I Will Be the Greatest Knight
Chapter 147: Only a Dance

Chapter 147: Only a Dance

Being asked to dance with the Princess caused Irene’s blood to run cold and her eyes widened as she stared at Leif who seemed suddenly unbelievably amused at the unfolding of events. She couldn’t even imagine what Felix’s expression was like at that moment. It would probably make her head hot if she saw the likely accusatory look on his face.

Since she knew it was rude not to acknowledge the Princess for so long, Irene turned around and bowed at her waist for the girl. She felt awkward, not knowing what else to do.

At that moment, an entirely choiceless situation was presented to her.

Growing up, her father’s favorite alehouse was their cousins’ in the township they lived in. Irene had spent quite a few nights with her cousins dancing in the alehouse while the parents drank probably more than they ought to. The music was awful as drunk men tried to keep a tune, but the children never paid it any mind.

There were a few dances that every person in the kingdom knew, and they were adapted quickly or slowly depending on the situation.

Since Irene only knew the fast versions of the songs, she was relieved that they were playing those versions. Luckily it was more of a line partner dance rather than a slow romantic song so neither one of them would have to figure out leading or following.

She would have no choice but to dance as if she were a boy, so she felt relieved to not have to subject herself to that.

Having no excuse prepared, Irene merely offered the princess her hand and they went to the center of the room where the rowdiness around them seemed to only grow at the spectacle of an apprentice showing the princess how to dance one of the fast-paced versions of songs she was somewhat familiar with from banquets in the palace.

"Show me how to do it!" the Princess demanded.

Irene couldn’t help the light smile at that. The girl truly didn’t know how haughty and demanding she sounded but it didn’t particularly bother her. They were from entirely different worlds, after all.

Irene clapped to the music and she began to move in the steps that the dance required a few times. They weren’t terribly fast and pretty uncomplicated.

When the Princess seemed to have memorized the movements, Irene then grabbed one of her hands and pulled her into a dance where they were doing the steps and moving in a circle. Normally there would be a large circle of other people with her but she didn’t have a choice since the others were unwilling to participate.

Princess Marie soon had the steps down and didn’t need to look at her feet any longer.

With that, she grabbed onto Irene’s other hand until they were both spinning in a circle together and mostly messing up the steps by that point, but it seemed the Princess was enjoying herself so Irene decided she wouldn’t try and stop or correct her. Her giggles filled the room so Irene figured she must have done a decent job in entertaining the other girl.

In the eyes of everyone surrounding, Irene was allowed to be there because the Princess had directly picked her.

However, if any man wanted to dance, they only had other men to dance with because all of the maids were occupied with duties at that moment. Yet even the maids who were already finished with most of their duties didn’t want to offend the Princess by dancing with her considering they were of such lower status than she was.

That left Irene and Princess Marie dancing for a while by themselves until the Princess was tired and needed to be led back to her table.

Unfortunately for Irene, before the Princess left, she turned and curtsied. The Royal then offered her hand.

In the future Irene saw, she was a proper noblewoman for long enough to know what that meant.

The girl gently grabbed the other girl’s hand and kissed her on the back of her knuckles.

"Thank you for the dance, apprentice," Princess Marie said with a giggle.

Irene gave a polite smile.

"The pleasure is all mine," Irene responded.

The music remained but it didn’t seem like others were interested in dancing at all.

As Irene went back to Leif, Felix, and the unexpected guest Arin, she glanced to the left, feeling someone’s eyes on her face and she was met with Sir Gunnar raising his eyebrows at her.

She shot him an expression that spoke volumes of all she had to do in order to keep hiding herself in plain sight.

Finally getting back to the others, she sat heavily on one of the benches that was open and went for her drink that would act nicely to cool her off and rehydrate her.

A shadow seemed to loom over her and she had to turn towards the apprentice who was shooting her such an accusatory expression that spoke volumes.

"What is it?" Irene asked, a bit unfriendlier than before.

"Why would she pick you of all people?" Arin wondered.

"I’m not shy like all of you," Irene insisted. "Why do you want to dance with your cousin’s future bride so badly?"

Arin simply glared at her, knowing he had nothing to retort with and he began to walk towards knights he was more familiar with.

"Northerners don’t know anything," he muttered before fully escaping.

However, there were two others who were regarding her with looks of suspicion as they came forward with their eyebrows lowered and eyes squinting.

"Why is it always you?" Felix asked. He then used a mocking tone. "No one can get enough of Iro."

"Ladies like men who don’t like them," Leif realized. "That’s what I’ve been doing wrong all this time."

"Aren’t the two of you supposed to be worried about the path of chivalry rather than women?" she asked a bit sarcastically.

"Both can be true," Felix defended himself quickly. "Dammit, Iro, I’m going to retire for the evening."

It seemed that plenty of others were doing the same so they all decided to make their exits at nearly the same time. The Princess and Crown Prince had already retired for the evening as well so there wasn’t anyone they were required to say goodbye to.

Since Leif was ahead of Irene in walking out the door, Sir Gunnar stopped his apprentice before she could make her escape.

"Perhaps the safest choice Her Highness could make," the knight admitted to Irene, a light joking tone threaded within each word.

She could only laugh at his words. Such little was said but it meant so much.

"I hope it at least keeps me on her good side," Irene admitted.

"Only the trail ahead will tell us as much," Gunnar admitted. "Now you ought to sleep. There is a long and cold journey ahead of us. Two weeks worth, in fact."

"Yes, sir," Irene responded dutifully.

With that, she was off to her barrack where she was pleased that the fire was still going strong enough that she wouldn’t have to restart it.

With that, it was time to head to bed.

Getting out of sweaty clothes and into something more comfortable, the girl looked at her tattoo and ran her fingers over the slightly raised mark. It was slowly healing and in a process that made her itch like crazy. She had been advised by her grandmother not to itch it at that point. All she could do was gently run her fingers over it.

May it protect her for what was to come.