Namgung Se-ga, the warrior, was reincarnated in Romance

It was the first time I stepped into Ruber’s room. While I had been close to the boy, there hadn’t been any reason to visit Ruber’s dorm room before.

This time, I realized that the rooms of royalty are different, even in the shape of the doors.

The emblem of the Sierun family, engraved in brilliant gold and silver above the door, was impressive. Watching Ruber, who had come to greet me, open the door with a familiar motion, I thought that such a large door would typically require two servants to open it together.

At least, it seemed that Ruber and Lucilani must have been the ones to open and close it with their own hands, given their strength. I couldn’t help but wonder how the first prince, Richard, had managed to go in and out of such a door.

“I’ve tidied up the drawing room for practice. You can sit over here.”

“Okay.”

I sat where I was directed. The table and sofas that should have been occupying the center of the room were pushed closer to the walls.

My eyes were drawn to the majestic patterns of the tapestries on the walls and the magical candelabra that scattered beautiful light into the room.

I watched Ruber moving busily back and forth as he prepared.

The first thought that came to my mind was that he was dressed quite beautifully. He wasn’t going out, but he was wearing a dress shirt with a vest embroidered with gold thread, something that would be worn for a grand event.

As I scanned his appearance, I suddenly asked,

“Is there something you need to go out for during the practice?”

“Uh… no? Why?”

“You’re dressed quite formally.”

“Oh. Well… since we’re practicing social dance today…”

“Then I should have dressed up as well.”

“No, no. Uh… Ernhardt, you’re fine as you are right now.”

“Mm.”

I felt a little embarrassed and stayed quiet.

If I had told them that I would dance to a song, all my friends from the central plains would have laughed so hard they wouldn’t have been able to stop. I was embarrassed to even say such a thing about matching clothes.

In my awkwardness, I quietly touched my face, trying to compose myself. Even after I calmed down, Ruber was still moving around busily, but with no real purpose. Typically, when inviting a guest into the drawing room, the custom in Sierun would be to offer tea first, but today, since it was for dance practice, even the tea set had been pushed far away.

Despite this, it seemed like he still wanted to offer something, as he kept opening and closing the cupboard that held the teacups, in a manner that was almost comically frantic.

“Senpai.”

“Ah! …What?”

“Did you not say you would teach me how to dance?”

“Oh, right. I’ll play the song first…”

“Yes.”

Although I didn’t particularly enjoy dancing, I did like listening to music.

On the table pushed aside in a corner, there was a trumpet-shaped tool that I was familiar with. Similar artifacts were present in the Ernhardt family estate as well.

Soon, a lively dance song filled the drawing room. Ruber, with a slightly nervous expression, turned toward me. He swallowed visibly.

“…I’ll show you the basic steps first.”

“Yes.”

“For the debutante ball, there are usually four dances. They’re called the Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter songs. The first and second songs are group dances, while the third and fourth are duets.”

“Mm.”

“That’s why the first two are simple, but the last two are a bit more complicated. Let me show you the first one.”

“Yes.”

Dressed beautifully, Ruber moved gracefully, performing a little demonstration.

As he played the bright and cheerful music and pretended to hold someone else’s hand with his arms outstretched, moving his feet in a dance step, I felt oddly pleased watching him.

“…One, two, three, four. …One, two, three, four.”

“….”

He swayed, then took a large step to the side, spun around, and even clapped his hands. I tried to hide my smile by covering my lower face with my hand. The soft sofa supported my body. I felt content, with the comfortable seat, the pleasant music in my ears, and the charming sight before me.

As I continued to watch, Ruber’s face grew redder. The boy hesitated, stopped, and covered his face with his hands. I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.

“…Why did you stop?”

“Well… because you were looking at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“….No, no… Did you think I was cute this time too?”

Ah, I couldn’t hold back the laughter anymore. I covered my mouth with the back of my hand and giggled, then when the boy peeked at me through his fingers, I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

His embarrassed, flushed face was still waiting for an answer, so I calmly gave him one.

“Yes, a little.”

“…I see… then, shall we try it together now?”

“Yes.”

Was it just cute? It was cute, charming, and all of it made me smile.

It definitely felt more appropriate to sit and watch than to actually dance myself. The dance moves I had seen in the theater before had a more grandiose feel when performed from a distance, but for some reason, the way this boy danced was just too cute.

