Moonlight Ball - Chapter 27

Let’s see how much care this woman gave to the other ladies. It wasn’t easy for her to see the ladies all united in one mindset. Iris was getting tired of their spiteful appearance but the problem was that the Queen was still seen as Rosemary. She was the root cause of all of this and it was as if the devil dwelled in her. It was to be expected that they would have this kind of a mindset, as she must’ve continued to drive a wedge between herself and them, by insulting them, therefore they ostracized her.

It seemed that the gentlemen felt the same way. Who hadn’t been beaten by Rosemary, she wondered? The woman was foul-mouthed, mean, and abused her power.

“Your Royal Highness and your Royal Queen are coming!” When the servant shouted, everyone stayed in their seats, portraying friendly faces.

The Queen was trembling with a scar on her pride, realizing that she must’ve trampled on the King. It must’ve been a close call and she found it somewhat amusing. However, she was going to enter the room now and had to walk proudly. The door was opened and she saw everyone was waiting for them with excitement. But, the atmosphere changed immediately and it must’ve been because Sidrain had his arm around Queen Rosemary.

The people seemed to be shocked by this display of public affection and everyone looked bewildered as if something was wrong. They blinked rapidly, simultaneously, as if they were hallucinating and hoping that what they saw would disappear by doing so; it did not change what they were witnessing.

The King, walking in with his arm around the Queen, was preposterous! Aside from the King losing their respect for him at that moment, Sidrain, who had an indifferent attitude towards women, was supposed to despise the Queen. The two wanted to kill each other and there were rumors that they had tried to assassinate each other. What a ridiculous scene this was.

“What am I now looking at, honey?” Elena In Sethang asked with a perplexed face.

Her husband, Clarence, replied, “Oh, I guess this is real.”

“I was going to ask you exactly that.”

And Iris, who was receiving all this attention, couldn’t bear it and kept her eyes closed. She just wanted to die in the heavy rain. She couldn’t stand it and whispered to Sidrain, “People are staring.”

Sidrain whispered that she would be fine, but it was hard for him to hold back his laughter. He knew Iris rejected people and he couldn’t help but remember that she was the girl who’d fainted as soon as he’d broken her door. Afterward, her name and her behavior had been questioned, because she wasn’t comfortable around people, which wasn’t normal for her.

Iris dug into Sidrain’s arms with her long nails. She still felt awkward, but she preferred clinging to him, as opposed to these other strangers. He was being very nice to her lately. Sidrain walked slowly through the crowd on purpose, so that Iris could dig deeper into his arms.

“Your Grace, people are staring too much,” Iris whispered once more, turning pink in the face. She seemed to feel self-conscious about her uncontrollable blushing.

“We are kings and queens. It is considered a sin if they don’t look at us,” he explained.

He wasn’t wrong. Of course, it is unholy to look elsewhere when the King and Queen enter a room. But surely they didn’t have to open their mouths so wide and gawk at them like this. Iris thought Sidrain’s words were plausible, so she relaxed slightly.

“My Queen, what are you worried about? All of these people who are here, are your subjects.” He kissed her hair as Iris had lost some of her strength.

No. Everyone here is completely different from me. Iris couldn’t speak and just bit her lips. Sidrain carefully assisted her to sit down.

“The Queen hurt her leg and it’s too much to dance, so start without us.” Sidrain’s words caused a stir in the room as people whispered among themselves.

Elena In Sethang thought about this for a moment. If the Queen had hurt her leg, the King wouldn’t dance, but couldn’t he perhaps dance with another woman? Many women desired the King’s touch, so she carefully suggested, “Your Highness, wouldn’t it be a blessing for all to have you on the floor?” She carefully said that, as it was a very unusual recommendation. But Sidrain remained seated, even though he understood what she meant. He grabbed Iris’s blonde hair and kissed her lips. Silent astonishment swept through the hall at his brazen display of their love affair.

Elena rushed to the conductor who quickly beckoned to the band and they immediately started playing music. Everyone started dancing as if nothing had happened, but the tension in the room could be cut with a knife as they watched the King’s every move, as if they had eyes in the back of their heads.

Sidrain was unperturbed and held Iris’s chin up as he spoke softly in her ear, “This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”

The secret story that she’d told him, “I think I forgot how to dance. I think it’s because of the river,” had turned her face turned pink as she’d said it, and Sidrain almost forgot to answer while he’d watched her. Iris was really bad at lying.

“Then let’s pretend you hurt your legs. Everyone will believe me when I come in with you in my arms.” Sidrain had hugged her as he’d said this, and he now wished he had a long walk with her in his arms. Every time people caught her eye, it felt good that she instinctively dug into him.