Chapter 51

There were couples dancing together, and even little children clumsily trying to imitate the dance looked adorable. Kind dancers moved about here and there, occasionally guiding those who were struggling with the steps.

‘Aquarand really is such a fun place.’

Just as she was thinking it had been worth coming, some man approached Ethea.

“This is your first time here, isn’t it?”

“It is, but……?”

He was a young man around her own age. He wore a thin vest and shorts with traditional patterns over a muscular body, and his face looked warm and open. The way he spoke so freely to a stranger made him seem to have an easy, sociable personality as well. People with this kind of bright energy naturally made Ethea smile.

The young man bent at the waist and greeted her gracefully.

“The dress you are wearing is traditional clothing, but from the way you dance, your expression, your gaze, one can tell at once that you are from elsewhere. Hello. I am Malik, and my work is to help tourists here when they find themselves in difficulty.”

“Malik……”

“Most evenings, I carry drinks to people or teach them to dance.”

“Ahh.”

Ethea smiled and nodded.

Malik invited her.

“It seems this is your first time with the traditional dance. If it would be all right, might I teach you?”

Ethea readily nodded. There was no reason to refuse. The delicate but difficult-looking hand movements in the traditional dance definitely seemed to require the guidance of someone experienced.

“First of all, the most important thing in our dance is how you hold your fingers. The middle three fingers, excluding the thumb and little finger, must always stay together.”

“Like this?”

“Yes. Very good. And then whenever you hear the drum, the angle of the arm should be like this……”

“Like this?”

“Yes, that’s right, but your fingers……”

“Ah.”

Ethea realized that every time she tried to adjust the angle of her arms, the fingers she had worked so hard to gather together were moving on their own.

‘Ugh! To think I’d be this uncoordinated.’

Seeing this, Malik could not bear it and held Ethea’s arm, fixing the angle for her.

“There. I’ll hold it like this, so please gather your fingers again.”

“Yes.”

It was then. Suddenly Lyle’s voice came from behind them.

“Teacher, please teach me first.”

Ethea and Malik turned around at the same time. Lyle, with an expression that conveyed absolutely no enjoyment whatsoever for someone asking to be taught dancing, was speaking to Malik.

“I too very much wish to learn to dance.”

Ethea was puzzled. Just a moment ago he had said he liked watching more than dancing himself, so she could not understand why he was suddenly acting like this.

“If I gather my hands like this, is it right? Ah, and please teach me the angle of the arms as well.”

Though he was bombarding Malik with eager questions, Lyle’s expression remained stiff. Malik looked flustered by him, then turned to Ethea. She smiled at him as if to say it was fine, that he should go. Only then did Malik turn toward Lyle.

“Ah. Yes, of course.”

Kind Malik smiled and taught Lyle to dance as well. Though he learned according to Malik’s instruction, Lyle was somehow even more seriously uncoordinated than Ethea. Though he repeated the wrong motions again and again, Malik patiently adjusted the angle of Lyle’s arms. But it was plain to see that inwardly he was thinking, ‘Somehow this fellow is hopeless!’

And yet, the strange thing was that seeing Lyle’s dreadful dancing was making Ethea’s own dancing improve. Malik, while teaching Lyle, briefly watched Ethea dance and praised her.

“Oh, now your hands and arms are finally moving naturally. In that state, whenever the small drum sounds, you only need to sway your hips.”

“Thank you……”

“Like this, Teacher?”

Just as she was trying to thank him, Lyle once again drew Malik’s attention. Comically enough, his hands and arms were moving separately, and on top of that he was also swaying his hips. His stiff and somehow clumsy lines of dance were so awkward that even the people around them kept glancing over and then bursting into laughter.

By now Malik looked at Lyle almost pitifully as he continued instructing him.

“In your case, my friend, your outfit does seem inconvenient for dancing. Well then. Since we’re at it, why not take your top off entirely?”

Malik removed Lyle’s top and put his own vest on him. Covering such a firm, muscular upper body with only a vest did not look bad at all.

The problem was Lyle’s expression. It was very amusing that he looked flustered, as though he had never imagined he would end up being stripped of his clothes too. It seemed that suddenly taking off his top and changing into a vest in the middle of so many people was a little embarrassing for him.

Ethea let out a quiet laugh. And she found herself wanting to say to him, then why did you b*tt in so late saying you wanted to learn to dance?

“The foundation of traditional dance is the costume. Now that your upper body is a little freer, it should be much easier for you to move. Ah, and when you sway your waist, you must not sway your upper body along with it. Think of your upper body as fixed, and only your waist moving. Understood?”

“Yes……”

Even after that, Lyle followed Malik’s instruction well. But his obsession with the dance teacher was so severe that whenever Malik so much as spoke briefly to Ethea, Lyle would call him over and interrupt by asking how to do this, how to do that.

‘As expected, an Emperor really is an Emperor. He’s like a child who can’t endure it unless the world revolves around him!’

Before they knew it, the music had swelled, and even people from outside the plaza had gathered to dance. By now, Ethea’s body moved freely enough that Malik said she no longer needed instruction.

At that, Lyle too said to Malik that he thought he could dance on his own now. Had the passion he had shown for learning dance cooled so quickly? But excellent teacher Malik refused to leave, saying he would stay until Lyle could fully dance.

At that moment, a familiar voice sounded from somewhere.

“Well now, who do we have here? To think the worst dancer in the world would be here.”

It was Seisil’s voice.

Lyle and Ethea both looked around at once. Nearby, Seisil could be seen. Bare-bodied, wearing a traditional vest and short trousers, he looked completely adapted to this region.

But how had he found Ethea and the Emperor? Seisil was approaching with a smile. Ethea called out to him.

“Sir Lint……?”

“I told you to call me Seisil.”

“How did you come here?”

“How could I not come when my friend is here? The children and SoliSoliSolei are already waiting at the lodging.”

Lyle, on seeing Seisil, also tried to come over this way, but he could not. That was because the dance teacher Malik, with his relentless passion, was holding on to him, saying he could not go until he had fully mastered the dance. Looking at things like this, Lyle really did seem weak in front of strong personalities.

Seisil whispered to Ethea in the tone of someone telling tales.

“Did you know this?”

“What?”

“This one friend of yours, Lady Etty……”

Since Seisil’s gaze was on Lyle, the ‘one friend’ he was referring to was clearly Lyle.