However, I wasn’t there just to watch Ruber dance, so I stood up obediently.

“…What I just showed you was the male step. Let’s try to follow along.”

“Yes.”

Though it was awkward and embarrassing, it was, after all, a physical activity. It wasn’t difficult. Repeating simple movements with a few variations was much easier than learning formal steps.

Holding Ruber’s hand with mine, we moved right, then left, turned in one direction, held hands again, faced each other, and then turned our backs…

After a few similar movements, I had gotten the hang of it. I was even puzzled as to why I had been so reluctant to dance before.

Once I was comfortable with the first two songs, Ruber confidently walked over and changed the music.

“The autumn song… One hand holds, and with the other, the man places his hand on the woman’s waist.”

“Mm.”

Ruber took my right hand and placed it gently on his waist.

I recognized this as a dance often performed by the Earl and his wife at Ernhardt’s estate when they were in a good mood. I thought it was just a casual spinning dance, but it turned out there was a specific sequence to follow.

When I adjusted my grip on his slim waist, which looked even more slender due to his fitted vest, our bodies were very close. Ruber froze a little.

“Th-that…”

“Yes?”

“…You shouldn’t hold it like that. You should support it with your thumb on the outer part… like this.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“No, no… it’s fine.”

I had thought it was just a friendly dance, seeing it between William and Seirun, but I realized later that there was a certain formality to it.

Following his instructions, I took half a step back, making sure my palm didn’t touch deeply, and held Ruber as he had shown me.

I nearly made a fool of myself, but I was relieved that Ruber had taught me.

Ruber waited patiently as I adjusted my grip again. He gently placed one hand on my shoulder. One hand was placed on my shoulder, and the other on my hand, blinking his eyes.

His gaze, which was carefully looking down at me, was deep and smooth, like a precious jewel. He suppressed the embarrassment he was feeling and then taught me how to move my feet again.

“Like this… when you hold it, the other person will place their hand on your shoulder like this.”

“Yes.”

His face was close. The height difference between us had decreased since I first met him.

Now that we were so close, I could feel his breath touching mine. When our eyes met, Ruber tightly pressed his lips together. Every time he blinked, his long black eyelashes fluttered.

We stood like that for a while. The song ended.

“Senpai?”

“Gah, no… ah, sorry… sorry.”

Ruber, startled, quickly pulled away from my arms and rushed to change the song again. The way he did it was both funny and cute, yet pitiable.

As I watched him carefully walk back toward me, I spoke in a soothing voice.

“There’s nothing to apologize for. You should be thanked for teaching me something I didn’t know.”

“…Mm.”

It was rather funny that just holding each other was enough to end a song.

Next time, Ruber made sure to teach me the correct way, and I quickly picked it up. Every movement, whether it was spinning, tilting the head, or making a hand gesture, had a specific right and wrong way to do it.

“One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, four. Then, take a short break… and turn. Hold, and again…”

Matching the rhythm Ruber softly guided me through, we walked, held hands, and moved together. The sweet melody wrapped around my ears. I couldn’t quite understand why we were doing this, but as we danced, I began to think it was actually quite fun.

The soft whispering of Ruber slowly faded. Now, I no longer needed him to count the steps aloud; my body naturally followed the rhythm.

Every time our chests brushed together, I could hear Ruber’s heartbeat, thumping loudly.

…I knew this wasn’t something I should point out, so I kept quiet.

It took only three hours to learn all four dance songs.

When dinner time came and we were about to leave to eat, Ruber said he would change back into his school uniform. It turned out the clothes he had worn were just for the dance, meant to be worn only during that time. I was a bit surprised, thinking how seriously Sierun people took their dances.

As we sat down to eat together, I thanked him for teaching me the dance. Ruber, who had been chewing and swallowing more meat than usual, nodded and said earnestly.

“Yeah, you did really well today… but just in case… should we practice a couple more times before the break?”

“Yes, that sounds good.”

“Mm.”

Seeing him smile so brightly made me feel happy. Still, I had to get back to studying tomorrow, so I suggested we meet in the library.

Ruber eagerly nodded and mentioned that he had already prepared notes for the upcoming finals.

The boy, so precious and thoughtful, made me smile, and I moved some of my share of meat onto Ruber’s plate.