Chapter 52 – The Girl Standing on The Night’s Stage

※ A few hours before.

“Are you Mist-san who used to work in the Isky Manor?”

After Princess Rosé successfully stole Yuuki from her, Mist was called to a stop by a young man in tailcoats. He was someone’s servant, or from how he looks, a butler.
“That’s … right”
Mist answered and the man nodded.
“A certain personage wants to meet with you. May I ask you to come with me?”

“No”
Mist immediately answered.

“That blunt!?”
“I’m busy right now”
I have to chase down a thieving cat whose hobby is to act like a dog here. Whether she’s a dog or a cat aside, if I don’t hurry up she’s going to steal his heart.
I don’t care if she’s the princess or whatever. I won’t give any mercy!
“Excuse me”
Mist broke into a run.
“Ah, wait. Don’t go!”
The man blocked her way.
“If you left me here there won’t be any meaning of me coming here! My master’s going to be mad at me”
“That has nothing to do with me”
“Why are you so cruel!!”
Aah, the butler sighed.
“Sheesh, what do you want,” Mist sighed.
“To begin with, do you even think there’s any girl who’d just go along when you tell them to come with? Even a country girl like me has self-defense you know. I won’t complain if I can call the police though”
“W, well if you put it that way. But, look, I’m a cool guy. I’ll be forgiven even if did call you and an incident happened”
“Excuse me”
“Wait!! Please listen to me! No, you don’t have to listen, just come with me! Please don’t ignore me! Ignoring me hits the hardest!!”
She wouldn’t care about a man who settles everything on looks.
“Ah, that’s right, I have a message. Even though I look good my memory’s bad, huh”
Mist paid him no more attention and began chasing after Yuuki by the currents of the winds

” ‘Shimoyama Yuuki’s life is being targeted. If you want to know more, come immediately’ ”

…. And stopped her feet.

†

Inside the dark establishment, the magic spotlights blinked furiously.
There was music with furious tempo playing.
The stage stretching from the back of the place to the center was surrounded by men on a low floor. They looked up toward the stage with sensuous eyes, waiting for the show to begin.
They erupted into cheers when the dancer appeared.
She approached the center stage, fluttering her trailing semi-transparent clothing.
The clothes exposed a lot, it accentuated her cleavage. Her youthful limbs greatly stimulated the audience.
As the lighting illuminated the dancer, the establishment became more and more worked up.

It was Mist.

She performed a provocative dance she learned somewhere, seemingly caressing her own body. Every now and then, she would act as if personally interested in one of the audience — repeating it over several people — captivating the men.
Their sights fixated on her, as if she was being bathed in it, making her white skin flush.
Feelings of revulsion, as if she was being directly touched, and the mysterious excitement that goes counter to that, welled up within her.
But her true feelings were intended for just one person.
In a corner of the establishment, a distance away from the stage, ‘he’ was there.

Yuuki, boiling with anger, his hands balled into fists.

‘Mist’s skin is being seen by other men’
‘She’s enjoying it, is she …?’
‘Don’t screw with me’
‘Mist … Mist belongs to me alone!!’
He’s different from the mixed bag of men surrounding Mist.
He, only he, was filled with a desire to monopolize, with envy, as his gaze pierced into Mist.
Yuu-kun, is watching me.
He is looking at me and me only ….
That truth made Mist dance from the bottom of her heart.
—— Yuu-kun, don’t worry.
—— Mist only belongs to Yuu-kun.
—— But … just a little more ….
She can no longer stop her own mischievous heart. She showed even more suggestive acts to the men, and for Yuuki behind them, rousing his anger even more.
BAM! There was the sound of the wall being hit.
The scene changed.
Being called to the establishment’s backdoor, Mist was harshly scolded by Yuuki.
“What the hell are you thinking, you ※※※! Don’t you have any shame!!”
Under his abusive insults, Mist cowered, still in her costume.
She did not understand what his words meant, probably words from his world, but the fact that they held a woman’s dignity in contempt was clearly handed through.
Yuuki rudely grabbed the frightened Mist’s arm.
“I’ll make it so that you can’t show your skin in public again —!”
“Yuu-kun, stop, I won’t do it anymore!”
“No, you will do it again. You’re a ※※※ing ＊＊＊ after all … ! I will mark you so that anyone who can see will know that you belong to me!”
“I, it hurts! Stop, don’t be so cruel!”
While begging, an unexpected pleasure wrapped around Mist.
Yuuki violently vented his emotions on Mist, enrapturing her, making her feel like melting.
Yuu-kun, go on and take everything from me.
Carve your name into every bit of me —

“Hey, are you listening?”

