Chapter 168: CH 167

“One, two, three, one, two, three…… ouch!”

“Sorry, Claire-sama!”

After stepping on Claire-sama’s foot, I panicked and apologized to her.

I wonder how many times that makes it now.

I can’t wipe this gloomy mood away.

“Don’t worry about it, Rei. I’m used to this.”

Claire-sama said with a bright smile on her face.

Is she an angel?

We were currently in the academy’s dance hall.

This place was usually used for dance lessons, but it was open for use after school for the upcoming ball.

The room was extremely large with the floor decorated with sakura wood flooring and mirrors on all four sides.

The sakura wood flooring, despite its name, was actually made out of birch trees.

The flooring was considered the most suitable for dance floors since it had the least amount of faults and the right amount of hardness, varnish, and it was particularly sturdy.

Lana, Eve and Philine were with us as well.

Philine, in particular, was staring at me with envy for receiving dance lessons from Claire-sama.

Your dancing skills should already be considered perfect because of your Imperial education, right?

“Honestly, I think it’d be better if I was just a wallflower at the ball.”

Even if Claire-sama kept teaching me, it was no use.

Dancing was too difficult for me, to the point where I was starting to get discouraged.

“What are you saying? Are you planning on leaving me alone?”

“That’s why I’m reluctant.”

I didn’t like the idea of not being able to dance together, but at this rate, Claire-sama’s feet would get crushed.

“If that’s the case, then please dance with me, Claire!”

Philine quickly struck at the opportunity to volunteer herself.

However,

“I’ll accept the offer after I have a dance with Rei.”

Claire-sama said with an admirable smile on her face.

Yep, she’s an angel.

“Hey, Rei. What should I do so Claire falls for me?”

“I don’t think you should be asking this to Claire-sama’s lover, you know.”

What made her think I was going to tell her anyway?

“What are you saying? You’re the person Claire fell for, so there’s nobody better to ask than you, right?”

“I can’t tell if that’s logical or just plain idiotic.”

That princess should’ve had a good head on her shoulders, but whenever Claire-sama was involved, she would turn into a good-for-nothing airhead.

“I wonder if it’s because of your chest?”

“Do you think Claire-sama’s some kind of an old geezer or something?”

“I mean, beautiful chests are considered attractive to both men and women alike, aren’t they…….? Ah, wait, you don’t have a chest to speak of though. I see.”

“Hey, where were you looking just now?”

“Eh?”

“Alright, why don’t we find out then?”

I was all for it if she wanted to pick a fight, but I was just joking around.

“……. Haven’t you two been getting quite close lately without me?”

Claire-sama said as she fixed her gaze on us with slightly glazed-over eyes.

“What’s this, Claire-sama? Could it be that you’re jelly?”

“I am jelly.”

“Oh, aren’t you being quite honest?”

“I like you, Rei, so it’s not like there’s a point in hiding my jealousy from you, right?”

Fufu, hearing that made me a bit happy.

“…… You guys are just showing off, aren’t you?”

“Ah, I apologize, Philine-sama.”

“It’s fine. It took Rei a long time to get you to warm up to her, right, Claire? I’ll just take my time doing the same.”

Philine covered her ears with both hands while throwing a tantrum.

Lately, her good-for-nothingness has been getting worse.

“But Rei-sensei, it feels like you’ve gotten a lot better since you started practicing! At this rate, don’t you think you’ll actually be able to dance properly before you even manage to crush Claire-sensei’s feet?”

Lana said as if she were making fun of me.

When I looked around, I saw Eve double-checking the dance steps by herself.

“Aren’t you going to practice too, Lana?”

“Eh? Me? I’m, well…… you know, I’m no good with those kinds of things.”

Lana smiled as she said that, but her face looked a bit clouded over.

Before I could even ask her what was wrong, Lana continued.

“I can’t dance, but I’m really looking forward to seeing Rei-sensei in an evening dress!”

“You don’t plan on dancing at all?”

“For now, anyway. Ah, but if Rei-sensei teaches me how to dance, maybe I’ll consider it?”

“Sorry, I’ve got my hands full with trying to learn how to do it myself.”

“Aha, I can tell just by looking!”

Lana had already returned to her usual self.

What exactly was that gloominess that shrouded over her for a moment all about?

