by D. S. Craig
As Fang and I followed after, I took the chance to look around the party. I recognized quite a few of the faces, most likely students from the academy. Every one of them wore their best formal wear. As for the ballroom itself, it was just as grand as the rest of the mansion. Massive golden chandeliers hung from high above, lit by magic. On either side of the room, large two-story windows ran the wall’s length giving a great view of the gardens outside. Between those windows were scattered doorways, which led to a balcony.
As I glanced around, I noticed that there was one student that didn’t appear to be present. “Has Alex not arrived yet? I would have expected him to get here early.”
“Oh, he’s not going to be here, apparently.” Lesti took a break from stuffing her face with sweets, waving her fork about in an unladylike manner. “There was some business he had to take care of in the Bestroff territory, is what Elliot told me.”
He went back home again? My mind recalled the first time I had ever seen Alex. Back then, he had told Frederick he had some urgent business to take care of at home and needed to take the practical exam early. That was only a few short months ago. For him to be going back again so soon, I had to wonder if something was wrong.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to ponder the matter. A loud clinking noise soon filled the air drawing everyone’s attention to the far end of the ballroom. There I turned to find what appeared to be an older-looking Elliot preparing to speak to the crowd. He waited patiently for everyone to quiet down before addressing them.
“Thank you all for coming together this evening to celebrate my little brother’s birthday. My name is Reeve Gambriel, first son of the Gambriel family. Since my father couldn’t be here this evening, I have been given the honor of being your host. I may be inexperienced with such things, but I hope you will find everything to your liking nonetheless. Now, it’s only proper that as an older brother, I properly harass my younger brother, and it’s time for the first dance.” A slightly mischievous expression crept over Reeve’s face. “Elliot, would you care to lead us in the first dance this evening?”
Elliot, who had been greeting the last of the guests near the door, threw a rather annoyed smile his brother’s way. “It would be my pleasure, brother.”
Making his way to the center of the hall, Elliot looked around the room, searching for someone. After a few seconds, his gaze locked onto our group, and his annoyed smile turned into a playful grin. He walked right up to Lesti, who continued to stuff her face. Fortunately for her, Rose was quicker on the uptake and swiped the plate and fork right out of her hands just as Elliot arrived.
“Care to join me for a dance, Miss Vilia?” Holding his hand out, he waited for her response, seemingly enjoying putting her on the spot.
Rather than panicking like I expected her to, however, Lesti simply smiled and took his hand. “It would be my honor, Master Elliot.”
Her reaction even caught Elliot off guard, causing him to blink at her for a moment before leading her to the floor. What the heck is going on here? I knew that the pair got along rather well, despite their bickering. However, I hadn’t gotten the impression that Lesti had any romantic feelings for Elliot. I stared at her as they headed onto the floor, wondering what she was up to.
Thankfully, it didn’t take me long to figure it out. With Elliot’s back turned, I saw her glancing into the crowd with a wry smile on her face. Following her gaze, I saw Augustine glaring at her, face wrinkled into an utterly foul mixture of anger and jealousy. Lesti had accepted Elliot’s invitation so quickly because she saw it as a chance to take a stab at Augustine’s pride, and based on his reaction, it had worked. Still, I had to wonder if she should be kicking that particular hornet’s nest right now.
I didn’t have time to worry about that, though; I had a job to do. As the lights dimmed and the music started, I made my way out to the balcony, looking out over the front garden. Elliot’s maids had informed us this afternoon of how the security for the manor was laid out. Based on that information, the most likely route of attack for Baron Arvis’s assassins would be to come through this garden. I was going to keep watch and call for help when they showed up.
Once outside, I jumped up on the balcony’s stone railing and closed my eyes, using my magic vision to check for threats. At the moment, everything was clear. Sitting there all evening with my eyes closed would be suspicious, so I opened them and pretended to groom myself while looking back at the party. Every so often, I would close my eyes once again and briefly check the situation.
