True Love's Seventh Kiss

Ch.25 The Games Begin

*

Marion gritted his teeth and did his best not to curse the god who was making fun of him. It made him a bit red faced and that seems to have been misunderstood by the looks of the Empress who grinned knowingly. Prudence also smiled proudly as if saying: of course he was blushing from such a thing. This is to be expected from interacting with a beauty like me.

Delora also saw this; she was in the know with the fact that the entire Cliffgard family was in a grand plot. How could she not when she was Irina's best friend and Irina was endlessly worried about Marion who was in the thick of Corsairs schemes. The grand plot of this event was to do a handful of things during Marion's and Irina's debut. She even knew to keep him away from being swept away by girls with red eyes.

And when she saw his red face, she knew she had to step in.

"My oh my, Princess. It seems like I will have to be careful about you stealing my first dance tonight, especially since Rion is my partner for the event." Delora warned with a coy laugh.

But the Empress wasn't about to let someone else interfere without a fight. Especially when love was blooming.

"They are children, surely you wouldn't mind if they shared one dance." The empress said.

But it wasn't just ONE dance, someone's first dance was as important in noble society as one's first kiss... maybe even more so since it could have complicated political implications. Because of these implications one would share this dance with a family member or a fiancé, if they had one, to play it safe.

"Unfortunately, I have had more than my fair share of dealings with humans over the years. And since he was my practice partner, I only really feel comfortable dancing with Rion tonight." Delora emphasized the more intimate name to press her point, and if she would only be dancing with one partner it would be rude to make her wait. "I am unfamiliar with many social rules and manners, but this is one point I won't bend on. Since I plan on enjoying this party myself. Since it is meant to be enjoyable, I won't keep him all night, but I am eager to steal him away once the music starts. I hope you forgive my stubbornness, but I'm sure Rion will enjoy dancing with his peers more than me once his dance legs are warmed up."

"I have heard many tales of a dragon's stubbornness where many have tempted fate with a dragon temper and suffered for it. Then if young Rion isn't against it, I hope he will dance with my daughter after she shares her first dance with her father. He is equally stubborn in such matters since Prudence doesn't have a fiancé yet." The empress used her words to verbally duel with a dragon without losing any honor or face. Although she may have "lost" she portrayed it as if she had lost a parental argument with her husband who doted on his daughter rather than losing to the dragon because she was being rude or unreasonable. She had also pointed out that her daughter didn't have a fiancé so she was a free agent who could be easily attached to Rion in the future therefore trumping a first dance partner since Delora was a dragon and probably wouldn't lower herself to romance a child.

With the tension in the air and imaginary lightning bolts flying back and forth, Marion realized that verbal battleground of social event was something he was much more afraid of than flying his ship with a dragon chasing him.

The music started shortly after the verbal sparring and Marion was dragged away to begin dancing. And much to his surprise... even after dancing with Prudence he had a line of girls that were waiting for their chance to dance with him. Prudence was by far the most stunningly beautiful but that didn't mean there was a single foul face in the bunch. Somehow, he had landed himself in a garden of flowers and whether they were his age or his height each seemed to be abnormally beautiful.