“Eve looks like she’s not having any problems at all, huh. Even though I know nothing about dancing, I can see that her dance steps are beautiful.”

“……. Thanks.”

Eve responded to Lana with just a single word while she continued to dance by herself silently.

Just like Lana said, her strides looked quite smooth.

I wonder if she has experience with dancing.

“Eve, you’re good at this.”

“……. Hmph.”

As usual, it seemed that Eve still disliked me.

I don’t mind it, but I think it’s always better to be liked than disliked.

“Hey, Eve――”

“Come on, Rei. We’re taking it from the top again.”

“Ah, okay.”

Claire-sama wanted to resume our training, so once again, I had lost my opportunity to speak with Eve.

Hmm.

“You’re practicing so much on the rudimental steps. Do you two not have any experience with dancing back in the Kingdom? There’s no way you don’t, right? Especially since Claire used to be a noble.”

“Yes, I have an abundance of experience with dancing. However, dancing in the Kingdom is a bit different than how it is in the Empire.”

“Specifically, the division of the roles is different when dancing with a partner of the same sex.”

“Ahh, I see.”

As I’ve mentioned before, same-sex marriage was legal in the Empire.

Because of this national character, there were different dance roles prepared for same-sex partners.

Right now, we were practicing how to dance in the event we were paired up with other women.

This was something we didn’t learn back in Bauer, so we had to start over from the beginning.

“Moreover, it looks like there’s a huge difference between both of your abilities to dance. Claire looks like she’s already familiar with it, but it feels like this is Rei’s first time dancing at all.”

“Claire-sama is exceptionally athletic to begin with, and my dancing ability isn’t even worth comparing to hers anyway.”

“I don’t think I’m as big of a deal as Rei makes me out to be, but dancing just happens to be her weak point.”

I believe I mentioned this back during the Offering Dance, but this body was exceptionally bad at dancing.

The main character in Revolution’s base game was made to be terrible at it as well, but this body felt worse at dancing than the one from my previous life.

But this body was great otherwise, so I couldn’t really complain.

“Is that so…… But I’m still envious of you, Rei. You’ve got a partner as amazing as Claire to teach you how to dance.”

“Philine-sama, you must’ve been taught by an excellent teacher, right?”

“They were an excellent teacher, but they were extremely strict. Compared to that, there’s a lot of love when it comes to your style of teaching, Claire.”

“She said there’s love in your teaching, Claire-sama.”

“There certainly is. Lots of it, even. But I’ve also got a whip.”

Claire-sama with a whip. Wouldn’t that actually be the perfect combination?

For the record, I’m not a masochist.

……. Probably.

“But it’s nice that dancing with somebody of the same-sex is officially recognized here.”

“That’s right. It seems that a lot of people from overseas would agree with you as well.”

“If it were Bauer, there’d be a lot of strange looks everywhere, though.”

I didn’t have a good impression of the Empire back when the revolution happened, but now that I was actually here, it didn’t seem like all that bad of a place.

Although Dorothea was just trying to tempt me, perhaps if we decided to live in the Empire, Claire-sama and I could actually get married here.

“Claire-sama, do you want to marry me?”

“Huh!? W-W-W-What are you saying all of a sudden!? Ah, I apologize.”

For the first time, Claire-sama made a mistake and stepped on my foot.

Maybe that was a bit too abrupt.

“No, I just thought that if we moved to the Empire, we could probably get married here.

“Rei, were you always concerned with formalities like that?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“In that case, I’m fine with how things are right now. Regardless of our legal relationship, you and I are partners, Rei. As long as we both recognize it, and the people we’re close to acknowledge it as well, isn’t that enough?”

“It’s exactly as you say.”

I’m glad.

It seemed that Claire-sama and I shared the same sentiments.

“Plus……”

“Plus?”

“We made a promise with Mei and Alea, didn’t we? That we’d definitely go back to that house.”

That’s right.

We did say “see you later” to our house before we left.

Because we had a place to go back to, we couldn’t leave ourselves in the Empire.

“Thank you, Claire-sama.”

“You’re welcome. Now then, let’s get back to practicing.”

We resumed our practice.

My legs felt lighter than they did before.

“…….. If I had to steal a line from Rei right now……. Normies, go explode……. please.”

Of course, I pretended that I didn’t hear Philine talking to herself.