Chapter 65: A Dance for Two
“Haha…” Armand gave Evelia an awkward laugh. “Carle was just outside just now.”
“Yes, I could tell, Mr. Armand,” Evelia replied calmly with a slight nod, showing no reaction.
“……”
Even though she didn’t say anything more or criticize him, the silence only made things more awkward for Armand.
“Mr. Armand, what did you come here for?”
Evelia tilted her head slightly, watching Armand as he looked more and more uncomfortable.
“Ah… I… I came to—”
—Of course, he came here to practice dancing.
Armand didn’t know anything about dancing. But since Evelia had asked to attend the festival with him, he figured she must be really looking forward to it.
The problem was… he had never learned how to dance. He was basically a total beginner.
To make sure he wouldn’t let Evelia down, he talked briefly with Carle. Carle decided to help him by going to the estate together to practice the basic steps. Even if he couldn’t dance well, at least he wouldn’t embarrass Evelia.
That’s why Armand had carefully picked a time when everyone seemed busy, planning to practice in secret. But when he opened the door, he saw Evelia already sitting there. Without a second thought, he shoved Carle away and came in alone.
Because… the black dress Evelia was wearing right now was just too…
“Are you here to supervise my dancing practice?” she asked.
“Ah—”
Her question threw Armand off again.
On one hand, there was Evelia’s outfit. On the other hand, there was his awkward situation. He definitely couldn’t say, “I don’t know how to dance, so I came to practice.” He didn’t want to see Evelia frown at him in disappointment. So, biting the bullet, he just nodded.
“Ah, yeah. That’s right. That’s why I’m here.” His voice sounded extremely awkward.
“Is that so? That’s great, I was just thinking I needed someone to check how I’m doing. If you’re not busy, would you stay and keep me company?”
The moment Armand heard the words “stay and keep me company”, he felt his heart soften a little.
“Ah, sure. No problem.” He nodded.
“Then please excuse my clumsy dancing, Mr. Armand.”
Saying that, Evelia put on a music record. As the soft and rhythmic music played, she began to recall the steps from her earlier practice and moved in time with the pictures in the instruction booklet, her steps strong and confident.
Maybe it was because Evelia had been practicing the dance while imagining herself dodging or using hidden weapons, but to Armand, her movements had an odd sense of danger.
It felt like she was one of those dancers at a military banquet, someone who could pull out a blade mid-dance and take an enemy commander’s head in one strike.
Eventually, Evelia walked step by step toward Armand. It looked like it was time for the partner portion of the dance. She held out her hand to him.
Even though Armand didn’t know how to dance, he remembered some basic moves Carle had told him on the way over. There was no backing out now, she was already holding out her hand. So he shamelessly reached out and took Evelia’s hand.
“Uwah—!”
Just like Armand remembered, Evelia was as strong as ever.
The moment he grabbed her hand, he was pulled toward her by sheer force. Before he could recall any of the steps Carle had taught him, Evelia had already spun him around several times.
Right after that, Armand's dance-clueless brain completely failed to keep up with what Evelia was trying to do.
He felt like he was just being pulled around by the waist as Evelia pushed and dragged him wherever she wanted. Sometimes, he even had to lean his body backward to match her angles.
Evelia’s arms looked slender, but they had no problem holding up Armand as he bent backward, and with just a bit of force, she could pull him back upright, or even lift him slightly off the ground. That reminded him, not in a good way, of the time she nearly crushed his head with her scissors-like leg lock.
Then came the wild part, Armand had to awkwardly follow Evelia’s increasingly fast movements, struggling to copy all sorts of confusing steps. At one point, Evelia even stood on her tiptoes and raised her arms high just to help him spin properly, which made Armand bend his back and duck awkwardly under their clasped hands.
But it seemed like Evelia was too focused on getting the moves right to notice how stiff and ridiculous Armand looked. The whole dance made his scalp tingle from secondhand embarrassment.
“Ah… oh my god…”
When the song finally ended, Armand was sweating nervously, completely out of breath. Evelia, on the other hand, calmly gave a proper bow like nothing had happened.
“Mr. Armand, are you alright?”
If you’re talking about physical strength, then yes, he was very alright…
Armand had spent the entire dance being flung around like a rag doll, so he had no energy left to actually judge whether Evelia's dancing was good or not.
But actually, Armand did notice something weird. The backbends, the lifts, the spins…
Why was he the one doing all of that? Wasn’t that supposed to be the man’s role?
“Evelia… you…” Armand looked at her, confused. “The steps you practiced… aren’t those the male ones?”
“Ah—”
Evelia looked at him, puzzled at first, then paused to think. She remembered how she had been the one pulling Armand around the whole time, and something finally clicked.
From what she understood, it probably wasn’t normal for the man to do backbends, splits, and spins like that. She had even followed the dance guide and asked Armand if she could wrap her leg around him at one point. (Of course, he had firmly rejected that idea.)
So yes… it seemed she had learned the wrong part of the dance.
After thinking hard about it, Evelia finally reached a conclusion…
A conclusion that probably didn’t even require that much thought in the first place.
“Eve… don’t tell me you also…”
Seeing her behavior, Armand wanted to ask, was she also completely new to dancing?
But before he could finish the question, Evelia had already swapped the record for a new one. The rhythmic music from earlier was replaced by something soft, dreamy… even a little seductive.
“What kind of song is this…?”
Armand had just finished dancing something that felt more like a circus act than a dance. Now this new music sounded suspiciously like it would involve more strange moves. He started to worry, was Evelia about to drag him into another weird dance?
“This one came as a bonus. The shopkeeper said it’s especially good for men to dance to.”
“…?”
That sounded even more ominous to Armand.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Armand,” Evelia said as she gently tucked back her long hair. “You can just stand there and rest for a bit.”
“I don’t have to join in?”
“No need.”
Evelia shook her head firmly, then looked at him with a determined gaze and said,
“Just leave it to me. I’ll move by myself.”
“?”