(Thank you very much to 'Akraen' and 'Genkaku no Ningyōshi' for the rewards!)
"Huh?"
Ais had already lost count of how many times she had frozen up.
But she could not help it.
Looking at Noah, who stood before her with a smile on his face, Ais tilted her head. Her voice carried the astonishment of someone who deeply doubted what she had just heard.
"Dance?"
"That's right, dance." Noah shrugged.
"I wanted you to spend today as much like an ordinary girl as possible, instead of as the Sword Princess who only ever thinks about fighting and becoming stronger. So I thought of a lot of options, and eventually settled on this place."
As he said that, Noah looked down at the vast sea of flowers below.
"Don't you think dancing here would be a wonderful thing for a girl?"
"I..." Ais parted her rosy lips. All sorts of conflicting emotions churned within her, but in the end, they only formed into one sentence.
"I don't know how to dance..."
In other words, Ais had never danced before either.
Noah was not surprised in the slightest.
"It's fine." Noah took Ais's hand.
"I'll teach you."
With that, Noah gently pulled the girl into his arms, wrapping an arm around Ais's slender waist and having her place one hand on his shoulder.
"Ah..."
Suddenly being pulled into Noah's embrace, Ais's pretty face predictably turned red.
Seeing Ais like that, Noah smiled as though he found it amusing. Then he took a small leather pouch from his clothes and tossed it into the air.
Bang—!
Without warning, the pouch suddenly burst apart, scattering a shower of glittering particles. Carried by the breeze, they swirled like fluorescent lights around Noah and Ais.
"These are..." Ais blinked, identifying the glittering particles.
"Magic Stones?"