“Wow, I feel like I am showing too much skin, but that?” I whispered to Hannah who sat beside me, eating a steak quietly. Hannah looked up, noticed the woman who wore a rather revealing, belly free attire and danced on the stage.

“Well … I fear she is not here because of the second prince.” Hannah stated, looking over to the king and his two sole unpregnant wives next to him. Both of them tried to cover it up, but whenever the king looked at the stage, they were fuming with anger.

“Typical noblewoman …” I whispered into Hannah´s ear to which she only nodded quietly. This room … this whole society was built around men. I wasn’t exactly a feminist and maybe we have earned being suppressed considering the behaviour of most of the women there. Hannah and I were probably the only two who didn´t rely on a man to change something. The woman in this room felt more like accessories than anything else. The men were chatting about important stuff like governance and stuff, while the women … jewellery, achievements of children and other inconsequential matters.

Still, the blatant sexism a few male nobles showed in this room towards the maids really made me wonder why they weren’t a eunuch already. But none, neither the men nor the women had any pity for these maids, which was probably the main reason that they looked at me in surprise as I walked up to them and kindly asked to stop this behaviour. Well, my actions wouldn’t change much, but I would remember them, and if they did anything illegal … guess which mansion would be raided next.

But even then, it wasn’t like I had any desire to change this imbalance between the sexes. If anything, I would profit from it as very few would expect me to be as capable as I was.

“Wow, this food is really good.” There were the sexists, and then there were the balls. I couldn’t describe this slightly human-like figure otherwise. He was just … round. Everything about this viscount screamed at me to use his bald head as a football to play with the kids in the orphanage.

“It certainly is.” I said, looking at my own plate which had something on it I could not make on Solaris. Ice. I needed cooling magic for that and as I knew nobody who could do such a thing, I was forced to live without. But like always, I was a picky eater and the taste was a bit dull. At least it wasn’t salted, but I wished it was. It was smelting so slowly.

“I´ll praise the gods for this great food.” Did I mention hypocrites already? All of us in this room probably were. They knew someone outside in the slums would probably be murdered at this point, but they were in a ballroom, eating the best food the kingdom had to offer. And this viscount to my left was even worse. He lied to the saint about being a faithful follower of the church of life … which was a whole new level of low.

But I guess they would do everything to present themselves in a good light in front of me, even going as far as to pick out a woman as an accompaniment who wore a wooden symbol of a tree attached to a necklace. Someone did not do his homework though … I didn´t favour any of the churches. I never went to any churches in the first place to stop them from tearing themselves apart like hyaenas because of envy. Sadly we weren’t at that point where the churches were unified yet, but Pope Dustin did make progress in that direction, even without my inputs.

The woman with the cross certainly reminded me of the whore though … probably because she was an escort. The viscount wasn’t married, and neither did he have any girlfriend.

The last two on my table were probably the worst ones though. They hated elves. Down to their bones. Despite not even living in the east, they looked at Hannah especially her ears so often and whispered quite a few nasty comments to each other. ‘Randomizing’ the seat arrangements was the worst thing the king could have ever come up with. At least Hannah handled it quite well by making her ears more and more visible as time progressed … until alcohol was served.

Naturally, Hannah and I refused, but the others didn’t. I could even see the second prince taking a sip on his nearby table, probably for the first time. And needless to say, his resistance to alcohol was non-existent.

At least the nasty duo couldn’t get any nastier as they started to quietly discuss if Hannah had fleas. They wanted to make a scene because they knew most of the nobles were on their side. Very few saw the war with the elves in any critical light and even less saw them as anything else than barbarians.

That she was even allowed into this place was an affront to some, but what did they want to do? Question the gods? Throw her out and risk losing the support of the faithful citizens who were already bearing most of the burden from the war? The king said nothing against her, so they weren’t in any position to do so either.

Sadly, we couldn’t retaliate as well. Making a scene would hardly change anything, except that the few nobles who wrote stories for the newspaper had something to drool over. And so, Hannah had to listen to their racist remarks the whole time.

The only good thing was really as the dining time finally ended and we weren’t bound to our seats anymore. The tables were brought a bit over towards the edge of the room, making place for a large dancing floor in the middle. The first one to dance was obviously the second prince with a girl his age while we stood around and watched them.

“He has a girlfriend?” Hannah whispered, quite surprised about this development.

“They are cousins …” I said, remembering to have seen this girl somewhere before.

“Oh.” Hannah said, clearly a bit embarrassed about her mistake.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean you are wrong though.” I smirked as I whispered that to her and she couldn’t hold back a smile as well. My view of nobility was already quite low at this point, so I wouldn’t even be surprised if that was truly the case. Well, considering with who I did it already, I should rather keep my mouth shut.

Still, I smiled brightly as the music ended and we clapped loudly.

“Boohoo … even I can do that after a day of practising.” Hannah whispered, which could be very well true. But she had the unfair advantage of being hit by a broom whenever she messed her footing up, while the prince could learn everything in a safe environment.

The king, apparently a fox in disguise, picked out a rather interesting way to get everyone on the dancefloor, which was that those who did dance needed to pick a new, undanced partner and thus, double the participants each round.

“And, when will the second prince pick you?” Hannah asked as the prince began to walk in our direction.

“He won’t.” I said and noticed in satisfaction how he picked his mother to dance with him. “The king will.” I said and nodded towards the girl Louis just danced with. Just as I did so, she pulled the king onto the dancefloor while the second prince chose his mother as his second partner.

Once more, music resounded and the four humans began to waltz slowly. The height difference between the four of them looked quite hilarious, but it would be even worse in the next round. And just like I claimed, the king strode towards me afterwards.

