The Cleon Family just left like that?
I'd been all ready to fight. I'd thought it would follow the classic sequence: get provoked, fight, win, and make a name for myself. Still, it was probably better that they'd just left. Less trouble that way.
Even so, something felt suspicious. They'd barged into someone else's birthday banquet, picked a fight in front of all the capital's powerful families, then fled the moment Si Nan Changzheng intimidated them. Just like the auction incident, the Cleon Family hadn't gained a thing from start to finish—instead, they'd become a laughingstock. What exactly were they trying to accomplish?
"'Why do they keep doing stupid things over and over?' Is that what you're thinking?"
"H-Haoyue!?" Her fragrant breath suddenly brushed my ear, making me jump.
"Do you know what the Cleon Family is up to?"
"How would I know... unless you do?"
"Don't look at me like that. I don't know either." Haoyue shrugged. "Still, it never hurts to be careful."
Watching Haoyue, I couldn't help feeling a little puzzled. Was she trying to hint at something?
I wonder what you all know about balls.
For many people, a ball was the very definition of high society, the battlefield where princes and princesses did battle. But for someone like me, who'd only ever done otaku dances and had barely a day or two of ballroom dance lessons, a ball was nothing short of hell.
"Miss Liu Ye, might I have the honor of a dance?"
"Your beauty outshines the pearls of the sea and the stars of the night sky! Please grant me the glory of a dance!"
"Um, would you... like to dance with me?"
Faced with invitations—some brief, some overblown, some shy—I forced a thick-skinned smile and turned them all down one by one.