Moonlight Ball

“It’s not that!”

In the blink of an eye, Sidrain stood before him and Iris was caught in between them, being dragged from one man’s arms to another. Because Sidrain pressed Iris hard into his embrace, her ears touched his chest. She could hear his pounding heart and realized that he was in a state of great anger. Well, his wife was in another man’s arms, so which man wouldn’t be angry? Iris relaxed her body, thinking as a commoner would. Sidrain was scary, but his anger was justified.

Sidrain was pleased that his wife was desperately resisting the insignificant man, and Iris, who was afraid of him, was relaxing as if she felt relieved by being in her husband’s arms. Once again, he smelled the scent of his first love. It was a strange, yet sweet familiar scent. A scent that he couldn’t help but fall in love with again. It was fate as if this had been decided from the very beginning. He felt like a stupid man, who knew it was a trap but walked happily into it. It’s okay if it’s a trap. But the trap should only be for me.

Sidrain glared at the man while he guarded Iris carefully, holding her tightly enough that she could never escape. This man dared to hug Iris; it was not acceptable!

“My Lady. I’m sorry I’m late,” Sidrain said, almost as an afterthought.

Late? She never even called him…

“That was scary, wasn’t it? I’m sorry.” Sidrain patted Iris’s head and stroked her soft hair gently.

It was scary. A man whom she didn’t even know had hugged her. She’d been unable to breathe and could see he had wanted to try and kiss her by force. The man had felt her reluctance and had wondered if she’d had a bad experience, perhaps she’d been assaulted.

Iris herself didn’t know exactly what assault meant, but she’d heard how traumatizing it was. Today, she’d been unable to wear the ivory bracelet, given to her by her teacher, to protect herself. The maids had prevented her from wearing it, saying it didn’t match her outfit. It took time to raise magic without it and she wouldn’t have been able to conjure a spell in time, and there was no way that this man would’ve waited for her to do that. This had been quite a terrifying experience for her.

Iris was also afraid of Sidrain now, who was laughing like a madman and changing his behavior at times; it was scary as hell. But the moment he apologized, she felt relieved for some reason. She just felt that he was thinking of her. Although she didn’t understand why he’d changed his attitude, he seemed genuinely concerned about her now. He’d been the first person to truly worry about her in this palace since she’d become a queen.

Iris closed her eyes tightly, holding back tears. She didn’t know why she wanted to cry when there wasn’t anything to cry about. As if he knew what she was feeling, Sidrain hugged her tighter.

“I’m sorry, I did wrong,” Sidrain said, trying to comfort her.

He didn’t do anything wrong and he’d apologized over and over again. Iris shook her head and simply said, “Thank you.”

If she’d known at the time that Sidrain was hugging her tighter and taking off his gloves at the same time, Iris would’ve thought of more words to say to distract him.

Sidrain took off his gloves roughly with his teeth and threw them in the man’s face, “It’s a duel.”

The tears that she’d held back so bravely, cascaded down the sides of her pink cheeks. A duel?! She jerked her head up and saw Sidrain’s dreadfully handsome face. He was smiling. He was already a murderer by the look on his face.

“You can’t let the one who insulted you live, my Lady. Please wait for your knight to save your honor.”

At the same time, one thought struck through the heads of those who were watching the whole process. When did the Queen have any honor, Your Grace?!

The King remained adamant. He’d called for a duel and it was irreversible.

The only conclusion that his people could come to was that Sidrain must be crazy. He must’ve fallen for the Queen and his people wondered how their wise and strong leader had ended up with such scum. This man had just arrived at the party, unannounced, and everyone was watching this ridiculous situation play out, holding their breaths.

Elaine spoke next, “What is this crazy situation? Why is my disciple so fond of the King over there? This is ridiculous.”

“Oh, Sir Elaine. Long time no see,” a lady said.

Only his mother called him Sir Elaine. She was extremely proud of him as he’d become the owner of the tower. Elaine kissed his mother on the cheeks and asked directly, “What’s all this about, mother?”

“We all stand here, looking this dazed because we don’t know what’s going on, Sir.”