Smiling gently, I gave him my hand which he immediately took carefully. If he knew I could break his hand whenever I wanted, he would be certainly less inclined to do so, but whatever.

“Can you dance?” He asked, way too late in my opinion.

“A little bit.” I said, remembering quite clearly how Aska taught me dancing by forcing me to do it on burning coal. That was long ago though.

As soon as all participants were in the middle of the room once again, the musicians started again with an all too familiar piece of art while he placed his hand slowly onto my shoulder and I around his waist. I tensed up a little, but soon relaxed again.

“Oh, you really did grow a bit.” He commented, probably because it was slightly less awkward than he expected.

“I am standing on my toes, your majesty.” I said and smiled wryly. The hem of my dress barely touched the ground at this point as I tried to be as tall as possible.

“You are truly the most impressive sixteen-year-old I have ever seen.” He muttered, mostly covered by the song. He stepped forwards, while I stepped backwards, beginning this dance that was way more than a dance.

“Seventeen, your majesty.” I said, frowning slightly as he tested me. ”Are you still doubtful?” I asked, shortly before he lifted up my right arm and I twirled around my own axis a few times, still standing on my toes.

“Oh, I merely forgot. Excuse this ageing man.” And another lie, but that was to be expected. “You said there was someone else working on defeating that monster?”

“The monsters, Alphonso. There are two of them, but I guess you already know that?” I asked, nearly tripping as he pushed me a little bit too forceful.

“Hmm … that isn´t public knowledge.” He looked at me sternly and tried to read my emotions while I followed his messed up rhythm. He was way too focused on this conversation to lead me correctly.

“ ‘The Crown’ gave me that info.” I said, nearly stumbling as he stopped, awkwardly holding my hand and shoulder while I stepped backwards.

“You are working with them?” He said, rectifying his mistake nearly instantly. Meanwhile, I went back down onto the ground with my heels, not really willing to make this look any worse to the onlookers.

“Not quite. I have no idea who they are, but they want something from me.” I said as he let go of my shoulder and I twirled away from him, only to be pulled back in again shortly afterwards.

“You need to give me everything you have from them.” He claimed, a lot more forceful with his movements than earlier. It did seem we have angered him quite a bit.

“I fear this isn´t possible. They approached me two days ago, claiming they would defeat these things as long I would stay how I am now.” I claimed and smiled wryly.

“They would … why would they want something like this from you?” He asked and frowned, much to my displeasure. Everyone would think I was a bad dancing partner this way.

“Who knows?” I did. But I wouldn’t tell him.

“They are a danger to society. They are a danger to the whole kingdom.” I honestly had to agree with him. We were a danger to the kingdom after all.

“The kingdom will persist. The external forces are too large for it to splinter into pieces. And it is not like I am working together with them.” I claimed and let go of his hand as the music ended. Another round of applause followed and the king finally let go of my shoulder as well. “I only want this humanitarian catastrophe to end. Nothing more, nothing less.” I said and smiled bright, distancing myself from him to pick my next partner.

He said nothing as I walked in Hannah’s direction, only to pick a young teenager who was only a head taller than I was.

“I …” He stumbled over his words while I pulled him into the middle of the room.

“Breathe.” I said and smiled brightly as the teenager finally calmed down somewhat. “Do you know how to dance?”

“N-Not much.” How cute he was. Tripping from one foot onto another like a little girl would. He even got beet red as I placed the palm of my hand against his.

“Don´t worry about it. Just listen to the music and watch what I am doing, okay?” I asked, placing my hand on his hip as the music began.

“O-Okay.” He said slightly abashed. Honestly, this dance was a lot better than the one I had with the king, most importantly because of the height difference. The teenager was still bad at dancing, but we somehow managed despite him stepping on my sparkling dress two times.

And then it ended. I curtsied in front of the boy and soon selected the least sexist, shortest man there was leftover. That one went a lot better and we even chatted a bit about mundane things like how beautiful I was. I didn´t get why he wanted to compliment me, because I could see absolutely no lust or love in his eyes, but whatever.

Next, I picked a rather wide teenager … not my preferred person as being touched by him felt weird, but whatever.

And then at last, I strode towards Hannah.

“Would you give me the honour of this dance?” I asked and curtsied in front of her. Hannah laughed a bit and then took my hand as I gave it to her. Together, we strolled back, halting on the edge of where everyone danced.

“Thank you.” She whispered into my ear and placed her palm on my shoulder.

“For what?” I asked, quite curious if she understood my intentions correctly.

“For picking me last.” Usually, others didn´t like being the last person picked. While most already danced at the last round, she just sat there in silence and watched me from afar. But even this was preferable to dance with the nobles that abhorred her so much, leaving her no choice but to hate them back.

She took over the role of the male partner, just like we did quite a few times before. She was taller than me, making it the better choice for both of us.

“I can´t dance, I can´t talk.” She started with a slightly crazy voice. For a short moment, I had to wonder how much she actually soaked up whatever I taught her, but then, I chimed in.

“Only thing about me is the way I walk.” I sang quietly so that the nearby nobles wouldn’t notice.

“I can´t dance, I can´t sing.” She said. Even though the song didn´t fit the music being played at all as the instruments and rhythm were completely different, I still found it very fitting.

“I´m just standing here selling everything.” I continued, and honestly? I had more fun doing this with her than doing it with everyone else. After a little while though, she stumbled across her words as her memory about the song ended. Well, I continued nonetheless until I finished. Only then did we stop dancing and joined those who had enough of it as the music continued on and on.