As I did this, Elliot and Lesti continued their dance in the ballroom. I was honestly surprised by how good they were. I had expected Lesti in particular to be a complete mess, but she was keeping up with Elliot rather well. It seemed her noble title wasn’t just for show.
More importantly, she seemed to be enjoying herself. Lesti was a rather cheerful and energetic girl on the surface, but I knew just how hard she was pushing herself. It was nice to get to see her relax and have some fun like this for a change. I was just a little sad that I couldn’t participate myself.
My mind flashed back to the many weddings and parties I had been to throughout my human life. I had always enjoyed going out and celebrating my friends’ marriages. They were fond memories for me, even if I couldn’t remember who they were anymore. Yet, I had never managed to get married myself in my previous life. Heck, I hadn’t even managed to get a serious boyfriend.
So, while watching Lesti dancing with Elliot now filled me with a sense of nostalgia, it also filled me with a sense of regret and uncertainty. I had never experienced true romantic love, and I wasn’t sure that I ever would now. From what I knew, other Astral Cats were nothing more than wild animals. If that was true, then finding a romantic partner amongst my species was going to be impossible.
Everything had been happening so quickly since I had arrived in this world that I hadn’t had time to properly consider my situation. However, for the first time, reality had thrown a cold bucket of water in my face. I continued to watch the dance, wanting nothing more than to be happy for Lesti, but all I could feel was a deep sense of loneliness.
Finally, the first song came to an end, and Lesti and Elliot struck a pose at the center of the dance floor. The other attendees applauded their performance, snapping me back to reality. Crap! I haven’t been keeping an eye on the garden! Turning my attention back to my task, I closed my eyes once more only to find a large number of magical signals making their way through the far side.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, my lapse in focus hadn’t cost us too much time. Focusing my thoughts, I called out to Aurelia. “They’re here. It’s more than we expected, though. I’d say around twenty. Are you sure you two will be okay alone?”
I opened my eyes and looked over at Aurelia, who had already started making her way through the party toward me. Her gaze met mine briefly, and she nodded to let me know they would be fine. I still wasn’t comfortable sending them out alone, but we couldn’t leave the party unguarded. There could be some hidden assassins amongst the attendees after all, and we still didn’t know where Baron Arvis was.
Aurelia and Fang walked out onto the balcony, staring into the garden for a moment as I directed her where to go. As soon as I finished explaining their numbers and how they were lined up, she kicked off her shoes and jumped off the balcony into the garden below. It wasn’t a far drop, only about half a story, but she still looked far more comfortable jumping than anyone should. Fang trailed right behind her without a moment of hesitation, eager to follow his master into battle.
My job there done, I turned back to the party only to find a rather angry-looking Augustine grab Lesti by the wrist and drag her toward the balcony. His rough handling of her caused the stress I had been feeling moments before to transform into pure anger. Rose looked on with a worried expression. Simultaneously, several other party-goers glared at Augustine’s back spitefully as he passed them. It looked like he was as unpopular amongst every
one else as he was within our group.
“Augustine, let me go,” Lesti complained, pulling against his grip as they came out onto the balcony.
He did as she asked, turning around angrily and using his other hand to slap her hard across the face—well, at least he tried to. Lesti saw the blow coming and instinctively stepped back. Ironically, all the training she had done with Elliot had just saved Augustine’s life. If she hadn’t dodged that, I would have probably killed him.
“That’s ‘Master Augustine’ to you!” He glared at her with a rage that didn’t seem to fit the situation. “You’ve done nothing but disrespect me since I arrived here! Who do you think you are, dancing with another man when you’re already engaged to me?!”
Lesti made the most obviously fake surprised expression I had ever seen, holding her hand over her mouth with her eyes wide. “Oh, my. Augustine, don’t tell me you’re jealous? It was only a harmless little dance and with the star of the evening no less. It would have been rude to refuse.”
I blinked in surprise, my anger from before starting to fade a little. Lesti was laying it on so thick that I barely recognized her. Everything about her tone, posture, and expression was planned to further anger Augustine, and he was falling for it—hook, line, and sinker.
