Moonlight Ball

Sidrain’s whisper was especially loud. He wanted to be heard. His sensual voice reached Elaine’s ears. That voice was tempting the lady.

Of course, Elaine wasn’t stupid nor ignorant. He knew well that Sidrain was conning him. Iris wasn’t like that. Iris’s wall was made of steel and if Sidrain tried to forcefully do it without her consent, he wouldn’t be able to keep his arrogant demeanor now. Iris was scary like that.

But, right now, though Iris squirmed under the King’s embrace, the fact that she wasn’t completely against his gesture; Elaine harbored doubt. It was strange. Iris didn’t like hugs, she didn’t like touching. The only person she allowed touching was one person, and that was Elaine. If someone else tried to even brush their skin against hers, she would attack that person, or scream and faint–only these two patterns.

Now, why was she merely making futile efforts to detach herself from the King?

The person who had already faced both patterns, the icon of hardship and patience, Sidrain, saw that Elaine’s peering orbs were screaming of unpleasant suspicion. He was only doing it to make Elaine angry but to think that he would believe it, what a catch. He’s being suspicious!

Sidrain caressed Iris’s hair and politely, but s*xually, kissed the end of her golden locks. Iris didn’t exactly feel his gentle kiss, but Elaine, who was standing across them, saw it with his very own eyes.

“Iris, you, you…” Elaine pointed a finger at her, trembling.

He couldn’t believe that his stepdaughter, the child that followed only him like his own tail, calling him teacher, to have a relationship like this with none other than the king! How blasphemous! He had to check. There was no way. You, out of everyone, you can’t be the one sleeping with my enemy!

“Iris, you, really…”

Iris tilted her head, completely unaware of the torture Sidrain was doing to his teacher. She saw Elaine trembling as he wore a strange, pained expression, until he finally collapsed to the ground. Iris finally knew something was up. She pushed herself from Sidrain with all her might. Sidrain stumbled backward with a lopsided grin, clearly enjoying Elaine’s suffering, and raised his hands in the air, a gesture of surrendering.

“Teacher, are you alright?”

Iris immediately ran to her teacher’s side and helped him stand. Elaine grabbed her arm, a little painfully. Iris moaned at the pain and Sidrain’s eyes immediately became aggressive.

“Sir Elaine!”

It was a warning not to hurt his lady. But Elaine couldn’t pay his attention to him. He couldn’t believe what he had just discovered, so he asked while holding Iris, “You, you… really… with His Majesty…?”

“Pardon?” Iris blinked.

“Did you… have s*xual relations with His Majesty?”

Iris remembered the night she fainted. That moment, her face fired up and that became the answer to Elaine. His face turned white as a sheet and looked at Iris and Sidrain. He released his grip on his disciple. He stumbled backwards. He stared at both of them in horror.

The King and his stepdaughter. His only child. Disciple and friend.

With the King…

Elaine couldn’t handle the truth. He hurriedly crawled up the window. Iris looked at her teacher worryingly as she didn’t know what he was going to do. Sidrain also found it strange. He was watching Elaine, thinking he had completely lost his sanity from shock.

Elaine dove down head first.

“Nooooo!”

Iris bolted. Sidrain brushed past her, moving faster than the wind, and jumped over the balcony that Elaine had fallen from. The moment he thought he caught Elaine with his fingertip, Elaine twisted his body and said, “I’ll have my revenge, Sidrain En Letaire.”

Elaine instantly disappeared in the air. Sidrain circled his body in the air. He stepped on a branch and then jumped into the Queen’s balcony. Iris had just arrived at the scene, looked down with her face white, and hugged him.

“W, w, what about teacher? Teacher, what about him?” she asked.

“He disappeared in the… Ris!”

Iris collapsed. As she was horrified that the teacher she respected and loved might have gotten hurt, she fainted.

Iris couldn’t get up until the next evening. The shock from seeing her teacher dive his head first to the window was too much of a scene; her feeble heart couldn’t handle it. Sidrain genuinely repented, which was rare. He claimed he was only making fun of Elaine a little and he promised Iris that he will never do it again.

Of course, Elaine’s resentment was just starting. He was a man who never forgot.

***

Elena En Sethang. The nickname people called her behind her back was ‘the devil’s tongue’. Right now, she was holding up her quill and was waving it in the air. There were a bunch of different plans floating around her head. She was thinking about a lady.

The lady was twenty-six years old, with a hair frizzed and a face unrefined. Her lips were thin and twisted  in a way that her face looked strangely mean. Elena had never met a pleasant human being with such face. She scoffed.

At the same time, the door of her study door opened a little and then shut close.

“Oh wow, you’re too scary today.”