but Jassin was so hopeless that he felt good from every pain he would experience.
Valindra quickly connected the dots and knew how she needed to act to make her brother fall in love with her.
"I, the prince, Jassin, ask my sister, the princess, Valindra, for the first dance."
Even though Jassin cut down on his introduction and made Valindra seem more important, she was still not happy.
"Again."
Jassin shuddered in delight at the thought of the nobles watching him while Valindra continued to humiliate him.
"...I, the lowly Jassin, ask my sister and my goddess, the princess, Valindra, for the first dance."
The other nobles had their mouths open in shock because they never thought that the prideful Jassin would ever call himself lowly and call someone else a goddess.
"Finally. Good job. I accept."
Valindra said these three things because it was important for Jassin to hear them.
The "Finally" showed him that Valindra was dissatisfied with how long it took him, and she was telling him to complete her orders faster next time.
She also praised him with a "Good job", which, after beating him down, made him feel exhilarated, and he became starved for more compliments.
And of course, the final "I accept" was to not only show him that she wanted to dance with him but to also give him a reward for his efforts.
Lifting her hand that had a glove on because her hands were coarse from learning how to fight with a spear, Valindra gestured for Jassin to take it.
He first kissed it as if thanking her that she was willing to dance with him, and then gently grabbed it with his hand.
Holding her hand with his right hand and holding her waist with his left, he looked at the musicians, who understood the signal, and started playing a song that people could dance to.
Jassin and Valindra then started dancing, and he tried his best not to accidentally step on her or hold her too tightly because he was scared that he might taint her beauty.
He was the one leading the dance, and Valindra let him because the one leading had to do most of the work when dancing.
"You weren't lying. You are pretty good at dancing."
Valindra looked at him and smiled.
"Thank you! I do not deserve your kind words!"
Looking into her mesmerizing eyes, Jassin felt his face turn hot, and he almost made a mistake that would end up with him stepping on Valindra.
So he quickly started doing his best again, and while looking at the alluring woman in his arms, he knew that he had fallen for her.
Her every smile was a reward for him.
Every time her brows furrowed, he felt like he should die.
Her every gesture made him feel something, and her every word was an order.
Jassin always wanted to have someone that he could give himself to and be ordered around like a dog, but every girl around him was always too scared to take things too far because he was a prince who led a faction.
Now that he met Valindra, though, he wanted to be hers no matter what.
If she asked him to kill, he would kill. If she asked him to lie, he would lie, and if she asked him to die, he would die with a joyful smile that he had died for her.
This kind of affection may have come off as surprising, but Jassin had been shut inside the palace for 19 years now, and he had never tasted the sweet fruit called love, so now that he had finally found someone, and this someone was the exact type that he desired, he was overjoyed.
As they kept dancing and twirling around each other, Jassin didn't know that he was dancing with a person who would end up causing his early death.
But even if he knew, he wouldn't care.
If Valindra turned out to be the grim reaper or the devil herself, Jassin would still dance with her just to see her irresistible smile.