His face turned a deep shade of red, and he took another swipe at Lesti. “Don’t give me that crap! I saw the way you looked at me!”
Lesti once again stepped back, easily avoiding the reckless blow. “I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about, Augustine. Please do stop making a scene, though. It’s rather embarrassing.”
At her last jab, Augustine’s anger finally boiled over, his face turning a shade of crimson I didn’t think was humanly possible. “You insufferable little girl. I was going to treat you nicely since I was going to become a lord, thanks to you.” His eyes grew wilder, bordering on madness. “Now though, once I’m lord, I’ll have you locked in the dungeon, you wretched little wench. I’ll make sure every day of your existence is pure suffering. Oh, don’t worry, though. I’ll take good care of your precious people that you’re always going on about, especially the women.”
“You weren’t kidding when you said he was deranged.” Elliot’s familiar voice rang out in the cold evening air. Turning, I found him standing in the shadow of the doorway. “We knew he was a poor choice for the position, but this is just insane.”
“Right?!” Lesti looked back at Elliot with an exasperated expression, finally dropping the act she had been putting on. “You see now why I can’t trust a loser like this with my family’s territory?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry. With this, it should be easy to convince father.”
“That’s a relief. Having a strong ally like Lord Gambriel will make things much easier.” Lesti turned back to Augustine and smiled cheerfully. “Well, I do have to thank you for showing just how disgusting a human being you are this evening, Master Augustine. It really helped me out.”
“Huh? What are you talking about, you stupid girl?” He looked at her as though she were a fool. “It doesn’t matter what this little brat says at this point. Our marriage is set in stone. You and your parents’ lands will belong to me in due time.”
“We’ll see about that.” Lesti glared back at him. “Maybe you’re too stupid or too arrogant to see it, Augustine, but you’re being used. Do you think the council would choose someone as notorious as you to be my husband without someone extremely influential pulling strings behind the scenes? Best case, you become their puppet. Worst case, they let the territory fail, sweep in and claim it for themselves, and execute you for some set of made-up crimes. Either way, your visions of grandeur won’t come to pass.”
“Y-you’re bluffing.” I could see the supreme confidence that Augustine had until now start to crack. “My father is the one who nominated me. There’s no way that he’d do that to me!”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Elliot chimed in as glanced back at the party. “I’ve heard several stories from my father about how much Lord Vanderbolt struggles with his irresponsible second son. Apparently, he spent most of his time at noble gatherings before the engagement trying to find anyone to marry him off to.”
“No, that can’t be.” Augustine started clawing at his hair before glaring over at Elliot. “Sure, I’ve always known that father wasn’t very pleased with me, but there’s no way he would toss me aside like that.”
“I hate to tell you this, but he already has.” Lesti’s voice was calm as she spoke to Augustine. The hate and spite that I had expected to hear were nowhere to be found. Instead, her voice was filled with pity. “The Vilia territory isn’t rich. Every year, the people work hard to make a meager living. Our family has never been able to live an extravagant lifestyle like the one you currently have. Even if none of what I’ve said comes to pass, you’ll still spend the rest of your life in a small backwater territory, with little to no influence or wealth to your name.”
“I see.” Augustine’s head fell to his chest, his entire body trembling slightly as he seemed to accept the truth of the situation. But after a moment, he began to chuckle, and then his chuckle slowly built into a loud but crazed laugh. “Yes, I see now! You’re trying to trick me. You want me to give up my claim to the Vilia territory so that you can hand it over this the Gambriel brat!”
“What are you talking about?” Elliot began to walk toward the pair, clearly worried by Augustine’s reaction and accusations. “I have no interest in the Vilia territory. Besides my fath—”
“Shut up! Both of you are trying to undermine the work of the council. That makes you traitors.” Without warning, Augustine reached into his jacket and pulled out a large knife hidden inside, lunging at Lesti. “And traitors deserve death!”