“Hauu!?”
Just when it was going to turn into a bedroom scene, Mist came back to reality.
She was in a nighttime bar in the west of the castle town. The main customers, of course, were the lustful kind of gentlemen.
It was deserted now that it’s light, the stage in the center also seemed lonely.
It was the stage Mist was dancing on just now.
—— In her fantasies, that is.
Mist herself had no experience with an establishment such as this, but she had heard Twys talk a lot about the passions of the night, so she had a faint idea of it.
When she dazedly imagined herself standing there, she ran out of luck.
Since she seriously fell in love with Yuuki, she had become attracted to the idea of exposing her own skin and attracting attention.
A wish with the small subtle addendum that Yuu-kun was somewhere at the end of one of those gazes.
Since when did I turn out like this I wonder ….
Though her head somehow becomes hazy every time she thinks about that.
“Hey, you alright?”
The woman in front of her anxiously worried for her well-being.
The girl wearing a dancer’s costume.
Mist slowly nodded.
“I’m fine. Just, thinking about something”
She dodged the question.
“Perhaps that’s —”

“Influence from the ‘bugs’?”
Kyahaha, she lightly laughed.

“……”
Looks like she had investigated quite a bit.
She was frank and outspoken, and seemingly not thinking deeply into something, but somehow she was hiding something deep. Mist once again focused herself and alerted herself against her.

When the strange butler took her here, the woman who was waiting said this.
[Thank you. Nice to see you! I see my ‘sister’ was under your care back in the Isky residence!”
Her glossy hair was tied with a ribbon. The wavy hair springed every time she moved.
The cloth covering her body was rather scant, leaving her shoulders, belly, back, and legs exposed. What was covered were only her breasts and the center part of her lower body.
Rather, the fluttering, frilly design only put focus on the covered parts, so she thought.
All that was emphasized by her cheerful youthfulness and charm.
The girl called herself Phinegar, it was clearly an assumed name.
[She said she was the second daughter of the Merry house. Looking at her getup, she must’ve been disinherited]
Which means, she’s Princess Rosé’s cousin.
Also, if Lady Demy really existed, she would be her older sister.
While being the daughter of nobles, Phinegar was a girl with a hobby of standing on stage as a mesmerizing dancer on the night streets.

“Looks like she did something bad, that Rosé-chan”
Said Phinegar, picking a fruit from the overflowing plate and putting it in her mouth.
“She introduced him to everyone today, didn’t she? Isn’t that like, bad?”
“By ‘him’ you mean Yuuki?”
Confirmed Mist. Phinegar laughed out loud.
“Is that supposed to be funny? What other boy could that bleach white virgin introduce?”
No, well, in the Isky mansion that woman was rather ‘mischievous’ though —.
She said ‘Discipline me with your commoner’s hand’. The impact was big you know?
… but let’s leave it unsaid.
“I heard that Yuuki’s life was being targeted”
“Weell, lots of people are going to be annoyed that Princess Rosé recommended Yuuki even though she had lots of replacements for Glenn. So, my job is something like this. I’m quite well-known you know. There’s also ‘papa’ who does slightly dangerous jobs. So just some time ago, I heard a certain noble asking to be introduced to a ‘contractor’ who can deal with Yuuki”
“W … who did such a thing!?”
“Now now, let’s not be hasty. … If you want to know, I’d like you to answer my question”
Phinegar put a fruit on top of her tongue and went “mmm” as she mouthed it.

“Honestly, the bugs that was meant for Rosé-chan’s body, really went in her, right?”

That was a ‘state secret’ that could shake the country.
If the truth came out, Rosé might be treated as ‘violated’ and lose her position.
At worst, she might be banished from the royal family and exiled.
Phinegar was an archduke’s daughter, albeit a rotten one. She surely knew that.
“What do you mean by asking that?”
Mist asked back, and Phinegar smiled.
“I want to bully Rosé-chan and get her to buy me new clothes”
She jokingly said. She meant to dodge the question with a silly excuse, but she was clearly planning on making light of things and leak it out.
“I don’t really remember. I was under the control of a bug at that time, after all”
Mist said, blurring the truth.
“Heeh, I see, hmm. … and I thought I had a chance to steal Rosé-chan from Yuuki, too”

—— ……, come again?