Lesti quickly twisted out of the way, but there wasn’t enough space for her to completely dodge the blow. It cut through the red fabric of her dress and into her torso. The moment I saw the wound, I snapped. Elliot had started to move, but I was far faster. Using my body enhancing spells and Air Walk, I practically warped on Augustine. Slamming my paw into him, I sent him flying ten feet across the balcony. Honestly, I was likely to have killed him, but I didn’t care. He had sealed his fate when he hurt Lesti.
Elliot stared at him for a moment, completely stunned, before shaking off his shock and turning to Lesti. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. It’s only a flesh wound.” She pulled her hand aside to show us. It came away quite bloody, but she was right. The wound wasn’t deep or life-threatening. ‘“Still, I didn’t expect Augustine to lose it like that.”
Elliot grimaced. “Yes, this certainly does complicate things even if it does strengthen our case against him.”
Lesti turned her gaze over to the fallen Augustine. “Yeah. Thanks to this little stab wound, we have evidence that he attacked me. If we play our cards right, we might even be able to get the engagement canceled entirely. Of course, that’s all assuming Astria didn’t kill him.”
“Hey, what’s with that tone?! He tried to stab you! Did you expect me to hold back or something?” I glared over at Augustine’s unmoving body as Elliot walked over and pushed him onto his back. “Although, maybe I overdid it just a little.”
“You think?” Lesti smiled down at me. “Still, thanks for protecting me.”
I rubbed up against her leg. “Hey, what are friends for? Besides, I already promised that I would protect you.”
“Well, he’s not dead at least.” Elliot came walking back over, looking out into the garden. “I doubt he’ll be waking up anytime soon, though. I’ll call some guards to lock him up for now. Keep an eye on him just in case.”
With that, Elliot turned and headed back into the party. Several of the other party-goers stopped him with worried expressions on their faces, but he pushed past them. They must have seen the argument and scuffle through the window. I had to wonder, if that was the case, why hadn’t anyone come to help us?
Aroooo!
Just as
I was pondering that, Fang’s howl pierced the evening air. A moment later, I sensed magic from down below, and five figures leapt onto the other end of the balcony, dressed head to toe in black. They immediately tried to force their way into the party, but Lesti and I weren’t about to allow that. She quickly snapped her fingers. “Fireball!”
A fireball roared to life in front of her and launched itself at the invaders. I ran alongside it to intercept them. Seeing the attack coming, two of them split off from the rest of the group and moved to intercept us. They were relatively quick, making me think that they had enhanced themselves with body-strengthening magic of some sort.
But speed and strength wouldn’t protect you from a fireball. Lesti’s attack slammed into the figure on the left. At the same time, I boosted my agility even further and rammed my paw into the temple of the one on the right. Instead of being sent flying like Augustine, the figure barely stumbled. I stared at them, stunned as they passed right by me and headed for Lesti.
That wasn’t the only thing that shocked me. Despite being hit directly in the face with a fireball, the second figure pushed through the flames and kept running. What the heck are these guys made of?! Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to think about that. If they were this tough, then we needed to wrap this up quickly and get inside to help Rose.
Giving up on capturing those two, I pushed my Power Cat and Speed Boost spells to their maximum level and transformed into my tiger form. A moment later, I was on top of the pair of enemies. Biting down hard on the one closer to the ballroom, I threw him as hard as I could into his companion, sending them crashing into the stone railing. It cracked and crumbled under the force of the blow, but didn’t give. But the pair weren’t even unconscious.
“Condensed Fireball!”
Hearing Lesti’s spell call, I leapt away from the pair. A massive fireball ten times the size of the one Lesti had created before roared to life in front of her before shrinking down into a small basketball-sized orb. The pair scrambled to their feet and tried to dive out of the way as Lesti launched the sphere, but it was too late. It hit the spot where they had been a moment before. A massive explosion erupted in the area. The nearby windows shattered, and the party-goers inside screamed, along with the two assassins.
